Month: June 2009

I was walking by the Carmine Street pool (featured in the movie Raging Bull) and I saw they were filling it up.  Today I read that the pools are open!  I don’t use the city pools actually, particularly the one here.  I’m still mad at not being allowed to use the facilities during “family hours” which is all the time during the summer.  New York City hates single people apparently. Hrmph. Oh no!  I’m like a future-cranky-old-person sitting on a bench, endlessly complaining.

Update: I had to come back here and post that I am now a happy member of this gym, have been for three years now, and I swim in the pools all the time. They made the pool hours more fair. It’s still more geared towards families in the summer, which is fine, as long they give the rest of us some time.

This is a really good one, don’t miss it if you’re in NYC. It’s a battle of bands thing, Neil Young vs The Eagles. I’m not an Eagles fan, I have to say, so the battle part was pretty pointless for me, and with someone like Neil Young—for the love of god—it should have been all Neil Young. But the singers were so talented I enjoyed even the Eagles songs. My favorites didn’t disappoint, and my absolute favorite was the absolute best last night: Mike Fornatale doing The Needle and the Damage Done and a surprise second song.  I want to go again just to see him sing the two songs he did again.

This is Ellen Foley, who I also adore. She did Only Love Can Break Your Heart.

I’ve been walking the same four blocks every day for more than a week in order to describe them for this proposal I’m writing.  This is all for what is going to amount to four paragraphs probably!  But they will be my favorite four paragraphs I’ve ever written.  I’m trying to do something I’ve always wanted to do, which is show New York City through my crazy-colored-glasses.

Everyone is understandably talking about Neda Agha Sultan, the Iranian woman who was shot to death during the recent protests, but Mohammad Ali Abtahi, a former vice president of Iran, who was on the Daily Show on Monday night, really got to me.  He was just so sweet and dignified and generous of spirit, and his son … actually I’m reading his bio and he says he has three daughters. Maybe that was a son-in-law?

Anyway, Mohammad Ali Abtahi was arrested on June 16th.  If you see the interview he’s just so gentle and manages to remain poised and kind while Jason Jones does his Jason Jones/Daily Show thing.  It’s horrible to think that someone so gentle has been arrested and, as someone said, based on the arrests during the last large protest in Iran, things do not go well for people who are arrested during protests in Iran.

And one bird.  I’m describing something for this proposal I’m working on and I’d like to identify at least a few of these plants.  I can’t believe how few growing things I can name.  Dogwoods and gingkos, that’s about it. I even think that some of these are the same type of plant over and over. Thank you in advance!

Plant1

Plant2

Plant3

Plant4

Plant5

Plant6

Plant7

Plant8

Plant9

Plant10

Plant11

And this bird.