...It's been awhile since I've gone off on a good ol' blog rant.
It's late Saturday night (or I guess more accurately, Sunday morning). My plan for tonight was to meet up with a friend and probably barhop, but she never called and I wound up "taking a nap" while watching the Ottawa-Jersey game. I would have loved to stay awake during that... not that I'm an Ottawa fan, but they were trouncing Jersey (for those unaware, my Ranking Triumvirate of Most Despised NHL Teams is: the New York Rangers, the New Jersey Devils, and the Washington Capitals). I fell asleep late in the first, when it was tied at 1. I woke up late in the third, when it was 5-2 Ottawa. It ended 5-4. Jersey actually did worse when I was asleep. I also would have liked to hang with my friend... nights out barhopping with her are always long, late and crazy. Of course, I had one of those last night. Ben and Steve and I started out at my office, drinking and watching R. Kelly's latest 7 chapters of his "urban opera" masterpiece,
Trapped In The Closet. Sheer, sheer brilliance. They currently stand at 12 chapters, and they are continuing with AT LEAST 10 more (Kells has currently written 22), and it is ALREADY one of the greatest viewing experiences of 2005. Trace it through
WIKIPEDIA and you can view all 12, or pick up the DVD. Or find a friend who did. After that we played frisbee in my office for at least a half hour, singing in parody of the song as a sort of ludicrous improv exercise. Whoever had the frisbee HAD to continue singing. We discussed plans for later on, and self-awaredly commented on the ridiculousness of our current situation. Then we toured our way through some East Village haunts until around 2. But the point of this whole little ramble is that I am not out having a night like that again tonight. I'm home unloading a bunch of thoughts and pictures and NTG nonsense I've come to splashing around here.
Where shall we begin?...
How about, with pics from two sporting events I attended:
The ING New York City MarathonAND
A Lucha Libre Wrestling Match.
First, the wrestling. It was at the Fix, in Williamsburg, owned by two friends of mine from
Karate. A few times a year, they host Lucha Libre wrestling matches in the middle of their coffee shop/bar. This was my first time checking it out, but I'll definitely go back. The whole thing is ludicrous, in a great way. Two women in thongs and masks come out and wrestle WWF style for a few minutes, complete with scripted dialogue and the antics of one contestant's "manager" who repeatedly and cartoonishly sabotages his player's opponent. Being in Williamsburg, you have to wade through armies of hipsters, but that usually isn't hard. What's cool, as my sensei pointed out to me over a beer before the match, a good half the people in the place were friends of his or the owners, and they were ALL somehow involved in martial arts. But you would never imagine it from looking at this hipster-ish cafe. There's dudes in there who can kill you with their bare hands. Don't start nothin'!
Here's the scene:
Here is Lobo Blanca, before her long awaited rematch with La Tormenta! Here she is from a slightly wider angle:
That's sensei in the back, the lower left corner. Yes, that's correct, look past the be-thong-ed ass hanging out a mere foot from my camera lens. See the dude in the back? That's sensei.
Some of the action from the match:
Now, my award for Favorite Snap Of The Night goes to this shot:
I had thought of using this in another "What Is It?" Contest, but decided I liked it too much for that. During one of the antagonist manager's aforementioned antics, he pulled a bottle of baby powder and sprayed it in the "good" wrestler's face. I snapped the bottle as it exploded. This one's bound for the
2005 Favorites, coming this February!
And thus endeth the wrestling match...
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The morning after, nursing a fierce headache I made it outside to see my friend Heather run past me in the New York Marathon. She said she'd be passing through Harlem around 12:30 or 1, so I walked to 116th & 1st, hung out for about 2 hours and snapped pictures. I handed out a few cups of water too, it's a cool way to connect with the runners.
Some people were just so happy to be running, it was quite inspiring.
And of course, you had the assorted people running in costumes and goofy stuff like that. Some people took it further than others. I saw a guy running in a bunny costume, a couple clowns (which let me tell you, was creepy enough to induce nightmares... imagine a clown running past you in the middle of a marathon, grinning maniacally, waving at you while sweaty makeup drips off his face), and the very-common "hooray New York" foam hats (usually Statue of Liberty crowns). One of my favorites was this guy:
Talk about classy. Committing entirely to running a MARATHON, dressed in this goofy tuxedo t-shirt? That dude rules.
Here are a couple multi-pic sequences, courtesy of Pentax's repeat-shot function...
First, watch #9379:
Second, check out #2209, and the dark-haired woman behind him:
There are cuprakers all throughout the running path to stem the tide of disposed paper cups. I wonder if there's a way to tally how many of those cups they use in the marathon each year...
In the end, I wound up not seeing Heather run past. She said she got a slower start and probably passed by, ironically enough, about a half hour after I left. I'm really proud of her though, it takes a lot of strength (physical, mental, what have you) to run a race like that.
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So at this point, it's rather late. There are still some things to clear out of the NTG cache, but they will have to wait. It's late. Stay tuned for the new Eagles Pic Of The Week, sometime tomorrow evening. Can the Birds defeat the hated New York Giants? Yes, yes we can.
Eli "Eeyore" Manning will slink off to the sidelines quite often, I daresay. Also coming up will be my review of Neil Young's
Prairie Wind (which is already on pace for making me cry more than any other record of 2005), a new New Snaps, and maybe a sneak preview of the forthcoming film
Colleagues, currently in production under a veil of secrecy at the NTG Offices...
Good night, all...
*****N*T*G*****
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