Dan the Man

Lose My Hair & I Don't Care --- Samson Was a Wuss
That's my friend Daniel Bloomberg above.  Not only is he battling a second round of cancer with more courage than I can summon when faced with a hangnail, but he can look right into the camera in this video and sing his heart out, through vocal cords that got wrecked during treatment.

I talked to him a few days before the video was recorded and he was hoarse as a chain-smoking horse whisperer (he still is hoarse, and seeking a fix now).

I didn't pay much attention to the song, but his nerve is humbling.  And note the joy as, clearly hitting some notes, he can feel his voice breaking through the clouds.

[ Daniel Bloomberg's blog Handy Instrumental ]

Dems Replace Ted with Torso

I cleaned up the original title; for a moment I forgot this is a family tabloid!

How could anyone be surprised by the GOP victory in Massachusetts, where a doofus Tea Bag Party centerfold model has replaced Ted Kennedy?  That's what you get when you try to split the difference between bought-off Democrats and the FOX/GOP Fascist Entertainment Network.  (Next up, taking Christopher Dodd's seat, the vicious beaver-toothed Warrior Queen of the WWF.)

Maybe this will wake up Obama and Democrats in congress, but don't hold your breath.  As Jon Stewart fumed the other day: George Bush Jr. never had a Senate "super majority" and he did whatever the f*ck he wanted.

For those who worry that changing the Senate's "60 vote rule" would backfire the second the GOP had a simple majority of seats, I have to ask: What makes you think we'll last that long?  Democrats' timidity is the only thing keeping the Wall Street aristocracy and its Fascist Entertainment Network alive, and the longer it lives, the worse things will get.

What is the point of power if, afraid to confront evil, all you do is delay it?

And on that note I will sink back into pleasing fantasy.  I am going to wallpaper my bedroom with the spectacular pizza ad I saw in the window of Broadway Pizza at 27th & Broadway (top).

Then, to work off all the pizza I'll be eating, I'll sneak into the Newtown Creek Wastewater Plant (above), fill dumpsters with pipes, and sell them to a scrap yard across the street.

And when I get tired of pizza & pipes, I'll walk out to Hunters Point Ave., buy something spicy off an Afghan food truck (below), and contemplate the green tower that (for now) belongs to bankrupt bailed-out Citibank and -- trying to remain calm in the face of a world where evil has been allowed to burrow right to its core -- count goats jumping over a land mine as I chew.

Along the East River

Some photos from along the river.

Above and left, a tug tows empty containers north, seen from the Williamsburg Bridge.


Above left, a fleet of tractors (snow plows?) lined up just north of the Manhattan Bridge, seen from the Brooklyn Bridge.  Above right, pedestrians seem to be on an FDR Drive ramp (on the right) just north of the Queensboro Bridge.  And below, further upriver from the Queensboro, the massive NewYork-Presbyterian / Weill Cornell Medical Center.

Citicorp Queens

From a few different angles on a cold day, the Citicorp Building, aka One Court Square, aka the tether-ball pole of Long Island City, aka the Queens echo of Citigroup Center straight across the East River in Manhattan.

I know it's shocking to think that bankers could be arrogant, but isn't the arrangement of the towers -- the way they form a "Citigroup Gate" that straddles the East River like a latter day Colossus of Rhodes -- a bit grand?

The photo above is from the Greenpoint Ave. Bridge.  The one below left is from right down the street; the base of the building borders the left side of the photo, making its Manhattan cousin look puny in the gap to its right.


Then above right and below, two examples of one of my favorite types of photos, where a cloud puts the subject in the dark on a sunny day.  I like the way the steam from the power plant fizzles out near the top of the darkened tower below.

The photo below is from the Greenpoint Ave. Bridge.  The one above right is from 30th St. near 47th Ave.; the other tower in the photo belongs to a storage facility, and is no doubt painted red, white & blue because, to the owners, America Means A Place to Store Your Stuff!

Lemon Light on 8th St

On 8th St. between Broadway and University Place.  Normally pedestrian, when strong light rakes across the building it can be stunning, right down to the doily-white metal work on the balconies.  Closeups above and at bottom.

Around Queens Plaza

The saving grace of Queens Plaza is its crusty pink spine, which is likely too expensive to replace, so all the banners, benches and condo glass in the world won't be able to yuppify it.

Above and to the left, at least during construction, the Batman Building, aka Gotham Center, fits right in.


Meanwhile at the other end of Queens Plaza, past the NYPD cruiser keeping an eye on the Scandals strip club above right, a graffitist tells us "cash smells" (or offers cash 4 smells?), below left.  Then below right -- trying to minimize the odor of money spent -- the new budget hotels share the same design, no matter what the brand.

If this insults your refined architectural taste, just remember that if the hotels were forced to come up with a brand new design every time they put up a pile of bricks -- that's strong enough to withstand 10 floors worth of sturdy maids stomping down halls and overweight tourists bouncing on beds -- they would have to move the hotel another quarter mile out from the plaza, and the drunken 4 AM walk back from Scandals would be twice as long.


[ Queens Plaza Playaz Club ]