El High School Musical

Our hotel in Madrid (I'm reverting back for lack of anything recent to blog about) was near what, I guess, is the Broadway of Spain - as on this stretch of road there were about 14,000 musicals, including:



I, myself, have never seen "High School Musical" and cannot speak to whether this is the best, possible product America could have chosen to export to our Spanish-speaking friends in Europe. I also have never gone to high school in Spain. However, I have seen movies set in Spanish high schools AND I am familiar with the standard mythology/plot development of American movies set in high schools. And so what I wonder is this: how to Spaniards understand what the hell is going on in this musical?

I mean, seriously, how do they get whatever there is to get about it? While "Beauty & the Beast" (playing just across the street from this) deals with the all-cultural, timeless story of true love being more than skin deep, this...THIS deals with, what? Singing and dancing about gym class? Do they have cheerleaders in Spain? What about "chemistry teams"? (We didn't even have that one in MY high school.)

Can you imagine the daunting task of translating "High School Musical" into Spanish? Does any even know the Spanish word for "math nerd", because we haven't gotten to that unit in my text book yet.

Garlic Galore

Every last weekend in September in Saugerties, N.Y. the crazy Kiwanis Club there holds a garlic festival. At this garlic festival is every imaginable form of garlic creation there is (including just garlic). You can buy garlic infused olive oil, garlic dips, garlic mustard and garlic cheese. If this was all there was, you might shrug and say, so, sounds like a garlic festival. Why should we care. But no. There's more.


You also have your choice of the little-known sweet side of garlic, which includes: garlic cannoli, garlic fudge, chocolate dipped garlic cloves and the ever popular, garlic ice cream. And to wash it all down, there's garlic coffee.

People are crazy for the garlic fest. Thousands of people attend the two-day event. The entry fee is $7 or $5 in advance and pretty much all there is to do is shop and eat garlic-laced stuff. Though there is some live music, no one ever seems to be paying any attention to the music.

Speaking of Spanish...

Here's a badly translated sign I photographed in Barcelona:



Please note that this general goods/grocery store in the train station in Barcelona did not, in fact, have a library in it. As anyone who has studied a romance language knows that word that looks like library is actually "bookstore". It's a false cognate. The word for library in Spanish, for those of you keeping up at home, is actually biblioteca" (and it's feminine).

Spain is lousy with badly translated signs, menus, guides, etc. They are in desperate need of some translators. And I know just the person for the job....just as soon as I finish community college :-)

Three hour class the greatest idea since the three hour tour

This semester my Spanish class (301) is one night a week (Thursdays) for THREE hours. This is the dumbest invention in modern collegic education. Period.

I sit in that class and feel myself getting dumber each week. People — and most of my class is native speakers — have given up all semblance of trying to speak Spanish. Even the teacher spends half the time speaking English. By the time we get to the second half of class everyone is drained, not only because we've been in class for an hour but because most of us have either had a full day of work or a full day of classes. We are mentally AND physically exhausted. No single class should be three hours long, but most especially, night classes should not be three hours long.

The class make up is about two-thirds native speakers. Several were born and raised in their Spanish-speaking country of origin. The rest are children of immigrants who grew up speaking Spanish at home. One woman works as a Spanish-language notary public at a bank. It's extremely daunting to try and participate in the discussions when they are in Spanish because the teacher finishes our sentences for us if she feels we are taking too long and the native speakers often cut those of us who aren't off to voice their opinions in rapid-fire Spanish, leaving us sort of helpless to respond as we didn't understand half of what they said.

The non-native speakers are made up of a French elementary school teacher who took Spanish in high school but is back in school trying to be certified to teach it as well. (More money) Three professors at the university who are taking the class to learn Spanish (one is auditing). And two freshmen girls who have been taking Spanish since elementary school but seemed as lost as I do. And then there is me.

We got our first test back today and I made an 87. I now have two 87s in the class because it's the same grade she gave me on my first composition. I was fairly happy with that because I didn't study as hard as I should have, owing to the fact that I was, in fact, in Spain for the beginning of the semester, then my parents were here visiting for the week leading up to the test. I felt even better about the 87 when she said to us how disappointed she was in our grades overall because she had expected us to make As and Bs and instead we made Bs and Cs and even Ds and Fs. Two of the native speakers didn't even bother to read the directions and thus did an entire section of the test wrong (they put all the verbs in present tense instead of the past tenses) and so what did the professor do? She gave the tests BACK to them in class today and told them to redo it and hand it back in. What is that?! If anyone should have known what was going on, it should have been them. I wanted to be like, "Oye! give me my test back and let me redo mine too, so I can ALSO get a higher grade!"

Anyway, this is all to say, Spanish class sucks. And I hate the subjunctive tense.

Single? Then celebrate!

I heard on the radio, driving home this morning, that it's National Singles Week. There was no explanation, so I'm not sure if it's a celebration of the single-player tennis match or, in fact, of myself and others like me. I choose to believe it is the latter. So happy us, guys!

Bucky's Back! (Redux)

I know you've been checking this site religiously, wondering exactly how much vacation time I must have if I'm still in Spain and when, oh when, would I return.

Well I'm back. Actually I've been back. But then my boss went on vacation, my parents came for a visit, and I had a stupid Spanish test. So really, I'm only just now getting around to bumming around on my couch again, avoiding everything I should be doing to advance my life/career and thus having plenty of time to blog.

And for my first blog back I'm actually going to point you to another site because I just discovered it tonight and this particular entry caught my eye in that it so perfectly defines what I mean when I use all nine of these words, especially "fine" and "loud sigh".

