Madison Avenue: Closed for Business

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Originally uploaded by missavictoria

I have a lust/hate relationship with Madison Avenue. I always have. To me, walking down Madison Avenue on the Upper East Side is like walking through a living issue of the September Vogue, each store window another glossy advertisement for something I want but can't afford, that I wish I could tear out and look at forever.

From 86th Street down to Barney's @ 60th Street (which I consider the cut-off point between Upper East Side elegance and Midtown exhaust fumes) just FEELS like Manhattan; the Manhattan that I dreamed of living in since I was a kid playing MASH; the Manhattan that made me so excited to move here that I think of my apartment's location in terms of its proximity to the shops of Madison Ave. (20 minute walk to the Louboutin boutique!)

Luxury, beauty, decadence...excess, waste, pretense....Can't notice the beauty without noticing the prohibitive price tags, bad face-lifts, and the sad juxtaposition of the Bronx-bound express buses driving by. But still, I love(d) it!

Now, Madison Avenue is closed for business...

Sometimes to treat myself, I take the bus home up Madison instead of taking the 6 train and I noticed a lot of stores for rent. I decided to take a walk this weekend and see just how many places have been affected by the recession. I took pictures of all the "Store for Rent" signs as a way to mourn the loss of my street, my American dream.

26 stores closed in 25 blocks. From the Sharper Image, whose name they tried to blur out to galleries whose names I never knew--closed. Even in the shadow of the Plaza Hotel, below 60th Street, huge retail spaces are empty and up for grabs. Someone had to document these sad empty store fronts. Sigh.

Goodbye Winter, Hello Spring

Goodbye frozen Jackie O Reservoir and frozen birdies (above) and hello Spring! How do I know it's spring despite the never-ending cold and overcast skies? Well, I'm 99.9% certain I witnessed some pigeon sex outside my kitchen window last weekend. It was loud and pretty insane. I caught the tail end (pun intended) of it with my camera.

Unfortunately I'm having issues posting the video but didn't want to abandon this post. Grrrrrr, blogger...

I assure you it was a very steamy 46 seconds of Pigeon S&M. And some nice background audio of Rob and I freaking out, including Rob shouting "He's givin' it to her in the wing."

Love is in the air, so hopefully that means that full-blown spring is on its way.

Uniqueness

As the world gets more connected, is it becoming more difficult to differentiate yourself? Invariably, something you think of has already been thought of, and now with thought-aggregators like Twitter and even Google, you can easily find a ton of other people that have already thought and shared the same thing you're thinking.

Here's a list of random searches I just did on Twitter and the number of people that have Tweeted them.

"Meatballs": 15 people in the last hour

"Feet Smell": 15 people in the past day

"Sue Simmons": Not as popular - only 5 times in the past week

"Valentine's Day": 12 times in the last 2 minutes

Even my name has been Tweeted 44 times in the past 2 days, in at least 3 languages and at least that many contexts! I wonder what "skriver material till vårt bord på Feministiskt Forum i Sthlm nästa vecka. Missa inte det!" means...

And if you're thinking "huh???", you're right -- I didn't really have a point with this post.

No More Jerbs to Take

'Twas a much simpler time when we could explain the lack of jobs by blaming illegal immigrants for "taking our joerbs", the concept of which was spoofed on South Park in 2004 and echoed by lots of angry commentators on the CNN article accompanying the below video. Now that there are no jobs or jerbs for anyone, and no more jobs Americans won't do, the migrant workers are heading home.



I must admit that it deeply saddens me that the American Dream is failing even the most desperate (and arguably hard-working) community. An American dollar goes a long way in the 3rd world, and for countries like Ecuador where I've heard from friends (but can't find evidence online) that their 3rd largest revenue-generating export after bananas and flowers are Ecuadorians working abroad and sending their money back home.

After spending time in Ecuador in 2006 and seeing what a 3rd world country is like first hand, any negative view I may have harbored about illegal immigrants totally went away (after years of already being pretty liberal about it). Witnessing extreme poverty--women washing clothes knee-deep in the river, children doing cartwheels in traffic for pennies, eating in the only restaurant in town that was actually someone's personal kitchen--made me realize that I was 100% fine with people breaking US law to work here in order to provide a better life for their families at home.

Now that's not a viable reality for many, and I hope that the individuals that want to go back to their countries can get there, and that they will be able to provide for their families once they return.

And I hope that as our economy recovers, there will be Americans willing and able to take on the work of our lost workers.

Word Verification Wheelchair - WTF???

What is up with the man in the wheelchair that appears next to the text entry box on Blogger's word verification page??? (See image above.)

The first time I noticed this graphic was after receiving an error message because I typed in my word incorrectly, and was outraged that Google was making a connection between a typing error and being disabled. Hence the photo. This of course is not what they're doing--the little man is always there.

Now I'm just confused as to what this wheelchair-bound man is supposed to signify. Does anyone know? Has anyone else been baffled by this?