Archive for the 'NYC' Category

A cry for Christmas cheer

Published
by
Aaron
on December 21, 2007
in NYC, Opinion and Religion
. 1 Comment

There has been a long running stereotype that New Yorkers are heartless cynics. While this is, for the most part, untrue, it has recently turned out to be so, to some extent, for a specific matter — Christmas. We all know what Christmas here in the United States is like — holiday-themed songs played indefinitely, a sea of red, white, and green in stores and public areas, and of course the infamous rush of holiday shopping. This is especially true in New York, where “Christmas cheer” has become an overpowering, ever-present force in December. As such, many New Yorkers, and others throughout the country, are joining the “anti-Christmas” front in, if not anger or hatred, but just sheer annoyance, of the presence of Christmas in every nook and cranny of their life. But what is the “anti-Christmas” front. Here’s a breakdown:

The religious Protestants: These are people who want to move back to how Christmas used to be in America before the 20th Century. Little to the knowledge of the average Christmas celebrator, Christmas was not just discouraged by the early settlers in Massachusetts Bay Colony, it was hated by them. The Puritans, who saw Christmas as a religiously inaccurate (Christian and historical authroities both suggest that Jesus was born sometime in the spring) and overly pagan (the holiday was really a winter solstice holiday that incorporated Christian ideas into the Yule of Northern Europe and the Saturnalia of Rome, along with others) kept Christmas from really being celebrated in America until the late 19th and early-2th century. Lately, though, many ministers, churches, and individuals have been starting to reject Chritmas celebrations again (Beliefnet has an interesting article on the subject)

The anti-”consumerization”-of-Christmas crowd: This group is mainly made up of the disciples of Bill O’Reilly (”The War on Christmas”) and Reverend Billy/Billy Talen (What Would Jesus Buy?), who believe that Christmas has become overly-comemrcialized and needs to be be tuned down and revert back to its old ideas of family, community, giving, and the birth of Jesus.

The very religious non-Christians: Mainly very observant members of other religions, such as Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, and others, are against the proliferation of Christmas in secular America, and wish for it to be restrained, in all forms, in the public sphere.

The atheists: While many “new atheists,” such as Richard Dawkins, do celebrate the secular parts of Christmas, they despise the religious parts, in contrast to those who are against the “consumerization” of Christmas.

The “annoyed” crowd: The recently emerging group of people who are ordinary, secular Americans who simply hate hearing Christmas songs at every Starbucks and seeing holiday decorations in every public space.

So, where do I fall? As a an observant Jew by American, and even New Yorker, standards, I don’t celebrate Christmas at all. No tree, no stockings, no festive, home-cooked meal on Christmas Eve and Day (though I do like to do a little more than eat Chinese food), and no childhood-belief in Santa Claus. Still, I sort of enjoy the Christmas atmosphere that exists in the United States, and especially New York City. Sure, the music gets a little annoying after a while, but I love seeing all the festive decorations, hearing some classic holiday songs, and walking through the city on a crisp, hopefully snowy, December day. But that isn’t even really about Christmas. Instead, it seems to be more about a general winter solstice celebration, the same kind that has existed throughout human society for thousand of years. Back then, people had solstice holidays so they could have some warmth and light in the cold, short days during this time of year. While we now have these basic needs on a 24/7 basis, holidays like Christmas are able to provide us with something else — a warm, hopeful spirit of giving, family, and celebration that can help us get through the darkest part of the year.

With that in mind, I wish you all a late Hanukkah Sameach (”Happy Hanukkah” in Hebrew), Happy Kwanzaa, Happy Yule, Io Saturnalia (”Happy Saturnalia” in Latin), and Merry Christmas on this winter solstice night.

“A date which will live in infamy”

Published
by
Aaron
on September 11, 2007
in In the News and NYC
. 0 Comments

911 World Trade CenterOn the morning of December 7th, 1941, an air strike from the Empire of Japan attacked the U.S. military base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. A day later, United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared war on Japan, thus entering the U.S. into World War II. In the almost 66 years that have gone by since this event, many, especially of my generation, have lost the emotion attached to it. But this has been replaced by an even greater modern catastrophe — the September 11th attacks.
Now, the reason I evoke the attack on Pearl Harbor on this sixth anniversary on 9/11 is because of how much Pearl Harbor changed the world today. Pearl Harbor brought the U.S. into World War II on the side of Allies, which if we had not done, the Axis would have probably won the war, thus changing the course of world history forever. But could 9/11 have had this same effect?

