Sunday Observations, Sports Edition

It's the sports edition because I don't feel like getting into all the ways the world seems to be falling apart at the moment. Another reason is the time of year, this was always the time of year I obsessed about the coming hockey season.

Before I get to the sports one non-sports related item I think I'll pass on. The Penn State class of 2017 met for the first time today and includes students from 41 states and 71 countries. Classes begin tomorrow.

Penn State's field hockey and women's soccer teams start their season on Friday. The football team begins it's season Saturday in a game that will mark my first ever trip to MetLife Stadium. Penn State opens with a game against Syracuse at the Meadowlands Saturday afternoon and I shall be there along with my brother and a few others. Don't expect any photos from the game due to the new NFL and NCAA regulations which allow nothing into a stadium not resembling a large zip-lock bag. The days of sneaking beverages into a game are gone forever, just another way the terrorists have won.

Have I ever mentioned what a most awesome brother I have? For my birthday he gave me a HartnellDown t-shirt autographed by Scott Hartnell himself. For the uninformed HartnellDown is a charity started by Flyers' forward Scott Hartnell. Why is it called Hartnell Down? A few years ago a group of Flyers fans on twitter started posting with the hashtag #hartnelldown whenever Hartnell fell on the ice, mostly mocking him because he sometimes isn't the best skater in the rink. Instead of getting mad Hartnell commandeered the tag and made it his own. His foundation sells apparel and other things with the tag and donates all the proceeds to various youth sports related charities.

Admittedly it hasn't been the best of summers for the Phillies but last night they played in a rather historic game. The 7 hour 6 minute 18 inning marathon was the longest game in the Phillies storied history. It was also the longest game in Major League baseball in 25 years and tied the record for most pitchers used by both teams in a game, 20. The Phillies' final two pitchers weren't pitchers at all but a center fielder and a third basemen which may explain why the Phillies lost.

Tonight it was announced that former Penn State and NBA player John Amaechi will be Penn State's Homecoming Grand Marshall this year. Normally I wouldn't care who the Grand Marshall was but Amaechi has a bit of history I personally find important. In 2007, in his book Man In The Middle, Amaechi became the first former NBA player to come out of the closet.

Sunday Observations 7.21

At the moment the temperature is 79° so I want to quickly claim the temp is below 80° for the first time in days before it has a chance to rise. Today's high temp is supposed to be in the mid 80s, the first time in a week that it hasn't been above 90°, which will break the longest heat wave in the Village since 2002. We shall see.

A few weeks ago I had the totally brilliant idea of getting tickets for a Phillies game when they visited the Mets this weekend. Looking back it probably wasn't one of my better ideas. Granted I had no idea what the weather was going to be like but also Philadelphia sports teams have notoriously bad luck when I'm at the game. I thought things looked good after the Phillies beat the Mets 13-8 in Friday night's series opener. My positive attitude continued as I watched Jimmy Rollins hit a lead-off home run to give the Phillies the lead just a few pitches into the game. Then Cole Hamels took the mound for the first time looking like he had just stepped out of the shower and immediately gave up 3 runs to the Mets. Four hours of hundred degree heat later the Phillies had lost 5-4. It was still a good time.

One thing I noticed at yesterday's game that I'd like to mention. The Mets' home at Citi Field is a wonder of modern architecture. Built facing Flushing Bay in Brooklyn it manages to catch only the non-existent northern wind and have no shade whatsoever. Well done.

I also had a different kind of experience with a movie last night. The movie was Farewell, My Queen (Les Adieux à la reine) a French film by Benoît Jacquot based on a novel of the same name about Versailles during the first few days of the French Revolution. While the trailer is French with English subtitles the version we saw was dubbed in English and I had a hard time following it. The only reason I can think of is that I was reading their lips meaning what I was seeing didn't go with what I was hearing, now I need to find the French version. I'd honestly always rather have a subtitled version of a film.

Another movie I saw recently was the zombie apocalypse World War Z. The movie was good but I just started reading the book because I had heard of some major ways the book and the film were different. What I have found is that the book is so much better. Actually neither the film or the book ruins it for the other because they are written in such different styles.

Last week I read a lot about Tumblr, Yahoo, and the 'quarantining' of adult blogs on tumblr. The short version is that tumblr removed adult blogs from Google and other web searches and also removed them from internal tumblr searches unless you actually follow the blog. I just had a little secret that I wanted to pass on that you may or may not know. Every tumblr blog has an archive page whether there is an archive link or not. Here is an example of one of mine. If you don't want to follow a blog yet you still want to keep track of it just bookmark the archive page. If a blog doesn't link to its archive simply add /archive to the blog's address and hit enter.

