Again, just because I like it!

I’VE GOT A FANG!

Redecorating.

I’ve been trying to go through and update/edit the links sidebar. I got some stuff done but, they’ll be more to come.

One of the new links is for New York Hack, a blog written by a female yellow cab driver here in New York City. I wrestled the yellow beast for a few years back in my 20’s. There weren’t many female cab drivers when I was driving (one or two) so, it’s an interesting read for me at times.

People always seemed to make a lot out of being a cab driver. At the time (while I was doing this to earn money), it actually got to the point where people would introduce me to others with it. It was, ‘This is my friend Phil from New York. He drove a cab!’

It always grated on me.

It was like being introduced, ‘This is my friend Dave from Cleveland. He’s a proctologist!’ I use the analogy here because as a cab driver you spent the majority of your day surrounded by or dealing with assholes.

Cab driving was never fun.

Let me clarify that... cab driving... WAS... NEVER... FUN.

More along the lines of it being a really horrible job. Cab drivers are the butt of jokes. Everybody has their bad cab driver story. Blah, blah, blah... blah, blah, blah. What the job works out to is long, long hours with quite a bit of frustration.

As a cab driver in New York, everyone was (is) out to get you: trucks making deliveries and double parking are in your way, buses are lumbering down the street like the traffic equivalent of sperm whales, other cab drivers looking for fares are like are like hungry animals competing with you for food, the cops look down upon you, the TLC looks upon you as a revenue stream, pedestrians daring you to hit them, out of state drivers riding along doing the grand tour, black cars double parking all over the place blocking up streets, the owners looks upon you as a necessary evil and the fares... well that’s another one of the great things about New York.

The fares are just unbelievable.

Rich people get in a cab thinking that you’re their chaffuer du jour. Poor people get in the cab thinking somehow you’re part of the public transportaion system.

Let me clear up something: Yellow cabs are not public transporation - people may think they’re public transportation but, they’re not:

Cabs are not subsidized by the government.
Cab drivers are not city or state employees with the wealth of benefits that come along with the job.
There is no sick pay for cab drivers.
There is no holiday pay.
You can see a billboard or a bumper sticker with a number to call when a cop is shot but, if a taxi driver is killed during a robbery it usually is amazing if it makes it into the first ten pages of the paper. It is a thankless job.

Cab drivers spend anywhere from 8 to 12 (to more) hours driving the streets of the city.

Umm, have any of you driven around the city? Try getting your kidneys bounced around for that long and see how you feel afterward. We’re not talking about the world’s most well maintained roadways here in New York. Plus, you think the owners are putting the best equipment out there for the comfort of the drivers and the riding public? Think again.

Still, all in all, it’s the cab drivers fault: it’s the cab drivers fault when you want to go to the theater district at 8pm when every other idiot is trying to make curtain, it’s the cab drivers fault when you’re looking to go back home to Brooklyn after drinking to much after work on a Thursday or a Friday around 11pm or midnight when every other drunking fool is trying to go home to Brooklyn, it’s the cab drivers fault when the stupid street fair or parade or presidential visit is going on and traffic is crawling. Are we getting a better picture of things?

No, it’s not a fun job, never was.

Beyond that, people have this overly romantic view of what a taxi driver’s life is like. They’ve watched too many reruns of Taxi or seen Taxi Driver one too many times. It always used to make me laugh, just how stupidly naïve people would be. Every time someone would get into a conversation in the cab, they would ask, ‘So, what else do you do? Are you an actor?’

Ummmm... no, I am doing this because I neeed to eat.

So, after living a couple of years and noticing there were far too many people around me who were really something else but worked a day job as part of their secret identity, I one day just gave it up.

Cold turkey.

I could have kept doing it but, if I did I would have never done anything else and the thought of getting to the age I’m at now just driving a cab seemed like a horrible prospect. Not that the jobs I have had have been anything to write home about, it’s more along the lines of having something to compare them to.

