Problems With Wine And Cheese:

I usually don't talk about what happens outside of work, but I feel I need to vent. As I was posting my last blog post at the Apple Store yesterday, it seemed I was running into a bit of luck because a few photographers were going to show their work and talk about some of their pictures. What are the odds, I didn't even have to get out of my seat to see some fine photography. 

The first photographer shows his work for about 45 minutes; it was all documentary work. I was stunned by the high quality I was seeing. So after he was done his whole spiel about humanity, and respect to his subjects, about marketing aggressively, I decided I would tell him about my spectacular blog. First I would write my name and email down on his contact list, then I would talk to him and hand him my card. While I signed my name and email, my hand was shaking and my penmanship was just awful due to the previous coffee I'd had. I made sure to control my hand writing, a man on my right encouraged me to write faster, then encouraged me to take his card rather than waste time writing my name on the list, "What are you writing, an essay?" he asked. I had no time to look up because I was engrossed in tunnel vision, then I continued to write my Url down too, because honestly I had no interest in receiving junk mail, I'd rather have more people view my site.

I was completely unfazed by this asshole, and so I continued to the other end of the table where I thought the photographer would be. Well, guess what? that asshole was the photographer, and when I returned to the contact list he had written under my name, only write your name and email address. 

The fact of the matter is that he'd have been pissed at me no matter what I'd written on that list. He had seen me as unimportant, a pee-on, less then worthy of his 35 cent paper. And for that Landon Nordeman, you are scum, and I will neither support you nor the APA.

Paying the bills-

So I was so lucky to have been a part of a photo-shoot on Monday, well, my cab was. A former coworker of mine is now a photo-editor with Time Out NY, and she needed a cab to complete a picture. I was more than happy to oblige. 

FYI taxi aficionados I drive a real cab, I just photoshoped the medallion # 

I was told I needed more pictures on the blog, so I'll try to push my pictures out a little faster. Look for the horny (or sex, something of that ilk) issue of Time Out New York. It was really cool to see how professionals carried out a shoot, it was really chill and yet controlled, well handled.

Some dude passed by, and she goes 

"Hey Bill, just paying the rent ya know?" Seemed as normal as all else, then she tells us, "He was my landlord."

---

Monday, monday, it's been a while since I worked during the week. It was really slow, and there was lots of traffic. I had to take the long way back from the airport. I spent the day pretty laid back though, since I was paid for my time while they did the photo-shoot.

Down Here Below

A newbie to New York, Steve Earle, Has written this beautiful song that I'm hooked on. It is a song from an old time New Yorker's perspective, and I'm not sure how he got it so right.

Ignore the DJ who has no place on that stage.

He's even got a stanza refering to exactly what I was talking about in earlier posts:

Now Hell’s kitchen’s Clinton,  Bowery’s Nolita
And the East Village keeps on creepin’ ‘cross the Williamsburg Bridge
Hell, whatever happened to Alphabet City?
Ain’t no place left in this town that a poor boy can go

There are a few small issues. There is obviously more than one Red Tailed Hawk in the city, the one in Central Park gets all the fame. In fact I have even seen wild turkeys in Manhattan. Well I also saw a nude man picking crap out of his own ass, but that's beside the point. 

I had no idea who Joe Mitchell was, another reference in the song so Here's the Wiki page for Joseph Mitchell

The Second Avenue Deli returns

We New Yorkers have grown accustomed to establishments which make our city special, closing and being replaced by big corporate chains. 

Ahhh, finally, good news. The Hungry Cabbie reports, The 2nd Avenue Deli has re-opened, though it is no longer in the East Village, or on 2nd Ave.

Jezblog feature:

Click Jezblog: Dog Taxi: Houston Street

for another shot from the front right side of the cab.

I strongly encourage you to peek through all his other images.

"I feel I have an unhealthy obsession with taxi-cabs and I really should seek help," Jez Coulson.

