"we only come out at night"

Big Brown Bag, Saks, BCBG, Lassen & Hennings, Whole Foods, K-Mart, Macys plastered on plastic with handles, riding the subway, wandering the streets. Century 21 Bags are especially popular, and particularly revealing with their clear plastic sides. Paper, plastic, canvas, in addition to a purse or briefcase New York subway riders always seem to have shopping bags in hand.

Normal enough, buying something entails carrying it in a bag. But there's no Saks in Brooklyn. Bloomies doesn't open before the morning rushhour. And that woman certainly doesn't seem to have any way of incorporating BCBG apparel into her wardrobe. Some bags are clearly years old and just two days ago I saw a man sitting on the subway trying to pull a off a bag from a Vermont restaurant, address included on the bag. Clearly, subway riders aren't doing this much shopping or eating. And the clear bags reveal the juice bottles and old magazines that definitely cannot be purchased at the bag's namesake department store. Some women seem to hold on to bags from high-end stores as long as possible, reusing a rumpled Gucci Bag that's probably so last season. But really, why are they trying to pass off their lunches and scarves for high end apparel ? Image driven consumerism.

I found myself on the subway with shopping bags today, too. But I was a true consumer - and I didn't buy the image thing - mine were crappy K-mart bags. Amazing that New York has a K-Mart (you can enter above ground and exit 4 stories lower inside Penn Station right near your subway stop - Bizzaro world). My K-mart bags were also actually filled with the merch I bought at K-mart -- 6 bags of Halloween candy. Ahh Halloween, like all holidays, evil, I mean consumption focused. I actually decided I like Halloween as I watched men in business suits and other New Yorkers stock up on hordes of what candy remained (the Halloween-themed stuff was all sold out). Here we were, spending out time and money to buy candy to give out to kids we don't even know. People will knock on our doors, and we'll actually give them something for it, and not just anything - overpriced candy. Kids will end up with shopping bags full of it, and the adults ? Well, at least we get empty shopping bags in which to carry our Monday lunches.

Band of the Week: Matt Pond, PA

Song of the Day: We Only Come Out At Night, Smashing Pumpkins

de fault of New York

(length in two entrys attempting to compensate for missed days. Complaints or kudos? Post comments.)
Random:
People walk faster, they expect mail the next day, they're too busy to take lunch and even have it delivered, they lift their hand and a car appears to take them where they want to go - these people are New Yorkers. From the outside they seemed like work-a-holics, but observed closely, I have found they're just time misers. I know it sounds like a synonym for the impatient, but it's the best way to describe how the sense of wasted time is inherent in the soul of these people. They understand how one must get the most out of each moment when there are as many potential options as exist in New York.

Here I sit, typing at a computer in my apartment. A fast paced New Yorker I am not. However, I have been attempting to take advantage of a few of the wonderful array of things to do here in the city ... and on the East Coast. Maybe the best part of having so many things you could be doing is knowing that what you usually do is never just your default, but a conscious choice of action, or in this evenings case - inaction. Without being my normal verbose self, I'll just sum up the events since I last wrote, in another blog entry for some visual variety, and given that they were all extremely awesome and in one case, an opportunity of a lifetime - they deserve more in print, and maybe I'll get to that.

Random Fun:
This amused me while I was at work - determine your own election outcome, find out if your vote really might count, or just use it as a resource when placing your bets on the tight race.
http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/politics/2004_ELECTIONGUIDE_GRAPHIC/

Good times never seemed so good

For now, here's the last few days in review:

- Thursday: Cooked Mexican with friends, including one who not only make a mean salsa, he also fixes dressers. The salsa man also showed us to the club in the basement of the bar at the back of the restaurant a.k.a Fez for some fantastic Jazz by the Mingus Big Band.

- Friday: It's tough to rival Thursday's evening, Death Cab for Cutie played a pretty good show, but being surrounded by pre-highschoolers definitely made me feel old. Spending the night scrambling to find a plan for Boston wasn't all that exciting either, but fortunately I had company to liven things up.