I will also leave you with this picture of Barcelona:

Bucky's Back!

Some of you may be wondering what happened to me.

Well, you know that episode in Sex & the City where Carrie's hard drive dies in the middle of writing her column? Well, that's what happened to me. Only it's not as easy as it is on TV to have you MacBook fixed. Believe you me!

But I'm back online now...just in time for me to go on vacation for 10 days. So you probably won't be hearing from me again until September. (I know, you've all been hanging on for dear life waiting for my return and now THIS!) But at least I'll have lots of fun pictures from Espana to share.

Nothing new from New York

I was supposed to see the Dark Knight yesterday, but didn't. Thus I have nothing to post this week. Pretty much my weekend was a bust and I spent it by the pool and cooking Key Lime Pie, which I have now mastered. Although I don't actually like it myself. I should have take a picture of the most perfect meringue which I'll probably ever make and post it here, but I forgot and now my staff at work has eaten the whole thing. Oh well. Instead I'll post this flower. Peace and stuff.

79th Street Boat Basin

Have the steak sandwich. It's pricey, but tasty. And it goes great with a bucket of beer. All in all, this bar & grill at the boat basin is a perfect place to go on a casual, lazy-day sort of date.

Soldiers and Sailors Monument

Commemorates Union Army soldiers and sailors who served in the American Civil War. It was dedicated on Memorial Day in 1902 and, apparently, for years was the terminus of New York City’s annual Memorial Day parade.

It is located at 89th Street and Riverside Drive in Riverside Park on the Upper West Side. Nice place to read, especially when the weather was perfect as it was on Monday.

Beacon Riverfront

Boats on the Hudson River.

Green stuff on the Hudson River.

Latin America Festival, Beacon

Today was the perfect day for an outdoor festival - sunny, but cooling wind. There was good food, good music, friendly people. I could have stayed all day, but it was just me and my dog (as it almost always is, in these stories) and I hadn't brought a book. Though I did have an offer to go for a ride on someone's motorcycle (actual motorcycle, not a euphemism) and I probably could have found plenty of dance partners, but I didn't really want to leave the dog tied to a tree or anything.

It was at the Riverfront Park, which is right next to the Metro-North train station. Very convenient and from conversations I over heard many people had come to the festival via train from other parts of the region.

Lemon Creek Park

So, it only took me a week to get around to writing this post. (Very lazy, I am.)

On Tuesday past Roland and I were in Staten Island. I was looking for a place to eat my breakfast where I could walk him around before beginning the hike back home. Also, I was looking to wait out the morning rush hour. So we happened upon Lemon Creek Park, which is located at the end of Seguine Avenue in the Prince's Bay part of the island.

The park was pretty interesting. In addition to stumbling upon the afore mentioned horseshoe crabs, we learned that park is known for its large and pristine salt marshes, which is part of the reason the crabs like to mate there. It also attracts the Diamondback Terrapin (mascot of the University of Maryland; go terrapins!) and fiddler and blue crabs, as well as the ducks, et. al. you'd expect wherever there is water.

The park also is home to a purple martin colony, the only one in New York City, according to the city's parks department. I found it pretty interesting that the purple martin is the only bird that does not nest in the wild. They are totally dependent on human-supplied housing. Thus the odd assortment of bird houses on polls — like a retirement community for birds. I expected to see a purple martin come out on the porch of one of the bird houses in a mumu waving a cane at me. But alas, nothing that amusing happened to us while we were there.

And in case you are wondering about the park's name, according to the park's Web site:

Lemon Creek, which empties into Prince’s Bay and, ultimately, Raritan Bay, has been known by several names over the last few hundred years. In 1830 the freshwater stream was known as Seguine’s Creek, and later, as the Little North River in 1885. Shortly thereafter, the name of Lemon Creek began to appear on maps, although the origin of this unusual name is not known.

Brooklyn Crabs

I'm not the only one feeling the crab love these days. I'm just ahead of the curve.

New York Times has video of it.

Got crabs? Not like these!

I am of the South and also Greece. This means on my beaches I am used to dead things like shells, jellyfish, fish heads, the occasional car tire. I am not used to this:



This is the shell formally known as horseshoe crab. Something that until Tuesday I had never seen in real life. Not in an aquarium, not in a zoo, not in passing on the highway (I'm talking to you 'gator!) and certainly not on a stroll with my dog along the bay waters of a major waterway.

Now I'm an expert on horseshoe crabs. In fact I've spent the last two days telling everyone everything I've learned about horseshoe crabs and they all think I'm absolutely insane. But look at it! Look at it! How can you not be totally transfixed by such a thing?

On Tuesday morning Roland and I were at Lemon Creek Park on Staten Island (more on that later). The park overlooks Prince's (or Princess, depending on who you ask around there) Bay. So we were walking along the beach. He was trying to catch gulls, I was enjoying the salt air. When I heard the seaweed drying. Actually heard it drying in the sun. That's when I looked down and realized the beach was littered with the shells of horseshoe crabs. Thus my obsession began.

It turns out every May and June, horseshoe crabs emerge from the bay onto the beaches in Lemon Creek Park to reproduce. These guys were the ones that didn't survive the process, I guess. The females emerge from the water with their male counterparts literally in tow. Males grasp onto the back of the female’s shell using their hooked legs, sometimes as many as four males onto one female. The female horseshoe crabs dig a hole in the sand and lay up to 20,000 tiny olive-green eggs inside.

