26 November 2006
    

Four disappointing tombstones
at Green-Wood Cemetery:

I was hoping Louis Comfort Tiffany’s tombstone
would have stained glass on it, but it didn’t.
I was hoping Samuel Morse’s tombstone
would have Morse Code on it, but it didn’t.
I was hoping Basquiat’s tombstone
would have graffiti on it, but it didn’t.
I was hoping Frank Morgan’s tombstone
would have something cool on it, but it didn’t
(that’s the Wizard of Oz, folks).

 

 

Oh, but then: I saw a hawk take out a squirrel on the highest hill in the cemetery. In Brooklyn. With the Statue of Liberty visible in the distance. And no irony whatsoever.

 


24 November 2006
    
Finally

In New York City, snowplows are attached to the front of sanitation trucks. Those of you who know me personally know how important it was for me to find the actual place where they keep the actual snowplows, and to find it before the first actual snowfall. And today I did. Thanks for your support.


20 November 2006
    

Body warmth was what?


Parlors were crucial performance spaces. First, your entrance: “A graceful bearing, a light step, an elegant bend to common acquaintance…are all requisite to a lady.” Gentlemen, for their part, were warned against offering their seat to the newly arrived lady—body warmth was considered offensive—and instructed to avoid “ill-bred” or “indecent” subjects of conversation.

—Edwin Burrows and Mike Wallace, “GOTHAM: A History of New York City to 1898″



14 November 2006
    

Three new video posts on-line


Two more of me and my brother ("Compliment” and “Hobo") at The Nuyorican in September, and one of me battling a giant orange screen ("Op Talk") at the Bellagio Hotel last month for Mercury World 2006.

I will have them up in my Video archive soon, but for now they are debuting on YouTube.com/shopliftwindchimes.


13 November 2006
    

Best last motorcycle ride of the season:
New York to Storm King.

Also: does this little kid say “I do magic!”?
That would be sweeeeet.


08 November 2006
    

The 2007 TED Prize winners have been announced…


…and they are: photographer James Nachtwey, naturalist Dr. E.O. Wilson, and former president Bill Clinton. For the other fifty-or-so TED Conference speakers (and I will be one of them), the announcement may generate a particularly straightforward mantra:

No matter what you do. No matter how you do it. And even if you only had the slimmest of chances to begin with…you will definitely not be the ballsiest, wisest or most charismatic sucka on the mic. So you can relax.

Click on the icon below for the stirring 2007 TED Prize announcement video:

 


04 November 2006
    
West Chester, Pennsylvania


03 November 2006
    

October Search Terms

Here are my 14 favorite Search Terms That Users Typed Into Search Engines, According To My Stats Page, To Wind Up At My Site, Whether They Wanted To Or Not:

14. “die on your birthday”
13. “samhainaphobia”
12. “what is the word that means being afraid of halloween?”
11. “u.s. dollar bill exact dimensions forgery”
10. “pork sleeplessness”
9. “mos def stepped on my sneakers”
8. “rocky balboa fart toy”
7. “wind chimes and angels and laughing”
6. “longest slug”
5. “superwoman syndrome pictures”
4. “itch”
3. “sesame street lawn ornaments”
2. “listen to right shoulder-angel?”

and my favorite-of-the-month search term:

1. “turtles humping humans”


01 November 2006
    

Dia de Los Muertos Eve parade—New York