Blogger Burnout
While I may not be blogging here on my personal blog, I do blog every day on Inside Urban Green. Anyone who has blogged understands what blogger burnout means.
With that said, I’m going to give it a go again. While I most likely won’t blog here every day, my goal is to post 2 or 3 times per week. We’ll see how it goes.
Thanks for coming back.
Add comment September 9, 2008
Breakfast on the Pier
If you’ve been back here to see what’s up with me you might think I left the building. I’m still here but have other fish to fry. Boo!
With the heat wave we’re having I switched my daily walk from the evening to 6 a.m. One of my neighbors caught his breakfast off the Bay Ridge 69th street pier this morning. Striper saute coming up!
4 comments June 11, 2008
Earth Day in Balboa Park
This is the one place I felt at home in San Diego. To me it is San Diego…along with the Del Coronado Hotel. I used to walk a one hour loop across the Laurel St. bridge and around the perimeter of the park every day. The people watching was a trip. It’s also a world classs botanical garden in it’s own right. I’ve got a ton of photos I haven’t found time to upload to Flickr. There are some good street photography shots in the collection. When I get around to it these pics will bring back some good memories.
Now, when I walk I can look across the water and see Lady Liberty and the downtown Manhattan skyline. That’s pretty neat too. As the weather warms, the people watching is defintely getting better. I’m looking forward to spending many summer hours on the 69th St pier with my laptop on a picnic table. The office is open! 
3 comments April 7, 2008
A Journey of 10,000 Steps Begins With One
Rather than knee surgery, I’m trying to walk it out to the count of 10,000 steps per day (approximately 5 miles). Isn’t pain, after all, just another four letter word? Do I want to live through six months or more of rehab at this time? Probably not, so, I’m going to call on my reserve of Finnish “sisu”. I’m not sure that there are medical studies to support it but there are widely circulated recommendations to get a pedometer and walk 10M steps a day for better health and weight control.
This article on Science Daily isn’t quite so optimistic about using step counting for weight control but I’m going to find out for myself. I’d rather walk outside than train in a gym but I will if that’s the way to lose 25 ugly pounds and reduce the strain on my knees.
I now have my Silver Sneakers membership card at Harbor Fitness Center. What a valuable (and sensible) benefit of my new MediBlue health care plan. I walked there (about a 25 minute walk) for an orientation session with a trainer last Monday.
Instead of going into Manhattan for the Easter Parade today, I decided to walk locally. It was down to the pier, along the shore to the Verrazano Bridge at 4th Avenue over to 3rd Avenue and back home. It took about an hour and 40 minutes with a pedometer step count of 10,822. I iced my knees, took a nap and feel fine. There’s no more pain than from a trip to the EFMS to water plants.
Incidentally, it was amusing to pass so many women along the way with red hair. What’s up with that? Was red the trendy hair color for Easter this year? If you wanted photographic evidence you’ll just have to wait until I get an SLR with a telephoto. In your face with a point and shoot? I don’t think so
I’ve been carrying my point and shoot and have uploaded many of the photos to Flickr. You can see them in a 10,000 steps collection I’ve started. I’m still in the process of editing them. I find it much more interesting to look at photos when people include comments, so that’s what I’m trying to do.
Have you heard about the Flip camera? I read about it in a David Pogue review on the NY Times site. I need simple. I’m overloaded with tutorials accumulated in the transition from PC to Mac. The Flip looks like a video equivalent for my Canon point and shoot. I’ll use it to produce some indoor plant education videos for my new blog InsideUrbanGreen.org and also use it for street photography.
Stay tuned! Hopefully this is a start on breaking my “blogging block” or is it burnout?
1 comment March 23, 2008
Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow
Click photos to enlarge
The view looking out my window this morning when I woke up. The view inside my window all day. These are refugees from the EFMS science lab that rode home with me on the subway in an insulated picnic bag.
