On August 9th in Ferguson, Missouri (a suburb of St. Louis), an unarmed 18-year-old black man, Michael Brown, was shot and killed by a police officer, Darren Wilson, who happens to be white. Witness accounts differ on the finer details, but the long and short of it is that a physical altercation took place between Brown and Wilson, and six shots later Brown was dead. Incidentally, Brown and a friend he was with had just robbed a convenience store ten minutes earlier. What followed was a week of both peaceful and violent protests in Ferguson, along with vandalism and looting. Fast forward a few months and it's all kicked off again after a grand jury today decided not to indict the cop, which suggests to me he had little choice but to open fire. Businesses are being looted (including McDonald's) and set alight, police cars have been set alight, shots have been fired, and the area basically resembles a war zone despite pleas from Michael Brown's family for calm. These things never fail to attract opportunistic scumbags who are just looking for an excuse to run amok. Protests aren't confined to just Ferguson however. Various locations around the country have seen some action tonight, including New York in Union Square (a favourite protest spot) and Times Square, but it's been peaceful here so far. More info here, and more photos here.

As I mentioned yesterday, race-fuelled protests have broken out again over the shooting death of a black teenager, Michael Brown, by a white cop in the state of Missouri back in August, and a grand jury's decision yesterday to not indict the cop. More protests took place throughout the US tonight, not least of all in New York City, so of course I was on hand with the bike to snap the action hehe. News article here. There were a couple different groups making their way around the city, and I joined this mob at Union Square as they headed south (the other lot were heading north somewhere). They mingled with traffic along some streets before the cops managed to get ahead and close off other streets to allow the protesters through.

A common chant was "Hands up. Don't shoot." - a reference to some witness claims that Brown had his hands in the air in surrender when he was shot, though other witnesses refute this. Video here.

While the protesters were out in their thousands, hundreds of cops were also on hand to keep an eye on them, though in the interest of keeping things peaceful they made little attempt to intervene.

The mob eventually made it down to the Financial District and formed a rally outside City Hall.

Ten minutes later they set off again, and then stopped for some more speeches that generally slammed what is perceived to be a racial bias in NYPD policing tactics.

They eventually finished up on Wall Street for some more singing and dancing. At about this point I was starting to hear rumblings of the other protest group causing some mayhem up north, so I left this bunch and headed in that general direction, not sure where they were exactly.

They weren't hard to find however; just gotta listen for the sirens :) In fact I found about two dozen cop cars and vans all making a hasty beeline towards Midtown with their sirens blaring, so I just chased them which led me right to the action. This is Columbus Circle at the bottom of Central Park. I arrived just in time to find them all causing more traffic headaches.

Off to the side, this guy who appeared to have nothing to do with the march had whipped out his drumsticks and was performing a solo on the sidewalk bollards hahaha!

This bunch had apparently started in Union Square (where I did), headed north to Times Square, then east to FDR Drive (a busy freeway along the east side of Manhattan) and ruined the traffic situation there, then headed back to Times Square, and were now heading north along one side of Broadway in the Upper West Side with a long line of police vehicles following on other side. At least it was a nice evening for a walk.

As before, it was all peaceful with minimal police interference, and I was starting to get bored.

Then things got a little more exciting when they all decided to storm the West Side Highway and Henry Hudson Parkway (another very busy section of freeway, this one along the west side of Manhattan) and ruin the flow of traffic there hahaha!

So now we had hundreds of protesters marching along a freeway, and some clown on a mountain bike taking photos of them. This is all very naughty of course but again the police just let it fly. Aside from annoying a few drivers, nobody was doing any harm. Interestingly however, most of the drivers seemed to be honking and cheering in support of the protesters, with many a fist-bump and high-five given. Another video here (and notice the sound of several police and news choppers overhead). So yes it was a good time had by all! The crowd continued north and eventually headed through Harlem, but it was now after midnight so I left them to it.

They love their job :)

It's Thanksgiving Day today here in the US of A, and to celebrate it every year Macy's puts on a huge parade through Midtown Manhattan, aptly named the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. The parade has been held every year since 1924, and because this is actually my first Thanksgiving in New York (the last two being spent with Kristina's family in Texas) I wanted to go check it out. Unfortunately, I was coughing my lungs up all night and got very little sleep thanks to a chesty cold I've got going on right now, so by the time I got out of bed and made it into town I only just managed to see Santa Claus, at the very end of the parade. Oh well. So I've stolen some photos instead.

