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alex balk's livejournal

Things I'd Rather Forget

Yesterday afternoon, coming back from "lunch" at Shark Bar, I noticed a crowd clustered along Spring Street. A young man, probably in his early to mid-twenties, had apparently been hit by a car. His neck was bent at an odd angle, and someone was in the street with him holding a roll of paper towels, trying to mop up or contain the blood and viscera seeping from the back of his head. His eyes were rolling about in that way that eyes do when someone is dying. More »

6:45 PM on Thu Sep 27 2007
By abalk
13,593 views, 115 comments

Latest by Moyle1Forskin0: Last autumn, after exiting the W. 72 St. Subway station, I witnessed a 60-something gentleman being run over by a bus on W. 73rd St., between Broadway and Amsterdam. Needless to say, he was dead and I was suddenly more »

urban studies

How To Avoid Jury Duty

We don't know what it says about our job—actually, we know exactly what it says about our job: It blows—that we were excited for jury duty, but there you have it. Three days without work where we could get up at the relatively late hour of eight and sit around reading the newspaper without thinking, "Oh, I have to try to be funny about that"? Where do we sign up? (The DMV, apparently.) Anyway, it was with joy in our heart and a spring in our step that we hopped on the 6 train and headed down to City Hall. It took us about two seconds in the waiting room (after the comedy court clerk started his shtick, but before that horrible video with Ed Bradley, God rest his soul, began to play) that we remembered: Jury duty sucks. More »

1:55 PM on Fri Aug 3 2007
By abalk
8,642 views, 73 comments

Latest by Trackback:   The Opinions Below Are Not Necessarily Endorsed By This Recording by Tess Lynch Some conversations you have had more than once in your life include: 1. more »

urban studies

There Is No Reason To Go Up The Empire State Building

I am an American, New York-born. John Lindsay's name is on my birth certificate (although not as a claim to paternity). I've spent the majority of my life in this area. And like so many of us here in town, I've never been to the top of the Empire State Building, because, you know, it's for tourists. Also, who gives a fuck? That all changed this weekend, when, against my better judgment, I found myself on Fifth Avenue & 34th Street paying a ridiculous amount of money to look down on the city from the top of a big building in the company of several hundred non-deoderized foreigners. If you haven't been and are wavering, let me urge you not to go. It is a nightmare. More »

1:10 PM on Mon Jul 30 2007
By abalk
8,347 views, 69 comments

Latest by kromelizard: I call bullshit. Real New Yorkers get dragged up that thing five times by the time they're 12 by school trips. I saw the "I've smoked the cigarettes in the world" guys at the Ripley's Museum so much when I more »

urban studies

Let A Frown Be Your Umbrella

At the end of last week the Financial Times ran an amusing "Dear Economist..." column. The premise of the feature is that it's a tongue-in-cheek advice piece from an economic perspective. Anyway, a gentlemen wrote that, as an immigrant in London, he always carries an umbrella with him, though the natives do not. When he offers to share space under the cover, "Foreigners always accept. Indeed, one New Yorker actually links her arm with mine as we walk. But those whose families have lived here for generations prefer getting soaked." Why, he wondered, is that the case? More »

4:25 PM on Tue Jul 24 2007
By abalk
3,608 views, 41 comments

Latest by KarenUhOh: I'm stunned. You don't like umbrellas? They make excellent weapons, and you don't have to look people in the eye when you use them. more »