The Strawberry on Top

            With Sunday's victory of the New York Giants over the New England Patriots in Superbowl XLVI, or 46, the City of New York and the State of New Jersey planned to throw the winning team a parade to celebrate the championship. The team is supposed to be a New York team, but since the stadium they play in(for tax breaks) is in New Jersey, the team was given two parades. My focus was going to be the NY event and although I'm not much of a parade person, the weather was a generous 47 degrees, and I had been going to alot of their games recently, so it was only fitting to to put the cherry on top by going to the victory parade.

              The last Giants parade in 2008 for their win in Superbowl XLII, or 42, was a misty and rainy day when I went, Tuesday was the opposite story as this unbelievable warm winter in NY continues. I took the subway downtown and noticed immediately that alot of people from my own neighborhood were wearing Giants stuff, so I could only imagine how crowded this parade was going to be with people coming from all over. As soon as we reached the City Hall-Brooklyn Bridge subway station, which was only of the recommended places to see the parade, the police had everything taped off and were shuffling people off like cattle of where they wanted them to walk. No one really had a clue where to go, so everyone just followed the line of blue Giants shirts and jackets. It took a few blocks, but then there were parade gates along the sidewalk so it was safe to say this was a good place to be. Initially, a group of people were leaned up against a gate after the nearby policeman said the parade was passing this way, but then after twenty minutes another cop comes by and tell us to move, it's not where the parade was passing. People were lined up all over the place, everyone had a theory were the parade would be going, people were breaking out maps published in the newspaper of the route, but neither people or cops seemed to have a clue.

             There was a spot that seemed logical for the parade to go by and people were already lined up, so I moved over there. Since I wasted so much time at the first place, by the time I got to the second spot I was fifteen people back from the sidewalk, which isn't ideal. The parade was scheduled to start 11am and where I was located was towards the end of the parade route, so really it wouldn't be until 11:20am I would be able to see any of the floats with the players on it. With about an hour to kill, people were keeping themselves busy by throwing toilet paper back and forth across the street. There were also beach balls(in the shape of footballs) being bounced around and a few people sneaking in drinks of liquor as well as puffs of marijuana. As time passed, more and more blue shirts accumulated and there was a sea of blue Giants shirts covering the streets and sidewalks. It was getting difficult for people in the back to get a good view, so some resorted to climbing trees. Looking up, I could see viewers looking out their windows and balconies, waiting to throw down shredded paper as soon as the floats approached. People were getting anxious to cheer for something, so anytime a bus or police vehicle passed by, there were some yells and screams. A helicopter drew applauses, as well as a "f%ck you" from some unhappy camper.

            There were true Giants fans in the crowd, but there were also a significant amount of high-school kids and college students who needed a reason to skip class, plus people who looked like they never saw a football game in their life and just wanted to go to a parade. Fans or not, people kept packing the sidewalks in anticipation of seeing the Giants players and coaches. It was standing room only and people were packed in like a can of sardines. I could barely even move my arms or elbows. Soon enough more helicopters gathered and that was a sign the floats were approaching. Naturally, I had to have the two biggest people in the crowd in front of me and blocking opportunities to take good pictures. I was also faced with the difficulty of being more than a dozen rows back, some people sitting on other people's shoulders, and gigantic iPhones and iPads blocking my view. There were some traditional parade floats, but they also used sanitation trucks(not the stinky garbage trucks) and other construction vehicles for players to ride on. One of the first group of players I recognized was wide receivers Victor Cruz and Hakeem Nicks.

            A few minutes another group of players came which were running backs Brandon Jacobs and Ahmad Bradshaw, with offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbrite. Another player I recognized on another float was offensive lineman David Diehl, who has been with the team for quite a number of years. Then came the big one, Giants quarterback and Superbowl XLVI MVP Eli Manning, holding the Lombardi Trophy, and was joined by team co-owner Steve Tisch and defensive lineman Justin Tuck. After that, people assumed the parade was over and started walking away, but then soon after more parade floats turned the corner and made its way down the street. People went running back to the gate to snap more pictures. By this time, I had moved back further and was only able to make out FG kicker Lawrence Tynes and punter Steve Weatherford. They were followed by a college or high-school marching band, and it was then the parade was offically ended. There was to be a ceremony to held at City Hall, but it required special passes to get in. There was sound for people to hear the ceremony from outside, but after being crushed for over an hour and surrounded by thousands of people, I was just looking to get out of there. Luckily, there was a subway entrance close by and I went in and headed uptown.

