Take that, High Line! The pink piano designed by Isaac Mizrahi.

Who needs the High Line when you have a bright pink piano covered in glitter?

We caught up with one woman who was playing the pop-up instrument in Herald Square as part of a first-day-of-summer celebration. We asked her how East Chelsea was doing now that its western neighbor had that snazzy, somewhat snooty High Line.

“Living here is exciting,” said Hiroko Tanabe, 70, gesturing at the piano. ”It”s noisy, but I like it. Especially this.” She lives at 29th Street and Broadway, and told us that she thinks the High Line might detract from East Chelsea’s pedestrian population.

But she was the only we talked to who thought so. Everyone else gushed about how much they loved the diversity and culture of East Chelsea, thunder the High Line isn’t likely to steal.

“This area is very populated. I don’t think [the High Line] will take that away,” said Roman Podolskyy, 20, who has lived in New York City for nine years but originally hails from the Ukraine. “There are a lot of mixed [cultures] here.”

Michael Walikowski, 22, came to New York from Poland with the dream of playing piano in a Broadway show. He might be experiencing some East Chelsea culture shock, but he said he enjoys it.

“It’s a cool culture, different from the culture in my country,” he told The Observer. “There is a lot of diversity.”

And it’s easy to see why everyone would notice.

“I’m just sitting here to relax, and I’m seeing a whirlwind of so many people,” said Fazal Mohamed, 54. “If I sit here for 30 minutes, I can hear 15 different languages.”

So maybe that’s East Chelsea’s solution to all the snazzy new development west of Eighth Avenue. You can make new parks and buildings, but you can’t manufacture culture.

pengel@observer.com

All kidding aside, I am absolutely heart-broken by the tragedy in Japan.  I add my tiny voice to the millions already praying for the survivors.

Bless you and may you find peace and comfort in this time of sorrow.

What can we take away from this tragedy?

The failure of the nuclear cooling systems and back-up systems at the Fukushima Daiichi plant illuminates our own susceptibility and hubris in thinking that we can completely tame such wild and complicated systems.  Everything has a cost – BP Oil Spill anyone? – and we take what we can get while the getting is good.  Then mother nature has to come along and show us we are just silly little humans. *penny snatcher!*

It will be interesting to see if any energy policy changes are made in response to this crisis.  I see it as a problem with a two-part solution -

1 – Diversify energy sources.  This will vary according to where a person lives.  Your energy choices vary greatly depending on whether you live on the great, windy plains of Kansas or the sun-drenched hills of California.

2 – Use less energy.  If I learned anything from my years of crunching numbers and talking personal finance with folks it’s that when you’re in a deficit you can only get out by cutting back.  I believe this also holds true on the energy front.  From driving your car to electrifying your house the only way to conserve what we have and make future resources last is by cutting our usage.  Tough, tough message to hear.  Even tougher to implement.

With all that said, this video was so cute and weird I just had to share.  Enjoy!

The neighborhood, on a sliver of land between the river and the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway and which a handful of northern Brooklyn’s 125,000 residents call home, flies in the face of the rest of the city. With Costco and Walmart jockeying for position to open Manhattan locations, West Williamsburg remains fiercely independent of that type of corporatization.

“We moved here from L.A. and found our first apartment on Craigslist here,” said Robin King, a fashion designer who moved to the neighborhood three years ago. He fears increasing gentrification in West Williamsburg. “[The gentrification] is kind of bad. I feel like it’s going to make it more difficult for small business to stay alive. And that’s what gives it the neighborhood feel.”

In fact, aside from the bustling Bedford Avenue, where The Observer first came upon the neighborhood, most of West Williamsburg’s avenues are lined with brownstones and other housing and the streets with small, independently owned shops along with the occasional art gallery or graffiti mural. Not to mention the plethora of bike parking. And, for now anyway, the only shop that seems out of place is the Subway on Bedford. Ms. King pointed out the CVS and the Duane Reade that opened up in the retail space at the Edge, a newer high-rise luxury condo with views of the midtown skyline. She’s even heard a Starbucks is on the way.

The southern end of West Williamsburg sees more development, with modern glass-heavy designs going up next to duplexes or smaller apartment buildings.

“We moved here because we really liked the slightly artistic, slightly independent lifestyle,” said Peter Kos, a five-year resident. “Since then you get a lot of people with Range Rovers moving in. The parents in the nursery school have changed from locals to investment bankers.”

