Beyonce's Grafitti Truck Spotted in Midtown

What was Beyonce doing parking this truck in Midtown today at lunchtime? My best guess is that she was just making a quick stop to get her shoes repaired. All the VIPs go to VIP Shoe Restorers on 55th Street. You might have missed Queen Bey if you didn't keep your eyes open, but thankfully we spotted her.

Snake Charmers

It's only once a year, but it is one of those events that is always sure to create some sort of chaos or at least a lot of loud noise all day long in Midtown. I'm talking about the Puerto Rican Day Parade. The yearly parade is a huge source of pride for the island, one of only six inhabited unincorporated territories of the United States. In case you were wondering, the others are American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Wake Island. I've never heard of Wake Island and neither have you unless you play the game Battlefield.

Invariably, at one of these large parades rolling down 5th Avenue, you will find a couple of what I call "the snake charmers." These are always virile young men who think it is exceptionally cool to walk around with a slithering legless reptile strapped around their neck. I am not entirely sure, but there must be a group of women who find this really appealing. To the people that aren't repulsed by these creatures (the snakes, not the young men), they are endlessly fascinating. I'm not sure it's healthy to bring your snake to a loud outdoor event, but since most people think snakes are deaf anyway, I'm sure it doesn't matter much to these snake charmers.

Bruce Willis Wasn't

Bruce Willis was in Midtown Manhattn on Wednesday night at the Zeigfeld Theater for the premiere of the mostly unwatchable and supposedly Scientology-inspired new Will Smith movie, "After Earth." I caught the always jovial Mr. Willis as he was headed to his awaiting SUV with his beautiful girlfriend Emma Heming. Of course it was a spur of the moment picture-taking opportunity so I didn't realize that my camera was on the wrong setting. I noticed a few minutes later as their car zoomed away that just about all my pictures were super blurry and out of focus. This is the best of the lot, but sometimes you take what you can get.

Google Makes Driving Easy

The Google Self-Driving Car made a test drive in New York City on Thursday afternoon at around 5pm. I came across the car illegally parked (partially in the crosswalk) on 55th Street and Lexington Avenue. There was a guy crammed in the back seat and a driver in the front seat.

When I told him that he was cheating by sitting in the driver's seat he replied, "New York State law requires a driver in the car." I am sure Google's presumably trying to get this law changed. Some guy walking by told me that it was the "first test drive," but you can't believe everything a random stranger in New York City tells you or next thing you know you'll be driving off the Brooklyn Bridge.

Also no idea if the car parked itself or not or how it performs U-turns, illegal right hand turns, navigating potholes, running red lights, hitting bicyclists, or brushing up against pedestrians at crosswalks in the city, but judging from the scrapes on the side of car it will do just fine in our fair city.

Christmas in Midtown

There are an enormous number of hotels in Midtown, but if someone else is paying or you are splurging on a nice place then The Peninsula Hotel is as nice as any. It's located steps away from 5th Avenue and has a great luxury breakfast place on the 2nd floor that's expensive, but perfect for a business meeting. There's also a great bar on the rooftop. They did an excellent job on the Christmas decorations this year.

Under the Streets

Did you ever wonder what's under the bustling streets of New York City? It's no wonder the streets are getting ripped up all the time. What a mess down there.

Christmas and a Coffee Con

For the past week or two I've been going over to 55th Street (adjacent to the Robert Indiana "Love" sculpture partially visible in the background) in the morning to get my coffee. There's a little breakfast cart there and a large coffee is only $1.25 which is the cheapest in the neighborhood and, quite frankly, I think it tastes a lot better than Starbucks, Zibetto, Fika or any of the other fancy places in the area. There are, no joke, at least 30 different places to buy coffee in a two block radius of my house. I've tried them all. Maybe not all, but most of them. Not including the four Starbucks locations which are all the same...awful. So I've been going to this new cart to get my no-frills coffee which is great aside from the fact that the guy calls everyone "Boss" which is only slightly grating, but not enough so that I don't still go there in the morning.

Today, as I was walking back and passing in front of the unbelievably and wildly overpriced supermarket pictured above, a reasonably articulate and casually dressed black man approached me. In New York City, when a stranger approaches you it's always startling for a second. Your guard immediately goes up, more so than it already is, but that's just the way it is. After you realize that the person is semi-normal or just a tourist or not otherwise frothing at the mouth it's really not such a big deal to tell them where Carnegie Hall is located or how to get to the F train. This morning, however, was slightly different.

