Cafe Bucky

I didn’t get to the Fifth Avenue Apple Store opening. Something to do with being in California. I’ll get there though!

In the meantime, there are tons of photos on Flickr, Gothamist had a good writeup, there were two marriage proposals, most of the SNL cast showed up, and there’s more detail over at ifostore.

Oh, and a corporate-sanctioned gallery

Check out the time-lapse video. I imagine that link will be temporary, but, of course, you know it’s going to end up on YouTube and everywhere else.

My daughter Sophia and I just went to see Take the Lead - there are a couple of minor spoilers. We decided it would be fast just to have an in-house IM. The basic idea is: NYC kids that are having trouble in high school are taught ballroom dancing by Pierre Dulaine (played by Antonio Banderas). It’s based on a true story.

daniel: Ok Sophia, so we just saw Take the Lead
sophia: yes we did
sophia: I liked it
daniel: I liked it too, though some parts were just a bit corny
sophia: well, it is a movie
sophia: I think most of it was pretty realistuc
sophia: *realistic
daniel: yeah, I just wonder about a guy like Antonio Banderas wandering into an NYC high school and getting cooperation that easily
sophia: well, I think most high school kids have at least enough maturity where they can tell when an authority figure means business
daniel: true
sophia: and he did know how to get them to cooperate
sophia: i.e. the scene where he turns up the music they hate until they all take their positions
daniel: yeah
daniel: who was your favorite character?
sophia: I liked Lahrette a lot, but I also liked Caitlin, because I could relate to her
daniel: I liked Lahrette and Ramos
sophia: yea, Ramos was good
daniel: I liked all of the attitudes
sophia: the characters were well-defined
daniel: did you know of any really good dancers in your school in NYC?
sophia: of course
sophia: I dont think anybody was that good, but some were pretty talented
sophia: about 30% is from music videos, 50% is from watching others in the club/school dance, and 20% is just originality
sophia: that is, where people get moves from
daniel: yeah - I liked the blended music (ballroom / spanish harlem hip hop) the most
sophia: I don’t think that style of music is concentrated in Spanish Harlem
daniel: the dancing in those scenes was the most exciting bit
sophia: it’s all over New York, I think
sophia: but I agree, the dancing scenes were most exciting
daniel: so would you recommend this film to your friends?
sophia: Yep, it’s a lot of fun!
sophia: and when it comes to getting the personalities of NYC-inner-city-youth-kids down, the writers of Taking The Lead hit the nail on the head
daniel: I liked the reference to “Stand And Deliver” - instead of a tricked out car, it’s a bike
sophia: yea, it was a nice gesture on the student’s part, but a little bit unbelievable
daniel: of course
sophia: I did think it was realistic that his bike got stolen, though
daniel: yeah, that’s NYC
sophia: also, the metal detectors at the high school reminded me of Brandies(sp?) High
daniel: the one place where Kryptonite locks don’t have a guarantee
daniel: well I think we’re done here
sophia: yep
daniel: Go see it folks!
sophia: P.S. Dad, you might want to put a spoiler alert on this (we tell people that the bike gets stolen… little things like that)

Reading the Grey Lady this afternoon took me back to the outrageous real estate prices in Manhattan (see StreetEasy.com for a dose. Sit down first). One example from the NYT Magazine: “995 Fifth Avenue - Half and Full Floors Starting at $10 Million”. Wow. That’s ~7 Victorians like mine. And I have a yard and a pony.

Ok, so I don’t have a Pony. I have two cats that drink from my hands.

But everytime I torture myself with the Sunday Edition, I go off into Real Estate Lust Mode. All out fire escape hissing steam radiator noisy air conditioner shelves everywhere crammed closet eating pizza on the stoop fantasyland. Even the night that a drunk lady started changing clothes while leaning on our apartment door at 3 in the morning seems funny now [1]. I identify with a couple of subway stations (just looking at a MetroCard puts me in the mood to head over to Oakland Airport and plead that JetBlue will take me “on standby”). They would be Lincoln Center (where I subletted from a B’way actress friend), and 72nd Street (because I always got a charge out of Fairway Market).

[1] Yeah, true story. We’re sleeping on our coolio studio apt. sofabed, and someone starts leaning on the other side of our door taking their clothes off, 8 feet from us. We’re like … WTF!? Go away!

So just to segue into Tech, I decided it was high time I figured out the Google Map thing. That way, I can look back at this post and torture myself some more :-)

I can finally talk about it - my friend Sebastian did an excellent job on an NYC real estate listing and google map mashup which just went public. Go check out StreetEasy.com It’s frikken useful!