When The Observer spoke to Mr. Kos he was pushing his son in a stroller down North 6th Street, in full view of the Edge. “I’m not enjoying [the changes],” he added, unenthusiastically.

Much of the rest of West Williamsburg shares Mr. Kos and Ms. King’s sentiment. Written in black sharpie on the window of one of the Edge’s offices is “Fuck Off” juxtaposed next to a sign proclaiming the condo has “the largest amenities package in NYC.”

The housing prices reflect this trend. In 2009, the average price per square foot was $409. In 2010, the price jumped over $100 to $528. The average selling price in 2010 was $626,362 (stats taken from appraisal firm Miller Samuel). It appears hipsters are recession-proof.

“It went from hipsterville to collegeville in the last year,” said Jason Branson, who was shooting photos for his blog, The Available Answer. “I started out paying $1,600 nine years ago. I only pay $1,800 for the same one. I live in an awesome apartment, but to get an apartment in [the Edge], it’s going to cost me about $3,000 more.”

Mr. Branson admits it isn’t all bad, though. He cites more restaurants coming in, but he doesn’t understand the infatuation with the neighborhood he’s called home for a decade. “To be honest with you there really isn’t very much here, but you don’t really have very much shopping. Everything’s independent here. There isn’t anything here that you couldn’t get 10-fold in the city,” he said. “You’ll see a lot of the artists and musicians that are now having to go further out on the L train because rents are still cheap and you get better space.”

For now though, West Williamsburg and its independent, artistic spirit seems to stay intact, even with the specter of luxury condos, rising rents, investment banking and Range Rovers looming to further transform the neighborhood.

mcoyne@observer.com

I wasn’t expecting much from this show, since it’s just a remake of a British series, and since Syfy kinda changed its orientation, when it comes to original programming. True science fiction seems to die in television, so mystery and fantasy have to step up and replace TV shows like BATTLESTAR GALACTICA and STARGATE UNIVERSE. I haven’t watched the original in my life, and was never interested (contrary to SKINS), and judging the first part of the pilot to this remake, I don’t really intent to go to the original. I didn’t like it. Call it a network series on a basic cable channel, which doesn’t really fit into the Syfy branch. I was seriously bored during the 88 minutes (I don’t understand why Syfy aired the pilot in two parts – maybe because of the shitty cliffhanger in the middle), and I always thought about cutting off the pilot and go back to catching up with SMALLVILLE.

I didn’t like the first part, and I could begin something with the second part (though it was better), so I don’t really know what to think of the show. I thought I would have interest in the UK original after watching the US pilot, but it didn’t come to that. I thought it would be an interesting series, considering that it has a werewolf, a vampire and a ghost as major characters, but I didn’t find it much interesting. I expected that the writers would start up an ongoing storyline, which involves more than just the three “monsters” trying to figure out how to live in this world – it didn’t come to that, which made the second part mostly uninteresting.

I’ve had problems with the cast: Somehow I think that Sam Witwer might be miscast, and somehow I believe he was just cast as the vampire Aidan, because he had a shiny baby face, and all the watching girls could fall in love with him. But it could actually change during the series (for example: I like Paul Wesley more today than I did during the first season of THE VAMPIRE DIARIES). In addition, I haven’t gotten out much of Meaghan Rath – but here the writing was the problem, since the two-parter didn’t deliver anything but Sally trying to get over her death and get over her fiancé Danny, who awkwardly seems to be in a small main story arc, letting him come back to the house all the time and fix something. Especially when he still had the keys for the house, to enter and for Sally to give a character developing moment, which felt out of place. And finally: I don’t like Mark Pellegrino in his role. Which is because of his role. I’m almost about to say that Bishop might be one of the worst written characters during the starting phase of a TV show, because I don’t know anything about him: Is he a friend to Aidan? Does he plan to turn him to the dark side (of vampirism)? Is he the bad guy? Is he the boss of the little vampire culture in town, or just a small guy who answers to a bigger guy? I don’t know anything about him and the pilot should have developed his character, instead of letting him shine in a creepy way all the time he had screentime. Nothing against Mark, but he took on the wrong role. Thank the writing for that. Only Sam Huntington could convince me, and his character was the only one, where I could actually feel the pain of being a monster, trying to live like a human.

