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Sunday, 20 January 2013 - Squash, in the train station

 
 
I started reading a bit of this today, and made a random discovery about Grand Central Station.
 
As a tourist, most folk come here to gawk over the main concourse and up at the ceiling. Impressive stuff. But for the next few days...

 
...there is also this randomness - the Tournament of Champions squash tournament hehe. Plonked just off the side from the main concourse, this glass squash course has been thrown together to give folk (tourists and locals alike) something else to gawk at.

 
 
Also mentioned in Lonely Planet is St Patrick's Cathedral on Fifth Avenue. I've been meaning to check this out and photograph it for ages, but was waiting for the scaffolding to come down. Well after more than seven months of waiting, it hasn't. So I've given up and went in for a look-see while I was in the area. Construction of this massive cathedral started in 1858 and was eventually completed in 1878 after the American Civil War delayed it for a bit. Today, the cathedral is dwarfed by surrounding skyscrapers; in fact it almost looks out of place. At the time however, its huge proportions dominated Midtown Manhattan which is quite strange to consider. Here is a shot of it in 1913.

 
According to Lonely Planet, St Pat's is the largest cathedral in the US, though I can't find anything to back that up. In fact, other sources claim this cathedral here (also in New York City) is in fact the largest, but it isn't finished. Construction began on that one in 1892 and was apparently never completed, and is now aptly nicknamed "St. John the Unfinished".
 
The temperature today was a balmy 10 degrees, but with the rest of the week forecast to be in sub-zero temperatures I did intend to take the opportunity to go exploring elsewhere. My camera had other ideas though. This is now my "little guy" since I bought a more pro-level camera earlier last year (but I don't like to carry it round on my bike for fear of damaging it). This is the camera that came around the world with Kristina and I (and got quite a hiding) but now I think the power switch has kicked the bucket. At $200 to have it repaired, I'm tossing up whether it's worth it.

Monday, 21 January 2013 - MLK (and Obama) Day

 
Today was a public holiday in the US of A thanks to this man - Martin Luther King Jr. King became a national icon in the history of American progressivism, and is best known for his role in the advancement of civil rights for the black man using nonviolent civil disobedience. Also today, President Obama had his public inauguration after being elected for a second term in office back in November, and delivered a rather aggressive speech that many have likened to some of those delivered by MLK himself.
 
So what did I do with my day off from work? Well first and foremost I got stuck into my camera with the crapped-out power switch. While Kristina and I were in El Salvador, the camera's main dial which adjusts several key settings became unresponsive. On a hunch, I doused it with rubbing alcohol assuming the electrical contacts were just dirty, and sure enough that fixed the problem. I had the same hunch about the power switch, and sure enough it's all good. Hooray for alcohol!
 
 
With the camera sorted and the temperature below freezing outside, I started looking into some Photoshop-related stuff that I've been meaning to for ages but just haven't had time. Without going into great detail for those who don't give a shit, here are a couple shots I took while in New Zealand exactly a year ago, with the 'before' version on the left and the 'after' version on the right.
 
 
Before editing...
 
And after. Good stuff :)

Tuesday, 22 January 2013 - Nippy

 
Ooo yeah, and that's in Fahrenheit! This was the temperature when I left for work this morning - a tropical -8 degrees Celsius. When I came home again it was down to -9. Honestly I wouldn't reliase it was that cold if not for the fact that within a few minutes my face is in pain hehe. I wasn't on the bike today but I will be tomorrow and it's forecast to be even colder so we'll see how that works out, and whether I arrive with icicles hanging out my nose. By the way, notice the Christmas decorations still hanging there over the road. That's a bit slack.
 
In other news, I bought some new socks for work today because all my other pairs have pretty much had it hahaha! Yup, that was my big news of the day - glad I could share it with y'all.

Wednesday, 23 January 2013 - Nippy'er

 
Well so much for -8 as was the case yesterday morning. Today it was -12 degrees Celsius when I set off on the bike for work this morning! I've never cycled in temperatures this cold, but I was well layered up and only felt the cold on my exposed face (which hurt like hell for about the first ten minutes until it went numb). Maybe I should invest in a balaclava, and rob a few corner stores while I'm at it. When I left work again tonight it was back up to -8, and believe it or not it was noticeably warmer to be cycling in hehe. Brisky brisky brisky. And I didn't notice it yesterday but actually the whole bloody street is still covered in Christmas decorations hahaha! This is the main drag through my neighbourhood in Astoria, Queens. The local council clearly can't be bothered.

