After dinner at Book Bindery, I decided I wanted some nice Belgian-style beers before calling it a night. That’s how I found myself crossing a bridge and then staring to my right at another, much higher bridge. The cool thing was that I had a nice overhead shot of part of Seattle – the lights on the ground and the light reflecting off the river at night.
This photo was taken on October 2, 2010.
Not to get all Old Man McCrankyPants but, seriously? More snow when we’ve yet to entirely do away with the last blast of snow still lingering on our sidewalks? Sure, it’s not Mother Nature’s fault that the city’s slow response is mostly responsible that there are still reminders of the last storm – the remaining, greying snow and the garbage bags lining the curb – but it’d be nice if she’d be a little understanding. Perhaps a one-month reprieve? Is that too much to ask? Then again, maybe she’s taking pity on us because, as I type this, it seems like the snow is starting to taper off already.
This photo was taken on January 7, 2011.
After a frustrating darts game in which I had a chance to win twice but couldn’t double out on my first try and subsequently lost on the following turn, I walked over to the bar and saw Lesli’s (the bartender) reflection in the mirror. All this time I spent at the bar and I never even noticed there was a mirror behind the bar – that’s how in the zone I normally am. Anyway, inspiration struck and I wanted to see how a photo of her facing the mirror, away from the bar would look. Not bad, I think.
This photo was taken on January 3, 2011.
I had gotten to the airport over an hour early for my flight to Chicago – blame it on the insanely good timing of R to E to AirTrain that morning – so I had plenty of time to just wander around JetBlue’s spiffy new terminal. I started taking photos of the place and I just lucked out when this guy walked, seemingly striding with purpose, directly into the center of the shot, making an infinitely neater shot than just the terminal itself.
This photo was taken on August 25, 2009.
Thanks to the blizzard that dumped 20 or so inches of snow on us, the sight of garbage bags, piled high and stretching far is a sad, familiar sight on New York City’s streets even though it’s been a week since the snow fell. Chalk it up to a poorly managed response to the snowfall plus the possibility of a sanitation slowdown. They just started garbage collection yesterday but even that’s hampered by a necessary split in service where some trucks are still working on the snow in some areas. It’s estimated that there are 50,000 tons of garbage to haul away, some of which has been accumulating since before Christmas. Christmas! That was over 10 days ago! Now all we need are the rats to come out of hiding and then we can sound the alarm for a plague warning!
This photo was taken on January 3, 2011.
The Stumptown at the Ace Hotel has lines out the door and into the hotel lobby on just about every weekday I’ve been there. When the blizzard finally came to an end on Monday, I stopped in for some coffee before getting some work done and this place was empty. Dead. This was the only person on line. That’s what it takes for them not to be busy – a blizzard in the week between Christmas and New Year’s.
This photo was taken on December 27, 2010.
Less than 12 hours after previously checking in on Times Square and not even two hours after midnight, the place was already emptied out, save for some stragglers and a whole crew of folks cleaning up the remains of the evening. Hours and hours of anticipation and buildup and only moments after midnight, the place starts clearing out. Kinda makes you wonder why people bother to show up, right? I mean, I know I do.
Anyway, happy new year to all!
This photo was taken on January 1, 2011.
After lunch with Jon and Elizabeth in Midtown, I wandered over to Times Square to see what the scene was like. This was taken just before 2:30 pm and already it’s super crowded and just impossible to walk around. Why people insist on coming here so early or even at all, still amazes me to this day. I’ll give a pass for the first time revelers since I get that they want to mark this off their bucket list but for the repeat offenders, I ask “WHY!!!???”
Have a fun and safe New Year’s Eve celebration, everyone.
This photo was taken on December 31, 2010.
I’m not gonna pile on against the MTA here – they’ve taken enough hits from the public. I just wanted to say it’s pretty funny to see snow in the underground stations like the one where I get on the M/R. At the height of the storm on Sunday night, there were some underground stations that looked like they were above ground and outdoors. The 57th Street entrance in the second photo was just a mess. People were gripping onto the handrails for dear life and that hardly mattered since one in every five still managed to slip and slide.
These photos were taken on December 27, 2010.
I raced down the block last night to take these photos. Why was I so excited that I had to do that just to get some photos of a snow plow? Because at 10:25 pm last night, my block finally saw its first Sanitation Department snow plow, only two-plus days after it stopped snowing. This blizzard has been just one huge clusterf*ck for the city – Mayor Bloomberg, Sanitation, and the MTA, in that order, should all be ashamed of themselves for the way they’ve handled the situation.
These photos were taken on December 29, 2010.
