Tag: New York City

  • Pools are Open!

    My kid loves to swim, and wants to swim all the time as soon as it starts getting hot out. That can be a rather tough request to fulfill, as we do live in New York City. There are beaches, and a Jersey Coast. There also happens to be lakes upstate, and New England does have many swimming holes. But those are all exercises for vacations. Speaking of vacations, we are at the age where if hotel doesn’t have pool, we have killed our child’s will to live.

    Now, we have one great advantage in our neighborhood, which is that we are only a few blocks from the community pool. (There are two City services that make New York an amazing place to live; the first is the libraries, and the second is the City Park Service. They both don’t receive enough credit, nor enough funds.) We have an awesome pool that is run well, and is filled with kids. The window that these pools are open is short, normally 4th of July to Labor Day, and even by Labor Day, it can start getting cool out.

    This year the pools opened a week early, and we would have been there if the kid didn’t get a nasty Summer cold last week. BUT, today we were all healthy and headed out, to jump and splash around. And being that this is our fifth year of doing this, I’ve started looking forward to going. It’s part of our Summer, either early mornings, or late afternoons at the pool; The kid does make swimming friends, who we will only see at the pool, and never anywhere else in the neighborhood. I get some quality reading done while lounging in the plastic Adirondack chairs, while keeping on eye on the kids screaming and splashing.

    Pools are open. Have fun and stay cool.

  • It’s a Blondie Day

  • What Did You Say?

    On Sunday, late afternoon, I was out walking my dog. Normal Sunday in the City, it was a little warm so I was in shorts, and I had on my Tottenham Hotspur t-shirt that my wife and kid got me for Father’s Day last year.

    As I got to the corner to cross the street, a guy was coming across towards me. He stuck out a finger, pointing directly at me, which made me think, “Oh god, here comes a crazy person.” Then he yelled at me;

    “C’mon You Spurs!”

    He smiled at me, and just kept walking.

    It took me a second to realize that he wasn’t crazy. He was a Spurs fan, calling out to another Spurs fan.

    But you see, as I already told you, I had thought in my mind that this dude was crazy, so my brain didn’t register exactly what he was saying to me. It was like I heard just a jumble of sounds that I was trying to ignore. And then it hit me, “That guy didn’t say something crazy!” But I wasn’t sure what he said, so I had to play it back over in my mind – “C’mon You Spurs!” That’s when my head kicked into gear and was like, “He’s a Tottenham fan! He’s Saying that because of your shirt, you big dummy!” And what I said back to the guy was:

    “Hey! Yeah! That’s right!” Sometimes I amaze myself at my ability to express myself so clearly and concisely.

  • ODDS and ENDS: Guilty and Does It Matter?

    (But his emails…)

    I had two conflicting thoughts in my head as Trump’s New York False Records case got underway; first was that Trump won’t be found guilty, and second was that this was the case Trump was most likely to be found guilty on. Yes, I was able to circle this square in my mind. First was just past behavior, as Trump always found a way to weasel out of accountability. Second was that this case was about having sex and trying to hide it. Not that everyone cheats on their wife, but everyone does something wrong and tries to make it go away. The motive and emotions of committing this crime are easy to understand, which makes it an easy story for the prosecution to sell a jury on. Now, I did think there would be one hold out juror, especially from that person who said on their jury form that they got their news from TruthSocial. But I was wrong, and I’m okay with that.

    And with the guilty verdict, does it even matter? I don’t know. I don’t think the verdict will cause a mass exodus from Trump’s camp come November. But I do think this verdict could peal off 10,000 soft Trump voters, or voters who are still on the fence in the swing states, and help Biden out. I have a hard time believing that Americans would elect a convicted felon, yet I know that we do live in the age when anything is possible. Even really really awful terrible shit is possible now.

    Shall we end on a happier note?

  • Paul Auster (1947 – 2024)

    I read the news today that Paul Auster had passed away. Kind’a always thought that Paul Auster would just be hanging around forever. Somewhere in Brooklyn, scribbling away, and walking around. I don’t know if any of that is true, it’s just what I expected.

    I first read Paul Auster in 1997 or 1998, and the book was Hand to Mouth: A Chronicle of Early Failure. I’m not 100% sure how this book came to me, but I’m pretty sure it was a Christmas gift from my parents. Maybe I put it on a list, but for whatever reason, it was the right book at the right time. For you see, I had just dropped out of college to peruse my career as a writer/artist, and then I read this book, wherein Paul Auster is pretty much telling me that I have ten awful years of struggle, disappointment, and failure headed my way. But he told it is such a funny and depressing way that, for all the wrong reasons, this book inspired me to continue following my path in the arts. And also, to read as many books by Paul Auster as possible.

    I had hoped to have met him one day. Not to have a conversation, or tell him how much I enjoyed his work. No, I just wanted to say “hi” to him on the street, like neighbors. And that’s the other great thing that Paul gave to me; he presented New York City (Brooklyn, actually) as this great place to meet and make friends with people who are nothing like you. There are all kinds of great things about the City, that artists have been talking about for years (the arts, nightlife, money, danger, excitement, scandal…) but he always gave me this feeling that, yes those things are here, but the people of this place, these characters of the City, are what makes this place magical.

    The other thing that I loved about Paul Auster was that the guy just wrote all the time, and produced so much work. This is the “hard working American” side of me that still sees production as one of the measuring sticks of artistic excellence. He created nonstop. He tried things, and sure, maybe not all of it was The New York Trilogy, but I have respect for the people out there that keep trying something new and producing.

    So I guess, thanks Paul Auster. Thanks for trying to talk me out of being creative.