             There was going to be part-two of the Giants celebration at Metlife Stadium in New Jersey at 3pm, but the way the police had everything sectioned off, it would have been a task to get to the PATH train to go to Jersey, then battle the crowds getting back to NY after, I figured to call it a day in terms of the celebration. Instead of going home, I actually got off the train stop near my old job and decided it would be a good idea to have lunch with one or some of my former co-workers. I sent out some text messages and had one fellow return that he would be able to do lunch. As I walked closer to the office building to meet him, I noticed small pockets of people wearing Giants gear were walking around as they too must have been at the parade. The ol' co-worker and I went to a diner which had a very 50s-60's theme to it called Big Daddy's. It was a real throw-back to the days when diners focused on burgers and milkshakes instead of healthier wraps and paninis. I tested them out immediately by ordering a vanilla egg-cream, but the waiter told me they had no vanilla syrup, so he improved the next closest thing and used chocolate syrup with milk and 7-UP. It tasted alright, but I was disappointed they carried themselves as a 50's place, but weren't even serving egg-creams properly. Since I left early for the parade in the morning and didn't have breakfast, I ordered the malted waffles with strawberry compose. It turned out to come with blueberries as well and the taste made up for the slight insult with the egg-cream issue. The perfect ending to a near perfect day.

             A cherry on top of the waffle would've been more poetic, but I had to settle for strawberries instead...

Ball of Confusion out of the Parking Lot

            Roughly six years ago I was in Connecticut and I saw a local theater which was promoting an upcoming concert which was going to feature two of the biggest Motown groups ever in rock-n-rolls history, and that was Four Tops and The Temptations. I figured, wow, what a great idea to have both iconic groups playing together like that on one night. Since it was up in Connecticut it would've been a pain to get back up there again a few days later, so I let the concert pass, even though those two groups stayed in the back of my mind that I was going to see them live one day in the future. Time and time again I would read the act(both groups together) would be playing somewhere closer in New York, but there was always something else or a lack of motivation to see it. Recently, I saw a notice online that both groups were going to be performing together at the Capital One Bank Theater in Westbury, NY, a place I've been to several times and enjoyed its intimate setting, so I made sure I wasn't going to miss them this time around.

            The day of the show I bought a ticket online, and since I only needed one seat for myself, I actually ended up with a bargain price for a single seat located in a section that normally would've cost thirty dollars more had I needed a pair of seats. The theater must have had a single floater ticket they needed to get rid of, so it seems they dropped the price on it as an incentive for someone like me to pick it up. The show was scheduled for a 8:00pm start, I arrived about 6:40pm. The people who were supposed to help with parking wore baggy orange jumpsuits and had a thuggish way about them. It made me think the theater hired a few convicts out of their cells for a couple of hours to help with parking. The doors to be seated opened at 7:00pm, but was in no mood to wait and hour sitting down, so I stayed in the lobby area which has snacks and drinks available. There is a VIP section which allows access for a nicer area with a bar and lounge area, but I didn't buy tickets to the theater's VIP section. I been to this theater a few times before, twice to see Johnny Mathis and once for Peter Frampton. When I go to see a show there, I'm usually the youngest one in the audience, but I was happy this time there were at least five people younger than me attending the performance. It's probably my favorite venue as its very small and intimate whereas you can see performers way up close, even if you're in the very back row. The rotating stage is a neat feature to see performers at all angles. Plus, even though they announce photography and video taping in prohibited, most of the staff there is elderly, so either they can't see what's going on or just don't have the energy to enforce the rules.

             The first group to go on, around 8:10pm, was Four Tops. Although they're considered the opening act in this case, I actually like their songs more than those of The Temptations, so to me they were the main attraction. Out of the four group members, only one of the original Tops, Abdul "Duke" Fakir, is still alive and was on stage. The other three original members have died over the years, including lead singer Levi Stubbs. So even though they're billed as Four Tops, the sound isn't quite the same as when hearing their classic songs on the radio or on the iPod, or in movies. As for the other three members, one is the son of one of the original members who died, and the other two just became part of the group over time. They all did a great job being in sync together which would give the impression they're been performing together since the 1960's. They mixed in some commentary, some playfulness with the crowd, some dance moves, and lastly were decked out in gold suits. All the vintage Four Tops hits were covered such as "Bernadette", "Reach Out I'll Be There", "It's the Same Old Song", "Baby I Need Your Loving", "Ain't No Woman Like The One I Got", "Shake Me, Wake Me(When It's Over)", "Standing on the Shadows of Love", "When She Was My Girl", "Walk Away Renee", and the grand finale "I Can't Help Myself(Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)". They also went off the menu, so to speak to, for a few solo acts, but it was these classic hits everyone enjoyed the most.