Jezblog

Special guest photoblogger

I drove saturday, and despite driving some friends home, returning a hack license left in my cab, and driving a great photo-blogger around, I made a decent wage. 

Driving around with Jez was a pleasure. He held two cameras in his lap, one wide angle, and one zoom, snapping shots so many times that he changed memory cards 4 times in only a limited time frame. I told him, at that point, that I'd only taken a few shots, none that I was happy with. 

"Well you are doing the driving," he said.

True, true, but it made me think about how much I've faded in any hardcore attempt at photography,

"When you are a photographer, you only do one thing, so you might as well shoot a lot." This is what he told me, when I mentioned again, my lack of images.

To see his shot from inside my taxi click here: 

Jezblog: Breakfast Bagel on the Run : East Village : NYC| December 9, 2007

Sunday: Marathon: 11/04

With two hours left in my shift, I decided to drive back to the garage. 

Four officers in a squad car told me that I needed to wait for 2 hours when they re-open the streets before I could enter my garage. That wouldn't work for me so I found nicer police woman guarding the intersection. She told me that I could go through since I wasn't actually driving through the marathon itself. It was kinda cool that right in front of the garage the marathon was happening.

the 411 from the WWW.

I was snooping around some more blogs and have turned completely giddy with excitement, almost angry that I still haven't acted on this yet, Hey Hot Shot. The Jen Bekman Gallery, has just announced the winners of the quarterly contest. Winners get mentioned on websites and featured in the gallery itself.

So why am I so excited? Joe's nyc, an excellent photoblogger has already been featured there, and now Shuli Hallak who looks to have some amazing photographs of cargo ship activity. So I'll be sure to visit the gallery for the opening, and perhaps see a teacher who taught at both schools I attended in Maine and Boston, and get this, that same teacher grew up in my neighborhood here in New York and is also represented by the Jen Bekman Gallery.

Now in completely unrelated news, I just read on 1010 wins (our traffic and news radio station) that the Pulaski Skyway is getting a 10 million dollar renovation. The Pulaski is the best way to Newark Airport from Manhattan. On weekends one lane of two will be closed going inbound (to Newark I guess?) from now 'till December. Once reconstruction is done to that lane, the other direction will get done. 1010 WINS: Pulaski

I can just imagine the hellish experience I may have going to Newark Airport now. Of course I'd rather be late, then be dead. Kudos to New Jersey for finally getting around to fixing this towering demon of a bridge.

Rerun photos:
The Pulaski Skyway

Spring and Bowery

Searching

Check out these photo blogers:
Express Train
joe's nyc

Aside from these pictures being amazing most and usually all the time, the blog formats are easy to navigate and elegant in their simple form.

It is clear that blogger.com is just not geared towards a photoblogger. So I may use another blog provider for pictures and keep the writing here. It would be kind of a gamble because blogger's accessability is higher, and the domain names here are easy to remember. Perhaps this is all just petty, and I should just make a website.

I'm really close I feel to posting the story of why I quit taxi driving. And when I post it I may finally overcome the block and start driving a cab again.

Stay tuned because as always, I have so many pictures to show you.
If I start that other photoblog, I'll tell you.

True regards,
Lucky

Other Links

I have a complex that makes me think I am not doing the best I can at whatever I do. Due to this, I give you two links I think you will enjoy.

The first is the best story I ever read in this taxi blogosphere:

CLICK: Spring training


The second link is a website for a faculty photographer from my old school. enter the site, go to portfolio, and then "Exile Brighton Beach"

CLICK: Brighton Beach

I hope this keeps y'all busy, thats right, I said y'all, now I got to get outside.

"The Cash Cab" possibly debunked

A friend of mine and I were walking around Union Square the other day, when I noticed "The Cash Cab". I was sure this was "The Cash Cab" because I had on several occasions seen this same taxi, parked or driving slowly with visual recording equipment both in the trunk, and following closely behind in a large grey van.