No politics today but I do have a quick question, why are so many guests on Sunday morning talk shows Republicans? I rarely watch the shows but it irritates me just the same.

7/23 update - Another tumblr idea I thought I should add to this. If your blog isn't completely adult or 'nsfw' keep tags to a minimum on 'nsfw' posts. That way they don't show up in search, nobody complains, and the gods of tumblr don't find out. Everybody remains happy.

Sunday Observations 4.28

We finally got a gorgeous spring weekend in the northeast. The way things seem to go now it will probably be the only one we get before the weather jumps right into summer so I decide it was time to check on my shore, the first time I have since Sandy. I knew it was still there but I wanted to see for myself and the need to get Foxy on the road, combined with the weather, made for a good excuse. I'll post more on what we found later.

Last Sunday HBO's Game Of Thrones finished with possibly the so far best scene of the series. I've read five of the books so I knew what was coming but Daenerys' kick ass "I understood every word you said and now you are going to die" scene was done to perfection. Here is a link to the scene, until YouTube takes it down, but the real reason for writing this was I get to use a pic of the mother of all dragons with this post. The problem with GOT is that now we probably wont see Daenerys again for a couple of weeks. Hopefully I'm wrong because that would be such a shame.

On a totally different topic the Out Magazine Gay Power list for 2013 is out and it looks like the news and political people are taking over with Senator Tammy Baldwin, Fox News' Shepard Smith, The New York Times' Nate Silver, CNN's Anderson Cooper, and Rachel Maddow all in the top ten. You can find the complete list here. By the way, I'm not sure if that out pun was intended or not.

A few months ago there was an article in The New York Times T Magazine about a site called Gidsy which I never got around to playing with. As the article says Gidsy "enables travelers and other novelty seekers to find activities organized by what it refers to as "real people." Rather than get into it I'll let you read the article but what is fun is picking a city and searching for tours to see what comes up. Paris has a number of catacomb tours (one called the "Empire of Death" tour), a Monet's Garden bike tour, a chocolate and pastry tasting tour, and to finish the day either a pub crawl or a champagne tasting tour. A visit to New York could be highlighted by the Jewish Gangstas of the Lower East Side Tour, a mobile scavenger hunt, or a paranormal and ghost tour. After any of those tours the three hour historic pub tour, in which you "hear stories of the pubs' histories and the famous drinkers who frequented them," might be a necessary end to your day in New York. It seems like a bargain at $75 but only if drinks are included.

Have you ever read "Reamde" by Neal Stephenson? If you have you seriously need to read this article in Times about former Phillies and Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling, "Rhode Island and the Fall of 38 Studios." I swear when I read the article I immediately thought of the Stephenson novel because it seemed like Schilling's company was writing its very own version of T'Rain. If you never read the novel that makes absolutely no sense but the article is worth reading if only for the political side of it.

For some unknown reason the isn't a Sunday Times to be had in South Jersey today and I have no idea how I am supposed to function without one. I suppose I'll have to make do with sticky buns and coffee.

Observations from the Window 9.16

It was still dark when I took my coffee and wandered to the roof early Friday morning. The slimmest of crescent moons hung over the Village in the cool air, simply one of those mornings I lived for in the mountains. Sometimes my mountains seem so far away, like they are from a totally different life. Still, Fall is in the air and if it's not quite the same in the Village there is no missing it on crisp clear mornings like the past few.

I have to say that the past three or four weeks have been rather hectic for me, sometimes excruciatingly so. There was my trip to Paris, the VQs made their return from Boston, and the political conventions didn't give my politically addicted brain much of a rest. On top of those I have been stressing over a personal issue for a couple of months now and I happened turn 30 in August.

So yes I do love this time of year but as with anything involving me it isn't all that clear cut. Fall just seems to be the time of year my brain reboots. I suppose you could call it the start of my mental year probably due to spending too many years at PSU. This year it just seems to be worse than others have been because of all the things I just mentioned. I start to dwell on what I want to do, where I want to be, and how the hell I'm going to get there. Painting, writing, and photography all are competing for limited time. This is also the one time of year I still so miss my mountains and I just don't have the time to get back there as much as I would like. That makes me start to think that maybe I should have just stayed there all along. See what I mean about the mess my brain becomes?

Than again it seems I left myself a clue this year. I did happen to ship all those acrylics back from Paris. There must have been a reason for that.

A brief Fall sports update; the Phillies are making a totally unexpected run at the last playoff spot in the National League (but proceeded to lose 2 out of 3 games to the worst team in baseball), the post-Paterno era of Penn State football is off to a totally expected dismal start (but crushed Navy for their first win), and the Flyers seem to be locked out in an NHL labor dispute (but ... well no buts here, locked out).

