On a lighter note...

I hadn't been up on Danny's roof since last summer when I would go up there quite often, so last night when upon realizing that I wouldn't get a chance to see it before going to Paris, I had to do one last visit. And what a truly picturesque visit it was - both emotional and beautiful! I was able to take one last glimpse of his now snow-covered roof, before putting an end to this chapter of my college life. Hmm.

Horrible, HORRIBLE subway ads

I've seen my fair share of annoying ads on the subway. A few that come to mind are: the Asian cheerleader on the Learn English ads, the Latino-focused law firm whose phone number is listed as 1-800-MARGARITA and those stupid Jameson ads that tell you there's nine wrong ways to swipe a Metrocard, but no wrong way to enjoy a Jameson (there's actually fifteen wrong ways to swipe a Metrocard).

However, there is no subway ad campaign that makes me more spiteful of capitalism (or something in that general domain) than the current series of Bank of America ads, which advertise the $10 that they will give you for every $100 you spend on transit. The inspiration behind the ads is that their offer comes as SUCH a relief to the 'average New Yorker', that it makes these 'average New Yorkers' wonder what other 'New York' frustrations Bank of America might be able to address (assuming, I guess, that people really can't stand paying as much as they do for subway fares). Although I've actually wanted to do a post on these ads all semester, it wasn't until last night that I happened to spot them on a relatively empty J train going over the Williamsburg bridge last night. Here's the first of the two I shot. You should be able to understand pretty easily what I find so creepy about them:





Man, lemme tell ya- those studios below 23rd Street = SO EXPEN$IVE. City life sure comes at its price!

COME ON BANK OF AMERICA!

How can Bank of America/MTA be so indiscriminate about the placement of their ads? I'm not going to go into why this ad makes them seem so clueless about 'average New York life' (if there even is such a thing), but given that they are, why would they let everyone on the subway know about it? And if they're going to put in on the subway, why put in on the J, which makes a total of about 6 stops inside Manhattan, before it horseshoes back into Brooklyn on both ends. This seems like an ad more appropriate MAYBE for Times Square, though it probably would be most suitable in Disney World, or anywhere that people wouldn't realize how manufactured and implausible the idea of complaining about housing prices "below 23rd street" is.

And then there's this one (unfortunately didn't come out quite as well. I was trying not to weird this woman out to much). Apparently this chap here with the long hair would do just ANYTHING for 'cabbies' these days not to give a hard time about crossing into the DMZ known as Brooklyn. Poor guy I guess will have to settle for taking the J instead...



Uch.. fuckers.

Being fartsy

Who needs summer when you have finals week?

McSorley's: A little 7th Street nostalgia, perhaps?

Not really. In fact, despite having lived on the same block for a semester, and despite its landmark/tourist atrraction status, I haven't actually gone inside. Of course, I've walked by it enough times to recognize the unmistakable scent of stale hops, musk and urine wafting out the door at all times and to develop a patience for the Midwesterners taking each others' photos in front of the doorway. It's fun though, to have such a quirky landmark on my block- oldest bar in NYC, one of the last "Men's Only" pubs (until 1970), and I do take a certain pleasure out of getting to walk by such an NYC time capsule on my way to class every day.

It almost draws my attention away from the perma-shadow cast upon it by the East Village "bee hive", across the street. And whatever we may associate with McSorley's, I think we all gotta hand it to them for their X-Mas cheer (which I am all about).

Happy Thanksgiversday!

Guys we made it to Thanksgiving! This one slut I know told me that she thinks I'm losing my steam with this, so I'm going to try to put a little bit more of my voice into future posts. But for now, y'all are going to have to settle with this picture of a VERY crowded Penn Station earlier today (WEdnesday, Thanksgiving Eve). Crrrazy.

Looooooove you, Vivek

Bravo, to whoever had a part in this.

Gettin' ma paparazzi on

Last night, in Boston, I went with Paul to this BU party (a cast party of a couple of his friends, to be precise) and who should be there but...Laurence Fishburne's fabulous son! His name is Langston.

This seems a bit excessive to me

I caught this on the cab ride to the Penn Station before heading off to Boston this weekened. I'm used to the Dunkin/Baskin duo, but this is simply out of my comfort zone. 31st and 5th.


This picture, I believe, speaks for itself. 31st and Lex (I think).

Filler...I guess

I got to see an MTA lady get legit cursed off by this guy because: after like 15 of us had been waiting a good 10 minutes here, we finally found out that there were not to be any trains stopping after a 6 train sped by on the express track. Nice job, MTA. No signs, no orange tape- no nuttin!

But I always like these long views of the old subway stations, so I guess it wasn't a total waste of my time.

OBAMARAMA

1:45 am, Union Square. Naturally I wasn't there then, but I'm going to venture to say that this is the most united that NYC has been about anything since 9/11.

STOP JJUST STOP

So here's the view from a bench last night (Monday) at 4 am outside of the Lafayette dorm during the six-alarm TRASH CAN fire that forced everyone outside for over an hour. Why does NYU (and the students thereof) try to find such creative ways to make me hate it?

