No Justice, No Peace

The police officers indicted for killing Sean Bell were acquitted a couple of Fridays ago.
It was a bench trial, and there is plenty of research that suggests this was a good legal strategy on the part of the defendants.

But I haven't written a word since then, nor done much else but mourn.
What is the point? This shit is just going to keep happening. I did not know the departed, but if the NYPD wanted him dead they should have indicted him and tried him and tried to put him away for life.

Not execute him on the street, like a dog.

To pay some tribute to this non-justice, the novel Autobiography/Masquerade (which addresses the frustration of shootings like this one, among other things) will be available for FREE download from now until June 28th. (It is usually ten dollars. Just click above on the title to the novel and you will be taken to my Lulu page where you may choose the "download free" link. The print version is not included in this act.)

And dem is my last words.

Cold Days Seducing You Malevolently Part Deuce

clean snow promises light...this still holds as far as I am concerned.
A moment even, of those big fat snowflakes makes me wistful for a simpler time, when snow was not just a symptom of an unhealthy planet giving us quite a show. Recall, here in the NYC, it was almost seventy degrees last week. I feel like I have written this before...

Rezoning Has Its Price

The building pictured here is being erected adjacent to the Adirondack Building on Vernon Boulevard, which was sold last year for an alleged twenty-two million dollars.
This picture was taken facing south.
A significant part of A|M was written at Socrates Sculpture Park, and when I was over there the other day, I noticed the pictured building- how could I not?
It looms over the Adirondack building, as well as over a remaining old mansion on 31st Road.
It is exciting to see kayaking and luxury condos on our once forgotten shoreline, but there is nothing idealistic or romantic about the profile this new edifice cuts behind its more storied predecessors.

United Nations Tour

I Love NYC

I saw a guy selling t-shirts in on the subway Tuesday. That in itself is not really a big deal. Our salesman was worth noting because he pulled his wares out on wire hangers. They were black t-shirts with a variation of the iconic “I love NY” logo on them. The shirts were covered in those flimsy plastic covers the dry cleaning comes in. Mr. Intrepid hung the shirts off the poles on the ceiling that we grip during rush hour.
Sometimes we even have to fight for a full hand’s width around those horizontal poles. Intrepid was glibly taking up about twenty inches of real estate on those very poles.

It is indicative of August in the city I guess. Everybody is out of town, ergo the trains are less crowded, especially as it was just shy of two PM.
But still, high end shirts and an instant display rack.
Intrepid’s first customer approached him just as he had finished setting up. And then I had to switch to the 6.

With what some people are insisting is a tornado touching down in Brooklyn today, the subway, and all its opportunity seeking merchants, are out of luck, at least for a few hours.
Residents of Bay Ridge had roofs torn off their homes, and it is estimated that at least fifteen-hundred people in the Bronx and Staten Island are without power.

Last I checked on NY1, the only train that is running is the 7, which runs from Shea Stadium in Queens to Times Square.
I love New York, especially today, as I am a resident of Queens, where the train is running, albeit slowly, I still have a roof, and my power has not been disrupted.

Ancient Astoria

This is the corner of one of the earliest urban Astoria developments. The new buildings are great, let's just not forget this edifice was here first, much like the ill fated natives.

Gorgeous To Me

What I stared at for a week: A gleaming gold midtown edifice looks like a lion after iphoto.

Cold Days Seducing You Malevolently?

There were more than the usual homeless people in the subway tunnels. Not sure if it is just the freezing temperatures or that I no longer ride on a daily basis.
I miss the fashion advice.
And pretending I am not actually stepping over the nest of another human being.
Guess I will go back to driving.