You can bet that there will be more of these shelves in the future…and better organized too. Note that there are both desert and sub-tropical plants. Every city home with windows could have at least one of these display shelves. They’re like an aquarium for plants and probably a lot easier to maintain. Using modern methods there’s nothing to it and they’re good for the soul.
Incidentally, If you remember the lyrics to this song, you’re older than I thought you were.
7 comments February 22, 2008
My Part Time Job
Click photos to enlarge
This is the neighborhood of my part time job as a treeage triage technician. We had a little problem with the Inside Plants Science Lab a while ago. A major number of the plants dehydrated and defoliated. The science lab became an ICU. It’s a long story and I’ll spare you the details. Suffice to say there are a lot of coulda, woulda, shoulda’s involved. Since I am not certified by the board of education for access during the school day, I care for the plants from 3 to 5 pm and some Saturdays. I’m now the only one that touches them.
Revival of these plants will be a testimony to the modern sub-irrigation methods used. It has also taken every bit of knowledge I have from over 30 years of experience with sub-tropical plants. Some of the plants are already compost but there are now signs of new growth on most of the desktop Ficus trees. I’m grateful that they didn’t all die. It looked rather grim for a while. Ten years of work almost went down the drain.
When the weather is warmer (probably April), I’m going to rent yet another U-Haul truck, hire Sambou and Jesse and move the plants to my apartment. The racks and fluorescent lights are already here. I will then have a demonstration location for prospective donation recipients. I’ve learned much from this experience and my mistakes.
The photo above shows the Ebbets Field Middle School across the street from the rather ugly apartment complex that replaced the demolished Ebbets Field. In the foreground, we have the well-known fast food emporium for the school kids. How convenient. I guess it’s better than a liquor store, but not by much.
Imagine a vegetable garden here – This area is on school property between the MacDonald’s and the school. Wouldn’t it be neat if there was a vegetable garden here during the spring and summer? No, there’s no need for access to the earth. Have a look at this sub-irrigated container garden at McGill University in Montreal. The 73 slides are truly inspiring. It was a cooperative effort between McGill students and the Rooftop Garden Project. There is absolutely no reason why this concept couldn’t be used in this play area. There is also no reason why this couldn’t be done all over the city. The only obstacle is lack of knowledge. We met the enemy and its name is ignorance.
Tornado ally – I’ve been walking by this row of apartments on my walk to and from the subway not realizing that the repair work going on is a result of the unusual tornado that ripped through Bay Ridge on August 8, 2007. This is just a few blocks from my apartment. I had no idea that a tornado could touch down in this part of the country.
Cobweb vines – Brooklyn Botanic Garden is one of the venerable botanic gardens of the world. Unfortunately, they have not kept up with the modern age. BBG publishes many books, not one of them covers the subject of sub-irrigated container plants for food production or decoration. There isn’t one class that teaches anything about the subject. I audited a class about houseplant care a couple of weeks ago. The information was as current as the Middle Ages and poorly presented. It was flat earth stuff.
The garden is stuck in a prior century. It’s painful when I walk by here so close to the Ebbets Field Middle School to know that the garden administration completely ignored my attempts to reach them about the plant science lab donation. I got a turned back and a deaf ear. The disaster that occurred might have been avoided had they a sensitive ear to a legitimate plea for help.
I was standing on a corner near the school and was startled to see this big sightseeing bus. I grabbed the camera from my coat pocket and shot. One click and this is what I got. It’s one of my favorite street shots. I like the juxtaposition of the tourists, the rockettes and the woman walking by oblivious to what’s going on. She’s got her music and her Nathan’s drink. What more does she need? And what are all those people shooting up there? Have a look at the original size photo.
After standing on my aching knees for a couple of hours doing triage on the plants, there’s the long ride home on the subway. Hey, it’s better than being stuck in car traffic. Besides, I get to do one of my favorite things in New York and that’s people watching.
1 comment February 17, 2008
Kung Hei Fat Choy!
