The Days After 9/11

I'm so glad Adam got great photos of the Towers of Light. The City has done such a good job using lamps and light to remind us all of a pretty serious event in the City's history. All politics aside, it's something all New Yorkers can look up to a few nights a year and just remember how we were all affected and how we still react to the world around us.

I went to Shea Stadium on September 21, 2001. It was the first mass gathering in New York City after the attacks on September 11. A lot of people wondered where I was that night because I was supposed to have celebrated my birthday then. It hurt at the time to make it look like I was simply flaking out, but in all reality I knew where I wanted to be; with 41,000 other New Yorkers looking for some strange sense of grounding (capacity at Shea is roughly 55,000). This was one of the more important things I've ever done in my life here in New York, and it should really add perspective as to why I act like a total loser when I go to Shea to this day.

And Liza Minnelli is seriously on fire. Subsequent posting on Minnelli to follow, I'm sure.

Here's a clip highlighting what happened on September 21, 2001:

Towers of Light

aka Tribute in Light





Photos taken from my rooftop, 8:45 PM, September 11th, 2008

We're Sorry, We Cannot Complete Your Call ...

We recently discussed a NYNEX phone recording from the 90s that would play when a phone call wouldn't go through. The message was downright low-quality and featured what sounded like a very exhausted, fat man in his late 40s with a very thick New York accent. It sounded like he was speaking out of his mother's basement. Here's how the recording would go:

(solid 4 seconds of ultra-powered oscillating fan)

then

"We're SOW-ry, we cannot complete ya cawl, please hang up ... and try ya cawl again LAY-ta ... this ... is a recording."

(4 more seconds oscillating fan)

"We're SOW-ry, we cannot complete ya cawl, please hang up ... and try ya cawl again LAY-ta ... this ... is a recording."

###

I tried to find this recording online and have had no luck so far. However, I did find this website (http://www.payphone-directory.org) which has a Phone Recording Archive that is an achievement in itself.

That NYNEX recording must be found.

RE: New York is Back Motherbitches

Allan, others, if you'd like to see more of the New York of Olde, here is a handy map to follow from the location of your dead pigeon, it's 1.5 miles, 31 minutes walking into the epicenter of the Red Hook Housing Projects (according to our friends at Google) and you won't be disappointed. The last time I was down here it looked like parts of Baghdad.


View Larger Map

New York is BACK, Motherbitches.

Brooklyn, Pacific St. between Boerum Pl. and Court St.
Saturday, August 23, 17:52

I was upset to come home empty handed after spending a little while sneaker hunting. There was once a time when it was pointless to resist dropping an unacceptable amount of money on NY-exclusive kicks. Those are days have long gone by. Maybe I'm just getting older or don't care for shopping. Maybe there's nothing out there anymore. Maybe the city and all its unique goods have been diluted and more readily available to the masses because of e-commerce, globalization, whatever. Either way, this little guy cheered me up.

There he was, bigger than a dinner plate, looking like he just picked his spot. He had "New York" written all over him.

Making NYPD accountable - more video evidence

In the wake of the video of an NYPD police officer pushing a cyclist off of his bicycle, I present to you more video evidence of the police violating constitutional rights as they assault cyclists and fabricate charges against riders in Critical Mass.

Police Brutality Pt. 2 - Bicyclist Attacked by NYPD Officer

This is getting a lot of coverage in New York right now but I'm not sure about the rest of the country so I will post it.

As if they don't piss off enough minority groups on a daily basis the NYPD is now on the shitlist of Bicyclists across the globe. At a rally in Times Square a rookie cop speared (a la Goldberg) an innocent guy off his bike and into the crowd for no apparent reason. The biker, a 29 year old grocer at the Union Square green market was arrested and charged with assault, resisting arrest and a slew of other bullshit crimes. The officer claimed in his police report that the biker tried to attack him but this video clearly shows otherwise. Now bike activists across the country are mad as hell at the NYPD and demanding retribution.