Right now it’s too soon to tell. But just six years later, so much has already changed. When millions of ordinary Americans went to bed on September 11th, 2001, not one of them could possibly have imagined how different life would be like today. The 90’s in the United States, and much of the world, was a heyday. Not since the 1920’s had the U.S. had both economic prosperity and diplomatic peace on such a scale (and not to mention being loved by, or at least popular with, much of the world). Alas, it was not to be for long. First, with the dotcom bust of 2000, and then with 9/11 a whole generation of baby boomers entered a new era defined by an unpopular war, an unpopular president, and the always looming threat of terror in an unbalanced and disrupted world. And adults aren’t the only ones affected. My generation, also known as Generation Z (or what I like to call “the iGeneration” — those born in the early and mid-1990’s) is following a similar pattern to those born in the early-to-mid-1920’s — prosperity during the single-digit years, a catastrophe, and the difficult aftermath during the teenage and young adult years.

Still, as I said before, we’re only just beginning to get some perspective on the events of 9/11. We still don’t know how the war in Iraq and the overall war on terror will proceed. We still don’t know how much of the current geo-political make-up was caused by 9/11. But, what is for sure,is that life will never exactly be the same after the “date which will live in infamy.”

* * *

While the main part of my post is now finished, I just wanted to make one final note. Today is not just to commemorate those who died (for a complete list, see here), but also for those who have survived. Here in New York City is probably the place where people are the most affected by the tragic events of 9/11, especially since many people know first-hand someone who died because of the attacks. Yet many people who were at the World Trade Center that day and in the days after got sick from rescue work, yet still don’t recieve government-susidized heathcare. To help, try writing to your local copngressman about the problem (sorry I don’t have a link for a website on the matter).

But even though this September 11th (a Tuesday, just like in 2001) was a dark and gloomy day here in New York, the sun setting leaves a nice, cool blue of solemmn, calm rememberence on the whole city skyline.

Covering the iPhone Launch

Published
by
Aaron
on June 26, 2007
in Announcements/Updates, Apple, NYC and Personal
. 2 Comments

Fifthavenue Vert051906On Friday, June 29th (better known as “iDay”), I will be at the 5th Avenue Apple Store in New York (directions and map, Google Maps) covering the launch of the iPhone. I’ll be there with my friend and co-host for The Teen Tech Buzz podcast, Austen, doing interviews and stuff for the podcast, and also for Macworld. We’ll be there from about 5-6:30 PM, and I’ll be trying to manage doing work for The Teen Tech Buzz, work for Macworld, and my personal attempts to try out the iPhone, so I’ll be pretty busy. But, if you’re there, I’d be happy to interview you and even get you quoted in Macworld.

Also, I’d just like to point out that my employer, Macworld, has launched a blog devoted to, you guessed it, the iPhone, called iPhone Central. I haven’t written anything for it yet, though I may start to after launch. So, keep your eyes peeled and maybe you’ll see my byline sometime soon.

Jelly

Published
by
Aaron
on June 7, 2007
in NYC and Personal
. 0 Comments

Jelly3
This afternoon, I went with Austen to a coworking session called Jelly. Jelly is basically a time, once a month, when two freelance web designer and programmer roommates open up their NYC apartment for other freelancers to come in and do work. This type of activity, called “coworking”, was written about by a disgusting, wretched excuse for a newspaper The New York Post. I found out about it from a student of my dad’s who knows Amit Gupta, one of the guys who runs it.
Jelly was pretty awesome. It takes place in an apartment right near Bryant Park, which had a living room complete with sofas, comfy chairs, a TV with a stereo, and a Wii. Most of the people there were freelance web designers and programmers, and I got to meet some. One, Luke Crawford, is an interface developer at a company called Joyent, which makes a platform for small teams of people to collaborate through documents, email, etc. (similar to Microsoft’s Office Live and Google’s Apps). Another guy, Anthony Volodkin, is the creator of a site called The Hype Machine, which aggregates information about songs and artists from music blogs around the Web, and allows users to talk about them, rate them, and listen to them online. I also met Oscar, a very nice dog who just happens to bark very loudly at Austen when he swings the Wii controller around very wildly.