The three-hour parade features floats, live performances, and balloons - freakin' huge balloons! Given the time of year, the weather is usually pretty average for the parade, but the biggest problem is the wind. Given the size of those balloons, it doesn't take much of a breeze to blow them off course, sometimes with spectacular results. A great example is what happened to Barney the dinosaur in 1997 - video of that here. That same year, a Cat in the Hat balloon was blown into a lamppost and the falling debris struck a spectator, fracturing her skull and putting her in a coma for a month! Needless to say she tried to make the most of it and sued Macy's and the city for squillions of dollars.

There were no such problems with the wind this year though. Just a light snowfall and a the usual cold temperatures.

And there's the fat man. Happy Thanksgiving y'all! :)

'Tis the season again.

A week ago I followed a huge crowd of protesters around Manhattan on my bike as they marched over the shooting death of a black teenager by a white cop in the state of Missouri back in August. Those particular protests were sparked by a grand jury's decision not to indict the cop at the centre of it all. A month before that event took place, news headlines were splattered with the death of an unarmed black man, Eric Garner, in Staten Island while being arrested by a group of white cops. One of those cops put Garner in a chokehold during the arrest, a maneuver that is against NYPD policy and was partly blamed for Garner's death (combined with his obesity and asthma). Well another grand jury has decided against indicting this cop as well and so the protesters are all revved up again. They took to the streets in droves once again, and I left a boring tourism event I was at with Kristina and her workmates to go find them once again hehe. I initially found them as they were grinding Times Square to a standstill. Video here.

Woody likes a protest ;)

As was the case last week, the cops were also out in droves but pretty much left the mob alone.

After leaving Times Square the crowd wandered the streets, created a traffic nightmare, and then decided to pile into Grand Central Station and create a transit nightmare there while these folk on the right were trying to enjoy a nice dinner hahaha!

Oh man, good times! :) Another video here.

Some months ago I happened upon a blog called Humans of New York. In the words of the owner, "I thought it would be really cool to create an exhaustive catalogue of New York City's inhabitants", so since 2010 that's exactly what he's set about doing along with quotes and short stories from and about the people he's met along the way. The blog now features hundreds of people, from the ordinary to the eccentric, from cops to crazies, and from kids to the elderly, all over the Big Apple.

Among them all are some really fascinating stories and insights into the minds of people you're likely to pass by daily in New York and wonder to yourself where their mind is at. Some are very funny and light-hearted, some are pretty deep. Homeless folk always seem to have an interesting titbit to tell. "What's been your greatest accomplishment?" "That time I had a job and a place to stay.", for example. The guy in the wheelchair above had this to say...

"My friend came up to me and said: 'Alfredo! There's some guy over there jerking off in front of women and kids.' So I ran up to this guy, and I said: 'What the hell do you think you're doing? Put your shit back in your pants and get the fuck out of the park!' And he stood up, and he got in my face, and he started to say: 'Fuck you!' But after he said 'fuck,' and before he said 'you,' I clocked him right in the face and knocked him out. When the cops came, I told them the story, and they said: 'You better get out of here before the boss gets here.' So I left the park, but this guy's tooth was lodged in my hand. And he had some sort of infection. Cause two days later, my legs swell up like balloons, and I've barely been able to walk since."

So if you're bored (which I assume you must be if you're reading this), go take a look :)

Prince Willy and his sexy wife arrived in New York last night for a three-day visit, and they're staying just a few blocks down the street from our apartment actually. I should pop by for some tea.

This is what they can expect weather-wise for each of those three days, while we get punished by another one these bloody arctic storm systems that keep heading our way.

And they can expect plenty of this each night too - massive street protests over cops killing unarmed minorities, which are still going strong by the way. So, welcome to the Big Apple guys!

With the New York City Marathon over and done with, an email soon circulated invited folk to enter the lottery for New York City Half Marathon in March hehe. I took no notice of it until Kristina raised the idea of her running it as a bit of a challenge for herself. That then evolved to both of us running it together, assuming both of our names were pulled out of the hat. At the very least, she could just run it under my name if I was selected and she wasn't. But, wouldn't you know it, both of our names have been drawn and so another 13.1 miles (21.1kms) awaits! Having run two marathons now, and reaching the halfway point at 1:45 in both, I'll be content to just trot along with Kristina on this one, and take photos :)

At least 12 years ago now I received an email forward from a friend containing a bunch of images such as these - planes landing just feet above people's heads over a beach somewhere. After a bit of digging I found out this is the Caribbean island of Saint Martin (French) or Sint Maarten (Dutch). The little island is divided between France and the Netherlands, and hence the two names. The runway of the island's main airport starts right behind the beach, and scenes like this have become something of a tourist attraction hehe. YouTube is littered with videos of this beach, such as this one here. But if that's not exciting enough for you, take a look below at what happens when the planes take off, or even better check out this video here of what not to do when they're taking off hahaha! Anyway, I vowed one day I would visit this beach, for this very reason if nothing else, and today next month Kristina and I will heading there via a few days in Puerto Rico first. Good times :)

I mentioned it last year, and the year before that, but Christmas is the season for (among other things) mulled wine! It's colder than a witch's tit outside, so I dusted off (Google'd for) my mulled wine recipe tonight and brewed up a batch. Boom!