Very few things could make me like Junior.

However, I have to admit to enjoying this glimpse into his plain speaking about the current crisis:

Welcome back to the fold.

He’s back! HE’S BACK! One of my most favorite Met players ever:

Mets sign Alfonzo to minor league deal July 15, 2006

CHICAGO (AP) — The New York Mets signed infielder Edgardo Alfonzo, a star on their 2000 World Series team, to a minor league contract Saturday and assigned him to Triple-A Norfolk.

Alfonzo, 32, began the season with the Los Angeles Angels and batted .100 in 18 games before he was released on May 21. He then signed a minor league contract with Toronto. He played 12 games with the Blue Jays after being called up, batted just .162, and was released June 12.

Alfonzo played last season with the San Francisco Giants, batting .277 with two homers and 43 RBIs in 109 games.

Alfonzo played for the Mets from 1995-2002 and is third on the team’s career hits list with 1,136, seventh on the home run list with 120 and fifth on the RBIs list with 538. He batted .324 with 25 homers and 94 RBIs in 2000 when the Mets made the World Series and lost to the Yankees. He also made the NL All-Star team that season.

The man who should have never left. The only player I know of who left New York (reluctantly) as a free agent and actually took out ads thanking the fans for supporting him. He’s not hitting this year, I know but he was always a good guy! I hope home cooking can provide Fonzie with what he need to regain his form.

Sometimes...

You ever get the feeling we’re like right on the precipice of WW3?

There’s the North Korea thing jumping off with Japan, South Korea and China all buzzing like a nest of angry hornets.

Then, there’s this stuff going on between India and Pakistan.

There’s the whole Iran thing.

Let’s not forget about Iraq and Afghanistan.

Now, there’s the stuff going on in Lebanon with Israel.

A whole bunch of those countries are either members of the nuclear club, will be soon or could be shortly.

Oh, and in case you’ve forgotten - there’s stuff conflict in Chechnya... oh, and Sudan... and wait a sec, let’s not forget Somalia jsut in case you were keeping a scorecard. No, they’re not nuclear powers but, doesn’t it seem like there’s a lot happening at the moment?

I had to write a thank you.

I had this t-shirt, it was a gift from someone a long time ago.



I had the thing almost a decade.

I hadn’t worn it much over the last few years because the thing was just falling apart. I’m not looking particularly great in a t-shirt anyway these days so there wasn’t any kind of a big loss on that front.

Still, I liked the cartoon on it and it reminded of the person who gave it to me so, I kept it around for a lot longer than I should have. I liked it so much I even looked around to see if I could find a place that still sold them because I would have bought a replacement - I liked the thing that much!

Turns out, you can’t get them anymore. The guy who drew it is back making cartoons but, even though some t-shirts with cartoons of his are offered up on a site this particular one isn’t one of them. Too bad really because I always thought this was very cool. Thinking about it, it occured to me how this really small, almost passing gesture by someone really stuck. It wasn’t a big deal when I got it or anything like that, just one of those kind of, “Oh, this is for you. I saw this t-shirt and I thought you would like it.”

Boy did I.

Did the person who got the shirt nail that one right on the head. It just made me think how sometimes we can do something small, something not big on our own radar that goes on to impact another person’s life in a big way. My only hope is to have the same effect on others.

Just because I like it...


I’m spending a lot of time these days loading all kinds of music into iTunes. I’m rapidly becoming a convert and finally understanding why it’s such a hit. I imagine I’ll get an iPod eventually too. Anyway, one of the things I pulled off a cd was this tune and I came across this live performance of the song which is very well directed as well (usuually a rarity for televised performances). Enjoy:

Fiona Apple - Fast As You Can

I wonder who will get the last laugh?

Will it be the landlords who wind up with fat pockets, or will it wind up being tenants who pay what would have been paid by long time residents had the property not moved out of rent stabilization.

