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There's a time to do things for free and most of the time, it's not that time.

The Old Gray Lady has a new home. It's right across the street from the Port Authority building on 42nd St & 8th Ave. The Times has a story on it with a cool photo of the interior of the space with red-walled staircases throughout. The coverage comes complete with a video of a hike to the roof of the building.

Above is a shot of it I took on Sunday.

An interactive look at the building here.

on YouTube

This 1 minute ad has been watched over 350,000 times as of 1.44a, November 20, 2007. It was uploaded on the 18th. If Mike Huckabee makes it to the general election, maybe I'll vote for him.

I've been a fan of Chuck Facts since it went on the internets [sic] some time ago. Maybe you had to have grown up with Norris and the Delta Force movies to truly appreciate the awesomeness of all this. Just a sample from the Chuck Facts archives:
Chuck Norris counted to infinity – twice.
Chuck Norris can slam a revolving door.
When Chuck Norris plays Oregon Trail, his family does not die from cholera or dysentery, but rather, roundhouse kicks to the face. He also requires no wagon, since he carries the oxen, axels, and buffalo meat on his back. He always makes it to Oregon before you.

On Monday, I took a couple of hours to head back to SoHo and Chinatown. My last job in NYC was in SoHo and I've been going to Chinatown on my own since I was about 12. So over to Grand Central Terminal I went and hopped on the 6 train (above). I used to catch the 6 from GCT for work after getting into the city on MetroNorth from the 'burbs.

I got off at Spring St and was happy to see that D&D Deli was still open and buzzing. I used to get a bagel there every morning and when I felt like splurging, I'd spring for a slab of lox. I worked at 520 Broadway and the office had a nice view of Broadway. During the blackout of 2004, we watched thousands of people walking up/down Broadway. To see the gigantic boulevard crammed with people and no cars was quite a sight. It was the same summer that Canal Jean Co. closed. In it's place, a boring Bloomingdales. During lunch breaks, or just random times when we needed to get out of the office, we'd rummage through the store looking for odds and ends. During the last weeks of the store being open, they had crazy liquidation sales and bins of clothes were outside overflowing with markdowns. I'm still upset it's gone.

Down Broadway I went until I hit Canal St and Chinatown. NYC's Chinatown has slowly been eating away at Little Italy for the last decade. It's gigantic now. Sprawling south from the Manhattan Bridge and up into Little Italy. It was drizzling and people had their umbrellas out in full force. I hate umbrellas. I've gotten poked around my eye sockets enough times to despise them. I ducked behind these 3 Chinese ladies and followed them to Mott St.

I saw this store a half a block down Mott and was almost tempted to see just how much pink stuff they could cram into one of these storefronts. But I was on a mission and wanted to catch the 1p bus back to Philly so I kept going.

Ah, Mandarin Court (61 Mott St). A dim sum standby in Chinatown for years. I discovered it late, but ate there a bunch of times afterwards. I haven't been back since 2004 or so and they've received a 2007 Michelin Recommendation. I walked in and grabbed a table.

The dim sum cart came rolling down the aisle and I asked for two plates to start.

Pork and shrimp dumpling with a tofu-like wrapper.

Pork and shrimp dumpling with a thick wrap.

Another cart came around and I asked for this pork and shrimp one – do you see a pattern here?

One more cart and one more dish of fried pork dumplings. Washed down with several cups of piping hot tea and I was gorged. Total was $9.

Then I ran a few blocks to catch the Chinatown bus. The bus did something I've never seen it do before. It left 5 minutes late. Crazy. I got back to Philly in about 2h15m. Until next time NYC.

I had 3 bagels and 2 slices of pizza. Indian food on 6th St. Dim sum and pastries in Chinatown. Italian food in the Village. We even had soup from The Soup Man in true touristy form :).

A shot of my favorite building in NYC, the Grace Building on 42nd St and 5th Ave. The sloping front of the building never gets old for me. I always stop to stare at it for a couple of minutes when I walk by it.

Continuing over to Grand Central Terminal to get to Lexington to visit the site of my old, old office, I saw these pyramid structures on 42nd and Lexington. They weren't there when I lived in NY. I think they're weird looking. They break up the line of skyscrapers in that part of town, but it seems a little jarring.

I used to work at VIBE Magazine at 32nd St and Lexington. I used to walk from Grand Central everyday and pick up a bagel with cream cheese and a pint of OJ or one of those $1 rolls of powdered donuts and a strawberry milk from the place that used to be at this corner (33rd/Lexington). It's gone. Now, Murray Hill Market is there.

I continued down all the way to Union Square, but saw this patch of taxis. A dozen or so, parked at 28th and Lexington. Taxi drivers don't agree on much, but I'll take a guess that some of the best Indian/Pakistani food is on either side of this block.