           After a twenty-minute intermission, where the first time in my life I saw the line to the men's room longer than the line to the ladies' room, it was time for The Temptations to hit the stage. Like Four Tops, this version of The Temptations only included one original member from back in the 1960's, and that was Otis Williams. There was also Ron Tyson, who joined the group in 1983, but overall the sound is different from what people are used to, especially without former lead singer David Ruffin that gave them a big part of their signature sound from 1964-1968. The Temptations have gone through many makeovers and personal renovations over the years, there's about two or three other groups with former members billing themselves as The Temptations in some form or another, but with original member Otis Williams, this is as close to the real Temptations as it gets. They came out with light orange jackets and purple pants, not to be confused with the dark orange jumpsuits the parking lot attendants were wearing. Just like Four Tops, they performed all the big hits that made them Motown legends during the 1960's and early 70's such as "Get Ready", "Just My Imagination(Running Away With Me)", "I Can't Get Next To You", "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone", "Ball of Confusion(That's What The World Is Today)", "I'm Gonna Make You Love Me", "Cloud Nine", "I Wish It Would Rain", the infamous "My Girl", and lastly "(I Know) I'm Losing You".

             The Temptations have five members on stage, versus four for Four Tops, and go a little further in terms of synchronized dance moves, but both groups stuck to their roots with the flashy clothes and movements during the songs. It was nice to see all these classic hits performed live as these are songs that still find themselves in our everyday lives. A day might be a stretch, but its near impossible to go a week and not hear one of these hits from Four Tops or The Temptations while in a store, watching a movie, watching TV, hearing commercials, flipping through the radio, etc. For instance, "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch) headlines the opening of the Vietnam part in the movie "Forrest Gump", as well as got a second life of popularity in the comedy "There's Something About Mary". The Temptations hits "My Girl" and "Get Ready"are simply all over the place, appearing in countless movies, shows, and other instances where a good tune is needed. The show ended about a few minutes after 11:00pm and everyone made the mad dash to the parking lot to get out. The parking lot has only one entrance, which seems to only be two-cars wide and goes up a hill. When nearly a thousand cars are vying for this one entrance, things get a little messy. Out of the team of prisoner parking attendants, I only saw one attempting to direct the traffic, and he was failing miserably, the rest of the team was nowhere in sight. What made it worse, someone had also parked their car near this entrance way, so lines splintered from two, to four, to sometimes six different lanes of cars fighting to get through. As the title of one of The Temptations' songs, the parking lot was a ball of confusion that took fifteen minutes to get out of, and I was one of the early people out of the theater.

            Motown legends or not, there was no way Four Tops or The Temptations were leaving that place before midnight...

                                           

         

A Taste of Their Own Medicine

            The mom-n-pop video store evaporated all about fifteen years ago. With cable television fully embedded into the culture and the Blockbuster video chain dominating the video rental industry, there was just no way the smaller independant video stores could compete and keep their doors open. One by one they started to get picked off, and they all followed the same pattern. They would first scramble to get into offering video game rentals, but new video game systems were always being introduced, so games have a habit of becoming obsolete very quickly. Then they would try to get into offering DVD, but in a store filled to the walls with their old VHS cassette tapes, there was no room, time, or money to replace all the VHS tapes with DVD discs. Once reality set in and doom was around the corner, the stores would announce they're going out of business and that all their stock was up for sale. People would rush in to buy movies, the store would get emptied out, and finally close for good. A month or two later a nail salon or a 99 cent store would open in it's place.