The crab had been around since before the dinosaurs, about 1.2 billion years. Though it is called a crab, it is actually more closely related to the spider and scorpion.

But I was really shocked to find out is that, among other things, the horseshoe crab is used to make contact lenses. That's right people! You are putting horseshoe crabs in YOUR EYE every friggin' day!

I'm supposed to be writing my column, but instead of life as a 30-something all I can think about are horseshoe crabs. And that's probably NOT a column anyone wants to read.

On the News tonight

Ch. 9 (My Nine) has covered the following in the first eight minutes of it's newscast:

Shooting
Stabbing
Stabbing
Car Jacking
Plane Crash

Oh. My. God. The world must be ending. Seriously, you'd think all hell had broken loose if all you did was watch the news.

The Pool

Something strange happened today. I went to the pool at my apartment complex. On my way there I passed a group of Asian families (women and children) leaving. A few seconds later I passed a Hispanic family, also leaving. I get to the pool and the lifeguard, a nice, blond girl, is under an umbrella with some man looking at the chlorine tester. There are about 10 people at the pool, all white and I think all shade of blond. The reason I mention their race is because the lifeguard says to me, looking very uncomfortable, "The pool is closed."

I said, "Ok. Can I just lay out by the pool and read, then?" as I looked at the other people doing just that.

"Uhhhh...." says the lifeguard.

"No," says the white man with the tester. "When we close the pool, everyone has to leave the area."

Meanwhile the 10 people have not moved and appear not to be doing so anytime soon.

"Does the pool close every day at noon?" I ask the lifeguard.

She looks increasingly uncomfortable with my questions.

"No," answers the man. "We're having some trouble with the chlorinator, so we're shutting down the pool until we can work it out."

"In the past when there's been trouble with chlorine levels we've just been told not to go in the water," say I. (Who chrorinates during the middle of the day, anyway. Isn't that something you should do before the pool opens or after it closes?)

"You have to leave," responds the man.

I ask about the people already there and get no answer, only again that the pool is closed.

I know I'm white, but people never think I am because of my olive complexion and my name. So the entire experience wound up feeling like something out of movie set in the 1960s south.

Haunted House

I was talking with one of my downstairs neighbors yesterday evening - it was one of those nice, cool days and the dogs were playing and we were having a cold drink - when out of the blue she tells me years ago, just before she moved in, there was an explosion in my apartment.

It was so big that it blew crap from the apartment out into the woods behind it, damaged all the other apartments in the building. Whoever was living in the apartment at the time was apparently on oxygen AND smoking and fell asleep with the cigarette still lit. The person, quite obviously, died in the apartment.

This is the first place I've lived in where I KNOW one of the previous occupants died. It's definitely not the oldest place I've lived in — my last apartment was on the national register of historic places (and it's the only time in my life I've seen, what I guess was, a ghost). I assume people have died in apartments before, but never so horrendously. Blown up? Who gets blown up in their own apartment?

So now I'm all paranoid my apartment will turn out to be haunted. At least that would explain why my door keeps getting unlocked and windows opened. I always thought it was an apartment complex employee checking on something. But they usually leave notes when they were here.

Anyone else have dead people in their apartments?

South Street Seaport

You know what I like about this place? It's chintzy. It's cheesy. It looks like it should be in Pensacola or somewhere else on the Gulf.

They have really bad musicians playing for tips and they serve beer and drinks in ridiculously large souvenir plastic contraptions out of little wooden shacks. You can buy all the overpriced T-shirts and knick knacks you could want. Even the "mall" part of it is woefully reminiscent of places where we vacationed in my childhood. In short it's not as sleek and shiny as the rest of Manhattan.

Right across the street, however, is a nice, upscale lifestyle-center-type shopping area with cobblestone streets, et al. Shouldn't that be enough to fill your credit cards with happiness?

Apparently not.

(AP) A new plan to redevelop Manhattan's South Street Seaport calls for a 42-story apartment and hotel tower and additional open space.

The developer, General Growth Properties, said Wednesday that its plan would evoke the Seaport's maritime heritage while providing needed amenities to continue to attract tourists and benefit the community.

The centerpiece of the new plan would be the 42-story hotel and residential tower at the foot of Pier 17. The plan also calls for replacing the three-level shopping mall that now covers most of the East River pier with a pedestrian walk, and two smaller hotels and a cluster of two-story retail buildings.

The plan must be reviewed by the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission.

I Saw Your Nanny (for real!)

Y'all! SERIOUSLY!!!! Only in New York would this site exist. Seriously. I warn you. It's like crack. You will NOT be able to stop reading it once you start. So don't click on the link unless you have plenty of time on your hands!

Sexism without sexism

There's an article in the New York Times today about the media's (allegedly) sexist approach to covering Hillary Clinton's campaign. It was pretty evident from the beginning I think. Though I also agree with the person in the article that says, she ran a fundamentally flawed campaign. I think her campaign was bad and people just don't like her - though that is true of every woman in a powerful position, like Nancy Pelosi in the House or Zoe Cruz at Morgan Stanley or even Anna Wintour at Vogue.

However, regardless of whether you agree or disagree that the media coverage was sexist, you have to agree that this statement is ridiculous:

Keith Olbermann, the host of “Countdown” on MSNBC, said that while there were “individual, sexist, mistakes,” there was no overall sexism.

What? You can't have it both ways, Keith. There can't be sexism and NOT sexism. Just because the act of denigrating women is so fundamentally ingrained in the human psyche that we don't realize we're being sexist, doesn't mean there isn't a persistent and deep-seeded problem.

