the statue of liberty

On my first weekend in NYC, I lived like a tourist. Lynn and Makensie flew out here with me, and the three of us wandered aimlessly, walked the Brooklyn Bridge and shopped. We even went to the Statue of Liberty, which, incidentally, turned 125 exactly one month ago today!

Here's the three of us on the ferry to the Statue. From left: Lynn, Makensie, me.

I was so glad to finally see the Statue of Liberty up close. It is such an American treasure. The folds of her fabric are striking, and the image is so iconic that it's wild to see it up close and from every angle. We were there late in the day, and I was so happy I took this picture:


Here are a few more beautiful photos of this gorgeous statue.

circa 1905, via ck/ck

circa 1935, via ck/ck

her construction in Paris, 1886, via ck/ck

happy friday!

Photo by Elisa Mendes, from her New York Lovers series


ten years with the iPod
have you seen Occupy George? I don't know if you've heard, but these "crazy kids" aren't going anywhere.
if you're transitioning in your career, read this.
an awesome note to Ms. Kardashian
a guide for meditation, if you're so inclined
collective nouns are awesome
the hook-up that could have been

happy friday!

Photo of Bob Dylan by Ken Regan via Tea and Strumpets


a super sweet story
giggle fest
trout do it, too!
art made from everyday objects!
I love England, and these gifts for England-lovers do sound fun :)
do you know your sitcom Rachels?
really, Lohans?
total well-being
a happy accident in Paris
wow. sexy.
what news anchors do during commercial breaks


&
celebrating Steve
Papa and I watched this video last weekend when he and Mom were visiting me in NYC. It's really, really lovely.

louie louie

One of my friends here in NYC is a woman named Barbara. She's a sassy writer and graduate professor at The New School who I met through a friend. The first time we visited was when we met to go participate in the Occupy Wall Street march on Times Square back in October. Now we visit several times a week, since our apartments are a mere 10-minute walk apart. We were hanging out on Sunday night in her living room with her cats Newman and Jackson, and she had just Saturday night seen the movie London Boulevard with Keira Knightley and Colin Farrell. She was playing me all this music from the era of the movie and was so surprised that I wasn't familiar with "Louie Louie." She called it "the ultimate college song."


Do you know it?

world of video

I don't know about you, but I've noticed the demise of a lot of movie rental shops in recent times. I can only guess it's the combined impact of Netflix, Redbox and other internet streaming tools that have made it difficult for these shops to survive, especially in this economy. So a few weeks ago, I was all in the mood to watch a movie and I didn't have anything in from Netflix that I hadn't watched and the nearest Redbox was a half a mile away (that's far when you live in Manhattan) and I thought— maybe, just maybe, there's actually a movie rental shop in my neighborhood. I Googled it and found a super shop called World of Video. (It's such a straightforward title that it sounds ironic and hipster.)

via Total Film Gallery

via Listal

World of Video is located a convenient 5-minute walk from my front door (awesome) and boasts more than 30,000 titles (wow), including a collection of silent films. Because of the vastness of the collection, it's a natural place to go when you're looking for something obscure, which, in fact, I was. I was looking for one of my absolute favorite movies, The Out-of-Towners remake from 1999 with Steve Martin and Goldie Hawn. For some reason, this movie seems to be so difficult to find. Netflix doesn't even have it in stock! (Say wha?!) I walked in, and the friendly staff at World of Video pulled it off the shelf within seconds. Admittedly, they did rib me when I said it was one of my favorites and asked me if I've seen the original. (I'll be honest, I haven't.) The guys behind the counter are serious movie watchers. There is a poster for each staff member on the front of the counter that has their names and their top 10 favorite movies. They recommend titles and I hear they have specialties. (Here's an article about the store.)

The only problem is that it's pricey— $5 for a one-night rental. You can buy an annual membership (first year, just less than $22) that comes with a few free rentals and then rentals are $4.75. Or you can buy rentals in bulk for cheaper. Even at these prices, it doesn't feel like a rip-off, since they are a specialty shop in a business that's changing, and they're paying West Village rent.

All in all, 4 stars. Enjoy :)

photo by Shanti Knight, Los Angeles, California, August 2007

feel good

As if the autocorrects themselves weren't enough to make me positively cackle (Lynn and I routinely email each other our daily or weekly favorites), I just found this fantastic little collection of videos of people laughing at Damn You Autocorrect. I am not kidding, it is an absolutely guaranteed mood-lifter. Why aren't there more videos of people just laughing? This is powerful stuff.


Also, balloons.

manhattan map

Manhattan can be so much fun to navigate. It's complex enough to be a bit of a challenge, but logical enough to not be too frustrating. And it's so much fun to walk through and see the neighborhoods change in character and appearance, even while they are all so close to each other. I've been studying NYC since I was a teenager, but, understandably, living here has made my knowledge of the city much greater! I recently found this fantastic map of the neighborhoods, with street markers. Enjoy!

and there are two other fun maps where this came from (NYWhatToDo.com)