            Each of these mom-n-pop video stores operated in the same fashion. They would have the video cassette box displayed on their shelves, but instead of a VHS tape instead, it was stuffed with styrofoam, and the movie labeled by usually a four-digit number. Depending on the store's procedure, either you brought this cassette cover to the register, or you simply gave the clerk behind the counter the four-digit code written on the cover. The clerk would then go into a back room later, and with great anticipation, they would come out and hand you the actual VHS tape which was secured in a hard plastic box that was either colored black or dark brown. The shelves were organized by genre such as comedy, action, drama, classic, sports, wrestling, and the ever alluring adult section, which would be protected from view of the rest of the store by a curtain or row of beads. As a kid if you were lucky, sometimes the curtain was bent or crooked to the point where it gave you a small field of vision to peek inside very briefly. Alot of times there would be an acarde game inside such as StreetFighter, Mortal Kombat, NARC, and WrestleFest. When a new movie was to be released to video, the store would have a poster in the front window annoucing the release was coming up. If it was a movie that was hot in the theaters, the store might have two, possibly three copies to offer the public. In the scope of things, only two or three copies for an entire neighborhood isn't enough and it was close to hitting the lottery if you were able to get a new movie within the first week of the release. To this day, I have no idea how my aunt was able to get a copy of the 1989 "Batman" we watched after Thanksgiving dinner.

             To offshoot this, typically the rental for a new movie was one night only, versus two nights which was the standard for the rest of the movies. Even with the attempt to keep the new movies within frequent circulation of their customers, it was this lack of supply of new movies for the high-demanding public which led to the downfall of the mom-n-pop stores and the rise of the Blockbuster chain. When a new movie was released to video, Blockbuster's strength was that it had twenty copies available. The strength of the mom-n-pop stores were that they had more titles and 'harder to find' movies, whereas Blockbuster focused on mainstream and popular movies. What hurt Blockbuster at first was the ridiculous prices they charged for rentals. Even though they could be relied on for new releases, it still made financial sense to rely on the mom-n-pop shops for older movies. Finally, Blockbuster let go some of its ego, started charging a little less, plus were able to offer more in terms of the video games, and that was about it for the mom-n-pop stores. Near where I lived there was Joni's, Wall-to-Wall, and the last one was called K&G Video. They all faded out one by one.

            There was a Blockbuster somewhat close to where I lived around 1990 or 1991, but it was about 1992 where one opened up very close to me. The store used to be a pharmacy as well as had aisles for other types of goods. The closest resemblance of that today would be like a Walgreen's, CVS, or Rite-Aid. It was quite a big deal in the neighborhood when it first opened as it was the only real type of chain establishment in the area. Going inside the first time and seeing how much bigger, brighter, and cleaner it was over the local video stores, was quite refreshing, but there was also something missing. Immediately noticeable were the missing adult sections and arcade games, but more importantly a sense of commercialism stood in the place of spirit. There used to be a sense of accomplishment if you were able to secure a copy of a newly released movie in the old stores, but when Blockbuster made fifty copies available, getting a new movie wasn't as sweet. Also, usually the older stores were being run by the owner or someone close to the owner, so you could detect they were really into the business. In fact, alot of times the owner had good knowledge of movies and talk up a small conversation about your selections while you checked them out. People working at Blockbuster was typically some high-school student on their summer job or some person looking for minimum wage work, not actually a movie fan that could offer any insight.

            At least for a while, Blockbuster was able to sustain the culture of going to a video store and picking out a movie, something that had been a part of American culture since the invention of the VCR in the late 1970's. As Blockbuster was the kryptonite to the mom-n-pop video stores, the internet started to slay the once big, bad, Blockbuster. First there was NetFlix, which for a very low monthly cost offers customers a wide range of movie titles and the luxury of not having to go leave their premesis to get it. Then there's the internet itself, with legal means such as iTunes, or illegal means to be able to download about any movie. The process of actually going to the video store to pick out a movie to rent faded away to the point were its basically non-existant anymore. Blockbuster has tried to offer downloadable as well as NetFlix-style delivery options for rental, but its seriously lagging behind in the rental industry and likely to be extinct in the next few years to come. One by one, Blockbuster stores have been closing down, and recently it was announced that the one near me, which was the cool new thing back in 1992, has reached its end. Like its mom-n-pop ancestors before it, this Blockbuster has been selling off it's merchandise in a last ditch effort to make as much money as possible before its closed for good.

