Where is Spring?

WELL, we are all still waiting for Spring to show up.

I was watching the Weather Report on TV last night and they were showing how much warmer last March was than this year...last year we almost really didn't have a winter at all, in fact.

This year was closer to normal, and right now it is finally starting to warm up. The days have been off and on sunny and you can see the tulips want to bloom soon...

This has been a time for me to just take care of medical problems--just had a cystoscopy ( read on the internet that it would be horrible but it wasn't) ( I am OK, by the way) and waiting to see a surgeon about a hernia I just developed.

This  just gives me one more chance to wish a Happy Passover and Easter to everyone who is observing them! Let's hope Spring comes in soon, too!

Passover, Easter arrive and Chocolate is all over

Passover has just started ( note this store has sign saying it sells Kosher chocolate)-- and, of course, there are the traditional treats from Barton's in NYC like the Chocolate Matzoh and other favorites.

This big Easter Bunny in the center of the window is bedecked with (what are those, marshmallow eggs?)-- have to go back and get a better look.

More New(?) Clothes- Men vs. Women

The Gap always features casual clothes and for ages now the men's stuff seems stuck back in a time warp...when it comes to casual men's clothing, men seem to just like to stick to the tried and true.

Women are always a little more adventurous, but not that much either...these dresses are either for Spring or for Summer, I am not sure which

Cannot Wait for Spring- Late March 2013

This was a day or two before an end of March snowfall was predicted-- a milder day and people swarming to St. Vartan's Park, itching like crazy for the real Spring to begin.

Spring is coming, it's coming, just have to wait a little while...

Chapel- Source of All Consolation-East 33rd Street

This chapel-- " Source of All Consolation"-- is on East 33rd Street between First and Second Avenues..

Ideal spot for a nice refuge from noise of City--this is probably quietest place around here possible...note that chapel dates from 2009, although I thought I noticed them working on it not so long ago ( maybe time has just flown that fast)

 

Back to "Alphaville" March 2013

"Public seating space" in Kips Bay housing area near NYU Dental School is even gloomier and more oppressive in winter than in summer, where people sit out on the concrete and eat lunch etc. anyway

I always wonder how Community Boards just approve this stuff automatically as an "amenity"

March, The Time of Great Flux

March has always been noted as a month of great flux and rising and falling temperatures, Spring like days followed by cold snaps, and sometime during the month the unlikely emergence of the first daffodils, (especially in Central Park) -- little harbingers of Spring which however do not rule out the chance of getting whammied by one last big Winter Nor'easter and a foot of snow, on, say, March 22...

Landmark buildings as you look up Third Avenue from Murray Hill, the Chanin Building on the left ( named after its architect who was way ahead of his time in the design of tall office buildings) and of course the Chrysler Building with its distinctive spire( and when you get closer where you can see the ornamental art deco eagle type shapes perched up on corners of the building, looking like hood ornaments from the first "streamlined" cars of the 1930's)...

Murray Hill and Kips Bay more family oriented than ever

It seems to me that this area of Murray Hill and adjacent Kips Bay is more oriented to young families ( or people with infants and young children anyway-- adults are often older now when they have their first kid I have noticed). Sometimes hard to tell if someone like woman with baby (above) are mothers or nannies.

Variety in Turtle Bay

One of the things I love about the Turtle Bay section of Manhattan ( roughly between 45th and 54th streets from Park Avenue over to East River) is what a hodgepodge of architectural styles it encompasses and how charming it is on a quiet Sunday when the residential aspect of it dominates...

The Turtle Bay Music School is still there too, and seems to have changed and updated itself in the last year or so...it used to be that it served many kids who grew up in Turtle Bay, which I suppose it still does, but it seems people are on the move more than ever these days and whereas people used to live for generations ,say, in parts of the Upper West Side, that no longer seems to be true. Yuppies move in, have a couple of kids, and then either go elsewhere to find more room or out of the City altogether.

Landmark Alley pretty as always

Landmark Alley ( really a Courtyard now ) in Murray Hill remains a real treat to the eye as you pass it ( not shown here: Big black fancy iron gate that seals it off from street).

Hate to think what it must cost to live here now, as real estate prices in Manhattan continue to soar ( average one bedroom apt. in New York City is now $3,500 a month or something, or maybe that is just Manhattan).

Fun to see this place with the seasons-- I will miss this neighborhood a lot when I eventually move out in 2017.

Park Handball and Tennis Courts in use all Winter

The handball, basketball and single tennis areas of St. Vartan's Park here in lower Murray Hill have only been shut down a few days this winter (because of snow or slush)--otherwise people (mostly men and boys) are out in them all the time no matter what the weather is like otherwise.

Bigger playground gave children a chance to make snowmen only once so far this year...we may yet get another snowfall before March is over ( it used to be so typical for the weather to be nice and Springlike for St. Patrick's Day and then slam us with a snowstorm a week later, but with Climate Change who knows).

More than retro, Vintage influence in clothes

Have noticed that Women's Spring Fashions are already much on display.