Finally a rather fitting quote from Leo Tolstoy that I posted on one of my tumblrs and has been reblogged over a thousand times ....

"If you want to be happy, be"

Observations from the Couch 7.31, Updates

With a win in the 4x200 freestyle relay American swimmer Michael Phelps became the most decorated athlete in Olympic history. His 19^th medal surpassed the 18 of Russian gymnast Larisa Latynina as he broke one of those sports records that will never be broken. For the record Phelps currently has 15 gold, 2 silver, and 2 bronze medals and he still has three races to go in London. This is one Olympic moment that deserves a drink and I shall have one.

In all fairness to Hope Solo I thought I should mention that she is far from the only athlete in London who needs to think before they talk. Before the games even began Kobe Bryant announced to the world that this Olympics' edition of the U.S. men's basketball team was better than even the original "dream team." That was the 1992 Olympic team which was the first made up of NBA players and has sometimes been called the best sports team of any kind ever assembled. To answer Kobe I'll just throw out a few names from that team. Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Patrick Ewing, Karl Malone, and David Robinson. They won every game with the wins ranging from a 32 point win in the gold medal game against Croatia to a 68 point opening game win over Angola.

Hope Solo threw a shutout today, her second in three games, as the U.S. women defeated North Korea 1-0 in front of 30,000, evidently no empty seats at this game. The American women swept the opening round of the tournament and now play New Zealand on Friday. It is the first time in Olympic history the U.S. team has swept its group.

The U.S. women's field hockey team stunned the 2^nd in the world ranked Argentina today by a 1-0 score. It was a repeat of the Pan American Games where the U.S. earned an Olympic spot by defeating Argentina. Before that loss Aregentina had not lost at the Pan Am Games in 25 years. The U.S. is ranked 10^th in the world and will face Australia on Thursday. The win keeps alive hopes for a medal after the American team lost its opening game.

In a totally different sporting area the Penn State football team  began practice today for its first season since 1965 without Joe Paterno as head coach. The team was greeted by an early morning rally attended by thousands of fans. Also the University announced it would loan the Athletic Department $60 million to pay its NCAA fine. Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbitt continues to tell anybody that will listen that no tax dollars will be used to pay the fine. This is easy to believe when you consider that under Corbitt the state has cut education funding to almost nothing at all.

And than there are the Phillies. Can you say fire sale?

Observations from Fred's 6.17

I can't say I'm posting from Fred's again, I'm probably not, but I didn't write as much as I planned these last couple days so as far as I'm concerned both beach posts are from Fred's. I had planned on driving back tonight but a totally wiped feeling and my wise dad convinced me to stay until early morning. Gives me one more night to
fall asleep on the deck.

While it wasn't the usual week to clear my head every day I spend here is as close to a perfect day as they get. The ocean and the mountains calm me, it's everything in between that I sometimes have a problem with. Calming or not a few interesting things happened during my brief stay here.

One of the highlights of the weekend happened the first night. I was talking to a friend late that night when I heard a loud noise outside and the power went out. I snuck outside with a golf club in hand only to find most of the neighbors doing the same. What we finally found was that a Tibetan squirrel had self immolated itself on the block's power transformer. As we all stood in the street I did get to meet a couple of girls, recent graduates, who were staying at the house across the street. They were young, cute, and made me feel all of my almost thirty years but they did wave at me more than I have ever been waved at in my life. Both were new to Stone Harbor so I showed them some of the cool shops and galleries but, for the record, I so did not show them
the inside of Fred's.

During a beach walk Saturday morning I stumbled upon a sweet new gallery of sorts. Called the Seaside Gallery and Hemp Emporium it was owned by a tattooed and leather skinned man who called me a dude and I think takes the hemp part of the name way too seriously. To say the very least he was fascinating and I now have his cell number because the gallery was without phone.

Other than those it was the usual for my stays in SH. Did some shopping, a bargain Coach bag and nice photo book the best buys, walked on the beach, ate seafood, and took photos. I may have also spent some time at Fred's.

I try and stay away from the news when I am here, the better to clear my head, but a few things always creep in. Egypt on the verge of blowing up once again, a massive 'silent march' protest back in the city today, and the Sandusky trial. Than there is the continued inability of the Phillies to win a freakin game, no small thing that.

Hopefully I get back again this summer but for now
the real world beckons.

Observations from the Road 5.28

Memorial Day weekend brings the unofficial start of summer along with a very large side of sports. That is if you consider auto racing a sport, something that is the subject of endless debate in my family. Summer doesn't officially start for a few weeks but at times it has felt like summer for months. As always I'll leave the science to my brother but damnit whatever happened to spring?