Sun shower on dee ole Bow'ry

East 4th and Bowery:

synagogue for the arts

Weirdest looking synagogue I've ever seen- White Street between Church and Broadway:

slow week

Lemme tell ya, guys, the most stimulating thing about the past week was when I washed all of our dishes. But in all serialness, I feel like I've literally done nothing this week besides homework, work work (like..for money), and class. It was one of those weeks where you feel like you didn't go anywhere or do anything and you're just like wait why am going to school in nyc? It makes Jacob a real dull boy..heh....heh.
But anyway, because I had to get a new drivers license and renew my passport so that I can actually go abroad next semester, I'm now home in Philadelphia for the night. It was my plan to take the Chinatown bus home, because the Philly stop is real close to the PENNDOT center. As it turned out, I ended up spending two hours on a particularly stinky and gross bus for nothing, because the people at that DMV in center city Philly are morons and (long story short) I wasn't able to get my new license there.

But at least I got to see this silly sign outside the Apex stop in NYC's Chinatown. Boy, won't these guys ever learn??

P.S. I'm going with captions above the pictures thanks to a suggestion from a dear, dear friend who is no longer with us.



I also got to take a nice intersection shot, which I always enjoy taking, if for no other reason but to see what that intesection looked like at the time and day that it was shot. In fact, I find in most cases that there's enough going at a given intersection that there need not be any other reason, besides this, for shooting it. So here is Allen Street and Canal Street to be exact. This is the area of Canal Street that slopes slightly downhill east of the Manhattan Bridge arch after Chrystie Street. It really seems to be one of the more forgotten areas of the city. In this picture, I'm really digging the buildings on the north side of Canal east of Allen. People don't usually affiliate Canal Street with anything really besides Chinatown, and though technically from this view I think it's still considered to be that, from this view it looks about as old-school LES as it gets.



And then I wasn't in NYC anymore, but rather TAKING CELL PHONE PIX OF MYSELF IN MY CAR AHHHH!!!!



That's all I got for y'all now. Hopefully next week will yield more inspiration than this one did. I'm ALL about the inspiration.

Square Diner: A Rough in the Diamonds

I don't know how I had never been to this place before yesterday. I didn't even know it existed. Square Diner, dubbed by NY Mag as "An irony-free eatery in the middle of Tribeca" - and what a perfectly gut-busting, weekend breakfast joint it is! Such wonderfully drab decor, such splendidly apathetic service. If ever there were a place that I would presume unchanged by the years, it would be this diner. I really don't know how they are able to maintain such reasonable prices considering their location. Obviously I don't know anything about the place's lease, but as it was rather bustling when I was there, I'm going to venture hopefully to say that (barring a rent hike of epic proportions) it's on course to exist in the next decade.


Square Diner, corner of West Broadway and Leonard St.


View from the outside.


The inside!!!! It's kind of hard to tell from this angle, but the restaurant has a really wacky shape. I had to squeeze into the claustrophobic corner next to the airplane bathrooms at far end of the restaurant (think Rubin butt crack) to take this inside shot.

A TOUCH OF NATURE

A brief visit to the nest last weekend led me to brunch at the 'Valley Green Inn' for my Pop Pop's 80th birthday. With more or less unforgettable food and an anti-Semitic waitress who spilled a mimosa on my mom's back, as a restaurant, the Valley Green Inn (Located within Philadelphia's enormous Fairmount Park) fails to impress (jk about the anti-Semitic thing). Luckily for this place though, and as so often seems the case in this oh-so-unjust world, it doesn't have to be good, because it happens to be really, really pretty.

The Inn itself is over 150 years old and I don't imagine it's ever looked much better than it did last weekend. It also happens to be surrounded on three sides by woods, and on one side by the bank of Wissahickon Creek, and the fact that it was a perfect autumn day certainly didn't detract from the setting. So regardless of the food or the sloppy service, this place definitely earns its status as one of the jewels of Philadelphia, and I couldn't have asked for a more ideal spot for an early-Fall retreat from NYC in my (cell phone) photo-shooting age. Anyway, I think that's just about all the reading you need to do:

Outside of the Inn, and Paul.

View from the side. That's my dad and my

Bubbi in front of the steps.


Poppop and mom's first cousin, Robin.



The creek!

So that's Philadelphia's Valley Green Inn for you; provided that the weather is nice, I definitely recommend to anyone at least stopping by the area, getting your hike on, and whatnot.

P.S. The restaurant offered all (twelve) of us free dessert and a saran-wrapped, ribbon-tied, pumpkin loaf, for our suffering. We threw it away, of course, out of fear of poisoning.

HAHAHAHAHAHHAHA

Wow, I guess that billion dollar debt is actually the result of funding for a top-secret, superhuman, subway building robot coalition.

Poultry

Ardmore Farmers Market. Ardmore, PA.