Seems to be a theme of old fashioned looking clothes that goes back to even 1950's. Note the collar on this dress for instance.

Men's clothing stays very traditional and just does variations on themes. High end stuff has more custom made white stylized shirts etc. I suppose and suits which are cut somewhat differently than before but the kinds of "looks" of fabrics etc. seems much the same.

Notice men's shirts (even when wearing ties) are often shown left out or have half of the front not tucked in. I take this as being like the whims in men's facial hair and also the fact that more celebrity men appear wearing glasses than ever before ( of course, this may be just because a lot of them are getting older, period).

Bullfighting- Dying Out or Here to Stay?

Paintings like this used to be such a staple of American motel rooms as to be something of a joke...also, what for years were those kitsch pictures of matadors done on felt or something.

Barcelona in Spain recently outlawed bullfighting ( which they see as Spanish and they are still on trip that they are Catalonians, not Spaniards or something.

Animal Rights Activists of course hate bullfighting but it is so entrenched in Hispanic culture ( just like the "running with the bulls" will probably never stop in Spain--it attracts too much tourist money now which Spain needs desperately).

I have no interest in bullfighting at all and would never go to see one but think it is kind of pointless to make too much of it in the United States where very few people are interested in it anyway.

Let the people in the Hispanic world deal with it, it is all about their traditions etc. 

Freedom Tower from Uptown recalls Twin Towers

Now nearing completion, Freedom Tower in Lower Manhattan seen from Sixth Avenue and 27th Street....seeing new tower suddenly reminds me of how you used to see Twin Towers rearing up on horizon in much the same way before...
Freedom Tower and whole area has taken so long to build it is kind of incredible. Part of this, of course, is all these people who want to get their two cents in about what everything would be like, down to tiniest details, and how to accomplish this in a way the developers could afford.

Ever-Shrinking Flower District, VERY quiet now

This time of year, ever shrinking Flower District is smaller than ever in its outdoor manifestations..Of course, this is all part of Midtown that autocratic billionaire Mayor Bloomberg has long been determined to do away with and replace with luxury condos ( a process already well underway in the Broadway area and East of that)...(Also, shrinking Garment District is losing famed Parsons School of Design to trendy 14th Street at Union Square)...all this shown here is wholesale goods, of course-- interestingly, retail outlets for flowers right now in Midtown are overflowing...(such as the local new Fairway Supermarket at Kips Bay Plaza).-- Oh yes, one other factor slowing down the replacement of this area of Midtown is the big surge in new condo space being done in Lower Manhattan, where after flooding from Sandy, corporations and other businesses deserted knocked out office buildings in droves-- landlords converting most of the space now to residential. This is in an area that has seen its population grow by something like 240% since 2005 or so..

Spring is Blooming is Women's Fashions

Well, it is still way too early for the very first signs of Spring, like the daffodils --but here a women's clothing store is looking ahead to Spring already ( as are many others, I guess).
Maybe jumping the gun a little? But look how Christmas starts being advertised right after Halloween now, with Thanksgiving (which is not such an important sales time except maybe for certain food products) just shuffled in there.

The Good Old Brownstone Stoop

Some people really LOVE the old "stoops" (front steps-- I presume "stoop" probably comes from the Dutch or something,  (I will have to google the entymology of that)-- anyway, just because they are such a tradition does not mean everyone sees them as a plus! Here are two similar buildings next door to each other in Murray Hill...one with old stoop there as always, the other where it they removed it and made the downstairs entrance the Main Entrance.
  I guess this is another example of that old saw, "You pays your money, you takes your choice."

How to lose your teeth...sip on Pepsi (or Coke)

Literature I have from NYU Dental School warns very explicitly against what this woman is doing...sipping on Pepsi and in effect bathing her teeth in a mixture of sugar and phosphoric acid. Great way to lose you teeth, folks.

If you have to drink Pepsi ( or Coke--by the way, Diet is no better, that phosphoric acid will get you on its own)--  do it in reasonable gulps ( not big gulps, which will give you gas and probably acid reflux as well). Then brush your teeth with an enamel fortifying toothpaste afterwards.

I am not the kind of person to ban any kind of food or drink ( Mayor Bloomberg has a Napoleonic complex about laying down any law he chooses --to ban large soft drink servings etc.--also effect of pompous billionaire surrounded always by squads of "yes-men")--but believe
people should know about the consequences they face. 

Oh yes, that snowstorm

Top:Woman wonders how to get around this sea of slush at corner...gingerly, I guess.
Bottom: Little girl wants to stay and play with snowman but mom says it is time to go...

AWESOME, DUDE

Read a funny blog journal posting by a young Irish world traveler who liked the United States in many ways while he was here, but was totally turned off by other aspects.

While I would disagree with his assessment of Americans as not "honest" enough ( he likes what he considers the honesty of Germans, say, who will tell you in no uncertain terms if they think you are too fat or are not smelling good--"Americans are too polite--too politically correct to tell you things like that," he says...)

But he is certainly right on with his dismay of American cliche words and phrases, and particularly a society in which it seems everybody and everything is "Awesome!"