The weekend also became one of a few reasons to make a semi-planned trip home. I semi because I had planned on a day or two at my dad's but i hadn't planned on the whole weekend. Sometimes plans change. Life has a way of throwing unexpected events in the road, sometimes good, sometimes bad, and if you are lucky some of each all at the same time. It is what it is.

But all that is for another time, possibly.

I was driving through rural Pennsylvania on a Saturday morning and I was struck with a thought. Is there any other local in this country with so many damn yard sales? I know it's a holiday weekend all but still they are everywhere. Even my sis was having one when I left. She seems to have joined 'Light The Night' and is going to donate any money she makes to cancer research. My mini me all grown up.

But back to my sports update. I may be almost six feet tall but I was never the biggest basketball fan. I get into it when one of my teams is doing good but other than that it falls to one of the lower rungs of my sports ladder. That being said what an awesome season the Sixers had and I can't think of one bad thing to say about it. A good young team that got everything it could out of itself. You can't ask for anything more than that. They took the Boston Celtics to the last minutes of a game 7 before inexperience took its toll and the Celtics said it ends now. What an awesome season and an awesome future that team has. Unreal that those two teams have played eight game 7s in their history.

A once promising year of Stanley Cup playoffs begins its final chapter this week with the Los Angeles Kings playing the New Jersey Devils for the title. Not exactly a ratings bonanza for NBC but a good series for fans the series features wide open hockey against the supposedly illegal neutral zone trap. The Kings roster includes both former Flyer Jeff Carter and former Flyers' captain Mike Richards so I'll be drinking for them. Both were traded after last years dismal playoff performance in moves that added some of the six rookies that were on the Flyers' playoff roster this year. Whoever wins it wont be the hated New York Rangers and this is a good thing.

As the Phillies begin to age, and possibly look to rebuild, the Flyers and Sixers seem to have some exciting years ahead. Now I have to get back to the French Open.

One last funny story, one of those small town America things that just makes you smile. Now my hometown is small, only a couple thousand people, but every year it holds a Memorial Day parade. I was driving through town to get a paper and coffee and sitting at the curb in the middle of town were two old fashioned folding lawn chairs. Now this is hours before the parade and there isn't a soul in sight but apparently someone was staking out the prime parade watching spot. Just like the Rose Bowl.

Happy Memorial Day people.

Observations

It was a warm day in the Village today and you could just smell it in the air, the first hint of spring, and more importantly....

Observations on Sports 9.28

With the frightening 8 game losing streak behind them the Phillies regular season comes to a close tonight. Hopefully it will end with a win and a series sweep of the Atlanta Braves. With a win the Phillies will finish the 2011 season with 102 wins and break the record for most wins in a season currently held by the 1976 and 1977 Phillies. A win will also move Charlie Manuel ahead of Gene Mauch as the winningest manager in club history with 646 wins. If they win I can get back to arguing with my dad about which Phils team truly is the best ever.


link
September is almost over.

9.29 update - The Phillies won in 14 innings last night and with the win became the winningest Phils team in history and Charlie Manuel has now won more games than any other Phillies manager. "This has been exciting, this has been good," Charlie said after the game. "It has been a good trip, but at the same time we haven't finished the journey. We have a little ways to go yet. That's the way I look at it." As a bonus the Boston Red Sox lost to finish the greatest September swoon in MLB history wiping away the 1961 Phils collapse in the process.

Today I learned something that I honestly didn't believe at first, since 1969 no NL team has been in more World Series than the Phillies. How is that possible?

The Phillies win over the Braves, combined with a St. Louis win over Houston, eleminated Atlanta from the playoffs and clinched a spot for St' Louis. The Phillies will face the St. Louis Cardinals in the Divisional Round beginning Saturday at 5PM.

Observations on Sports 9.24

The Phillies lost to the Mets tonight in the second game of a doubleheader, they lost the first game too, and the six before that. Eight losses in a row. The Phillies haven't lost 8 in a row since September of 2000. according to Elias Sports the losing streak is the longest in major-league history by a team that had already won 98 games. It is also the longest losing streak by a team that has clinched a playoff spot.

After his awesome game was wasted earlier today Cole Hamels said “I know the pitchers and we're ready to go. We're gonna go out there and t try to throw nine-inning shutouts. I know it's not possible, but that's our plan, so everybody just needs to get on board."

Today the Phillies played 18 innings and scored only three earned runs. They have scored three or less runs in 14 of their last 16 games.

If they lose to the Mets Sunday with Roy Halladay on the mound all bets are off. Than again the Mets have already beaten Cole Hamels this weekend so in all honesty I won't be surprised if they lose again. They now need to win all their remaining games to set a new Phillies record for wins, something they could have done a week ago.

