How Busy Can You Possibly Be?

Last night I was at a birthday party in a bar on St. Mark's place. I was pretty drunk by the end of it, but I was glad I had enough sense to see this poster and recognize it's oddness. The picture is a little blurry, but lucky for me there are lots of resources for my subject on the internet.

If you can't tell, this is a concession cup. Chicken nuggets sit on the top, and soda, on the bottom.

Apparently, it's South Korean


This breaks so many rules...I can't even wrap my head around it.

The drama? Imagine how busy you have to be to need something like this. Check out the video on the Serious Eats site.

Drama #3: Open Letter to the G Train

The G Train is a single subway line that connects Brooklyn to Queens, and if you have to go from say, Park Slope to Williamsburg, and it comes right away, you can avoid riding into Manhattan and save a good 10 minutes or so by taking it. I take it to and from work at least 3 times a week, and in the mornings, it's pretty great. After 7 pm, though, or on the weekends, it's a different story. Little Miss G Train leaves people waiting in the stations for up to a half an hour, bored and outright pissed.

I imagine that at the Metropolitan Avenue stop last Saturday, a broken man named Gutter, had had his fill:



It reads:

Dear G Train,

Well, sorry about all of those things I said about you last weekend. But the thing is, you are never there for me. Seriously, why? Please, please, please come pick me up. Be there for me? Is that so much?

-love
Gutter

The G Train replies:

Dear Gutter,

I don't have much time, but you should know that whenever I'm here, you're not. And when you're home, I'm out, scouting the same old paths, looking for you.

I'll always be here or on my way there.

Love,
G

PS You only come see me when you need a ride. Stop using me, freeloader!

To be fair, I doubt very seriously that the G Train actually wrote that PS. That was totally different in handwriting, marker color, and overall tone.

I also take serious issue with the hooligan that wrote "G Train, you're a slut" beneath the correspondence. You know what, hooligan, just back off and let them work it out, okay?

Drama #2: Child on Leash

So, my friend Suzanne and I decided to walk by the 34th Street Macy's today to look at the Christmas windows, which I realize to most New Yorkers equates to suicidal behavior. It was the same, boring Miracle on 34th Street display as the previous two years. There was lots of drama happening at every turn on 34th Street, but this was a special kind of drama: A mom walking her kid around town on a leash. It may be difficult to see, but it's almost like a chihuahua leash.



Immediately I thought of this moment from Ragtime:

An Immigrant man leads his daughter onto the stage, a rope tied firmly to her waist.

[LITTLE BOY]
Mother!

[MOTHER]
I see! I see! He's afraid of losing her. Immigrants
are terrified of losing their children. So are we but
just not so conspicuously. Don't stare. It's not
polite to stare.

Maybe that woman's coat was afraid of losing them both.

Proclamation of Absolute Joy!

After years of periodic, half-assed YouTube searches, I've finally found it:



Here's hoping it remains there until the end of time.

Drama #1: Pigeon v. Dorito Bag

It has been a while since I've posted. I was looking at my buddy Marc's blog a minute ago, and I love the idea of it. Basically, he's taking short video clips, getting creative, taking risks, and simply posting his impulses.

I'm going to try an experiment for the next 7 days, inspired by Marc. With my newly-purchased Kodak Easy Share camera, I'm doing to try to photograph one dramatic thing every day. In this city, this shouldn't be too hard to accomplish.

Let's start with this pigeon on the platform of the 9th Street F Station. The dirty little guy sticks his head in a Dorito bag and it gets stuck there for a good minute and a half. THEN, he goes back for more.

Perception

Yesterday, I had a great creative meeting with my two favorite collaborators: Blev and Janine. Janine hosted at her pad in Billyburg and made an oustanding pancake brunch.

Sadly, Blev had to leave us for work, leaving Janine and I to our own devices. Over the course of our meeting, on my new ibook, we created 2 new workout cd's, 1 ULTIMATE BOOTY MIX, and consumed MORE food in the form of a burrito. Later on, as we got a little more punchy, we shot this truly amazing video on my camera phone. It just goes to show you--What some people perceive to be a really lame day, can sometimes be the most simple and fulfilling day ever.

It's okay if you don't really get it. Think of it as the video version of a New Yorker cartoon.

The Red Balloon

I'm still on my nostalgia kick. PLEASE tell me you guys watched The Red Balloon on a reel-to-reel film projector when you were little. I loved this film so much. Still then, even at 6 years old, I did recognize that there was something creepy about a balloon with a sense of autonomy.

And guess what? Found the WHOLE THING on YouTube. If you have a few minutes, swish some flouride, eat some paste, say the pledge, then kick back and take it in.

Classic

I strongly disagree with the label of my generation being "Generation Y."

I think Generation Nostalgia is tons more appropriate. We place value on vintage and classic--Cartoons and comics from our childhood. Judy Blume books. Rainbows on the fronts of our overalls before they were considered too gay to wear. My generation has missed the boat on the hipster irony conceit. My generation has trouble sleeping, so we go to YouTube for soothing images at 6 am. Soothing images and sounds like these.

Sesame Street - The Ladybugs' Picnic


Hearing and seeing these clips again really soothes a really jostled part of my brain. Do you guys get a similar feeling from this?

Classic Sesame Street - Grover and Chris with STOP sign


Okay, and by the way--Do you think a kid in today's world could be remotely entertained by this? Why did watching a kid climb a coconut tree captivate us so?

Classic Sesame Street - gathering coconuts


And finally, I leave you with a little angst. Courtesy of our pal Grover.

Grover NEAR and FAR - Classic Sesame Street