Advice For Chicago

learn what words mean.

i just saw some lady at the phillies-cubs game hold up a sign that read: Eliminate Spoiled Phillies Now (the first letters of each of the words spells ESPN, just in case you were wondering).

i have a big problem with this sign, or to put it more exactly, with the lady who wrote it. she used the word "spoiled" to define the phillies. you know, the same 10,000 loss phillies we talked about a few weeks ago? the same phillies who have 1 world series title in 125 years? that makes no sense. see, when you use the word spoiled. to me, the word spoiled implies that said person (or team, for that matter) is used to getting what they want, all the time, and will settle for nothing less. you all know someone you think is spoiled. you know what the word means. but the word, spoiled, DOES NOT APPLY TO THE PHILLIES. the phillies NEVER get what they want. the red sox do. the yankees do. those teams are spoiled. the phillies are not.

at least we don't blame some stupid goat for all our troubles. or a bartman. we accept responsibility for our failure.

Why Does The Empire State Building Dominate?

anyone who has been to new york has to notice the tall buildings. i mean, duh, they are everywhere, but there are two buildings on the new york skyline that i feel are more iconic than most: the empire state building and the chrysler building.

both were built at the exact same time. the chrysler building was finished first and for less than a year held the title of worlds tallest building at 1,046 feet (the chrysler building is also now tied with the new new york times building which was completed this year. i happen to find the new york times building horribly ugly, taboot). when the empire state was completed it took the title away from chrysler and topped it by 204 feet.

new york times building

there is one thing that is even more striking to me about those two (three) buildings: the empire state building is so much more dominant, not only on the skyline as a whole, but from inside the city itself. i was walking home from the west village tonight up 5th avenue and i was struck by how simply dominant the empire state was. it was everywhere. you can see it clearly from the village. and from union square. and from madison square park. from everywhere. but the chrysler building, in contrast, does not dominate its surroundings, despite its height advantage, like the empire state does. i noticed that yesterday when i was walking home from the upper east side. i think it has to do with the relative height of the buildings around each building. the empire state is relatively isolated from other tall buildings, but the chrysler is surrounded by them. i guess it all has to do with perception.

i'll take it either way though. i can see both buildings from the general area of my apartment. its rather nice.

holy mother of god

ryan howard has "it" again. i remember last season when ryan howard had "it". i remember last season when ryan howard was a living baseball god.

didn't it seem like ryan howard could do anything he wanted last year? well, he has that "it" to him again. that homer he hit last night against the nationals was howard pulling out his dick and saying "yeah, well mine is bigger than yours". it was monumental. earth shattering. he is amazing.

i remember watching him last year when he went off. i was at rfk when he surpassed mike schmidt for all time homer runs in one season with 49. he was amazing. couldn't be stopped. and he is in that zone again. it is a thing of beauty. baseball at its best. i am going to watch as much of ryan howard as i can over the next month.

here's to hoping they can pull it out.

note: i will post the video as soon as it comes available.

Little Italy Is Kind Of Disapointing

today's walkabout took me in the same general direction of past walking excursions: towards greenwich village, soho, and all the other places in that general direction. i actually had reason to go that way today; i went down to school to get my nyu id card ahead of the oncoming freshman rush, and once that had been accomplished, i figured i would spend the day (again) walking around down there.

as usual, i had a grand old time, looking at buildings, looking at people, window shopping, and discovering restaurants that i might have to check out again (hoomoos asli being #1 on the list). my adventures today also took me through little italy, a place i had been wanting to go to for a while, and i must say i was highly disappointed. first of all, little italy is just one street in the midst of the outskirts of chinatown (speaking of chinatown, the borders of chinatown don't really seem to be distinctly defined and it just kind of spills over wherever it wants). i wasn't impressed with the restaurants or the bakeries either. i just kind of got a "blah" feeling from the place. i would much prefer south philly and the italian market or boston's north end over little italy. i did have some good pistachio gelato, though.

i can now cross little italy off my list, for better or for worse. one of these days i am going to go uptown and see what there is to see up there.

caio.