Before I continue, "The Cash Cab" is a reality quiz show where passengers are picked up and asked New York trivia questions as they travel to their destination. Each question may be worth 100 or 200 even 500 to 1000 dollars I think. What an amazing idea, I thought as I watched one episode.

Upon watching the show, there seemed only one lie in the program. Upon receiving a destination, 7th avenue and 23rd street, from 6th avenue and west 4th, the driver chose to take Greenwich Avenue west to 8th avenue, and then he made a right on 23rd street, when he could have taken 6th avenue to 23rd street. The passengers didn't mind, because they were not paying a fare. Still taxi rules are to take the most direct path. This fare had gotten extra traffic lights, and extra miles, and extra questions. The driver had an earpiece or a Bluetooth set in his left ear, so it was clear that management was telling him the directions.

A few months later I had begun seeing "The Cash Cab." Of course it took me a while to believe that this very taxi was it. After all, this taxi could have been set up for a commercial. But, the driver of the van was the same driver in the show, the meter inside had extra doohickeys, the windows were covered with dark tint, and there were fluorescent bulbs running up the a-pillars. I am sorry I digress so much, but I get to my point eventually. I saw it twice more, one of those times I saw the camera crew hoping in and out of the cab to test the metering and focus I suppose. The trunk was wide open and inside was a whole smorgasbord of electricals. I wondered how they could ever take someone to the airport. I also found it strange that a cab was waiting at times with it's engine running and therefore, with it's light on. Why wasn't anyone asking for a ride? How come I have seen this cab several times, but each time, it never rides empty? If they were really taking people from the street randomly, wouldn't they just ask people to hop in? I never got up the nerve to ask for a ride. New York works on a fabulous system where if you raise a hand or even point too much, three cabs play chicken to serve you. So I felt as though asking for a ride would be an embarrassment to my tenure as a New Yorker, besides the fact that I drive a taxi might make me ineligible.

So, I saw the taxi van with the black tinted windows followed by a large grey van, make the left on to 16th street from Union Square East. The front passenger in the van held his video camera out the side and aimed it as best he could at the taxi. Another noticeable difference in this taxi is its advertisement. This taxi has a light on top with a cone advertiser like so many others, but the ad is merely a nice picture of the city skyline, with no words, no actual advertisement. It also has some sort of mark on the ad, possibly for holding the camera on the roof.

We followed the car like it was a Leprechaun. Luckily it was headed for more red lights of course! We walked at a fast pace, but we soon realized how close we were, and we started to run. The grey van put on a right turn signal. So we J-ran across 16th and then I ran to the corner or 14th street and Irving Place. My friend kept pace with the two vehicles. The taxi pulled up at the corner, and we watched. Compared to a real taxi driver’s lifestyle, the pace of this program was ridiculously slow. I had just beaten the taxi to it's own destination, and now it stood there at the "No Standing" corner, waiting, for what I wasn't sure. I couldn't see through the passenger windows because they were too dark. A second crewmember sat in the front of the taxi. About 5 minutes later, the man in the grey van came out and started shooting the taxi, the door slid open, and two men who looked to be around 23, came out with their briefcases and headphones.

"Shit!" The taller doofier one shouted. He kicked his right rear leg to the sidewalk. The other didn't express much.

We got bored of watching the fake show and walked west. I pointed out the two contestants to my friend as we were walking. He had enough guts to ask them about the show. So we approached them.

Friend- So how was the "Cash Cab"?

Contestant- It's rigged man, and we lost 700 dollars.

Me- Well you didn't lose 700 dollars right? You just didn't win any money?

Contestant- I guess I could look at it more positively like that.

Friend- How can you get on the show?

Contestant- It is totally rigged. We answered a call somewhere, and someone told us that when the lady from "Cash Cab" calls us, we have to pretend we're surprised. A friend of mine told me about it.

So there you have it folks. Another show with a good idea, but lies from every angle. At least somebody can win a lot of money, but it's too bad it's not as random as it should be. It would be a much better show if it were.