Since moving to the Bed-Stuyvesant/Clinton Hill area of Brooklyn in January, I’ve mostly headed to the City for all my “needs” instead of exploring the neighborhood. I found my immediate location to be quite desolate – stores are not open late, drug stores are out of sight – I felt I can’t go out around here past 9 p.m. But during days like today (cloudy, windy and drizzly), I have no desire to take 2 trains just to get some ’specialized’ food. Today I want to buy Chinese ingredients, but the scant supplies at the local Associated supermarket do not suffice. I decided to scour online for some local Brooklyn guides, but most are for restaurants and nightlife, not for other businesses. Yet, some still proved to be useful. I found that there are a cluster of Chinese restaurants on Myrtle Ave, a center street that spans across Ft. Greene and Clinton Hill. That must mean some kind of Chinese population, of Chinese businesses perhaps? Of course! Time to explore.
- Brooklynian – Forums about Brooklyn. Popular: in less than a day, my post received over 100 views.
- Myrtle Avenue – Businesses in and around the Avenue
- Clinton Hill Blog – Clinton Hill blog
- Brooklyn on Wikitravel – Pretty comprehensive information
I welcome the California Supreme Court’s historic decision… I encourage California citizens to respect the Court’s decision, and I continue to strongly oppose any ballot measure that would write discrimination into the State Constitution. -Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House
Today, the California Supreme Court ruled in favor of gay marriage, overturning the previous ban (See San Jose Mercury News’ Report). Only 8 years ago, Californians voted to define marriage as between man and woman. Now, even Californian Republicans (including Govern[at]or Arnold Schwarzenegger), previously a group of the largest dissenters, are “not opposing” gay marriage. I suppose it makes sense since California have such a high gay population, and since politicians, lawmakers, and other public officials merely reflect popular opinion. If that is so, then laws should be in line with popular values. This rule is a prime example. It’s in our hands, American citizens… if you want it to be. So far, only California and Massachusetts allow gay marriage while 45 states explicitly ban it (See Human Rights Campaign).
No, I’m not writing a review. John Travolta’s in my neighborhood – the filming of ‘The Taking of Pelham 123′, which is about subway hijacking, is being filmed near the Hoyt-Schemerhorn stop (A, C, G trains) in Brooklyn. I transfer at that stop whenever I head to my internship in Midtown – from G to the A/C train. It just so happens that there are unused platforms there, which I always found slightly creepy, looking at its desolate derelict state. This time the A’s been slower (which is supposed to be an express train) and you can see the hordes of people surrounding the formerly dark tracks. I thought they were workers, but I guess they’re actors. Now I’m annoyed they must be the reason the service is disrupted again. At least A/C trains are still topping the hipster-filled hardly reliable L train.
I used to be a college radio DJ and even DJ’ed some events. Unfortunately, I’ve currently have less music resources – I’m no longer backed up by KDVS’s large music collection, so I’ve decided that I’m going post snippets of my playlist here from 2004-2006. read more…
Look, you can download the entire Nine Inch Nails album, The Slip, for free! Not that I’m really a fan, but I just don’t see many other major artists freely offering their albums. Instead, there was a war on pirating. I remember the Metallica-Napster controversy 8 years ago. Napster had gone away, but up popped Audiogalaxy, Kazaa, Limewire, Soulseek. After numerous transformations, we are still getting our free music. It’s refreshing for a band to surpass this and officially allow downloads. (But remember guys, it’s bad to ’steal music’ – take without permission! Support bands, especially local and/or independent bands that actually need the funds!)
I just upgraded to Leopard. I’ve only been running it for an hour or so, and I’m beginning to get a sense and here are my impressions. One immediate note are the visual aspects – the quick preview options, the slideshow view of the folders, icon graphic changes and the general interface tweaks. After checking out some of the added applications, I have to conclude that the organizational structures remind me of a PC, especially its ‘Activity Monitor’ and Finder’s added folders and capabilities. It might be where Apple is headed anyway, but I liked Apple’s light and clutter-free simplicity. Why else would I shift away from the PC? Still, I enjoy the Mac aesthetics, especially the smooth scrolling and easy navigations.
[This is a piece in progress -5/8]
As a vegetarian, or a “vegan”, I’m often confronted with the question – Why? I feel like I want to counter why do you eat meat? Though it’s more than choosing not eating eat tomatoes or mushrooms, it’s still a matter of taste. Yet, there’s more to it – if you look beyond just the choice, and the consequences of your choice of food, vegetarianism triumphs. read more…
Sampling of the top songs of the top artists of the year so far, according to iTunes.
- I Don’t Really Love You Anymore – The Magnetic Fields
- The Opposite of Hallelujah – Jens Lekman
- Paper Planes – M.I.A.
- The Quiz – Hello Saferide
- Tire Swing – Kimya Dawson
- And I Found This Boy – Maia Hirasawa
- Past in Present – Feist
- Developing Active People – Via Audio
- The Park – Sambassadeur
- Little Wounds – Herman Dune
I want this shirt! From Cat and Girl.
At first glance at Swedish signs, billboards and advertisements, I immediately noticed the similarities to English, especially letter exchanges such as ‘k’ for ‘c’, ‘v’ for ‘w’ and ‘y’ for ‘i’. Sometimes there are double ‘t’s or ‘p’s instead of one. Nevertheless, I was fairly convinced that I could navigate the city without having to stop and consult as frequently as I did in Japan (I was a lost cause there). I could figure out what most shop signs stood for, which is impressive for being in a foreign country for the first time. I’ll stop myself short there because the ability to read does not equate to or translate to speech. I’ll have to start myself from the beginning. Mostly, I avoided speaking because there were certain sounds I could not muster – oh, the fated rolling ‘r’. read more…