Graffiti Truck on 6th Avenue

9:05am on Thursday morning.

Entry Lion

A large brass lion door knocker on the Upper East Side. Park Avenue in the 70's.

53rd Street Waterfall

Waterfall hidden in Midtown on 53rd Street between 5th and Madison. A good place for lunch or just hanging out.

Pink is the New Skinny

Freaky. Coney Island Sunday.

At the beach

Two girls enjoy their cellphones one of the last days of the summer on the beach.

Full Moon over 42nd Street

The view down 42nd Street looking towards the Chrysler Building. It sort of looks like a street light, but the bright light in the sky is a full moon.

Art Rack

This appears to be one of those times when you notice something and then you start seeing it everywhere. I saw another one of those ridiculous David Byrne-designed red bike racks in front of the Museum of Modern Art on 54th Street today. It doesn't look like anyone has ever used this bike rack even though it makes a nice marker for the local hot dog cart. Who is going to use this as a bike rack with a hot dog stand right up next to it? There were lots of tourists buying pretzels at 10:30am.

Shoe Rack

As much as I like the idea of adding bike racks in the city, these just don't do it for me. David Byrne, former lead singer of the Talking Heads, designed a bunch of these quirky racks that are temporarily installed for a few months around the city. This one is fittingly located on 5th Avenue in front of Bergdorf Goodman. The super obvious point here is the shoe department at Bergdorf's - where every "Sex and The City" watching fashionista gets their shoe fix taken care of. It's a much needed rack but I doubt it promotes more bike riding. Why? No one parks their bike on 5th Avenue. I totally agree with this post.

No Cavities

This is the view from the dentist's office today. Do you think this very good view of the Empire State Building makes the drilling a bit more pleasant?

Crazy Baldheads

Stanley Kubrick Goes Shopping. I want to go to this.

Graffiti Truck on 32nd Street

There's really no way to avoid having your truck covered in graffiti if you drive it in the city.

Kill Bill

Smoking on the subway platform is totally illegal. It's terrific to see that someone is willing to break the rules.

Window Cleaning

There's absolutely nothing in the windows at A&F except for a lot of dust. Regularly scheduled cleaning.

Jumbo Sunglasses

Found. Those sunglasses you lost. 9:30PM on 5th Avenue in front of Henri Bendel's new Gossip Girl windows.

A Little Privacy

When you need some privacy while making a drug deal in the Bronx, an umbrella will do. This proves that some people still use payphones.

Heavyweight AC

Air conditioning for champs.

Free the Bees

A bee doing his thing at the beautiful New York Botanical Garden. The garden is just a short subway ride north of Manhattan and there are over 250 acres of trees and flowers.

Summer Subway Sunday

Five city kids in the subway. The older boy with tattoos was dispensing change to the group.

Halal Guys

200+ reviews on Yelp can't be wrong? Late night food for a long line of drunk people on 6th Avenue.

A few blocks north, no customers in sight.

Stormy Skies

A violent thunderstorm rolled through Manhattan late this afternoon. 15 minutes before.

Sleepy Stroll

Who needs a Peg Perego stroller? Low cost innovative baby-carrying apparatus on Park Avenue around 3PM.

I Woke Up Today - Port O'Brien

I remember that the last time I saw Port O'Brien I could have been at a Japanese sushi place on 57th, but that's another story.

They played a terrific and extremely fun show tonight (though much too short) at Mercury Lounge. Right before their final song they passed out pots and pans and other metal kitchen tools and invited everyone on stage to sing along to the incredibly catchy song "I Woke Up Today." I found some videos of the song. I like this one and this one and even this one.

I think the last time I was up on stage was during a Misfits show in Boston (a cover of "Rise Above" by Black Flag at 2:09).

ADDENDUM: They are playing Friday night in Brooklyn! Only $10.

Mockingbirds from London

This past Sunday afternoon I somehow managed to get on the wrong subway uptown. The F train goes to 57th Street and the others curve around and head to the East Side. Sucks when you realize this after the fact. It means I have to walk home a few extra blocks in the rain.

I have to say my mood improved immensely as I came up the escalator and I hear these two scruffy English guys singing and strumming some really great songs. Highly unusual for a subway stop in midtown underneath the Museum of Modern Art on a weekend. But it's New York so anything is possible and I stuck around to listen to a few songs.

Turns out these two rebellious chaps are an unsigned band -- Mockingbirds from London. Tons of energy, enthusiasm and charisma. They earned around $15 in the ten minutes that I watched them. As one of them told me, apparently they were kicked off their tour in the US and needed to raise money to get back to England. I can only imagine what kind of trouble this adventurous pair did to get kicked off their tour. Drinking and destroying houses across the US or God knows what other shenanigans they managed to get into that left them stranded in New York and forced to sing in the 5th Avenue subway stop.

I especially loved their cover of Jamie T's "If You Got The Money," but they played plenty of other good songs. The random tourists on the subway platform seemed to enjoy them if they cash they pulled in was any indication.

Good luck guys! Hope you got home safely.

Jonas Brothers Take Manhattan

The Jonas Brothers came to New York to play a series of concerts at Madison Square Garden with support from Burger King and Verizon Wireless. The tour bus was a popular place to leave your phone number and email address. I left mine. I sure hope they call me really soon. Itl B 2 gr8 whn dey 911. i cnt w8.