Most manholes in New York City are there to provide Con-Edison access to their lines beneath the streets. Still, there are a whole slew of unique manhole cover designs scattered throughout the metropolis.
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88 keys. 52 white notes, 36 black notes (unless you're playing a Bosendorfer that has up to 97 notes). Having evolved from the harpsichord, the piano's history is outlined here, with pictures!
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ANOTHER WORK DAY (4.25.07) |
New York City's Department of Health issues 3000 year-long food cart permits, and another 1000 for the summer. The waiting list to get a permit is at least a year long. Meanwhile, a profile of a hot dog vendor from 1994 said he takes home $60-70 dollars on a good day, and a survey last year of all types of New York City vendors found the median net income to be $7,500, although it did note many vendors might underreport their earnings.
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On New York City's Canal Street, you can get all sorts of bric-a-brac for next to nothing. These belts, for example. Three dollars each. The belt has been around since the Bronze Age. However, it wasn't until the 1920s when it really began to be used to hold up pants. Previous to that it was usually used as adornment, especially in the military. The change? People, particularly men, stopped wearing their pants up above their navel...or so says wikipedia.
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The word graffiti is actually the plural form of the Italian word graffito, meaning to draw or make an inscription. This was most likely derived from Latin's graphiāre, meaning to write with a stylus, and Greek's grapheion, meaning to write. Graffiti has graced the walls of most civilized society for thousands of years. When Pompeii was dug out, graffit was found that included: "Lovers, like bees, lead a honey-sweet life" and "I don't want to sell my husband." Click here to read more entertaining and sometimes risque Pompeii graffiti.
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Smoking Break on a Grey Day
red flats; a cell phone
"Some guy's taking my picture.
What a freak," she says.
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SUN FRESH PRODUCE (4.19.07) |
Aspargus, that's what's in those six white boxes. Scientists aren't sure exactly which amino acids in asparagus make your pee stink. They believe it's either methyl mercaptan, the same stuff that gives a skunk's spray its pungency, or thioesters. What scientists do know is that asparagus only makes 50-60 percent of people's pee stink. If you don't have the gene to break it down the right amino acids, your pee doesn't stink. By the way, some people can't smell that wonderful smell. Again, it has to do with genetics.
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And that's all that really needs to be said.
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For a just $10, the woman inside will give you your basic psychic or tarot card reading. But if you really want to break the bank, plunk down $340 for some past life research. Regardless, she must be making some good predictions because she just remodeled and expanded her reading room.
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This scene looks like it might have been something that ended up on the cutting room of A Clockwork Orange, like maybe an appliance store located next to the Kordova Milk Bar. Actually, it's is the relatively new NYC showroom for Alessi, maker of quirky kitchenware and utensils, among other things.
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According to the NYC Department of Homeless Services there were 20,786 adults and 14,346 children (total: 35,132) staying in homeless shelters around the city yesterday. And while this staggering number equals the population of Amherst, MA, it doesn't even include the likes of this gentleman, who is always huddled with his bags in one vacant doorway or another around SoHo, winter or summer, rain or snow.
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Highway 395 stretches from Hesperia, CA to Ferry County, WA at the Canadian Border. While in Califonria, most of the scenic highway cozies up to the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. However, this section cuts through Death Valley...or at least that's what the rest of this ad for Casio said.
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COLOURS COME AND GO (4.11.07) |
this is the garden: colours come and go,... (IX)
this is the garden:colours come and go,
frail azures fluttering from night's outer wing
strong silent greens serenely lingering,
absolute lights like baths of golden snow.
This is the garden:pursed lips do blow
upon cool flutes within wide glooms,and sing
(of harps celestial to the quivering string)
invisible faces hauntingly and slow.
This is the garden. Time shall surely reap
and on Death's blade lie many a flower curled,
in other lands where other songs be sung;
yet stand They here enraptured,as among
The slow deep trees perpetual of sleep
some silver-fingered fountain steals the world.
—e.e. cummings
("e.e." stands for Edward Estlin, btw.)
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Light another cigarette
But the one I got’s still lit
I can’t seem to keep my fingers
Steady
Never noticing the war
Til it’s right there at your door
And suddenly your hands are bloody
-From Gutter Full of Rain by David Gray.
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...and nowhere to go—the life of a tree. Meanwhile, neckties' history has been found to go back to at least 210 B.C. and China's first emperior, Shih haun-ti.
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John F. McCarthy Memorial Bridge at 80 mph (4.7.07) |
More commonly know as the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge, the John F. McCarthy Memorial Bridge opened in 1956, is 5.5 miles long and is the northernmost east-west crossing of the San Francisco Bay. McCarthy was an one-time California state legislator.
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April showers bring out tree blossoms...and bike messengers who are just slightly less miserable because it is raining instead of snowing. Weather is probably just one of the many reasons bike messengers have such a high turnover rate. On the New York Bike Messenger Association website, Hermes says, "After someone starts messengering they will quickly find out if they're cut out for it. Hence, probably MOST people who start quit after 3 or 4 weeks. If they make it past 3 months or so, they will probably be at it for a few years. Very few messengers are 'career' messengers. Most find that messengering is something they only want to, and CAN do for a short period of time, say 3-4 years. There are a few that have been messengering 20 or more years. They are scary people."
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This is just a guess, but it seems unlikely that Mr. Deer-in-the-headlights (center) shares Langston Hughes' affection for the rain.
April Rain Song
Let the rain kiss you
Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops
Let the rain sing you a lullaby
The rain makes still pools on the sidewalk
The rain makes running pools in the gutter
The rain plays a little sleep song on our roof at night
And I love the rain.
—Langston Hughes
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OLD PHONE, NEW PHONE (4.03.07) |
There were about 2 million payphones in the United States in 1997. This was down to 1.3 million by 2004 and continues to fall. Comparatively, cell phone owners—like the guy in the background of this picture— numbered 4.3 million in 1990 in the U.S., while there are more than 220 million wireless subscribers. Meanwhile, a phone booth in Pennan, Scotland was the site of a new world record the other day when 16 people crammed themselves into it.
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GRAND CANAL COURT (3.2.07) |
According to the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, there are at least 115 basketball courts just on the island of Manhattan, and hundreds more in the surrounding burroughs. The heavily symbolic mural, Rivers of Communication, is by Osmo Rauhala, "one of the pioneers of the current international movement in Finnish contemporary art."
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