I have no memory of the last time being in the marvelous mecca of entertainment known as Radio City Music Hall. It may be fifty or more years ago.
In any case, it was a lot of fun last week celebrating the Lunar New Year with a large group of Chinese Americans. The show was an extravaganza but anticlimactic. I had already had my big thrill for the day just getting inside the theater. I felt like I was in a cathedral. It was awesome.
I have faded memories of luxurious facilities in the theater. They were brought back to life when I walked down to the rest room. Note the unexpected scale figure who walked into the picture. The men’s lounge was the men’s smoking lounge back in 1932 when it opened just a year before my birth. Of course, smoking by glamorous actors was a part of mainstream life in the golden age of movies. I too started smoking at a very early age. Oh my have times changed.
I clicked my little point and shoot camera many times inside the theater but none of the photos could do justice to what I saw. Oh for an SLR and tripod. The seats were unfilled because I was very early, I took the picture from my seat which was not far from the stage.
The show was spectacular but perhaps more evocative of The Sound of Music and Mary Poppins than a Lunar New Year celebration. I must admit dozing several times. Perhaps you can get an idea from this promotional video including the rather trite viewer raves. The show had no content like anything I remember from running all those Firecracker 10K runs in Los Angeles Chinatown. For sure, I wasn’t expecting to be propagandized at this show. The video too is high quality propaganda.
I found this review on the web. The writer expressed my thoughts far better than I could. He read my mind.
By bmesc on 1/16/2008
Make no mistake: This is a fulan gong show and it is not subtle. 50% of the pieces are directly referencing fulan gong and its teachings. The MCs say “fulan gong,” the song lyrics directly reference fulan gong, dance pieces glorify fulan gong teachings and the scene depicting police (with a big red communist symbol on their backs) killing a fulan gong follower is too graphic for children. If the title of the show was, correctly, a Fulan Gong New Year Spectacular, would you go? They marketed this show in a misleading way. I know a bit about Chinese culture, being married to a Chinese born wife. To be fair, she thought half the show was good, and the scenery is spectacular, but she, as I, could not believe how overtly they preached their beliefs. The sad thing is, if you do not know much about Chinese tradition, this show does not really represent it. They seem say that China of long ago, when religious beliefs were prevalent is how it should be. My wife and I thought we’d see a big production of the types of shows you can see during various San Diego Chinese New Years’ events, but there are no traditional songs in this show and they use traditional Chinese dance to tell their own stories glorifying what fulan gong teaches. This is not a Chinese New Year celebration per se. The most well known aspect, the dragon dance, is absent. If you did not know this was the year of the rat, you would not know it after the show, either. They didn’t mention it. I had no opinion of fulan gong before I went to this show, and I’m not for or against fulan gong or the Chinese government, but after seeing this show, it is hard not to believe the fulan gong is a politically motivated religious group. (To be clear, my rating is 1-Star but my preview incorrectly indicated 5)
Earlier in the day, I became an official “New York Senior Citizen” when I applied for and got my senior discount MetroCard. With it, I can now ride the subways and buses all day and all night for only $38 a month. What a deal! The experience was very much like getting a passport by the way.
The MetroCard center happened to be just around the corner from my old IBM office at 2 Broadway. I well remember those long (2 hr each way) trips to and from East Windsor, N.J. via the Penn Central at Princeton Junction. I particularly remember the walk through the grounds of Trinity Church. I have little or no memory of the mural so prominent at the entrance to 2 Broadway. It’s a hint as to where my mind was in those days. Note the Starbucks next door. I sat there for a while and watched the passing parade of people on the street outside. People watching in New York is so much fun.
This is a sample nearby at the well known bull sculpture.
I thought seriously about going to the Giant’s ticker tape parade the day before but decided not to when I got up and saw the weather. You can see some of the paper debris on a building across from 2 Broadway. I certainly have earned a lifetime membership in the Giant’s fan club from those days long ago rooting for the likes of Charlie Connerly, Y.A. Tittle, Fran Tarkington, Frank Gifford, Kyle Rote and Frank Summerall. This is a team however for younger fans and I was just a bystander to this miraculous victory.
