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Sunday, 24 March 2013 - Museum of the Moving Image

This is the Museum of the Moving Image, right here where we live in Astoria. Hollywood may be the king of moviemaking now, but in the early days of sound, Queens was where it was at! This three-storey media museum is located on the site of the former Astoria Studios, opened in 1920. In a nuthsell, the Museum of the Moving Image exists to expand public understanding and appreciation of the art, history, technique and technology of film, television, and digital media by collecting, preserving, and providing access to moving-image related artifacts via multimedia exhibitions and educational programming. It's full of Hollywood and television memorabilia, as well as exhibits demonstrating how movies are produced and shot. Visitors can also try their hand at a bit of film editing. Good stuff!

This is THE mask worn by the dude who played Chewbacca in the Star Wars films.		Sticking with Star Wars, this is a reconstruction of the animatronic Yoda puppet that featured in the original Star Wars movies, before he was computer animated in the newer films.		A model used as the basis for Robin Williams' make-up in Mrs. Doubtfire.		I don't know what the hell this is from.

Some of the actual costumes worn in various Hollywood classics. On the left is Robin Williams' space suit worn in Mork & Mindy. In the middle is the shirt and jeans worn by Eddie Murphy as Axel Foley in Beverly Hills Cop. Right of that is Mrs. Doubtfire's costume, and right again is her fat suit. Far-right is a sweater worn by Bill Cosby in The Cosby Show.		A little more behind the scenes, this is (some of) the make-up used on the gals in the second Sex and the City movie - some of it professional, some of it commercially available.

A number of original scripts from movies and TV shows are also on display. This is the opening scene from Seinfeld episode "A Kiss Hello".		And, kind of random, but this is the dental plate worn by Marlon Brando as Don Vito Corleone to give him his characteristic jowls in The Godfather.

An impressive timeline of old cameras...		Old sound equipment...
And old TV sets.		This is the The Great Train Robbery - a 12-minute classic from 1903. It wouldn't have occurred to us at the time, but this was considered a milestone in film making.
Film and TV memorabilia aside, the museum is also home to one of the most significant collections of video games and gaming hardware.
Part of the collection is a number of old game consoles, including the Sega Genesis (or Mega Drive as it was called in New Zealand when I grew up with it). The one on display featured none other than Sonic the Hedgehog hehe - blast from the past!		One of the exhibits emphasized the fact that motion picture is simply a rapid succession of still images. This hands-on activity allowed you to create your own motion picture based on this concept. This here is what I came up with - I think I have real potential ;) And that was that.

Tuesday, 26 March 2013 - Splat

The rather dull view looking north from my immigration lawyer's office in Newark, the largest city in the state of New Jersey not far from New York City. I called in after work to deliver some papers for an upcoming visa application to hopefully keep my ass here a little longer.		The train from Jersey back to New York dumped me at the World Trade Center, from where I caught a northbound 2 train in the subway to Times Square where I switched trains. This would have been around 6:30 - 6:40pm. I've just now (7:20pm) received an alert on my phone from a local news station that some dumbass 17-year-old has been splattered by a northbound 2 train somewhere beyond Times Square while stupidly crossing the tracks (a big no-no). Trains have therefore stopped running past Times Square, whereas the one I was on continued on past there so this hadn't happened yet. The station where he was hit is about another five minutes down the line from where I got off. I'm not sure how long these alerts take to get sorted and sent but the timing suggests it could well have been my train that hit him. Splat! What have we learned kids?

Friday, 29 March 2013 - Easter road trip!

Nice sunny day out there today, and I just noticed the trees are finally starting to bud! It's been a long, cold-ass winter but spring is finally here. Bring on the hot, muggy New York City summer, and cycling in just one layer of clothing rather than 50! Kristina and I are getting away for the Easter weekend on a mini road trip through Connecticut and Rhode Island states, northeast of New York City. It's obviously not going to look like this just yet but should still be good wee jaunt away :)

Tuesday, 2 April 2013 - This is my brother

He likes onion rings.

