Saturday, August 21, 2010

Cinematic Moment of the Week: My life is a Rap Musical

Recently I was walking to meet Sam and some out-of-towner friends at our favorite sushi joint, when I passed a group of young gentleman standing outside of our neighborhood convalescent home. They looked kind of like this, but with nursing home building features behind them:

This was strange because A) the only groups of people who usually hang out in front of the convalescent home are the convalescents who live there and B) they seemed to be checking out the ladies who were  walking past them, and in front of a convalescent home seems a strange place to do such an activity. But maybe I am not up on the trends of men attempting to pick up ladies on the street. (Sidenote: In NYC, there are certain things a lady experiences when walking alone or in the company of another lady, that most of her man friends/spouses never have the good fortune of witnessing. This includes men whistling at you, howling at you, and my personal favorite, making kissing noises at you. (when I say favorite what I really mean is I want to punch these men in the face, because the kissing noise is not cute, is not flattering, and does not make me like you. It's rude and gross.) It happens on a weekly basis and I've been here long enough that if I perceive a potential kissing noise/yelling-awkward-pick-up-lines-at-me-as-I-make-a-bee-line-for-the-corner situation, I will do my best to put my head down and get out of the line of fire as soon as possible. One out of every 50 times a dude says something to you on the street, it is actually kind of cute/funny. But those ain't good odds.)
So I've got my head down, I've sped up and am walking past them very quickly, when I realize they aren't barking pick up lines at ladies, they are making up raps about them on the fly and singing them boyz2men style on the sidewalk. Unfortunately by the time I realized this I was already rounding the corner (otherwise I would have walked slower than usual to enjoy this original rap about myself, duh), but I did make out some fresh beats that were something along the lines of "she's wearing her sunglasses and her dress by burberry" which was hilarious, because A) I was wearing this dress:

And B) I was wearing the prescription glasses I've had for the last five years, and they don't look like sunglasses at any angle. Still, the ditty had me smiling for the rest of my journey to spicy tuna roll land, and for a minute there I felt like I was in a scene from some kind of Spike Lee joint.

Friday, August 13, 2010

Summer in the City - Ways to beat the heat

Seems like summer started extra early this year (I recall feeling it was too hot to wear pants sometime in early May), so I keep telling Sam, shouldn't it be cooling off early (like now) since summer started so soon? He insists that August is always brutal, and we are in for at least another month of sweaty muggy hot, but I am still hoping for an early fall. Sometimes you have to get creative on super hot days, and New Yorkers have their own methods for staying cool:


Find a sprinkler. They have them at all the playgrounds here, but I recommend borrowing a child you may know and bringing them with you.  



Retreat to commercial A/C. Most New Yorkers aren't blessed with central air conditioning, but big commercial spaces, like the Brooklyn Museum, have loads of cool air they blast all summer long. Here I'm cooling off at their cafe, while the man next to me ingests copious amounts of sugar packets and a splash of coffee.



When you can't escape the outdoors, take in something beautiful, like here, at the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens. This will distract you from the fact that you have sweated through your thin t-shirt and your heavy application of deodorant isn't cutting it as the heat index tips above 90 degrees. Also, they have loads of old beautiful trees which you can escape beneath for a few glorious, if brief moments in the shade.

And when all else fails. Iced coffee. Loads and loads of iced coffee. I cannot think of a time or place when I've ever purchased iced coffee as I frequently and desperately as I have since I've lived here. Seriously. I think it's saved my life at least six times this summer alone.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Spotted on the streets! today in Brooklyn

Some days living in NYC, you just have your head down and you're mostly focused on getting to the train/bus/taxi before it passes you by. There's a lot of rushing around. Which is unfortunate because when you slow down and have time to wander up and down the streets you discover the most wondrous and strange things. Today as I was standing on the corner I saw this cadre of grown men in boy scout uniforms...I wonder where they were going?

Next I ran across an amazing fruit and vegetable stand. The squash was wrapped up in tissue paper, and arranged in neat rows, like they were little newborn babes waiting to be plucked up by loving parents. 


Instead of garage sales, stoop sales are a very popular way to get rid of all the extra junk that's laying around your apartment. I was perusing this older chap's stoop sale goods when I ran across these beauties. Anyone need some old, outdated and useless remotes? Anyone? No? Alrighty then.

Monday, August 9, 2010

It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World


New York and my world in general has been ate up with Mad Men of late. Recently I got to fulfill my dream of being a human statue for a day outside of Radio City. A couple of days later I spent the evening posing for pictures with the majority of the tourist population at the Mad Men Season 4 premiere in Times Square. I have to say it is a bizarre feeling to either be 1) frozen, and having people take pictures of you like you are a museum exhibit 2) frozen, and having random people jump next to you, snap a picture, and run away, like you are not really real and they are posing with an actual statue but 3) I think it is even stranger still to have people show up to the Mad Men premiere dressed up in 60's attire and want to get in pictures with you, who is getting paid to be dressed up like they are. Then it's just a bunch of strangers dressed in 60's attire, and randomly in a picture together, you know?
I wish I had some examples of me in pictures with these other people who are dressed up, but alas, the only fan photo I have been able to come up with is this one:

The lovely gentleman posing for pictures with me is Josh, a fellow Southerner who just relocated to New York a couple of months ago. Josh and I decided to fulfill our duties as Mad Men human statue people we needed 1960's/alterego people. So I referred to him as Jimmy and he called me Dot all day. Apparently he is really moving up at work and I am his faithful secretary, recently having had a lobotomy and unable to charm everyone around me like I used to, but still able to type with the best of them.
Here we are being stared at by onlookers:

And HERE is a fabulous video from the premiere in Times Square that Cindi spotted with her brilliant eye in which I make a couple of cameos.
And if you haven't heard enough and I haven't completely turned you off of Mad Men for life, I have entered the Mad Men Casting Contest. There's a month of voting left and I am in the #11 spot for Women. The Top 10 move on to the final round where Matt Weiner (exec producer of the show) will pick the winner/runner-ups. So VOTE today (for me), and often!
Whew. I'm exhausted. I need to sit down.