The Photogenic City

Next Saturday, the boyfriend and I are taking some pictures around this city that we love and that has been our home for the past eight years. We figure with the holidays coming up and the gray hairs beginning to sprout, now is as good a time as any to memorialize our favorite places here. That, and we can finally send out those shiny, mass-produced, happy holiday photographs!

We hired a photographer (recommendation to come--if she works out!) who I think does a good job of not being too formal. There is nothing I despise more than stiff, formal photos. Today, as I walked home through Central Park, I began thinking about places to capture shots around the city. There are so many that it is hard to narrow down, but here are a few of my favorite "Photo Ops" around New York City!
Carl Schurz Park: I mention this neighborhood park frequently, as it is truly a New York City gem. It is never overcrowded, always carefully groomed, and it contains our favorite dog park!

Stoops: I love a good New York City stoop. Whether it's in Brooklyn or scattered across the upper west side, graffiti covered, or a picture-perfect brownstone with ascending flowerpots, I find the stoop quintessentially New York!

Taxi Cabs: Ahhh yes...the iconic taxicab; canary yellow, black, bold, typography...Someday, this type of taxicab will reveal the era that the pictures were taken and I love that idea.

Central Park: Filled with subcategories, as there are so many amazing photo opportunities around the park, this is one of my favorite places to take pictures in the city. While we may avoid Bethesda Fountain, since everyone else in the world doesn't, there are still many a gems to be found on the quest for the perfect photograph in Central Park.

The Corner Store: One of my favorite things about NYC is that something is always open. The corner store can be counted on for midnight memory lapses, holidays, chocolate cravings, we-ran-out-of-toilet-paper-and-it's-two-in-the-morning, and they always seem to have an excellent flower selection. For this reason, they have earned a coveted spot in the best photo-ops in NYC list!

With all these lovely places in mind, now I just have to hope that the leaves will stay just as brilliant until Saturday and that I can manage the 6 AM wake-up call--since apparently, that is when the light is best in this metropolis...sigh...

Friday Footnotes

Well, I have been on quite the hiatus! Life, as you well know, is busy and these past few weeks have been filled to the brim with commitments (both exciting and mundane), which have made it difficult to make time for my favorite pastime of blogging. That said, here are some lovely things that I am enjoying on this beautiful, fall Friday with the auspicious date: 11/11/11!

The Radical Camera: New York's Photo League. This exhibit at the Jewish Museum was fascinating and I recommend it. They have free admission on Saturdays until 5:45 too! The boyfriend and I went last Saturday and found the photographs to be an amazing reflection of every day, urban life during the Great Depression in New York City. Check it out!

From The Jewish Museum Website 

Not to focus entirely on museums or anything, but another exhibit that looks like it is going to be so much fun is the exhibit at The New Museum: Carston Holler "The Experience." In this exhibit, he transports museumgoers back into childhood where they ride the carousal, fly down a giant slide, try on upside down goggles, and experience zero gravity. Now that's my kind of museum! I can't wait to head down there today after a stop at The Meatball Shop...YUM!

From the Huffington Post 

Precious Knowledge: This film is being screened on Saturday up at the Schomburg and I can't wait to attend! Click HERE for the trailer. 

My date tonight with the boyfriend...we are heading to The Mussel Pot, which is one of my favorite places to indulge in one of my favorite dishes...MUSSELS!!! I think I will order the Thai mussels...yum...perfection! The last time we walked by this street was on Halloween as we headed over to the Village Halloween Parade and, on the way, we saw a lovely little wine bar that we plan to stop at tonight as well. In my mind, there is no better way to spend a Friday; wine, mussels, good company! 

Happy, happy Friday!

Hibakusha

Tonight I went to hear two survivors from the bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima speak. While they had vastly different approaches to calling for peace; one called herself "Grandma" and ended with a call to action for peace chorus style, and the other was clearly speaking out of a place of rage and academic critique, both moved me and made me hope that the word "Hibakusha," or survivor of the atomic bomb, becomes a word we no longer need in any language.

Since I always seem to connect everything to books, I will mention that tonight I thought about a book that I have not thought about in a long time. When I was in grade school, I remember reading a book called Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes. Sitting at this talk tonight, the vivid memory returned to me of the young girl's struggle to fold the thousand paper cranes and to be granted her one wish, which was to live.

Narrative, in my mind, is the most powerful of all art forms...

