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May. 24th, 2008 09:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatMaybe it's just me, but I don't see much difference between HD and regular Digital Tv. The whole HD TV thing reminds me of the whoopla surrounding CD's way back in the 80's - when everyone swore the sound was better than records (vinyl), only to change their minds twenty years later when records are in scant supply and players impossible to find. Highly amusing that. Also somewhat predicatable. People appear to want what is not available - whether it is the next best thing, or something from the distant past they remember with rosy eyed nostaglia.
Midway through a rather boring and somewhat redundant post on racism on tv, Wales called and I decided to spend the day with her instead. We ate lunch at an old diner on Court Street, which Wales loves, but makes my skin crawl, you can see the dirt on the floor and the bathrooms, plus the place's idea of wallpaper is mirrors. But the burger and fries was just six bucks, a bargain in NYC. Off to the library, where Wales ordered books (she gets all her books now at the library, using book stores to get ideas on what ones to order, while I buy mine, because I'm compulsive that way and allergic to books in libraries and somewhat phobic of librarians - I blame the completely and irredeemably evil HW Wilson Company for this. Doesn't help that the Brooklyn Library is dirtier than a subway, it makes subways look sterile by comparison. You can't breath in the place. And the books smell like mold.) So Wales got her cojones off at the Library ordering free books, while I fell in love with the Strand, well not completely in love, it lacked the sizable sci-fantasy section that people online had promised me.
ME: What happened to the sci-fantasy section - there's only two bookshelves and most of it is stupid Star Wars and BattleStar Galatica novels? I was lead to believe you could find out of print and hard to find sci-fantasy here?
Wales: There is another bigger Strand - it's on 12th Street. This is the one on Fulton. They may be talking about that one.
Me: There's two?
Wales: Yes, the first one and famous one. This is the second one.
Me: Ah. Well at least I scored three books I couldn't find elsewhere, that's something.
I finally found Catherine M. Valente's "The Orphane Tales:In The Cities of Coin & Spice" - got it for the bargain price of $7.00, 50% off. Also got Caitlin R. Kiernan's "Murder of Angels", and Lolita Files "Sex Lies Murder Fame" (a comic send-up/satire of the book publishing industry). Felt a sort of drunken glee (the fact I'd just had a cosmopolitan probably helped) wandering about the aisles, a feeling that I haven't had in a book store for quite a while. "This," I told Wales, "is what book stores are supposed to look like. Like a huge book fair, with everything equally displayed. And easy to find. Not like B&N, where you have all this stuff that has zip to do with books getting in the way. Plus reasonable prices."
We also wandered through the Amazonian Exhibit at Southstreet Seaport. Skippable. Not worth the five bucks at all. It was advertised as a virtual reality experience of sound, sense, and touch - recreating the Amazon jungle in the city. What I saw reminded me of a high school prom.
But the Paris Cafe is worth a visit, an old style Irish pub, with old mahogany wood, four tv screens, and an irish bar-tender. Best cosmopolitian I've had in a while. Course last one I had was in the 90s, it was a 90s drink.
Midway through a rather boring and somewhat redundant post on racism on tv, Wales called and I decided to spend the day with her instead. We ate lunch at an old diner on Court Street, which Wales loves, but makes my skin crawl, you can see the dirt on the floor and the bathrooms, plus the place's idea of wallpaper is mirrors. But the burger and fries was just six bucks, a bargain in NYC. Off to the library, where Wales ordered books (she gets all her books now at the library, using book stores to get ideas on what ones to order, while I buy mine, because I'm compulsive that way and allergic to books in libraries and somewhat phobic of librarians - I blame the completely and irredeemably evil HW Wilson Company for this. Doesn't help that the Brooklyn Library is dirtier than a subway, it makes subways look sterile by comparison. You can't breath in the place. And the books smell like mold.) So Wales got her cojones off at the Library ordering free books, while I fell in love with the Strand, well not completely in love, it lacked the sizable sci-fantasy section that people online had promised me.
ME: What happened to the sci-fantasy section - there's only two bookshelves and most of it is stupid Star Wars and BattleStar Galatica novels? I was lead to believe you could find out of print and hard to find sci-fantasy here?
Wales: There is another bigger Strand - it's on 12th Street. This is the one on Fulton. They may be talking about that one.
Me: There's two?