Overall, I had a blast at Jelly, and hope to come back sometime next month or whenever their next session is.

My meeting with a Mac geek waiter

Published
by
Aaron
on April 14, 2007
in Apple, NYC and Personal
. 0 Comments

Apple Frittata
Today, I went out to dinner with my grandparents and step-cosuins at a nice (read: not terrific, but still pretty good) Italian restaurant in Lincoln Center. But this was no ordinary dinner. Well, actually it was, but I had a not so ordinary encounter with the third kind.
As I was eating, my mother, in her typical fashion, was yapping away to my step-cousin about my blogging on MacUser, and apparently, one of the waiters overheard. He asked me about it, and, in my typical shyness about being a total Mac geek addict worshiper, I quietly told him I wrote for a Mac blog. He then exclaimed, “I’m a big fan of Macs too!” I can’t say that some kind of magic connection occurred then, but I always feel kind of cool when a meet a random stranger who shares my affinity for all things Apple. As I lifted some of the veil concealing my geekiness, he asked when Leopard was coming out. Aha! This question told me two things: 1) he’s enough of a Mac geek to know about Leopard, and to refer to it as that, and 2) he’s not enough of a Mac geek to know that only two days ago Apple announced the delay of Leopard until October. When I broke the sad news to him, he said “Ah, that’s too bad. I want to get a MacBook Pro, but I was holding out for Leopard.” He then asked for what the blog I wrote for was, and I handed him my business card. The best part was then how he said he may have read it before, and will look at it tonight.

Throughout the meal, this waiter whose name I still don’t know referred to me as “the writer,” which gave my already too-large ego a boost. Still, I do acknowledge my place as a blogger, even a paid one, and not an actual journalist (though if The Jewish Week gets back to me on my idea for a piece, this might change). But hey, when you meet a Mac geek waiter who may have already read your blog, it kind of makes you feel just a little bit special.

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Crazy Weather, Part II

Published
by
Aaron
on January 10, 2007
in NYC, WTF? and Weather
. 1 Comment

Today, I looked out the window of class to see — snow! I was so excited that finally it had snowed in New York. But, to my great dismay only 5 minutes later the sky was totally clear. The ground wasn’t even damp at all. Damn you crazy weather!

It’s a gas, gas, gas!

Published
by
Aaron
on January 8, 2007
in In the News and NYC
. 0 Comments

The New York Times:

Authorities were investigating widespread reports today of a strong odor similar to natural gas that permeated parts of New York and New Jersey during the morning commute.

New York City agencies and the United States Coast Guard were responding to numerous calls on emergency telephone lines. Fire trucks raced around in search of the odor.

The smell was reported from Manhattan’s midtown to Battery Park City, and strong odors were reported in Jersey City, said a spokesman for New York’s emergency management office, Jarrod Bernstein.

Some office workers were evacuated from their buildings, and a woman was taken away by ambulance, apparently overcome by the smell, New York 1 television reported.

But, don’t worry, it’s just a harmless gas leak. Says NY1:

Mayor Michael Bloomberg said this morning that it is not clear what is causing the natural gas smell that has been sweeping the city, however he said it is not believed to be dangerous and that city sensors are not reporting elevated levels of natural gas.

Hundreds of reports of the odor began flooding the 911 system around 9 a.m. in parts of Manhattan and New Jersey.

Bloomberg said there was a small natural gas leak reported at 6th Street and Bleecker Street in Greenwich Village earlier this morning, but that it would not have caused such a pervasive smell.

Con Edison and city agencies are still working to determine the cause of the smell.

The mayor also said that air quality sensors throughout the city do not measure any high concentrations of natural gas that would be cause for concern, and that Con Edison has said that there has not been a drop in pressure along the natural gas line

Still, now seems like a great time for “Jumpin’ Jack Flash.” It’s a gas, gas, gas!