For dinner, I met up with another friend from college. She was my across the hallmate our first year at school. We had dinner on Macdougal St and had some tea at Tea Spot. It was a really cool spot. They have a bookcase full of loose teas. They were arranged in a periodic table of tea sort of way. If you tell them what you're looking for, say a black tea which has some hints of fruit, your server will go through some cans and pick one out for you to sniff.

I initially had a Casablanca melon white tea with a piece of Neapolitan cake. My friend got the Flavored cinnamon orange spice and a piece of mini cheesecake. We both thought it was odd that they gave us plastic forks. It didn't fit the style of the place with their nice glass mugs. And also, it's not easy to cut pastries with plastic forks! The teas needed no sugar or honey. It was delicious after a 3 minute steep. We chatted for over an hour. Our seat was on the left side of the photo above and every time someone came to the counter for some tea, they'd want to sniff it and we'd get a tantalizing whiff of it with the airflow behind the counter. We had to have seconds.

I picked out the Summer Breeze which was a black tea blend (the one I was looking for). It smelled fantastic, so my friend ordered a cup as well, but the tea tasted a little on the burnt side after the recommended 5 minute steep. A dash of honey may have done the trick, but I drank it up and kept inhaling the steeped leaves. I'll definitely have to remember this spot when I head back to the area. The first 2 teas and 2 pastries we got ran us $12 or so. The 2 seconds we got were about $5.

I know of two tea houses in the Center City area: Remedy Tea Bar at 1628 Sansom and T bar at 12/Sansom. I haven't been to either place.

Today, we ate… a lot. We got our NY bagel fix between the hotel and Lady's conference at the Garden City Deli on 9th Ave around 42nd St. It wasn't the best bagel I've had (I'll head downtown to SoHo for that later), but it quenched my lust for a good bagel and Steve can tell you what I'm talking about.

I wanted to finally head to a place that I've heard people rave about and read about for several years. I just never got around to heading over there while I was still in NY and always forgot to head there when I went back since I had my own pizza spots I liked. Joe's Pizza at 6th Ave and Carmine St has got a nice slice. The 2 slices we got were a tad overcooked with the crust charred, but it was nice, thin and crispy with a good cheese to sauce ratio and a nice crust. The slice with the circles of mozzarella was cold (what's up with that?), but it was really good. My favorite spot to get a slice in the city is at Ben's on Spring St & Thompson St in SoHo – it was a few blocks from my office and was a consistently great slice. I especially like the Sicilian at Ben's.

For a snack, we stumbled upon Amy's Bread in the Village. We initially wanted some Italian treats at Rocco's across the street, but the people behind the counter never came over to us so we headed across the street. While we were eating our treats, we were filmed by The Food Network who were filming footage for The Next Food Network Star so keep your eyes out! Who knows if we'll make the final 1 second cut. I munched away on a black and white cupcake which was nice and moist with a very thick icing.

Dinner was stuffed away at a favorite Indian restaurant of a college roommate of Lady's. We headed to Little India's Raj Mahal at 2nd Ave & 6th St. The service was brusque, but the helpings speedily brought to the table and speedily stuffed into our faces. We were all perfectly stuffed without room for dessert.

It was a good eats day. A more detailed look at the food over at Messy and Picky.

We're in NYC for the weekend. Lady is in town for a conference and I'm tagging along because she's got a free hotel room! I got to town at about 5.30p via the crazy Chinatown bus with the loudest talking bus driver on the face of the planet. He was squaking away the entire time.

I'm headed to the International Center of Photography in the afternoon to check out the Robert Capa and Gerda Taro show. You may have seen this famous image:

That's Capa's shot from DDay, June 6, 1944, the storming of Omaha Beach in Normandy, France. Only 10 shots survived from the day. Why? An overeager technician at Life magazine dried the negatives at too high a temperature destroying about one hundred irreplaceable images.

I was walking to meet a friend (whom I've known since I was about 5, which makes 22 years) for a few drinks and walked by the ICP. I had never been to it and since our hotel is right there, why not! I turned a corner and was greeted by a 10' tall blowup of the above Capa image. I immediately walked to it to investigate and it turned out to be the ICP. Awesome.

In a few hours, we'll get up for bagels. Later, I'll have pizza. And maybe some dim sum in Chinatown.

And in other news, Zoe Strauss continues to rock the world like she owns it. Congrats Zoe!

I went to a fashion show called Body Diversity: Everyone We Know is Beautiful Thursday night to take photos [I was a sponsor, heh]. A friend of mine works for A Chance to Heal, the group who put on the event along with Philadelphia University. Above is the big winner for the night rocking a Celtic inspired ensemble. Emily O'Neill She [didn't catch her name] not only created the entire outfit, but she rocked the catwalk too. She unbuttoned the overcoat and powerfully showed everyone the goods.

