Photo Hunt: Art

I got a message last week from Mimi about the Blogblast for Peace. She suggested that I make a Peace Globe for my Photo Hunt entry this week, and I would have if:

1. I had been able to figure out how to do it, and
2. I had been able to find the time to post anything.

Better late than never, I say, and I am happy to have an opportunity to use this photo I took with my phone one day while I was sitting on my neighbor's stoop.

A peace van! It brought back so many memories of a time when I thought nothing of hopping in the car and driving cross country, or across Europe, reading willing and able to spread the word that would change the world: Cut out the bullshit!

Anyway, I was so thrilled to see it--and to see it on West 11th Street was strangely gratifying.

West 11th Street used to be...well, let's see. A block east of where I live, in 1970, some members of the Weather Underground were making bombs in the basement of their "safehouse," a brownstone that belonged to one of their parents, and blew the place up.

These days West 11th Street is more famous at the location of the Magnolia Bakery, where tourists stand in line for hours to buy crappy cupcakes just because the bakery was on Sex & the City!
I want to scream at them, "Why are you standing in line for cupcakes. You should be trying to overthrow the government."

Times have changed. Life used to imitate art. Now it imitates TV.

Photo Hunt: Art

http://raypod.blogspot.com/2007/06/photo-hunt-art.html

Photo Hunt 58: Cook(ing)

No one in this household cooks. This is not usually a problem. We can, of course, boil water for pasta and pick up veggie salads at Lifethyme, the organic store down the street. We can order in from a variety of places. The only time we feel a bit at loose ends is when we have a dinner party.

We solved the problem recently by inviting people over for cereal. Who doesn't like cereal? Frankly, who wouldn't rather have cereal for dinner than a big heavy roast? Anyway, we bought several brands of cereal--from Cap'n Crunch to crunchy granola--plus assorted fruits, nuts and yogurts, and a couple of different types of juice to drink.

Then we realized that we had only two bowls that weren't cracked in half because Mouse (see above) likes to sit in them after he drinks the leftover milk. So we bought a set of six bowls.

It would have been cheaper to take everyone to a restaurant.

Photo Hunt 58: Cook(ing)

http://raypod.blogspot.com/2007/05/photo-hunt-58-cooking.html

PHOTO HUNT 57: FIVE

PHOTO HUNT 57: FIVE

http://raypod.blogspot.com/2007/05/photo-hunt-57-five.html

Photo Hunt: Childhood

Photo Hunt: Childhood

http://raypod.blogspot.com/2007/05/photo-hunt-childhood.html

Photo Hunt 55: Rare

Thirty years ago, when I lived in the far West Village, the only people on the street late at night were the guys working in the meat markets and the transvestite hookers whose cat fights were more entertaining than TV. I always felt very safe. What would a transvestite want with me? And the beefy armed men in their bloody smocks were as good protection as a young girl could ask for. It was a great neighborhood back then, even if it did smell something awful in the slow aired days of August.

Today most of the meat market is gone. Its derelict cobblestone streets overflow with tourists, or hip dentists from New Jersey, who come to eat at the trendy restaurants or shop at the twee little pet boutiques and minimalist furniture stores. When I went out with my camera, I was afraid I would be mistaken for one of them. As if. I'm not rich enough or thin enough or young enough. As far as this neighborhood goes, I might as well be put out to pasture.

But I don't eat meat anymore, either.

Photo Hunt 55: Rare

http://raypod.blogspot.com/2007/04/photo-hunt-55-rare.html

Photo Hunt 54: Steps

In Greenwich Village, where I live, many of the brownstones have these steep steps leading up to the front door. While a bit of a navigational challenge to old people, they do provide the icing on the architectural cake with their fanciful wrought iron railings, and are rather too tempting to passers-by who like to cool their heels, smoke a cigarette, or eat a slice of pizza.
Steps such as these are generally referred to as "stoops."

Now, what's interesting is how steps and stoops, which in this case are one in the same, can have not only such different connotations, but can actually refer to very different things.
For instance, the collective steps is generally positive: Baby's first steps, taking steps, following in someone's footsteps, the Twelve Steps of AA....etc etc.
Stoop, on the other hand, is about taking the low road. as in She Stoops to Conquer. A "stoop" can be a stupid person. Stoop also means a dive toward prey by a bird of prey such as a raptor.
Ray (below) has a toy raptor, which doesn't fly although it does waddle around making a weird noise.

