Category Archives: photography

April 25, 2010 · 9:54 pm

I heart my WHAT gum?

This one gets the MFTA tag because I was waiting on line to pay at a store today and was called over to the cashier on the completely opposite side of the counter from where I was standing. Why? Because in the ‘impulse buy’ rack at that counter would be the very last pack of…

I heart my penis gum. It was fate!

Yep, kiddies, this little package is the real deal. It contains ‘8 pieces of artificially flavored fruit chewing gum’ (why fruit?)

I told the cashier that I would have bought 10 packs if they had them and she told me they can’t keep this stocked. Seriously, is there a guy you know that you COULDN’T by this for?

You know how they all feel about them. And then there are the guys that refer to their penises as ‘the little guy’ or ‘little ____ (fill in their name in the blank)‘, ‘or he’ as in ‘he wants ____ (again fill in the blank)‘ as if there is a separate brain sitting down there in their pants. (which I guess there is).

No, guys, this is not a penis bashing post, you have to admit there is truth in all this. And do you really think you would ever see ‘I love my Vagina’ gum for sale. I think not. Maybe Gary can market the ‘I love my Hey-Nanny-Nanny gum, though.

Ok, so perhaps most men would prefer us to give them the ‘I love your penis’ but somehow I don’t think it would be as big a seller.

This is equally as entertaining as the Sexlet gum I found in South Beach and the Does this gum make my ass look big gum that I received as a gift.

I guess you could say I am the Magnet for the Absurd Gum (MFTAG).

Haven’t had enough of me yet? You can also read me at 50-Something Moms Blog. For photo enthusiasts, visit Leaving the zip code, photos from outside the comfort zone.

7 Comments

Filed under absurdities, body image, humor, magnet for the absurd, photography, sex

Tagged as absurdities, gum, i love my penis gum

April 15, 2010 · 1:01 am

The Bulgarian Bar

The Bulgarian Bar is NOT upstairs.

I, for one, was quite relieved by this signage.

Apparently they have a problem with thirsty Bulgarians.

What was upstairs was a fabulous, tragically hip (which we are not) asian fusion tapas (any other groovy name you can think of to describe it) restaurant called Kuma Inn. (113 Ludlow Str, NYC)

Great food, great service, reasonable prices and lovely bathroom with lots of candles.

And SO not a Bulgarian Bar.

Haven’t had enough of me yet? You can also read me at 50-Something Moms Blog. For photo enthusiasts, visitLeaving the zip code, photos from outside the comfort zone.

2 Comments

Filed under carry a camera, humor, New York City, photography, places of interest, signage

Tagged as bulgarian bar, Kuma Inn, lower east side

April 9, 2010 · 7:50 pm

Recovery Agent

I love this picture. I love how the yellow type on his shirt matches the wall. I love the coral and turquoise accents. I love the chrome furniture that doesn’t really belong in the tropical setting. And I really love the big cup of fries on the table next to this super-sized guy (note the ankles – they are the size of my neck!).

But what I love the most is the type on his shirt.

Recovery Agent.

What the hell is a Recovery Agent? One source I found in a google search told me that a Recovery Agent is a person who is issued a public key certificate for the purpose of recovering user data that is encrypted with Encrypting File System (EFS). Um, ok. Probably not this guy.

Then I found the The Fugitive Recovery Network website. Now let me tell you, I’m not sure how I have lived without knowing about this stuff all these years. These guys ‘provide national professional services to Bail Enforcement, Fugitive Apprehension, Bail Bondsman, Bounty Hunters, Fugitive Recovery, Private Investigators, Surety Companies, and Skip Tracer Agencies or Agents.’

Fugitive Apprehension?! Bounty Hunters?! Skip Tracer (WTF) Agents?! Man these are some exciting job titles.

But somehow I think this guy bought this at a souvenir shop like the NYPD shirts you can buy in Times Square.

Hey, a guy can dream.

Haven’t had enough of me yet? You can also read me at 50-Something Moms Blog. For photo enthusiasts, visitLeaving the zip code, photos from outside the comfort zone.

2 Comments

Filed under carry a camera, photography, t-shirts

Tagged as bounty hunters, fugitives, recovery agent

April 7, 2010 · 8:42 pm

Paul Giamatti and the broken trackball

Today was a lemons to lemonade day. I woke all cranky about the broken trackball on my blackberry that would go sideways and up but would not go down (please, hold the jewish girl references here). If you are a blackberry user you know that down is key. Without down you can’t read your emails, you can’t turn on your bluetooth and you can’t change your settings to vibrate so your phone bings all night long with emails. Ok, so I could have shut it off for the night but let’s not forget I have a daughter overseas and without the blackberry we have severed-comm (yes, I have been watching too much 24 – copy that).

So, on this unseasonably beautiful April day I was not all that sorry to take the convertible out to the Verizon store to get it fixed. Happily it was only a $20 replacement part. And while I was there I had a nice lively debate on the worth of the iPad with my favorite guy there.