Wednesday, 3 April 2013 - Connecticut and Rhode Island
Photos from our little Easter road trip into New England here :)

Friday, 5 April 2013 - Back to San An

We're heading back down to Kristina's home of San Antonio, Texas today for a wedding tomorrow, and to remember what warmer temperatures feel like. While we've been struggling to reach double digits (in Celsius) up here, Texas is already hitting the 30s - even the squirrels are struggling hehe!

Monday, 8 April 2013 - "I'm never getting married"

We're back from San Antonio with its glorious weather, and from the wedding I mentioned we were attending down there. Matt Grevers is an Olympic swimmer (gold-medalist at London 2012) and his new wife, Annie (also a swimmer), grew up with Kristina and they both swam competetively together. The story of Matt's marriage proposal went viral all over the internet and is worth watching - news article about it here and YouTube video here.				On a similar note, and although it won't be going viral, I too popped the big question to Kristina in front of her family (who were well prepared) while we were down there :) I'm not sure how many times I've uttered the words "I'm never getting married" in my life, but haven't we all ;) That's only a wee promise ring on her finger for now until we go ring shopping next weekend ($$$). At this stage we're considering summer next year for the date, and a destination wedding for the event though the exact location is yet to be determined. Stay tuned!

Tuesday, 9 April 2013 - Forcible Touching

The New York City Police Department (NYPD) have an iPhone app I downloaded a while back which sends periodic push alerts about various high-profile crimes in the city and other such stuff. This alert came through last Friday while I was in San Antonio. I couldn't help but laugh when I read "The suspect entered a laundromat, exposed himself and rubbed against unsuspecting female victims" hahaha that's terrible!

Wednesday, 10 April 2013 - Day to night in three minutes

Since we got back from San Antonio over the weekend it seems that spring has finally arrived in New York, and with it comes the thunderstorms - oh yeah! Every so often when I'm in the mood I go for a bit of a hoon around Manhattan on the bike after work (great fun in rush hour :) At one point I was stuck at the Columbus Circle roundabout at traffic lights when I suddenly saw a wall of black cloud coming right for us. Within three minutes the sky turned from the brightness of day to the darkness of night as the storm clouds rolled over us - I've never seen anything like it! So with that I hooned back home with big rain drops starting to pelt me as I arrived. The thunder and lightning was spectacular, so what do I do? Go and take photos of it on the roof hehe.		While all that was going on, behind me somewhere in Manhattan (Central Park I've since found out), a bunch of fireworks were being let off too. So in between the cracks of thunder and the booms of fireworks, every pet in the city was probably shitting itself.

Friday, 12 April 2013 - The cup lens, or lens cup, or something

For the most part it looks like a camera lens.		But it's not, it's a cup hehe. Cool wee gift from Kristina for her photographer fiancé ;)		In other news, something for the Google Street View fans out there (like me). This is a so-called 'hyperlapse' composed entirely of Google's Street View imagery. Watch it here, and create your own here!

Saturday, 13 April 2013 - One day

She's not ours, but somebody wishes she was ;)

Sunday, 14 April 2013 - The one ring

A couple weeks ago I took this shot of one of the trees outside our apartment building, finally starting to sprout some leaves after the long-ass winter.		Same tree now - booya! Great day for...

...a bit of this - engagement ring shopping (*gulp*). I popped the question to Kristina Friday-week ago while we were at her home in Texas, and wanted her to have the opportunity to pick out the perfect ring.		And this is it! Didn't quite cost an arm and a leg but bloody close to it ;) I'm happy to say I actually pointed this one out myself, and it was a sure thing from there.		I guess it's really official now :)

Monday, 15 April 2013 - Boston

At 2:50pm today, the Boston Marathon of all things was the target of a terrorist attack. Two large bomb explosions, 12 seconds apart and about 170m between them along the home straight, brought to a horrific end the 117th running of the world's oldest annual marathon. Three people so far have been confirmed killed and close to 150 injured. Some of the injured had limbs blown clean off or at the very least blown apart. Many were pumped full of shrapnel including ball bearings. One of the dead is an eight-year-old boy. The mind truly boggles. How sick, twisted, deluded, and fucked in the head must a person need to be to do this? What possible purpose could one seriously hope to achieve through such a disgusting and cowardly act? The mind truly boggles. Religion promotes forgiveness and understanding and all that but come on - some people simply shouldn't be walking the earth.