The baseball gods do indeed taunt me now.

Observations on Sports 9.18

I've been wanting to write a stand alone post about my Phillies but never seem to get around to it so I'm sitting at the bar and I'm going to do it right now. I just started watching them play St. Louis and with a win they will lock up their 5th straight National League Eastern Division title.* One more win after that and they can clinch home field throughout the playoffs and with currently 97 wins the Phillies team record of 101 wins should easily fall before the end of the season.

A look at current stats shows an offensive monster. Ryan Howard leads all of baseball with 113 RBIs while in the National League Hunter Pence is in the top 10 in hits, doubles, and batting average, Shane Victorino is 2nd in triples, Ryan Howard is 3rd in home-runs, and Jimmy Rollins is in the top 10 in stolen bases.

But it is the starting pitching, which leads baseball with a 3.00 team era, that fuels the Phillies machine. The Phils' five headed monster starting rotation is made up of Roy Halladay (18-5), Cliff Lee (16-7 including 6 complete game shutouts), Cole Hamels (14-8), rookie Vance Worley (11-2), and Roy Oswalt (7-9). Halladay and Lee are both front runners for the National League Cy Young award with each one having pitched over 200 innings and each having over 200 strikeouts.

So why all the stats? Because I have been having a running argument with my dad for weeks now. If it wins the World Series, a big if, is this the best Phillies team ever?

I don't think my dad will ever yield in his belief that the team of the late '70s is still a better team. That team won the Phillies only other World Series Championship in 1980 and included two future Hall of Fame members in Mike Schmidt and Steve Carlton and one should be member of the hall in Pete Rose. The team also included Greg Luzinski, Larry Bowa, and pitcher Tug McGraw, a man I know better as the father of country music singer Tim McGraw. The 1980 team led the league in almost every offensive category and had the league MVP in Schmidt and Cy Young winner in Carlton.

My argument is that if they should win the World Series in the last five years this Phillies team will have won 5 division titles, 3 National League pennants, and 2 World Series Championships. How can I not be right?

I guess I won't go looking for a job as a sports writer any time soon.

*The Phillies won the game 9-2 and with it their 5th consecutive division title. The game included a 6 run 8th inning highlighted by a 2 out grand slam by Raul Ibanez. Hunter Pence makes his first trip to the post season after being drowned in champagne. Total awesomeness.

Observations from the Window 9.16

After that last post I figured this blog needed a little comedy releif. Stephen Colbert asks Al Gore if he will endorse former Democrat Rick Perry for President as Perry endorsed Gore in 1988. He also challenges him to choose between Galileo or Global Warming. I'm a big fan of both Colbert and Gore so I totally enjoyed this.

Link

Phillies update - After beating the Florida Marlins twice yesterday the Phillies record stands at 97 wins and 51 losses. Their magic number to clinch the National League East is to and they can lock it up later today with a win over St. Louis and an Atlanta loss to the hated Mets. I guess I actually have to cheer for a New York team tonight. Also the Phils magic number for home field throughout the playoffs is 3.

Observations from the Bar 9.5

I just wanted to take a moment to wish everybody a Happy Labor Day, I hope it is or was a good one. If you don't live in the US or have no idea what I am talking about feel free to crack your favorite beverage and skip ahead to watch the vid. Keep in mind it's not arrogant, it's German.

Tropical monsoons permitting tonight the Phillies finally get to play Atlanta again and hopefully start to lock up the division. One of the amazing things of this totally amazing season is the fact that as good as the Phillies are the Braves have been right with them all season long. Maybe that starts to change tonight.

I want to add a small postscript to my writings on Hurricane Irene. The GOP's wingnut choirboy Eric Kantor says the Federal Government can pay for hurricane damage but only if we make cuts elsewhere in the budget. The total estimated damage from Hurricane Irene now stands at 40 to 60 billion dollars. Coincidentally the congressionally appointed Commission on Wartime Contracting has found that over the last three years we have wasted, you got it, $60 billion through fraud, waste, and payments to warlords in Iraq and Afghanistan. That breaks down to $12 million a day.

Rammstein - Amerika

Observations from the Bar 9.3

The 125th season of Penn State football began Saturday with a 41-7 win over Indiana State. A game in which Penn State ran the opening kickoff back 95 yards for a touchdown. Sadly for the first time in years the season began I wasn't there. I could have gone but I would have had to drive back right after the game as I have to be in the Village Sunday morning to try and finish a small art project of mine. My brother is going to the 'bama game next week so maybe I'll try to get to that one.

