Misc New York oddness

This guy found parking in Midtown.  On 58th and ~7th, just south of Central Park.


You're going to call it what the FNDY wants you to call it if you want them to put out your burning building.


Hoboken / Jersey City.  They just can't get any respect.  The building on the left is at least as tall as Rockefeller Center, and the whole skyline dwarfs San Francisco's.  But they're in New Jersey, so no one knows anything about it.   


Mural in SoHo.  Curvy girl tries on a corset.  Realistic down to the little bulges of skin at the top of the corset.


I learned about the Nacirema in school... they have strange customs. Apparently they now trade with the US.
Learn more here: en.wikisource.org/wiki/Body_Ritual_among_the_Nacirema


The Great Wall of Chelsea.  Keeps out marauding pirates.  On 23rd st near 9th ave.


Apparently people just want a single donut.


The house I stayed at employed an organic mousetrap.


Trashcan at Cathedral of St John

New York: PS1 and the curated grafitti museum

I visited an out-of-the-way museum in New York called PS1.  It's in an old public school building.  The classrooms have been converted to galleries, but the school hallways are pretty much intact, giving the whole place an edgy feel.  In addition, the museum security people there wear clothes that make them look like bouncers at a club. 

What it looks like inside:


Here's the view out the bathroom window of PS1's big outdoor art installation:

The arrangement of plants in the foreground is an urban farm that is used to make food for the museum's cafe.  It is edible art.  I had some.

Across the street from the art museum is 5 Pointz, a *curated* graffiti museum on an old warehouse that's being used for artists.

New York trip -- transit museum

The MTA turned an old subway station into a transit museum.  While no subways currently use the station, it's still fully wired in to the subway system, so there is an active third rail as well as active train monitoring equipment.  It was exciting to see a century worth of subway cars, still active and running.


A car from the 1910s.  All the old cars had period-appropriate ads.


Hey, this ad's sexist *and* racist!  From the 1920s, I think.


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UI design circa 1930.  Apparently the standards for tracking subway car movements haven't changed in, oh, 70 years.  They were able to hook up this panel up to the system and have it show live train movements.

Some old signs:

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Biggest DIY project I've ever seen

A man I met yesterday has spent the last 30 years building his own 70' boat more or less from scratch. He even made the lumber himself from local trees that were cut down from various reasons.  He's less than a year away from finishing and launching the boat.  However, at this point he's around 70 years old, and he's worried that he won't get it done before he starts to lose his strength and ability to travel.

I got a tour of the boat.  He's developed an incredibly broad range of skills to pull it off, from woodworking to hydraulics to electrical systems to interior design.  I do have a maker mindset that values creativity, skill, and clever applications of wealth over raw wealth -- I am incredibly impressed by what he has done, but I would not be impressed by someone who merely purchased a 70' boat.

Some pics:

Attention ladies...

I know you all have been looking for Mr. Flawless. Well, here he is!


Perhaps he is a disciple of Mr. Awesome
www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3gW_91bjkg

Another sad car mod... this time in SF.

TENZO RACINPORT !
S !
SC !

I parked behind this car, and my mind formed an image of the owner.  I happened to return to the car just as the car's owner was returning to the car.  Either my stereotype was way off, or the owner was letting his very shy and skittish sister use the car. 


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