           When it says everything is for sale, it literally means everything is on sale. Beyond the movies, they're selling the shelf fixtures, the cases, the TVs, even the ladder is up for grabs for $35. I've made a few stops inside to stock up on some DVDs over the past few weeks, although I haven't been enticed enough yet to purchase the ladder. As I made my last visit and looked at the titles of the movies still left over on the shelf, something struck a chord in my head. Sure one can look at the internet, satillite/cable television, and NetFlix for the demise of Blockbuster, but I realized something else probably stopped the people from coming, the movies. With the mom-n-pop stores gone, Blockbuster became the lone representative of the movie rental world, and their focus was always the new releases and mainstream pop culture movies over the wide variety and 'hard-to-reach' titles. If the product was good, I think the people would've kept coming. Not to say there were no bad movies before the year 2000, but looking at the movies left in that Blockbuster there seems to have been an absolute total saturation of trashy productions after 2000. Since Blockbuster became the first line of communication between the movies and the public with low cost rentals, the public must have saw less use coming into the place. With epic releases such as "How She Move", "Zombie Strippers", "Lake Placid 3"(didn't even know there was a 2), and "American Poop", why would anyone want to go into Blockbuster anymore? I couldn't answer the question, I could just give the inside of Blockbuster (the last part of the American culture of video renting) one final look and say goodbye. We'll never see it again.

            Whereas we once took a journey to the local video store to decide between Indiana Jones or Star Wars, we now get to sit on our couch and download "American Poop" to our iPhone...

Searching for Blackbeard's Treasure

            It was February 1st today in New York, so naturally the weather high was 62 degrees. People were walking around in t-shirts and shorts in some cases, while I kept my ear open in case Mister Softee decided to make a surprise winter appearance. A day like this couldn't go to waste, so I took my bike out for a ride and went to one of my usual destinations the bike path takes me, and that's Ferry Point Park.

            There's an area in the park, as mentioned in my November 29th blog of 2011 "Under a Bridge as They Say", which overlooks the Long Island Sound and provides views of the Manhattan skyline as well as LaGuardia Airport. What was different this particular day that I never saw before at this location was that the tide was very low, hence a large amount of the beach head was exposed, and items that were underwater recently would now show up on the surface. There is always the air of mystery when it comes to stuff that washes up on shore, and in the back of my mind I was daydreaming I might find an old treasure chest, or at least something cool like a dead body that got dumped. I took my bike and walked it down closer to the shoreline so I could start my treasure hunt. The sand looked a little wet, but firm, so I put my foot down and had it sink a half inch into slushy goo. With my shoes half-sinking into mud there was a small part of me saying this was a bad idea, but with a fortune to be had, I carried on.

            The first priceless item I encountered seemed to be a dead skunk, then I looked at it again and thought maybe it was a dead house cat. Turns out it was a soggy black teddy bear with a white line down its back, alla a skunk's. There were certainly tires available, from Goodyear to Michelin, and about type of ball available such as baseballs, golf balls, softballs, tennis balls, paddleballs, but the water must have been out of basketballs, footballs, and bowling balls. For a split second I did think there might've been something of real value when I saw something that closely resembled an iPad. It would have been worthless anyways as the water would have totally ruined it, but I still went up to it to have a closer look. I stepped on it and heard a piece of fragile glass crack, then after removing some of the sand on top only then did I find out it was a simple picture frame. Every five minutes there were planes roaring above me as they made their final descent into LaGuardia Airport. It was a windy day, and sometimes it looks like the planes were coming in diagonally to offshoot the strong winds.

            Something that did strike me odd was that there were these yellow and red sheets all over the place. In fact, one got caught up in a tree branch and it looked like a yellow flag waiving. When I saw the first one, I thought it was one of those veils or sheets that Hindu women wrap themselves up in, but with out thirty of them spread out all over the beach, it couldn't have been that unless a whole case found it way into the water somehow. The more I looked around the more I began to come to the reality that I wasn't going to find anything of any great value, but when I set my eyes onto a fifty-gallon drum, I thought maybe at least I would get my dead body. Excited, I took a peek inside to see what it contain, but excitement faded away as there was nothing but some old dried up weeds. With my shoes rather muddy and my feet starting to feel wet, I had to get back up onto dry land again. I found myself a seat on a bench and took in the nice-weathered day and gave my shoes some time to dry, although the low-tide smell was still present on them. The winds were kicking up pretty hard off the water, and when I heard a flapping noise I turned around to see the source of that sound and saw this large black garbage bag doing a dance. This bag was getting hit so hard by the wind it took up a life of its own and gave me a free show.

            At least I know where to go next time I need to replace one of my car's tires...