Story-wise, the pilot couldn’t wow me. The first episode basically did nothing, instead showing Aidan killing Rebecca (Sarah Allen) and letting her build up as an evil vampire, who is suddenly “in the story”. Here I got some trouble with the vampire mythology of the show – after all, it didn’t take long for Rebecca to turn into a vampire, get the hang of it and be the evil super monster, who is about to kill everyone in her way, as well as ruining Aidan’s efforts to blend in as a human. Nothing against Rebecca as a character, but that one felt way too rushed. Moreover, the writers could have done more with the relationship between the siblings Josh and Emily (Alison Louder). At first I didn’t even notice that Emily is part of a bigger storyline (instead she is just in the pilot to develop Josh as a character), next I found her involvement during the mid-cliffhanger very dull (excluding the even more dull conclusion of it), finished off with the fact that she hadn’t had to do anything in the story at all. So, she developed Josh’s character, and that was it? Josh wasn’t even ballsy enough to tell her the truth, and gone she is? It was basically a waste of time…

After almost 88 minutes, I actually don’t know what the series is about. A werewolf, a vampire, a ghost, some more vampires, and some people killed. In the middle, there is a love story between a dead girl, and a time-wasted living and grieving guy, but that cannot be it. At least I was bored with what I saw here, and I couldn’t convince myself to watch another episode, as well as not watching the UK original. Maybe I will get back to it in a couple of months, when the critics are raving about the genius of BEING HUMAN, but I seriously don’t think that I will like it much. In addition to BEING HUMAN basically being the wrong show for Syfy (they are just destroying their original branch).

The first part gets 4/10, the second part, which cut a break with me, gets 6/10. For now, I don’t think I will continue watching.

Waking up is hard to do ... beneath a moose

Delicious blood, now served by delicious women

Sally is dead, and still hopes to be alive

The worst character in the show is a cop

Aidan’s kill, Rebecca, returns as a vampire and Sally tries to contact Danny.

As a continuation from last week’s episode, “There Goes the Neighborhood Part 2” doesn’t really fit.  The episode instead takes a deeper look at the characters, their past and the things that turned them into the “monsters” there are today.

Though Aidan believes her to be dead, Bishop saves Rebecca, turning her into a vampire instead of letting her die.  He manages to get to Josh before he can fully transform and kill his sister, saving her but refusing to tell her the secret Josh has been keeping.  Danny comes by the house to fix the plumbing but as hard as Sally tries, he can’t see her.  At the hospital, one of the nurses, Cara tries to get Aidan to agree to a date but after the fate of his last one, he is eager to stay away.  Rebecca hunts down Josh prompting Aidan to find her and try and convince her that she should go clean but she refuses.  At the bar that night she attacks Cara and leaves it up to Aidan to make the choice, let her die or force her to continue on forever as a vampire.

“There Goes the Neighborhood Part 1” left us hanging as Josh was trapped in a room with his sister, about to transform but with no one to let her out.  Part 2 of the episode makes short work of that story though as Aidan’s super-fast running gets him there in no time.  I was hoping that it would perhaps be Sally that came to Josh’s rescue.  At this point she can’t touch things but I expect she’ll be gaining that ability soon enough and why not when you’re new friend’s sister’s life depends on it.  Maybe next week.

The focus shifts fairly quickly in this episode, giving us small glimpses of the character’s pasts.  Aidan lying on the battlefield centuries ago, Josh’s werewolf attack in the woods, Sally’s death by falling down the stairs and the wake afterwards are all flashed back to.  Not much information is actually given away though, just hints of what came before and what might have affected these people.

Of the characters, Josh is still easily the most relatable at this point (not that he really does much this week) but Sally makes some great strides.  She expresses her thoughts and fears about death and her strong desire to talk to Danny again.  He still seems quite upset over her death and she wants to be there for him but being a ghost makes that quite difficult.  On the other hand, I’m still having trouble with Aidan.  At the end of the episode Josh tells us that he takes it for granted sometimes that Aidan is as good as he is but so far Aidan hasn’t really shown us that.  He killed Rebecca last week and he seemed fine with Bishop when he was the one being protected but now he’s against the man.  After hundreds of years of life it’s hard not to wonder just how many times Aidan and Bishop might have had this exact conversation before.  Aidan’s going to have to start growing a backbone or he’ll never get anywhere.

