Pot Luck

So apparently... (4.00 / 2)

...ripped jeans at the knees are back in fashion.  My (15-year old) daughter was wearing such a pair today, and I queried her on this.  After she informed me that, indeed, she ripped the holes in the jeans' knees herself, on purpose, I decided that the time was right to demonstrate just how out of touch I am with today's pop culture.

I says to her, I says - "who do you think you are, with holes in the knees of your jeans?  Debbie Gibson?!"

She did not seem to recognize this name.

I then says to her, I says - ""who do you think you are, with holes in the knees of your jeans?  Paula Abdul?!"

She did not recognize this name, either, which actually surprised me since I'm pretty sure the latter has maintained name recognition through being a judge on some kind of 'reality show,' no?

Since all good things must happen in threes, I concluded this exercise by saying to her, I says - "who do you think you are, with holes in the knees of your jeans?  Axl Rose?!"

She did not know this name, either.  For shame.  Kids these days.  If they want to rip off 80's 'style,' they should at least be required to know who it is they're following in the footsteps of!

~~~

I found an old picture while I was up there today, and I took a picture of that picture.  Here I am, with daughter and eldest niece, circa 2006, as Shaggy Haired, Skinny Hippie Needs-a-Haircut-and-a-Shave Jay!

I like this photo.  My friends used to call me Shaggy, because they said I resembled the Scooby Doo character.  I never quite saw that until now.  Hmm, I kinda did.  At least, twenty pounds and ten-plus years ago.  The green thing is some weird flaw in the original.  I was not wearing a ring of kryptonite-looking material.

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by: JayinPhiladelphia @ Mon Feb 04, 2013 at 05:09:06 AM UTC

LOVE the pic! (4.00 / 2)

first one I've seen of her. One question - which kid is the daughter, which one is the niece?

"I can understand someone from Iowa promoting corn and soy, but we are not feeding the world, we are feeding animals and soft drink companies." - Jim Goodman

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by: Jill Richardson @ Mon Feb 04, 2013 at 07:00:38 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Next to me... (4.00 / 2)

...is Sara.  The niece is on the edge of the pic.  I cropped it, a few more people were in it.  But I kept my favorites in.  ;)

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by: JayinPhiladelphia @ Mon Feb 04, 2013 at 07:03:42 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

awww (4.00 / 2)

will you email me a current pic of her?

"I can understand someone from Iowa promoting corn and soy, but we are not feeding the world, we are feeding animals and soft drink companies." - Jim Goodman

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by: Jill Richardson @ Mon Feb 04, 2013 at 07:07:35 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Epic fail (by me) (4.00 / 1)

I watched my favorite kids all day on Saturday. I picked up Kid #1 (the pickier eater of the two) at 11am. She was eating a Tootsie pop. Her sister came to me at 1pm. I had them til 4pm. Kid #2 ate half a sandwich. Kid #1 ate a peanut butter cookie and then didn't want lunch. OK, my bad, I was bribing the kid with sweets to apologize for making her do something she didn't want to do (go grocery shopping). But I wasn't intending to give her a cookie instead of LUNCH!

Then we did what I had planned for the day. We packed up a bunch of chocolate and headed off to a nice riparian area in Mission Trails. We walked around, ate chocolate, and I taught them to identify a bunch of plants. They had a nice time.

We came back to my place and Kid #2 ate a banana and some healthy trail mix. Then their dad came to get them. I am pretty sure dinner was burgers, mashed potatoes, and whatever amount of veggies their dad could get in them (a few green beans?) with cupcakes for dessert.

At some point that night, I realized that Kid #1 had eaten nothing but candy and cookies the entire time I had her. Consumption of Real Food by Children had occurred under my watch, but only by ONE of the two kids I was watching. OOPS!

I went online to email their dad about it in case it would affect his decision to give them cupcakes (or not) after dinner. And... I had an email already waiting for me from him. Kid #1 had a mega meltdown over her homework project. I replied "I take full blame for that."

"I can understand someone from Iowa promoting corn and soy, but we are not feeding the world, we are feeding animals and soft drink companies." - Jim Goodman

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by: Jill Richardson @ Mon Feb 04, 2013 at 07:06:22 AM UTC

Beedle dee, dee dee dee, two ladies! (4.00 / 3)

I saw a hood at the edge of the ice last week and I thought it looked like he was gloating.

Not exactly a ducky situation but here's a pair that practices fidelity.

Ah but when it comes to monogamy, Mr. Mallard is on the fence.

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by: Eddie C @ Tue Feb 05, 2013 at 04:16:16 AM UTC

wow (4.00 / 2)

those are impressive shots. I really hope you can make it out here sometime Eddie. I actually know the names of the plants and stuff now. If we bring Christina with us then we'll have birds AND plants covered. And you can photograph it all :)

