Yesterday I was close to the High Line park and decided to see it. And was that a good decision or not!? It is the most interesting park I ever visited, with the possible exception for Mainau in the Boden sea and the roof top of the Ghibli museum in Tokyo.
But this is a public park and so futuristic and well designed, or to be honest it parks and design might not match entirely: lets call it adorned. It is very very very nicely adorned.
Not well kept, but well guarded from rabble such as myself who try to smuggle bikes into the park. Oh, I should not have done that! I need to learn the rules. Not that I tried to use the bike. But they, the bikes that is, are not allowed. Like a dog. So I was showed to an elevator and told to leave.
Well I got to see it at least.
NY
tisdag 27 september 2011
söndag 25 september 2011
Union Pool
I talked to a German woman who exclaimed such a funny thing:
"When I was in Berlin and said that I was moving to NY everyone said: Wow that is the centre of the Universe! And now that I am here it is so lame."
I am most willing to admit that she has a point, not a big one but still a point. However it is also worth noting that she left the place about 15 minutes later to go home and sleep. And I had more or less just arrived.
If I may paraphrase a known Swedish author:
"Lame" said Bill. "The word is Lame." said Bull.
"When I was in Berlin and said that I was moving to NY everyone said: Wow that is the centre of the Universe! And now that I am here it is so lame."
I am most willing to admit that she has a point, not a big one but still a point. However it is also worth noting that she left the place about 15 minutes later to go home and sleep. And I had more or less just arrived.
If I may paraphrase a known Swedish author:
"Lame" said Bill. "The word is Lame." said Bull.
Rapist guy - wtf?
Sometimes it is fairly easy to get offended and sometimes I can not care less. For religion of all types I just resign in-front of the stupidities that are perpetrated each day in the name of a made up character who is supposed to be good but only seems to demand bad things of humans.
Yesterday some friends and acquaintances of mine visited the bar called Union Pool in Williamsburg. In the latter part of the evening 2 chubby guys in white shirts and strange hairdos that looked like the trimmer had broken halfway through the cut started talking to me when I was teaching one of my Colombians some very important phrases in Swedish. The guys turned out to be Jewish although they had forgotten the small hats at home. We talked for a short while about linguistics before my friend asked them about their lack of head protection and for some reason the discussion fizzed out then and there. I felt a sting of my Swedish-ness when I thought that "you should not ask about peoples religions, it is not polite to make them look stupid in a public place". But as I turned to some Norwegian friends who was eager to know what we had talked about I was soon swayed in my perception of that innocent question. One of the Jews had apparently looked at one of the Norwegian girls, who might I add where not provocatively dressed and said that if you dress like that you deserve to be raped. How is your brain working when you think that saying that is your next move?
Yesterday some friends and acquaintances of mine visited the bar called Union Pool in Williamsburg. In the latter part of the evening 2 chubby guys in white shirts and strange hairdos that looked like the trimmer had broken halfway through the cut started talking to me when I was teaching one of my Colombians some very important phrases in Swedish. The guys turned out to be Jewish although they had forgotten the small hats at home. We talked for a short while about linguistics before my friend asked them about their lack of head protection and for some reason the discussion fizzed out then and there. I felt a sting of my Swedish-ness when I thought that "you should not ask about peoples religions, it is not polite to make them look stupid in a public place". But as I turned to some Norwegian friends who was eager to know what we had talked about I was soon swayed in my perception of that innocent question. One of the Jews had apparently looked at one of the Norwegian girls, who might I add where not provocatively dressed and said that if you dress like that you deserve to be raped. How is your brain working when you think that saying that is your next move?
Conan - wtf
So I just saw Conan the Barbarian, the new one. It got 5.3 in Imdb. The scores on Imdb are infamously high. Usually a Imdb grading around 7 should in reality be about 5, which means that an Imdb grade around 5 translates to about 3, the scale is far from linear though but with reasonable approximations. However, for this particular film 5.3 is actually a very high score, way to high. The question for anyone, fans of Robert E. Howard or just cineastes is the same philosophical conundrum that people have been wrestling with in all ages: "How the fuck can anyone do this?"
Seriously? With a reasonable amount of money and the back-story that is Conan and this smelly garbage is what director Marcus Nispel manages to throw up from the darkest part of his worthless body! I really hope that he wakes up from his weed induced coma and when his brain starts to work again he should feel adequately ashamed. That should melt him into a wet pool on the spot so I guess I will actually hear if it happens.
The strange thing is that a film-production is such a large endeavour so someone somewhere sometime should have said no. I feel this being somewhat parallel to the massacres in Rwanda: someone needs to have the courage to say no and everyone needs the courage to listen.
Seriously? With a reasonable amount of money and the back-story that is Conan and this smelly garbage is what director Marcus Nispel manages to throw up from the darkest part of his worthless body! I really hope that he wakes up from his weed induced coma and when his brain starts to work again he should feel adequately ashamed. That should melt him into a wet pool on the spot so I guess I will actually hear if it happens.
The strange thing is that a film-production is such a large endeavour so someone somewhere sometime should have said no. I feel this being somewhat parallel to the massacres in Rwanda: someone needs to have the courage to say no and everyone needs the courage to listen.
