12/25/2004
The last of my Christmas/Holiday related parties was last night – My friend Vinnie closed his restaurant and cooked a lot of food, and invited a bunch of friends to partake. Certainly the best tasting party that I’ve been to this season. And the only one that had nothing to do with work. I went with my dad and stepmom, who is actually the reason we know Vinnie (they’ve known each other for about 15 years). Anyway, it was fun – we all drank too much and ate too much, and today I’m going to do the traditional “jewish christmas” which consists of going to see several movies (I’ve already bought tickets to Ocean’s 12 and The Life Aquatic) and eating Chinese food for dinner. I found out last night that there’s also a New York City coda to that – you can eat Indian food instead of Chinese, so that opens up the options a little bit more.
Some pictures from last night:
New York City in the weeks leading up to Christmas is generally overfilled with tourists (who I’ve complained about before), but all of a sudden, Christmas Eve actually shows up and the entire city empties out – I walked over to Gonzo at around 8 p.m., and this is what 5th Avenue looked like:
Here’s Vinnie – the bestest Italian chef (and I don’t just say that because he gives me free food whenever I stop by):
And finally, me and my dad, and my dad and stepmom, who are now on their way to Buenos Aires and Patagonia for two weeks, and as of dessert last night hadn’t finished packing. Travellers after my own heart:
Since it’s actually Christmas today, I’ll just sign off with a Merry Christmas (and Happy Holidays) everyone!
11/27/2004
Jake Dobkin, Gothamist publisher, takes pictures of pretty much everything I would have zoomed in on at the MoMA reopening. A little Monet, Pollack and Mondrian, among others. I’m still planning on skipping work one afternoon to go check it out myself (the MoMA’s only a half a block from my office), but seeing these photos is like seeing some old friends.
In high school and college, one of my favorite activities was to take the train into the city and check out the art. The MoMA was one of my favorite museums, driven in part by the fact that my SUNY ID card got me free admission (unlike the Whitney or the Met). I know a lot of people are complaining about the "astronomical" $20 admission price, but frankly, I think it’s still a bargain. Plus, on a nice day, you can hang out in the courtyard all afternoon.
11/21/2004
Well, it looks like my idea to buy a new lamp was a good one, as the new floors are definitely being added. Check it out:
I was going through some of my old entries, and I came across the one with the letter from our management. I’m just wondering what happened to the supposed “agreement” in place:
…Per the agreement, the scaffolding should only be up for 47 days
Hmm. The letter was sent around in August. It’s now November. I’m no math genius, but I’m pretty sure it’s well past 47 days, and, as y’all can see from the photos, the scaffolding in the courtyard has only gotten more substantial.
[They] are recessing the walls in the courtyard.., which will allow more sunlight… It will be a nicer view out your window when all is said and done. [I suppose this should allay my fears about them adding 3 more floors to the building].
I guess I was a little too optimistic about that one!
I should also point out that since that letter was written, my building has changed management (again!). So there’s no one around to even enforce the supposed agreements, since they were with the old management company. Plus, I’m sure these guys have the permits in place to add the floors, and we’re all renters, so we’d simply be told to move if we’re unhappy. Oh well. Time to start obsessing over Corcoran.com again.
11/6/2004
Since I’ve been gone, it appears that they’re done tearing things down, and are now putting walls up on my side of the building. I am beginning to get irrationally fearful that they’re going to build the lower level higher, blocking out my light, but really, there’s nothing I could do at that point but move.
08/21/2004
Nothing much to report this week, except that I’ve created a new category "neighborhood" – I thought it would a good place to keep all of these construction updates I’ve been doing, as well as other random stuff about my neck of the woods. Speaking of which, at this point you can see how far they’re "cutting back" the building next door. Now the only question is whether they’re going to go all the way down to the first floor:
My other goal is to actually drag myself out of bed early enough one morning so that I’m alert enough to grab my camera and catch them on the scaffolding before 8am (I imagine I’ll need to get my watch in the picture too). I’ve seen them out there as early as 7:30, but I’m just so groggy (really not a morning person) that I only think that I should have taken pictures after it’s too late.
08/14/2004
I’m thinking about turning this into a regular feature. At the rate they’re going, I’m going to have an unobstructed view of 21st street in about two weeks.