"I can understand someone from Iowa promoting corn and soy, but we are not feeding the world, we are feeding animals and soft drink companies." - Jim Goodman

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by: Jill Richardson @ Tue Feb 05, 2013 at 04:29:33 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Here's one from yesterday of my friend Marcia (4.00 / 1)

Ah screw it Marcia and two more, sort of a west coast them of the Met.  

A little pre-Super Bowl art. I don't know when I'm coming to California but you may recall walking that gallery with me. But I don't think Mount Fuji With Flowers by David Hockney was out back then.

If you come back this way I don't smoke in my apartment anymore, in case you need a place to stay.  

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by: Eddie C @ Tue Feb 05, 2013 at 04:48:25 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Also... (4.00 / 1)

...there's a few pretty cool museums down this way, too.

Even though the (New) Barnes is drawn in on itself, sticks its rear out at the street and looks like a mausoleum-meets-suburban-highway-self-storage-facility by way of slightly sheened-up mid-60s Soviet Brutalism, I hear there's actually some cool art inside...

;)

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by: JayinPhiladelphia @ Tue Feb 05, 2013 at 05:09:38 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Ha! I just noticed your subject line (4.00 / 2)

And zer is just one man ja!

"I can understand someone from Iowa promoting corn and soy, but we are not feeding the world, we are feeding animals and soft drink companies." - Jim Goodman

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by: Jill Richardson @ Wed Feb 06, 2013 at 20:15:44 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

There's a hole in the middle of Girard Ave... (4.00 / 1)

...and there has been for two months now.  A 100-year old water main broke on one of Philadelphia's main thoroughfares, and nobody seems to be in any rush to fix it.  Perhaps it's because we can't?

We just threw up some cones there, and that's that.  Don't drive or walk into the gigantic hole.  Caution.

I got to thinking about this on Sunday, in light of the fact that, well, the lights themselves went out for almost an hour right in the middle of our biggest national annual entertainment spectacle*.

Too symbolic not to touch.  Particularly considering that I also spent three hours of that evening getting back home from New Jersey to Philadelphia, moving perhaps 67 miles in easily more than twice as long as that trip would have taken decades ago.

I was hoping perhaps we could have addressed that issue sometime over the past few years.  Maybe setting one of our national priorities to getting our trains to run somewhat close to how they did even 60 years ago. Silly me.  We're too busy dreaming of a self-driving electric car utopia to even run buses more than a few times an hour in even our densest inner city neighborhoods these days.

Get with the program, Jay!  Eat some Doritos, Grab a Bud(tm) and STFU...

*built around the season-ending 'game' to determine the champion of an enterprise which makes billions of dollars exploiting the long-term health of semi-educated modern day gladiators; and also selling potato chips, soda and poor imitations of tacos and beer to the massed 'consumers' (who once upon a time used to be citizens) via million dollar 30-second commercials.  My NBA sucks almost as much as the NFL, too, but at least basketball is a thinking man's game!

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by: JayinPhiladelphia @ Tue Feb 05, 2013 at 09:43:39 AM UTC

Oh, ha... (4.00 / 1)

That's right.  It's Grab Some Buds(tm).  Plural.  Not "a Bud."

Because moderation is for commies, you pinko slime!

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by: JayinPhiladelphia @ Tue Feb 05, 2013 at 10:12:54 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Can yo tell me how to get, how to get to Sesame Street (4.00 / 1)

The sidewalk dynamic of New York City can be fascinating. It's all about change and sometimes just knowing can improve a walk. I can remember a different look for this street corner. Fifty-Fifth Street and Ninth Avenue had a rich history long before my memories kicked into gear but this is a place I clearly remember as the original location of Sesame Street.

In New York Magazine this building was shown in an article called The Glass Stampede but the new Alvin Ailey complex was listed as "A great swap."  I could not agree more. You can make out almost ghostly professional dancers rehearsing behind the screens or be bold and go to one of the corners for a better view. This view is what replaced the bricks and fire escapes of The Town Theater on the 55th Street side.  

Opened on December 21, 1922 and built by John A. Chaloner, originally as a Vaudeville house, he named it "The Chaloner." In 1928, Variety reported the theater playing to packed houses with a 25-cents admission for 11 acts of vaudeville, a feature movie, short subjects, newsreels and a serial. During the depression when people embraced Vaudeville to forget their troubles the theater was too far uptown and way out west in the then infamous "Hell's Kitchen." So the building became a double feature neighborhood movie houses.

