Top 10 ways to convince everyone to return to the Island:
10: Free Pina Coladas!
9: Double frequent flier miles
8: Clothing optional
7: Sawyer will make everyone a personalized mix tape
6: Starbucks now open on island
5: Island now has UVA/UVB protection built in
4: Two words: Pig roast
3: Full time doorman
2: Hula lessons taught by Hurley every Wednesday
1: Time-space travel better than Botox
There’s another good article in the NY Times about honeybees in New York City. According to the article, “A few hundred years of construction by humans in New York City, it turns out, have resulted in an abundance of structures that mimic the conditions bees like best — from the water towers that dot the rooftops to the cornices and overhangs that adorn the buildings.” Must be why this queen bee loves NYC so much! The article also mentions the Bee Watcher program (in which I’m participating) - although it doesn’t mention the program by name, the article states “the American Museum of Natural History’s Center for Biodiversity and Conservation teamed up with the city’s Department of Parks and Recreation to study [bees].”
Somehow I stumbled across this “news” that Pete Wentz, newlywed husband of Ashlee Simpson, has commissioned a giant Lego bee for his new bride. I don’t know a thing nor do I particularly care about Pete and/or Ashlee. However, Nathan Sawaya, the artist commissioned to create the Lego-bee, offered a rather sweet explanation to the question: Why a bee?
“Because it is romantic of course. In Hindu myth, Kama, the god of love, has a bow and arrows, and the bow string is made up of bees. In the ancient Greek world the bee symbolized the soul because they migrated in swarms. And the Roman god of love, Cupid, is often pictured with bees or being stung. I made this bee for a boy who wanted to give his girl a special wedding gift.”
I am so excited that one of my friends forwarded me an email about the Bee Watchers! From their website:
The New York City Department of Parks & Recreation’s Greenbelt Native Plant Center, the Urban Park Rangers, and the American Museum of Natural History’s Center for Biodiversity and Conservation have teamed up to gather information about bee diversity, bee distribution, and pollinator services in New York City’s five boroughs. If you are interested in our local pollinators, we need your help! Twice per month, from spring through the fall, we need you to observe which bee species visit native bee-pollinated plants in your backyard or at participating nature centers.
Of course, I’m on board and I will be going to the training session tomorrow at Prospect Park (coincidentally, in the building where I had my wedding - is this, dare I say, meant to bee or what?).
Photo from Kevin Cox Matteson’s Flickr bee set
Once again, Sting and his cohorts the Police announce that they are touring, and specifically playing New York City, and immediately bees go into action!
On Wednesday, a swarm of bees took over a newspaper box on the Upper East Side. Emergency Services were called but hung back, and somehow “bee whisperer” Jim Fischer, a volunteer at the Bronx Zoo, was called in (who knew there was a “bee whisperer?”)
He said he sprayed water on them so they wouldn’t fly.“This is a swarm,” he said. “This is how bees reproduce. The hive breaks in half and bees swarm around the old queen. Somewhere around here, there’s another hive of bees. We just don’t know where.”
This reminds me of the time bees swarmed onto a tree on my block in Brooklyn. While everyone else seemed surprised and alarmed, I was fascinated (”look, a bee tree!”), and knew exactly where the bees had come from (a man who keeps bees on his roof). A few days later, the bees were gone. My explanation was that they had saved up enough money (or perhaps honey?) to put down 20% on a co-op.
City Sights NY, you are driving me insane. Your stupid tour buses go right outside my window every day. But now that it’s cracked 50 degrees, THREE of them just went by within a 5-minute span. What are the tourists looking at?! This is Brooklyn, not Manhattan. The worst part is your tour guides using microphones! “NEIL DIAMOND, THE SINGER, AND BARBARA STREISAND…” Well I just gave a busload of tourists some real New York flavor as I gave them the finger. They probably all took pictures and will be back home in Iowa going “Look, Karl! This REAL BROOKLYN person gave us the finger! Isn’t that hilarious! Imagine if the cows out back could do that!”
If you would like to call City Sights New York and complain, they can be reached at 212-812-2700. Better yet, find out where the tour operators live and go by their apartments making loud, inane announcements all the time.
Brooklynvegan informs us that the Police (as in, the band fronted by Sting, not the NYPD) are meeting with Mayor Bloomberg today to “make a very special announcement in New York City’s Times Square.” (The most hilarious comment on that post, by the way, is “Maybe Bloomberg is going to pardon Sting for the entire output of his solo career.”)
A press release about the exact nature of this announcement should be up on the New York City website shortly, but as of now there’s merely an announcement about new ferry service to/from Manhattan and Far Rockaway - suitable for Mayor Bloomberg to meet with the Ramones, but not the Police.
Update: From NYC.gov:
MAYOR BLOOMBERG, STING AND THE POLICE ANNOUNCE CONTRIBUTION TO MILLIONTREESNYC AND REVEAL THAT THEIR LAST EVER CONCERT WILL TAKE PLACE IN NEW YORK CITY TO BENEFIT LOCAL PUBLIC TELEVISION STATIONS
$2 Million Contribution to MillionTreesNYC - $1 Million Pledged by The Police, an Amount Matched by the City - Will Plant 10,000 New Trees and Help Reforest 2,000 Acres
Final Concert Will Raise Funds for Thirteen / WNET and WLIW New York
The Cobble Hill Cinema in Brooklyn has its negatives - the lack of any place to wait inside to buy a ticket, getting served popcorn that was clearly made the day before at a matinee, and the infuriating sizing of the concessions (”child sized”) come to mind - but it’s got a lot going for it too, and remains my favorite movie theater in the vicinity by a long shot. I like the discounted movie tickets during certain days/times, the creepy-yet-endearing portraits of movie stars painted on the walls, and the selection of indie/mainstream movies in one place. But best of all is the intro to the films. It looks like it was made in 1983 (complete with lasers, pinballs, and a very dated sounding musical score) yet it reminds moviegoers to turn off their cell phones. I went to see a movie at the Cobble Hill Cinema yesterday, and I noticed that they had some newer, more technologically advanced pre-show slides and adver-tainment (yes, I just made that up). I was hoping and praying that the laser-pinball intro would remain. Thankfully it did. I wish I had a clip of it to share here, but alas this seems to be the one thing NOT posted on YouTube.