»Ayveq

Ayveq died yesterday (this last story uses a photograph of mine as the illustration).

Ayveq the Walrus

Photographs of Ayveq, which, curiously, I have never uploaded to flickr.

»Harry J. Aleo

Harry J. Aleo, the colorful and plain-spoken horse-racer, real-estate dealer, and baseball player (baseball player!), died over the weekend. Although I knew him from the signs in his 24th–Street storefront, he had led, by all accounts, a rich and sincere life.

I will never recover from that first shock of seeing a Reagan poster in Noe Valley.

»More on spending lottery winnings

One of the aspects of New York City's streets that has me shaking my head: the prevalence of half-stolen bicycles. Almost every block has a utility pole or parking meter with a scavenged bicycle stuck to it; I thought that, should I win sacks full of money by playing the lottery (which I don't), I would cycle around town fixing these bicycles and redistributing them. This idea now strikes me as naïve and optimistic: a more constructive approach would be to repair everyone's bicycle, for free, with priority to people who use the bicycle for everyday work (deliveries, commuting, et c.). Roadies and recreational riders probably don't want me wrenching on their bicycles, anyhow (me, tired after fixing on bikes).

I began taking photographs of these, which I call Unhappy Bicycles. See the slideshow of this neglected and picked-apart bicycles of Manhattan.

»In which you can never have enough hate

Hatred for stroller-pushing latte-sipping line-cutting moms in Brooklyn bike shops; hatred for the disappearing, long-forgotten past; and hatred for things in general, dammit. Warning: Some links more bilious than others.