the mannequin district

one of my favorite things about new york is how specialized vendors gather together and certain areas become the "something district." florists gather and we get a flower district, designers flock and suddenly there's a fashion district, and somewhere south on broadway is what i have termed the lightbulb district (literally store after store of lightbulbs, strings of lights, and goofy lamps.)

we recently discovered a new, and creepy, one: the mannequin district.



(i know that looks like a cool storefront club, with hip kids lounging in awkward poses, but it is a store full of mannequins in repose, with more mannequins, including pieces, in the back.)

we were walking in the west twenties the other day (i think wandering after i met up with s after work), just peeking into shops, and suddenly every store on the street sold mannequins and their parts. windows full of heads, hands and feet, bodies standing at attention or lying in uncomfortable ways. it was amazing. and amazingly creepy. it was after closing time, so it was strange to see so many "people" in dark stores. only in new york, i think, is there a block devoted to the sale of mannequins.

new york i love you, but you're bringing me down

thursday night i felt like an adult. as we sat in the restaurant drinking and eating, aa and her boyfriend, s and i and mk, talking about the new york financial situation and what our friends were going through, i had a sudden feeling of being very, very grown up. these were things that adults talked about when i was small--politics, economics, real estate and families. and these are the things that i now talk about.

sometimes it hits me in a wave: this is my life, this is what i do, this is where i live, these are the choices i make that affect everything else on the list. sometimes i am a little in awe of the fact that i chose to move here, knowing it would be hard, welcoming that challenge, and am still here. i've had a hard september; i got sick and i felt very overwhelmed by this place. my neighbor and i (who coincidentally is still my neighbor, even though we moved. he moved as well, and is now still just a few blocks away) were talking the other night about how difficult a city this can be to live in, and he said that's why people usually prefer to visit. there's so much constant action and stimulation that it's great in short bursts, but can be exhausting in perpetuity. i feel like i've hit a plateau, and i know that i need to work through this to get to better times, but i have to say, i'm a little tired. and i know this blog is my exercise in optimism, and this may seem like i'm complaining more than usual, but i want to say this: i am still optimistic. i'm not giving up. i know things will get better. i am working to find a way to make them better.

and that's why i haven't been posting. there'll be more in the future. stick with me.

fish-licious

when we saw these neon fish at the new york aquarium, s said "ooh, fish-licious! blaine would like these fish." um, ok sweetie.

(i know i've been absent for awhile, but we went on vacation--hi mom and dad!, and then i was sick for two long weeks, which was a total bummer. oh, also, i'm kinda broke right now, so we haven't been going out and about much. but that all changed this weekend!)

the new york aquarium is on the us map, and originally i had wanted to head out there for the big baby birthday bash, back in june, but we missed that so we decided to go out this saturday. it was one of our quicker tourist trips, what with coney island being a short 30 minute ride from our neighborhood. i am a HUGE fan of zoos and aquariums (i used to work at a zoo, too, and i really kind of miss it), so i was very excited. we started at the otters, watching them eat on their backs and roll around, and headed to another tank to watch the shark feeding. the sharks share their home with one large ray and four super cool sea turtles. they also didn't eat anything. we watched the keepers drop fish after fish in and taunt the sharks with squid on a skewer, and the only ones eating were the very greedy turtles. ("it's more of a turtle feeding frenzy," said the woman next to us. i couldn't have agreed more, ma'am.) where was the dramatic gnashing of teeth and blood in the water?! (well, not blood for the kids' sake, but seriously, i wanted to see some shark teeth.) but i really liked the turtles, and took way too many pictures of them.



they had a couple of interesting exhibits, like "alien stingers" (jellies, coral and anemones) and something about the water's edge, which included a touch pool, but i've honestly been spoiled by west coast aquariums, and i missed interactive exhibitions. on a whim we decided to stay to watch the california sea lions perform, and i am so glad we did. they were so smart and really funny, giving flipper high-fives to their trainer and doing dances and racing around in the water. we hadn't sat in the front row in fear of getting splashed, but i wish we had because the front row all got kisses on the cheek from osborn, the older (and more talented) or the two performers! i highly recommend the show if you head out there. i have a funny video of osborn dancing, so if i can remember my vimeo log-in, i'll try to post it later.

the rest of our weekend was spent in co-habitational bliss, doing laundry and baking cookies and completely re-arranging the living room. s is off nights this week, which happily means that i get to see him every night when i get home (whee!) and i think we may try to do something else fun this week, so i promise more posting now that i am back in top form.

whee!

this is my 100th post, and to celebrate, i'm on overheard in new york!

some so-so shoe jokes

chromomaniacs

i know, i know, a post is owed.