Still I was a little bummed at missing the game so I did what works best at times like that and I went to the Museum of Modern Art to walk around. Coincidentally the museum just redid the painting and sculpture galleries on the fourth and fifth floors so that just gave me another reason to go.

Ann Temkin has been the museum's chief curator of painting and sculpture since 2008. The redone galleries are principally her work with the help of five other curators and is supposedly the most far reaching since the 1940s. The opportunity to reinstall the galleries came about because of the closing of the “Abstract Expressionist New York” show after a seven month run. I'm not going to get into it but if you know MoMA it's just fascinating to see. In its look at the new galleries the New York Times said it seems to “soften its historic focus on linearity, male genius and art movements while excavating exciting, little seen treasure from deep storage.” One gallery I especially liked is devoted exclusively to the feminist work of American born artist Hannah Wilke. As I said, if you are a fan of the museum it really is worth a look.

No hurricanes, earthquakes, or other pocalypses this weekend but there seems to have been one world changing event. On my way to the bar for the, as it turned out, yet again tropical storm delayed Phillies game I wandered into Urban Outfitters to pick up a jacket I had tried on last time I was there. Not a leather jacket or even a black jacket but a brown corduroy sherpa lined jacket. I can't wait to see the VQs' faces when they see this.

Finally don't feel bad for Indiana State. In exchange for their trip to Happy Valley their cut of the days' revenue was $450,000.

Observations from the Earthquakepocalypse

You just know I would be remiss if I didn't report in from one of the greatest natural disasters in the gallery's history. Well maybe a minor disaster, alright it felt like an overloaded trash truck driving down our narrow street. A 5.9 magnitude earthquake centered in Virginia rattled our windows and sent Ash scurrying for bottles of wine as she is wont to do during natural disasters.

I shouldn't joke because I did see video of the crowds in Times Square which looked to me like New Years Eve had come in the afternoon. One thing I hadn't thought of was how people in the towers would react to the quake. People thought of the 9/11 attacks and had a 'oh god not again' reaction than instinctively got out. Thinking about it now I have to say I would have done the same.

With the Mets visiting the Phillies tonight the best tweet I saw was from Matt Gelb of the Philadelphia Inquirer who covers the Phillies. “Citizens Bank Park was evacuated. No one allowed in. But the Mets are still inside. Really.” Another, which came from the Phillies, was funny just because I couldn't believe I was reading it. “Tonight's 7:05 Mets Phillies game at Citizens Bank Park will be played as scheduled following today's earthquake."

I did learn a few important lessons today. During an earthquake do not under any circumstances stand next to tall buildings, duh. Do not immediately check twitter because if you do you won't get in that all important cell phone call because the system will already be down till you get to it. Do not whine about the quake online because anybody you know on the left coast will laugh and call you a drama queen. Do get on foursquare as soon as possible and check into earthquakepocalypse because if you are lucky like I was there will already be 8,000 people there and you can score the 'epic swarm' badge.

In the end we of the gallery survived the quake but we can't dwell on our luck for long as Hurricane Irene is bearing down on the east coast and is expected to be in the New York City area late Saturday night or early Sunday morning. "Quite honestly I am more concerned about our preparations for the approaching hurricane," said New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg at a press conference on the earthquake.

Stay tuned.

Observations from the Window 8.14

I was planning on a lazy Sunday at the bar watching the Phillies but the gods decided we needed rain so the game was postponed. It's been raining all day in the Village too but it's a nice soft rain falling in cool air so it was actually nice. I find rainy days like this romantic in a way, I just want to watch it as I sip coffee and listen to jazz which is something I rarely want to do.

This morning the VQs dragged me out of bed to take me out for an early birthday brunch. We went to a Brazilian place on Varick Street called SOBs. The fresh tropical fruit, ginger-lime snapper, and champagne were all excellent but I passed on the banana stuffed french toast. I did have to try a Devassa* beer which is almost impossible to find. Pretty much it tastes like beer. It's called the 'Bossa Nova Brunch' and they have live music but I had no clue where the rap of MGK fit in so we bolted before he got far.

The VQs and I were watching a show about Woodstock the other night and it turned to Jimi Hendrix jamming "The Star Spangled Banner." One of the guys that produced the festival, I forget which it was, said you could hear everything that was happening in Vietnam at the time in the Hendrix rendition of the song. People screaming, napalm, death all around, but I could hear none of it. I guess it was the times and you had to be there because I just didn't get it.

In the end my lazy baseball Sunday turned into a lazy day of eating and shopping. My dad gave me money for my birthday and said to spend it on myself. I didn't spend it all yet but I did buy the biggest bouquet of sunflowers I could find which I put in a vase on my window seat.

