Category: Musings

NYC Tipped

Currently reading The Tipping Point, which is a great book about how social trend epidemics start. For example, how come Hush Puppies suddenly became popular and why Blue’s Clues is better than Sesame Street. The last chapter was talking about context, and discussing why New York’s crime rate suddenly plummeted at the end of the 80s. One phenomenon described was the ‘broken windows’ theory – that is, if people see disrepair at a small level such as rubbish on the streets, then they assume that noone cares and then go on to perform bigger mis-deeds. So the way in which New York tackled this was to prevent fare evasion and clean up the grafitti. Oh, and check everyone arrested for fare evasion for an existing criminal record – of which 20% of them did. And now here we are in 2004, with nice shiny subways and less apparent crime than in London – hopefully Mayor Ken will take note!

Hangin’ on the Telephone

Got this great link just now about phone etiquette from the 60s. Very funny.

In the meantime the madness continues as I pack ready for a month back in England. Visa had finally been applied for, but it transpires there’s a 27 day wait for the now compulsary visa interview. Grrr. Not that I mind being back in Britland catching up with folk, it’s just a shame that I miss New York in October – the nicest month of the year. Fingers crossed it all goes through smoothly.

Stephen appreciates the tender ministrations from a professional woman on his stag do… 

You may now kiss the Scot

Another weekend, another wedding. This time it was Stephen and Yi-Hsian’s turn to say their vows in front of family and friends at the Hudson Hotel. The evening was absolutely awesome, with perfect weather, great food and good times. Check out the pictures here. Or find out how Stephen and Yi-Hsian got together at Scottish Grooms.

Those wedding photos have been aided by judicious use of the new cheapo flash I bought about 2 hours before the event. I have to apologise to everyone who I blinded (half or wholely) by not realising quite how strong it was! The professional photographer (whose name is currently escaping me) was using a very nice homemade flash diffuser, using a combination of clear stiff plastic with diffusing paper inside. Definately a trick to try next time.

While uploading those photos I noticed that dotPhoto has done a great job of re-organising how you file your photos. So I spent a happy few hours doing that, while realising that a lot of my photos still need some serious re-organising! Apologies to those of you who have waded through some of the crap that’s up there. I’ll try and be more judicious in my editing from now on.

Coming soon to an Atlantic near you

Just checking the weather as I prepare to fly back to the east coast, and I noticed that Tropical Storm Lisa is now being tracked. This means that the next storm in the Atlantic season of 2004 is… drum roll please… Matthew! Think it’s time to start printing up some amusing joke t-shirts for myself such as “I survived Matthew 2004” and the like.

On an opposite tact from mass destruction (nature stylee), I’d just like to say another big ‘congratulations!’ to Mark & Alicia who got married this weekend in Sonoma. The ceremony was beautiful, the food was lush (cooked by Mark’s own fair hands) and the booze was plentiful – good fun all round. They are about to head off to Fiji and NZ for their honeymoon so bon voyage et a bientot!

SF of A

Sometimes I forget that America is such a diverse country, and that New York is not America! Trips over to San Francisco always help address that imbalance. It’s a a beautiful sunny day, slightly chill but no humidity. Everyone’s happily driving everywhere in their cars, SF is not the walking city that NYC is as I keep realising when I try and cross a road. The hills flow across the city, giving stunning views back out towards the bay and the bridges. Beautiful. SF was always the city I wanted to live in when I first visited the states, hating New York when I first went there – how times have changed, but part of me would still like to try living here sometime.

Of course I almost didn’t get here at all.. Due to the cunning idea of getting ‘one quick drink’ straight after work, and then the even more sensible idea of continuing to drink through the evening without dinner I ended up over-sleeping. My 8am alarm was snoozed to leave me staring at the clock just after 9am going ‘sh*t’, and wondering how I was going to make my 11.20 flight. After rapid packing, a slight mis-direction (jetBlue domestic is terminal 6, not 4) was almost the final straw – leaving me at the check in desk just after 11! Thankfully this is the US, and I managed to make the flight and still not be the last person on board.

It all got better after that… Dave provided a fun evening’s entertainment and a sofabed for the night. James directed us towards the evening’s venues – local wines at EOS wine bar followed by heavenly sushi at Ebisu (thanks to Tommy our sushi chef for the evening). James also provided a random .celebrity moment when he dragged Craig down to the bar for 5 minutes to answer a question for Christy.