We also got a letter from our management company, with the following message (my comments are in brackets):
[We] would like to take this opportunity to communicate to all the residents affected by the construction… We recognize and agonize over the disruption the construction is causing. After a month [A month??] of negotiations with our legal counsel and the owners…we came to an agreement for the scaffolding in the courtyard. This is the extent to which we have power over the construction project.
Per the agreement, the scaffolding should only be up for 47 days [that would be the entire summer] and work related to the scaffolding is supposed to occur between 8am-5pm [I wish I knew this little fact the last time I called the DEP]. We understand they have been operating before and after these times [really? I hadn’t noticed] and are addressing the matter… Unfortunately, the overall construction to the building will take place over the next 12-14 months [I’m hoping that they’re including the interior "finishing" work in this estimate]…
Hard to imagine now, but the construction will actually benefit [us] when completed. [They] are recessing the walls in the courtyard.., which will allow more sunlight… It will be a nicer view out your window when all is said and done. [I suppose this should allay my fears about them adding 3 more floors to the building].
In the meantime, we plan to enforce the construction times related to the scaffolding. Your continued updates, photos, complaints are welcomed in our office [I guess I’m not the only one who has had a problem].
At the proposed schedule, I will be able to open my window for more than five minutes in a year. Fun.
08/7/2004
So this morning, I did manage to take a few pictures of the ongoing construction site that I live in the middle of and wrote about the other day – here we go:
This is the blue tarp of death – it floats around and bangs into my window on a regular basis. When it’s particularly windy, I sometimes think it might bring down the entire side of the building:
This is my limited view – although if you look halfway down in the picture, you’ll see where the wall actually used to come to, and how much they’ve knocked out – I think this may actually work to my benefit, provided they don’t do something really crazy (like use this as a a starting point to add 3 more floors to the building, a recurring nightmare of mine):
On the left here is more scaffolding – at least I don’t live in one of those end apartments – it’s essentially a ladder by which someone could climb into your apartment (it’s in an internal courtyard, so noone can get in unless my doorman is asleep…yeah, I’d be worried). On the right, this is what I see when I look left out the window. Like I said before, I really am close enough to throw things:
Apparently, this is all going to look like this when it’s done (I wonder if they’ll let me in to use the pool).
04/30/2004
I finally got my scuba pictures back from the Duane Reade (after much haranguing). Most of them were pretty sucky, because I was so deep underwater, but a few of them came out relatively well.
[Update 2015] In an effort to reduce the number of holdover pages on the blog, I am slowly (very slowly) integrating historical photo albums into the appropriate historical posts on the blog itself. As a result, you can now view the entire Belize album at the bottom of this post.[/end update]
It was really a great trip, beginning with the flight from Belize City to Placencia, where I got to sit in the copilot’s seat. Look! there’s the pilot! The plane had 10 seats. We landed at the bustling Placencia airport, where I was whisked to the Inn. For some reason, I didn’t take many pictures on site, but rest assured, it was beautiful.
Some of my scuba diving travails have already been discussed, but my favorite parts were the key islands that we used as our launching off points – Ranguana Caye and Laughingbird Key, and dolphins!! They wound up following our boat for about 20 minutes.
As I said before, only a few of the scuba pictures were worth printing, but here’s Francisco, my instructor, and me!
And the best part? having no freakin’ clue what was going on anywhere else in the world…
03/18/2004
I’ve finally revamped all my photo albums (for now). They’re all pretty simple, without frames, but they load ten times faster and really just highlight the pictures rather than my own web design ineptitude. And I added a new one from my trip to Toronto last fall. My own personal Nirvana is the Bata Shoe Museum, where they have miles and miles of antique shoes. My personal favorites are the wedding display (If I ever get married, I am so wearing ducks on my feet!) and the celebrity shoes. The private tour of the storerooms was pretty awesome too. From original wedgwood heels that were made exclusively for the royal family, to these, I was ready to move in permanently.
And, of course, it wouldn’t have been a trip to Canada without at least one picture with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police!
[Update 2015] In an effort to reduce the number of holdover pages on the blog, I am slowly (very slowly) integrating photo albums into the appropriate historical posts on the blog itself, which should ultimately eliminate the legacy photo album section of the site. Images from the Bata Shoe Museum can now be seen below.
