sorabji at WSBJ.com |

Favoritest Picture I Ever Got of the ESB

Snow Pix From a Bunch of Years Ago.

...

This is what Email from Eventbrite looks like to me

Oddest Idea for a Concert Event I Can Remember

There will, of course, be a classically-trained violin/piano duo performing Beatles covers at the...

Old House In Astoria

I never got a backstory, if there even was one, on this old house in Astoria, 24th Avenue ~45th...

Industry

Sometimes I find evidence of work performed, industry exerted, and mental ignition lit over...

Here’s audio I made describing a woman I spotted while talking on a payphone yesterday. She paced back and forth outside a doughnut shop, drinking from a bottle of beer she carried in a black bag. She had a steely,...

Family Tree

The family was having a good old time when dad decided to bring things down to earth by reading the family tree. He had a late-life interest in genealogy, suddenly becoming best friends with distant cousins he had never...

Black Cadillac

Foothead

This post is called “FOOTHEAD” for a reason.

Indent

The red-inked bloodbath teacher in these scans, Ruth Allyn, is, as far as I know, the only person...

Calvary Panoramic

...

A Found Piano Playlist

I know I posted one of these before, the “Incantation”, but I’m not sure about the rest. Some of this is pedantic yet has its moments, while the “Song Without Words” is ace. Prelude, August 25,...

Frames Madness

Some said that frames, an innovation from the labs at NCSA Mosaic, were and abomination, akin to...

My Pictures, 2005.

This blast of photos represent most of what sits in the “My Pictures” folder in a PC...

Riding the Bus

I found the view through the back door of the Q32 bus through midtown to be strangely interesting, like peering out the window of a...

What the F’ing F’ Was This?

Waiting For That Gong To Sound

Stigma

Once in a while I jolt awake in the middle of the night, usually 2am range, remembering that hours...

“Yo, Pariah”: An Adolescent Triumph Revisited, At Last.

I was editor-in-chief of my high school newspaper. I was neither a great editor nor was I...

QUACK

Dark

THE UNBORN CHILD

I first read this stream-of-consciousness-seeming sign as “THE UNBORN CHILD CAUSES DAMAGE TO...

College Course Catalog, 1987

Thinking it might possibly be useful to somebody somewhere, and because I wanted to put my newish...

MI.1-8240 ARROW FENCE

This is the first new-to-me sighting of an old telephone exchange name phone number in over a...

Randomass Stuff Shows Up When I Clear My Desk

Found this 1970s-era Ektachrome slide today, in an envelope I never opened since receipt over 3...

(83) FOR-TRUTH: Strange Way to Format a Phone Number

I don’t have anything to say about the message on this billboard. What stood out to me is...

Some Pics From the Staten Island Ferry

Just trying to break in a camera I snagged cheap off eBay last week. It’s a Sony DSC-HX50,...

MTA Bus Arrival Time Tablet Screen

I spotted this in June, but have not seen another one since. At 61st Street and Grand Avenue in...

I Have a New Bridge to Cross

The view to Calvary from the new Kosciuszko bridge… It’s to die for. Sorry, not sorry,...

Record Everything

I am letting myself be recorded 24/7, or at least attempting continuous documentation. In this pursuit I finally did what I’d been curious about for years: I watched myself sleeping. I’ve have long wanted to explore...

5,000th Post? Bah.

I have no reason to congratulate myself or even give this matter consideration. But I sat down to write this post, with nothing in mind for its content, and noticed that this, should I finish and publish, would be the 5,000th...

When the Fancy Monkey Puppet Used to Patrol my Bookshelves

When My Bookshelves Still Mattered

Why is There an Apostrophe Here?

Things Fall Apart

More Smart City Fun

I quit writing about this, thinking I’d have no need to further document the shenanigan. I thought I had ceased its operation. But I’ll be revisiting the LinkNYC loudspeaker broadcasts sometime soon, along with other...

Farewell. Found This Photo From Forever Ago. Old Calvary.

From the Treo 700p Video Vault: Car Fire in Astoria, February 2007

Crap quality video from Feb 22 2007 of a car that burst into flames, with firefighter response, outside a bar in Astoria, Queens. It’s crap quality because it was recorded in the dark of night with a Treo 700p. All of us...

What

What To Do?

I don’t know what to do anymore. I programmed a whirlwind of Perl/MySQL code yesterday, in...

Key in Lock

I almost called this “Keys in Lock” but thought better of it. Only one key inhabits...

Is Niche-Flipping My Next Career?

Stream of consciousness time, or something like it. These days I spend most of my journal-like...

