NY Not So Confidential

Mermaid Parade 2023-  All Photos: © Stan Banos

I'm not claustrophobic, do not experience any fear of flying whatsoever- but any flight lasting over three hours is sheer, absolute fucking torture! I just get the heebie jeebies Big Time from then on- can't sleep, can't concentrate, can't sit still, can in no way be comfortable thereafter, period! And I'm not your average extra large American, nor am I a particularly envious person; keep your conspicuous items of consumption- you can have 'em all. Oh, but those First Class Mother Fucking airline seats- Jesus Fucking Lord!!! Wanna kill and maim everyone of those smug SOB's sprawled about oh so carefree and comfortable as I march back without recourse to my personal chamber of horrors... But I digress.

Mermaid Parade 2023- Coney Island

I must admit to having experienced some measure of culture shock returning to my NYC homeland this year! The Big Apple by all visible means seems to be thriving as ever: streets crowded with tourists and every measure of New Yorker hustling and bustling to make a dollar any which way they can, streets loud and alive with chatter, sirens and noises galore. In short, everything major cities used to look and sound like, so unlike the ghost town I inhabit today- storefronts vacant, downtown streets deserted, the homeless once ignored now the most dominant signs of remaining life. Having invested it's economy and very soul in Big Tech, San Francisco now suffers the consequences of entrusting its future to an entire generation whose allegiance is where they've always found it- right within the immediate vicinity of their laptop, the one true center of their reality. It's said one third (more like two thirds) of office space lies vacant downtown, restaurants and other supportive businesses are also shuttered and you're lucky to see a half dozen pedestrians ambling about on most downtown streets. Downtown San Francsico is nowhere near NYC in terms of acreage, but it once was mobbed nonetheless too...

Brooklyn 2023

East Village, 2023

So... it was good to see a living, thriving city again; although to be honest, it was also sheer madness! NY had become another entity as foreign as it was familiar when I decided to leave twenty some years ago, before I too devolved into some elderly NY street oddity. And although San Francisco is in its utter depths at present, I have no burning desire to permanently return to the land of my birth. I guess that's what's called a conundrum- not knowing where to spend my remaining "Golden Years" when I max out on SS at seventy- assuming I get there in the remaining two plus years... 

Long Island City 2023

Long Island City driveway

Long Island City driveway

Anyway, until that fateful date, we'll just have to keep wondering what will be torn down first and sold for scrap: The Vessel in NY- you can walk into its middle on the ground floor, but every set of stairs leading upward has been securely boarded up; or The Millenium Tower in San Francisco, which is still trying to right itself on the cheap, and getting all the more crooked with every passing day... 

Don't Sit On My Fucking Bike Bitch- Coney Island, 2023

Best graffiti seen in NYC- "Make Art, Get Rich- Ask Me How!"

Summer Break!

 See ya's end of June- back to the motherland in NYC...

Rule 29

Well, this is certainly... most interesting- particularly Part A: Before Submission to the Jury. In other words, Judge Cannon can decide, on her own, before the case goes to the jury, that the prosecution has not presented sufficient evidence for conviction and effectively acquit the defendant. Donald J Trump walks, decision cannot (repeat cannot) be appealed...

And this is in addition to: having power over jury selection, granting of delays, determining what is and isn't admissible evidence, etc, etc, etc...

"Scary As Hell!"

I don't question his guilt or innocence- I only question how many will now have to die in his name...

They Finally Nailed The S-O-B!

Photo: © Stan Banos

Seven years after the fact, seven years plus after a career grifter, con man and career criminal was allowed to become POTUS- we finally, finally have a federal indictment. A serial liar who became POTUS in part by decrying "Crooked Hillary" of abusing her handling of classified documents, and swearing he would make their security a priority of his administration- remember that? Yeah, I know- it's hard to keep track... The guy who lied about: how many floors are in Trump Tower, having bone spurs, where his own father was born, never having to ask for money* while running for POTUS, making Mexico pay for a wall... Yeah, the same guy who said he met The President of the US Virgin Islands- that guy!

I know, I know- we're not quite there yet; it's not a conviction (yet). But I got faith in my man Jack, the best Smith that ever was or will be. Jack No Joke, Jack Dead Serious. It's still gonna take time, and Trump's gonna shift his weight, divert our attention and scream bloody murder throughout. But it don't matter; it-just-don't-matter. Jack's got his man, and Jack won't let go...

*because he's a billionaire- Not!

Beyond Pain!!!

I've experienced some pain in my life as of late- but this is literally well beyond imagining! 
BTW- nothing like a family that has your back...

RAW Vs...

 Think the difference between RAW and the final edited image is night and day? Then go to 9:00...

Think Quick...

Photo: © Stan Banos

Catholicism has this particularly peculiar practice called "confession" where one proclaims your sins to a priest in a darkened booth, and he, representing The Almighty himself, then absolves you of said sins- until you show up the next time with a brand new batch of more, worse or same. I was standing in line waiting to go into the confessional once, maybe around fifth grade, desperately trying to figure out exactly what to proclaim I was guilty of. I finally, somewhat hesitantly, copped to having impure thoughts,* even though I wasn't quite sure exactly what the hell that entailed, just thought it sounded all encompassing enough, yet somehow, vaguely specific enough, so that the priest would accept it at face value without questioning further- questions concerning the details of which I would have absolutely no idea of... Fortunately, it worked, I think we both fully realized we were in a no win situation which could only get tragically, or at best comically worse should one enquire further. 

As a matter of protocol, priests are not allowed to divulge our transgressions to the authorities, not even if you're a serial killer, not even if you're a fellow priest buggering little boys. Wonder what the penance is for those two "Mortal" Sins? Gotta be a helluva lot more than the coupla Hail Mary's and Our Father's that my "Venial" Sins usually garnered. 

*DISCLAIMER: I do not by any means mean to imply that I originated that oft used pre/pubescent phrase, it was, as I now recall, the most ubiquitous of go to avoidance terms.