I'm walking back with my morning coffee (I resisted the urge to get a couple of high calorie doughnuts) and this guy approaches me on the sidewalk. I must have jumped a bit or something because he immediately apologized and said sorry to bother me, but he didn't want anything. Whew. Everyone wants something.

Ok, so I am thinking to myself, what do you want then? He begins his lengthy explanation. Somehow he dropped his car keys in the sewer on the corner and it's wet and watery down there and he couldn't get them out with a coat hanger. Dubious enough, but I'm sort of intrigued where this story might be going. He says that everything is OK, he's not going to get towed, the traffic cop has already assured him of that. At this point, I should have just walked away because traffic cops in New York don't care if you are the man in the moon because you are so getting towed whether you dropped your keys or have a crying baby locked up in the back seat. Since I was in no particular rush and I sort of enjoy these versions of street theater I decided to continue to hear him out if for no other reason than my own personal amusement. He continued. He reassured me that he didn't want anything and that because his keys were dropped down somewhere irretrievably in the sewer that he needed to go home to the Bronx or some other distant borough to get his spare set. The man told me that he would give me his license to hold and....blah blah blah. Now he lost me. I just tuned him out completely. I don't want some stranger's license. I don't want to be bothered on the way home from getting my morning coffee. I don't want anything other than to drink my hot coffee. I am more than happy to tell you where to get a great bagel or which diner serves the best breakfast, the best exhibition at MoMA or even how to get to Carnegie Hall (practice!) or really any other basic thing, but holding your license while you take the imaginary bus back to the Bronx is way too much for 9:30am in the morning. Of course he wanted money. So I just lied and told him that I had no money on me and he actually thanked me and moved on, eager I am sure to find his next more gullible morning coffee con.

What would you have done? Most people in New York City, busy and rushed on their way to work on a Friday morning, probably wouldn't have even stopped for 5 seconds. At least I gave him an opportunity to work on his pitch.

Oh and the picture above is right outside where he stopped me. The city is crazed right now with every business installing Christmas lights and decorations. I sure wish they'd wait another week to give us a break between the holidays.

Love NYC Style

After you live in the New York City for a while, you come to realize that nearly anything goes here. So if you are planning a NYC destination wedding (assuming you have to get married), you might as well make the very most of it. Thus, it's totally a-OK if that involves taking your wedding photographs during a mid-week rush hour in Midtown.

When you and your spouse-to-be come to New York to get married you're definitely going to get those precious photographs of the two of you that you'll cherish for a lifetime. You only have to make sure you do it just right.

For best results, I recommend that you pick the absolute busiest time of the day. A few minutes after 5pm is ideal for the perfect light and catching hundreds of thousands of people headed out of work in the concrete jungle. Also make sure you take your photographs smack in the middle of Midtown right next to one of the most photographed landmark art sculptures in the city as well. You'll also want to commandeer a super busy bus stop, push everyone out of the way and work around the tourists and elderly gentlemen waiting for the Uptown local. No one will mind one bit. Of course, you should try to ignore the extremely smelly homeless man who's been using the bench as his see-through bedroom. Also don't worry if there are multiple bags of trash strewn carelessly about the sidewalk. You'll probably want to photoshop these out of your photos, but I think all this adds to the realism of the location.

I didn't intend to be a wedding photographer, but I think I got the shot.

Lobster Lunch

Less than a block away from a shoeless man boldly eating out of a trash can, I spotted a bright red lobster suit handing out flyers to a well-dressed man wearing a Burberry coat and scarf directly in front of the Thomas Pink shirt store.

Pipe on the Avenue

It's amazing that I never even have to leave a two block radius of my house and I can pretty much take a year's worth of photographs. You don't often see people walking around smoking a pipe. I pretty much need to work on holding the camera steady when I'm stealing a shot, but I like the loose blurry effect all the same. You get the point, don't you?

Look Mom, No Hands!

The friendly bicycle repair man.

