4/23/03 Photojournal of Errands; run into Peter on Greene Street; 8th St. & B'way Tile Mosaic Art; Wild Turkeys in Manhattan; Lobby Trash of 88 Greenwich:
Most of these pages, so far, have shown pictures from moments of note. Moments that, for one reason or another, got enough attention from the documentarian inside me to justify stopping what I was doing to take out my camera. The result has so far been a string of exciting, happy, and non-representational moments from my life. In an attempt to add some balance, today I made a point of taking pictures while doing the errands that I have done many times since starting this website, but have never taken any photos of.
Thus, I present to you, a photojournal of how I like to get my errands done in the city:
I like to build up a whole bunch of reasons for having to leave my apartment, and then take care of all of them in a string. Today, here is how I strung together my tasks:
Leaving my apartment, I had a bag from "The Tape Company," the place where I get my VHS and MiniDV tapes for my business. I save their bags, as the come in handy to do errands with. In the bag, I have 2 VHS tapes, and a package I need to mail to a client. In my pocket, I have some checks I need to deposit.
I walk up Rector to Broadway, and a few blocks south on Broadway to the famous Bowling Green post office, of which I have already taken pictures of the ornate interior, as the lobby originally served as the ticket room for the Cunard Lines company. I mail my package and I buy stamps, as I am increasingly using snail mail, as I find I have monthly bills to pay, like an adult.
I get some 37 cent stamps, and some 3 cent stamps to use with my extra 34 cent stamps, a whole pack of which I recently found buried under some stuff.
Across the street from the post office is a branch of my bank. I have to make some deposits, which is always good.
In between my bank and the subway entrance I'm about to use, there is a greenmarket much of the time. They're out today, in spite of the overcast sky. If I were cooler than I am, I would have bought "my usual" groceries at the greenmarket. I'm not quite up to that yet, but I'm getting there.
At the foot of Bowling Green is the entrance to the uptown 4 and 5 trains. I will transfer at Brooklyn Bridge to a 6, and take it to Astor place.
I go into Tisch, and drop one of the video tapes in George Stoney's mailbox. I'm still editing episodes of the walking tour class that I taped a year ago. When I finish them, I make a copy for myself, a copy for that teacher (Mrs. Broderick), and a copy for George Stoney, my old Documentary professor who requested copies from me. While in Tisch I also pick up graduation tickets at Student Affairs. They hand me a survey about my undergraduate experience that I have to fill out in order to get my tickets. Bribery. The questions get me so fired up, that I forget my tickets on the Student Affairs Office desk while marching over to the Film & Television department to demand that they offer me a job. They tell me to send in my resume and wait in line. I head out.
Then I walk down Waverly Place until I hit NYU's main building, now called the "Silver Center." If you donate enough money, you can apparently rename anything. I deliver the other tape to Professor Broderick's office. I have a lovely chat with the girl who works at the front desk, Emma, who I've spoken with on many occasions while waiting for Professor Broderick in the past. I've flirted with the idea of asking her out, but have scared myself out of it many times. Pathetic. Professor Broderick walks in at the last second, and we talk about my summer plans. I tell her I'd love to teach and that I tried to storm into the Film & TV department no more than 20 minutes ago. She tells me that there is a hiring freeze in her department. I tell her my idea of being a tour guide of some sort. She encourages me and gives me some leads. She thanks me for the tape, and I promise her that I will edit all of them, even if it takes a few years. I just finished number 5 of 13. It takes three days to edit each. I head out.
I head up Greene Street, which is almost a back alley between Waverly and 8th St., to get to the N and R trains. I literally run into my brother.
He's in shock. Possibly because we just ran into each other. More likely because exactly 5 minutes ago he was still asleep. He's on his way to class.
Anyway, to make a long story short, I head up to the tape company next to pick up some tapes that I ordered by phone before I left. Upon returning home, I instantly realize that I don't have my tickets. I call Student Affairs. They find them re-filed under my name. I go back up there to pick them up, wasting almost an hour. Tada!
While I was waiting on the uptown platform for the N or R train at 8th Street Station, I took pictures of my favorite new art installation anywhere in NYC. They just re-did the 8th street station, among others on the line, and are putting artwork on the walls. 8th street is now graced with circular tile mosaics that look like bubbles floating along the walls. Inside the bubbles are impressionist-painting-looking pictures of moments that might be seen in the neighborhood above. It's brilliant and beautiful. Here is some of the installation:
The cube is my favorite. A block away, at Astor Place, there is the famous Astor Place cube art installation on a traffic island. Often, you can see kids, all done up in goth or grunge, hanging out around it, and sometimes pushing it in a circle, as it was designed to rotate. This tile mosaic very well may significantly outlast the cube itself.
When I finally got home, I did some editing, saw that the day was getting better as it was coming to an end, and decided to get on the bike.
A colorful hazy sunset at the pier.
On my way up, I saw something strange in the construction area of Hudson River Park South. Upon closer inspection, they were two WILD TURKEYS IN MANHATTAN!!! I thought I was crazy, but other people were stopping and coming to the same conclusion. Unfortunately this was the best photo I got. Good luck with it. I was vindicated on May 23rd, when a New York Times article came out about people spotting a wild turkey on Manhattan's west side, which is where I was. The article didn't know that there are actually two!
In the evening, I did something that fills me with joy every time I do it. I went to the post office in the middle of the night. It was about 11:30 when I got to the Farley Post Office, behind Penn Station on 33rd and 8th Avenue. It's the only 24/7 post office I've ever heard of, and consequently, there's ALWAYS a line, no matter how "off peak" you think you are.
And finally, I ended up hanging out at the front desk in my lobby for an hour, chatting with Richard the Concierge, and this girl, whose name I forget, who is apparently the real-life version of the "lobby trash" that used to hang out in the Water Street lobby.