US Armed forces recruitment station is conveniently located in the middle of Times Square. I wonder, how many people actually enlist there.
There is always something being filmed or photographed in Times Square.
Live From Times Square
Turns out that there are a couple of wireless net connections in Times Square . So here l am standing there like a dork making this post. I bet I am on a couple of web cams right now as well.
Music to My Ears
I would like to note, that I am not one of those people, who say “I can’t live without my music”. You know, the kind that never go anywhere without a walkman or a music producing device of some kind. I would give up music rather than literature or visual arts. I absolutely hate dance, but that’s another story.
My musical tastes followed a rather strange path. As a kid, I didn’t have much preference for music. I tried to get into classical music, but it seemed either boring or cartoony to me. Then, came the Beatlemania period. I really, really liked the Beatles. For me Beatlemania happened in the late eighties / early nineties. I still have an email address that reflects that.
Having listened to all the Beatles albums it was the time for me to find something new. I tried classical music again, got bored and got into jazz instead. Charlie Parker, Sarah Vaughan, Thelonious Monk and the like replaced the fab 4 for me. I can’t get into blues too much though. Too depressing.
I started exploring a little further. Unexpectedly I liked bluegrass. Bluegrass is a type of country music that sound more like jazz. The Carter Family and Doc Watson became my new favorites.
Now my tastes are getting curiouser and curiouser. I noticed a black musician who plays an exotic instrument sometimes in the subway. He never failed to get a dollar or two from me. I did a little bit of research, and turned out that the West African instrument that he plays is called a Kora.
(picture taken from http://www.kora-music.com/ )
And the musician is in fact a Griot, a master historian and story teller. I bought some Kora music cds from Amazon, but that only made me realize that the guy in the subway was a Griot and Kora player of a highest caliber. Maybe the gleaming columns of the 34th street station added to my enjoyment for jazzy and modern, yet so ancient sounds of the Kora.
Unfortunately this Kora player didn’t have a cd, but he did have a little business card (a printed piece of paper in fact) that said that his name is Lankandia Cissoko and gave a phone number for his agent. You know, how come those crappy new agey idiots that play in Times Square have a cd, and this guy doesn’t? Totally unfair.
I always held electronic music in contempt.
Obesity is a Serious Problem for Snowpeople in America
I snapped this on the way to work. He sits right near Times Square. Looks like either cops or transit workers came up with yet another creative way of using traffic cones.
Nuts
If you were selling roasted nuts in Times Square, this is what you would see
TGIF
On the way home have seen this crowd of people watching some “performance art” dealy with dancing manikins and drag queens in sparkly gas masks. Big whoop. I’d be a lot more surprised if that store sold good espresso. I wonder how they pay the rent for that place. A storefront like that near Times Square must cost at least 10 grand a month.
Die Kunst der Rant : Contrapunctus 1
Like everybody else, I am frequently annoyed by waiters, clerks and salespeople. Like all geeks I am a little deficient in the communication department, which makes it harder.
After getting somewhat bad service from a waitress in Blue Note I even suggested to a friend of mine the following idea: a world where waiters are replaced by a computer interface. You study an interactive menu and your orders are transmitted directly to the chef.
Her argument against that was that some waiters are real characters and are really entertaining. And that’s entirely true! Howard Johnson’s in Times Square has a really unique staff of old timers, probably the most polite waiters I met. Waiters at Peter Luger’s are gruff steak experts. Without them the atmosphere would not be the same. On Dave Attel’s Insomniac I’ve seen a late night cheese steak joint where you are expected to curse out the servers and they are expected to answer in kind. It’s not a family restaurant, of course.
But on the other hand, I find ordering in fast food places somewhat tough. The dude in Coffee Connection (Dunkin’ Donuts rip-off) habitually adds milk to my coffee when I ask for cream. More than that, he lies when asked if that’s milk in the coffee. I carry special glucose detector sticks to check if the soda I get brought is really diet (because I am on a low carb diet). Sometimes it isn’t. Many ordering experiences go pretty much as described by J.S. Bach of the Rant, his coolness JWZ. (don’t be lazy, open the link. It’s short and hilarious).
Now, that I can understand. I worked at glorious Nathatns Famous at Coney Island, and I have a really bad short term memory. When you do mind numbing tasks all day remembering even the simplest instructions is very hard. Well, of course the menu was a bit more complex than popcorn and soda and I had to keep track of many more different things, but still…
All you need is a PDA. You get a menu beamed to it before you enter. You select your order. You beam the order to the waiter. When done, you beam the payment. Not a single word needs to be spoken. Ahh, future.
Workin’ late
I go through Times Square almost every day on my way to work and back home. Yesterday I was working until midnight, so on my way back I took some pictures with my brand new digital camera. The train + train + bus ride that usually takes 1.5 hours took me 3 hours this time because of subway repairs. I should really move to Manhattan.
I know, I know, it’s a cliché. Still.. I pass this by every day.
Scientists are having a major breakthrough with death rays in a lab on top of Ernst & Young building.
I really hate the crudely photoshopped ad on top. They are reusing the “flashing” dude in subway ads by mirror flipping him. The ad is for Revlon, I think.
I could not figure how to crop this picture, but this seems to work.