Clinton Street Baking Co: A Dream Deferred

This post is about a restaurant in the Lower East Side called ‘Clinton Street Baking Company’. It’s on Clinton between Houston and Stanton and though certainly NOT for lack of trying, I have never eaten there. It has to be at least a year now since I read about it on I think nymag.com as one of the best breakfast/brunches in the city, and if you’re reading this now, then there is an okay chance that I’ve tried to go with you there at some point since I first read about it. If this is the case, or if you’ve been there with other company (which like, is fine, I guess), then this should be a familiar image to you:

If not, this shot is from outside the restaurant today at 1:47 pm, though from what I gather, it really could have come from any Saturday or Sunday late morning/early afternoon. I have to imagine it isn’t quite as mobbed when the weather sucks; I think I’ve only tried to go there on sunny days like today (and WHAT a top-ten day it was!!). Anyway, as Hannah and I were both craving hearty breakfasts this morning, and as I had to pick up a prescription from the Rite Aid on Clinton street and Grand street, I figured we could at least try swinging by the ole' Baking Company and, in the off chance of crowds being humane, we might be able to throw down our two names for an under 30 minute wait. Then we would be able to run down to the drug store, get my drugs, and get back just in time to try the fresh country biscuits, fluffy eggs and brioche french toast that have so long been withheld from me. And so we decide to give this a shot. After our walk east down Houston, we finally hit Clinton and turn right. I'm trying my best not to let myself get excited, as you see, a man can only have his heart broken so many times.

Well, in case you were confused, the crowd you see above is not indicative of a speedy seating. In fact it's more of a communal "good fucking luck" that you can read from the faces of all the other impatient hungryover people waiting outside. But then, despite it being obviously as crowded as it always is at that time, I decided make it sting just a little more by poking my head inside. And of course, the wait for two people was an hour and a half.

The story doesn't end on a bad note, though. Because of the wait at Clinton Street Baking Company, Hannah and I ended up at Clinton Restaurant across the street. You can see it (and Hannah, in a cheerful state) here:

Despite it being a little slower than it should have been (considering Hannah and I were the only ones in there), this charming little Nuyorican joint, with traditional specials listed over the counter in back , did just as good a job whipping out the heavy, greasy breakfast fare as anywhere. Hannah's chorizo quesadilla was a behemoth of flaky dough and cheese, and my Spanish omelet was surprisingly flavorful and satisfying. Coffee was good too. So moral of the story is, obviously 'the place across the street' was hardly gourmet, and I didn't check to see, but I don't think they had a winelist. The fact is that it's ridiculous, disgusting even, that this place (which I would bet has been there at least twice as long as Clinton Street Baking Co) was completely empty while people were waiting 2 hours outside across the street! I'm sure that Clinton Street Baking Co is great and all, and I'm certainly not trying to tell anyone not to go there. In fact, it is my hope that I might even get the chance to eat there on some rainy Tuesday afternoon. But come on folks, let's stop being so obsessed with the best, especially when the best is a meal, and especially when it means waiting 2 hours for that meal, and SUPER especially when there is a perfectly decent establishment across the street. Help another local business out, while maybe (god forbid) absorbing a lil' latino culture while you're at it.

OK the real goods

I kind of did want to wait until tomorrow to write this because now I actually am getting tired, but on the other hand I really am excited about this. For the longest time now, since i've had my new-ish phone, i have consistently taken pictures with my cellphone, that a. always made me wish i actually had a real camera and b. always made me wish that the pictures could be seen anywhere but the phone. now like, i knew people did this whole 'mobile uploads' on their facebook, but for some reason that whole bluewhaletooth thing wasn't working for me.

But THEN! I realised that you can e-mail pictures from your home to your computer. And then, all the sudden you have full size, relatively clear pictures from your cell phone on your computer. And the reason that this is so exciting for me is that i LOVE my cell phone pictures. I think over the past months that i've taken shots with this phone (since about march 2008) I have taken some really interesting, really candid photographs, which, while definitely carrying the distinct feel of a picture taken from a cell phone, have also what I feel is a truly multi-dimensional character. I posted some of them already on facebook, and from what I can tell, they seem to be very well received. Really though, not that I needed the validation on this one. I really like my cell phone pictures. So what I've decided I'm going to do with what will hopefully be a successful, longasting, second-incarnation of my first blog is my "CELLPHONE PIX BLOG"- constructed with pictures just from my cellphone and with my commentary where I see fit. My plan for the blog will be for me in the next day or two go through all my pictures on my cellphone and, pretty slowly, get all my pictures to my computer and then I would (if I can, i'm not sure what blogger will let me do) expose a rather large sample from the inception- those which have for so long been saved or forgotten and are now about to reenter the world. So this is something to look forward to in the next few days. Naturally, once I have exposed my entire oeuvre up to this point, it will once again be on me to formulate new material for the blog, adding new pictures with a generally high frequency. And to be honest, l've felt a genuine burst of confidence about this one, and this feels like it could really be what i've been looking for, for the longest time.
So wait for soon when my first REAL post of cameraphone pix blog goes public you can check out what the hype's about..

Here goes nuttin.

P.S. The more I think about it, the more I realize how perfect cell phone photography is for me as a medium of art. It's perfectly compatible with my complete lack of the following: organization, patience, ability not to misplace things, ability to plan ahead, and willingness to carry things if i can avoid it. And of course, conversely, it caters wonderfully to my impulsive, reflexive, tendencies