I recently saw some pictures of the flight deck of the Endeavour space craft which were something way beyond what we usually see and were , for once, really awesome....

Blizzard, aches and pains

As I write this, first big snowstorm...well blizzard really...of the season is hitting the whole Northeast....NYC has all these plows and sand and salt trucks out...some of the trucks breaking down and getting stranded...

Was out today with terrible aches and pains ( doctor has no idea what it is...I went online and it is MAYBE Fibromyalgia --will have to keep tabs on it--but enough of this, aches and pains of geezers like me are not much fun to read about)

Must try this place out for the back and foot rub!! ( Midtown full of course with similar places).

Just signed up for Restorative and Meditative Yoga classes which I will begin as soon as weather allows...

Looks like NYC will get off relatively easy from this blizzard as compared to Boston...where they expect several feet of snow.

Will be out tomorrow to get some snow pix.

Stuyvesant Square

Stuyvesant Square ( down about Second Avenue and 16-18th Streets) is a place I have not been to in a long while...it has really improved for the better, which does not surprise me given the constant gentrification of Manhattan.

Note that parents now let their kids play alone to some extent in place where drug dealers used to hang out...however, St. Gaudens Playground up the Avenue still has very strict rules that adults can only be there to accompany children and often have a guard coming around to keep an eye on the place. This is still NYC, of course.

Verizon- Nasty as well as Incompetent

Latest chapter in trying to get the outside wiring fixed  decently( which of course has been going on since last July)--

They sent out an outdoor repairman who ( in direct contradiction to agreement with Verizon) called me instead of building management and said in a very surly manner that " I don't do no outdoor boxes."

Verizon woman was equally nasty and told me landlord would have to pay special amount for a better repair job than this."You wouldn't want to pay it yourself , that's for sure," she snapped at me.

Landlord's rep who is supposed to be handling this is currently unavailable but have spoken to him about it and who knows what will happen. So--maybe nothing.

My opinion of Verizon, of course, has hit a new low, which I would not have thought possible considered how little I thought of them before this latest development.

 

Diagonal Parking in Manhattan Street

It is so rare that you see any diagonal parking in New York City, much less Manhattan ( if my memory serves me right, I did see some years and years ago way up in Northern Manhattan near Inwood but my memory might be playing tricks on me...

This street in the East 20's caught my eye right away. I wonder why it is the exception to the rule...of course, it provides more parking for residents, but I  wonder if it also does not have something to do with its being not-that-far from Peter Cooper Village and Stuyvesant Town ( which of course started off as middle income housing and are now upper middle, with the kinds of people who can easily afford an automobile in Manhattan)...

I guess I could go down in the area again ( right now it is a little too cold for me to be out doing much photography...it would not be impossible, just uncomfortable--I mean, if there were snow out there, which is becoming rarer and rarer in NYC in the winter, I would be out there all right--)

Find out from locals what the deal is with the parking...but for the moment it will have to remain one of our little local mysteries. 
 

Verizon-- Worst Customer Service in the World

Latest update on being spited by Verizon Customer Service and their repair department--(Oh, just to recap a little, wires were drenched in thunderstorm last July and all landlines in here that use Verizon were out for about two weeks...phones in the building office here had Time Warner so it was easy to call from there..)

I give up from time to time because they say and do the same thing every time.

First I get a machine which does not want to let me talk to a human being.

Then I get a human being who does not listen to just about anything I say.

This is all about their unbelievably tacky outdoor repair at back of courtyard which they have said ten times they will fix up.

Each time they either send a repairman to my apartment (who of course is clueless about it being an outdoor repair)..

Or crew is promised but then calls me on day of appointment in morning usually and says sorry they will be back next day ( next Monday, whatever) --they never come at all of course.

Last repir guy demanded -- I mean demanded--the cell phone number of the Super in this building. Have to remind you this is New York City and supers do not give out their cell numbers to tenants and  this guy had IQ of about 3 he or he would know that. Sure he does know that, is as usual looking for any kind of excuse to get out of doing his job.

Last week I was promised their crew would come ....( told to call manager in office here if there was a problem) of course called me in the a.m. and said it was going to snow and they would be here Monday.
Of course they never came.

Figuring I would let someone else worry about this for a while and not me,  (other people in building call from time to time too)--I let them schedule a repair crew for Friday. Woman on phone promised they would be here between 9:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. when super was sure to be here.

Repair is done from garbage bags and tape furnished by super last July of course. (Friend of mine who knows about that kind of plastic that it even sunlight degrades it over time).

Have had bad sound on phone after heavy rain and also sometimes weird echoes but they go away as those lines outside dry out or unfreeze or whatever.

 Wonder what their excuse will be this time..they may show up and say they see what has to be done and will come back (which they will then never do).

By the way, Verizon keeps terrible records on all these visits and every time you call them you have to start from scratch because operator you get cannot access any past history except some note from last August saying problem had been taken care of!!

Way to go, Verizon! Now, would you ever buy anything at one of their wireless stores?