But, the biggest treat of all was that today a film was shooting at our town’s train station. And who was there, but Paul Giamatti (who I called Giamotta on Facebook today and am still a little embarrassed that I have a photo album there with that name in the title).

Poor Paul. There he was in a wool cap and this heavy jacket and it was near 90 degrees at high noon. I am guessing this was not exactly lemonade for him.

Haven’t had enough of me yet? You can also read me at 50-Something Moms Blog. For photo enthusiasts, visit Leaving the zip code, photos from outside the comfort zone.

1 Comment

Filed under carry a camera, communities, photography, places of interest, technology

Tagged as blackberry, fim set, ipad, location scouting, paul giamatti, train station, verizon

April 4, 2010 · 9:50 pm

Spring at last!

When you can end a weekend day like this how can you ever complain about anything?

Doesn’t suck.

Haven’t had enough of me yet? You can also read me at 50-Something Moms Blog. For photo enthusiasts, visit Leaving the zip code, photos from outside the comfort zone

4 Comments

Filed under carry a camera, photography, restaurants

Tagged as beer, corona, outdoor restaurant, spring, weekend

March 9, 2010 · 9:09 pm

White Dogs with Orange Socks

I don’t know, I just couldn’t come up with anything clever as a title for this. Sometimes the obvious is so outrageous it just fits.

Seems like the theme this week is pets. So if you are not an animal lover check back on maybe Saturday.

I saw these little lambikin like doggies on the Esplanade in Battery Park City yesterday. If you have never been there, you should visit, it is a very cool place and it almost seems like it is a different city than NY. Full disclosure, Battery Park City Authority is a long-standing client but I genuinely love this place and have watched it grow over the past 25 years from a whole bunch of open lots into a thriving urban jewel.

Back to the white dogs in orange socks (this sounds rather Suessian, no?). I was with a friend/client and we stopped to talk to the owner of these little… scamps. I am pretty sure she suffered from a little OCD of sorts because when I asked to take their picture she was all upset about their ‘faces being dirty’. Apparently these tiny orange socks are not meant to protect their delicate itsy bitsy feeties, they are to keep them from getting soiled.

Oh my!

Do you think she was offended when I bent down to pet them and told her my dog takes bigger dumps than this? Yeh, probably was classic anti-social behavior, but it did get a laugh out of my friend.

Haven’t had enough of me yet? You can also read me at 50-Something Moms Blog. For photo enthusiasts, visit Leaving the zip code, photos from outside the comfort zone

3 Comments

Filed under absurdities, communities, humor, New York City, pets, photography, places of interest

Tagged as battery park city, battery park city authority, dog socks, dogs

February 10, 2010 · 8:35 pm

We’re Ok

Oh, how I love a good license plate. This was a tough shot. But thanks to Miss Jana literally hanging out the back seat window, in the rain, I have this perfect shot of a plate I must say I am rather jealous of.

I wonder if their other car has a plate that says ‘NOT OK’ for the days when things are not going so well.

After the big blizzard of 2010, or as the news has called it Snowzilla, Snowmageddon or some such nonsense, I thought this was a nice sentiment. We New Yorkers have nothing to really complain about after what DC/Baltimore/Philly have had to deal with this past week.

Gary is OK after insisting upon driving to work and back. ‘Hey, the drive was fine, there was no one on the road.’ Um, could that be because we are in the MIDDLE OF A DAMN BLIZZARD and most people have the sense to stay off the road?

Mel is OK after a full day of playing in the snow.

Danny is OK after shoveling, how many times was that? Maybe 4, plus digging out our 89 year old neighbor to boot.

And I am OK after 3 rounds of shoveling, cooking one kick-ass stew, baking a few dozen muffins all while banging on the keyboard and still getting a good day’s work done. Oh, and I think I have the new facebook all straightened out.

Yep, we’re OK.

Haven’t had enough of me yet? You can also read me at 50-Something Moms Blog. For photo enthusiasts, visit Leaving the zip code, photos from outside the comfort zone.

1 Comment

Filed under license plates, photography, weather

Tagged as license plates, photography, snow

February 2, 2010 · 11:31 pm

Vote for Mel

I am always checking out the latest cause-related campaigns because they tie together my passion for marketing, promotion, social media, design and a worthy cause. One of the best things about the social web is the way those involved have embraced social good and incorporated it into some really fantastic promotions. One only needs to take a peek at what Pepsi has up its sleeve instead of the gazillion dollar Super Bowl ads this year.

Today I received an email from Zazzle promoting a photo contest with a fundraising component supporting Spay Day 2010.

Who better to enter this contest than our dear sweet Mel – the ultimate good sport. I entered the photo below because although there have been many featured on this blog in the past, this is my all time fave. She is a great model.