This fun day ended with an interesting vignette. I walked a couple of blocks to the R train entrance, went down a flight of stairs to find that I was on the uptown side. As I was standing there scanning the signs, I heard a woman’s voice (with a slight Spanish accent) ask which direction I was going. When I answered Brooklyn, she said I was on the wrong side of the street and then gave me detailed directions. With that she asked if I’d like an elevator back up to the street level then proceeded to walk over and press the button for an elevator. She obviously noticed me staring at the signs and quickly sized up the situation. You’ve heard New Yorkers are always in a hurry with no time for courtesy? Fuggedaboutit! I’ve been shown more courtesy and respect as a senior on the subway and streets of New York these past months than all the years driving around Southern California in my little “glass bubble”, even with the top down.
2 comments February 12, 2008
Marvelous Moiseyev!
Last night I went to a see Russia’s fabulous Moiseyev Dance Company at the Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts located on the campus of Brooklyn College. Most would agree that Moiseyev is the world’s premier folk ballet dance company. They certainly lived up to that billing last evening. Their performance was simply spectacular. Bravo!
Maybe you remember their Partisans dance from a while back. This current program certainly wasn’t lacking anything, but it would have been great to see them perform it once again. Perhaps they will in a future appearance. I’ll be there of they do.
This acknowledged masterpiece of stagecraft – considered by many his signature work – was created by Moiseyev as a tribute to the mountaineers of various nationalities who banded together to fight against Nazis in the region of the north Caucasus. The scouting party appears first in the scene, followed by the Partisan unit, which engages the enemy. It is impossible not to believe that these partisans are actually riding horses through the mountain passes.
The video does little justice to their excellence. This review in the Washington Post about their Thursday performance does a much better job. In the final analysis, however, you must see them in a live performance.
It was a packed house and my Goldstar discounted balcony seat was a major bargain at $19. The view was just fine with lots of Russian language conversation going on around me. It could just as well have been Moscow. What a legacy Igor Aleksandrovich left to the world. Long live Moiseyev!
4 comments January 13, 2008
Walk it Out
That’s what I do…lots of “Walk it Out in the Big Apple” even though my knees are screaming at me. I’m trying (not very successfully) to deal with the 185 tabs I have open in Firefox and found this video. It’s a trip!
I saw Damn Yankees on Broadway back in the ’50s but Gretchen Wyler had already replaced Gwen Verdon. Gwen Verdon and Bob Fosse epitomize Broadway dancing for me…and millions of others. All That Jazz is one of my favorite all-time movies.
Paint me stupid, but when I surfed into this video I thought it was an original sound track. Duh! Hey it could have been. She was a hip lady and I’m sure she’s smiling up there.
I’m not a rap fan, but I really connected with hip-hop dancing back in 2005. Check out this hip-hop photo set from the 2005 Celebrate Dance Festival in Balboa Park. Those kids were great. I really enjoyed them.
Incidentally, folks in San Diego should hang their heads in shame for allowing this festival to fade to dark after 10 years back in 2006. The fees in Balboa Park were raised so much that Eveoke Dance could no longer afford to stage it. Evidently, it’s going to be revived this year in August. Wake up San Diego! Life is not all about beautiful weather and…money, money, money.
So, have a look. It’s a great sync job. I smile every time I watch it and hope you do too.
3 comments January 5, 2008
Big Apple Holidays
Holiday events started on Friday evening with a concert at the almost 100-year-old Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd just a few blocks away. I happened to surf in to the concert announcement on the Meetup.com site. The St. Petersburg Men’s Ensemble sang Russian classics and folk songs a cappella. They were outstanding.
Afterwards at the coffee and cake social, I met Pastor David Rommereim. We had a most interesting conversation, which I look forward to continuing.
