View allAll Photos Tagged TIMES,
Views of new entrance at Times Sq-42 St, at 1 Times Square, near the Times Square Shuttle on Thursday, Mar. 10, 2022.
(Marc A. Hermann / MTA)
think about all of the times you have almost gotten hit by a car from listening to loud music and laugh
go through old emails before you have to be at the clinic in an hour
think about how no one at the clinic knows what email is
decide that is probably for the best
because email is depressing
and then think about how it is not your place to decide what is best for marginalized people, ever
you told me about the time you slept with someone you didn't really know
and then woke up the next day and found out they were a neo-nazi
and that made you sound hardcore, or open minded, maybe
but that just sort of terrified me
i read email
i saw the indian man who owns the liquor store feeding pigeons this morning
and i also saw him hit a homeless man with a broom handle one time
feed birds hit people
at zwane clinic i am playing a show for little kids on friday and it is my last day there
how do you say goodbye to little kids in a foreign language
how do you tell them that you are not going to see them again
how do you leave when you know no one else is coming to take your place
and now that they know the alphabet and about how fifty xhosa words are spelled
who is going to teach them about sentence structure and also more vocabulary
who is going to teach them what adjectives are
adjectives are so important
how the fuck am i supposed to walk away from that
i am not qualified to explain to anyone what adjectives are
truth be told i don't know if anyone could possibly explain the relevance of adjectives
i am not qualified
i am not a teacher
but there are no other teachers
there are no teachers
there are no teachers
there are no teachers
so i am automatically the most qualified willing person
what makes my life remotely more significant than their literacy
you said, you teach kids about hiv through music
i said yeah
you said that was awesome and i could tell you thought i did that just so i could tell people about it because there are a lot of people like that here there are a lot of white people like that here
and so i left the conversation
i want you to touch my hair
i want you to receive the nobel peace prize for wanting to write me a letter but not knowing what to say or how to say it
i think that is probably happening to someone i know in the world right now
i also want you to get enough sleep so i am going to not bother you from now on
wooden planks surrounding the roommate who woke me up last night
because he was touching himself at two am on a saturday
this made me laugh in the morning
i woke up and ate a huge apple and drank a huge thing of water and a piece of bread
in the morning i did not look at his face or say good morning i just washed my clothes in the bathroom sink and then i hung them up on the fence to dry and they were dry in like seven minutes
and then he said good morning and i was like, "good morning"
and then he was like, "what are you up to today?"
and i was like, "uh, i'm going to study and then go to langa"
and i did not ask what he was going to do because i have never seen him do anything but watch televsion or now, masturbate
which was probably rude of me but it was already weird
and i stared at the prescription pills under his bed
that was weird but important
i can't decide in these situations if i should show these things to anyone else and then i always do because i have low self esteem and this is why i do this and this is why i do this
the way he wrote that made me think about how i feel about actually sticking with this project for a year
and i wonder why i did that
because half way through i decided it was very contrived and also quite boring
but that was okay with me because i think i am sort of contrived
and it's probably not so bad, to be contrived
because that is close to being average
and if you are average then at least you are not below average
and also then you are probably down to earth
so i considered stopping and oh, i don't know
jody gave me back my book at the bar
"a cocksucking smooch with not public speaking skills," we laughed about that for awhile
and he laughed and laughed and the bar guy told me he didn't like my american accent and that there were no accents allowed at this bar
and jody was drunk so he told him to fuck off, was he xhosa or khoi khoi? then he wasn't from here either
and then i said, ha ha
and we left and went to the park where someone spray painted "tic generation"
and i was so relaxed i felt like i was in the thirteenth noun class of a traditionally unwritten language
thirteenth noun class i was not gendered because there are fifteen genders and i was either singular or plural so i fit every single noun
read email from victoria about watching her baby videos
and her saying that she had to turn them off because her mom looked so beautiful in them
and she misses her so much and her mom listening to the pixies and the smiths and taking pictures in the 1960's and being full of fire and seeking independence
and missing her mom and wanting to ask her a million questions
and then feel body parts singularly of themselves, o my
with love, from the northern hemi
with love, from the southern hemi
and i wanted to spray paint over somebody's eyelids
little red x's or just a sentence like,
let yourself feel things
please let yourself feel
there is nothing about feeling to be afraid of
it is a microcosm of a cardboard puzzle of a canyon with blooming trees and plants
and clean water
let yourself feel things and eventually you will be ok
August 20, 2006
Weekend in New York
In and Around Times Square
By SETH KUGEL
TIMES SQUARE is “overrated.”
