A dog walker waits outside my building while his co-workers fetch more customers for their daily walk. Dog walking services vary from 1/2 hour pack walks to individual walks guaranteed to find grass.

Spiderman

I saw Spiderman with my husband last week. The best parts of the show were the acrobatics with characters actually battling out scenes above our heads. Spiderman and the bad guy were independently suspended on 3-way wires, and they were all over the place. It was magic.

The worst part of the show was the stage design, or lack of. I've seen better sets at high school plays. Further, the stage presence of the rest of the characters was disappointing. They looked amazing, especially the group of cartoon bad guys, they were just too static for a Broadway production.

I got my tickets at the TCTS Booth at the South Street Seaport. The line was short, like all the brochures said it would be which was a plus. I haven't found the trick to getting cheap tickets for current shows, yet. I still paid a lot for these, only 30% off, not 50% like you might expect at "the booth."

If Your Car Has Been Relocated

This is a notice from the NYPD that a film crew will be at this location on this date, and your car had better not be. It looks like an episode (or two?) of Law and Order will be shot here. This was in Chelsea. Today I saw these same type of flyers in my neighborhood (Long Island City)! On Wednesday, a film crew (and maybe Tom Selleck) will be creating a new episode of Blue Bloods. I'll be there, so stay posted.

Half Moon

 

A half moon nestles in-between the United Nations and the Chrysler Building.

Window Sitings

 

Heading south on Lexington Avenue from 85th Street after church today, I was dazzled by the beautifully designed window displays showing off amazing clothing, shoes and jewelry. My husband liked this display--an impressive Coca-Cola bottle collection in the window of The Luncheonette. This is just half of the display; there are two windows of it. An internet search told me you can get a true old-fashioned fountain Coke here where the syrup and soda are dispensed separately.

Traffic

 

This is the traffic jam on Broadway Saturday night around 10 pm. No one in a car is moving in this scene. In fact, the taxi in the front of the picture has the green light, but he isn't going anywhere for a while.  It was nice to be on foot.

Woman in Heels with Instrument

 

What sort of life do you think this woman has? She's dressed to the nines in her 5" heels and is walking the streets of New York with her base violin (?) slung over her shoulder. I just had to take this shot even though my husband was fussing at me to get into the cab he had just flagged on a busy Saturday night in Midtown.

911 Tiles Memorial

 

If you take a wrong turn in NYC, you often run into something interesting which makes the extra walking worth the effort.

I came upon the 911 Tile Memorial yesterday in Greenwich Village as I was headed in the wrong direction. It is simply a chain link fence with thousands of small individually decorated tiles attached. Apparently the original ones made shortly after 911 were stolen, but thousands were sent from all over the country to replace them.

Last year each one of tiles was hastily, but carefully, removed to preserve them from Hurricane Irene.

Raw Emotion on the Streets

Yesterday after church, my husband and I were walking along Lexington Avenue looking for Best Buy when I glanced to my left and saw a man in a wheel chair. The guy was alone. Both his legs were gone from the knee down. And he was crying.

I could tell he was trying to not be seen and also trying to stop crying. He wiped at his red face to stop the tears, but I had caught this man in the very moment of his grief whatever it was. I was very sad for this man.

When we were headed back we ran into him again. This time his wheel chair was placed at an angle toward the walking crowd. He was in front of the Home Depot and talking to people who were ignoring him. It was noisy, and he really couldn't be heard, but people assumed he was begging.

As we approached, my husband realized he was wanting someone to open the door for him. That was all. We did, of course, and I said to him "God bless."

I have learned to keep $1 bills handy as I walk through Manhattan. I frequently come upon musicians on the street or in the subway with instrument case open for donations. I would have given this man something, but he wasn't begging. He was crying. What could I give him, but "God bless?"

Don't Miss Your Stop

 

The other day I accidentally stayed on the subway so long that it actually came out from underground. My usual train home was out of service so I had to use a different one that dropped me off further north but still fairly close to my Queens apartment. 

I must not have been paying attention when we arrived at my stop. When the light of day started coming through the windows and the buildings displayed more and more graffiti, I knew I was out too far. This is what it looked like when I got off to turn around.

The 911 Memorial

 

A visit to the 911 Memorial was just what I thought it would be. I'd seen pictures of the fountains, and being close to them was not that different. You have to have a ticket to enter which I was able to order online the day before. I had to be there at 11 a.m. and I was right on time, but I think I could have been as much as a half hour early or late judging by the way the crowd was moving.

There are lots of cops inside and surrounding the construction site. You have to show your ticket about five times to finally get inside and go through security, removing your belt, emptying your pockets and so forth.

I'm sure this will be an amazing place once it's complete, but personally it's just too close to the event to appreciate anything positive or uplifting.

 

This sculpture located in the southeast corner of Central Park was created by Michael Sailstorfer. It is inner tubing knotted around a steel beam and is called "Tornado." It stands 30 feet high and really grabs your attention despite all that's going on in that part of New York.

Like most public art, I appreciate it much more if I know something about the artist and his/her motives. You can read about Tornado and the artist himself at this website: http://www.publicartfund.org/michaelsailstorfer/about/. The website itself is pretty cool.

The Beauty of Window Shopping

 

I snapped this shot through a shop window on Park Avenue. Sometimes the window dressings are as beautiful as any painting you will see in the museum. 

Cincinnati Woman and Rush Limbaugh

 

 

New York is not the only city with fiesty citizens speaking their mind in protest. I spotted this woman and her sign in front of the Clear Channel offices Tuesday on Montgomery Road (Cincinnati). She said she was only one woman, but she just had to do something to draw attention to RL's latest hate talk. She added that she was retired, and she seemed very happy to have been noticed even by a woman who writes a few sentences a week in a little blog.

DRIVE!

We need public transportation in Ohio and Kentucky! Since returning to Cincinnati this week, I have a  sore b*tt from driving so much!

Tuesday: drove to Louisville to visit the folks,
Wednesday: drove from Louisville back to Cincinnati,
Thursday: drove to Hebron, Kentucky, to see the Creation Museum and back to Cincinnati. Later in the day drove to Carrollton, Kentucky, and back to Cincinnati.
Friday: drove husband to work, picked up husband from work,
Saturday: drove to Columbus and back
Sunday: drove to CVG airport in Kentucky to drop off husband and back to Cincinnati. Later drove back to airport when his flight was canceled.

Did you know you can spell "canceled" with one or two Ls? I googled this: "In the US, you would use canceled and in the UK the variant cancelled. In US English, words such as travel and cancel do not double the final L when using -er, -ed, and -ing. However cancel is frequently seen either way, and most spell check programs accept either form."