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

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

Photo Hunt: Childhood

Photo Hunt: Childhood

https://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

https://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

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