Wales: Yes, the first one and famous one. This is the second one.
Me: Ah. Well at least I scored three books I couldn't find elsewhere, that's something.
I finally found Catherine M. Valente's "The Orphane Tales:In The Cities of Coin & Spice" - got it for the bargain price of $7.00, 50% off. Also got Caitlin R. Kiernan's "Murder of Angels", and Lolita Files "Sex Lies Murder Fame" (a comic send-up/satire of the book publishing industry). Felt a sort of drunken glee (the fact I'd just had a cosmopolitan probably helped) wandering about the aisles, a feeling that I haven't had in a book store for quite a while. "This," I told Wales, "is what book stores are supposed to look like. Like a huge book fair, with everything equally displayed. And easy to find. Not like B&N, where you have all this stuff that has zip to do with books getting in the way. Plus reasonable prices."
We also wandered through the Amazonian Exhibit at Southstreet Seaport. Skippable. Not worth the five bucks at all. It was advertised as a virtual reality experience of sound, sense, and touch - recreating the Amazon jungle in the city. What I saw reminded me of a high school prom.
But the Paris Cafe is worth a visit, an old style Irish pub, with old mahogany wood, four tv screens, and an irish bar-tender. Best cosmopolitian I've had in a while. Course last one I had was in the 90s, it was a 90s drink.
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no subject
Date: 2008-05-25 02:17 am (UTC)I know what you mean about the music technology, I still own way too many cassette tapes and not enough CDs (I got rid of my vinyl decades ago).... luckily no one is claiming that 8 track was the best, huh?! LOL
I love a great bookstore, but they are rare now days. There is a 1/2 Price Books place in Berkeley that I used to think was amazing, but I went there last week and it has gotten really sad (I'll bet they are under new management).
no subject
Date: 2008-05-25 01:37 pm (UTC)The Strand is rather famous, apparently. Nearly everyone on my flist who is book savvy (ie - a professional writer, librarian or collector) visits the Strand whenever they come to NYC. It has discounted books, and over two miles worth. One store is ten miles of books. And all discounted. Never seen anything like it.
no subject
Date: 2008-05-25 06:11 pm (UTC)And talking about books, I hope you got my email thanking you VERY much for the huge package of Neil Gaiman goodness you sent! I'm very excited about reading them all (and the House of Secrets too). Thank you again!
no subject
Date: 2008-05-25 08:19 pm (UTC)Oh, so glad that you got them. Hope you enjoy them. The Dreaming, oddly, are my favorites.
no subject
Date: 2008-05-25 08:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-05-25 09:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-05-26 06:23 am (UTC)I just got home from seeing Recount (a friend gets HBO, I don't) and it was really well done, not new information but incredibly good performances, Kevin Spacey is totally awesome!
no subject
Date: 2008-05-27 12:13 am (UTC)Will have to rent Recount, since don't have HBO. I do adore Kevin Spacey - he's in the list of actors that I've been willing to watch really horrid films just because he was in them. Been a fan of Spacey ever since he played Clarence Darrow in a PBS tv miniseries way back in the early 80's just after his guest starring turn on Wise Guy as Profit (who is so much like the original Spike character, it's scarey - in fact Marsters portrayal of Spike is closer to Spacey's portrayal of Profit than it is of Sid Vicious - that I can't help but wonder if the writers and actors watched Wise Guy. I saw Spacey in the role after Buffy had finished, in reruns. Spacey had died his hair blond for the role, was a charming sadistic character who was obsessively in love with his twin sister.).
no subject
Date: 2008-05-25 03:40 am (UTC)By the time you get up to 80" or greater (like on big projection systems) the different is not only obvious but startling.
As to new record players, actually there are still plenty of them around, but you usually have to go to a good audio store to find a decent one.
How many are there? Here's a sample:
http://www.needledoctor.com/Online-Store/Turntables
BTW, do you still have records, or did you ditch them years ago like a lot of people did?
no subject
Date: 2008-05-25 01:45 pm (UTC)(But still holding on to my cassette tapes for some reason...go figure.) Wasn't a huge fan of record players - they took up a lot of space and I was always scratching my records by putting the needle in the wrong place. So I happily got rid of the thing way back in 1992 or 1993 along with my records. CD's take up a lot less space and when you live in NYC, space is a commodity.