Rebecca gives us somewhat of an insight to what the shock to your system is like just after you’ve become a vampire.  She’s bloodthirsty and proud of it and Aidan can do nothing to convince her otherwise.  She kills Cara in this episode less to feed than to torture Aidan.  It’s a difficult decision, whether to let someone die peacefully or go on living as a bloodthirsty monster.  Based on Aidan’s first couple of stories in the show we can already see how difficult it can be to stay clean.  I was hoping for a little more internal conflict in Aidan during the scene where Cara is dying on the street but instead Josh is left to be the other voice in the debate.

The second episode of “Being Human” isn’t bad but it still leaves me wanting.  I try not to compare to the UK version but since the plots are so similar at this stage, it’s impossible not to.  I can’t help feeling that the US version is missing some of the grittiness that the BBC version has.  They seem to be skimming the surface of the darker ideas that make this show great.  Hopefully they can start delving deeper now that the two episode premiere is done.

Andrea

On to the story-

• Josh is a Jewish werewolf who cut ties with his family while trying to figure out how to deal with his condition.
• Aidan is a vampire who wants to stop drinking human blood but can’t help himself and isn’t helped by the fact that his sire wants to pull him into his blood-drinking cult again.
• Sally is a ghost who doesn’t know how she died and is stuck in the apartment that she had shared with her fiance.

Surprisingly, it was not the vampire’s story that I cared all that much about. His story is somewhat predictable, while Sally is a mystery (how did she die?) and Josh’s relationship with his family, especially his sister, is endearing. I’m not clear on why they felt they needed to rename the characters–Sally was Annie, Josh was George, and Aidan was Mitchell. As though those names were too British?

Having watched both the American and UK versions, I will be honest and say I prefer the American version. Maybe I just get the humor better, maybe it just a little realer a little more quickly. There’s a great mix of humor and darkness, giving it a unique spot in the vampire and other supernatural show genre. It isn’t as sex heavy as True Blood or myth heavy as Vampire Diaries. I can’t wait to see where they take it. The end of the pilot had me gasping and praying that Josh’s sister Emily manages to make it. (I do like her and the way she interacts with her brother.)

A werewolf and a vampire move into a house occupied by a ghost.

It’s not very often I’ll watch two versions of the same show, particularly when both are airing at the same time.  I’ve been watching the UK version of “Being Human” for a while now and thoroughly enjoying it so I was not surprisingly worried when I heard the first announcement that it was being redone for American TV.  Was it really so hard to understand the UK version?  Though I’m still not convinced the show needed to be remade, the first episode wasn’t a bad start.

Josh and Aidan, a werewolf and a vampire respectively, who work at the hospital, decide to move in together in an effort to bring their lives some normalcy.  They find a house only to learn that the previous inhabitant died and now her fiancé is trying to rent out the house.  Shortly after moving in they meet Sally, the ghost of the woman who died.  Sally is trying to move on with her death but has no memory of how she died in the first place and no ability to touch or move anything.  Meanwhile Aidan is struggling with giving up killing people after he kills a date in the heat of the moment.  Bishop, the leader of the vampires covers up for him and starts to bring him back into the circle he’s tried to leave.  Josh finds a new place to transform into a werewolf, hoping that it will be safer than the woods.  Unfortunately he’s followed by his sister who’s intent on getting an explanation of where he’s been.

This first episode is clearly closely based on the original source material.  The characters have similar starting places and views on the world.  Still it’s unsettling to see the characters you know played by different actors and with different names.  Certainly something those audience members who’ve seen the original (like me) will have to get used to.

Sam Huntington as Josh was the first character that I found myself growing to like.  He’s snarky and obviously angry for the world over his condition but you can tell it all comes from a good heart.  When we see his sister walk into the room just before his full moon transformation the concern in his eyes is evident about what he might do to someone he’s close to.  Perhaps the difference that most excited me between this and the original series was the addition of a family member of Josh’s arriving.  The UK version doesn’t focus much time on their werewolf’s family (he left them after getting the condition) and I’d very much like to see his sister stick around.  Hopefully she doesn’t have to end up as a werewolf herself for this to happen.

I can tell I’ll be a little slower to be completely won over by Sam Witwer as Aidan.  He plays the typical vampire well and, by appearance, he’s what you’d expect for someone playing that type of character.  If he wants to give up blood entirely though he’s going to need a lot of backbone to keep Bishop and the other vampires off his back.  They won’t be quick to let him go.  I worry too, from the last scenes of the episode, that this “Being Human” will go the route of over sexualizing vampires as seems to be the trend these days.  The reason I love the UK version of the show so much is that it isn’t some vampire romance story and I do hope the US version stays away from that temptation.

