Fighter jets over my head!

Calls for an immediate post. I was an eyewitness to yesterday's 3 low flying aircrafts over New York and New Jersey fiasco that resulted in panicked staff being evacuated from the buildings, running out and finding a safe place to stand and wait. 

And where was that place? Right below my building at the edge of the water! Yes. 

The whole crowd from Goldman Sachs and other folks from the Jersey City's Financial district flowed this way as the planes started circling and i thought somebody has decided to bomb them all and put an end to the financial crisis!! ..... Ok that was a PJ i admit but i cannot deny that the thought did not cross my mind as it did to about a few hundred of them i'm sure who had lived through 9/11 and were standing right now looking up and down wondering what to do...

I saw atleast 2 of those airplanes and heard all three. Boy oh boy it made such a huge noise and the whole crowd looked helpless and wanted some explanation. I was looking from my balcony down below and saw many things, calls were flying, people were taking pics. and the mood was so serious. I didn't know, the crowd didn't know and the people who were witnessing this fiasco from our apartment building and other buildings did not know that IT WAS JUST A DUMB PHOTO SHOOT! duh! How can they scare people that way? I have to now tell you that Jersey city is not a place where people are not used to flying machines over the buildings, infact most of the CEO's here i presume travel by helicopters or small aircrafts, i see atleast 50-60 such pick ups and drops everyday since my building overlooks Manhattan. So it was not that people were not used to that noise but the noise that 'Airforce 1'(apparently) made and the two fighter jets made were HUGE to say the least. Anybody would think we are being attacked. And trust me it is an unnerving feeling. And just as we were all standing, rooted, there comes a mini van with a mike announcing that there was nothing to worry and it was a sanctioned photo shoot!

The crowd was relieved, i was relieved and then people became angry.... why did they ever make them all go through this shit! (Excuse my french!)

Well, here is the CNN story link, in case my post did not make any sense to you whatsoever...

PS: You see the blue building in the pic, i'm right behind it....

You Tube Video- Fighter jets and people's reaction.

The 7 minute walk.....

I pause and see,

observe

think, 

not the hurried sort of way that i got so used to this past year,

i mean, really think.......

and i hear

my neighbours,

'the hudson' by the window

the stillness in the air,

the rain,

the light rail that passes by every few minutes,

watch the sun set

once again

every day

sipping coffee

thinking..........

I missed you life, i missed me........

I'm enjoying taking tanya to school nowadays, you see we walk to her school and just by taking these slow walks i have come to realize that she's so much like me in so many aspects, we have both started to observe how slowly a blade of grass grows compared to Tulips that were planted at the sidewalks at the dawn of spring, we watch the birds, pausing enough to feel the pinch of forgetting to carry a camera every single day, she tries to guess the names of the birds, maybe it's a 'robin' amma, and i say 'maybe' (Got to mention here that she has a better knowledge of birds, animals and things that crawl around here than me!) I no longer make her cry asking her to hurry up when all she wants to do is kneel down and watch the Squirrel family, I don't tell her to not talk to me because i'm running late to office, I relish walking at her pace, she has so much to say and she sees so many things, she has an opinion on everything nowadays. Maybe she always did i just didn't notice them as much...

(BTW she has insisted on growing her hair long! She looks like the hippies of the 80s !!)

Hmmmm.....I have more to say about our walks, maybe with a few pics next time, stay tuned and take a walk with us......... you'll get to know a thing or two about dandelions, robins and a grey owl that never flies....

Of everything 'New' and a lazy day at NYC

Today as i was flipping through the 'Book Review' session of NY Times i came across a title, that at this very moment stands in No:3 position in Trade Fiction - 

'Pride and Prejudice and Zombies', by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith. Description: The classic story retold by "ultra violent mayhem". 

My heart sank to the deepest level it possibly could and i wondered who gave him permission to do this? How dare he put his name by her side?...... if by some miracle my blog gets followed by my old blog pals they'd know the high esteem i have for Jane Austen....

Jane Austen you see wrote her novels at a time when women were not accepted in the literary circles! She was a rebel in her times. Audacious and smart and witty....... 

But that got me thinking ...... who am i to stop this new method of writing that seth grahame-smith has followed, maybe he is the rebel that Jane Austen was in her times. So how do i see new things nowadays? have i become old(too sad to contemplate ;))? have i fallen into the circle where i'm no longer open? or is this book just junk? Don't know, and i'll never know 'cos i'm never ever going to pick that book for reading.... but that's just me...... now we come to the 'Lazy day at NYC' (as my friend put it:) ) 

You see bad economy finally knocked on my door and i'm not working at the moment :( But not to worry i'm taking this opportunity to enhance my skills.... and to just laze around  :) loving every moment of the immense amount of time i have on me and relishing it ... on that note i went for a mini NY city tour with a good friend of mine who knew a lot about the city although he's originally from LA.  After several stops at various queer spots, we hit the elite spot - 'Christie's' (the world renowned auction house like Sotheby's) 

So what has this got to do with the book review i had mentioned earlier in the post? 

Well we happened to be at the Christie's when Betty Freeman's (a Collector) collection were on display. She had collected various contemporary art work by various artists and i was shocked at the collection and the pricing. I thought they were ridiculous. It didn't make sense to me. 

A set of tubelights, yes, you read it right 'tubelights' put together is priced $400,000 - $600, 000! Why? She is an old, kind woman, respected among the elite circle who apparently brings hidden artists to spotlight by patronizing their art. She likes all that is new! She accepts them.... so where do you draw the line between new and ridiculous? Maybe I have a closed view about things or maybe not. Maybe i need to travel more, see newer things, pick up books that aren't my style. So will that make me a new person or will i be faking the whole damn attempt? I'm bringing in some pics and a link to Betty Freeman's at Christie's.

Sorry about the pic being blurry folks.

There you go, the pic, price and the thoughts...... There are many paintings in her collections that are truly wonderful, you can find them in the link below

The Betty freeman video with her byline 

"I have always been interested in everything new and don't know why others aren't"

PS: Finally to all of my dear dear blog pals who consistently visited my page and left comments that encouraged, reprimanded and reminded me of my duties towards maintaining this page, thanks so very much..... even though i could not respond or visited my own page too late to respond, it kept the fire alive, hoping to add a few pounds of coal for it to roar again :)

Thanks again folks.....