Monday, September 30, 2013

Bubbly at Barclays


I went to see Michael Buble last night at the Barclays Center. The show was great. Mikey was excellent and quite funny. If the music think hadn't worked out, he could have gone into comedy. (Watch his skits on SNL if you want to see his work, particularly his skit with Jon Hamm.) The woman sitting next to me cried when he sang his first song that, I think, was "Try a Little Tenderness." The crowd was diverse, all ages, all races, and everyone seemed to be having a good time. Other than the chick who kept putting her foot in my back (and stopped when I told her I didn't pay $130 to have her foot in my back all night), the evening was good. I wish my iPhone pics had come out better. I should have brought my digital camera. Oh, well. Rock on, Bubbles!

Sunday, September 29, 2013

So Bad It's Good

I was listening to former Spice Girl Emma Bunton's version of "Crickets Sing for Anna Maria" on You Tube last week and songs by Spice Girl Geri Halliwell popped up in the sidebar. I found myself listening to Geri's song "Look at Me" and thinking how great the song would be if Geri could actually sing. "Look at Me" is a good song and if it had a good singer, it'd be a great song. It's upbeat and catchy and the video is in a black and white La Dolce Vita mode. Too bad Ginger Spice can barely carry a tune. (The bridge is especially painful to listen to.) Still, "Look at Me" is so bad it's good. The same goes for "Nasty Girl" by Vanity 6. Vanity can't sing worth a damn, but "Nasty Girl" still rocks. The beat alone makes it worth it to sit through her heavy breathing that passes as singing. "Nasty Girl" is a classic now and maybe the same will be said for "Look at Me" in another ten or twenty years.

Saturday, September 28, 2013

Yikes!

I just read about delays on the F train last night. People were stuck for hours. All I can say is I'm glad it wasn't me. I take the F daily to and from work but managed to avoid this disaster. You never know when there will be trouble on the rails, but I have to say, since I've been living in New York, I haven't really had a major problem on the subways. The worst situation I was in was when the trains were shut down due to Hurricane/Super Storm Sandy last year. When there was no train service between Brooklyn and Manhattan, my commute was difficult, but not terrible. I feel particularly bad for the folks trying to commute into Grand Central via Metro North. I read the current fleet of diesel trains can only accommodate about 30% of the normal daily commuters. What are the other 70% supposed to do? Everyone doesn't have the option of working from home. What a mess. I really am surprised that this kind of thing doesn't happen more often honestly. Sometimes it seems like the infrastructure around here is held together with duct tape and Popsicle sticks. Repairs only seem to get made when something goes wrong. But when you have a transit system that never stops, it's hard to do routine maintenance without taking the entire line out of service and inconveniencing the public. It's a vicious circle.

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Change is Afoot!

With the welcome of fall, we close the door on another summer.  Change is afoot! Goodbye sandals, hello covered-toe shoes and boots...but not yet. The weather in New York has been really wonderful these past few days. Sunny and comfortable during the day, and nice and cool at night. Unfortunately, the days are getting shorter and I dread waking up and coming home in the dark, but I'm hoping for a quiet fall that doesn't have another Hurricane Sandy repeat in its forecast. It was last October (Halloween weekend, I believe) when the storm rolled into town. It's hard to believe that was almost a year ago. Time flies. But, in the meantime, I intend to enjoy the good weather we're having.

In other news, I read Jon Hamm has to have surgery to remove a polyp from his throat. Poor Hamm! I hope the surgery goes well. I love him with that wolfman beard, by the way. I know many folks don't care for it because he doesn't look like Don Draper, but I, for one, am a fan. That beard suits him. I wish they'd let Don Draper go full wolfman on "Mad Men" but I know they won't, not unless Don became a hobo or something and I don't see that happening.

Sunday, September 22, 2013

Fare Beaters

I took Amtrak to Philadelphia today for my book club meeting and totally watched two fare beaters hop on the train at the Newark Airport station and hide in the bathrooms until New York.  A clever plan, if you think about it because it's such a short ride from the airport into New York, so the guys didn't have to hide out in the toilets for long. Still, Amtrak needs to clamp down on that kind of thing. You want to ride, pay for a ticket!