I only found this out last week, but on December 13th and 14th every year the Earth crosses the orbital path of asteroid 3200 Phaethon. Debris from the asteroid crashes into Earth's atmosphere at some 130,000 kilometers (80,000 miles) per hour and vaporises, creating colourful streaks across the sky in what is known as the Geminids meteor shower. Local photographers apparently head out to Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx to capture the event, so I thought I might do the same! The sky was forecast to be clear and indeed it was when I left my apartment, but in the hour or so that it took me to get out here the sky had bloody clouded over - dammit! I did however see a couple of bright streaks while I was setting the camera up, but that was about as exciting as the evening got. Oh well.

Bryant Park's annual Christmas markets and ice skating. Standard :)

Interesting little titbit I learnt of today. 54 years ago today in 1960, two planes collided in mid-air over New York City, killing all aboard both planes and six on the ground (134 in total, making it the deadliest US commercial aviation disaster at the time). Scheduled to be on one of those two planes was none other than Sir Edmund Hillary! For the Americans, Hillary is a New Zealander and was the first person to reach the summit of Mount Everest, seven years earlier. As far as I can tell, Hillary simply missed the flight. Then fast forward another 19 years to 1979 and the crash of Air New Zealand Flight 901 into the side of Mount Erebus in Antarctica. Hillary was scheduled to be on that flight as a guide (after conquering Mount Everest he went on to conquer both the South Pole and North Pole, and was the first person to conquer all three). However, he couldn't make that flight due to other commitments, and went on to live another 28 years. So there you go.

In a word: "impossible", but folk somehow seem to do it. A common sight outside my window here is someone struggling to get out of their parking spot, followed immediately by someone else struggling to get into it. No matter the size of the space (or lack thereof), people will give it a go. The Ford Explorer here is a good example. Someone pulled out, and within seconds he pulled up to parallel-park in. "No chance" I thought, but after shutting the car behind and the car in front to make room for himself, followed by about 100 iterations of inching forwards and backwards, he was in hahaha! I'm looking forward to seeing him get out of there again.

A week ago we were sucking down mulled wine, and this week we're sucking down hot apple cider. Yummy! I'd still rather be having a cold beer outside but New York winters don't exactly allow for that.

This is Carnegie Hall in Midtown Manhattan, a world-famous concert venue dating back to 1891. Carnegie Hall is one of the most prestigious venues in the world for both classical music and popular music, and on the right is its Main Hall (one of three auditoriums) with seating for 2,804 music lovers.

Kristina and I were here tonight to see the New York String Orchestra. Something to do on a Christmas Eve :) Over the course of 90 minutes they belted out three separate works by Mozart: Overture to The Impresario, Oboe Concerto in C Major, and Symphony No. 39 in E-flat Major. I don't know a whole lot about classical music but it was impressive stuff, especially considering these pieces are still being played almost 250 years later. I can't imagine much of today's rubbish lasting that long.

Carnegie Hall also houses a small museum, the Rose Museum, dedicated to the venue's history. Plenty of famous names have stood on this stage over the years. Frank Sinatra, Pavarotti, Judy Garland, The Beatles, and even Einstein was here for an event in his honour. In fact, according to Wikipedia at least, most of the greatest performers of classical music since the time Carnegie Hall was built have performed in the Main Hall. Very cool! Be that as it may, the museum also focuses on Carnegie Hall's uncertain future following the growth of Lincoln Center just a couple miles away. The building already survived potential demolition once before in 1960, so we'll see.

I woke up this morning, looked out the window to survey the scene, and saw what I thought was Kristina's Christmas present to me parked across the street hehe. But, it wasn't :)

Among several other things, she did get me this sweet apron however, which I've been in dire need of for, well, years. Usually whatever t-shirt I happen to be wearing while cooking is my apron.

After a big Christmas breakfast we headed out to see The Hobbit before getting started on a whopping great ham for Christmas dinner. Boom!

And that was that for another year.