Tom Simpson and the Raiders of the Lost Blog

So I went to see MacWorld today here
in New York. It was HOT outside, 90-something degrees and humid as hell. So
of course I walked the half hour to the Javits Center and the half hour back.
I’m craaazy.

On the way back I took some pictures with my good ol’ SiPix
Blink pocket camera. You can really see the nasty, hazy sky in these. Of
course I took no pictures at MacWorld, just pics of the interesting places on
the way back. While there I was able to lust after the Canon
Digital Elph S200. Man, I want that camera like no other gadget. Probably
because I have every other gadget I was previously lusting after (iBook, iPod,
Airport wireless…) Someday it will be mine! In the meantime, I’ll use my Blink
to get some nice, but small pictures.

hazy sky	plastic fence
parking	lines
us mail	look closely – my initials!
repairs	insurance
Stand Pipe	23rd st. E station

Here’s a few old photos I took and never posted. A building here in Brooklyn,
then this wacky window on Union street where this older guy likes to hang really
twised inspirational signs up. It’s great, he usually does some quirky things.
Last is my bud Min. He wasn’t posing, we were waiting for Frappucinos at Starbucks
and he was distracted. Blurry, but cool.

the Litchfeld	I’ll Keep It Out
my friend Min

Brings new meaning to the old song “I scream you scream we all scream for ice cream.” You’d be screaming too if you had some Octopus ice cream or the delightful Ox Tongue ice cream. Gotta love Japanese Ice Creams…

No, really! The Brooklyn Bridge is for sale. Of course it’s from Brooklyn, Iowa, but still! Then you can say to people, with a straight face, that you have a bridge from Brooklyn that you’d like to sell to them.

Yesterday I went on a day trip to Hudson, New York, with Social Circles to go see Olana. It’s a really neat mansion in upstate New York, built in 1880 with a lot of Persian influences. I’ve got a bunch of pictures of it below. Afterwards we wandered the town of Hudson, on the Hudson river (wonder where they got the name!) Two things stand out from that.

First, as we were waling in town we say thse parking signs with whales on them. We weren’t sure if they meant that there was an aquarium in town, or if it was a comment on parking large vehicles or what.


Turns out that Hudson used to be a whaling town, so it’s just the town mascot as it were.

Second, was this fantastic sign which was in front of a movie theater that
had been converted into a hotel:



The sign says, “Warren Inn. In 1958 on this historic site the first motel ever
converted from a movie theater and located in a small community was opened.”

That’s a lot of caveats. It wasn’t the first motel converted from a movie theater,
it was the first one in a "small community". How small is small then?

The mansion itself was great, strange decorating inside. They didn’t allow
pictures inside though, so nothing to show from in the house. It’s decorated
with all of his paintings, plus things from his travels. Persian things, spears,
carvings, and one room you walk into is full of sombreros! I kid you not! Apparently
he went to Mexico a lot.

The town is just an antiquing town now. No local industry, so half the buildings
are vacant or for rent. So far everywhere I’ve been in upstate New York is like
that. Boomtowns past their glory days, like Flint Michigan in the film Roger
and Me.

Man, this guy is right on with a lot of these… check out the 64 Reasons to Hate Star Wars: Episode 2