Sally, played by Meaghan Rath, doesn’t really get a lot of time to do more than introduce herself in this episode.  We get the basics of what she can and can’t do (she can’t move things around or anything like that) and what she remembers of her death (nothing at all) but beyond that is hard to tell.  With Josh’s terrible predicament it seems that things will have to change quickly for her if she wants to save his sister.

One of the great things about British TV is that they don’t seem to have the same obsession with “to be continued…” episodes that shows in North America have.  If this episode is any indication, this new “Being Human” will follow the North American trend on that front.

This first episode of the season is certainly intriguing and hopefully the show can continue in that vein.  The show has so much potential and I look forward to the point when the series begins to pull away from the original source material (it’s less satisfying when you know everything that’s going to happen before it does).  At least then I might not have to struggle so much to make sure I use the right character names in these reviews.

Andrea

This post has nothing to do with Devendra or Natalie. But have you seen his new haircut? Have you seen her new movie? OML! Kidding, kidding, kidding.

On to the post and new years, hello, goodbye, etc, etc, etc….(don’t know why you say goodbye, I say hello, oh, oh, whoa, oh, oh…)

I usually try to give up one or two things around New Years, and Lent, and sometimes on Sunday morning when I am not feeling so “hot.” But this year, given our digital outlet to the world- right here on this scrolling list of news- and the fact that my youth is officially “over” (an ugly birthday passed, let’s not talk about it, like, ever) I thought what better way to keep myself honest than to blast my givin’ ups out to the world. Keep in mind, many of these are just for one year, as it would be impossible to say goodbye forever.

1. So long, cheesesteaks – This is very, very difficult for me. Very difficult. Some people like to smoke, some people like to drink, some people like to do drugs- I like to cheesesteak (and once in awhile, okay lots in awhile, cheesfry). It is in my DNA, and dating back to ole Antonio Mazzei and his grocery cart in South Philadelphia. But I must fight it. I must not relent to Pat’s or Steve’s or the ever so dangerous Wogies.

2. So long, chicken cheesesteaks – These also count. And this is also very difficult for me.

3. So long, PBR – It’s time. The jig is up.

4. S0 long, Chuck Taylor’s – It’s time. This jig is also up.

5. So long, late night journeys into the abyss of the Meat Packing district- There once was a time when it was only a few blocks stroll for me to leave the realities of my day to day, nite to nite, for the area between 9th and 10th, 12th to 14th, and exit responsibility for excess. This year, I will limit my adventures to Organicoa cocoa on the high line, and ping pong in the beer garden. When the sun sets down over the Hudson- I am out of there. This same thought goes for Bourbon Street.

6. So long, talking on my cell phone – You can call me crazy, but according to my Uncle, using a cell phone is the equivalent of putting a microwave to your ear, and I believe him. If you see a funny California number show up on your end, it’s me, I am calling you from Gmail to tell you to log on so we can vid chat.

7.  So long, size 34 and growing –  I understand the inevitability of growing out of my clothes from the turn of the century, but I am going to try to push it another year or so by using the treadmill in our basement at least twice a week. UPDATE: I began this post a couple days ago, and I have yet to get down to the basement, other than to take out the trash and do the laundry.

8. So long, Holy sweaters – I am not saying I am going to throw them out, all I am saying is that I am going to make an honest effort to sew them up. Though, come to think of it, a few have passed the point of no return. But the stories they remind me of- how can I say goodbye?

9. So long, defending my neighborhood(s) – After leaving New York for the better part of a year this year, I have come to grips with the fact that the single most irritating trait of any New Yorker (including myself) is their tireless defense of how “cool”  or “great” or “good, better, best” their neighborhood is when in fact what makes each neighborhood of New York so wonderfully wonderful is it’s proximity to so many others, and the diversity presented while merely afoot. So, I am done going on and on about how nothing compares to Carnegie Hill- even though, it is a fact, that nothing does. There, I am done. However, I am going to go on and on about the Marigny for at least a couple more months. As the neighborhood and I are still merely Newlyweds in my mind.

10. So long, pretending to know or care about anything regarding the regular season in sports – I can’t do it anymore. (Get it? Bengals, regular season.) I am sorry everyone, but the fact of the matter is I just don’t have the time (or a TV) to keep up with everything. I sincerely do hope the Phillies win the World Series, and the Saints win the Super Bowl, but far be it from me to tell you who is or who is not on the injured reserve this week. I understand if this clearly makes me not a “real” fan. But it is just time and circumstance. Like I said, none of these are forever.