It may be that the very ordinariness of Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village allayed the suspicions of normally alert housing advocates that the owners would take these developments out of rent stabilization. These may be excellent moderate-income projects, but they are far from elegant. A young lawyer, Eric Lipman, who moved into Peter Cooper Village last March, says, “They’re advertising luxury apartments when there’s nothing luxurious about them. No doorman. No gym. No amenities. They put in new fixtures, but nothing super-fancy. Just GE - works fine, but that's it.”

Getting more exposure.

If you go to the Central Park website, and look under the latest photos you’ll see some pictures I took up in the park last month as well as one which I fooled around with in Photoshop.

Now, the truth can be told!

Our government has been keeping a secret from the American people for quite some time now. I kept expecting the truth to come out on its own but, as the years pass - I can no longer abide what is happening and stand by a silent witness to it. Even the supporters of our incursion into Iraq are tiring of our presence in that forlorn country. Little do the citizens of the world know in reality, this is all part of an elaborate plot hatched long ago in the corridors of power both here in Washington and London. A plot by the great Anglo/American alliance to extend their hegemony over the middle east and to prolong their subjugation of the peoples there - the photo evidence is undeniable and today I give you proof of the true identity of the man heretofore known as the butcher of Baghdad who in reality is a singer whose career had long since eclipsed and who was looking for ways to bring himself back into the public eye. Below the indisputable truth revealed at last that the identity of the man we know as Saddam Hussein is really a sham and before you his true identity stands revealed:



The man the world knows as Saddam Hussein!


a man who in the 70’s the world knew by another name:


The man the world knew as Englebert Humperdink!

Coincidence?!?! I think not!

(if you don’t know satire when you read it, just for those among you needing to be hit over the head - this is a joke. Two separate people, Engelbert having nothing to do with Saddam. But there will always be conspiracy theorists.)

I witnessed a robbery!



Actually just an interesting project I am beginning to explore through my Flickr stream which is more about gesture and composition than anything else. I’m exploring how much is conveyed through the visual language expressed by our bodies. What we say without even knowing it.

Friday cat blogging.

I came across this by way of Elayne’s blog (see link in sidebar). Language was no barrier in my enjoyment of it however. It’s one of those things any cat-lover will find compelling to watch:

More cat movies.

Moving away from the grossness of the previous film, here we have an example that not only are cats computer users but, that they prefer Macs to Windows boxes:

Something I’ve always wanted to be able to get my cat to do.

This would remove possibly the only drawback to my lovely, little furry companion. I would feel as if I could achieve anything if I could get her to do it but, I have to admit I don’t know if it would be worth the rather ungraceful finish. Seems like all that hard work at the expense of the cat.



No more litter both smell but, what good is it if the cat doesn’t flush? Must be a male cat?

A happy fourth!

Gerry sent me this beautiful drawing he made attached to an email from today and couldn’t resist posting it. It’s so a well done - click through for larger size:

Still missed.

Over the last weekend, I came to realize a year had passed - we haven’t had a card game since.

Sitting in his hospital room and over the subsequent days after Bob’s passing I came to realize the measure of life’s wealth and simply put it is in the lives we touch. As the fates would have it, Bob turned out to be one of the wealthiest men I have ever had the privelege to know and he will be sorely missed.

Rush Limbaugh exposed as a limp dick - finally!

So it is somewhat surprising to hear of Rush Limbaugh’s latest run in with the law over prescription meds. Surprising because Limbaugh has been known as something of a stiff for years. His need for help in that department comes as something of a shock - in many quarters Limbaugh is often described as a bit of a walking erection.

You would think the Republican in me would be dismayed over this run in with the law for the poster boy of the conservative media.

Not really.