If you were to ask my executive editor if he was sexist, if he treated his female employees as lesser beings, if he felt their place was in the home (or maybe in features) would he say yes? No, he would not. But if you asked his female employees the same question, do you know what their answer would be? An unequivocal YES. Yes from the fact that the number of women in the newsroom has dwindled dramatically since his arrival. Yes from the fact he treats us with disdain, if he treats us at all. Yes from the fact we are paid far less than our male counterparts. Yes from the comments on women's appearance in the newsroom.

People need to realize that sexism isn't dead. It's just resting its eyes.

East Sider

This ridiculous burger is called the East Sider and in addition to 7oz of beef also has ham AND bacon on it, as well as mushrooms, cheese, fried onions and is impossible to put into your mouth as served. This my brother discovered the hard way.

It is one of the many burgers served at Jackson Hole diner, which has eight locations around NYC, including one conveniently located near LaGuardia and thus is good for taking friends and family who arrive in on late night flights because you work till 10 p.m. and can't get off work early to go pick them up.

I've also eaten at one of their other locations on the east side (I did not at that time have the East Sider. I actually had a turkey burger.) It was an odd location, in the basement of a building on what looked like a residential stretch of street. Looking in, it seems all there is a counter, but around the corner there's a think hallway-like room that is crammed with tables. That locations seems to do a big business in to go orders. As opposed to the LaGuardia location, which does a lot of city bus traffic.

Anyway, on the afore mentioned visit with my brother I had the much more modest Western Burger...


...with cheese, BBQ sauce, bacon and fried onions, and which unfortunately came out raw in the center. They recooked it. But I wound up taking it home. Once nuked in my microwave, I felt pretty safe about eating it.

Brooklyn Bridge in summer

Beacon Art (Live)

A few weekends ago, Beacon, which has become a weekend destination for art lovers from the city, held a live art-making event called Electric Windows. Twenty-four street artist descended on the city in May to create live artwork outside for passer-bys to see. The work was then hung on the exterior - where the windows once were - of an old electric blanket factory at the foot of Mount Beacon.

I was, of course, working during the event and thus missed it. But the art is still up and I got by the other day to look at it.

A few closer-ups follow:

Mississippi Picnic in Central Park

Saturday was the 29th annual Mississippi Picnic in Central Park, which I've spent years reading about, but this was my first actual foray to the event.

The giant event brings ex-pats from Mississippi together in Central Park for a giant reunion of sorts that usually attended by the governor of Mississippi and other dignitaries. Live blues music serves as the entertainment - along with the watermelon seed spitting contest. No. I'm serious. And they serve up catfish from Yazoo City. (They require a "donation" of $10 for the food, which makes me laugh. I've notice in New York the idea of a required donation is rampant. My brother suggested it must be a way around the tax laws. I say if it's required then it's a fee or the ticket price - what it most certainly is not, is a donation.)

It was fairly disappointing. Though, I have to admit we were late getting there. It started at noon and was supposed to last till 6 p.m., but when we got there around 2 p.m., they were already out of catfish and people were drifting away. We did enjoy sitting outside in the Mississippi-eque heat of 98 degrees (though it WAS cooler in the shade) and drinking iced tea from McAlister's, though.

Ironically, Saturday was also the date of the LSU alumni associations Crawfish Boil. That event, however, cost $60 - though you did get all you can eat crawfish and Abita beer. Still, it was a little too rich for my blood. Maybe next year I'll be able to save up enough to go.

Bannerman Castle

In the middle of the Hudson River, somewhere between Cold Spring and Beacon, there is a castle on an island.

This may sound incredible, but it's true.

It's not a very old castle, as far as castles go. And this one was built to house munitions. Around 1920, what you might imagine happening where one stores munitions, happens. Explosion.

On this very same island, the owner of the arsenal had a home. It did not explode. But if you see the house now, you would think that something similar took place. They say, the Bannerman family used it until the 1940s, but to look at it, you'd think it'd been abandoned a LOT longer than that. I mean, there are castles in Scotland (the homeland of Mr. Bannerman) which are much older and in much better shape.

Anyway, I'm supposed to be writing a travel story about my recent tour there. Instead, I'm writing this blog entry about it.

For someone who claims to love writing, I sure hate doing it!

Top headlines in New York today

"At Least One Killed by Crane Collapse in Manhattan"

"The Girls Are Back in Town" (re: Sex & the City)

Ah, New York. So dysfunctional.

Do I feel stimulated? Oh Yeah.

Today I am officially the last person on earth to receive their economic stimulus check from the government (some orphans in Peru got theirs before I did, or so I hear). And in honor of this day, I give you howispentmystimulus.com, which was started by some guy in Park Slope, Brooklyn, and is a hilarious and true account of how Americans are spending their money.

One of my favorites features a table full of whiskey bottles and the following entry from Andrew in St. Louis:

"After the economic stimulus package was signed into law, I pledged to spend my stimulus money on one of the few well made American products left - Kentucky whiskey."

But my all time favorite was one from Sybann in Raleigh, who sent in a picture of a super, turbo-charged vacuum and this description:

“This is the George W. Bush Memorial Dyson. I wanted to buy something that will suck as hard and for as long as this administration.”

As for how I will spend my stimulus? Hellooooo, Spain!


Who's with me?

The Garden of Wedding Dresses

So on Sunday I went wedding dress shopping.

I wasn't buying; one of my reporters who is getting married in August was, so don't panic that you've missed some major announcement in my life. You most definitely have not.

