Collecting Cans

Tuesday evening as I was walking home, I saw a white kid in his twenties, rummaging through a trash barrel along Flatbush Ave. He looked clean cut, which was totally weird because usually the men I see rifling through garbage in NYC are the types who wear soiled winter coats in hot July weather. So the kid was collecting cans, which go for $ .05 in New York when returned to some sort of major grocery store. Usually, can collecting is a full time job undertaken by a few die hard individuals in New York who will create a wagon train of up to three shopping carts and pull them along through traffic, filling them with returnable cans from the trash barrels. In order to make money at this,I figure you have to be a serious can collector. I mean it takes 20 cans to make $1, and that's after sifting through a lot of sticky shit! My point: can collecting is not a casual hobby in NYC, it is a full time job. These were the thoughts racing through my head in the few seconds I spent staring. Who was this guy? What was happening? I was so confused, until the kid lifted the upper half of his body out of the trash barrel and I saw that he was wearing a t-shirt with the word "Albion" written boldly on the front. It all made perfect sense. This kid was a fellow Michiganian. Albion is a college and a town in Michigan. In Michigan the natives practice diligent "pop" can collecting to get a $.10 deposit. It can be really lucrative, my brother always used the pop cans in our garage for weed money. But this kid had his native pop can collecting practice so ingrained into his DNA, that here he was doing it in 90 degree heat on Flatbush Ave in Brooklyn. I felt sorry for him, because that's messy and also, maybe he was really hurting for (beer) money? But c'mon, a $.05 deposit, that just isn't enough incentive man! And even if you are into the environment and worry about the cans ending up in a landfill- don't worry! We've got people for that! Yo, only when you are in Michigan do you need to go back to your old ways.

Power in NYC

According to the Associated Press, New York City consumes more power on a hot day than the entire nation of Chile! http://www.silive.com/newsflash/metro/index.ssf?/base/news-26/1182990595252110.xml&storylist=simetro

Chinatown

Stalls of seafood and produce in Chinatown, NYC

Black Leather Chap Two Step

This classy couple came out to the Country/Western bar my brother and I were at, for "Coin Night". This all happened while I was visiting my brother in Florida. At the time, I lived in Chelsea, a neighborhood in Manhattan mostly known for its gay males. Although the typical Chelsea boy is handsomely dressed, I did see quite a few Leather Chaps outside of a landmark Chelsea bar named, "Rawhide". The black leather chaps this Floridian is sporting really blew my mind. I am disappointed that the girl didn't put any thought into her outfit, she looks so average next to the guy. I do think the guy is a little overaccessorized, the keys, wallet chain, bracelets, rings, watch, belt buckle, a tad too much. Yet, if he hadn't gone overboard then my brother, his girlfriend and I would not have been so amused, and Coin Night would have been so much less exciting.

Men's Clothing Store, Financial District, Manhattan

My WSJ reading brother came to visit and I took him to the Financial District, where we came across a men's clothing store boasting this ludicrous slogan. This sign speaks for itself: they don't make any promises. Don't bother bringing in their competitors' coupons offering lower prices, they already told you, "they're probably the lowest priced, but they may not be." For the man who can't make up his mind.

Alwyn Court

Alwyn Court in Manhattan (58th and 7thAve) I was walking to work today and saw this building, it looks like it has stone carvings covering the entire exterior. The detail is amazing, I just read that it is actually terracotta, not stone. It looks very Art Nouveau, with some cool lizards to jazz things up. Apparently this building was one of the first luxury apartment buildings ever built (1909). Before that, most people equated apartment with stinky tenement.