This building was renovated and renamed Town Theatre during the city-wide effort to spruce up for the New York World's Fair in 1939. Then "The Town" was one of the first to close due to competition with television. Back in the 1950's this empty space that lost out to TV began a new life, almost a fifty year run as a television studio, the building that I still remember. The orchestra section of the auditorium became a control room and the balcony seats stayed in place for live audiences. Game shows, variety shows, all sorts of television, I doubt that Sesame Street was even the first children's show but it was certainly the longest running show in the history of "The Town."

That's my recollection of Ninth Ave. and 55th Street, a big old marquee shading the sidewalk with a photo of Big Bird from 1969 until the 1980's. I used to call it the Reeves-Teletape Theater and while I was too old to actually watch Sesame Street on television, every now and then I was invited inside to change some scenery and experience Sesame Street live. It was pretty scary when Caroll Spinney gave his arm a rest, looked like someone broke Big Bird's neck. I guess it was always a live performance space for me and now the shows are free, live dance as a sidewalk attraction.

So if you should ever find yourself walking down Ninth Avenue and you come upon the dancers in the windows, sing a little tune in your head. Sing "Sunny Day, Sweeping the clouds away, on my way to where the air is sweet. Can you tell me how to get, how to get to Sesame Street" and check to see if those dancers are still keeping the beat.  

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by: Eddie C @ Wed Feb 06, 2013 at 05:25:27 AM UTC

Seaside Heights, three months after (4.00 / 1)

I went down to seaside Heights, NJ on the day that marked three months since Hurricane Sandy made landfall. This is how I remember Seaside Heights.

There is so much bad news to be found about Hurricane Sandy and when you look at where the kiddy rides used to be on the Funtown Pier, with no rides and no pier it does seem depressing.

Actually it was the Casino Pier to the north that took the real hit. The pier that was in the news because of the roller coaster that is still in the ocean is completely empty now and much of it has washed away.

Here's a photo for scale on the width of boardwalk that is missing for the entire length of Seaside Heights. The Coca-cola sign was in the middle of the boardwalk.

The boardwalk being entirely gone is not as depressing as it sounds and the not so miniature rooftop golfer who once guarded over the Casino Pier being cast off to an unused parking lot is not as bad as it seems.

In the three months that have passed since Hurricane Sandy made landfall, all of the debris from that famous walk have been removed. These before and after view were shot from around Sampson Ave. on the north end of Seaside Heights.

That was the narrower boardwalk section of Seaside and the "Jersey Shore" house is just past the pizzeria on the right. The top view was taken on an unseasonably warm October day five years before Sandy.

The bottom photo was taken on Tuesday January 29, 2013 and while the roller coaster was still in the ocean, it is not a sign of inaction.

In addition to the boardwalk debris being all removed and every local telling me that "the boardwalk will be replaced by May 15th," all of the sand that we remember from news footage as being everywhere but the beach is back on the beach. Everywhere I looked the houses that survived are either being rebuilt or have already been prepared for the coming beach season. The town and the streets are clean with the people getting ready for the Summer of 2013. even Lucky Leo's, while no longer on the boardwalk, is back on the regular winter schedule, opened on the weekends.

And for you "Jersey Shore" fans, guess which house didn't get a scratch.

The devastation is everywhere but the people in Seaside Heights, they got this. I laughed at how much everyone reminded me of the mayor of Amity in the movie "Jaws" but in the good way.

Of course all of those cheerful faces getting ready to make summer dollars in a tourist attraction town isn't the situation in more residential towns. When I asked about Ortley just up the road the stories weren't so happy. But in that one town that I know so well they are gearing up for summer dollars and everyone thinks that the Summer of 2013 will be the best atSeaside Heights, NJ.

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by: Eddie C @ Thu Feb 07, 2013 at 14:46:48 PM UTC

Wow, I remember that sign... (4.00 / 1)

Damn.  I'm gonna be over in that area (well, closer than I usually would be) in April, visiting friends in Red Bank, and we're probably gonna head down there for a bit that weekend.

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by: JayinPhiladelphia @ Thu Feb 07, 2013 at 14:59:04 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Too bad it's not March instead of April (4.00 / 2)

As in March 9th for the St.Paddy's Restore the Shore parade.

I'm down for that. Restore!

But I don't know about that 9AM breakfast. I'd have to leave at 7!

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by: Eddie C @ Thu Feb 07, 2013 at 18:00:19 PM UTC

[ Parent ]