Saturday evening was a dance concert at the renowned Joyce Theater in Chelsea. I well remember going there on a NYC trip in 2000. I was staying at the Chelsea Lodge nearby. It’s a great venue (not too large) and the Tango Fire performance was a sell out. It was interesting that the audience responded to the instrumental tango more so than the dance performers. To my surprise, the orchestra got the most rousing applause from the audience at the end of the concert.
My main interest is the dance. These stage performers are very acrobatic, ballet-trained dancers as you will see in the video. However, I much prefer the tango and milonga dancing I watch on YouTube. It’s great to see some of the sometimes-portly older folks and their smooth moves. In the coming year, I’ll find some places to see these types of amateur dancers. It will likely be a ballroom venue.
Be sure you’re over 18 before watching this video.
Christmas day turned out to be a walkathon on my creaky old knees. I went to Manhattan for not one but two walking tours, with my own solo tour in between. By the end of the day I could hardly move. I had walked in a meandering path from 49th street down to 18th street with a lot of standing in one place listening to the tour guides. That’s more stress on the knees than walking.
The Municipal Art Society sponsored the morning tour of Rockefeller Center. I’ve been on a number of MAS tours in the past and they’ve all been memorable events.
The walking tour led by Tony Robins was smack in the middle of a multi-ring circus known as Rockefeller Center on Christmas day. What a show! I could have stayed there for many hours just people watching. I kept thinking about the fact that I really do live in NY. I’m not a tourist or commuter like the old days. It was a great feeling.
After the tour I walked down to the Grand Central area and over to Bryant Park to check out the skating. Then it was a walk down to 18th street and 6th avenue for the “Ladies Mile” tour. Bernie Cohen who is also a fountain of information led it. It was a revelation to see these old department store buildings and the present occupants including The Container Store, Bed, Bath & Beyond, Burlington Mills and Home Depot among others.
This is a “shopping mall” like no other I’ve seen and I’ve seen a lot of them in the course of business and shopping in Southern California. Some may recall that I was one of the pioneers in marketing preserved palm trees. Shopping centers were prime prospects.
There are a few photos posted to Flickr with many more to come including street photography from my daily walks in Balboa Park in 2006. Posting photos with captions and description copy is a tedious job. Flickr can use up a lot of free time, that’s for sure.
Today, I’m off to The Museum of the City of New York. It’s the last day of the Glory Days of New York Baseball exhibit. I was a die-hard Dodger fan back in the late ‘40s and the 50’s until Walter O’Malley stuck a knife in Brooklyn’s heart when he moved the team to L.A.
It will be interesting to reminisce about those years, never to be repeated. Can you imagine three major league teams in NYC? Baseball was King of the Big Apple before growth hormones, steroids, gargantuan salaries and egos. The players I saw at Ebbets Field were real people among real people. I look forward to seeing some minor league baseball at Keyspan Park, home of the Brooklyn Cyclones in Coney Island. I’ll find some new “boys of summer” to root for.
Incidentally, it’s a strange feeling to walk by the site of Ebbets Field on my many trips to the Ebbets Field Middle School. It’s across the street from home plate. The site is now occupied by a large and rather ugly housing project. It’s a sad commentary on what was once there. Oh well, “ever onward and upward” as we used to say in Big Blue.
Those were the days when the Big Apple was sort of the “Big Blue Apple” with the somewhat mythical IBM “World Headquarters” at 590 Madison Avenue. I used to have this picture in my mind of Tom Watson, “the wizard”, sitting in a top floor office slowing spinning a globe of the world while pondering his next move. If he was a “corporate bastard” a term used by many treehugger boomers, he was a benevolent bastard. Many forget who paid for their college educations.
IBM sold the building but the well known atrium still exists with most of its bamboo. I made a good friend there on one of my NYC trips. I met Helen on a MAS walking tour. She lives in Northern California but perhaps one day she will be a Brooklynite again. I’ll go by 590 Madison again one of these days. It will always be the IBM Building to me.
2 comments December 31, 2007