Paying Homage to Tim Hetherington

Tim Hetherington, co-director of the amazing documentary about the war in Afghanistan, Restrepo, but also the inspiring photojournalist, was killed in Libya on April 20th of this year by mortar shells fired by Gaddafi's forces. Exactly six months later, Gaddafi lost his own life this week, on October 20th. While I am by no means pointing to prodigiousness of dates and the like, it is an irony that two days later, on October 22nd, an exhibit paying homage to Tim Hetherington's life work and documentation of the photographs of life during war and violence opened at the Bronx Documentary Center.

From a short film he created in 2010, which was projected on the wall of a neighboring building, to the intensely emotional and evocative photographs in the exhibit, this is a not-to-be-missed display. The Bronx Documentary Center is a new art space in the South Bronx and, judging by this first opening, this is a place that is a real gem. I can't wait to see what else they curate.

We attended the opening and, while this picture doesn't come close to capturing the vibe of this place, you can at least get a sense of the projected film. The outdoor patio had wine, beer, and food for the opening and an unobstructed view of the moving images of Hetherington's personal video diary of and his experiences. Truly moving. Be sure to check it out! For more on this, check this and this out.

It's Howl-een

With Halloween just around the corner...I have been thinking a lot about my costume. I have known what I am going to be since last year and have slowly accumulated materials over the past few months. While I have given a lot of thought to my costume, my pet's costume has received considerably less attention. What's your take on pet costumes? Are they a form of animal cruelty, or are they a fun way to include your pet in the excitement of the holiday?

This weekend, on the Upper East Side of Manhattan (of course), Carl Schurz Park held the annual Halloween Howl. It is Frenchie's least favorite day of the year. It is also the day of the year that the boyfriend and I are most aware of Frenchie's weight. Seeing as we couldn't even velcro his costume across his stomach, with this year's Halloween Howl came the resolution that it is time for Frenchie to go on a diet.

Every year I am always impressed with people's costume creativity. While Frenchie just wore a standard Target turtle costume, people tend to go all out at the Howl and I am always in awe of the creativity present in the costume parade. Two of my favorite costumes this year were the "Taxi driver and his cab"

And the weathermen and their barometer--the picture didn't capture the full effect--it was such an orchestrated ensemble!

Awesomeness abounds...

Friday Footnotes

Here is what I am loving on this much appreciated Friday:
I have been looking for a bar cart for about a year now and, let me tell you, I have found the perfect one!
The super cute company Society Social has been reviving the bar cart as a prominent piece of coveted furniture. Personally, I am in LOVE with "The Stanton," which is named after a bar that I love on the Lower East Side.

From Society Social 

The movie 50/50 that I just can't wait to see! While the movie looks totally amazing, I must admit that it was the dog cameo that got me!

One Step Beyond: After a field trip to the Museum of Natural History this week, I found myself staring up at the giant blue whale under which there is a dance floor where I am pretty sure that AMNH hosts it's monthly "One Step Beyond" parties. Can't wait to see the boyfriend dance; it is simultaneously endearing and eh hem...fascinating. 

A book that can help me realize, find, or, who am I kidding, develop, my inner stylishness...

Happy, happy Friday!

Halloween Hit List

Yesterday, after a visit to the Museum of Natural History, I was walking home alongside Central Park and passed this amazing, Tim Burton-esque tree.

One look at this tree had me completely nostalgic for some good, old-fashioned Halloween movies! What are your favorite Halloween movies? When I was in high school, my friends and I would get together and watch all of the scariest movies. My sister, who is also a huge fan of the really scary movie, would also always get me to watch something that would inevitably leave me up all night staring at the ceiling. Now, I really can't watch scary movies. Perhaps it is with adulthood that the realization arrives that the real world is scary enough, but, for some reason, my scary movies days are over.That said, here are some of my best-loved Halloween hits, in no particular order...
Well, since I mentioned it: The Nightmare Before Christmas really is a Tim Burton fave...

Moving on... and I am well-aware that this is not actually a "good" film (yet I can't help but want to watch it at this time of year): Hocus Pocus. Like, I said, I am already aware of this films mediocrity.

For those days that I am missing the excitement of being a kid readying for a night of neighborhood trick-or-treating, It's The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown, almost always does the trick...

Sleepy Hollow is about as scary as I'll go. Though, I really like the Disney version as well...

Bedknobs and Broomsticks: Hey, I said nostalgia influences me...

Oh how I adore October!