NY Tugboats

Seeing this Tugboat in the Harbor the other day on the way to Ikea made me remember there was supposed to be a NY Tugboat blog. Thanks to the NY times I found it!
http://tugster.wordpress.com/

is all about the tugs that frequent the Harbor and go up and down the Hudson right outside my windows every day. It is so great that this is still a working harbor and biggish ships still need tugs to get up the Hudson to ports further north. Interesting!

This is the Marie J Turecamo.

The Sketchbook Project

Saturday was the opening of The Sketchbook Project in Brooklyn. I went for a while and managed to get my hands on several sketchbooks made by people I know... it was really exciting to get to actually HOLD work made by people I know only (well mostly) over the internet.

There were a LOT of sketchbooks and not a lot of sketchbook "fetchers" so it wasn't a quick process. I am planning now to go back on Friday to see some more. As you can see, there was, generally, only one Fetcher

and a lot of "lookers". If you didn't know a name to ask for you could just pick a category and they would randomly get you a couple of books. As you can tell, there were also only a few seats, but people were just standing there reading.. It was pretty amazing.

Don't they look like they are having fun???? It was exciting. I am glad I did this....

Little House on the Prairie Moment

I remember reading Laura Ingalls Wilder as a child, and one of the books, I think it was the one on the prairie, spent a lot of time talking about the sound of the wind blowing all the time and how you couldn't think for hearing it.

Well, welcome to my apartment on the Hudson River!!  There is a wind blowing across the Hudson at perhaps 35 or 40 mph and it has not stopped all day long.  I think I have moved to The House on Plum Creek or wherever it was that the wind came sweeping down the plain but there is no waving wheat here for sure. (As an aside, I DO know the words to Oklahoma.)

I am hoping it stops soon or I am going to have to acquire earplugs.

Have you found Harmony yet?

harmony is really fun, as you can see from the above. When you get there you just see a blank screen, just start drawing and watch what happens.

last pages, Sketchbook

pages 23 and 24 - Sketchbook

pages 21 and 22 - Sketchbook

Pages 19 and 20 - Sketchbook

Pages 17 and 18 - Sketchbook

Your MTA strikes again

This is the new "sighn" at the MTA... what this means is that the lights will work so you can see the rats which are not a priority fix. It means that you won't fall through the platform, but it may be so dirty that you hesitate to step on it. It means that you won't have to bring a book because there will be enough grafitti to entertain you on a long wait for the next train.


And, from personal experience ... It means that the "sighns " that say "Press HERE in Case of Eemergency" and display a BIG RED BUTTON will be posted but that if you DO press them, as I did last Sunday, NOTHING WILL HAPPEN!!!


It also means that if you email a complaint you will get a bunch of boilerplate back with references to yet MORE boilerplate that has no relevance to the complaint. And finally, if you call, you will get someone who cannot access the number that THEY assigned to your email complaint, who has not a clue what line your station is on even after you tell him 3 times, and that the poor guy has literally not a clue but will promise you -- pinky swear -- that a supervisor (with whom he cannot connect you now) will call you back today if you leave your number.


Needless to say, that never happened either. I am SO glad the it was not a bloodletting emergency that made me push the non-functional emergency button in the first place. Of course, there is no phone service in the station either. The MTA ...... if it's broke we fix it...... BUT FIRST YOU NEED TO PROVE IN A COURT OF LAW THAT IT IS BROKE!!!!1

page 15 and 16 Sketchbook