New York City got more expensive…r
If there’s any indication of a looming recession, New York City pizza and bagel prices are beginning to skyrocket. If you don’t believe me, my local bagel shop has been raising the price on their bagels this past month and have posted articles to justify the growing concern. Wheat and flour prices are to blame.
Visits to numerous pizza parlors around Manhattan found similar increases, or plans for them, perhaps up to $3 a slice.
Business will take a hit, Mr. Mangano said. Even though a dozen teenagers wearing backpacks clustered at some tables, he added, “They buy maybe two slices, and the rest don’t even buy sodas.”
Damn, they even snitch on those cheap ass sneakerheads who buy $200 sneakers and won’t shell out more than $2 for food. Don’t front. You know who you are!
If that’s not all, the MTA just took a giant shit on the collective crowd of public transportation users. They have raised the prices and skewed the system to leave bits and pieces of leftover change in your card to net more profit.
Base Fare: The base fare will remain at $2 for subways and local buses and $5 for express buses, but relatively few people pay the full fare.
Unlimited-Ride MetroCards: The cost of unlimited-ride MetroCards will rise to $25 from $24 for a 7-day card and to $81 from $76 for a 30-day card. The 1-Day Fun Pass will cost $7.50, up from $7. A new 14-day MetroCard will be sold for $47. The cost of a 7-day express bus pass remains $41.
Pay-Per-Ride Bonuses: Under the current rules, riders can buy MetroCards in denominations from $4 to $80. Putting $10 or more on a card results in a 20 percent bonus. Most commonly, a $10 card gives you $12, or 6 rides for the usual price of 5.
The new rules are more complex. Putting $7 or more on a card will result in a 15 percent bonus. The minimum amount to get a free ride is $7, which will result in a card worth $8.05 — good for 4 rides, with 5 cents left over. Paying $10 gets you a card worth $11.50 — good for 5 rides, with $1.50 left over. Paying $20 gets you a card worth $23 — good for 11 rides, with $1 left over. The minimum amount you will have to pay to get an even number of rides, with no money left on the card, is $40 (which gets you a card worth $46, good for 23 rides). If you need help with the arithmetic, try this MetroCard Bonus Calculator.
How to Avoid a Leftover Balance: The M.T.A. is recommending three options to avoid having a balance left over on a pay-per-ride MetroCard with a starting balance of less than $40.
You can buy a $10 card from a MetroCard vending machine and refill it 3 times, with $10 each time, or you can buy a $20 MetroCard and refill it once with another $20. Either way will eventually get you 23 rides, with no balance left over.
You can visit EasyPayExpress to automatically refill your pay-per-ride MetroCard and pay your bill with a credit or debit card.
You can visit a MetroCard merchant. The M.T.A. is unveiling two new cards, available only at stores that sell MetroCards. One card will cost $17.39 and carry a $20 value, good for 10 rides. The other card sells for $52.17 and carries a $60 value, good for 30 rides.
I am so happy that I’ve been riding my bike for the past five months. I’d be bitching like hell right now if I found out my monthly got jacked up to $81.
Terry Richardson x Kermit for Supreme
Is Supreme running out of ideas? It went from Tera to Raekwon to Dipset to Tyson to Kermit? What’s next?
Mar 4, 2008 • categories: Fashion, NYC • tags: supremenewyork terryrichardson kermitthefrog • {0 Comments}
Michel Gondry at Deitch Projects
Alongside the premier of his new film, Be Kind Rewind (which, by the way, has an absolutely ingenious and clever site), Michel Gondry has set up an elaborate studio where guests can film their own 5 to 15 minute short. The New York Times covers a bit of the ideas behind his setup at the Deitch as well as questioning his intentions that they are contrasting with his actual film work:
The interactive populism on display at Deitch Projects disguises the mandarin nature of the enterprise. Mr. Gondry’s project is, in fact, a big, ambitious work of conceptual art, in the vein of what the French critic and theorist Nicolas Bourriaud has called “relational aesthetics.”…
It doesn’t add up. Mr. Gondry comes off seeming confused and conflicted — if not condescending, self-serving and intellectually slippery.
I think it’s a bit hokey but it conjures up a lot of spirit his new film embodies. The Times also has a video that walks through the gallery and gets Gondry to share his take on the whole project. If you didn’t catch the trailer when it first floated around the web, you can watch it here.
Mar 1, 2008 • categories: Art, Film, NYC • tags: bekindrewind deitchgallery michelgondry nytimes • {0 Comments}
Photography afterparty
My department at Tisch had their Show Two gallery opening Thursday night, and I finally found my way into hanging out with my colleagues outside of 721 Broadway for the first time in my entire four years at NYU.
Bridge from hell
Click to enlarge the shit infested bridge I had to haul ass through…
Snow geekery
I enjoy geeky rides in the snow on the way back home.
It’s in the pudding…
There she goes again. No wonder the salad bowl’s been missing since I’ve been back in NYC.
My cab driver approves of interracial fucking
A swift 4 hours and 39 minutes of air time on an empty 7am Virgin America flight to JFK left me a bit dazed and confused, especially when at touch down, New York air temperature was at about 26º. My usual airport fan fare involves 20 minutes of shuffling my terrible Cantonese to a Mandarin speaking cab driver from WK Limo, some cheapo Chinese town car service located on Allen street. After huddling for about 25 minutes, I got into the cab and started to go through the motions of Chinglish again.
Me: Two Zero Three Souuuuuu(f) Three Street
Cabbie: What the fuck are you saying? Ah too zelo tree?
They usually give a chuckle when I apologize for my lack of Mandarin speaking skills, and go through the details of how I’m from San Francisco and my family is from Hong Kong. For some reason this guy starts talking about whether or not where I live is dangerous.
Cabbie: Where you live… do you have a lot of… blacks?
Me: Umm… no not particularly… it’s got a lot of people in general.
Cabbie: Do you like… Gee.. Gee or ge… Bush?
Me: Why?
Cabbie: I like-a… you know?… woman… white woman president?
Me: Oh, you mean Hillary Clinton.
Cabbie: You don’t like Hillary Clinton?
Me: I like Obama.
Cabbie: You just like my son, no like woman.
At that point, he hands me a pack of cigarettes and offers me a smoke. Puffing away on his own fag before I could turn down his offer, the car filled with smoke as the sun glared around the overpasses on the BQE and into his eyes. He fumbled with the GPS all while ignoring the flow of traffic or the car ahead of our lane. Soon after, he yelled ‘Shit!’ a dozen or so times after the GPS began speaking in German. ‘Shit… do you know how to fix this piece of shit?‘ he asked. At that point he was already on to another subject.
Cabbie: Yesterday I take man to Atlantic City, drive 2 half 3 (hours)… pay tree hundred! His girlfriend very pretty. Beautiful. You know girl from China? Come to Amelica, so beautiful, nice skin, soft eyes, so nice.
Me: Sure.
Cabbie: Girl from Amelica, even nicer. If they go find Amelican… *makes a hole with index and thumb and puts his finger through it*… and fuck… fucking… make very beautiful baby.
Me: Ummmm watch out we’re drifting into another lane.
I felt a little bad that I wasn’t going to Atlantic City.