Here at our building (the one below) neighbors used to sit on the stoop in nice weather and people watch. Recently, however, there has been a power struggle among the shareholders.
Some neighbors have accused other neighbors of stooping to...well, it doesn't matter except to point out that these neighbors would like the Coop Board to take steps to have them punished.

Everyone knows the expression good fences make good neighbors. I have suggested that the building replace it's rusty fence here at the foot of the stoop with a stockade. Maybe something in wrought iron that will fit in with the surroundings.

Photo Hunt 54: Steps

http://raypod.blogspot.com/2007/04/photo-hunt-54-steps.html

Photo Hunt 53: Hobby

This is Ray. Monday, the sixteenth, is his birthday. He will probably get a card or two from his friends on Catster.

Ray and the rest of the cats have been on Catster for a little more than a year. If you don't know what it is, it's kind of hard to explain. I've heard it described as a social networking site for cats but, c'mon, the cats are just the front men, the avatars, for their owners. I would say that it takes anthropomorphism and virtual reality and tosses them up in the air to see how they land.

I guess you could call it a hobby.

Photo Hunt 53: Hobby

http://raypod.blogspot.com/2007/04/photo-hunt-53-hobby.html

Photo Hunt 51: Water

There's a greenway that runs along the Hudson River, from Battery Park at the southernmost end of Manhattan, to the George Washington Bridge roughly six miles north. This particular stretch, far west of Greenwich Village, I think of as my backyard.

I try to come down here every night after work because being on the river calms me down and puts everything into perspective. Maybe it's because the play of light on the water provides a sense of spaciousness even as it creates optical illusions, turning three dimensional shapes like a ferry boat into two-dimensional scrims like the backdrop on a set

After 9/11 it was hard for me to walk along the river. I could only make it a little ways downtown before I would start to cry and have to sit down on the path and wait until I could collect myself. As the weeks and then months passed, I could make it a little further before breaking down, but I would always be arrested by the sight of these old pilings, poking up out of the water. They looked to me like sentinels, or ghosts. Fingers pointing up to the sky.

Now I walk along the river, and sometimes I don't even think about that day, the bright blue heavens, and the bodies falling through it.

Photo Hunt 51: Water

http://raypod.blogspot.com/2007/04/photo-hunt-51-water.html

Photo Hunt 50: Empty

I have an ongoing love/hate relationship with possessions and periodically vow to rid myself of anything that's not absolutely essential. The problem is, what I consider essential changes. For instance, when I came back from a two week camping trip in Wyoming, I thought I could get rid of all my pots and pans and get by, as I had in the mountains, with one bowl, a fork, and a Swiss Army knife. Then I decided I would start a juicing regimen and cook a lot of rice dishes.

I go through similar phases with gear: the saddles, riding boots and tack were purged to make room for motorcycle jackets/helmets/tools which were purged to make room for the yoga mats, bolsters, blankets and blocks.

I'm even worse with books.

But I continue to long for emptiness, the pure space that would allow me to collect my thoughts, find one book to read, and the favorite t-shirt to wear day after day. And so I find an empty cardboard box, dump out the cat, and make yet another trip to the Salvation Army store.

Photo Hunt 50: Empty

http://raypod.blogspot.com/2007/04/photo-hunt-50-empty.html

PhotoHunt 49: Drink

All four of my cats drink out of glasses, and I have at least a half dozen set up for their convenience around the house. But my cats, not unlike most people, are more interested in what's in my glass than theirs. For example, Mouse (not pictured) enjoys Snapple Diet Iced Tea with lemon. He'll dip one paw into the glass daintily and scoop a nice mouthful. He also likes Diet Coke. Ray here doesn't go for anything more exotic than eau de New York City, but again, he prefers my glass to his. Coco (not pictured) would rather drink out of the toilet like a dog. Or a drunk.

PhotoHunt 49: Drink

http://raypod.blogspot.com/2007/03/photohunt-49-drink.html

PhotoHunt 48: Architecture

When Mom went to Nashville, she spent some time wandering around near Broadway, checking out the bars in Printer's Alley, and wondering if there was a market for country western songs about menopause.

She noticed this sign down at the corner of Commerce Street, and it reminded her of our friend Scooter whom we first got to know through the music of Patsy Cline.

When she took this picture, last year, she didn't think of the boot sign as architecture, just a funny coincidence. But of course it is. Sometimes the most interesting thing about a building is the signage.

PhotoHunt 48: Architecture

http://raypod.blogspot.com/2007/03/photohunt-48-architecture.html