Columbus Circle, November 2012

Tatzu Nishi’ sDiscovering Columbus exhibit:

June 2011

If you stare deeply enough into your drink, messages appear:

Custom House in Lower Manhattan:

Even though we missed the scheduled tour, one of the park ranger people let us into the ornate Collector’s Reception Room:

Back in June, the Freedom Tower was still short enough to fit into the camera frame:

I already talked about visiting Yankee Stadium.

The awesome Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, Queens:

I could watch the exhibit showing how they produce a live baseball game for for hours:

The 36th Avenue Subway Station in Astoria.

Block Drugs on Second Avenue:

The remnants of Mars Bar also on Second Avenue:

We already talked about seeing the Phillies play the Cubs.

There’s a lot of stuff behind fences in the East Village. Albert’s Garden:

And the New York Marble Cemetery:

They were even using St. Mark’s Church in the Bowery for some sort of film shoot.

Prince Street in Lower Manhattan:

(Funny detail: The Google Street View up right now is from right around when I went walking around there — theirs is from July 2011 — so all the billboards look the same . . .)

There’s a great view of Union Square from the Whole Foods cafe on the second floor. They also have a bathroom you can use:

Astoria Park at dusk on the longest day of the year; this is at 8:40 in the evening (I knew there was a reason I took this but it took a while to remember):

Staring out the front door at Coppelia on 14th Street:

There’s nothing more depressing than an emergency room entrance at an abandoned hospital:

Well, OK, maybe some things are less depressing . . .

I honestly don’t remember what interested me about 60 Spring Street:

Was it because it was a blue jean store or something? Who knows . . .

The Astoria Market at the Beer Garden:

It took me two years to get two pictures of the San Antonio Abate Festival on Ditmars Boulevard in Astoria. Maybe in another year I’ll put a link up to the page:

Several Random Things From May 2011

Chief of which is Brooklyn Bridge Park, which was a lot more elegant than I expected, especially considering how ugly/utilitarian the piers used to be:

It’s like, where did all that dirt come from?

There’s a staircase thing-place that overlooks Lower Manhattan, which is just stunning. Propose here:

Grimaldi’s has since moved from its longtime location, just down the street at 1 Old Fulton Street:

I really, really want to start a “I [Heart] Unicorns 4-Eva” meme:

Remember when they thought the world would end on May 21? And people spent their life savings on subway ads? Why did they do that? Not because they weren’t right (they weren’t), but what difference would it make if you saw this ad on the subway beforehand?

One day they’ll finish the East Side Access project. For now, it’s kind of a constant thing:

Vacant spaces are so strange looking, like repeating a word over and over until it sounds completely foreign:

I sat outside a bar one night in May 2011 staring at the bright lights in this space, just sort of pondering how weird it looked. Now I know that it’s a “cursed” spot, only recently occupied by a somewhat stable business.