We went to this appointment only place called The Bridal Garden, wherein rich people have donated their old dresses and they are resold. The profit (it's a non-profit bridal dress shop) goes to support New York City school children. Or at least that is what is claimed.

I thought the address sounded familiar (and the doorman looked familiar, actually). But it wasn't until I got off the elevator and saw the paint job in the hallway that I realized that a few floors down was where my friend Steven has his offices. That was a little disconcerting.

But not nearly as disconcerting as the mad house INSIDE the Bridal Garden. They had way overbooked the day and let someone in who did not have an appointment. So my friend had to start changing behind a screen in the main room that did not really cover her. Also the window were behind her and there were no blinds on the. Granted, we were on the ninth floor, but still, there were lots of buildings around us with nine floors as well. I'll cut to the chase and tell you that my friend tried on seven or eight dresses, but didn't find anything she really liked. More disappointing to her was the complete lack of attention paid to her by the staff. She was looking forward to some advice from someone who knows what they're doing, as opposed to me going, "The waist on that dress looks a little funny."

While all of this was going on, the drama playing out beside me was as follows:

Bride-to-be #1: Looked like a little doll. She had a dress that looked like she should be on top of a cake. However, she had come with her fiance, who the shop made wait outside in the hallway. Every time she wanted his opinion, they would have to go get him. She wound up buying the dress.

Bride-to-be #2: Came out with them most stunning dresses I had ever seen. The first one she tried on, I fell in love with and after she put it back on the rack, I seriously considered buying it, even though I have no wedding planned in the near future and no hope of one. Each subsequent dress (except for one - a halter top that fit weird) was more amazing than the last. She had her mother with her, who was very southern and I had a weird flashback to the process when a high school friend got married. She did not buy a dress.

Bride-to-be #3: Getting married in six weeks. Bought the most hideous dress I could imagine. It looked like someone's grandmother's "good" tablecloth, but sparkle-y. She was loud (didn't have an appointment), tried on 30 dresses (NO LIE), called everyone she knew to tell them about the dress. Took pictures with her camera phone and sent it to everyone. Discussed ad nauseam how, "I think I love this dress!" Told us several times in a normal speaking voice - because she had lowered her voice from loud to normal as if imparting a secret - "and it only costs $600!" She was there with her mother, who looked exhausted and disinterested. Became a really bad stereotype when she started saying something about her rabbi. I lied to her and told her it was a great dress. But it wasn't a great dress. It was hideous.

We're doing this again in June. I hope she finds a dress soon. I don't know how many of these other brides I can put up with.

Spring, my a**

We're mid way through May and the heat is still on at my apartment complex.

How is that even right? When is the warm weather ever going to get here?!

Again with the friggin' movies

So AGAIN this Sunday what do I encounter as I try to navigate my way around Grand Central? A movie crew. This time they were blocking my exit and taking up the street corner where I was supposed to be meeting my ride.

I wrongly assumed it was the same movie as the weekend before. (Damn, I thought, this movie must be almost entire set at Grand Central for these guys to be here again. Either that, or they are WAY behind their shooting schedule.)

Instead:
On Sunday, May 11, filming of the remake of The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3 will result in street closures in and around Grand Central Terminal throughout the day, particularly along East 42nd St between Madison Ave and Lexington Ave.

This movie stars Denzel Washington and John Travolta and is set for a 2009 release date.

Sadly no photos on the Internet for this one.

This time I saw no one's back. But I was extremely annoyed by the stupid flacks who kept trying to "move us along" the sidewalk. They kept telling people to move along. I did not move along as I was waiting for my ride. And actually no one said anything to me, which I guess was weird and too bad. I was all prepared to do battle and tell the chickie with headsets who thought she owned the streets and sidewalks of all of New York that the only way I would move is if she had one of the nice gentlemen in blue with the guns come over and ask me to move.

Oh well. There went my chance of being arrested on the set of a Denzel Washington movie.

Gas Gone Wild

When I went to work yesterday, regular unleaded gas was priced at $3.81 a gallon.

When I came home from work, it was $3.89.

WTF?!

More on me

So the Sunday interview lasted all of 40 minutes. I wasn't sure how I did at first, but later in the day as I reflected back it felt like they were trying to impress me.

Today I got an e-mail asking if I could come back on Monday at noon for a tryout. Now I have to re-teach myself QuarkXPress in a week. How do I get myself into these situations? Well, at least I don't have any major projects going on at work.

More on Clive Owen

I didn't take these pictures and this wasn't even the scene I saw (back of scene I saw). They were in a totally different part of Grand Central when I happened upon them.

But as we covered already I didn't even know what was going on, so I definitely didn't take any pictures. I just stole these off someone else's blog; someone who DID stop and take photos. Smart girl.

Update: Blog2

Because you've been following this blogging saga with baited breath...

We bloggers received this in an e-mail today. (As if someone is reading this blog. Ah the power of Bucky! Or more likely, the same thought occurred to everyone simultaneously.)

Meantime, though, I should have mentioned before, even as I did sing your praises, that we got A LOT of submissions for this job. (Thanks, Craigslist!) Though there are a lot of YOU -- more than we planned! -- we changed our plans BECAUSE we liked you each so much, and MANY people, though we appreciated every submission, did not make the cut. Just wanted to give you some warm fuzzies to last you this week.

Movie Obstacle Course

In addition to the Five Boro Bike Tour, which tied up traffic like crazy today (so I couldn't drive into the city for my interview), they were inexplicably shooting a movie at Grand Central.

So half the place was corralled off and every time I tried to get where I needed to go, some young woman with a headset would come up to me and say, "Uh, excuse me ma'am. We're shooting a movie. Can you go another way?"

