Ninth Avenue Foto Fest
Before I talk about my glorious afternoon in Manhattan (how I wish both the weather and my health had been like this last weekend when Cat was here!), I wanted to comment a bit more on my previous post, because it occurred to me even as I was writing it that it shouldn't be necessary to speculate on how Matt and Kevin and Ezra grew up in order to make my points that I grew up surrounded by the "look how great my Christian religion is, you filthy Jew" mentality, and therefore know from experience that when one religion (or group of religions) sets itself up as the most important or only important one, trouble usually follows in the form of all other religions and any non-religious folks being treated as inconsequential. (You don't have to be a Wiccan in Chesterfield County, VA to know that.) So I'd like to apologize to any of them if they happen to read that post (hey, they're all A-list bloggers, I think I rate an itty bitty blip on their radar once in a blue moon) and take offense.
You can also partially blame the relative looseness of the post on my haste to get out of the house to attend the annual Ninth Avenue Food Fest, which was about the same this year as last. Let's roll the videotape! What? No video? Okay, then, how about some pictures?
Without a doubt, the easiest way to get to the Fest from where we are was to take the "1" down to Columbus Circle and walk across 58th Street, where we saw this cool sculpture-thingy outside the side entrance to the Time Warner Shopping Center and Global Mindthink Emporium.
Before I talk about my glorious afternoon in Manhattan (how I wish both the weather and my health had been like this last weekend when Cat was here!), I wanted to comment a bit more on my previous post, because it occurred to me even as I was writing it that it shouldn't be necessary to speculate on how Matt and Kevin and Ezra grew up in order to make my points that I grew up surrounded by the "look how great my Christian religion is, you filthy Jew" mentality, and therefore know from experience that when one religion (or group of religions) sets itself up as the most important or only important one, trouble usually follows in the form of all other religions and any non-religious folks being treated as inconsequential. (You don't have to be a Wiccan in Chesterfield County, VA to know that.) So I'd like to apologize to any of them if they happen to read that post (hey, they're all A-list bloggers, I think I rate an itty bitty blip on their radar once in a blue moon) and take offense.
You can also partially blame the relative looseness of the post on my haste to get out of the house to attend the annual Ninth Avenue Food Fest, which was about the same this year as last. Let's roll the videotape! What? No video? Okay, then, how about some pictures?
Without a doubt, the easiest way to get to the Fest from where we are was to take the "1" down to Columbus Circle and walk across 58th Street, where we saw this cool sculpture-thingy outside the side entrance to the Time Warner Shopping Center and Global Mindthink Emporium.
No really, I kid - Time Warner, beautiful people, I'd kill seriously maim to work for them and I hope their comics division keeps hiring my husband.
You can't see the crowd as well as I'd hoped in this one, but there are about a million people, give or take a couple dozen, stretching along the 20 blocks behind Robin.
You can't see the crowd as well as I'd hoped in this one, but there are about a million people, give or take a couple dozen, stretching along the 20 blocks behind Robin.
This was, of course, pre-sunburn. Hey, the forecast said cloudy with a high chance of showers, we were unprepared!
Not too many corporate logos this time around, at least in terms of people in hot costumes wandering the streets.
Not too many corporate logos this time around, at least in terms of people in hot costumes wandering the streets.
The Peanut Chew characters were the exceptions. There was a red and a blue one. I have no idea of the significance, and I didn't take a freebie as I'd just eaten a chicken satay with peanut sauce.
Turned out that was one of the only things I did eat, although I downed a lemonade or two and a lovely Thai iced tea. Too hot, that time of the month, allergies, whatever the reason, it's just a bummer not to be that hungry when faced with a food festival.
Turned out that was one of the only things I did eat, although I downed a lemonade or two and a lovely Thai iced tea. Too hot, that time of the month, allergies, whatever the reason, it's just a bummer not to be that hungry when faced with a food festival.
And spits! Did I mention the spits? These newfangled spit contraptions were everywhere, I saw about half a dozen of them throughout the fest.
Also disappointing was that very few of the booths actually advertised their prices. It was almost like "if you have to ask, you either can't afford it or you're just plain being rude." So that tended to curb my appetite as well, I guess. At least I wasn't the only one apparently expecting rain:
Also disappointing was that very few of the booths actually advertised their prices. It was almost like "if you have to ask, you either can't afford it or you're just plain being rude." So that tended to curb my appetite as well, I guess. At least I wasn't the only one apparently expecting rain:
Right off 42nd Street. I dunno, maybe it dropped off a bus out of Port Authority.
I grabbed a couple shark kebobs, looked in vain for the stuffed quail booth where Steve used to get his blood sausage (it's gone now, along with a number of other once-fixtures, in favor of the multiple "franchise" booths selling funnel cakes and mazzarepas and crepes), then we sat down for a bit in the blessed Port Authority air conditioning and planned what to do next. We wound up with a nice bit of semi-planned spontaneity (does that make sense?), walking across 40th Street to pick up our weekly haul at Midtown Comics, as long as we were in the area - oh, by the way, here's a very cool view from behind a bit of scaffolding, looking north towards some of the spiffy new buildings on or about 42nd and 8th:
I grabbed a couple shark kebobs, looked in vain for the stuffed quail booth where Steve used to get his blood sausage (it's gone now, along with a number of other once-fixtures, in favor of the multiple "franchise" booths selling funnel cakes and mazzarepas and crepes), then we sat down for a bit in the blessed Port Authority air conditioning and planned what to do next. We wound up with a nice bit of semi-planned spontaneity (does that make sense?), walking across 40th Street to pick up our weekly haul at Midtown Comics, as long as we were in the area - oh, by the way, here's a very cool view from behind a bit of scaffolding, looking north towards some of the spiffy new buildings on or about 42nd and 8th:
So anyway, we got our comics then took the subway down to Chelsea, where I got to browse the Whole Foods Market and buy absolutely nothing; then to Garden of Eden, where I spent about $40 on the things I wished I'd found at WFM; then to Monster for a late lunch/early dinner (half of which my suddenly-low appetite forced me to doggie-bag) before heading back home.
Then Robin went frantically searching for the Piz Buin (god, I love saying that, "Piz Buin Piz Buin Piz Buin!") in our rather messy hallway closet, and Amy meowed to be let up onto the top level where the linen was; she wound up staying there for a few hours:
Then Robin went frantically searching for the Piz Buin (god, I love saying that, "Piz Buin Piz Buin Piz Buin!") in our rather messy hallway closet, and Amy meowed to be let up onto the top level where the linen was; she wound up staying there for a few hours:
There ya go, a little bonus Saturday cat-blogging for ya. Anyway, nice but exhausting day, and now I'm going to go read comics with the Yankee game in the background.
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