Than I sat in the window and smiled.

*Devassa Beer Commercial

Observations from the Window 7.24

Some random notes from the heatpocalypse.

When I first get on twitter in the morning I normally check two things before anything else. My horoscope, but we aren't going there right now, and the weather. Friday morning my NYC weather tweet said simply "the city is ready to boil." Not an effing good way to start the day, not at all. Also State College tied an all time record for high temperature Friday, 102°. In all the time I spent there I never remember it being that hot. Seriously, the mountains are supposed to be cool not an amazonian sauna.

The Phillies beat the Padres Friday night with Cole Hamels' collecting his 12th win of the year in an amazing performance. He struck out 10 batters in 8 innings in a game that began with a 7PM game time temperature of 98° which didn't seem to keep the usual 45,000 fans away. Unbelievable.

You might know by now that my vendor across the street is my barometer for all things weather related. Saturday he may have had his best idea ever. Bottled water. Not those little spray/fan things but honest to god iced bottled water. Cold, pour it over your head refreshing. Well done vendor guy. Friday night the temp in Central Park didn't dip below 100° until 7PM, just unreal.

Words just don't seem to describe it. Unbearable, blistering, wretched. No matter what you call it its fucking hot.

Billy Idol - Hot In The City (live)

Observations from the Library 7.20

I took a day off from the gallery to work on some photos and find that it's so hot the creaky old air-conditioning in our building can’t compete with the returning heatpocalypse and it’s cool but muggy in our apartment. I managed to drag myself from my usual working spot, which happens to be my uber size bed, and headed off to the library to work in some air conditioned splendor. It seemed as if every street I crossed on my way to the library was on the verge of melting and attaching itself to my sandals. Thankfully I learned my lessons last time the inferno came to town and the only black I have on are my shorts. The stripped down me with no makeup at all, a white t-shirt on, and my hair pulled back might not look so hot but it feels a little better. Even my backpack carries the minimum laptop, camera, and sketch/writing pad so this is as bare bones as I get. Still with the current real feel temperature at 103° it doesn’t seem to matter, it's just hot as hell.

So for now I plan on working a bit before I venture back out. Problem with my working on my projects is I sometimes get frustrated and find myself easily sidetracked. You know, with blog writing and such things. What with the idiots in Washington prepared to crash the world's economy, the Phillies continuing to have the best record in baseball, and Sunday's first gay and lesbian marriages in New York, well, my mind is just always wondering off somewhere. I should explain that New York City will be holding weddings on Sunday, the very first day they are legal. A lottery is being held to pick 734 couples to be married by 60 judges who volunteered to work Sunday. Mayor Bloomberg said the lottery was being held to avoid couples needlessly standing in line only to be turned away. "We are going to make history on Sunday, with the eyes of the nation once again turning to New York City," Mayor Bloomberg said.

I have been thinking about the totally awesome suggestion of a friend that I start a new Flickr just to handle my blog photos. At the moment I have them spread out net wide with some on Picasa, some on Photobucket, and my own work on Flickr. I first used Photobucket because it's possible to use photos from there in comments on Flickr something which I didn't think possible with Picasa but that turns out to be untrue. That pretty much ends the Photobucket part of the decision. I like the Flickr idea because I have used it for years now and I'm comfortable with it, I know what I want to do and how to do it. Being a Google product Picasa is so easy to use with this blog and with my phone, a droid. I'm a late comer to the Google world but for better or worse I now use it everywhere and everything is linked. That brings up an entirely different set of problems when my blog photos end up on my phone of there own free will, even after I deleted them, and I don’t even want to think about what happens if my phone gets jacked. For now I'm leaning towards a new Flickr but haven't decided yet.

See how easy I get sidetracked?

The Airborne Toxic Event - Changing

"Tears in the Sake," Observations from the Bar on the Women's World Cup Final

Sitting in a bar isn’t always how I spend a gorgeous sunny summer afternoon but there is a World Cup Soccer final to watch. I could think of worse ways to spend an afternoon than watching Hope Solo on six screens and drinking cold beer. The sixth Women's World Cup comes to a close as two time winning US team goes up against first time finalist Japan in Frankfurt, Germany. As a pre-game activity we were watching the Tour de France and something struck me as funny. Now I was always a big Lance Armstrong fan and watched the Tour without fail but without Armstrong honestly it's just guys riding bikes. That is until somebody tumbles and takes out half the peloton than it's excitement. But this is a day for soccer and Hope Solo, all of the 5' 10" long legged dark haired beauty of her, I mean 5' 10" keeper for the US team. Damnit I have to be serious here but it's hard because she is seriously hot. Shift to the compulsory tsunami story and how a win would be so good for the national psyche of Japan. It may be cold but to say today I totally don't care.

