Take a trip into the city with me.

Whenever I think about sharing photos with the online community, my brain always says, "That's not interesting enough to post." But when I think of "What would mom like to see/hear about?"... this happens. 

Last night, it was around 3am and all of the sudden someone is wailing outside. I mean like scream-sobbing, death of a child, rent your clothing in mourning, Italian women at a funeral kind of crying. It went on for over an hour.

I live next to what I assume is a crack house. People come by at all hours of the day and night and yell "Yo! Chuck!" Sometimes Chuck yells back. Sometimes he goes downstairs to the doorway and pulls the door aside to talk to them. I say pulls the door aside because the door is not on the hinges. But there is one propped up where a normal door would be. Behind there is a curtain to keep out light and draft. The ground level of this house has boarded up windows (from the inside) and shattered glass panes on the outside. The second level has perpetually open windows... and I know this place has electricity. But there was a disturbing jug of fluid in the front courtyard for a good month or two that leads me to believe there is not plumbing. Crack house? Squatters? I'll post a photo and you can be the judge. Oh, also, another interesting fact... they blast Whitney Houston, Janet Jackson and motown tunes whenever they are having sex or arguing. 

Anyway... that's only one house in the neighborhood. I'll fill you in on other neighbors as they present interesting stories. 

A trip to the city...   In photos. 

Riding the subway into Union Square.

Bookstore Located... We're going to The Strand. 

Inside The Strand. This bookstore is always so full of people you can barely stand to browse until you get to the back of the store or onto one of the other 4 levels. 

Just walking down the street. I like the variety of building facades in this. 

Heading back to Union Square to browse the farmer's market. 

A less densely packed part of the market. I bought a couple things but I can't tell you what because they're going in the mail on Monday for mom's birthday. 

And here is a video of the band in the subway today... I actually happen to quite like them. Enough that I gave them a dollar. They are so much better than the elderly violinist... And possess more skill than the dude that shows up with 3 ipods and does techno mixes. 

A concept that I frequently use to discern good subway musicians from bad ones is something they taught us in World of Music. Music is an alternation of sounds and silence. Basically that means anything is music. But I find that most of the subway musicians think they need to be making sound all of the time... there may be louder notes that indicate the downbeat or create a rhythm, but so often it's just notes drowning into notes... especially in the groups that are doing "jazz." There was a particularly bad one twice this week. I'll try to get a recording.