BULLSHIT

Plastic pretty much lasts forever and I make a point of reusing water bottles as much as possible, in fact there’s a whole door shelf in the fridge full of them. One of my quirks is keeping bottles like these from trips I take overseas, kind of like a poor man’s souvenier. Now companies that push bottled water in cities with perfectly potable tap water are absolutely contemptible when few take into account the incredible amount of unrecycled material that ends up in landfills every day. American corporations who produce this stuff are bad enough, but this one from when I was in London is simply vile with this unsubstantiated directive that basically exists to ensure people will continue to spend money and waste resources for no reason whatsover.

42ND STREET, PORT AUTHORITY

There’s something oddly disconcerting about a For Sale sign for pups that merely shows photos and says nothing descriptive. It’s like an advertisement for meat.

DUANE HANSON

A retrospective of some of his work from the 70s at the Van De Weghe gallery has this kind of fascinating quality that his work seems to take on after a few decades have passed. There’s a sense of the era here that’s eerily immediate in a way most things only seem like artifacts, as if these are actualy people somehow teleported from the past into this century. I don’t understand how waxworks exist when fiberglass sculpture like this is infinitely more superior in its realism.

RIVERBANK STATE PARK LOCKER ROOM

Spend enough time somewhere and eventually it becomes a source of fascination.

MINIATURE PORTRAITS, LONDON

MR. ALFONZO JONES

This sort of DIY advertising is fantastic, but who the hell knows what kind of music this is — a new incarnation of Rick James? A carefully rendered illustrated Sci-Fi dreamscape is apparently meant as some sort of tantalizing clue, so maybe it’s Prog Rock. Who the fuck knows. A MySpace page or email address would be helpful though obviously out of the question. I’m not even sure how the bulleted items work here, is Delancy Chrysite Here She Comes In 7002 one song? Tax? 4-5 weeks delivery? $19.95? $5.00 shipping and handling? It’s a goddamn test of faith is what it is.

SUNDAY IN PEEKSKILL ON THE THANKSGIVING WEEKEND

Continuing the epic search for the authentic Hudson Valley Experience would have about as much luck if you threw dart at the map and went to where it landed. So far anything near the train has been a bit of a lesson in economic depression with the downtown scenes pathetically lacking in a kind of day to day cultural richness. Sure, there’s a nice cafe here and the Paramount Theater nearby hosts some great music, but in general, life here might involve consuming 53 percent over the recommended amount of alcoholic beverages for children over the age of thirteen.

There’s a certain kind of beauty in decay, but it makes you wonder why the walk from the station to the heart of town involves the least inspiring tableau's imaginable, enhanced in their own way by the psychedelic intensity of the Fall foliage. We had to stand the entire ride home, it was after all MTA North’s busiest rail day of the year.