The Cloisters
The Cloisters is a collection of mostly if not completely French monastery stone and architecture. It is located on the northern end of Manhattan. The different parts of stone has been shipped here and reassembled with new material to a building with some very monastic features. It is a museum and I think it is very interested for anyone with an interest in old monasteries, church architecture and the like. Especially interesting that it is placed here, since all such things are missing in the history of this country.
Beavis & Butthead
I crossed the George Washington Bridge today. Wow. I have done that before in a car, but this time I could see it all. People have been talking about the Williamsburg bridge, even I did that here. Well let me tell you: that is absolutely dwarfed by crossing the G.W. Bridge. It is a huge bridge and a very nice crossing although there is quite a traffic situation. And on the far side in New Jersey the Palisades also put your littleness in proportion to nature. I had a real nature weekend, at least with NY measurements.
I rode through Fort Lee in NJ and was transported back to the time of M-TVs greatness when I went through what must have been the original Beavis & Butthead land. Green lawns, wide streets lined with American styled houses, a bit to big for the small lawns they where resting upon. Stopped over at a Seven 11 and saw a policeman buy what I can only presume must have been doughnuts... ok that assumption might have been a little to perfect. But still: I stick to my story.
Everywhere are traces of the economic situation: closed business spaces and closed out parking lots. But the people living in Fort Lee are probably quite well off judging from the sizes of their houses. But another thing that is evident is what have lead up to this: I was following a street lined with oversized motor-stores of all the international brands. And next to them banks. How often do you see bank offices in the same area as the car-salesmen have their shops? Here they go hand in hand: get a loan then just walk across the street and then you don't have to walk again... Just pay through your nose because you bought a to big vehicle that guzzles gasoline and cost 20 times more than you had.
I rode through Fort Lee in NJ and was transported back to the time of M-TVs greatness when I went through what must have been the original Beavis & Butthead land. Green lawns, wide streets lined with American styled houses, a bit to big for the small lawns they where resting upon. Stopped over at a Seven 11 and saw a policeman buy what I can only presume must have been doughnuts... ok that assumption might have been a little to perfect. But still: I stick to my story.
Everywhere are traces of the economic situation: closed business spaces and closed out parking lots. But the people living in Fort Lee are probably quite well off judging from the sizes of their houses. But another thing that is evident is what have lead up to this: I was following a street lined with oversized motor-stores of all the international brands. And next to them banks. How often do you see bank offices in the same area as the car-salesmen have their shops? Here they go hand in hand: get a loan then just walk across the street and then you don't have to walk again... Just pay through your nose because you bought a to big vehicle that guzzles gasoline and cost 20 times more than you had.
lördag 24 september 2011
Bear Mountain and the mouth-man John Mason
We took a cruise ship up the Hudson today with destination Bear Mountain where there was a fair-like October-fest going.
The boat ride was nice enough with 7 happy ladies as my company. But what really shined was the Manhattan tour-guide John Mason who loves his own voice so much that he managed to keep talking long after we had left Manhattan and his area of knowledge. He was then simply "killing it" as we headed back and he announced himself as an eligible target for pick ups and what not, sporting the handle: "Silver Fox". At first I just dropped my jaw at his improbable exclaims and soon he had me laughing out loud in an otherwise silent audience. As I left the boat I shook his hand and declared him "a gentleman and a scholar".
Up in the mountain we did not manage to get to the top because it took some time before we found the trail and instead we ate some "October-fest" food and walked around the lake. When we finally got in to the woods we saw chipmunks (They are so tiny!) and couple having sex. They where very quick, or it can have been the high pitched giggling from some of the girls.
Soon thereafter as we where contemplating heading back we where passed by John & Ray who where walking parts of the Appalachian trail. They commented on the fact that everyone except me where wearing white or black or a combination there of. I followed these gentlemen for a spell when the girls headed back to the boat and we talked about everything from screen design to hiking. Then we parted ways and I headed back and found my self alone with the pine-trees. That was the best experience as I could smell them very intensely. I have not had a good nature experience for some month.
All in all a pretty good day.
The boat ride was nice enough with 7 happy ladies as my company. But what really shined was the Manhattan tour-guide John Mason who loves his own voice so much that he managed to keep talking long after we had left Manhattan and his area of knowledge. He was then simply "killing it" as we headed back and he announced himself as an eligible target for pick ups and what not, sporting the handle: "Silver Fox". At first I just dropped my jaw at his improbable exclaims and soon he had me laughing out loud in an otherwise silent audience. As I left the boat I shook his hand and declared him "a gentleman and a scholar".
Up in the mountain we did not manage to get to the top because it took some time before we found the trail and instead we ate some "October-fest" food and walked around the lake. When we finally got in to the woods we saw chipmunks (They are so tiny!) and couple having sex. They where very quick, or it can have been the high pitched giggling from some of the girls.
Soon thereafter as we where contemplating heading back we where passed by John & Ray who where walking parts of the Appalachian trail. They commented on the fact that everyone except me where wearing white or black or a combination there of. I followed these gentlemen for a spell when the girls headed back to the boat and we talked about everything from screen design to hiking. Then we parted ways and I headed back and found my self alone with the pine-trees. That was the best experience as I could smell them very intensely. I have not had a good nature experience for some month.
All in all a pretty good day.
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