Friday, September 20, 2013

Tossed Out

I just read an article about a couple who was asked to leave an Applebee's restaurant because their kids were unruly.  The police were called, probably because the couple chose to argue with the restaurant staff and they (the staff) thought the situation might get out of control.  I think the call to police might have been excessive on the part of the restaurant, but I'm fully in agreement with tossing these folks and their kids out.  According to what I read, the kids (two little boys) were running around the restaurant harassing other customers.  If you can't control your kids, get a babysitter and leave them at home.  Really.  Your lack of parental skills shouldn't impact my dinner. 

And speaking of bad kids, some suburban teens trashed an ex-football player's house in New York and when he posted their antics online (after the kids had already posted this stuff themselves), some of the kids parents had the nerve to threaten the football player with a lawsuit for posting pictures of their kids.  Huh?  Your kids trashed and vandalized this man's house and you're mad because he put their bad behavior on display?  Mind you, the bad behavior that they'd already put on display themselves.  These parents ought to be ashamed of themselves.  Rather than threatening lawsuits, they need to be ponying up some cash to help this man repair is damaged home. 

Monday, September 16, 2013

Washcloths

I saw an story on Gawker today about the cultural differences between washcloth and non-washcloth users.  There is a cultural divide, people.  I've always used a washcloth.  I grew up in a household where my parents were washcloth users.  I assumed most people used them.  I was wrong.  Black Americans, like myself, seem to favor them, but white Americans do not.  I remember being in Brazil and having a hard time getting washcloths from the housekeeper.  Clearly, the Brazilians aren't fans either.  Go figure.  A lot of the debate on Gawker from the non-washcloth users centered around the cleanliness of the cloths.  If you use a washcloth, you then WASH the washcloth.  The key is to keep clean washcloths in circulation, folks!  And there's no sharing of washcloths.  There also is a washcloth for your face and a washcloth for your body.  You can buy a multipack at Target for under $5 and when they get grungy, just throw them out and buy some new ones. 

I always wondered why I'd see more washcloths than towels at places like Bed, Bath, and Beyond and now I know it's because a lot of folks just buy towels and skip the washcloths.  Interesting.   To each his own, I guess. 

Saturday, September 14, 2013

Freakout!

I read on Gothamist that a lot of folks were trapped on the subway yesterday due to some problem with the third rail.  Oy!  All I can say is thank God it wasn't me.  While I enjoy the efficiency of the New York subway system, I am seriously claustrophobic.  Every day I have to ride the subway (and that's pretty much every day), I am just one delay away from a total freakout.  When the train is moving, I'm fine.  When we're delayed and the train is stopped at a station (preferably with the doors open), I'm fine.  If we are forced to sit on the tracks outside in Brooklyn, I'm fine.  But to be trapped underground between stations or, God forbid, in the tunnel between Brooklyn and Manhattan, I get all panicky.  Even riding in a crowded elevator makes me a little skittish.  To be trapped in a confined space is like a death sentence for me.  It doesn't matter if the lights are on and the air is flowing.  All I can see is death ahead.  My heart rate increases and I feel jumpy.  Normally, I can mentally talk myself down from the ledge of insanity, but I've never been trapped on a subway or in an elevator car for any extended period of time.  The folks on the subway yesterday were there for an hour or more.  That might have pushed me over the edge.

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

The People Have Spoken

Since primary day has come and gone in New York, voters like myself should feel good about the choices we made as we pulled the Soviet-era voting machine levers yesterday to select the candidates for our local elections.  We should pat ourselves on the back for putting Quinn, Weiner, Spitzer, Hynes, Castimatidis, and others out of their misery.  Weiner's descent was particularly difficult to watch because he just self-destructed all over again.  It's a shame because I thought (and still think) he would have been good for the city if only he could control himself and, clearly, he can't.  As for Quinn, she learned a painful lesson that being Bloomberg's boot-licker can only get you so far.  He really didn't do her any favors either.  His support for her mayoral run was tepid at best. 

While I am rooting for DeBlasio to be the next mayor, I can live with Thompson holding that office also if there is a run-off.  Democracy in action, my friends.  Democracy in action.

