Hands Across America

Last Sunday, various New York City bloggers got together at Le Pain Quotidien to welcome Chuck of One A Day - Mostly Seattle to our city. We talked shop and politics, exchanged URLs of our websites and had a great time, in general.

Lisa of Gramercy Cafe posted a great photo of us at the restaurant. The other bloggers in the photo include (in no particular order) Elizabeth of About New York, Alexa of The Road is Mine, MissB in NYC and Eliane of NYC Daily Photo.

So have you met any of the other bloggers in your city?

Midmonth Theme: Subway Day

Today is September 15, which means it's mid-month subway theme day again. This photo was taken last week from the elevated subway train station (#7 train) on a surprising clear day. You can see the skyline of Manhattan quite clearly.

Three other cities are participating in the mid-month subway theme:

Budapest by Andrea Gerak - Peter's Paris - Stockholm by Pixel - New York City Daily Photo

Lunch Time @ Bryant Park

This photo was taken at Bryant Park last Wednesday during lunch time. Everyone seemed to be outside enjoying the beautiful weather, including me.

So how is the weather in your neck of the woods?

Pretty Girl

This beautiful girl is a host of a Russian fashion TV show, I think. She taped a series of segments in front of Bryant Park with a small crew (director, makeup person and camera man) and spoke in a language that I could not recognize. I knew it wasn't French, Spanish or Italian. No, I don't speak all those languages but I can identify them if I listened long enough.

So how many languages do you speak?

The Devil Wears Prada

This is Anna Wintour, the Editor-in-Chief of US Vogue and one of the most influential people in US fashion. She has a reputation of being a tough boss who insisted that junior staffers not speak to her unless they are spoken to first. The book and movie, The Devil Wears Prada was written by one of Anna Wintour's former junior assistant and the plot was (allegedly) based on author's experience working at Vogue.

If you were to write a memoir or a novel, what would it be about?

NB: Sorry for the cut-off-at-the knee photo of Anna Wintour. She came out of the tent at Bryant Park and dashed into a waiting Mercedes. I was lucky to get this photo because she DOES NOT stop for photos.

New York Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2009

New York Fashion Week began last Friday and will run through till next Sunday. Yesterday evening, I attended the Anna Sui runway show at Bryant Park courtesy of a friend who knows someone who works for Anna Sui -- talk about networking, huh?!? Because of the low light inside the tent, most of my photos didn't come out great. I gave up after a dozen or so shots and decided to just enjoy the show instead.

So do you network much? I'm not good with network and meeting new people especially in a crowd. I do better one-on-one.

NB: For more photos of the runway show, click on the companion blog, The Making of New York City Daily Photo.

Bike Lane

The mayor's office has recently designated sections of the streets into bike lanes all over in the city . Cyclists are ecstatic about the change; automobile drivers, not so much. As for me, I don't drive nor bike so I'll reserve my judgment until later.

One thing I will have to do now is watch out for speeding bicycles as they careen down the street. They are not as easily noticeable as cars, that's for sure. But they do less damage than a car coming at you at 45 mph.

Personally, I rather hike than bike. What about you?

8th and 22nd

This is 22nd Street looking east from 8th Avenue. It is one of a number of tree-lined streets in Chelsea, which is fairly rare in Manhattan because of over-development due to industrial zoning in the neighborhood. The buildings down this street are mostly residential so the trees were spared.

Notice the cars parked on both sides of the street? You will have to be a pretty good at parallel parking to get into those tight spots. I'm glad I don't own a car because (when I did own one many years ago), I was a lousy parallel parker.

How good is your driving skill?

Vintage Adult Pulp Fictions

These adult pulp fictions (early porn?) were on a table filled with vintage books, magazines and records on a stretch 0f 8th Avenue between 21st and 22nd Street in Chelsea. I'm sure they were considered risque back when John McCain was a kid but these images look pretty tame by today's standard.

As a 12-year old boy, I've heard of these adult novels from classmates but could never get my hands on one. The books that I did manage to find (and read) were mostly Jackie Collins novels that I checked out from the public library (unbeknownst to my parents, of course).

Nowadays, I prefer to read (less risque but just as entertaining) travel essays like A Year in Provence and Under the Tuscan Sun, and humorous fictions like Me Talk Pretty One Day and Alec Baldwin Doesn't Love Me Anymore.

So what is your reading genre of choice?

Plimoth Plantation in Plymouth, MA

Here are some photos from my Boston trip last weekend. They were taken at the Plimoth Plantation, a re-creation of a village in Plymouth, Massachusetts that were built by English settlers to the New World in 1627. On the other side of the plantation is the Wampanoah village where the Native Americans lived. In the 2nd photo, you can see a man and a woman dressed in period costumes performing chores that were commonly done during that time period. The "actors" will answer any questions you may have about life in the village.

This is what I learned from them. 1. The early selttlers bathed only once a week but changed into freshly laundred clothes every day. 2. There were no functioning toilets but there were designated areas for people to do "their business". 3. Women were prohibited from wearing pants and men were not allowed to wear shorts.