Lighting the way

Tonight the towers of light were shining in the New York sky, shortly turning off as dawn approaches. I came out of a resFest film showing at the Tribeca arts center to suddenly realise the whole sky was lit up. The lights stream straight up into the sky, I’d estimate 4-5 miles into the atmosphere, and when you stand anywhere downtown the refraction of the atmosphere means it looks like the lights are ending right above you – a very strange effect. Not only that, but the bottom half mile or so is filled with insects playing in the light and creating an effect not like glitter floating in the breeze. Breath taking.

The sight moved me immensely, and I’m truely glad I got to see it so close.

In fact the whole day has been quite emotional, with tears flowing freely a few times. Being back in New York on this day for the first time has really brought everything home. In 2002 I stood on the Millenium Bridge in London looking towards the heart of the city. In 2003 I paused for a moment in Melbourne, a bright sunny day on Freeman Street. Three years on I stood a few hundred metres from the site, gawking like a tourist, remembering what it was like when I worked on the 96th floor and the people who died without warning.

At resFest we all laughed watching the Bushwhacked show, videos grouped by their political commentary on the Bush regime. So much anger directed at a President and his cronies. Many of the videos edited footage of Bush addresses together to give new meanings. The two that hit home most were the flipside of each other – one re-working the state of the nation address to say that America was an evil terrorist that must be stopped from using their weapons of mass destruction. The other, my favourite, re-worked Bush’s words to suggest we all live together in peace and lay down our arms. We can only hope that turns out to be true sooner rather than later.

Lest we forget

Three years now since the devastating events of September 11th 2001. It’s the first time I’ve actually been in New York since then, and that includes the day itself when I was out in State College watching the unbelievable events on 20 huge screens in a Sports Bar. It’s still upsetting to think about it too directly, and I’m lucky enough to have not lost family and friends. My thoughts are with those people today, and with the hope that at some point we can all realise that hate breeds hate.

When 9/11 happened I posted up my last photo of the twin towers with a phrase. I don’t think we’ve reached millions dead yet, but the related death toll is definately rising – with 1000 US troops now officially killed in Iraq. It’s easier to want to kill someone when you think that person is trying to kill you or your family. The ‘war on terror’ just tries to make people in the west feel secure by bringing more terror to people elsewhere.

Here’s to peace… for everyone in the world.

Liberty or cake

An amusing little political leanings test over at Politopia. Apparently I fall into the South West – to quote:

You advocate a large degree of personal freedom and a large degree of government control over the economy. Your neighbors include such folks as Jesse Jackson, Ralph Nader, Hilary Clinton, and Zack de la Rocha of Rage Against the Machine, and may refer to themselves as “liberals,” “left-wing liberals,” “civil libertarians,” “democratic socialists,” “egalitarians,” or “anarcho-socialists.”

Huzah for rage against the machine!

Yesterday was ‘fun’ in New York, the remnant of tropical storm Frances decided to come visit bringing torrential rain all night and subsequent breakdown of the subway system. Took most folks 2-3 hours to get into work. Yowsers. Luckily Tim’s apartment didn’t flood and the cats found the rain highly entertaining. In looking into this storm I noticed that we’re only a few major storms away from Hurricane Matthew… Finally, recognition for my own particular brand of mayhem and destruction. Mwuh hah hah hah!

Property is theft

Well, the Republicants have left the city… and thankfully nothing happened! I attribute this to my brave decision to leave the town and hide in the Hamptons for a couple o’ days. Big thanks to Roland and Nancy for being our gracious hosts as always.

Just had a quick flick through Bush’s speech. One quote pulled out by the Beeb caught my eye;

“Another priority for a new term is to build an ownership society, because ownership brings security, and dignity, and independence”

Ouch. This summarises quite accurately the problem faced in American society, the leaning on having possessions to make you happy. I came to realise while I was travelling last year that America is a capitalist society more than a democracy. The fact that the current President is up to his neck in business ‘associations’ is part of the issue that people around the world have with him. Anyone can come to America and be rich and famous – but it all revolves around getting money and possessions. There is no drive to achieve spiritual balance, or deriving comfort with what you already have that cannot be taken away from you such as your beliefs, thoughts and mind.

The corollary to this that Michael Moore picked up on in Bowling for Columbine was the use of fear in the mass media to drive consumption. Watch a program on Fox on the world’s deadliest killers, who MAY BE IN YOUR NEIGHBOURHOOD NOW! Then be pacified by an advert for a nice, shiny new SUV.. surely then you and your kids will be safe?

Fear/terrorism to drive the need for security/consumerism. What a great running platform. I’m sure Bush’s fat cat lobby group friends are sitting in their private clubs chinking glasses together already at what they’ve created. Getting wealthy on your discomfort and un-happiness.

It’s your vote America… use it well.