Grand Central Terminal Balloon by the Light Fixture

Mattress

Abandoned Billiards and Pinball Hall

I used to play pinball here, at the now-abandoned Paradise Pool Hall and Arcade on Barnett Avenue...

New Wild Thing at the 181. This is Important.

A Panoramic View From the Brooklyn Grange

I wouldn’t call this view breathtaking but I had some fun seeing a familiar landscape from a...

Longass Walk Through the Heartland on Sunday

Something Hopperesque About This Bathroom

If Hopper had painted something like this he would likely have included a person sitting on the...

If You Ask Me it Looks Like the Schwarma is Getting Triple-Fucked From the Sky

What What

Building Demolition on Grand Avenue

Correspondence

I Can Be a Bit of a Knob About This, But Slashes in Queens Building Addresses?

Whether to put dashes into Queens building addresses is an occasional subject of apathetic...

I Did Think These Kids Were Real

From across the street at Middle Neck Road and Maple Drive in Great Neck, Long Island, I thought...

Couch

Interesting Shot From Today

I thought I got a shot of a typo at Penn Station: NO DELIVEPIES. Instead I got a record of a...

Chambers Street Subway Surveillance Cameras

I didn’t take note until looking at this picture, weeks later, that four surveillance...

It’s Always Exciting to Get My Quarterly Ameritrade Statement

I don’t remember how long it’s been. 20 years? Probably closer to 15. I don’t...

Is This Machine Yelling “ASSHOLE”?

A machine involved in some roadwork today sounded to me like it was yelling “ASSHOLE” over and over. It sounded a little more convincing in person than on this recording but I still hear it. See, or rather hear, what...

Forgotten AIM Exchanges

her: does anyone in your fam have red hair? me: my sister’s hair is sometimes described as red me: but it’s really blonde her: cause you have a hint of red in your beard and in your pubic hair

Clyde Sipping a Gimlet

I left Clyde alone with his gimlet, forgetting for the moment that his arms could not reach the...

Bag Folded Just So…

I don’t know her, but I thought it funny how her bag folded just right so it spelled a four...

Banksy in Astoria?

I don’t know much about the Banksy thing, except for having been compared to him. But I do...

Astoria Waltz

It’s arranged by J. Adams Smith but I don’t know if that means s/he is also the...

The Phone Booths Playlist

This playlist starts with me discovering a new-to-me set of immaculate old phone booths at the 347 Madison Avenue building. I tell some stories in this set that get dismembered by cell phone signal suckage. Kid in a Candy...

434-200-8555: Strange Bit of Engrish in this Scam Robocall

With tax season here I guess it stands to reason threatening sounding robocalls about your taxes will arrive. This voice actually enchanted me. Its stiffness and stilted bits of Engrish might inspire me to call random phones...

Wrong Number From a Gastroenterologist’s Office

I appreciated the earnestness of the woman’s attempt to inform someone of their upcoming appointment. She dialed the wrong number and found me. The idea of a missed doctor’s appointment reminded me of another element...

One New York City Plaza

Cell Phone Playlist for March 20, 2019

This is a tedious playlist save for the bit about the pen, and the one about the Asian woman. Too bad the cell phone signal dropped when it did, though you might not notice. Messed UpMute ButtonThe PenWandering...

181 Chrystie Street. If You Know, You Know.

I Concur. It Looks Like a Shoebox. A Darth Vader Shoebox.

New Mall In Town!

The Weight of Transportation (Call cut off by cell phone suckage)Most of the DayLayers of Existance"Public Transportation"Heading to Hudson YardsIt's Just a MallPocketdial: Called In By MistakeSmart City Beacon/Sensor...

Linden/Elizabeth NJ Playlist

Going To Linden and Elizabeth, NJTrain 7841 to Linden, NJMechanical ProblemsBeing Herded to Track 9On the train - InaudibleTravelsWith My Ex-Girlfriend (Very Hard to Hear)When I Get To Linden I'll Check InLucky I Was Paying...

McManus Phone Booths Playlist

The Beauty of the Payphone RadioMicrosoft Butchered SkypeAlmost at the BridgeFences On The BridgeUnfair14 Mar 2019 11:13Indefensible Smart City ComparisonI Used To Worry About The BikesPRAY Payphone Found, Cell Phone Suckage...

Bushwick Cell Phone Playlist

I guess I could keep calling this”Payphone Radio” if the calls involve a quest to find a payphone. These calls document my discovery of the cool shortcut from Blissville to Bushwick, because who doesn’t need...