Best Saturday Holiday

Here we are it's Bloomsday once again, today being June 16th, one hundred and eight years after the events in the book Ulysses.  How odd to nearly have this anniversary of a tale of father and son fall on Father's Day.  I've previously posted plenty (too much, probably) about the book, about this day, about James Joyce, but if you care to peruse, CLICK.

It's been three years since the last time I read Ulysses cover to cover, although last year I listened to an excellent chapter by chapter series of lectures on it.  I reread some favorite passages this morning and I'm planning on seeing a documentary on it this afternoon . . . I'll admit I'm tempted to take the Dublin-spanning journey once more, but then again, I've also been thinking about going back for another visit to Enfield Tennis Academy.  At least I know it'll be a summer of big books.  Good beach reads.

Best Okay Luxury Apartment

So in that last post I mentioned I saw a listing for an apartment in Jay-Z's building.  I researched it a little more, this is what I learned about the $6.9 million, 3,900 sq/ft apartment:

It has a meditation room just off the living room, but I think I'd use the space for crafting:



See, it's right there on the floorplan, Room #7:

Right now, the rest of this "award winnging"ly decorated apartment looks like it might belong to someone with a meditation room.

Here is the apartment listing's official pitch:

Upon entering the loft, a tall gallery space opens into the main space of the loft with quarter sawn maple flooring. The serene atmosphere of this loft comes from its original Japanese tea room. This tea room gracefully blends with the artwork displayed throughout the apartment, turning this loft into an art gallery. The unusual height of the ceiling makes this place grand but yet private. The library is housed in a ten-foot-high 40-foot-long curved walnut bookcase that contains display vitrines. The wood burning fire place in the living room adds to the intimacy of this place. The terrace, which is off the living room, is more of a logia style out door space that conceals one's privacy. Since this building is all about privacy, this loft comes with a private garage, located in the basement of the building, which is accessible by the main elevator bank right to your floor. Also on the 6th floor, you have your private fully locked storage room. There will be no public open houses. Showing will be by appointments only.

So this is what a logia looks like?

I like that it comes with its own storage room on the 6th floor. I like that there is a 40-ft -long bookcase with display vitrines.  A place like this definitely screams "Book Lover!"  I don't like that there are only two bathrooms and that you have to go through either bedroom to get to one.  I also do not like that the listing says the ceiling height is "unusual" but does not indicate what the height actually is.  Unusually high?  Unusually low?  Is this a Japanese Hobbit hole?  I need to know!  But I really like that there will be no open houses, showings by appointment only.  I don't want to move in knowing a bunch of riff-raff had wandered in and taken a look at my new home just for their own enjoyment.  But before I buy I would like to know how close Shawn and Beyonce's apartment is and how often I might run into them.  That's the deciding factor, really.

Best Sunny Weekends

Memorial Day?  So sunny.  The weekend before this one?  Also so sunny.  Here's pictures from both.

Central Park tour group.

After seeing Moonrise Kingdom a second time Memorial Day Weekend I hung out in a Chase lobby with Jeff and Chaunte.

Chaunte shows that gettin money is serious business.

My 'hood.  When it gets nice, the balloon guys come out.

And when it gets sunny this dude brings out his racket-making gas-powered remote control cars.

Canal street people

This guy said "I heard that click!" after I took this picture.  I was shooting from the hip, you could say.

Tribeca kid stuff.

Little Duck, are you lost?  Do you know where your mother is?

Buy this award winning loft and the Carter family (Sean, Beyonce, and Blue) will be your neighbors.  (I should have made a post just about this . . . maybe I will still)

Three degrees of glory?  I find teaching moments everywhere!

You know what I absolutely did not know about until the other weekend?  The African Burial Ground National Monument. It's right downtown, on the edge of the Financial District.

Union Square time.  Got so close to this fellow.

That guy with the ponytail?  Lafayette.

This baby wanted pigeons.  He abandoned his caretakers to go try to get a pigeon.

Here I have captured the decisive moment immediately AFTER this gentleman formed a gigantic bubble around his demonstration subject . . . you can make out a bit of the burst bubbleguts arcing away from her in middair.

And those were some sunny days.

Best Memorial Day Weekend Movie(s)

Listen, I know you're not going to take me seriously when I tell you Battleship was a super great movie, but I'm still going to try to tell you anyway.  I saw Battleship on Memorial Day and you know people have complained about the title of this movie and how it's based on a board game and I'll agree, Battleship is not the best name for the movie—it should have been called Memorial Day because Battleship, like Independence Day was the greatest Fourth of July movie, is the greatest Memorial Day movie.  In it all of the the branches of our military are represented and all rise to protect not just America but the entire Earth from alien invasion and to watch it just filled me with pride in our armed forces.  Some people, okay, many people, watched saw the previews of Memorial Day, I mean Battleship, and were like "pffft, are you kidding me?  Why should I watch that?  It looks like Transformers." and to those people I say "Get serious!  You really think the man who behind Friday Night Lights, Tim Riggins and Landry Clark would all make a bad action movie?"  Because they didn't make a bad action movie, they made the BEST action movie.

Why is it so best?  For one, there is Action!  Boats get blown up, buildings get toppled, children stand face to face with certain alien death, villains get shot pointblank by enormous firearms, it goes on and on.  Also, there is Suspense!  It gets dark and mysterious at night out on the water and the movie's namesake inspiration (now I refer to the boardgame, not the holiday) is implemented in the absolute best way it could have been implemented.  And also also, somehow, you start to care, at least a tiny bit, about our heroes.  And the plot ramps up, there's an actual final act and it's exciting . . . I mean, we all know the earthlings are going to win, right?  But HOW will they win?  It's a legitimate question because the odds stack and stack against them.  Let me tell you how they win: In a totally awesome way that will make you cheer, that is, if you have any warmth in your heart at all.

I post this review as an urgent service, the days remaining to see Battleship in theaters are certainly few.  Like Speed Racer before it, this is a movie that the critics raged against and it never found its audience but I haven't met anyone who saw Battleship that didn't think it was totally fresh just like I've never met anyone who saw Speed Racer and didn't give it a big double-thumbs up.

Other Movies I Saw on Memorial Day Weekend:



Moonrise Kingdom: Twice. Because it's the best and I will be seeing it again.



Men in Black 3: The best Men in Black movie ever made!  Were I not so overcome by Battleship I would have written a three paragraph tribute to this movie.  Sorry, MiB3, you were unexpectedly rad but you were not Battleship.



Bernie: Would you believe I was 4 for 4 (or 5 for 5) on my Memorial Day weekend movies?  Because Jack Black is brilliant as a small town funeral director in this giddily dark comedy.  I liked 2/3rds of it a whole lot and only just liked 1/3rd, but it's a treat.  The real life townspeople in the movie (as it's based on a real life crime story) were even better than Black.  No.  A perfect counterpart to Black, that's what they were.

Best Post-Parade Sights

I was on the Upper East Side yesterday afternoon and ran into post-Puerto Rican Day Parade revelers.  It was time to get the camera out and take some memories.  I'd hoped to catch some of the actual parade, seems I totally missed it.  

If you look closely, or click on the photo, you'll see that this car's license plate is "EUWWWWWW"

I know what you're thinking and, Yes, that really is Miss Inca Kola.

There were some tough looking dudes lingering about

But I wasn't worried because on Puerto Rican Day Parade Day, there's a superhero almost everywhere you look.

Like I said, Superheroes everywhere.

Now, if you'll excuse me, the gentleman in the seersucker suit would like a hot dog.