Now Back To Regular Posting (For Real)

i am happy to report that i have finally landed in new york. it seems that my days as a homeless vagabond are over and i can comfortably kick my feet up and claim this tiny (and i mean tiny) piece of manhattan as my home.

over the past 3 days i think i have gotten a little bit of a lot of what new york has to offer: a birthday party on the lower east side, wondering from neighborhood to neighborhood, ordering takeout, eating pizza, more wondering from neighborhood to neighborhood, watching a bum take a dump on park avenue, looking at all the women, and, of course, more aimless wondering.

i still have a lot to learn about this place, but i feel very comfortable with the level of understanding i have at this point. i can get myself from point a to point b with relative ease. my knowledge of what subway lines go where is elementary, but its good enough for now. im sure i will pick it up in no time. socially, i have some work to do. i know enough people here, but they are all doing their own thing and are all at different points in their lives, so i think i will have to work a little harder at finding my social niche. its also difficult to be social in new york in the summer because most people go away on the weekends, so there is a good chance that most, if not all, of the few people i know here will be away on any given weekend. i am just going to have to try a little harder. other things to learn: what to look for in restaurants. there are so many restaurants to choose from here that it makes choosing one very difficult, so i want to come up with a checklist, so to speak, for me to use when i am deciding which japanese place or thai place or which diner to go to. along those lines, i need to learn which restaurants i should be going to and which ones i should avoid. that will take a while. there are lots of restaurants in this city.

but things are good. i love my apartment, my new roommates are great guys, and im in new york. what could be more fun than that?

Sirius Satellite Radio

on my trip to new england (someone please remind me to write a post on why i love new england) i had the pleasure of borrowing my brother's car which is equipped with sirius satellite radio. for those who have yet to experience the coolness that is sirius (and xm too, i suppose), i highly recommend it. i guess if you don't like lots of good music it wouldn't really turn you on, but for me, it was 100% awesome.

one of the coolest things about sirius is the amount of stations it has to offer. they have a station called "jam on" that plays jambands. they have a station called "first wave" that plays new wave music from the early '80s. there is a station dedicated to hair metal, one for garage rock, and even a jimmy buffett station for parrotheads. you can even set artist alerts and have the radio notify you whenever a particular artist comes on the air. i may or may not have set one for my not-so-secret guilty pleasure phil collins. all in all pretty cool stuff. the one station that surprised me the most, however, was first wave. they played some really good music on there including a healthy dose of early u2 (which i have been digging a lot of recently).

the good news is that even though i won't have a car in new york you can buy a sirius home unit, something i am considering doing. check it out. you might like it too.

I Need To Start Writing Again

its been way too long since i really wrote here. i like writing here. its a good outlet for me. i miss it. i hope those of you that read here will be able to stand my posts for the next month or so because they will all pretty much be about new york. i am apologizing in advance for that. see, i got excited for new york again tonight after watching "the devil wears prada" (yes, it does pain me to write that sentence, but it was a good movie).

one of the messages i got out of that movie was that art is always on the move in new york whether you notice it or not. i am more of a person that notices other aspects of new york's art like architecture, movies, and art art (paintings and stuff like that), but now i think i will pay a little closer attention to clothes and fashion as i make my way around the city. fashion is one thing that dc didn't do especially well.

also, meryl streep's character was pretty awesome. i think we have all had a boss like her at one point in their lives. i know i have. it was also fun to see vince (adrian grenier) in a role outside entourage.

one more thing...ladies, i need your help on this. is anne hathaway really a size 6 in that movie? because if she is, sign me up for a size 6, if you know what i mean! and while i'm on women's clothes, who the hell came up with how things are sized? i mean, i get how mens clothes are sized. pants come in a waist and length. shirts come in a collar and a sleeve. but womens clothes? one size. 6. what the hell? it makes no sense. even when i was working in retail i never understood it. can someone explain it please?

Back!

i'm back from vacation! i had a great time, first hanging out with the family in martha's vineyard, then hiking in new hampshire and maine. stories will come later this week. i am also planning on moving to new york at the end of the week. i guess that will be exciting too!

it was nice of the phillies to put off number 10,000 until i returned.

its good to be back.