A friend sent me an holga camera in the mail as a present. Here are a few shots from the holga, light leaks and all...

collecting cans

Manhattan Bridge

selling grapes on Canal St.

Tonight, while waiting for the A train, which always makes me hum Take the 'A' Train in my head no matter how many damn times I wait for the A train (a little midi so you can hum along), which, I believe, is a tell tale sign of impending insanity, but I digress. While waiting, and humming, for the 'A' train, two girls sitting next to me on the bench were having a conversation, one in which I eavesdropped:

Girl 1: I don't like working. I spend all my time working, and then there's like no time to do anything else. I mean, I work like eight hours a day, and then after that, plus eating and sleeping and all the other extraneous stuff I have to do during the day, there is no time to do anything else.

Girl 2: Your right.

Girl 1: I know I'm right. Think of all the time we're wasting waiting for the train, and then I'll get home and go to bed, then get up and go to work all day.

Me: (under my breath) preach it sister...dum, da da dum da dum...

Update: this link above has a nifty little flash app that does some analysis of the song while playing along. select the 'Go to Analysis' link...

Maxwell goes there and back...

Yesterday, as we experimented further with getting to know the city and simple delights, we walked from one tip of Manhattan to the other - entirely along Broadway.

- Apartment Therapy Walks the Island

Seen driving on the Long Island Expressway, the tail end of this car was held together by duct tape.

...slums are being demolished...[but] the rectangular tenements that replace them have not a trace of invention. Their bleakness is absolute. No man has ever dreamed of a city of such monotonous severity, and there must be some bond between our houses and our dreams.

- John Cheever, as quoted in the documentary New York

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame With conquering limbs astride from land to land; Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame is the imprisoned lightning, and her name Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame, "Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore, Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

- by Emma Lazarus, New York City, 1883 - The New Colossus

Jim, always the champion for freedom of speech and expression, gets his nose caught in a giant red cone.

A few months ago I was pondering the origin of Brooklyn's Name. Was there a great brook that ran through the borough? Was it founded by someone named Brook or Brooks? Was it derived from the Native American name of the region. Today, while watching the Documentary New York, the answer was revealed.

In 1636, about twelve years after Dutch settlers began to establish the community of New Amsterdam at the southern tip of Manhattan Island, a handful of pioneers among them spread across the East River to set up plantations on the western-most edge of Long Island. In 1646, the first Dutch community on the island was incorporated. It was called Breuckelen, after a town in the Netherlands.

A Virtual Tour of New Netherland