very simple

A little fuzzy, but yet another clock on the upper west side. at least this one appears to be accurate, unlike the one at the other end of the block, which is 40 minutes fast on one side and sort of accurate on the other.

So, we had another ridiculous snow day today, with over another foot of snow dumping itself on us overnight. Schools were actually cancelled today (which almost never happens in NYC, because it creates massive problems for parents who still need to go to work). Despite my cold, I got myself out of my apartment for a few hours, and went to central park to take some pictures (and to catch up on the 365 project, since I had fallen a few days behind). Only the first 6 photos are technically part of the 365 project, since that’s how many days I’m missing, but I’m uploading a few more that I liked.

Click on the photos to view the full images.

I’ve been seeing a lot of folks posting pictures using the hipstamatic iphone app, but only now got around to downloading it. As someone who actually owns a classic magimatic camera, I can really appreciate the concept. It’s certainly worth experimenting with, particularly when only that old-school crappy film grittiness will do, like while waiting forever for the train in the morning.

They did a beautiful job on the renovations at Lincoln Center, but in the dead of winter, without the green of the “lawn” or the leaves on the trees, and the apparent use of the fountain as a snow storage/melting center, it’s still pretty dreary. It didn’t help that I trekked through the slush and ridiculous curb puddles, and there were no tickets available to tonight’s show (we were hoping the snow would force some cancellations). Oh well. My feet are still thawing out.

Back when I was in high school, we would periodically sneak into the city to go dancing here. Not very often, because I was (of course) a big nerd, but we thought we were the coolest for doing this. Of course, in hindsight, I realize that we only went to the limelight because it let you in at 18, rather than 21, so it was much easier to get past the bouncer. But as much as we were actually lacking in cool back then, we were much cooler than turning a long-standing, famous nightclub into a very tiny mall. Which is what is now inside this dilapidated church, rechristened “limelight marketplace”. Ugh.

Different streets on the upper west side have varying levels of enthusiasm for holiday decorations. One of the prettier streets in the wintertime is 67th, where every building along the block covers every tree they’re responsible for with white lights. It just makes everything a little less bleak in the dead of winter.

Went to a party in queens tonight for some friends who are moving out of town. I had a lot of fun, and a lot of wine, which is probably not a good combination with blogging but…whatever. The biggest issue was getting out there. It’s normally a pain to get out there from the upper west side, since I have to go to Times Square and essentially double back on the N train to get to Astoria, but tonight was just classic. Apparently, the MTA decided that the N train didn’t need to run between Times Square and Queensboro Plaza, so, after finally discovering the signs indicating as much, I trekked over to the 7 train, to go to Queensboro Plaza, where I could pick up the N “shuttle” to Astoria Blvd. When I FINALLY got to QP, I stood waiting for the N for about 20 minutes, with about 150 other people. After said 20 minutes, they finally announced that we really needed to be on the downstairs platform. There were no signs anywhere indicating this. So all 150 of us raced down to the lower platform to hop on the train, which proceeded to sit for another full 20 minutes. So that was fun. All-in-all, it took me about 90 minutes to get there.

Needless to say I took a car service home. Which took a total of 20 minutes, including dropping someone else off first.

Photo is from my long wait on the OUTDOOR platform in queens.

The Time Warner Center here in Manhattan is essentially a very fancy mall. A very fancy mall that installs giant sculpture shows in the lobby, because it’s classy. Normally, there are two giant Botero sculptures of a naked man and woman, but those have been removed (I believe temporarily) in favor of an exhibition of sculptures by Dali. or based on artwork by Dali. I’m not really sure.

I don’t actually go into this shop very often, mostly because I don’t drink tea, and I certainly don’t need to start a scone-eating habit, but it’s always been one of my favorite storefronts in the neighborhood. Amidst a sea of ever-expanding chain stores that seem to be invading the upper west side, alice’s is at least a little bit unique (even if this isn’t their only location!)

I know it’s cliched, but I just couldn’t help myself when I was walking down broadway earlier today. It’s still a great-looking building, even if everyone and their mother has taken some variation on this picture.