very simple

I opted to do a walk around the lower east side and (what is left of) little italy today, and took a ton of pictures. unfortunately, I hated most of them when I looked at them on the computer. I think the narrow streets just didn’t give me enough room to take the pictures I really wanted to take. In addition, while the beautiful, bright sunlight we had today makes for a lovely walk, it actually causes photographs to look flat. This is why the photographic “magic hour” is actually the hour after the sun rises and before the sun sets – the long shadows created by a low-angled sun give pictures more character and depth. Here are the few pics that I thought came out OK (click to see the full photo):

Went to B&H this morning, because I am a masochist, and had lunch plans with a friend in midtown, so I opted to walk from 34th and 8th to 56th and 6th, since I had time. I mainly walked up 6th avenue, and (of course) took a few pics.

side note: I have finally figured out how to make square “snippet” thumbnails that aren’t distorted for the photos that I lightbox (I’m sure someone else has a better/quicker way than the one I figured out, but since I’m generally getting more comfortable with photoshop/elements, I’m just glad to have figured something out). I’m certainly not going to go back and redo everything from before, but needless to say, you’ll have to click on the thumbnails to get the actual pictures that I took.

guggenheim

After trying to figure out where to go on this really beautiful day, I discovered that, in honor of it’s 50th anniversary, the Guggenheim was actually free today. I knew there’d be a line and whatnot, but free is free. So I went over.

The line actually moved pretty fast – even though it was wrapped around the block, it only took about 20 minutes to get to the front door. No pictures allowed anywhere inside except from the ground floor (in what I’m sure is an attempt to force people who want to remember the Kandinsky exhibition to buy the official merchandise), but it was still pretty cool. Except for all of the people, of course.

First, after I had progressed through 3/4 of the line and was in sight of the front door, there were these two women who very blatantly tried to cut the line in front of the person in front of me. I, of course, tapped them on the shoulder and pointed out the line that wrapped around the block. They got very bent out of shape, and in very thick french accents, attempted to claim that they were “press”. I was all, “so what?” – pointing out that if there was actual special press access, they should go talk to the guard, not cut in line. Needless to say, they got out of line. One of the folks in front of me was also a french tourist, and he was a bit mortified at his countrymen, but he said that shit happens all the time in France, because everyone else is too polite/timid to actually call someone out. He said he really noticed it when he went to japan and was completely horrified by the french tour groups that came through. I sympathized, as I often wanted to run and hide from American tour groups exhibiting the same sort of “ugly tourist” behavior whilst I was living in Italy.

Then, of course, there were the folks who would plant themselves directly in front of you while you were reading a description or timeline so that you only got a view of the back of their head.

And then there was the bus ride home, where people simply forgot how to behave in public. blocking doors, not moving back, deciding to try to (finally) move back to grab a seat only when about 18 people from the back of the bus were actually trying to move forward to get off the bus. I actually (again, being my loud new yorker self) had to tell two women to stand still so that everyone could get off the bus, regardless of the fact that they felt entitled to a seat (behind the people trying to exit) that had opened up.

But anyway, here are some pics. 365 pic is first, and then a collection of others that you can click on to enlarge.

67th street studios

I love this building

purple

I kind of love the audacity it takes to coat a classic upper west side building in the color purple.

fall…out of this basket

somehow, the juxtaposition of this balloon-less, less than sturdy basket sitting in front of the word “fall” didn’t inspire me to go to New Jersey.

For those who don’t know what the high line is, it is an elevated rail track that runs along the west side of manhattan in the meatpacking district. Back in the days when they used to actually bring in cattle to the meatpacking plants instead of celebrities to nightclubs, it was an essential part of the industry. But over the years it fell into disrepair and disuse. So in the past few years, it was turned into a park, which opened earlier this year. The best part about the high line is, of course, the view. In addition to yesterday’s 365 pic, here are some other shots that I took while wandering around (click to enlarge)…

a train of recliners

for the 365 project for the day, “a fedora of douchebags”. Taken on the high line.