Month: December 2020

I took a walk in the snow last night. This was my favorite shot, even though it wasn’t much of a “snow” shot. But it felt magical walking around the West Village late at night, with only snow plows and others like myself, who wanted to be the midst of it all, and this shot captured how I felt.

This is the garden at St. Lukes, where I sit sometimes to read, although not for a long time.

A man and his dog.

I was walking behind him for a while.

A girl in search of a drink? I’m kidding. That’s the White Horse Tavern and it was closed.

My pictures make it look like it wasn’t much of a storm, but it was. This was one of the first shots I took. This is my block, looking back towards my building, where you can rent an apartment and be my neighbor according to the sign. Maybe I should go out and get more shots now, because it continued to snow throughout the night. It should be more dramatically snowy now.

The pandemic continues to break my heart. Since I started working at the ASPCA I’ve been passing by this store inside the Times Square subway stop, Record Mart. I love it because I’m a nostalgia junkie and they always had great hifi nostalgia displays. So I was very sad to see this note pictured on their shuttered store when I returned to work at the ASPCA Hospital last month. I’m glad that they will continue online, but I will miss their window displays.

Could they really be the oldest record store in Manhattan, as they say in this sign? How is it possible the first opened as late as 1958? Here is their history. Okay, according to a quick search they are not the oldest, no disrespect to Record Mart. The Commodore Music Shop opened in 1935 on 42nd Street. And the Casa Latina del Bronx record store opened in 1951, and moved to a new location in 1955 as Casalegre. Okay, that’s the Bronx, not Manhattan. Anyway, I’m sure there are many contenders. Doesn’t matter. I miss passing Record Mart by and I hope people will shop at their online store.

Here’s a picture of their window that I posted last year.

Please go to the Cats Act website and help save cats from horrific experiments. I don’t even want to describe what they’re doing. It’s monstrous.

I got to sing carols in the park with my choir, The Choral Society of Grace Church. It was great, but I thought we were going to end with the Hallelujah Chorus and we didn’t. I don’t think our director, John Maclay, thought we were up to it given we haven’t been singing regularly since March. (Maybe he was right, maybe not.) This is John handing out our music. The picture that follows is of a ballet class we passed by on our way home.

I decided to get a wreath. The thing is, it’s within the cat’s reach. I’m okay with them ripping it to shreds, if that’s what happens. In that case I will call it their Christmas present.