Global Warming, Vacations Pics, and Letters from Iwo Jima

Published
by
Aaron
on January 6, 2007
in In the News, Movies, NYC, Personal, Photos, WTF? and Weather
. 0 Comments

Blizzard in Jerusalem, frosting in San Francisco Oakland, 68 degrees in New York (see today)? What’s the world coming to! Well, MSNBC says El Niño and the jet stream, but I have to say that I think Mr. Gore was right on the ball with this one. I mean, when New York breaks a record for longest period of time without snow (the previous was in 1877, in which it didn’t snow that season until January 5th or 4th), I think that this is more than just a natural cycle.

Speaking of crazy weather, my pictures from super-cold Paris (see the last week of December) are up on Flickr and are all geotagged, too.

Also, today I just saw Letters from Iwo Jima. The film, which corresponds to Clint Eastwood’s other film about Iwo Jima, Flags of Our Fathers, is about the the famed battle from the Japanese perspective. It is very powerful and well done, and worthy of Best Picture (though it’ll never get it, as Clint Eastwood already has at least two), even though it is Japanese with English subtitles (which actually adds to the emotion and realism). It’s controversy makes it very interesting to watch (it doesn’t portray the Japanese as saints, but they’re not demonic either) and more intriguing than Flags of Our Fathers, which I still want to see.

The Daily Show Part III: Quest for a Fake ID

Published
by
Aaron
on March 12, 2006
in Humor, NYC and Personal
. 1 Comment

If you’ve seen my previous Daily Show posts, you know that I got screwed there because we came too late and weren’t far enough up in the line to get in. But what I didn’t tell you was that you need to be at least 18 to get in, which I’m not. We now have VIP tickets to a Daily Show taping, which guarantees us entry, but they’ll turn us down if they catch me as being 14. So, after a tip from a friend, my dad and I headed downtown to near NYU to pick up an item that college students love dearly, the fake ID.

We arrived at the tattoo shop that we were instructed to go to. It fit the description perfectly: small, scuzzy, and it had a back room that employees were constantly going in and out of. We walked in to the shop waited on line with several other people. While we were waiting, I obsrved my surroundings, which consisted of jewlrey, some fetish, and a man playing a game on his Treo while waiting to be tatooed, and most likely infected based on the look and feel of the store. After a minute or two, a man came to the counter and started taking orders for tatoos. When he asked my dad, he answered, loudly enough so that the whole store could here (which, to be fair, isn’t too hard) that he needed a fake ID for me his 14 year old son. The man started repeating things such as "ID, ID, what’s an ID? I don’t understand." After my dad clarified, the man insisted that he didn’t sell anythiing of the sort. After my dad giving the man a look, we left the store.

At first I was a bit puzzled at why they didn’t tell us they sold IDs, which they obviously did. But then it hit me: they thought my dad was a cop. My dad, a cop, NYPD, undercover, a narc. Just the thought made me bend over with laughter. I mean, come on, when my sister heard this whole story even she blurted out "Daddy’s too old to be an undercover cop!" True, but apparently the tattoo store guy didn’t want to take any chances.

Anyway, after that we went to another tattoo store across the street, and a couple down Christopher Street, yet to no avail. This closest we ever got to a confession to the existence of the fake IDs was at a store on Christopher Street when the man there, after saying "You know, that’s [buying fake IDs] illegal," told us that you could try the East Village, which was far too long a trek from Christopher Street right next to the Hudson River.

So, alas, the day ended with no fake IDs. Hopefully The Daily Show won’t catch us, but just in case my dad’s bringing $100 of bribery money.

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The Daily Show Taping: Part II

Published
by
Aaron
on February 21, 2006
in NYC
. 0 Comments

I got screwed!!!!!!!! My dad and I were around the 215th people to come to the show, and they only have 200 seats. Fill in the blanks. My dad didn’t have enough money on him to bribe someone, and there were too many people watching for my dad to whip out his Times ID. On the bright side, all people who got screwed over can get VIP seats, which means guaranteed seating and no waiting outside in the cold, simply by emailing them with yoiur name and a preffered date. The VIP tickets, like general admission, are also free. Also, the only two pics I snagged on the line are below:

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