See, I have little taste for those among us who follow the tract of ‘do as I say, not as I do.’ While Limbaugh may turn his cyclopean gaze onto political figures in this country based upon their party affiliation - I think he is part of the problem in our country today and he has been for a very long time. His response on his radio show today to the incident, is another example of the incredible hypocrisy he lives his life by:

Limbaugh joked about the search on his radio show Tuesday, saying Customs officials didn't believe him when he said he got the pills at the Clinton Library and he was told they were blue M&Ms.

Limbaugh appeals to a certain segment of the population - he does it by painting the world into very black and white tones and casting the people who are in opposition to his views as ‘the bad guys.’ It’s this kind of rhetoric I hate the most. Mainly because it is so divisive to the body politic of our country. There are of course things we will disagree on but, for any kind of progress to be made in our country, compromise ultimately will be a part of it. Positioning the opposing viewpoint in such an extreme fashion makes it so much harder for that compromise to happen. It impedes progress, it hampers change and growth.

We always hear about wars we are fighting, ideological wars which threaten the fabric of our society. Oddly enough, it is hard to find a difference between the very terrorists we are ‘fighting’ and those who would try and take arguments over opposing views into the same extreme territory Muslim fundamentalists would. Now, before you start reacting, hear me out: I’m not saying these people are the same in all ways, they are not advocating violence the way a group such as Al Qaeda would but, they are very similar in their zero sum approach to the discussion. There is no room for opposing views in their argument and that’s a big problem.

Truth is we have some very big problems to solve in this country at the moment, problems that will only get bigger over time and if we are to do the hard work of confronting those problems and making our nation a better place, we had better realize it is necessary for us to work together to overcome those problems.

Just some food for thought.

Still, you would think Rush would be a lot smarter than that wouldn’t you. Such a lapse of judgement on his part has got to have his fans thinking (one would hope).

It’s so rare.



Very much so when you note a well done campaign in advertising.

It happens, but it’s the exception when it does:


It’s particularly hard when a client has its position in the market ingrained in the mind of the consumer. It’s when the going gets tough for people in advertising. I worked in the field for a long time, people with true talent are hard to find. The very nature of ad agencies and the inherent beauracracy stymies truly creative ideas. A concept has to get through so many hurdles, so many sign-offs, by the time a fresh idea gets to market, it has been watered down to the point where it doesn’t clearly deliver its message failing both the agency and the client.

Agencies don’t want to do bad advertising, neither do clients but, it’s hard for folks to get out of their own way and let the people who should be doing a job do that job:


In the meantime, I am a big fan of the Band, They Might Be Giants - I have been for years. Their sensibilities have always appealed to me not only in their wonderful lyrics but also in the many catchy poppy melodies they manage to craft. I would even go so far as to compare Flansberg and Linnell to Lennon and McCartney - they may not have reached the audience that the two legendary songwriters did but, they certainly have shown the same versatility and mastery of a tune:


Good advertising insofar as the world of TV commercials goes is all about marrying music and pictures in a striking and unmistakeable fashion. Getting a message across to someone in a brief snippet of time and in a way that it sticks. A way where the consumer walks away remembering their brief exposure to your ad and possibly looking for it again.



Hill Holiday’s work on Dunkin Donuts is just that, well executed repositioning of an established brand. They’ve implimented the graphics throughout the company’s printed material and it looks like they’ve done a great job of it. Makes me want to work at a place like that, seems like they’re on the ball.



These are just a few of my favorite spots from this campaign (in addition to the ones above), all marked by some very catchy tunes by TMBG:

This is for anyone who has suffered through last six years of a Bush presidency.

Some background, I went to Google, typed in the word a***ole and hit the I’m feeling lucky button - this is the site I was directed to which had me laughing hysterically. Unless you’re alone, you’ll probably want to keep the sound down but, I am sure you will enjoy this short video from:

Film strip international

Let’s get it over with.

More comic trailer previews. This one with Nicholas Cage sounded like it would be a dog but, the preview looks really good. You never know with these things though but it seems from what I could see they did a great job with the casting too.



Click here for the Ghost Rider trailer.