At least, that’s the category Frommer’s plunked it in in its 2006 guide to New York City. Most New Yorkers and regular visitors probably agree. Other adjectives that cling to Times Square and its surrounding blocks like sidewalk chewing gum include: crowded, touristy, Disneyfied, overpriced and maddening.
But if you’re a first-time visitor, you’re going to go anyway. And even the most jaded have to admit that soaking up the neon anarchy and peering up at the huge television screens is pretty cool.
Deciding what to do beyond that, though, requires sorting the Times Square wheat from the Times Square chaff. By chaff, we mean the stuff that can be found in any mall in America. You know: Toys “R” Us (even if it does have a Ferris wheel), Olive Garden, the red-and-yellow twinkle of McDonald’s and the venti number of Starbucks. Then there are those tourist shops that, straight-faced, sell $30 Statue of Liberty gold plates.
Start by trying to look beyond all that neon, to where some intriguing buildings lurk. In 1905, The New York Times officially moved into the newly built Times Building on 42nd Street in what was Longacre Square, which had been renamed in the newspaper’s honor. In celebration of the move, the skyscraper was the center of a New Year’s Eve celebration on Dec. 31, 1904, that became a tradition. The building, subsequently known as the Times Tower, is now known as 1 Times Square, and The Times long ago moved a bit west to 43rd Street.
Nearby is a Beaux-Arts-style red-brick building at 42nd and Broadway that was built as the Knickerbocker Hotel, where Caruso once lived. The Paramount Building (1926), at 44th Street, is topped with an elegant clock and globe that even some New Yorkers have never bothered craning their necks to see. And, of course, there are the many theaters, including the Art Nouveau New Amsterdam rebuilt by Disney last decade; it was once the home of the Ziegfeld Follies.
There are even some worthwhile shops that do not have branches throughout America. The Drama Book Shop, an independent bookstore, has everything theater obsessives need, and several things they probably don’t (say, a William Shakespeare action figure and Northern Irish dialect CD’s). Kaufman’s Army & Navy is a musty, chaotic spot for camouflage and boots; it is one of the few true military surplus stores still around. Look for the two wooden-wheeled United States Army Hotchkiss mountain cannons from the Spanish-American War squatting outside.
On 48th Street, just east of Seventh Avenue, is a cluster of music shops including Manny’s Music, which sells everything from $12,000 guitars to an eclectic bouquet of microphones. Of course, there is still no shortage of shops selling X-rated DVD’s and sex toys, but the bad old days of prostitutes and street hustlers are mostly gone, regardless of what David Letterman’s monologues imply.
Now for the tricky part: where to eat. Right in the square itself, there are a lot of gaudiness and national chains. But a short walk away, in Clinton, is one of New York’s great ethnic eating strips, Ninth Avenue, with everything from Mexican to Thai to Afghan. Just off Ninth is the Little Pie Company’s celebrated sour cream apple walnut pie for $6. Near the hulking Port Authority bus terminal, the Cupcake Cafe is a shockingly homey spot for a breakfast of homemade doughnuts or muffins. The coffee is a buck, self-serve, and the milk is in actual cartons, hidden in a wooden refrigerator.
Then there’s the bargain block: Ninth Avenue between 41st and 42nd Street. On the corner of 41st is the ivory-billed woodpecker of the pizza industry: a dollar-a-slice shop. Take good video, or your hometown pizza-guzzlers won’t believe you. On the other end of the block, Papaya Dog is full of 99-cent bargains. In fact, you can get a hot dog and a scoop of ice cream there for two cents less than the withdrawal fee at the Citibank A.T.M. across the street (but only if you insist on your two pennies in change).
That block also has one of the neighborhood’s reasonably priced bars, Dave’s Tavern, where a Budweiser is $3 and a pitcher $10. There’s also Rudy’s Bar and Grill up the street. But the obvious winner and still-reigning Times Square hole-in-the-wall champion is Jimmy’s Corner, a slender bar tucked into 44th Street just east of the square. Boxing memorabilia cover the walls, and if boxing is on television somewhere, it’s on Jimmy’s televisions. Jimmy Glenn himself, a boxing trainer who opened the place 35 years ago, is a regular nighttime presence.