I was all like, "No I can't go another way. That's the only way to get from here to the 7 train!" Apparently I was the only person trying to get anywhere in Grand Central. Everyone else was just standing there transfixed, staring at the back of some guy in a suit. I don't know who it was. It didn't seem to matter to those gawking if the person was famous. They were just awed by the big, bright lights I think.

Anyway, I finally did make it to the 7 train.


(Oh and by today, I meant Sunday. It's after midnight as I'm writing this post, so it will pop up under Monday. Don't be confused. No one is filming in Grand Central on a Monday...at least not while the trains are running.)

Happy Birthday, Pete Seeger

Today is Pete Seeger's 89th birthday. How did he spend the day? How do you expect? Protesting the war in Iraq, as he does almost every Saturday I drive to work. Today he was wearing a yellow slicker because of the rain and looking like that guy on the box of fish sticks. I should have taken his photo while I was stopped at the stoplight at the corner of Routes 9 and 9D. But of course that didn't occur to me until I had driven away.

So instead I present to you this photo from an event held here Wednesday night:



I'm telling you, Pete Seeger plays every event in this town. I could hold a barbecue and say, "Pete, do you want to come play at my barbecue for peace?" And he'd be there.

Today is also my grandfather's birthday. But he didn't make it to 89. He died of Alzheimer's when I was in college.

I suppose in hindsight, that wasn't the best way to end a post.

Update on that other blog

It appears that BreakupGirl.net just let anyone who sent them sample blogs become a blogger because now they've decided to use a "team" of us, which is fine because it means less work. But when they said team, I thought they meant three or four. There are 10 of us (thus the conclusion that anyone who has ever visited the site is now a blogger). And it is a crazy group. We had to introduce ourselves via e-mail to one another. At first everyone seemed to be New York-based, which was nice. I thought I could potentially develop some friends from the group. Most of the seemed to be in media or the arts. But the second half was from more varied locations and backgrounds - a sixteen-year-old from Buffalo, a woman that works for a Jewish cultural group in D.C., a gay female "sex worker" from San Fransisco (I don't if that's good ole fashion streetwalker or porn star or other.)

Only one of us (not me) has started blogging though, because the two people who run the blog are in transition and haven't really instructed us what to do. One is moving to Israel for six months. And I think the other one is just moving...I can't really remember what he was doing.

They want to break us up by beats - someone doing celebrity gossip, someone doing books, movies, news items, etc. I don't know if there are enough beats to go around for 10 people, though. I mean, it's not like there's cops and courts or environment or IBM to be covered. Should be interesting how it plays out.

Sunday

I have a job interview. On Sunday. Is that weird? I'm not the only one who finds that weird right?

The Sunday part, that is. Not that I'd be able to land a job interview.

Always with the noise

As you know from my previous post I was dead tired upon my return. So, of course, yesterday morning at 7:30 my upstairs neighbor's alarm went off...for four hours. He's done this before and I've talked to him about it, but I guess he doesn't care enough to remember to turn the thing off when he's spending the night elsewhere. It takes about four hours for it to finally release nobody is coming to turn it off and then it shuts itself off. In the meantime, I had to relocate to the futon because it is so loud in my bedroom, sleep - even when one is bone tired -is impossible.

Then THIS morning, I got woken up at 8:30 a.m. because they've finally started deconstruction of my balcony (next comes reconstruction). They were supposed to have done this two weeks ago, but are behind schedule. I thought for sure they would finish it while I was gone and I'd miss it. But I have no such luck. So now, for the rest of the week balcony construction. Great. It shakes the whole apartment, that work. Not to mention it's weird to have men hanging right outside the sliding glass door. I'm so glad I finally got curtains.

It is never quiet in New York. Not even here in the 'burbs.

Bucky back home...and back at work

It took me a 4:30 a.m. alarm, a two-hour plane ride, the Air Train from Newark Airport to Newark Air Link, a New Jersey transit train to Penn Station, two subway trains to Grand Central, a Metro-North train and a short walk uphill to get to work yesterday.

In the process I twisted my ankle trying to wrestle my suitcase down the stairs to the 7 train. Subway, while getting better, is not the most handicap accessible place on the planet. Thus it is also not the most roll-y bag friendly place either.

Oh well, it's not the worst haul I've ever had. And at least it was only one roll-y bag.

Washington Square construction

As I mentioned in a blog entry about a thousand years ago, NYC is redoing Washington Square Park.

When I was down there last (note the photos from the street festival a few entries ago), I snapped a few photos. I couldn't get any really good shots because of all the people, but I was surprised to see it wasn't the entire square that was torn up. Just the center part.

In case you are wondering why all the construction, from PlanNYC.org:

The New York City Department of Parks and Recreation has begun construction on the renovation of Washington Square Park. The plans include a $16 million redesign of the Greenwich Village landmark paid for with funding by the city, the Tisch family, and NYU. The fountain will be refurbished and moved so it lines up with the arch, the central plaza will be ripped up and flattened, and a new playground will go where concrete play mounds now sit, and a four-foot wrought iron fence will replace the current mishmash of lower barriers. The new park will feature an adventure play area for older kids and a refurbished bathroom house. Holley Square will be moved away from the central fountain to create freer walkways, and there'll be more benches in some areas, new tables for Scrabble, and lower walls for sitting. The central plaza and lawns will all be made to the same grade so wheelchairs can get around and the different parts of the park feel connected.

