Our Urban Odyssey » Washington Heights

Welcome to the Jungle

Nova — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 23:46:04 +0000

Kudos to the Uptown Collective, Washington Heights/Inwood’s coolest blog, for finding this story.

Gun’s and Roses fans… WaHI folks, a little bit of history…

http://uptowncollective.com/2011/02/17/welcome-to-the-jungle-wash-heights-style/

Lost Unicorn in the Heights

ouo — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 00:14:18 +0000

C-mixto submitted this photograph near Dyckman Street. It’s a poster looking for a Lost Unicorn, Unicornio Perdido… C-mixto, being a poet at heart and music fan, noticed it was printed on blue paper, and immediately wondered if the person who posted it is calling out for Silvio Rodriguez’s Unicornio. Ah C-mixto. Here are the lyrics in Spanish and English:

Mi Unicornio azul ayer se me perdió,
pastando lo dejé y desapareció.
Cualquier información la voy bien a pagar,
las flores que dejó, no me han querido hablar.

Mi Unicornio azul ayer se me perdió,
no sé si se me fue, no sé si se extravió.
Y yo no tengo más que un Unicornio azul.
Si alguien sabe de él, le ruego información,
cien mil o un millón yo pagaré.
Mi Unicornio azul se me ha perdido ayer,
se fue…

Mi Unicornio y yo hicimos amistad,
un poco con amor, un poco con verdad.
Con su cuerno de añil pescaba una canción,
saberla compartir era su vocación.

Mi Unicornio azul ayer se me perdió,
y puede parecer acaso una obsesión,
pero no tengo más que un Unicornio azul
y aunque tuviera dos, yo solo quiero aquel.
Cualquier información la pagaré.
Mi Unicornio azul se me ha perdido ayer,
se fue…

My blue unicorn, I lost it yesterday.
I left it grazing and it disappeared.
Any information, I will pay for it well.
The flowers that it left behind don’t want to talk to me.

My blue unicorn, I lost it yesterday,
I don’t know if it left me, or if it got lost,
and I don’t have but one blue unicorn.
If anyone’s got any news, I beg to hear them.
A hundred thousand or a million, I will pay.
My blue unicorn, I lost it yesterday,
it went away.

My unicorn and I became friends,
a little bit with love, a little bit with truth.
With its indigo horn it was fishing for a song
knowing how to share it was its calling.

My blue unicorn, I lost it yesterday,
and it may seem perhaps like an obsession
but I don’t have but one blue unicorn
and even if I had two I only wanted that one.
Any information, I will pay for it,
My blue unicorn, I lost it yesterday,
it went away.

http://www.translatum.gr/forum/index.php?topic=915.0#ixzz14ju4fUam

If you have seen this person’s unicorn, a number is posted on the flyer.

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If you’ve ever wondered…

Nova — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 00:48:24 +0000

Ever pass by a NYC garbage can and see something strange sitting in it? Things that leave you wondering what the story was that landed random objects in a public garbage bin? Well this weekend I had the privilege of witnessing the story behind one of the Twilight Zone activities of urban city living: Random Sh*t in the Garbage. It was like watching the tooth fairy actually deliver the money under my pillow, or catching Santa Claus leaving gifts under the tree.

A couple was having a very public fight, first in a restaurant (asked to leave), then up and down the streets, then in a bus (kicked out). Nobody probably knew what the heck was going on, because no-one probably understood the language. Agent Nova did, and between the man randomly drooling in between rants, he was in some sort of hot water that was going to cost him money he did not have. All of a sudden (either fed up with his stubbornness, his inebriation, his drugged up mind, his wrath) the woman takes his brand new suitcase and dumps it in the garbage and storms away. Seeing the perfectly fine looking suitcase dumped in there, handle extended out, would have provoked a “If you see something, say something” reflex in many a New Yorker who hadn’t seen the fight. I started wondering what was in the suitcase. Now I was in Pulp Fiction.

Eventually, they came back for the suitcase, but it was a 15 minute gamble; one person witnessing the spectacle already had their eyes on the can.

It was a very strange story to play out on the streets- the man was from another era and another continent, the woman too. They were so misplaced. And the suitcase looked so strange sitting alone in the garbage. I suppose it isn’t much of a surprise that Random Sh*t in an Urban Garbage usually has a Random Story behind it.

Other Random Sh*t in the Urban Garbage?

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Ads that just might work…?

Nova — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 00:17:18 +0000

Washington Heights, Fort Washington Avenue, August 2010.

This is how to get your message across. Remind people of the problem and what you would like them to do about it, with few words (since the piles of shit in the street are not enough to remind you that hmmm… shit on the floor is not a very pleasant thing.. Unless, of course, it’s being used as fertilizer and you’re going to get better plants.) And let’s make an art piece out of our message! Unfortunately, it was too direct for some people, as the ass of the dog and his little pile were blacked out by the obscenity squad shortly after. Oh, and New York City’s got nothing on this issue compared to Buenos Aires. Shit-kabobs for heels, anyone?

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Inwood Crop Circles

Nova — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 01:49:06 +0000

In a fenced-off field of grass and other green things, there are patches of shiny grass that has been flattened.

Is this a growing technique of Parks and Rec?

Is this is a particular species of green?

Are people laying in these areas?

Have the aliens landed in Inwood? Is the grass shiny from the metal rub of a spaceship bottom?

Theories, please….

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Watch out WaHI, I’m starting a Schwinn Bike Club

Nova — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 02:06:41 +0000

What’s a Nova to do. Can’t drive a car. Can’t ride a motorcycle… Live in the North Pole of Manhattan and it’s tricky to move around….

I’ll start a Schwinn Bike Club.

I’ve seen one old school PR blessing the streets with his pimped out tricycle so I know there are some people up here who’ll understand. Perhaps I can start an on-2 cult up here if I blast salsa from its trunk.

Perhaps I am delirious from the first days of Spring and I’ve been sniffing too many Easter Hyacinths. But it’s that or I join a motorcycle gang.

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Fire Hydrant Series

Nova — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 13:58:29 +0000

Tearful Hydrant, Washington Heights, NYC March 2010

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Give me some Arabian Formula

Nova — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 20:38:09 +0000

C-mixto spotted this uptown pharmaceutical in a local b odega. Who needs illegal over-the-bodega-counter viagra when you can down some Arabian Formula? Not only will it rub your genie the right way, it will turn your woman into a groveling harem sex slave. Available in any fine bodega that also carries beet dietary supplements (because in the Heights, beets cure everything).

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Because rollers are sexy

Nova — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 17:14:31 +0000

C- mixto stumbled upon this find on the Peralta Project blog (Tony is a talented WaHI artist, FYI check him out).

I love this because:

it is infectious
one of the lines is “I went to 1-82nd and Audubon just the other day”
I think the epitome of urban beauty is loud lipstick, rollers and high heels
She’s got gold beer cans as rollers.

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Space Odyssey in Washington Heights

Nova — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 14:41:18 +0000

This installment sits in the secluded woods of Fort Tryon Park by the dog run. I think it is a cleverly disguised black monolith from the movie: 2001: A Space Odyssey. Instead of apes jumping up and down to its presence and hum, you have dogs barking around it, perhaps triggering some evolutionary spark in them so that dogs evolve into their anagram: gods. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, visit the black monolith link.

If it’s not a disguised black monolith, then it is an ode to the types of radiators we have in Washington Heights.

Your thoughts?

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