Sunday, September 8, 2013

Shut Up, Bloomberg!

Well, our cranky little mayor, Michael Bloomberg, has been shooting his mouth off again about the current mayoral race and other things and has shown, once again, how truly out of touch he is with people in general.  Aside from his insults against Bill DeBlasio and his family, according to Bloomberg, you're not poor if you have air conditioning or a car.  It doesn't matter if the air conditioner you have is a cheap window until that's ten years old or if your car is a junker you need to get you to your minimum-wage job at Wal-Mart, you're rich, son! I guess to be poor in Bloomie's world you have to be running barefoot through the streets and digging through garbage cans for your next meal.  Uh, I think most rational people understand that being poor in Somalia and being poor in New York are two entirely different things, but both places have people in poverty.  I long for the day when Bloomberg is out of power so the media will stop publishing his supposed words of wisdom.  Election day can't come too soon.  If DeBlasio does become the Democratic nominee for mayor, he'd better watch out because, I suspect, Bloomberg will throw a ton of money at the Republican candidate (likely Joe Lhota) to try and defeat him.  I can see the ads now showing New York as some crime-ridden, drug-infested city out of the 70s and 80s if DeBlasio is elected mayor.  Once the Bloomberg machine gets cranked up, it'll be hard to stop it. DeBlasio had better get ready for the wrath of Mike because he's not going to go gently into that good night.

Thursday, September 5, 2013

Thighland

I was talking with a manager at work and he mentioned a book printer in Thailand but he pronounced the country's name as Thigh-land, not Tie-land.  Uh, isn't the "h" silent in Thailand?  Is "Thigh-land" the mythical land of thighs?  At first I thought the manager just mispronounced the word, but when he kept saying "Thigh-land" over and over, I knew it wasn't a one-off.  This guy claims to have graduated from Cornell, yet he can't properly pronounce Thailand?  (And he's not a recent graduate either.  This guy is in his late 40s/early 50s!)  I kept wanting to correct him, but I couldn't bring myself to actually do it.  I hated when I mispronounced the word "proselytizing" and one of my co-workers corrected me.  I hated it, not because I was wrong, but because the guy who corrected me was constantly doing that kind of thing.  He claimed he was just being helpful, but he was downright annoying.  Still, I should have been glad for the correction so I wouldn't make the same mistake in the future.  I probably should have told the manager that he was not pronouncing Thailand correctly, but I didn't.  If the opportunity arises again, I hope I can rise to the challenge and help the man from making the same mistake again.

Monday, September 2, 2013

Questionable Casting

So, finally, the lead actors (Dakota Johnson and Charlie Hunnam) have been cast for the movie version of Fifty Shades of Grey.  OK.  I'm not familiar with the work of either actor and I never read the book (nor any of its sequels), but it was my understanding from what I've read online that neither character was blond yet both actors cast in the movie are blond.  Huh?  Did the dark-haired folks not make the cut or simply run from this train wreck in the making when approached?  Still, there's money to be had here, folks and there are a lot of hungry actors out there looking for a break to the big time.  It remains to be seen whether this film will turn a profit, but I fail to believe the people who bought and read the book won't turn out to see the movie.  If even a fraction of them shell out the cash for the movie version, money will be made.  As the casting shows, they're not shelling out big bucks for star talent here and, I suspect, the production costs will be minimal.  I don't think there are any huge action sequences to be filmed with explosions and car crashes.  Clearly, this won't be a Jerry Bruckheimer production.

In other questionable casting, why was Ben Affleck cast as Nick in Gone Girl?  (Now, this book I did read, so I can speak with a little more authority here.)  Nick was supposed to be a bro in his early/mid-30s, light-haired, and have looks that typically would be called "all-American" and they cast 40-something, dark-haired, not-all-American-looking Affleck?  I understand having a big name will sell the movie, but Affleck?  There is nothing about him that in any way resembles the character Nick.  Nothing.  He's not boy-next-door cute and charming.  He looks like the dude who should be scanning your bags at the airport, not talking you out of your panties.  Armie Hammer should have been cast (or someone who looks like him).  Hammer's a little young, but he has the right look for Nick and I'm sure he could use a hit after The Lone Ranger bombed.