That’s all I got!

Have a Happy New Year,

Anthony

And I have a pretty good imagination, but even I couldn’t have come up with something like that!

I wish that the previous post was the product of someone’s sick, twisted and bizarre imagination, but it’s not.

The part of the story I left out is that this woman adopted two kittens shortly there after. Shall I call the ASPCA now, or wait?

For clarification, I don’t know this woman. I don’t even know her name or where exactly she lives. My friend Chaz (and that’s not HIS real name, BTW) only refers to her as “old girl”. “Old girl calls me Friday and tells me she had to have her dogs put down…”

Like I said… you can’t make this stuff up. I apologize if the previous post upset anyone. I just wanted to illustrate that my Thanksgiving break was truly and utterly strange this year.

===

I’m Stef, and this is where it’s @ !~

He has this female friend (they used to date before I met Chaz) who called him up yesterday and told him that she had to have her 17 and 15 year old dogs put to sleep. She was really upset about this, as you could imagine.

A little backstory… this chick is a widow, and has her late hubby’s ashes in an urn in her living room. She actually talks to him as if he were still there. Said stuff to Chaz like, “[Hubby] knows you’re here, but he doesn’t mind.”

Okay, anyway, this chick’s dogs had to be put down, and when it was done, she asked for the bodies so she could bury them on her property out in Shawnee or someplace out there.

She gets them out of the back of her truck and takes them to a place on her property where she was going to bury them, so she left them out there for a couple of days so she could collect herself. THEN, she goes back, digs the holes to bury them in, then… she lops their heads off with a chainsaw and decided to use them (the heads) as grave markers!

Then buries the headless corpses…

WTFH???

Wouldn’t it have been easier to go to the taxidermist and had them stuffed…? or let the vet dispose of them…? or even have them cremated and given the ashes to do with as she saw fit? Anything other than what she did do.

This broad’s not dealing a full deck here!

And Chaz just had to tell someone! Lucky me!

I mean, I’ve had pets put to sleep. Mom had to put Pinky down just this past September, but she let the vet dispose of the poor dog’s remains. Even in my wildest imagination would I NOT come up with something so bizarre as I’ve described above!

I don’t think Chaz is going to be making any trips southeast of OKC for a looooong ass time… if ever!

What IS it with older women and small dogs? Just give me a cat, and I’ll be happy.

Okay, no “cat lady” jokes!

===

I’m Stef, and this is where it’s @ !~

The attack happened on Halloween; ironically I got to enjoy real blood and gore that day.

I went to the neighbor’s house to ask if I could borrow something.  When I went up to ring the bell and was speaking to the neighbor the dog rammed into the screen door, jumped outside and bit me.  It was traumatic, but I’m okay.  I didn’t have to get stitches.  I reacted to protect myself as best I could (thanks Tae Kwon Do) and the owner came out and grabbed the dog quickly.

Stereotypically, the dog that attacked me is a pit bull.  I understand the negative persona that the breed has, but even after my attack I’m hesitant to label all dogs in this breed as aggressive killers.  From what I’ve seen the owner of the dog does not take it for walks.  He also revealed to me after the attack that he has problems getting the dog out of the car and back into the house.  The dog originally belonged to his son, who is now in prison.  The owner is a 70 year-old man who is not prepared to own – as Cesar Milan would say – such a powerful breed.  The dog lacks the exercise, obedience and training that he needs.

I want the owner to get rid of the dog, but I doubt that he will voluntarily.  Now, I find myself in the awkward position of deciding how far I want to take this.  I spoke to animal services to confirm the dog had all of its shot; their reaction was unconcerned at best.  Now, when walking my dog (a very small dog) I feel I should be carrying a big stick!

Should I alert the neighbors?  Do I really want to turn this into a war?  Are pit bulls bullies or can they be trained?  Should the owner have to give up the dog?  Do I have reason to fear being attacked again?

“There Goes the Neighborhood”

“If it Makes You Happy”

hey guysss as promised here is a further list of 4 more The vampire diaries episodes.

