*bleep bleep* where you at?

[andala]

Golly gee, it has been a while since I posted. It's not my fault. I received a Japanese/Malaysian restaurant menu that was slipped under my door. Instead of "Mango Chicken or Beef or Shrimps" they shifted the F over and wrote "Mango Chicken or Bee for Shrimps". So I went online to look up some amusing Engrish sites, got a little too close to the

Comments

[minn]

The texture on that statue is *terrific.* :)

[minn]

> Watched a black father and his Latino wife send one of their two Indian children over to say goodbye to Uncle so-and-so (who happened to be a white punk)

If the essence of NYC had to be defined in one sentence, this would be it.

[andala]

It makes you think about "race" a lot. One of the reasons that racial segregation has weight with some people is because they wish to preserve the genetic strengths of a group of people and not let them be diluted. However, living in a place like this for so long helps you realize that just because two people have a different skin color, as determined by their genes, doesn't mean that the rest of their genetic makeup can't be comparable or complementary across an ethnic line. People do have a strong sense of how they're different from each other, but they also naturally gravitate toward those they can harmonize with if given the chance to see beyond superficial differences. Critics who think that a place like NYC just squishes together individuals that don't function well together would overlook the fact that this place is ripe with the discovery of surprising experiences of just the opposite.

[twilightelysium]

I agree! Plus I love the peek of daffodils in the background. Ah, Spring! :)

[niyabinghi]

What a treat to wake up this morning to find an entry from you.
Chuckling over the mannequin moment and the Bee for Shrimp.
Gorgeous photo too --- will there soon be more, hint hint?
:)

[andala]

Glad to have made your morning. :D If it weren't for the fact that I don't eat shrimp, I'd absolutely go to that restaurant and attempt to order bees for them.
There will indeed be more. I go through periods occasionally where I just cannot keep up with LJ because of everything else going on, then I get utterly disappointed with that, and scramble to catch up. I promise more posts soon!

[elmo7]

how sad about The Alley...it's places such as these hidden in pocekts in the city that keep its uniqueness and mystery alive in a place where so much can pass people by...if only people would pay more attention and not rush through everything...i do so love this pic!

[andala]

It is sad, but I try to write out that sadness with a little memorial like this post, so that I can then move on and not cling to the loss. I tend to like to train myself to appreciate that I had something once at all, and not get caught up in the moment at which it goes. This is the city of constant change! You see layers of change built upon layers of change-- one big moving foundation and no one has any idea what came before that which came before. The best way to take advantage of that is to realize that nothing has changed but the superficial expressions of the same, permanent principles. Once you can see deep enough into any experience in order to find those, you have it, and can find peace.
Thanks for the complement! I think it was a successful photo. I will post more photos soon.

[ethereal_lad]

You have once again turned New York in to a magical playground. I suppose you could transform suburbian strip malls into sacred spaces. Bless You.

By the way, did you really see Phillip Seymour Hoffman? Did you ask him to do his Capote imitation?

[andala]

Strip malls are chock full of magical rituals. Maybe I should write some posts about those. Hmm...
I think NYC is perfumed with magic-- sort of like that phantom maple syrup smell that enveloped the city and made the news. It attracted a lot of ants. Or people. Whatever you want to call them.
It was neat to see Hoffman. I have a special power that enables me to walk blindly past the PAs who try to stop people from walking past the celebrities on film shoots. It's as simple as rendering them immobile or, if you prefer, claiming to have done so after the recurrence of such an inexplicable tendency. I stopped for a moment and listened to him, but I didn't approach at the right time in order to catch the dissemination of any esoteric knowledge. I hope he wasn't put off by the fact that Coyote Ugly's sidewalk sign has had increasingly less-humorous slogans.
Speaking of celebrities, did you get my text message about Liev Schrieber? There might be a post in there somewhere...

[ethereal_lad]

Liev is wicked tall, to use Rhode Island parlance.

[ilenebook]

There you are.
I wondered where you had gone.
Thanks for showing me things vicariously that I might otherwise never see.
Love that statue picture.

[andala]

Hi Ilene! I am here-- just being pulled about like a mannequin. I'm trying to catch up with LJ now, and there shall be more photos to come. I like when people say that they've experienced something through these posts, because that's the reason I started this journal! :D