Friday, 25 January 2013 - The big freeze continues

 
 
New York and surrounds have been in sub-zero temperatures since last weekend, and we're not due to get above freezing until at least this Sunday or Monday. This is the Bryant Park fountain hahaha - awesome! It's actually still running though, barely.
 
I shot that on my way into work this morning, still on the bike, and still in about -10 degrees Celsius. In the middle of summer, the bike racks under my office are completely full. Today it was just me and some other bozo with an electric scooter hehe.

Sunday, 27 January 2013 - MoMA

 
 
 
With temperatures in the Big Apple still colder than a witch's tit, Kristina and I hunted through Lonely Planet for something to do indoors and decided on this - the Museum of Modern Art.
 
Art museums generally confuse the hell out of me, but we had both heard good things about MoMA so in we went. This was the first piece of 'art' we saw hahaha! It looks like a five-year-old's drawing of his mum getting out of the shower (a cold one).
 
And then the next thing we find were these two 1980s vacuum cleaners, described by the artist as having anthropomorphic qualities (i.e. human-like qualities) because... "It is a breathing machine. It also displays both male and female sexuality. It has orifices and phallic attachments." Good grief.

 
 
As we wandered on there was some pretty cool (though still inexplicable) stuff scattered around.
 
And some less interesting stuff (this is apparently pollen).
 
And more of the totally weird.

 
Then we found the feminist section - this oughta be good.
 
Pantyhose. Yeah, pantyhose. And that was virtually it for the feminist section.

 
 
Now for the sculpture section hahaha! I really don't understand art at all - I'm too much of a logical person. To me, 1 + 1 = 2. No ifs or buts about it. In the art world, 1 + 1 = potato, and it just doesn't click with me.
 
In this case, 1 + 1 = 0
 
Here's that five-year-old kid again, having eaten some paint and barfed it back up.

 
 
Then we found the photography section - bound to be something for Aaron here! Wasn't really my style though.
 
I did like this magazine ad though from back in the day: "The Olympus OM-2 has a new metering and shutter control system that makes the year 2001 seem here now." Nice!
 
That's good advice.

 
So we wandered on through the six floors, trying to make sense of the nonsense we were seeing.
 
This piece is called "Birth & Life & Sex & Death". I can see why.

 
 
Here is someone flicking the bird at the White House, and at Tiananmen Square. The bird belongs to Ai Weiwei, the Chinese dude all over the news in 2011 after his arrest for political activism. Ai is highly and openly critical of the Chinese Government's stance on democracy and human rights (a big no-no in China land).
 
Missing two stars but close enough. The 48-star flag was in use from 1912 to 1959 (before Alaska and Hawaii became US states in 1959 and 1960).

 
After all of that art we made some of our own, and then headed back out in the cold snowy evening.

Tuesday, 29 January 2013 - From the rubble

 
My Mum sent me a few newspaper clippings of the state of Christchurch at the moment, and frankly it's unrecognisable to me. If not for the captions stating the roads and direction of view, I wouldn't have a clue where any of these images would be. Much of what was once a thriving central business district is now simply gone. What's left is a blank canvas, and big plans are afoot for its redevelopment but it's going to take a lot of time. I'm literally praying the powers that be do a good job of it.

Friday, 1 February 2013 - Those were our people today. That's Holmes tonight.

 
What do this man and this bridge have in common? This man is New Zealand icon Sir Paul Holmes, a broadcasting legend known to every New Zealander. So too was his tagline used to close out his nightly self-titled current affairs show: "Those were our people today. That's Holmes tonight." With his health failing, Sir Paul passed away early this morning New Zealand-time at just 62 years old. He was a man who loved his country and loved its people, and for the most part people loved him, although he was never far from controversy over some offensive comment or another hehe. As for this bridge, well it's the bridge I cycle across to and from work every day. Its full name is the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge, named after former New York mayor Edward "Ed" Koch who is something of a local icon and legend himself. He too kicked the bucket today. Interesting and frank interview with Holmes here which took place at his home in New Zealand just days ago.

Sunday, 3 February 2013 - Super Bowl Sunday!

