Jamie Davis Writes

Manhattan Road Notes.

Whitney Museum of American Art 

First of all, as usual, the art that I think is “Halloween Art” is not marketed as such. But c’mon, man!

I forgot to take a picture of the placard, so the one below is just self-titled by me:  “Eat Your Heart Out.” I think that pretty much sums it up. Dig the claws!

Gratuitous skeleton art. Self-explanatory.

I actually find Summer Days by Georgia O’Keefe to be quite peaceful and inspiring. It’s a life / death / rebirth type of thing. Plus, I love those desert southwest mountains.

Edward Hopper’s A Woman in the Sun qualifies as Halloween art because of the color of the light coming through the window, shining a sliver of afternoon death into the room. That light is the color of death. I don’t know how I know, but I know it. I saw it in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, and on another afternoon once, when I was much younger. Now I saw it in Hopper’s painting. I wonder if he knew it too.

This last one is not obviously Halloween art, but this is the scariest thing I saw. Leidy Churchman has painted the view from 432 Park Avenue, a 1,396-foot-high luxury condominium completed in 2015. The placard goes on to say that the building “sparked an outcry over … the stratospheric cost of its apartments,” and “hinting at the glaring divide between the ultra-rich and ordinary New Yorkers.” Let me tell you something. I would take the ultra-rich view over the poor person’s view AFD (I’m looking at you, Skyliner).

What scares me is this recently growing trend in the media to perpetuate the cultural belief that “ordinary” people should have a hatred of the rich. I find that completely unacceptable and plain stupid. Why all this rich shaming? When was the last time a poor person gave you a good job, and opportunities for growth and development? I’m so sick of this ignorant crap everywhere I go lately! I really haven’t gotten political on this blog, but my visit to New York is bringing some things out in me that need to be said to any liberal imbecile who happens upon this page. My message to you? Quit hating people who are achieving things, you bunch of losers! Keep your heads down and work harder. Make something. Build something. Have an idea and develop it. Or better yet, go live in Venezuela and see how that works out for you.

Hate the rich? Are you insane? I love them. I want to learn everything they know and become one. I don’t want to drag them down to my level. I want to rise to their level. That’s the difference between a liberal and a conservative. We want to pursue or make our own opportunities. We don’t expect someone to hand us money because we were born or because we need something. If we need something, we will go out and work and get it. If we are sick or hurt, we figure out how to work anyway. Rise, bitches. Rise. Or get the hell out of America. I’m sick of paying for your CUSSING safe rooms and supplementing your so-called “living wage” that you think everyone is entitled to somehow.

Okay, that’s all. But I’m not taking it down. And guess what? If you leave me an asshole comment, I’ll just code you to SPAM. So eat it up. Liberals.

Next.

Soho / Chelsea Market / Greenwich Village

Too crowded, but fun to walk around in the neighborhoods for a bit. The Moleskine store –  where I am LOVING yellow! Fiore’s pizza – 165 Bleecker Street. Best slices we’ve found in the last three years. Lombardi’s? Eh. Sal’s? Get the hell on with your flat pepperoni. I’m telling you. Fiore’s. They even had that grandma.

New York Public Library 

Beautiful museum-like space, with a gift shop and a small cafe, but I swear to God, we did not see one book the whole 30 minutes or so we walked around exploring. I don’t get it. We did see one giant door that was chained up. I wish I took a photo. It must be where all the New York liberals hid the books that offended them. The experience actually really pissed me off. Because I love libraries, and this my friend, was not a library. It was a commercial monstrosity. Quite frankly, it was a bullshit library, and 5th Avenue is just awful smell-wise and crowd-wise. It’s like being shuffled and beaten in a bad dream, all with the constant stench of human excrement and urine forever stuck in your nostrils. I fully intend to NEVER darken the streets of 5th Avenue again. I’ve never smelled anything like it.

Brooklyn Heights / Brooklyn Bridge Park / Cobble Hill

This was actually the highlight of Labor Day to me, walking through this neighborhood. I wish I took pictures of the views from Brooklyn, looking at both bridges, and from the park in Brooklyn Heights, looking over towards Manhattan. I highly recommend that if you have never ventured over to Brooklyn, you need to do it ASAP for a beautiful neighborhood walk. Really picturesque and almost quaint, even. And, there were no stinky smells in Brooklyn. Zero, none, not one.

At the corner of Henry and Amity Streets in Cobble Hill, a building caught my attention. I looked up and saw the sign:

The abandoned Polhemus Memorial Clinic in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn. Imagine that, an abandoned hospital catching my attention.

As always, our analog version of our travels is kept in our “Play” Journal, by Stealth Journals. “Play” is an indexed book journal that should be used to record all of your good times!