We're flying Roy Air!
Flights to New York have been booked- £311 return- and the baggage allowance is more that 5 Tic Tacs (or equivalent).
New York
NY:LON – Battle of the cities
Telegraph blogs are doing a series on New York vs London and all of their contributors have been invited to join in. I’ve yet to visit New York and I’ve probably spent less time in London than any of the Americans I’ve met. (Staines doesn’t count as London, it’s just a rather dire place tauntingly close to the capital.)
With luck I’ll get to visit both cities this year. I could try out my accent over the pond to see who’s impressed, but I’m sure it will be less of a novelty in New York than elsewhere in the US.
Man is 5
there was a guy
an under water guy who controlled the sea
got killed by ten million pounds of sludge
from new york and new jersey
this monkey’s gone to heaven
the creature in the sky
got sucked in a hole
now there’s a hole in the sky
and the ground’s not cold
and if the ground’s not cold
everything is gonna burn
we’ll all take turns
i’ll get mine, too
this monkey’s gone to haven
rock me joe!
if man is 5 [3x]
then the devil is 6 [5x]
then god is 7 [3x]
this monkey’s gone to heaven
Pixies – Monkey Gone to Heaven
New York, New York, it's a hell of a place
NYC Condoms are being given out free around the city. There will be 18 million of them handed out every year. You know these are on the list of mementoes to bring back from Spinneyhead’s New York adventure in September.
Watching the Big Apple turn over
A large proportion of Team Spinneyhead will be in New York in late September/ early October, either side of a wedding. I’m sure we must have one or two New York natives visiting the blog- start making suggestions of things to see, places to go, people to meet etc. now.
Technorati tag: Technorati
New York psychogeographic
The New York Times tags along with Will Self as he does the unheard of and walks around New York.
(If I get to the States next year I think I’ll be doing a bit of that.)
via Counago & Spaves
Technorati tag: New York, Will Self, Psychogeography
Ex Machina: Tag
I don’t buy comics any more, but I have started popping down to the library to read its graphic novel selection. Today I picked up Ex Machina: Tag, and I’m impressed.
The series follows Mitchell Hundred, one time superhero and now mayor of New York, flashing back and forth between his election campaign and present difficulties. Several years before Hundred was caught in the explosion of an unknown piece of technology and developed the ability to “talk” to machines. After a career spent saving the odd life and wearing a costume he admits is extremely dorky, he outed himself and announced he was running for Mayor. Along the way he attracted the attention of the NSA and several foreign intelligence services, leading to dangers he’d much rather do without.
Having won the mayoral race after involvement in a pivotal moment in modern history Hundred now finds himself in office and facing the fraught questions of school vouchers and gay marriage. Meanwhile something is very wrong with his NSA handler and a mysterious tag linked to his powers is showing up on the subway walls and inducing homicidal and suicidal behaviour.
The idea of a superhero turning to politics can’t be new, but it certainly hasn’t been explored much. Brian K Vaughn does a good job of mixing the West Wing with the Iron Man. There is a hint that Hundred’s condition has left him somehow other than human. Some times the decisions he makes are based upon tactical rather than emotional thinking- a lot like many a political animal- but he does seem to be getting some of his humanity back. I imagine this is a thread to be investigated in future episodes.
I’m going to be looking out for other volumes from this series on the library shelves and when I’m feeling rich enough I may even buy copies.
Semen makes you happy
A study has shown that women who were directly exposed to semen were less depressed. The researchers think this is because mood-altering hormones in semen are absorbed through the vagina. They say they have ruled out other explanations.
“I want to make it clear that we are not advocating that people abstain from using condoms,” says Gordon Gallup, the psychologist at the State University of New York who led the team. “Clearly an unwanted pregnancy or a sexually transmitted disease would more than offset any advantageous psychological effects of semen.”
via Fleshbot
Technorati tag: Semen, Depression, Mood
Celluloid Skyline
A gorgeous interactive site about New York, both its real and cinematic. A companion to the book of the same name. I had to drag myself away from it because I want to get things done this afternoon.
The first is a real city, an urban agglomeration of millions. The second is a mythic city, so rich in memory and association and sense of place that to people everywhere it has come to seem real: the New York of such films such as 42nd Street, Rear Window, King Kong, Dead End, The Naked City, Ghostbusters, Annie Hall, Taxi Driver, and Do the Right Thing. A dream city of the imagination, born of that most pervasive of dream media, the movies.
Technorati tag: New York, Architecture, Movies
High Line
The High Line is part of an abandoned elevated freight railway in New York. Stay Free! magazine sent a trio of reporters on a ramble along it to take pictures and view their city from a different angle.
via BoingBoing
Woodcut
An exhibition in the Grolier Club in New York traces the history of the woodcut, from early crude illustrations to works of art.
So good they named it once
Croydon could be the new New York. I’ve been to Croydon and, as nice as some of the people in Croydon are, I’d rather go to New York.
Technorati tag: Croydon
Caissons
Historians are gently drying out and preseving a wooden beam washed ashore from an important piece of War of Independence architecture. A wooden bridge built across Lake Champlain linked Fort Ticonderoga in New York and Mount Independence in Vermont. It allowed thousands of American soldiers to escape when the British took Ticonderoga so they could fight again in the Battle of Saratoge.
Technorati tag: Archaeology
Last Friday of the Month
Still We Ride, a documentary about the mass arrests of cyclists at last August’s New York Critical Mass (the one that coincided with the Republican convention). The film’s premiere will be at the very cool sounding Bicycle Film Festival.
Technorati tag: Cycling, Critical Mass
It's only art if it's well hung
Banksy’s been at it again, hanging four of his works in New York galleries and museums.
via Kottke
Gotham
Gridskipper collects pictures of New York as it might have been. I’d like to see a larger collection with bigger pictures, but this is cool.
Technorati tag: New York
You scumbag, you maggot
You cheap lousy faggot.
Ronan Keating has covered Fairytale of New York. No.
No, no, no.
Q
Who?
Chances are this is the first mention you’ve heard of this character. So, who is this Queen of Diamonds? Bevis Musson is the Queen’s creator and he describes the character as an all around nice chap who fights crime who happens to be an unapologetically “great big screaming queen”.
Actually, the city’s a bit generic in the first three issues, but the fourth has some very recognisable Mancunian landmarks in it.
Relevance
In keeping with my grafitti and signage project- a collection of hand lettered signs from New York City, New Orleans, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts.
We are traffic
Critical Mass happens on the last Friday of the month in cities all over the world. I used to go on them, and when I remember which Friday is the last of the month I’ll do it again.
Of course, if you turn up to the regular New York Mass on the Friday before the Republican convention, the usually easy going NYPD will arrest the lot of you and throw you in “Little Gitmo”.