I’m far from my favorite NYC subways this morning. If I were there, I’d still ride in a New York Minute. Many New Yorkers feel the same. They won’t be cowed by threats of terrorism.

The B, C, 1, 2, and 3 are the lines that I used most often, and I sure miss being there and getting around, by foot or underground.

I love ya, New York!

Updated July 28th, swapping out Columbus for Cleveland …

Aside from OS updates, Mac mini and TiVO hacks, and studying LAMP + AJAX stuff in preparation for OSCON 2005, I’ve had the task of figuring out the route of a cross country drive.

I’ve never driven across America. The move out of NYC gives us a good opportunity, as we’ll have some things to bring back that we don’t want to ship, and it’s a one-way trip. We’ll set off August 11th, and take roughly 12 days. Oh, and by the way, yes, my house is pretty well watched, and booby-trapped …

The preliminary route is like a stone skipping over the urban archipelago. Susan and I are looking at it as a reconnaissance for future trips with more depth.

Aug 11 - NYC -> Pittsburgh (366 miles)
We’ll never leave New York. We’re just saying “bye” for the moment. I’m sure there will be more chapters.

Aug 12 - Pittsburgh -> Columbus, OH (186 miles) — Pittsburgh -> Cleveland, OH (139 miles)
Before setting off, we’ll visit The Andy Warhol Museum

Aug 13 - Columbus, OH -> Chicago, IL (354 miles) —
Cleveland, OH -> Chicago, IL (343 miles)
Stop in Indianapolis.

Aug 14 - Chicago, IL -> Ames, IA (356 miles)
Ames, Iowa, you say? We know someone that was born there, and so we’ll shift (all the more) into documentary mode. Check out beautiful Iowa State University.

Aug 15 - Ames, IA -> Lincoln, NE (221 miles)
This day is a sort of calm before the storm of driving the long stretch to Denver. We’ll stop in Des Moines and Omaha.

Aug 16 - Lincoln, NE -> Denver, CO (488 miles)
Lots of miles. Lots of Nebraska. I won’t drive through Kansas if I can help it.

Aug 17 - Camp out with folks in Denver. Chill out after so much driving.

Aug 18 - Denver, CO -> Santa Fe, NM (391 miles)

Aug 19 - Santa Fe, NM -> Sedona, AZ (410 miles)
Squeeze in desert photography. Try to stay cool.

Aug 20 - Sedona, AZ -> Las Vegas (277 miles)
Quick visit to Grand Canyon. Keep the miles down today. End up in Vegas.

Aug 21 - Las Vegas, NV -> Bakersfield (290 miles)
Desert, Desert, and more Desert. Stay with folks.

Aug 22 or 23 - Bakersfield -> Petaluma (318 miles)
Home stretch. Get Sophia home in time for first day of school on the 24th :-)

A whirlwind, ain’t it!? It would be nice to have three weeks or so to do this. Hopefully this will be well paced.

Consolidation.

We are going to head back to California in August. I do love NYC. It is expensive though, and that’s something made much more apparent when you’re spread amongst two places and two coasts. In a Walnut-shell, we’re in a tiny place in the UWS (5 of us, counting two cats), and if we wanted something decent-sized, we’d have to rent/sell our house in California (which would be a pretty big project), and use that money to rent in NYC. It works on paper, but I don’t live in origami. It’s not the right chapter, right now, to take on that project.

I won’t detail the next two months here. Suffice to say it’ll involve studying, driving, packing, taking lots of photos, and more driving! I’ve never driven across the country, so I’m really looking forward to that. If anyone has a good lead on how to rent a mini-van for a one way trip NYC -> SF, let me know. I’m well aware of how to do that for $1000 … $500 would be better though :-)

I’ve been mostly in NYC since October 2003, and California has been my escape - the place where I could spread out a bit. The experience has made me appreciate many things about my native state, and my West Coast DNA. I have some experience with the people who live on the Island Off The Coast Of Europe. There really is a New York State of Mind - It’s not just a song. I’ll miss it.

I want to confirm people’s fears about walking around in NYC. It *is* a dangerous place, full of careening taxis, enormous potholes, steep subway stairs, metal strips poking from curbs, and it requires all manner of pedestrian avoidance techniques.

And I just got plinked in the head with an ice cube in front of Zabars! It fell from an air condtioner above the sidewalk. Isn’t that terrible!? Must have been “meant to be”, like “Intelligent Design” or something, as they say in Kansas. Gosh, got to be on guard every single second around here :-)