Brian Lehrer and WNYC were supposed to keep track of derelict construction projects but I can’t locate any of those resources.
Author: hugh
Places I Would Never Work
- a slaughterhouse or packing plant
- any government building as a janitor
- a bomb or gun making factory
- a heroin or coke lab
- restaurant that wasn’t vegetarian/vegan
- a dog track
- late-night chicken dude on Sixth Ave. well, any kind of chicken dude.
If you have a job in any other place, I want to hear from you!
I Got A Rock
This flagpole should be about 20 feet higher unless it’s really a lightning rod.
I was looking at other WordPress themes so watch out! We could have a new look pretty soon although I’m fond of the water. I might just figure out the coding tricks and incorporate it.
Contortionists are from Mars:
Rockers are from Venus:
Hanging with the Janitor in a Drum® (or on the Moon)
I always thought that name for a product to be workist. It’s not exactly world peace in a mason jar. Anyway, note the boom box on the floor and the garbage bucket: janitor in the house.
A friend alerted me to NASA bombing the moon early Friday morning which seems like a bad idea. (They’re calling it a “probe” but actually the “plume” will be analyzed, not any box shot into the moon.) The Apollo project gave us computers and miniaturization but the benefits of space exploration via bombing feel ludicrous at this time. The moon is much smaller than Earth, perhaps a lot more delicate, and not volcanically active. The Three Gorges Dam is thought to have slowed the Earth’s rotation by a couple microseconds. NASA says they’re looking for water but they must be looking for other mineral resources as well. What if the moon comes crashing down on us (in 2012 or 2250)?
Sunsets Are Better Than Others
My fat cat woke me begging for the new cat food I got her for a treat. Old cats are like old pants. Anyway I found a sunset pic which is also like old pants. I wasted some time Friday night on Google’s image labeler. That is some addictive software and meanwhile, you’re helping the man. I played for about an hour thinking one of my photos might come up and then seeing what keywords my partner might come up with… “blue night crap”? Har Har. I was also waiting to see if anything came up from the Middle East or Asia or some other war zone. I figured out that most people know different stuff about different celebrities and that most people aren’t color blind.
Sleigh Bells at LePoisson Rouge
Alexis of Sleigh Bells
Sundelles
It’s really hard to take good concert photos with a crappy camera (duh) but I tried. Last night I saw Sleigh Bells, the Sundelles, and Orphan at Le Poisson Rouge based on a tipoff from This Recording. I’d seen Orphan open for Nebula at the Knitting Factory around a year ago so I was curious to see if they’ve evolved…. more abrasive than ever if that’s your thing. The drummer, Speck Brown, is hypnotic while the bass dude is still turning it up way past 11. The Sundelles are pleasant indie rock while Sleigh Bells were completely amazing. A band to watch out for!
Building on Fire
I forgot to mention this on the blog although I tweeted it. The apartment next door to mine was on fire and when I took this photo, I had no idea that the fire was on my floor let alone next door to me. Soon after I took the photo I heard a lot of banging next door and then a few minutes later there were firemen in my apartment checking my walls for fire inside. I never smelled any smoke… the wind was blowing the wrong way or something. My cat freaked out.
The tenant’s brother showed up at the apartment next day to recover stuff and I got the story. Something was burning on the stove and whatever it was caught fire and then lit up a kitchen wall. A passerby saw smoke coming out of the window on Broadway and called 911. It could’ve been a LOT worse. So the ceiling was completely black and it stank like burnt plaster and plastic. A cat was inside while all this happened and she is fine.
Over the next few weeks and a lot of new sheetrock later, there are already new tenants in there making new neighbor sounds.
PS: The best collection of photos on the L.A. fires is at boston.com.
Five Shot Clover
What recession? We’ve got egg-digesters!
Some of My Photo Philosophy
If I’m in a big crowd, I often shoot where there is nobody. I’m a soul rebel. A lot of times that ends up being the ceiling but sometimes I get the corner where all the equipment is and there’s an empty bag of potato chips in the wires. Tonight I had the crowd, I had the spot, but I could not get the shot. How about some bright moldings?
Foreign Affairs Terms in the Media
Glennzilla breaks it down for us.
More Bike Racks
This town needs more bike racks. Sometimes finding a place to lock up is like trying to find a mustache on a turtle. I plan to request more on 14th Street and at least one by my post office and favorite market.
Blue Lights Means It’s Not City Center
55th Street the other night…
A pot dealer was famously murdered in this building in May, 2001.
There’s a gimcrack roof bar on top of the Dream Hotel which also has an aquarium that takes up a fourth of the lobby.
The City Center Theater repeats much of the same tried and true calendar year after year. That’s not necessarily bad.