s and i are members are of the met, a true new york treasure, and i've been itching to see the superheroes: fashion and fantasy exhibit before it disappears. (it's still there through september 1, and they'll be open labor day. go! quickly!) we went saturday, and while the galleries were a little busy, it was a very worthwhile experience. they've divided the collection into categories, such as "the mutant body" or "the patriotic body," which made for unusual curatorial notes. they combined costumes (from movies like "iron man" and "the dark knight") with pieces by designers like john galliano, alexander mcqueen and john paul gaultier. some of the designs were really incredible (and some felt like their inclusion was more of a stretch), but it was really interesting seeing fashion in a new artistic context.

having seen ads everywhere in the city for jeff koons on the roof, we were excited to check that out as well, but unfortunately it wasn't as impressive as i expected. there were three pieces, of which i thought "balloon dog", the star of said ads, was least evocative. i really enjoyed "coloring book", a large, bright, graphic representation of a children's art project. it was really beautiful and unusual, and i liked it very much.

we stumbled upon j.m.w. turner: painter of light (habitually chic wrote a post with some wonderful images from the exhibit.) i'm not normally big on landscapes, so i didn't originally want to go in, but i am so glad we did. turner was a bit of a maverick landscape and history painter, who experimented with color and form, and was a devotee of the concept of The Sublime, which seemed to be characterized by menacing clouds and snowpiles. his colors were the most sublime part, i felt, in part because he was so willing to use saturated colors that (while possibly not found in nature) looked quite natural in his compositions. i am a huge watercolor fan as well, and his watercolors were especially beautiful and colorful and experimental. (some of his studies were just huge swaths of color with little details to ground them.) plus i really enjoyed the biographical notes. every explanatory panel would discuss his influences and work, and then mention the constant critical pans the work received. some of them were very funny (we particularly liked that he was accused of "chromomania"), and it was a nice change from the usual accolades most individual exhibits are filled with.

you've got a little more time to see j.m.w. turner (september 21) and jeff koons (october 26), and i recommend it all.

crazy old men

i don't ever need to post again: the most blog hits i will everget were because i wrote about a co-worker seeing daniel radcliffe. sigh. but about the old men . . .

last week aa and i were headed to the farmer's market outside our office when we spotted regis. i saw him walking towards us--shorter than i expected (though i really never thought about his height), uncannily tan, wearing a gorgeous purple tie--and hissed "a! it's regisss!" (emphasis mine, to express hissing) and she said "i know, i saw him!" he was like a small, sweet, orange grampa.

s and i were talking this weekend about the new york city runway of crazy hobo couture, and my favorite local catwalker is a man i call "old elvis." he looks sort of like an elvis impersonator on an off day, with a slightly deflated pompadour, seventies glasses, high-ish collars--nothing that would look too off on their own, but combined they create a deliciously kooky look. i saw him at the grocery store a month or so ago, but recently i've been seeing him as i come home from work in the evenings, which means we are neighbors. he looks the same, in stores and on the street. who is he? i want to know, 'cause in the words of my fave, tim gunn: "that's a whole lotta look."

the 'klyn

s and i went to terrace bagels--per usual--on saturday and saw a man wearing a t-shirt that said "the 'klyn", which i found hilarious. i assumed it referred to brooklyn, but if it is something inappropriate, please let me know.

my sister was in town this weekend, hanging out before her red-eye flight to uganda for a photojournalist assignment. (she's the exciting one.) usually when people come to visit, i run us ragged walking the island of manhattan, but i realized this weekend: i live in brooklyn. there's plenty of great stuff here. let's spend the day in my neighborhood.

we started out slow (i am a notorious over-sleeper), and then wandered park slope, checking out the greenmarkets and stopping by brooklyn superhero supply. we walked down to root hill cafe (on carroll st and fourth avenue), a newer coffee spot opened by a woman i used to work with. they have one of the last clover espresso machines made pre-starbucks, and they brew an excellent cup of coffee. even my sister, the snobby barista, liked her beverage. (if you go hungry, i recommend the amazing grilled cheese, although splitting it is better, if not for your stomach than at least for your heart.) we hopped on the R and headed down to court street, to wander through cutey-cute-cute brooklyn heights and walk along the promenade. my sister was very impressed with the view of manhattan, as she had never seen it that way before. we wandered along the water to brooklyn bridge park, which seems to be under-construction and headed towards a better, brighter future. (it looks like it is going to be wonderful... someday.) we walked around in dumbo, stopping into adorable, over-priced stores. it started to rain, so we trained back home to grocery shop and stop into a few stores on seventh ave. i made falafel for dinner, and we played rummikub (the fast moving rummy tile game!) and then i tried to get some sleep. (i've been having super-weird dreams lately; i wish i had a dream-decoder book, cause i want to know what vampires mean.)

we'll have dinner out tonight, someplace fun in the neighborhood, and then i will pack her and her backpack into a car bound for jfk and uganda. it was fun having someone to explore with.