So what modern conveniences would you miss most if you were magically transported back to the 1620s?

Last Days of Summer

The last days of summer have arrived and gone so dining outdoors will be the thing of the past pretty soon. This restaurant on the corner of Union Square West and 16th Street is called The Coffee Shop and is a popular hang out for locals as well as tourists. It was rumored that Sandra Bullock worked here as a waitress many years ago before she became famous.

Before I became Ming the Merciless, I worked at Kentucky Fried Chicken for 6 week when I was about 17 years old. I quit the job after they made me do a double shift. Yes, I was a spoilted brat. :-)

So what is your most unglamorous job?

Woodbury Commons

I went to Woodbury Commons, a premium outlet mall outside of New York City, for some shopping recently. A friend who has been talking about going there for some time said she would drive so I decided to tag along. We managed to do some damage on the credit cards. I bought a new pair of loafers to replace the old ones that were falling apart. I also bought a new belt.

So what did you buy lately?

Grey Goose

I'm not much of a drinker but I do love the Grey Goose Vodka bottles. This photo was taken months ago when I walked by a liquor on the Upper East Side. The owner did a great job displaying the beautiful bottles on the window display.

So what is your drink of choice?

Waiting for Amtrak Train at Penn Station

I got back from Boston yesterday afternoon. While in Boston, I ate a fair share of lobsters, clams, scallops and shrimp. I also have a new favorite dessert: Boston Cream Pie, which is more of a cake than a pie.

This photo was taken inside Penn (Pennsylvania) Station in Manhattan on Friday afternoon when I was waiting for my Amtrak train to Boston. The trip (on the high speed Acela train) took 3 hours 30 minutes and it was very comfortable, with plenty of leg room and personal space to relax and enjoy the journey. I have to admit, I love traveling by train. It's so much more civilized than what we called, "air travel" today.

So do you prefer to travel by plane, train or car?

Theme Photo: Sister Cities

According to the New York City government website, we have 10 sister cities around the world. They are Tokyo (inducted in 1960), Beijing (1980), Madrid (1982), Cairo (1982), Santo Domingo (1983), Rome (1992), Budapest (1992), Jerusalem (1993), London (2001), and Johannesburg (2003). The only sister city I have visited in the last year or so is Beijing, China. So here is a photo of the scene inside the Forbidden City from my trip there last July.

Click here to view the thumbnails for all the other participants of this month's theme photo.

Gazpacho

This bowl of gazpacho was from Le Pain Quotidien, the Belgian chain restaurant/bistro. I had my first gazpacho soup probably about 5 years ago at a french bistro and since then, it has been a love affair that knows no bounds. . . . except when it comes to me having to make it myself. :-) It is especially delicious during the hot summer months when the last thing I want to eat is a warm soup.

So do you have a favorite soup for winter and/or summer?

Reflection on Madison Avenue

This photo was taken at the corner of Madison Avenue and 58th Street in midtown Manhattan. Madison Avenue, especially north of 60th Street is the prime shopping district for high end fashion goods like Ralph Lauren, Hermes and Versace. South of 60th Street, the avenue is comprised of mainly offices for big corporations and financial institutions.

So what is your plan for the three-day Labor Day weekend? I will be in Boston visiting with the family.

Fanelli Cafe

This is the Fanelli Cafe on Prince street and Mercer Street in SoHo. The restaurant bar has been around since the 1800's and it is still a popular hang out place among the locals and tourists alike. I have had some decent sandwiches here after an afternoon of wandering the streets for photo-op.

So how often do you go out to take photographs?

Tricycle Taxi

These tricycle taxis are a fairly new phenomenon in New York City. I started seeing a few of them on the streets about two years ago but now, they are everywhere. These young fellas will "drive" you anywhere in Manhattan if you pay the right fare. I don't know how much it would cost since I've never ridden on one. And it is not an efficient way to travel around the city but for a tourist, it is definitely a fun way to explore the city.

So have you ever ridden on a tricycle?

Update: Went to my 7:20 AM appointment at the Apple Store on 5th Avenue this morning and my iPhone was replaced within 10 minutes of "diagnosis". I'm back in the 21st Century again.

Restaurant Flowers

This is a macro shot of a simple flower arrangement at a Thai restaurant on Court Street between 3rd and 4th Place in Brooklyn where I had dinner with a friend last week. The small pink bloom with yellow center is probably about 3/4 of an inch across.

My iPhone died on Monday night. Since I don't have a land line at home, I had to wait till I got to the office on Tuesday morning to call the 1-800 tech support hotline to for advice. Unfortunately, nothing can be done so I will have to make an appointment to visit one of the tech support guys at the Genius Bar inside the Apple Store.

It feels weird not to have a cell phone (or a telephone, in general) available even though I have no need to call anyone right now. My only access to the outside world now is the internet. Please, please, please....don't let my internet connection fail before I get my iPhone working again.

I feel soooo vulnerable. Have you ever felt so lost?