 
For my non-American viewers, the Super Bowl is the annual championship of the National Football League (NFL), the highest level of professional American football in the United States. It is the culmination of the season that begins in the late summer of the previous calendar year. The day on which the Super Bowl is played is called "Super Bowl Sunday". It is the second-largest day for US food consumption (after Thanksgiving Day), and has frequently been the most watched American television broadcast of the year. The Super Bowl uses Roman numerals to identify each game, and this year was Super Bowl XLVII (47) played between the Baltimore Ravens and the San Francisco 49ers in New Orleans (I've been there!). We had a few folk over to enjoy the action, and action it was. The 49ers were 28-6 down at half time and looking all but completely out of it. They came back in the second half to make a game of it though, only just going down at the death with a final score of 34-31. Action off the field included a raunchy half-time show by Beyoncé with a reunited Destiny's Child, and a blown transformer outside the venue caused a power outage that left most of the stadium in darkness (and knocked the TV announcers offline) for more than 30 minutes at the start of the second half. Great stuff!

Wednesday, 6 February 2013 - Wood!

 
Ever seen older American movies (or even something more modern like Breaking Bad) featuring cars with the bloody awful wood panelling down the side of them? Well, they're hideous, but they exist hahaha! As far back as I can remember, even when cars didn't particularly interest me, I thought this was just weird. And I still do hehe. Anyway, happy Waitangi Day to us Kiwis :)

Saturday, 9 February 2013 - Found Nemo

 
 
This was the view out of our living room during the peak of so-called Winter Storm Nemo overnight at 2am. Still snowing lightly but compared to the likes of Boston and other places further north along the coast that got a dumping of over three feet, New York got off pretty lightly with barely a foot of the white stuff.

 
 
And this was the view first thing the next morning.
 
We left some booze out on the back deck to chill - I think it worked.
 
The snow ploughs had been kept busy, and even they were getting stuck in some places hehe.

 
 
Even the city's garbage trucks were fitted with ploughs.
 
Glad that's not my car.
 
This chick was just one of many doing the same thing: clearing the snow of the car, followed by clearing it off the road so she can get out.

 
 
After wandering around the neighbourhood for a bit I headed for the subway bound for Manhattan.

 
The roads were quiet but clear, unlike the sidewalks - packed and covered in slush.

 
 
Central Park in the snow - nice!
 
From slush to ice.
 

 
 
This was the first good dumping of snow of the winter, and so the park was just as packed as it normally would be during a summer weekend. The kids were loving it...

 
 
The adults were loving it...
 
The dogs were loving it, us photographers were loving it, everyone was loving it!
 
Except this guy.

 
 
Snowmen of all shapes and sizes were everywhere. Some of them had genitals of all shapes and sizes also.
 
Some dude apparently spent four hours building this - an igloo hahaha!

 
 
The Big Lawn. Football games, snowball fights...
 
...and this dude skiing.

 
 
Elsewhere in the park at the end of The Mall I found this.
 
Looks perfectly safe.

 
 
The guy at the front there wasn't screaming in joy.
 
This lot stuck the landing...
 
These two didn't hehe.

 
As fun as that was, the storm took multiple fatalities (including an 11-year-old boy), and several hundred thousand folk are without power in sub-zero temperatures. In New York, parts of the city that were devastated by Hurricane Sandy back in November now have piles of debris from that storm covered by piles of snow by this one. More info on the aftermath of the storm here.
 
Homeless folk are a common sight in the subways, but this is the first one I'd seen with a bag over his head hehe. We all gotta sleep somewhere.

Friday, 8 February 2013 - Finding Nemo

 
 
Apparently it was a very mild winter in New York last year, but that certainly hasn't been the case this year. We've had hurricanes, snowstorms, persistent sub-zero temperatures, and now blizzards! This one is set to break several weather records but is centred further north of New York City. We're still in for a wild night though apparently, with more than a foot of snow forecast and high winds. Thousands of flights have been cancelled, public transport has been halted, and state governors have ordered all non-essential traffic off the roads under threat of hefty fines and possible jail time. Meanwhile, The Weather Channel has taken it upon itself to name this "Winter Storm Nemo", which seems to have pissed meteorologists off hehe.

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Page Comments


Haha I'm not a fan, I'll be honest ;)
- Aaron

The cars called a "Woodie" Og.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodie
Woodie is also a term for other items, but thats another story :-)
- Hummzie