Below are three more of the designs from the evening. I'm working on the rest, but I had to get an initial set of the winners in before the morning news [some of the shots I took might make it on something, sweet].

The night celebrated the diversity found in all of us. The people who wear the clothes that are in magazines, on rail thin models and in the movies are not some imaginary Barbie doll. Real people have real curves. There were 13 designers represented in 4 categories. It was quite an exciting experience to say the least. My first time shooting something like this.

Very fast-paced, dimly lit, vibrant colors – a tricky setting for photography. The chapel of Philadelphia University was packed back to the coat check with about 300 people there to celebrate body diversity, good stuff. It was a nice place to take photos though. And I was glad to lend my help for the night, I had a blast.

So Nutter just announced that former DC To Cop Charles Ramsey will be Philly's new Chief of Police come January. I went to school in DC during Ramsey's tenure. I was there as his riot police beat the shit out of protesters during the a16 IMF/WB rally in 2000. It was the first time I got into the thick of things with a camera. I was rammed by a cop on a Harley, pepper sprayed (the real police-grade stuff) and witnessed some serious beat downs. Here are four shots (poorly photographed as our scanner is currently on the fritz) from my series of about a dozen. I got an A in my photo class that semester with this being my final project.

That's a set of cops breaking down a barrier. The cop at left is jumping over the barrier to break it down from the other side. The cops at center are grabbing protesters by their hair and dragging them away. A bus full of IMF/WB delegates are waiting to roll through once the path is clear.

At center, you can see feet horizontal to the pavement below, his thighs are at left. He's being yanked away by his hair.

There's a cop in riot gear streaming some serious pepper spray. Notice how thick it is at the middle of the stream – you can't see though it. The protesters were prepared. Many with Army/Navy surplus gas masks. Others with goggles. Most with hankerchiefs soaked in vinegar. A stream of this landed on my face. Not too bad, but enough for the area above my lips to burn for a good bit.

This is a South Korean journalist. He had his head smashed by a cop's baton. There was a pool of blood about a foot in diameter below him. Medics were all over the place.

I went back for another day and missed presenting to my class. I made arrangements ahead of time with my professor to show the photos at another time. I presented to an older class and they loved it. It was pretty cool to see people react to my photos for the first time.

I'm not saying that Ramsey is going to have riot police around all day everyday. But this is a taste of what he's capable of. I don't recall anyone being killed at this demonstration. This was also a nationally organized protest. The Black Flag Army (some serious, militant anarchists) were there so there was definitely provocation at times. But that didn't stop the cops from launching tear gas into random pockets of people. It was quite nuts to be on the campus of George Washington University as it transformed into a partial urban warzone.

I recall changing rolls of film in my old Canon AE-1 + 50mm prime while on the run, hands shaking from the adrenaline and, sometimes, fear. I shot several rolls of film. I'd say under 6 rolls of 36 exposure film. Kinda crazy to think of that now. If I were at a similar event now, I'd have 2 bodies (D70, D200) with 4 lenses (12-24mm, 17-55mm, 50mm, 80-200mm) and 16GB of CF cards (good for 1500+ shots between the 2 bodies of differing resolution) and my laptop to d/l photos so that I could shoot some more.

How will Nutter's crime plan mesh with Ramsey's style of enforcement? Time will tell. Philly needs to change to fight the amount of crime in the 5th largest city in the U.S. – how violently it will fight crime is a different story. I'm hoping for the best, but know (partially) what to expect for the worst.

This is sort of a Braveheart moment when William Wallace is meeting with Princess Isabelle

Princess Isabelle: The king desires peace.

William Wallace: Longshanks desires peace?

Princess Isabelle: He declares it to me, I swear it. He proposes that you withdraw your attack. In return he grants you title, estates, and this chest of gold which I am to pay to you personally.

William Wallace: A lordship and titles. Gold. That I should become Judas?

Princess Isabelle: Peace is made in such ways.

William Wallace: Slaves are made in such ways. The last time Longshanks spoke of peace I was a boy. And many Scottish nobles, who would not be slaves, were lured by him under a flag of truce to a barn, where he had them hanged. I was very young, but I remember Longshank's notion of peace.

I really like Braveheart.

From The Next Mayor [who may or may not be blocking my comments on their site for some reason].

I'm addicted to this new photoblog called The Stumping Grounds. It's a photoblog put together by a crew of photojournalists who are/have been following the presidential hopefuls based in Des Moines, IA. They're promising a new photo everyday up to the election and they started in June 2007.

This is my favorite shot from the first 5 1/2 months.

Photo: Keith Bedfod, November 5, 2007