-Saturday: I never expected that I'd be able to say this, so while I don't like to boast much, today I went to the World Series. The 7 year old me would have meant literally and as a player, but being in the grandstands at Fenway far exceeded my expectations. There was an entire fiasco in getting there, which I don't want to touch. Lessons learned, however, and my advice: only use the phone and not the internet to rent a car. There is a reason everyone has a credit card - get one. If you don't know the neighborhood, take a cab or a big friend. Yogurt and writing don't mix. Don't plan on wearing flipflops outdoors in New England past October. On the positive side: Go to a game at Fenway Park in your lifetime. F --- the Cardinals sounds great in a Boston accent. Just because your team loses doesn't mean you can't have fun. Learning to curve it around the pole is an art worth mastering. The monster really is big.

-Sunday: Seafood on the Harbor, Faniel Hall, and generous doses of my favorite thing: trees - and in spectra color. Doesn't really replace the loss I feel for not getting to see my brainchild in action without my brain (therefore much improved). But making it to Spooktacular from Beantown was 6 hours that didn't exist in any day.

Sure I could use more sleep (why I'm home now), but I can't deny the fun. Grand thanks goes out to the three wonderful people who each in their individual ways went above and beyond to make the weekend come together - glad to call you friends.

Today's Song: The Sox have a penchant for Neil Diamond's Sweet Caroline (anyone know why?) But today I'm a fan of Carolina boy Ben Folds' Don't Change Your Plans.

misting

White, diaphanous and mysterious, the clouds next to my window and over the wing of the plane were always my favorite thing when flying as a little kid. For much of my childhood I had memorized the names of various formations and studied the watercycle, but what had always interested me was what clouds looked like close up. Flying satisfied that for me, despite the fact that I now realize my breath, steam and condensation in general closely resemble the high-altitude view. It was the scale, however that fascinated me most. Being already inside something as gigantic as an aircraft, the ability of a cloud to envelop both sides and obscure a nearby wing or a farm down below was awesome. Of course, that wasn't enough for me, I had seen clouds close up, then I wanted to know what they felt like.

Pretty simple minded to be fascinated with clouds, but my fascination with clouds wasn't unique, I was and basically still am just fascinated with basic stuff, not that I should admit that here. That might explain my fascination today with the rain type stuff that was sort of falling from the sky. Rain happens in Utah, but these light airy droplets are unique to my East Coast experience. The first time I was surrounded by the stuff at Lehigh someone called it "misting". All official titles aside these superfine drops of gently falling water moved me to keep my umbrella closed, hold my head up high, and smile. Today's mists were like touching the clouds.

Useless observations aside, today many important things appear to be tied across the nation. Both the ALCS and the NCLS seem to be leaning that way, as does the presidential election. The real question no one seems to be answering is how the outcome of the world series will affect the election. Maybe because their is no relationship, although once I did hear a study of a correlation between the superbowl and either something political or meteorological. I could research this phenomenon, but it's far too complicated for my simple musings, I'm going to leave it up to you.

Today's Song:
Warning Sign, Coldplay

Random Fun:
play the cloud matching game http://www.ucar.edu/educ_outreach/webweather/cloudmatch.html

It's Autumn in New York

This same time during my freshman year at Lehigh I was in love with a CD I borrowed from a friend. It was some compilation of Ella Fitzgerald standards, not my most likely choice. I fell in love to the CD, though, and wish I had at least it to listen to today. The song still plays in my head, and I must say, that semester I never thought the words to the song would be the only thing that would come to fruition.

Suprised as I might be, sans soundtrack, I'm falling in love with New York. So here I am and, well, I'm going to leave it to the lyricist (despite the blatant plagerism) to say it better than I could, and recommend the complete verison with Ella and Louis' voices to haunt you enough that 4 years from now, you may just end up living in New York, too.

Autumn in New York
Why does it seem so inviting
Autumn in New York
It spells the thrill of first-nighting

glittering crowds and shimmering clouds
In canyons of steel
They're making me feel - I'm home

It's autumn in New York
That brings the promise of new love
Autumn in New York
Is often mingled with pain

Dreamers with empty hands
They sigh for exotic lands
It's autumn in New York
It's good to live it again


Oh, yeah, and admittedly, while I'm at it -- welcome to my new web log. I've just figured for awhile that there was already enough info. on the web, why add to the chaos without purpose. Purposeless as it may be, I have thoughts and fortunately I know people who'd like to read them. thanks for tuning in.