Gun Hang-Ups

I never knew this was what the police did with guns, but it’s awesome:

And after the revolver is used as evidence in court, its future will be assured, even as some of its past remains a mystery: Like other guns seized by the police, it will be melted down and reincarnated as wire clothes hangers.

I will now think of a gun every time I hang my shirts up.

New York Lighthouses

This article sparked a new interest in lighthouses....

New York on the Edge

I like this quote a lot, from an article about Coney Island still being open:

“It always feels like New York is on the edge of losing its soul,” [Aaron Bebee] said, “and Coney Island represents that. Coney dying — it’s kind of like a stand-in for everything else.”

Worth Knowing Where Your Train Is?

Is this where all the fare hike money is going? Seriously? Yet the MTA is shutting down train lines (Bye bye, my R train) and decreasing nightly service? What is wrong with them?

The Unreality of Coney Island

Coney Island, taken September 6, 2002.

Like most of New York City, Coney Island is undergoing changes. The beloved Astroland is slowly being shut down and dismantled. Plans are being tossed around as to what should occupy the area that is one of the defining places of New York: Hotels? Residences? Another park? As the New York Times contemplates these possibilities (Hooray for Bloomberg for wanting distance between the boardwalk itself and housing, but, come on, hotels are basically the same thing.), they bring up an interesting idea: Coney Island is different from New York City, it is "New York's unreality," where the city embraces the out-of-ordinary. Fitting as it is in southern Brooklyn, and a beach at that.


Coney Island, taken September 6, 2002.

Lego New York

Image by Christoph Niemann. From the New York Times.

New York City, a story told with legos.

New York, 2009

New York in the future.

New York Light

Light in New York City.

Joseph's Tomb

In the Palestinian city of Nablus, there is Joseph's Tomb, which is believed to be his final resting place in Judaism. So many Israelis come into the West Bank to pray and pay their respects and the Palestinians allow this, though the IDF patrol the area as well. Isabel Kershner explains the Israelis' pull to claim Palestinian soil as their own:

Here, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is boiled down to its very essence of competing territorial, national and religious claims. The renewed focus on what the Jewish devotees call the pull or power of Joseph appears to reflect a wider trend: a move by the settler movement at large away from tired security arguments and a return to its fundamental raison d’être — the religious conviction that this land is the Jews’ historical birthright and is not up for grabs.

Which I thought was a good way of looking at it, though, to me, it doesn't necessarily mean anything. She also talks about the overlapping personalities in Islam and Judaism: Joseph was also considered a Muslim prophet, so Muslims felt they have a right to the tomb as well. Though, since the Israelis took control of the tomb, the Palestinians have been disregarding the tomb and desecrating it.

Dan Barry's Explorers' Club

Sean called my attention to Dan Barry's latest This Lands column in the New York Times, where he talks about the Explorers' Club and their adventure to the unused Pyramid in Memphis, Tennessee. I like it because it reminds me of my trip to Tennessee and reminds me of our Expeditioners' Club.

& Then Again...

These don't make me feel very optimistic...

Twenty More Days

This makes me a bit more optimistic.

East River Power

I like this idea of using rivers as power sources, because it makes perfect sense. The currents of the East River are very, very strong, reaching up to maybe 2.5 knots at low tide. I don' t have my handy tide chart, otherwise I'd know exactly what it is. While rowing during low tide, if you're rowing with the current, you barely have to row at all--the water just moves you along. Rowing against the tide, though, is a struggle.

Capturing Old New York

Offering another look at the vanishing, old, rustic look of New York City, Dave Itzoff writes about the popularity of filming in New York City because of film tax credits, incentives and the variety of locations. Later on in the article, he talks about location scouts that look around the city for amazing location possibilities. He ends the article with this:

While they juggle the needs of their shows with the demands of residents, many producers say they are also scrambling to capture the rustic and unglamorous portions of the city, which are gradually being trampled beneath the march of gentrification.

The old New York Shipyard in Red Hook, once a go-to spot for shows that needed a hardscrabble, industrial edge, recently became the home of an Ikea furniture store.

“Often,” said Mr. Ross of “Law & Order: Criminal Intent,” “I’ll send a scout out to someplace and I’ll say, ‘It’s a really great old warehouse. My guy will go out there and they’re like, ‘Nothing’s there any more. It’s gone.’ ”

Eid & Rosh Hashanah

Photo by Rina Castelnuovo from the New York Times.

The Islamic Eid and Jewish Rosh Hashanah both fall within the same week this year: Rosh Hashanah is tonight and I believe Eid is either Tuesday or Wednesday, depending on the moon. Ethan Bronner takes a look at the overlapping religious holidays and how it comes into play in Jerusalem this year. There is something lacking within the article itself. Bronner is, in my opinion, focusing too much on the Jewish side of it, with only one quote from a Palestinian Muslim. However, the feature photo is amazing.

Vogue India, Pushing Fashion for the Unfortunate, Right?

Fashion editorials are usually stupid and unbelievable. Right, you're going to wear a $4,000 plain dress while hiking through the mountains of Patagonia, because it just makes so much sense. Vogue India takes that even further: putting $10,000 designer bags and $200 designer umbrellas in the hands of India's people. No, not models Vogue India dressed up to look Indian, but instead, the true people of India--the workers whose clothes are covered in dirt, the women missing teeth, etc.

The Vogue India editor, Priya Tanna, had this to say about the editorial (from the New York Times):

“Lighten up,” she said in a telephone interview. Vogue is about realizing the “power of fashion” she said, and the shoot was saying that “fashion is no longer a rich man’s privilege. Anyone can carry it off and make it look beautiful,” she said.

“You have to remember with fashion, you can’t take it that seriously,” Ms. Tanna said. “We weren’t trying to make a political statement or save the world,” she said.

Riiiiiight.

(Thanks, Ekyjot, for pointing out the article to me.)

Terrible Beauty

Though I dislike the New York Times' travel section, this article isn't that bad, if only for the phrase "terrible beauty," and the gorgeous imagery.

Understanding Israeli Settlements

I honestly can't understand why Israel continues to build settlements in the West Bank and how they are able to get away with it.

Long Live Print?

The San Jose Mercury News office. Photo by Martin Gee.

As someone who works for print newspapers and magazines as a writer and designer, I believe in print media. Of course, I know print in the future will never be the same with the creation of the internet and online news, but there's something nice and solid about having a newspaper in your hand. You can't read the news online while you're on the subway or while you're waiting for someone outside, you just can't. In terms of design, there's so much thought put into the layout, like picking and positioning the photographs, typeface, headline size, deciding which article goes where in terms of the importance of the story and the quality of the photograph (you can't have a shitty front page picture), and just so much more. It's an art. Sure, it's the same with websites, but there's more weight to printed papers.

That's why all the stories about the decline of print make me sad--the changes within printed newspapers like the slimming down of the New York Times, the layoffs at major publications like the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and the San Jose Mercury News (pictured above and here) and newspapers shutting down their printing productions and focusing on line, like the Capital Times of Madison, Wisconsin. Jobs are even being outsourced to India.

There really isn't anything that could be done about it. Newspapers aren't making that much money--the cash is in the web. That's why, while I don't like the design of the new table of contents pages of the New York Times (expanded to about two pages), I do appreciate and understand the need for it. It creates a much-needed link between print and the web. By using both mediums to their full-potentials, maybe print has a fighting chance, at least, I hope.

On This Day...

Happy Birthday to myself!

So they include Ethan, but not Desmond? Come on! Desmond's gorgeous and has great episodes!

And woohoo for the New York Harbor mention and two journalists.