Photos!

[brigdh]

I'm actually really fond of this statue, bizarre as it is. If you go up to it and push on it, you can spin it around.



I love how many buildings have strange little things carved into them. It makes the city feel so much more complex and detailed than the more modern, mass-produced buildings I'm used to.



My coffeeshop attempts to attract business on a very cold day.



The barbed wire people string up to protect construction sites is also different from the kind I'm used to. It's got those weird elongated-anvil shaped bits, instead of just pointy wires. It fascinates me, and whenever I walk by some, I'm tempted to put my hand on it. It's probably a good thing that most of it's too high for me to reach, since that would be an excellent way to die of many horrible infections. (Uh, note: my random urge to do so is not prompted by depression, or suicidal impulses, or a want to injure myself, or any other sort of console-me-now mood. I am quite happy, and have no intention of actually grabbing a handful of barbed wire, so there's no need for concern. It's just... who's the philosopher who talks about vertigo being prompted by wanting to throw yourself over the cliff? It's just like that, except I don't like heights.)



Those are plastic flowers shoved into real dirt in a flower box. It fooled me for a moment; I was wondering how anyone had gotten something to grow this time of year.



I need to stop trying to take pictures of the snow; they don't come out. But it's so pretty to see! The white flakes spiraling around the light, and the way they glitter and flash and I don't understand why I can't capture it on film.

Comments

[car-jack.livejournal.com]

Cool! A person could actually spin the big cube thingy? Interactive art, a wonderful thing.

I morn the beautiful art of old architecture, today's buildings are so boring.

Finally, I know for a fact the there are people who collect different types of barbed wire. *scratches head* Don't know why but they must find it captivating. (I, myself, collect beer bottle caps among other things.)

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Yep. It's heavy, so when I've done it I really have to shove to get it spinning, but it goes around the corner on the ground.

Aren't they?

That's kinda neat! Or scary; I wonder who decides to collect barbed wire. My mom used to collect matchbooks, back when all resturants and bars used to have their own, but I've never done anything like that.

[rayechu.livejournal.com]

Oh man. I read a short story in school once about a family in Africa(?) that kept adding more and more security to there house because there were riots and such. Then one day they got big coils of barbed wire, with a catchy name (Dragon something). That night the mom read the kid the story of Sleeping beauty and how the princes hacked through the thorn bushes so the little kid imitated it, crawled in the coil and got stuck and died. I completely forgot about the story until I saw the picture of it.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Dude, that sounds like a depressing story. Was that how it ended?

[rayechu.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I wish I could remember the title, author, or book it was in.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

No worries. *grins* I'm pretty sure I wouldn't want to read it, anyway.

[rayechu.livejournal.com]

Actually, I remember kind of liking it a little bit as it said a lot about humanity and always building up walls to protect what you think is important, only to find that you had already lost it.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Oh, I see. That does make more sense than just a story about a little boy dying in barbed wire.

[kohakutenshi.livejournal.com]

In the first picture it kinda looks like people in robes standing on top of that one building. Like acolaids or however you spell it. >.<

And snow is hard to catch, but here's (http://shinigamiempath.com/Building003.jpg) a picture I managed to get! :3

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Heh, yeah, I see that. Acolytes, I think you mean, by the way.

Oh, nice picture! Hmm. Now I wonder if I tried it during the day if the photo might come out better; maybe it's just a lack of light issue.

[b-hallward.livejournal.com]

Always glad to see more photos (even though I can be so flakey about commenting). New York must be a fascinating place to live. Seriously, who looks out over a several story drop and doesn't get the faint impulse to jump? Same with things like barbed wire. Though for me the real temptation was those huge stadium-seating style lecture halls: I'd always get this nearly irresistible urge to throw my pen.

[weirdquark]

Seriously, who looks out over a several story drop and doesn't get the faint impulse to jump?

I know I do. I take the subway every day for work and not a week goes by where I don't think about how I would get out of the way of the oncoming train if someone pushed me off the edge. Or think about trying to jump across the tracks, which would totally fail. And I have no intention of ever actually jumping, but I think about it anyway.

But I've always been fascinated by death. When I was a kid I really liked scaring myself by imagining the earth opening up under my feet and swallowing me up.

[b-hallward.livejournal.com]

And I have no intention of ever actually jumping, but I think about it anyway.

Exactly. Not a self-destructive impulse, more just a response to having this possibility present itself, inherent in the situation and dangling in front of your imagination -- and how could a person with any sort of imagination not go there?

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

No, thank you so much. I realize that it must be hard to think of anything to say other than "pretty!", which must get old after a while.

I like New York, though mostly it's just yet another city, not qualitatively different from any other. A strange thing I noticed, though, when I went home after I'd been here for three months or so: you never see the horizon. I had this weird visual shock to the sense of distance when I got out of the airport in Ohio. I'm sure it wouldn't be such a big deal if I ever got off Manhattan, but here at least, I am always surrounded by very tall buildings.

So glad to hear that I didn't come off as completely insane.

[louiselux.livejournal.com]

I love the one of snow - it's so evocative of a snowy night, possibly exactly because it's all blurry.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Thank you!