Free Hugs at Union Square

Posted May 2, 2008 by Famous Ankles
Categories: Events, Manhattan, Union Square, Wanderings

You probably missed it, but that’s why there’s a Famous Ankles. Free Hugs in Union Square last weekend.

There were about eight or ten t-shirt clad huggers calling out their desire to bestow hugs to any and all. A few took them up on the offer and a whole bunch of us just appreciated their willingness to hug.

I believe it was actually a political protest of some sort. A sort of “arms are for hugging and not for shooting” sort of thing, but that’s only because I saw one sign along those lines. I saw another saying “It’s my birthday, hug me” carried by another…so maybe it was…an anti-war birthday salute? Nah, it wouldn’t be a “salute”, just a hug-in (wow, that takes me way, way back).

Anyway, happy birthday to her (unfortunately, not pictured).  And thanks to the young lady in the first picture for a great pose.

-H

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Tribeca Film Festival…In The East Village

Posted May 1, 2008 by Famous Ankles
Categories: Events, Greenwich Village, LES, Manhattan, Wanderings

On Saturday, I did some wandering around the East Village area and, while on my way toward Union Square, ran into the Tribeca Film Festival.  (Simple NYC geography lesson:  Tribeca lies about 20 blocks south of Union Square which is a long, long ways in NYC.)

Well, it is part of the Festival, but you have to remember that it has grown tremendously and they apparently just scoop up every theater they can find to do some of their screenings. I was there around 1:30 or so and a line or six were starting to form up.

To be honest, I didn’t know any of the shows they were planning to screen. At 2:30, they were showing “I Am Because We Are”. Maybe it’s good, maybe it’s great. But Rene Decartes would probably find some way to improve the logic.

At 3:30, they were showing “Charley”. There were actually two lines for that show (lines “2” above and “C” below), but maybe not that showing. I presume one line was for voters/writers/critics/filmmakers and the other line was for the ordinary folks. Actually, there were also two lines for “I Am Because We Are”, but line “B” was empty. (A closer look at the pictures has the bigger line for “Ticket Holders and Badge Holders” and the other line for “Rush Tickets”. That’s about what I was expecting.)

It’s interesting to see such events and have the opportunity to go just because I’m walking by. I guess I should be a bit abashed for talking about it without trying it out. But I don’t think I’ve gone to a movie for a year and going to one in the hopes of seeing a great film seems like a poor reason to break that streak.

-H

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Union Square Artist Protest

Posted April 30, 2008 by Famous Ankles
Categories: Events, Manhattan, Union Square, Wanderings

Yesterday, I did a post about an unusual protest last weekend in Tompkins Square Park that seemed to reference Union Square and Washington Square Park.

When I got to Union Square later that day, I found a sort of “silent protest” by the artistic types.  By “artistic types”, I mean the craftsmen selling their wares.

It seemed to me that the authorities were starting to crack down on the protestors in Union Square, but that didn’t make any sense.  There was a farmers’ market going on and I can’t imagine that is under any City threat.  But, then again, the protestors are always there and the farmers’ market is on Saturdays.

And, of course, they aren’t all protestors.  Lots of them are just selling their wares. 

 If you noticed the above, there’s something about “park privatization”.  It seems to turn out that there is a move to bring in a restaurant onto Union Square and that this was an Arbor Day Protest in response to the possible cutting down of some trees to make way for a restaurant.  Wow.  I’ve seen many a protest, but never an Arbor Day one.

-H

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Tompkins Square Park Protest

Posted April 29, 2008 by Famous Ankles
Categories: Events, LES, Manhattan, Union Square, Wanderings

I was recently down in the Alphabet City area and wandered through Tompkins Square Park.  While there, I saw a protest in progress at the southern part of the park.

The protest seemed centered around a bunch of mailing boxes with slogans.

Forgive me, but I couldn’t figure it out.

Some of the slogans were about Washington Square Park (undergoing renovations and no longer the center of protest activity).  Others were about “stop strangulation in higher education” and “power to the sheeple”.

 I do know that there was another sort of “park protest” going on in Union Square (I’ll post on that separately), so there is a point to the protest.  If I had to guess, the authorities (yeah, those guys) are starting to crack down on the protestors in Union Square just like they did in Washington Square Park.  That’s sad, if only because there are a lot of New Yorkers who really, really, really need a place to do their rants.

-H

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NYC Interview Number 001

Posted April 28, 2008 by Famous Ankles
Categories: Three Favorite Facts About NYC, Uncategorized

Recently, a friend suggested that I expand my blog to include people.  After all, NYC is a whole lot more than its places.  “There are eight million stories…” and so on.

So, I’ve started to do exactly that.  This will be a periodic posting, but we’ll see how it goes.

I was wandering around Tompkins Square Park in the Lower East Side and ran into my first interviewee/victim:  Zemer Avital.

I had a nice prepared list of questions and the like for the poor guy and he was more than willing to accommodate this strange character talking about his “blog” and all.

He’s originally from Israel and has only been in NYC for about six weeks. We got into the age-old philosophical question of whether than makes him a resident or non-resident of NYC. My position is pretty straightforward: if you’ve been here long enough to walk a block or two, you’re practically a native born New Yorker.

His favorite part of the City: the West Village. He also recommends off-off-Broadway shows as the great don’t-miss-it sort of thing to do in NYC. I agree very strongly with that evaluation.

I did ask him, as a long-time resident of NYC of six weeks, to tell me the strangest sight he’s seen so far. He answered that it was a sight at Union Square where he found a man doing a street show with a potato peeler. I knew exactly who he was talking about. That’s one of the characters I’ve occasionally looked for to put on the blog. It isn’t so much a “show” as it is a “sales pitch”. The guy has this wonderful act where he sells these peelers.

At the end of the interview, Zemer looked through my list of Resident Favorite Facts About NYC.  I will only allow three to be chosen. After lengthy contemplation Zemer chose:

  • d. Queens is the heart of NYC, but nobody knows it. Maybe if you’d send us some of those extra Brooklyn celebrities…
  • m. I keep meaning to ride the complete route of the subway, but I don’t have a spare week to do it.
  • w. “East Village”? There’s no such “East Village”, it’s the Lower East Side!

Thanks very much Zemer! You were a sport to be my first interview! Enjoy NYC.

-H

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