Relaxing seems antithetical to Times Square, but a block to the east sits Bryant Park on the Avenue of the Americas between 40th and 42nd Streets, where a canopy of London plane trees brings serenity to numbed minds trembling from neon overload. And if you want culture, don’t pay Broadway prices. Try the International Center of Photography, the only non-Madame Tussaud museum nearby. Admission is $10, and worth it — unless you’d rather have four pizza slices, four hot dogs and a double scoop of ice cream.
VISITOR INFORMATION
All businesses listed are open seven days a week, unless noted.
BUILDINGS OF INTEREST
1 Times Square (former Times Tower): between 42nd and 43rd Streets.
Paramount Building. 1501 Broadway, at 44th Street.
(Former) Knickerbocker Hotel, 1466 Broadway, at 42nd Street
New Amsterdam Theater, 214 West 42nd Street.
SHOPS:
Drama Book Shop, 250 West 40th Street; (212) 944-0595.
Kaufman’s Army & Navy, 319 West 42nd Street; (212) 757-5670, closed Sundays.
Manny’s Music, 156 West 48th Street; (212) 819-0576.
FOOD
Little Pie Company, 424 West 43rd Street; (212) 736-4780.
Cupcake Cafe, 545 Ninth Avenue, at 41st Street; (212) 465-1530.
99¢ Fresh Pizza, 569 Ninth Avenue, at 41st Street; (212) 268-1461.
Papaya Dog, 400 West 42nd Street; (212) 629-0632.
Dave’s Tavern, 574 Ninth Avenue, at 42nd Street; (212) 244-4408.
Jimmy’s Corner, 140 West 44th Street; (212) 221-9510.
August 20, 2006
Weekend in New York
In and Around Times Square
By SETH KUGEL
TIMES SQUARE is “overrated.”
At least, that’s the category Frommer’s plunked it in in its 2006 guide to New York City. Most New Yorkers and regular visitors probably agree. Other adjectives that cling to Times Square and its surrounding blocks like sidewalk chewing gum include: crowded, touristy, Disneyfied, overpriced and maddening.
But if you’re a first-time visitor, you’re going to go anyway. And even the most jaded have to admit that soaking up the neon anarchy and peering up at the huge television screens is pretty cool.
Deciding what to do beyond that, though, requires sorting the Times Square wheat from the Times Square chaff. By chaff, we mean the stuff that can be found in any mall in America. You know: Toys “R” Us (even if it does have a Ferris wheel), Olive Garden, the red-and-yellow twinkle of McDonald’s and the venti number of Starbucks. Then there are those tourist shops that, straight-faced, sell $30 Statue of Liberty gold plates.
Start by trying to look beyond all that neon, to where some intriguing buildings lurk. In 1905, The New York Times officially moved into the newly built Times Building on 42nd Street in what was Longacre Square, which had been renamed in the newspaper’s honor. In celebration of the move, the skyscraper was the center of a New Year’s Eve celebration on Dec. 31, 1904, that became a tradition. The building, subsequently known as the Times Tower, is now known as 1 Times Square, and The Times long ago moved a bit west to 43rd Street.
Nearby is a Beaux-Arts-style red-brick building at 42nd and Broadway that was built as the Knickerbocker Hotel, where Caruso once lived. The Paramount Building (1926), at 44th Street, is topped with an elegant clock and globe that even some New Yorkers have never bothered craning their necks to see. And, of course, there are the many theaters, including the Art Nouveau New Amsterdam rebuilt by Disney last decade; it was once the home of the Ziegfeld Follies.
There are even some worthwhile shops that do not have branches throughout America. The Drama Book Shop, an independent bookstore, has everything theater obsessives need, and several things they probably don’t (say, a William Shakespeare action figure and Northern Irish dialect CD’s). Kaufman’s Army & Navy is a musty, chaotic spot for camouflage and boots; it is one of the few true military surplus stores still around. Look for the two wooden-wheeled United States Army Hotchkiss mountain cannons from the Spanish-American War squatting outside.
On 48th Street, just east of Seventh Avenue, is a cluster of music shops including Manny’s Music, which sells everything from $12,000 guitars to an eclectic bouquet of microphones. Of course, there is still no shortage of shops selling X-rated DVD’s and sex toys, but the bad old days of prostitutes and street hustlers are mostly gone, regardless of what David Letterman’s monologues imply.
