Monthly Archives: June 2011
Godzilla Versus Mechagodzilla!
Or, you know, tourists versus bikers.
“For some cosmic reason, it would seem that the [Brooklyn Bridge] somehow deepens a tourist’s dismay to the point of apparent brain damage”
Gender-Role Reifying
I got a FDNY hat as a present recently. It’s one-size-fits-all, which means it doesn’t fit us full-size people, so I gave to to the little guy. It goes well with his fire-truck shoes and toy ladder truck.
And then he says, “Why are you doing this to me?”
It’s Not Zero Sum
Yet another list: 100 Reasons Why Brooklyn Lives Up To The Hype. I agree with some, disagree with others.
More importantly, and despite what boosts would have you believe, it is possible for the majority of people to like where they live. All it requires is that our society put some effort into making our towns, cities, and rural areas into places that people would like. In short, it requires some planning, and some form of zoning so that no one opens a dump next door to the best thing in town. The restaurants and arts destinations at the link are privately owned but wouldn’t exist in their current forms without NYC zoning and services.
Fifth Avenue and 19th Street…
is not this gray, and is this gay only once a year.
Whitman Would Say “Wha?”
Fulton Landing, the miniature park at Brooklyn’s Fulton Ferry. As in, the original ferry between New York and Brooklyn.
As always, click to engorge.
Gehry‘s at the right center, the new 1 WTC is the construction to its left (about half its final height), and 70 Pine Street (one of my favorite art-deco ‘scrapers) is the tallest building in the shot.
“Design”
Two of the most debased words in the U.S. today are “design” and “designer.” Some celebrity famous for being famous decides what color a line of poorly-fitting pants will be and suddenly he’s a “designer.”
Read the linked article for a sad, sad story.
And on the same topic…
A large rainbow erection:
Marriage Equality in New York State
Putting aside that I believe in not interfering with other people’s personal lives and I support legal equality…the arguments against all boil down to “I think my invisible friend will be upset.”
Mrs. __B and I were married in the Municipal Building, with no invisible people present. I recommend a civil ceremony to all couples, regardless of gender. Much simpler and it frees you up to plan a big party for afterward.
Fair Warning
What Color Is The Sky In Your World?
I’m Mortifried
Libertarians think New York isn’t free enough!
Whatever shall I do? The choices are few: I can (1) live in fear, (2) die fighting in the trenches against government regulation of cigarettes, or (3) ignore the fucking morons who equate the Department of Environmental Protection and DMV with fascism.
What to do…what to do…
UPDATE: I missed the Shrill discussion. “This suggests that New Hampshire, which Mercatus considers the freest state (with South Dakota just behind) has its state motto slightly off. It should be ‘Live free and die.’”
It’s a Symbol
A symbol of bad taste and teens puking on their cummerbunds.
Terrace on the Park is a leftover of the ’64 World’s Fair at the north edge of Flushing Meadows Park* converted to a restaurant/catering hall.
*Don’t blame me, don’t blame New Yorkers. The English somehow turned the Dutch name “Vlissingen” into Flushing.
Like, Deep, Man
This came up in the Times yesterday: “The City” by C.P. Cavafy, which is about Cairo a hundred years ago, is broadly applicable today.
Look, a prediction for me:
This city will always pursue you. You will walk
the same streets, grow old in the same neighborhoods,
will turn gray in these same houses.
On edit: iTunes just kicked up “Baker Street.” Heh.
The Rich Feeding On The Poor
There are no Walmarts in NYC. Not because there’s anyone actually keeping them out. Not because there are no big-box stores in the city, because there are. The reason is that Walmart doesn’t want to play on a level field. They could open a store tomorrow if they simply followed the same rules that everyone else does in New York: zoning, worker protection, allowing organization, having to deal with community boards, and so on. But, you know, saving seven cents on a bag of junk food is worth trashing the rules and damaging the city’s economy, right?
“The Problem of Republican Idiots”
Fairly blunt, even for the Nation.
The Big Duck…
...turns 80. And she’s still infinitely less interesting than Lucy.
Lying For Fun
The Gothamist list of 20 Lies New Yorkers Tell Tourists is incomplete, as it misses my favorite.
There are big canisters of liquid nitrogen randomly scattered about the city’s streets (apparently so that Verizon can drive moisture out of buried cable sheaths). When asked about them, I always tell tourists that the canisters are there to inject bull semen under the asphalt to give NYC that extra OOMPH.
One-and-a-half Entendre
No, this is not Weiner-related, although it is wiener-related.
Personally, I find Papaya King’s dogs to be mediocre and their “virgin piña coladas” to be quite cum-like, but the chain has its fans. My apologies to L.A.: you did nothing to deserve this “food”.
Current Top Searches
What people are googling to get here:
- the triumph of civic virtue, statue
- “the triumph of civic virtue,”
- “the triumph of civic virtue”
- throggs neck aerial
- triumph of civic virtue
A little single-minded, no? It was just one post.