My Mum sent me a txt shortly afterwards saying we (Kristina and I) live in a dangerous part of the world hehe. In fairness, Kristina and I have been to places plenty more dangerous than the US of A, but we do live in a place that is a constant target. New York in particular lives under a permanent cloud of threat; from the subways to Times Square and other landmarks and tourist hotspots - there is no shortage of potential targets.				Security was beefed up in New York today as a precaution. This is Times Square after I got off work at about 8pm, with a much heavier police presence than usual. BBC News article here, and Wikipedia page (already) here.

Wednesday, 17 April 2013 - Everything is a suspect

Passed this on my way home after work tonight - a block of Park Avenue cordoned off, choppers in the sky, and traffic mayhem on the ground. I asked a cop what was going on and he said there was a suspicious package in front of the building. Took me a while to spot it but I eventually did - a large grey suitcase sitting abandoned against a parking meter. Suspicious indeed, coupled with the fact the city is somewhat on edge after the Boston bombings on Monday.

Before too long the bomb squad arrived, the guy who drew the short straw there was suited up, and in he went. Damn these dudes must earn good danger pay! It turned out the suitcase was completely empty. Weird.				I wasn't the only idiot standing around taking photos (from a safe distance that is :)

Saturday, 20 April 2013 - American Museum of Natural History (floor 2)

About a month ago on a shitty, cold March day Kristina and I ventured into the American Museum of Natural History. For non-museum people we actually loved it, but only managed to cover just the first of its four floors. Well, today we were back to tackle the second!		First up was the Hall of the Universe, teaching us everything we didn't know we wanted to know about the universe and other such goodies.
And we learned how we are ruining our own planet.		On Earth I weigh 175lbs (about 80kg), depending on what I had for dinner. On the moon, which has much less mass than Earth and therefore less of a gravitational pull (hence you see astronauts jumping around all over the place), I would only weight around 30lbs (about 14kg). By comparison, on the sun I'd weigh about 4,750lbs (a bit over two tonnes).
From there we moved into the Asian Mammals section, containing more of the cool models we saw last time we were here. We didn't see any leopards killing peacocks while we were in Asia, but did see plenty of these guys on the right - more than Kristina would like to remember (especially after one of them mugged her and stole her chips hahaha!).

Then it was into the Hall of Asian People.		Excuse me, your boobs are showing.		Whoa, excuse me, your boobs are showing. But that's cool.		Based on the look on his face, it may as well be in Chinese ;)

Holy crap, it's the Asian Pennywise!				A small section on the Quran, which frankly had me shaking my head, a lot. Sure sounds like a good read.

After a quick wander through the Birds of the World section, it was on to...

The Mexico and Central America section, with this creepy reproduction of a stone face welcoming you.		Excuse me, your balls are showing.		We both immediately recognized this as one of the pyramids and temples in Tikal, Guatemala. We've been there! :)

Then we moved into the African Peoples section, and it was like Halloween gone wrong!				Model of the Mbuti people - one of several pygmy groups in the Congo region of Africa.

Sticking with the African theme, we finally made it to the Hall of African Mammals - the final section of the floor.

Some of them we recognised...		Some of them we didn't. Ever heard of a bongo (not the drum)? Well you have now. The bongo is among the largest of the African forest antelope species. Lovely.		I can't remember what this guy is - I was too distracted at the thought of having those things rammed up somewhere I'd rather they weren't.

After expanding our knowledge for future trivia nights, we had a good wander around the Upper West Side for a couple hours. Kristina and I are possibly (or probably) moving out of our Astoria apartment in August to coincide with everyone else moving out. I'm quite interested in moving to this area of Manhattan, and started checking parts of it out on the bike during last week after work.

I didn't bother taking shots - we'll check it out a bit more in-depth later, but I did have to capture this. There are dolls, kids toys and other such shit stuck on the front and rear bumpers, high heels stuck on the back, and old cameras stuck on the roof hahaha! Interesting.

This is part of the reason I'm interested in this area - its proximity to both Central Park and the four-mile long Riverside Park along the Hudson River. Pretty.

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