Episode 18: (in order of appearance in the episode)

1.)You And I – Black Mustang

2.)Yeah! – The Golden Dogs

3.)1901 – Phoenix

4.)White Night – The Postelles

5.)User Your Love – Katy Perry

6.)Brick By Boring Brick – Paramore

7.)Hey Hey Girl – The Virgins

8.)Does This Mean You’re Moving On? – The Airbone Toxic Event

9.)To Be Your Loss – The Morning After Girls

Episode 17:

1.)Let Me Take You Out – Class Actress

2.)I Was Wrong – The Morning Benders

3.)Resignation Studies – The Silent League

4.)Young Men Dead – The Black Angels

5.)Boy – Light On

6.)Young Lovers (Sam Sparrow Mix) – Love Grenades

7.)East – Systems Officer

8.)Conscience Killer – Black Rebel Motorcycle Club

9.) All You Wanted – Sounds Under Radio

Episode 16: (this episode had some amazing songs!)

1.)Better Than This – Keane

2.)CloudHead – In-Flight Safety

3.)The Ocean – Tegan and Sara

4.)Cross My Heart – Marianas Trench

5.)Perfect Day – The Constellations

6.)Crash/Land – In-Flight Safety

7.)Lovesick Mistake – Erin McCarley (we recommend this song)

8.)The Mess I Made – Parachute (We also recommend this )

Episode 15:

1.)Black Hearts (On Fire) – Jet

2.)Time Is A Runaway – The Alternate Routes

3.)Your Eyes Are Liars – Sound Team

4.)Real You – Above The Golden State

5.)Winter Night – Sweet Thing

6.)Something In Common – Free Energy

7.)Portrait Of A Summer Thief – Sounds Under Radio

Thats it for today but do let us know if you want more episodes enjoy xoxo

And the apartment was suitably impressive for men of a certain age and the women they hope to, uh, court, shall we say. “It certainly worked for my roommates,” said Mr. Wilwol carefully—he himself is happily married. “Especially when it came to—God—the bridge and tunnel crowd.”

Indeed, a growing subspecies of midtown west—the far West Side, Hudson Yards, Clinton, Hell’s Kitchen, whatever you would call it—is that of the single, young man of, while not affluent means, certainly potentially affluent means. It’s the last bit of Manhattan where they can afford to impress.

Call it a neighbrohood.

“Women won’t move here because it’s so far from transit,” said Brian Maloney, 29, Mr. Wilwol’s old roommate. He works for a bank and has lived in the area for five years. The penthouse still produces ancillary benefits. “One of my roommates has become what you might call a ‘deal-closer.’”

“THERE ARE A LOT of things that are known to have happened here,” says the bartender at Druids, intimating that this bar was a hangout for various gangs back in Hell’s Kitchen’s grittier days. “But that head thing—nobody knows for sure.”

And while his denial that a decapitated head was ever actually rolled down this bar is comforting, it seems well-rehearsed. The history of Hell’s Kitchen is a beloved topic for Druids’ patrons, who, on this recent Thursday, were all single men who live within 10 blocks.

The men of Hell’s Kitchen are not your conventional gentrifiers, though. There are no thick-rimmed glasses, and the bookshelves precariously situated around Druids are not there to create ambiance. This is an old bar and it is for drinking, not for being seen. These men moved here for strictly pragmatic reasons: affordable rent and a convenient location if you work in midtown.

Chris Picirillo, 28, works for a Japanese bank. He moved here—for the “relatively new building and because it’s close to work”—six years ago, and stays for the neighborhood. Matt Quirk, also young, single and in finance, says the appeal is the combination of “old-timers and new-timers” living in harmony.

SLIDESHOW > WHERE THE BROS HANG IN MIDTOWN WEST

It’s a natural choice of neighborhood for them. They aren’t afraid to walk on 11^th Avenue at night; they don’t mind the Hustler Club; and drinking in a neighborhood where Robert DeNiro and Francis Ford Coppola have is some sort of affirmation of their masculinity.

IN THE LAST 15 years, the previously working-class area began to change as gays spilled over, priced out of Chelsea to the south. But the gays have receded, supplanted, according to Mr. Maloney, by people like himself (ironic that in this instance it is hetero males who have pushed out their homosexual brethren). But the neighborhood is still what they call “transitional.”

“You hear [real estate brokers] giving their spiel: ‘It’s the hottest neighborhood, etc.’ And you’re like, ‘Yeah, but there’s a gang that just stabbed a guy right down the street,’” Mr. Maloney says. “People are blinded by new construction.”

And the real estate—massive, downright phallic bursts upon the Gotham skyline: TF Cornerstone’s recent 505 West 37th and 455 West 37^th. Glenwood’s planned luxury rental on 39th Street, between Eighth and Ninth. Silverstein’s Silver Towers encompasses the whole block at 42^nd Street between 11^th and 12^th avenues.  

