1. Be in NYC 2. Get Drunk 3. Walk down any street late at night in the metro area where they put the trash out on the curb. 4. Make bets with your friends on how many rats will run out of the trash piles when you kick them. 5. HOORAY! YOU WIN!
yeah the garbage situation in NYC is pretty astounding and baffling. Recently realized that whenever I picture beloved memories of hanging out there all the action taking place outside is surrounded by mounds of black garbage bags.
Where does the garbage go? Someone must eventually pick it up, or else it would literally be 100 feet deep...why is it picked up so rarely? Seems like if it's possible to periodically pick it up, you could just pick it up more often....don't, like, the richest people on the earth live in New York? It's not like it's Lagos. EXPLAIN THIS TO ME.
One of the most horrifying aspects of NYC for me is the fact that in the hot and humid summer, you are basically in a big garbage sauna. It's seriously disgusting for me, because I imagine myself as a fish swimming in a water treatment plant.
It's because there are no alleys in Manhattan! Unlike, say, Chicago, where there are tons. So all the garbage is out front on the street. SO MUCH GARBAGE. Read Low Life by Luc Sante for epic history of sketchy old-tymey NYC.
Also, nothing actually comes from Manhattan. It all gets trucked in every morning from somewhere else. The Manhattan people rip into it all day, chewing it and breaking it down, wadding it up, smearing salad dressing, brownies and diet coke all over it and then piling it up in those black plastic sacks to haul back to New Jersey. Pretty epic.
I played that record all the time when I was a young sprite at KAOS! I guess the internet will tell me what it sounds like again. Was he in a band called The Church Mice?
You are almost encouraged to create trash here. I'm constantly fighting to not be given a plastic bag on weird stuff where you wouldn't expect one, like getting your coffee to go. (I use a travel mug).
yeah, what is this, japan???* The amount of packaging is insane, you'd think for a people (New Yorkers, not Japanese) so inundated with garbage they'd be more waste-sensitive.
*in Japan you order one donut. They put it in a small paper sack. Then they ornately fold up the top of the sack and seal it with a special sticker with a cartoon character who represents that particular donut shop. Then they put that bag in a larger bag, and they add napkins and forks (?). Then they fold up the top of that bag, and seal it with a special stapler that uses staples that are in the shape of that same cartoon character. There may be additional stickers at this point. And the whole time you're going "arigato! ARIGATO! ARIGATO! PLEASE NO"
You know that one episode of Mad Men where the Drapers go on a picnic and as they are leaving Betty just shakes all the trash off of their blanket and walks away leaving it all there in the park and you are all like people back then! so crazy! period piece!
Two weird crits got on the bus today and just set their paper coffee cups down *gently* on the sidewalk and then boarded the bus. It was weird. I was hoping the bus driver would say something.
Violetta is a new lunch/dinner place, everything eco-eco-eco, local, sustainable. Order comes in paper or huge clamshell. That is then put into a huge, Nordstrom-style ornamental shopping bag... you know, rattan handles. Cutlery is completely useless tiny half-fork... made of bamboo!
“I’m not Zen at all, and when I’m freaking out about the situation, where I’m stuck like a rat in a trap on a highway with no way to get out, it’s very hard,” Schiff, director of marketing for broker-dealer Euro Pacific Capital Inc., said in an interview. “I can’t imagine what I’m going to do,” Schiff said. “I’m crammed into 1,200 square feet. I don’t have a dishwasher. We do all our dishes by hand.”
Hope the cart sticks around, because I only recently got addicted to those turkey burgers :(
This rich people article reminds me of that other article that pointed out that rich people keep saying "By the time I spend all of my money on things, it's gone!" Idiots. I thank my luck every day that I wasn't born in a country where I have to live on $1 a day.
hey Freddy, back to your 'must see' suggestions, the Dream House mentioned in the other nyc thread is pretty cool and weird and worth seeing. http://melafoundation.org/
Comments
And I'm adding to my list: Orchard Corset
Major important place to visit in the Big Apple!!!!!
Directions:
1. Be in NYC
2. Get Drunk
3. Walk down any street late at night in the metro area where they put the trash out on the curb.
4. Make bets with your friends on how many rats will run out of the trash piles when you kick them.
5. HOORAY! YOU WIN!
I am afraid of Da Big Apple but when I went there and saw the mountains of glossy black trash, it filled me with awe and respect.
There is this cool site "Rate My Rat" where commuters are encouraged to take snapshots of subway rats to bring visibility to the problem.
Recently realized that whenever I picture beloved memories of hanging out there all the action taking place outside is surrounded by mounds of black garbage bags.
Where does the garbage go? Someone must eventually pick it up, or else it would literally be 100 feet deep...why is it picked up so rarely? Seems like if it's possible to periodically pick it up, you could just pick it up more often....don't, like, the richest people on the earth live in New York? It's not like it's Lagos. EXPLAIN THIS TO ME.
JESUS!!!!!
People are DISGUSTING.
"Welcome to the city, man. You're standing on my f***** block!!!"
O Internet!
*in Japan you order one donut. They put it in a small paper sack. Then they ornately fold up the top of the sack and seal it with a special sticker with a cartoon character who represents that particular donut shop. Then they put that bag in a larger bag, and they add napkins and forks (?). Then they fold up the top of that bag, and seal it with a special stapler that uses staples that are in the shape of that same cartoon character. There may be additional stickers at this point. And the whole time you're going "arigato! ARIGATO! ARIGATO! PLEASE NO"
That happens here all the time.
Order comes in paper or huge clamshell.
That is then put into a huge, Nordstrom-style ornamental shopping bag... you know, rattan handles.
Cutlery is completely useless tiny half-fork... made of bamboo!
truffle fries with aoili ugghgghggggg
I get the same thing always: truffle fries, caesar salad! So lemony grgugle
“I can’t imagine what I’m going to do,” Schiff said. “I’m crammed into 1,200 square feet. I don’t have a dishwasher. We do all our dishes by hand.”
This rich people article reminds me of that other article that pointed out that rich people keep saying "By the time I spend all of my money on things, it's gone!" Idiots. I thank my luck every day that I wasn't born in a country where I have to live on $1 a day.
http://melafoundation.org/