Now for the tricky part: where to eat. Right in the square itself, there are a lot of gaudiness and national chains. But a short walk away, in Clinton, is one of New York’s great ethnic eating strips, Ninth Avenue, with everything from Mexican to Thai to Afghan. Just off Ninth is the Little Pie Company’s celebrated sour cream apple walnut pie for $6. Near the hulking Port Authority bus terminal, the Cupcake Cafe is a shockingly homey spot for a breakfast of homemade doughnuts or muffins. The coffee is a buck, self-serve, and the milk is in actual cartons, hidden in a wooden refrigerator.
Then there’s the bargain block: Ninth Avenue between 41st and 42nd Street. On the corner of 41st is the ivory-billed woodpecker of the pizza industry: a dollar-a-slice shop. Take good video, or your hometown pizza-guzzlers won’t believe you. On the other end of the block, Papaya Dog is full of 99-cent bargains. In fact, you can get a hot dog and a scoop of ice cream there for two cents less than the withdrawal fee at the Citibank A.T.M. across the street (but only if you insist on your two pennies in change).
That block also has one of the neighborhood’s reasonably priced bars, Dave’s Tavern, where a Budweiser is $3 and a pitcher $10. There’s also Rudy’s Bar and Grill up the street. But the obvious winner and still-reigning Times Square hole-in-the-wall champion is Jimmy’s Corner, a slender bar tucked into 44th Street just east of the square. Boxing memorabilia cover the walls, and if boxing is on television somewhere, it’s on Jimmy’s televisions. Jimmy Glenn himself, a boxing trainer who opened the place 35 years ago, is a regular nighttime presence.
Relaxing seems antithetical to Times Square, but a block to the east sits Bryant Park on the Avenue of the Americas between 40th and 42nd Streets, where a canopy of London plane trees brings serenity to numbed minds trembling from neon overload. And if you want culture, don’t pay Broadway prices. Try the International Center of Photography, the only non-Madame Tussaud museum nearby. Admission is $10, and worth it — unless you’d rather have four pizza slices, four hot dogs and a double scoop of ice cream.
VISITOR INFORMATION
All businesses listed are open seven days a week, unless noted.
BUILDINGS OF INTEREST
1 Times Square (former Times Tower): between 42nd and 43rd Streets.
Paramount Building. 1501 Broadway, at 44th Street.
(Former) Knickerbocker Hotel, 1466 Broadway, at 42nd Street
New Amsterdam Theater, 214 West 42nd Street.
SHOPS:
Drama Book Shop, 250 West 40th Street; (212) 944-0595.
Kaufman’s Army & Navy, 319 West 42nd Street; (212) 757-5670, closed Sundays.
Manny’s Music, 156 West 48th Street; (212) 819-0576.
FOOD
Little Pie Company, 424 West 43rd Street; (212) 736-4780.
Cupcake Cafe, 545 Ninth Avenue, at 41st Street; (212) 465-1530.
99¢ Fresh Pizza, 569 Ninth Avenue, at 41st Street; (212) 268-1461.
Papaya Dog, 400 West 42nd Street; (212) 629-0632.
Dave’s Tavern, 574 Ninth Avenue, at 42nd Street; (212) 244-4408.
Jimmy’s Corner, 140 West 44th Street; (212) 221-9510.
CULTURE
International Center of Photography, 1133 Avenue of the Americas, at 43rd Street, (212) 857-0000; www.icp.org.
Times Square has always been hectic. Even the name is a misnomer: there is no real square -- certainly nothing remotely resembling a European-style plaza, place or piazza.
Instead there are cars and endless numbers of taxis, major media and corporate offices, the Broadway theaters, and the famously garish electric advertising boards.
Into the middle of this maelstrom flock huge numbers of visitors. Forbes Traveller magazine lists Times Square as the top US tourist attraction.
Do you think we can get him prosecuted for false advertising?
One of several of the "Naked Cowboy" franchisees performing by Times Square in New York. One day there was a "Naked Cowgirl" too.
A friendly NYPD Officer on security detail in the middle of Times Square , NYC. Yes it was freezing cold out about 4 degrees.
Times Square at night.
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Interested in seeing more "destination" images? Check out the sets in my collection titled:
Beyond Cenral Illinois
Of course, you are always welcome here in Central Illinois. Here are my collections and sets relating to the middle section of the Land of Lincoln:
Central Illinois (excluding Springfield)
Springfield and ONLY Springfield
All About Abe (Lincoln)
Lastly, here are a few more "topical" sets that may be of interest to you:
Things that are Abandoned, Neglected, Weathered, or Rusty
Barbers & Barber Shops
Vintage Cars & Trucks - Junkers to Classic Collectibles
Small Town Churches
All Things Political
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