Proponents of the plan say that the park is in a state of disrepair and that the large expanses of pavement should be replaced with green-space. Opponents of the plans fear that the park will loose its unique character, and they also fear disturbing the burial ground underneath the park during construction. The alleged disenfranchisement of local community members in the planning and design process is of greatest concern to many. During 2005 and early 2006, three lawsuits were filed challenging various aspects of the Parks Department's renovation plans. All of those suits were eventually resolved in the City’s favor, which allowed construction to begin in late 2007. The first phase of the construction is scheduled to be completed in the Spring of 2009.

Happy (Real) Easter!

Or, as we say in the Greek Orthodox church, "Christos Anesti!" (Christ has risen.) To which the response is, "Alithos Anesti!" (Truly, he has risen.) There's a song that goes along with it, but I won't go overboard with the Easter here, as most of you guys already went through fake Easter and thus are already looking forward to...uh...Mother's Day? Memorial Day? Fourth of July? Summer vacation?

Well, whatever it is, Happy Easter all the same!

Funny Sign (Memphis)

Blogs is bustin' out all over

Well, it's official. I write one funny e-mail.

I have been chosen to blog for BreakupGirl.net. Though it was based on my e-mails, not on my submitted blog posts, which they felt were forced. Of course they were forced. I don't perform well under pressure. I don't test well. But luckily I write one crazy-good e-mail and that's how they want me to write for them. So now I'm a professional blogger. Please don't feel like a lesser person in my presence. Not everyone can be as great as the old Buckster. (No. Seriously. You can't all be me.)

Anyway, you can read one of my seriously lame sample posts (they were lame...I was rushing and tired from all the crazy-long work days) below:

Title: Love on a Billboard (Or, All you need to know about romance can be found in Top 40 songs)

The floor and the club are in and the bed is out, according to a Breakup Girl in depth examination of the 10 songs that top the Billboard charts this week. (And by in depth, we mean listening to that little snippet they let you hear on iTunes as a teaser.)

Apparently the best places for making love in a pop song are anywhere but the traditional, and coincidentally most comfortable location, the bed.

The poor bed can't get a break. In "Touch My Body," Mariah Carey demands the floor (though admittedly, in a throwback to old school ways, she also asks for the bed). In "Love in the Club"...well, you can guess where Usher and Young Jeezy want to do it. And we can't really tell you where Lil Wayne wants to go, because this is not an X-rated site and all his lyrics are.

But pop songs aren't just about location. According to professors Joe Kotarba and Phillip Vannini in their book "Understanding Society through Popular Music," pop music is one of the most important sources of culture in our society.

To that end, we provide you with all you need to know about our society based on the Billboard Top 10:

1) Wrestling around on the floor? Good
2) Being so in love with someone, your friends think you've lost your mind and try to intervene? Uh, good?
3) Four minutes is the maximum amount of time you can give someone who is Madonna or Justin Timberlake to explain what you want to do to them? Neither good nor bad.
4) Dressing and wearing your hair like your man? Good.
5) Making love in the club? Definitely good!
6) Taking it to the floor? Even better!
7) Trying to breath without air? Very bad.
8) Making someone fall so in love with you they don't need money or cars? Only good if they give those things to you.
9) Asking for a love song because you need one? BAD! Don't ever do it again.
10) Dressing like a pornography poster? Oh Yeah.

Things I hate #429

The term "leisure traveler". As if everyone who doesn't travel for business somehow has loads of disposable income to spent jaunting around the world, or the option not to travel.

I definitely don't have loads of money. And I have to scrimp and save to take trips. I eat A LOT of cheap pasta. I don't go to movies any more except on rare occasions. Actually I don't do much of anything by way of entertainment. All of my "disposable income," in fact, is spent on travel. Either to and fro work, visiting my boyfriend, or seeing family and friends.

Sure I could not travel. But then I would never see my family, never spend time with my friends, never have anything worth calling a life. I don't understand how business travelers suddenly became the ones burdened with the cost of travel when it's their companies paying for it. And the leisure traveler, as it were, is the one that should pay the extra money because airlines don't know how to balance their budgets.

Charging to check a second bag. I swear, soon they'll be charging us extra if we choose to wear clothes on the plane...or use the bathroom...or breathe.

We need a revolution, people. Against airlines, and — while we're at it — against crazy high gas prices. I can't even afford to be alive anymore.

April 22, 2008
Airlines to Charge for Second Bag

By MARTHA C. WHITE
The New York Times

Five of the six major airlines in the United States plan to start charging coach passengers as much as $25 next month to check a second bag, the latest move in their quest to offset high fuel prices.

But while the airlines, and even some industry specialists, say they expect the fees will primarily affect leisure travelers, business travelers beg to differ.

Street Fair Weather, at last

Today's fair, at Washington Square Park. Too bad I had just eaten a big lunch and had only $6 cash on me. I'll be better prepared for you next time, Street Fair!

Potential new stalker moving in...

...as I type. Just in time for the summer stalking season.

Stay posted for updates.

From Bucky to Romantic Superhero

Because I don't have enough to do what with my job and my new social networking duties therein, I have foolishly put my hat in to be a blogger at BreakupGirl.net. They want me to produce some sample posts by the end of the week. Crap.

Here was the post I responded to:

Web superhero seeks blogger/sidekick for fun, clips

Us: Venerable, award-winning website about love, and/or lack thereof, geared for both men and women and combining witty relationship advice with sophisticated comic-strip adventures. We are seeking a new sidekick for help with content writing and management on our new blog.

