New York

A friend forwarded a link to a great youtube playlist - a bunch of interesting short movies of old New York City. Stuff from 1900-1930s or so.

 Two trees in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden were named to the New York State big tree registry. I didn't even know the state had a big tree registry. A simple search shows that many states have them, and there's a national big tree registry - the national champions - kept by American Forests. Did I mention that I'm a fan of trees? And that I love the book Tree: A New Vision Of The American Forest by James Balog?

So the NYC Police announced they're expanding their downtown surveillance network to midtown, from 30th to 60th streets. One wonders when they'll just admit that they'd like to put surveillance cameras throughout the entire city.

I'll admit that I'm a supporter of congestion pricing, and that would necessarily require cameras to take shots of license plates and such - around the area perimeter, anyway. But one difference in that setup is that it would be run by the DOT or some other agency, which would hopefully have defined data retention policies, and have to respond formally to law enforcement requests for info. Having the police run the network means that they could just keep the info and pictures for whatever, whenever, however long they want - I've never seen the NYC Police department's 'data retention policy' for it's surveillance cameras (somebody please prove me wrong on that).

When even the NYC Police are putting together dossiers on protesters and other 'troublemakers', do you really want them indiscriminately tracking everyone? Sure, we'd all like to catch the real crazies, and prevent whatever the next attack might be, but at what cost to our basic rights?

 The runoff election for a few NYC positions in coming up the XXX. I’d like to encourage everyone to vote, and especially to vote for David Yassky for City Comptroller.

One of my main complaints with John Liu is that he’s a regressive when it comes to transportation issues. Liu likes to spend his time criticizing the MTA, but rarely offers anything in the way of useful solutions. He didn’t support congestion pricing, because he cares more about his outer-boro supporters who drive everywhere than the majority of New Yorkers who take transit. He criticizes the Broadway pedestrian islands in Manhattan for vague reasons, saying the DOT hasn’t done enough public outreach, when frankly they’re doing more now than in a long time, possibly ever. His biggest gripe is that small businesses (no one ever talks about big businesses) have problems with delivery – but what would a business rather have, easy delivery, or more pedestrian traffic that generates more business? If the business is there, the business owners will figure out a way to get goods in and out.

The comptroller is a good check and source of opposing views on the City departments, led by the mayor’s office. We need someone who represents all the City in that office, not just a few small parts of it. Someone who speaks the truth about himself and the issues. Please vote for David Yassky.

 New York City has a great website/app that makes the question of ‘where/how can I volunteer?’ so much easier to answer. NYC Service can show you opportunities within your zip code or further, by skills or type of opportunity. I’m sure you can find something in here to help out with. With a site like this, I wonder if there’s a measurable effect of bringing ‘new’ people to volunteer opportunities, or if it just provides another way for people already interested to find out what’s going on. Even the latter is good, but for most people I think (at least, it is with me unfortunately) that even small barriers to entry keep them from volunteering more, if at all.

Poul sent me to this cool photoset of the abandoned and decaying Buffalo Central Railroad Terminal. Good to read that an organization is devoted to preserving a good amount of the terminal. Maybe someday it will see a use worthy of it's grandeur, however faded.

Wow. Went to the Park Avenue Armory to see the installation by the Brazilian artist Ernesto Neto (who I've written about before), and it's amazing. First of all, I'd never been in the armory before, but it's a great huge space. Apparently the interiors of the rooms are historic too. But the installation is definitely the star.

Huge, anthropomorphic, skeletal, dripping, and yet so soft and beautiful because of the fabric and the forms. It was kid city there on friday afternoon, and you can see why. There was a 'pool' filled with plastic balls for playing in, a funky hand-knotted carpet that came up into a soft bump, and a padded play 'room' - all tucked into and around the big form.

And then the added bonus of the scents - about 20 spices used in the hanging forms - giving the work a whole new dimension that's subtle and very interesting.

UPDATE: Put my pictures up for all to see.

We were trying to get a cab home from midtown today, and since it was a bit before 5PM, all the cabbies begged-off as they needed to get back to the garage soon (we don't usually have any trouble getting a cab to Brooklyn, especially since we live pretty close in). But the doorman-guy at Bed Bath and Beyond got this interesting character for us: He handed me his card when we got in his recent model Buick (no TLC plates, mind you). I thought that this could be a very interesting ride home... but he was cool. He said call any time, except Sunday, as he has services. Good rates on airport trips, and he knows the best place for ice cream in Connecticut. Oh, did I mention that he also performs exorcisms?

This story happened a couple weeks ago. I was riding the subway uptown from City Hall when a group of four Italians boarded and sat near me. I gathered from their chatter and map reading that they were trying to figure out which stop to get off at. We soon stopped at a station and they belatedly decided to get off the subway. As the Italians quickly passed in front of me, I saw a glove drop on the floor. I leaned over to pick it up and say something to the woman who had dropped it, but when I got up they had made it through the car doors, and the normal small crowd of people was now pressing it?s way in. Being tall, I could see the woman walking away over the entering people, but didn?t know how to yell anything useful in Italian. So I made a quick decision and tossed the glove at her, managing to hit her in the back with just enough force so she would notice. Satisfied that I had helped her out as best I could, I turned to sit down again. When I sat down, a woman who had been standing near me held out the matching glove and said ?she dropped both of them.? So I tried again ? I quickly jumped up with the second glove, turned and looked over the crowd and saw the woman just standing up from having picked up her first glove. I lobbed the second glove at her over the crowd, nearly striking her (lightly) in the face. She managed to catch it, and looked at me with a bewildered look, mouthing what I can only hope was 'grazie' (probably more like WTF??). I sat down again and shared a laugh with the woman who handed me the second glove. I figured the gloves were better off with their owner, even if it required an unorthodox method of return.

Wow. Went last night to see Ustad Shujaat Khan, Karsh Kale, Vijay Iyer, and Jonathon Maron in a show at the new Alice Tully Hall (and a good deal - tickets only $25). I figured it would be good, but we were both just blown away. I had wanted to go see Karsh Kale and a few other people this past summer at Prospect Park doing live accompaniment to Bruce Lee's Enter The Dragon, but it was seriously hot out that day and we didn't go. I knew Karsh was quality as I'm a fan of Tabla Beat Science. But the amazing fusion of these four players last night was beyond what I had expected. Khan played sitar, Jonathon Maron played electric bass, Karsh Kale played alternately tabla and a regular drum set, and Vijay Iyer switched between piano and Rhodes electric keyboard, and all five songs just worked. They took their leads in jazz style during the extended songs, with their jams flowing smoothly with what could have been a mismatched set of instruments.