From Hope Solo

Solo looks like a giant tweety bird in her yellow uniform. My artistic side doesn't take this as a very auspicious start to the game as the black warm-ups looked much better. But this isn’t a style blog so I will move on to the game. The beginning reminds me of one of those games I always hated to play in with US shots peppering the goal only to clang off the post or sail over the net. In a game like this I always knew it was only a matter of time until the other team scored. Because of games like that I first developed a taste for my fingernails, alcohol came later. Dear god we are wasting chances here, not good. The first half ends with the score locked at zero. Phillies are beating the Mets 5-1 in the 8th inning I suppose it's a tradeoff. Why couldn't they play the final yesterday when the Mets handily spanked my Phils? My mystical side is beginning to worry the sports gods didn't like my tsunami comment but I was just complimented on my Penn State soccer jersey so there is that.

Finally Alex Morgan scores to give the US the lead at the 69 minute mark and now it seem the gods do love me or maybe just have a sense of humor. And than just as fast it's back to nail biting time as the clock is down to ten minutes and Japan begins to take more and more chances than finally score to tie the game and the bar becomes eerily quiet even as we are informed the US team has never lost a World Cup game in which it has scored first, 24-0-3 coming into this game. The game heads to extra time as full time ends tied at 1, I'm just glad it isn't sudden death but penalty kicks loom on the horizon.

Extra time with my nails about gone and for the first time I wish I could smoke a cigarette in this bar. Two minutes left in extra time and any goal scored now will be the latest in Women's World Cup Final history and just like that Abby Wambach scores in the 104th minute to give the US the lead and the bar erupts. Old guys are beginning to tear up now but I'm not quite sure if it's the soccer game or the fact that the Mets truly do suck this year, losing to the Phillies 8-5 today. Omfg Japan scores on a corner just after Solo spent time on the ground recovering from a hard dive and I begin to wonder if there is some drinking game for penalty shots, my mind can't take much more. Penalty shots, the most hellish thing ever invented for a sport.

By now you prob know how it ended, Japan winning in penalty shots with the US missing three of its 4 shots. Totally awesome game but one that should have never been this close. The US just blew too many early chances when they could have put the game away. That’s what they call a heartbreaking loss, enough to make me cry in my sake.

Go Phillies!

Observations from the Road 7.4

So my 4th of July weekend at home draws to an end with my return to the Village postponed until morning so I can enjoy my family, the Phillies, and all the leftover pig roast beer just a little bit longer. It was an awesome long weekend with just a touch of sadness at the realization that all we kids are finished with high school, really the realization that none of us are kids anymore. Still that can't take away from just how awesome a weekend it was.

I was so into recharging the brain that I didn't even bother getting myself a New York Times Sunday morning although I was tempted to get one later in the day just to sit by the pool and be a smart-ass. But I decided against it and played the good daughter, sis, and pseudo hostess all day. And a long day it was. Sunday began early, with the pig roasting on a hot humid morning, and it continued well into Monday morning with candles burning in the garden and a small fire on the deck. I finally crashed around 1:30 Monday morning and eventually found myself sleeping on the deck just like old times.

Dumb luck made the weekend just a little more special as my cousin Tess just happened to be visiting from the other coast. Tess is a year older than me and it has been years since I last saw her so Friday night the two of us and my brother went out to do some catching up. As I’m always thinking I came up with a photo idea involving Tess and her dad's totally awesome Ford Mustang that we shot on Sunday morning. Last I saw her the girl had tats but nothing like the complete body art she is sporting now and, just an observation, she looks hot. Looking at the photo later made me think that if my sis is my mini-me I might just be Tess' mini-me, just not so mini.

So in the end I did some swimming, some tanning (don't laugh!), re-bonded with my cousin, and spent a lot of time with my family. Along the way I drank too much cheap beer, ate too much pork, and accidentally fired a bottle rocket in the direction of a police cruiser that just happened into my line of fire. OK, so I wasn't the perfect hostess all the time. I did very little thinking about the Village, politics, or even art. I just vegged, recharged, and had pretty much the kind of weekend I was hoping for. I even added to my bucket list as Tess and I concocted a plan to cruise the left coast on Harley's one day.

Sometimes the t-shirts are right, life really is good.

Finally let me wish you a late happy 4th of July. Hope it was a good one with lots of alcohol and fireworks though I hope they weren’t combined in any way. That’s how police cruisers get shot up this time of year.

"Freedom is the right to write the wrong words." Patti Smith

Bruce Springsteen - Born In The USA, Live in Paris