Below is a preview of a page where you can vote for my girl and make a donation to a local organization, The Animal Lovers League in Glen Cove. Here is a link to the page as well. If you feel so inclined, make a donation to a worthy cause. She has 30 votes already!

Haven’t had enough of me yet? You can also read me at 50-Something Moms Blog. For photo enthusiasts, visit Leaving the zip code, photos from outside the comfort zone.

Amy’s Pre-Grammy Day

In celebration of the Grammy’s, or perhaps because it was the last day of the exhibit and my sweet sister-in-law made sure that I would not miss something so wonderful before it was over, we went to the Brooklyn Musuem’s “Who Shot Rock & Roll” this afternoon.

I will tell you all that I am sorry the show closed today because anyone who is a true fan should be sorry that they missed this gem. (Dr. Jimmy, we missed you!) Along with some of the most memorable images of the past 50 years in rock and roll, the exhibit was peppered with treats such as a full wall of a lenticular Jimi Hendrix (this is the process like the old wink buttons where the image changes when you move around it) , Jerry Garcia and Mountain Girl, and a mosh pit shot that defied reality. Also, not to give Jimi too much weight, but there was a series of him burning his guitar at Monterey Pop that I really wanted to slip in my bag on the way out. Amongst the iconic shots like Bob Gruen’s John Lennon in the NY T-shirt and images from rock photography greats like Danny Clinch and one of the world’s greatest photography talents, Richard Avedon, the show was more about the not so famous photographers. The men and women who never achieved great fame but shot those who did. I found their stories the most interesting.

As if this pre-Grammy day was not perfect enough, I drove home in time to hear Bob Dylan’s Theme Radio Show on XM and tonight’s theme was New York. Although I did not get to hear the whole show I did hear this: Duke Ellingtons, Take the A Train into Funky Broadway, not by Wilson Picket but Dyke & the Blazers, into a wonderful reading by Bob of Emma Lazurus’ The New Colossus (you know: Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses, yadayadyada) into Lou Reed’s Dirty Blvd that parody’s that work. (Give me your hungry, your tired your poor I’ll piss on ’em
that’s what the Statue of Bigotry says. Your poor huddled masses, let’s club ’em to death and get it over with and just dump ’em on the boulevard.) Not gonna lie, had that one cranked up to window rattling levels. Always been a sucker for Lou Reed.

All in all, I go to bed tonight a happy camper. Sometimes the week beats the crap out of us. If we can rejuice with what we love on the weekend we wake up Monday with a better attitude and the skill set to try again.

Haven’t had enough of me yet? You can also read me at 50-Something Moms Blog. For photo enthusiasts, visit Leaving the zip code, photos from outside the comfort zone.

4 Comments

Filed under art, carry a camera, museums, music, photography

Tagged as bob gruen, brooklyn museum, danny clinch, grammys, jerry garcia, jimi hendrix, john lennon, lou reed, mountain girl, music, richard avedon, who shot rock and roll

January 13, 2010 · 9:33 pm

Driver’s License Update

Ok, so I admit it. I went and tried a second time to secure an acceptable driver’s license photo. And no it did not work out well…

AGAIN!

For those who have not read the beginning of this saga you can read about it here.

I know, give it up bee-otch. Maybe you really are that ugly. Maybe you do have the neck the size of a linebacker. But seriously, I really don’t look that bad in person.

Jana came home from school and decided that she, too, was not happy with her photo. (starting to see a pattern here?). The Monday between Christmas and New Year’s we lost our minds and were unconscious enough to not realize the entire universe was off that week and at least three-quarters of that said universe thought DMV biz was a good idea. So off we went to have the pictures taken and then sit on the bench watching the numbers roll by on the monitors for somewhere in the neighborhood of an hour and forty-five minutes. I know, what a lovely bonding afternoon for the reunited college girl and her mom. Hey, it was a great place to people watch.

Finally we get called up. She pays her 17 some odd dollars and then I go to my window.

Clerk: Can I have your old license please?

Me: Look at that picture! Isn’t it awful?

Clerk: Really, do you think anyone looks at these?

Me: C’mon, admit it is awful

Clerk: Does it REALLY matter?

Me: Ok, I am vain. There I admitted it.

Clerk: Thanks, that’s all I wanted from you.

I swear, that was the conversation. Then she proceeds to tell me that I do not have to pay because you have 6 months to keep retaking your photo for free.

Me: For real?!!

Clerk: Now, ma’am, please do not become a serial DMV photo taker.

Regarding the photo at the top of this post:

I was playing around with the Mac’s photobooth features and decided that posterized would be the preferable filter for me to use on all official documents. What do you think? Kind of babe-ish in this shot, right? In a maybe a you swallowed a lava lamp sort of way, but I kind of like it.

Haven’t had enough of me yet? You can also read me at 50-Something Moms Blog. For photo enthusiasts, visit Leaving the zip code, photos from outside the comfort zone.