They offer gorgeous views, but I find it odd that one of the model apartments at 505 West 37^th is decked out for a young family. When I toured the building, the other reporter there had a piece of advice for the developer: “Cut the hard baby sell and go after the only guys with money to burn-young Wall Street types. When they move, it’s all about the views and whether it’ll impress the girls.” (In fact, she inspired this story.)

But what draws newcomers and what keeps them here could be different matters entirely. Mr. Wilwol says that for him there was but one reason: “It was Manhattan, but not too gentrified.”

And the area is surprisingly friendly, even… neighborhood-y. At Druids, everyone knows one another, and delights in regaling me with tales of the, err, rich history of the area. The stories are probably augmented for the benefit of the women at the bar, who are outnumbered 10 to 1 by men, and all (three of them) live somewhere else. More men offer to buy me a beer here than have at any one time in the last five years, but I don’t feel preyed upon. Which is weird, since I am in midtown west.

So why should you move here? The reasons are simple but profound: Irish bartenders who truly appreciate your business; a colorful (though perhaps exaggerated) history; prime views; and maybe a walk-able commute. And, for the brave single girl, an almost inexhaustible supply of suitors.

gvoien@observer.com

PREVIOUSLY ON THERE GOES THE NEIGHBORHOOD > LESBIANS IN KENSINGTON

An abandoned U-Haul on a bridge in New York

On a Greyhound bus in New Hampshire

What the f’n hell is going on here?! Someone trying to recreate 9/11 AND the OKC Bombing? What is this going on in this country? And why isn’t the government doing more to stop such attempts? Or are they doing more and it’s just not being reported because some “gatekeeper” at a news outlet decided that we should just be scared out of our wits and blame possibly innocent people just because of their ethnic heritage?

Why can’t we the people ask questions of our government officials without getting reguritated bullshit from them?

Who is telling/ordering/influencing these people (whoever they are, be they foreign born or native born) to put fertilizer in an SUV and park it in Times Square? Or in a rent-a-truck on a bridge? Or calling 911 from a bus in New England to say there’s a bomb aboard? Because I have no doubt that these people aren’t acting on their own. Someone had to plant an idea in their mind that possibly killing innocent people was a good idea.

Yet we have to still go through metal detectors and x-ray machines at the airport before we get on a plane.

This September, it will have been nine years since 9/11, and 15 years last month since the Murrah Building Bombing here in Oklahoma City. Haven’t we learned anything about terrorism, except maybe to racially profile people who are either A) from the Middle East of are of Middle Eastern descent (they could have been born here), or B) or some raving lunatic from a “militia” wanting to teach the government a lesson a la Timothy McVeigh?

Paranoid much?

I feel safe here. I know there are not “terrorists” lurking around every corner, and not every Ryder or U-Haul truck is packed with enough explosive power to bring down an entire building and the entire block that surrounds it. That’s what the media would like you to believe, but I know better. I know there are things they are delibrately leaving out.

How about giving us all the pertinent details and let us decide? When did someone decide that treating us like mushrooms (being kept in the dark and fed bullshit) was a wonderful idea? Unfortunately, media “gatekeeping” has been going on for a long, long time. They’re saying, basically, that you (the viewer, reader, listener) will only know what we want you to know, and you’ll like it.

Meanwhile, things just keep getting weirder and weirder in the good ole U.S. of A.

I’m jus’ saying is all…

—–

I’m Stef and this is where it’s @ !~

–MorelaterZ–

• Keane – “Better Than This”

• In-Flight Safety – “CloudHead”

• Tegan & Sara – “The Ocean”

• Marianas Trench – “Cross My Heart”

• The Constellations – “Perfect Day”

• In-Flight Safety – “Crash / Land”

• Erin McCarley – “Lovesick Mistake”

• Parachute – “The Mess I Made”

Theme: Don’t let prejudice prevent a friendship.

Bad/Hurtful Language: Martha calls the cat gross.

Violence: none

Spirituality/Religion: none

Morality/Ethics: Martha is mean to the cat.  Martha lies about being friends with the cat.

Sexuality: none

Educational Value: Vocabulary words:  discriminate, prejudiced, territory, tolerate, and socialized.

To learn more about Martha Speaks the series, click here.

To purchase on Amazon.com, click here.