Usually I have pretty good luck, but this week it took a turn in the wrong direction. I was riding home late the other night up 8th Avenue and my bicycle got a flat tire. Somewhere around 38th Street a small metal spring with a very sharp point got lodged in the rear tire and all the air came hissing out. I had to walk it home about 20 blocks. The next day I hiked over to 9th Avenue where I found a great bike shop that fixed my bicycle in about five minutes flat (no pun intended). They were quick, inexpensive and friendly, I had the brakes adjusted, the flat repaired, the tires inflated and everything was just great. Or so I thought.

About 10 minutes later on my way home, I was stopping right in the middle of Times Square and I hit the brakes. I guess I really wasn't totally prepared for the brakes to work so well. I went head over heels right over the handlebars and landed flat on my right arm in the middle of the street. My newly fixed bike came tumbling down right on top of me. I hopped right up and told the few people who asked, "I'm fine, I'm fine." Turns out I wasn't so fine. After a very painful night's sleep, I called the doctor first thing this morning and spent a very long day at the doctor's office. I waited at the radiology department downstairs getting four or five x-rays and then there was, of course, a very long wait for the orthopedist as well. I was smart to anticipate that you always have to wait at the doctor's office and I brought along Peter Hedges excellent new book, The Heights. After hours and hours of waiting around I found out that I have a fractured right elbow. It's not the worst fracture in the world, but it sure hurts like hell. It looks like I won't be riding my bike very much in the near future.

Ouch.

(I think it's time for a roll call. How about some comments from some of my regular blog readers. If you haven't spoken up before, now's your chance. Surely someone looks at these posts.)

Deep in Contemplation

Totally lost in the art. One of my favorite moments at The Armory Show 2010. Last Friday night.

5th Avenue Ticket

Just a second, sir. I know it's in here somewhere.

Harry Winston Jewelers

It looks like the luxury jewelry salon Harry Winston needs to give their New York lettering a good polishing.

Checks Cashed

When you either don't have a bank account or you don't want the government to track you down, there are plenty of these check cashing joints scattered around the city.

Skyscraper Lobby

I'm obsessed with these blue chairs. The blue tape artwork on the walls is new. I forget the artist's name, but I really should know it since I think it's fantastic. Remind me to look that up.

Taylor Swift's Graffiti Truck

After spending a week in NYC to host Saturday Night Live, Taylor Swift jetted out of town to collect a bunch of CMA Awards. But you can sure bet that while she was visiting the Big Apple she needed a quick and incognito way to get around town. I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me the other day when I was walking down 55th Street and there when I looked up was this blonde-tressed young lady sitting behind the wheel of this beautiful graffiti truck. Could it be Taylor Swift in a hot pink emblazoned graffiti truck? I can't be entirely sure because there was no signs of her current love interest Taylor Lautner anywhere. She made a quick dash into Au Bon Pain on 55th Street to grab a chocolate croissant and a large cup of coffee and parked the truck out front for a few minutes. Luckily, she narrowly avoided getting a ticket. Those country stars sure are good at avoiding dramatic situations. She's got a good color sense too.

This truck must be making the celebrity rounds because I saw it last year on 3rd Avenue from a different perspective.

Matt Damon in "The Adjustment Bureau"

55th Street and 6th Avenue is proving to be an exceptionally popular spot to film movies this fall.

I was walking home from the Museum of Modern Art late this afternoon and I just happened to wander onto the set of "The Adjustment Bureau," a film starring Matt Damon and Emily Blunt that's been shooting in the city over the past few weeks. Matt Damon was sitting in the back seat of a taxi cab and the cameras were about to roll when I walked by the location. This answers your question in case you were wondering how they film these types of shots where the actors are sitting in the back seat of a taxicab. The cars are rigged up with special camera mounts and the cab is pulled along while the actors sit in the back. Of course, by the time it's edited and pieced together it will look as if Matt Damon just naturally hopped in the back of the cab and sped down 55th Street towards 7th Avenue.

You may recall that it was only three weeks ago that I ran into Miley Cyrus at the very exact same spot.

Lutron Sets Up Camp

All bets are off when the Lutron RV sets up in your neighborhood. There was some serious lighting controls and window shade activity going down this morning on 6th Avenue and 55th Street.

Have a Nice Day?

Today was sort of a strange Monday, don't you think? It seemed like everyone was in zombieland.

Maybe you need a closer look? See! I was right. Zombies.