You: Ace reporter, crackerjack writer. Funny, funny, and funny. Able to spot relationship-related news stories and the clever or insightful angle therein. You should have your own distinct voice and take, but should also be willing to roll with us in terms of style and philosophy. We may also want you to help track and moderate blog comments when necessary. Swinging geeky is good; affinity for superheroes a major plus.

Pay: Alas, none. This is a VERY part-time (part-part-time?) pursuit in which you may engage from the privacy of your own home/cafe/McJob.

Payoff: Honing of your voice and your nose for news. Tons of [short] clips. Considerable cachet / street cred! The opportunity to become part of a tight, fun team who will give you glowing references. And, possibly, your very own cartoon alter ego.


Last night this seemed like a good idea. Though it doesn't pay, it sounded like a fun distraction from my real work. Plus I'd actually heard of the site and been on it before. And would give me real blogging experience (as opposed to you guys here...sorry, fake audience of four), which is what half the paying jobs now have listed as a job requirement. And since it isn't paid, it doesn't violate my current work contract.

Of course, now I'm under pressure to be funny, which is no way for funny to work.

Crap.

Newspaper or Social Networking site: You decide

Our newspaper launched it's redesign this week. Included with the new look of the paper is the addition of Pluck, a social networking site no where near as intuitive to use as MySpace, et al. This is because Gannett is cheap and buys things that don't work quite right to a few cents.

All of its properties are now all Plucked up. (Just a hint of the jokes flying around the office.) This means, in addition to my editor, columnist, and payroll duties, I now how to help manage this social networking site - because I work nights and weekends - and keep my profile page interesting and up-to-date. So I'm blogging in two sites - there and here - uploading photo galleries of whatever I can think of to photograph, leaving messages on other people's profiles and all around trying to spur people on to using our site a social gathering place.

We had to go to training for this. So of the choicest Office Space-like moments where when we were told, "People used to visit our Web sites, now we want them to live there."

You'll be glad to know that we've gone from calling our customers, "readers" - which denotes a monologue - to "audience" - which denotes a dialogue - and now to "communities" - which denotes a polylogue. You're guess is as good as mine as to what that means.

Finally we learned this little gem, a variation on the Customer Is Always Right: The Reader Is The Expert. That is Gannett's new philosophy for all its news products. Nevermind that our readers all seem to be crazy, racist, losers who live at home with their mothers. They are all experts. No need for any other sources. Just listen to the readers. They'll tell you all you need to know.

I couldn't make this stuff up, if I tried.

Aristotle to hang out in Queens

From our friends at the Queens Courier

Greek city gives Aristotle to park
BY CHRISTINA SANTUCCI

A popular Astoria park, named for a Greek city, will soon have another tie to the European country. On Saturday, April 5, a bust of Greek philosopher Aristotle will be unveiled at Athens Square Park, located at 30th Avenue and 30th Street, during a ceremony slated to begin at 1 p.m. Entertainment will begin at noon.

The Greek city of Halkidiki donated the statue, which was sculpted by George V. Tsaras, to the city of New York for placement in the Queens park.

Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe and Vasilios Vasilakis, the Governor of the Greek city of Halkidiki, are both expected to attend the ceremony, which was organized in conjunction with Athens Square Inc., an organization dedicated to improving the park.

“They [Athens Square Inc.] have been working to design and fund the renovation,” said Parks spokesperson Trish Bertuccio.

The group raised $45,000 to pay for the maintenance of the statue, said Vice President George Delis. The Stavros Niarchos Foundation donated $25,000, Astoria Energy LLC $10,000 and a private donor provided $10,000.

The statue had been ready and waiting in Greece until Athens Square Inc. collected the money, Delis said.

“We waited 10 years for this statue,” he said, explaining that he had traveled to Greece two years ago to negotiate the work’s release.

The bronze bust of Aristotle will join depictions of fellow Greeks - mythical goddess Athena and philosopher Socrates - in the park.

A fourth space for a statue remains open, and the parks group is already planning to place a statue of playwright Sophocles in the area. However, they expect the statue and maintenance fees to reach $100,000.

“If anyone wants to give us the money, we will dedicate the statue in their name,” Delis said.

Reporter sings the blues. Literally

I'm working on an employee review right now — the part of my job I hate the most — and I Googled her name to pull up the stories she's worked on over the last six months and I discovered her YouTube site.

I knew she was a musician, but I wasn't really sure what kind of music she performed and I had never heard her. But I have to say, I think she's pretty good. Take a look:

Greek Independence Day Parade

Today was the big parade on 5th Avenue. And I actually made it this time! But in true Greek style, the 1 p.m. parade began at 1:30 p.m. and I met up with my friends, whom I was supposed to meet at 12:30 p.m., at 1 p.m.

It wasn't the most smoothly run parade, but there were some amusing points. However we were at the start of the parade and we really should have been closer to the grandstand, where they were actually telling people what all the floats and participants were.



I bought my two friends who were there little Greek flags. I was dressed in white and blue, a la my heritage. They were pretty taken aback by the anti-Turkey sentiment brazenly on displace in a parade. It's not like the IRA march in the St. Patrick's Day parade.

While it didn't rain today, it was windy and super cold. All week long the weather service said it would be sunny and a high of 60. Instead we got windy — or "Blowy" as my friend Kathianne put it — cloudy and a high of 49. This winter just will NOT let go. I wish it would warm up already.

There was no Greek food being sold nearby, which was the major downside of the parade. They should really combined the parade with a street fair. But it was okay because afterward we headed back to the West Side in Chelsea where there was a street fair. No photos from that. But here are some more from the parade.