tomversation

Getting lost in Boston

boston-newspapers — The Sunday papers. $7.50 for both! I love the feel and smell of the local papers, so I guess it’s worth the $7.50.

I didn’t think you could get lost in Boston, I always thought it was quite small. I usually stay in Cambridge a the Marriott near MIT. To me it is perfect because I love Cambridge and it’s convenient, right outside the door, under the hotel is the subway (the T) and the Massachusetts Avenue Bridge is not far, which takes you from Cambridge across the Charles River to Boston, right to Boylston Street, to the noodle shop that I love. This was the first place I ever had Tom Yum Kai soup many years ago.

And I take the T back and forth to Harvard Square and beyond. All very convenient.

From your hotel window, high atop the Marriott you can see Boston across the river from one end to the other, you see the Citgo sign at Fenway Park, all across Boston to the North End. So Boston seemed small to me.

But I didn’t realize the downtown area in Boston is all small winding streets. I’m staying in a hotel there. Usually I would stay in a hotel near the park, Boston Common, but this time, I’m not sure why, I am in the downtown area.

I went out early Sunday morning for breakfast and to my surprise, there was nothing open. I had hoped to go to Pret A Manger, my go-to place in NYC every morning, they have the oatmeal that I like and I like their coffee, but they were closed and so was everything else; the blue law? Or is that just liquor?

oldsouth2 Anyway, for an hour I got lost in the downtown area winding my way around the old streets, enjoying all the old buildings that they so revere in Boston (get it, revere? Paul Revere?). Near my hotel, on the corner is the Old South Meeting House, there since 1729, as I walked by, the worn front doors had me picturing the likes of Benjamin Franklin, et al, hanging out in front before and after meetings. This is the place with the red doors. It was the gathering place for the Boston Tea Party!

In the past I would know how to easily find my way back to the Marriott in Cambridge or the hotels along the Boston Common. So I can find my way back to my hotel here in the winding downtown area, I wrote it down. Should I pin it to my shirt now?

boston-list

I’m in Boston this weekend

I’m in Boston for the next few days and then I’ll take the train down to New York for Thanksgiving week. Nothing better than a long train ride through New England in the fall, only there aren’t many leaves that turned yet, in this area anyway.

The weather was perfect today, 45 degrees and not windy, just right.

I love the history. I found myself on the Freedom Trail. That basically is red bricks on the sidewalks that leads you through the old parts of Boston to historic sites like the Old North Church and Paul Revere’s house among so many other places.

I always find myself in the cemetery up the hill from the church. It’s amazing to think some of those headstones (and bodies) are there untouched from the 1600s.

Tomorrow I will take the subway (they call it the T here) to Cambridge and check out Harvard Square. That always looks like the set of an old Jimmy Stewart to me. Perfect New England setting.

Whoops, I did it again

ornament1

I was putting up my Christmas tree earlier this week and as usual, I broke an ornament. I guess it’s just not Christmastime unless I break an ornament.

I know, it’s too early to put the tree up but I do it now because I will be out of town until December and this way when I get home in December, I don’t have to deal with the tree at that time. I won’t light it up until December. But it’s done.

I like the way these ornaments look. The red one below is a favorite from a few years ago. I put the copyright on it because I thought I would make a Christmas card out of it, but I never did.

ornament2

I love the smell of Crayola in the morning

Four totally surprising uses of crayons. Who knew?

But how do you wash the t-shirt?

My comics and that homeless guy

Two updates on blog stories I posted recently.

1) I sent my new comic strip in to the syndicates on 11/11. One of them I mailed and four of them I managed to electronically send on 11/11 at 11:11 am. Two were email and two on their websites, so I filled in all the info and wrote the emails and at 11:11 am, I just clicked the send buttons one at a time. I had a minute to do it, so it was easy enough.

2) That homeless guy at McDonald’s. Well, I went back Sunday morning to get coffee and there he was again, only he wasn’t hiding in the bushes, he was standing at the exit to the drive-thru. An excellent place to be if you are panhandling. I had seen him chase him away from there but he was there Sunday. I gave him five bucks for ingenuity. I liked his Halloween comment last time. I think there’s a future for this guy.

Visiting cartoonist George Booth

I see New Yorker cartoonist George Booth is featured at the Society of Illustrators in New York City. I saw this great feature on CBS Sunday Morning today about Mr. Booth, this is it above. I’ll be in NY next week, so I hope to stop by and enjoy his work.

Last time, actually, the only time I was at the Society of Illustrators, was this past July, that’s when I went to see the Spider-man art exhibit with my cousin Michael.

When I was in New York last month, my cousin Beth handed me a book she bought for me, it was “Going into Town” by cartoonist Roz Chast. She said, “I thought you might like this, I don’t know if you are familiar with Roz Chast’s work but it was about cartooning and New York, so I assumed you would like it.”

I was excited. I told her that I had found one of my new favorite museums that way, the Museum of the City of New York. In all these years, I had never been, but I saw that last July (2016) there was an exhibit of Roz Chast’s work who I was very familiar with, so I went up to see that. I now love that museum and that neighborhood, so every time I’m in New York, I check it out.

Developer guilty of destroying graffiti

tom-heading — Me at the Wynwood Walls, Miami.

I live near Wynwood, the Miami arts district, so a story I read in the NY Times caught my attention.

A Queens, NY developer was found guilty by a jury of destorying graffiti.

There was a graffiti filled complex called 5Pointz that consisted of almost 50 spray-painted murals. For 20 years, the Long Island City building was a collaboration between the developer Jerry Wolkoff and graffiti artists, very much like Wynwood in Miami. Then in 2014, Wolkoff had it torn down and turned into high-end apartments, which is what Long Island City has become these days.

Wynwood is a while neibhborhood covered in Graffiti, there is one section called the Wynwood Walls where they are literally painted walls inegrating with each other. This Queens desecration is almost as if someone came in and knocked down or white washed the Wynwood Walls.

The artists sued Wolkoff for violating what they call the Visual Artists Rights Act.

What’s interseting is that the murals in both locations – Long Island City and Wynwood, change often, they are painted over with new murals, so just the fact that there was a lawsuit and that the artists won is something, because in all honesty, the last set of murals would have been painted over by other artists eventually.

The jury awarded damages to the artists. I don’t know how much.

Here are some more murals from Wynwood in Miami.

Getting ready to submit my work

hal

So I have my new comic strip ready to submit to the syndicates. It’s all packed and ready to go. What I mean by that is I have the cover letter, character sheet and samples all set in tidy PDF’s. Now the wait. This is Hal, the main character.

I’m waiting for November 11 at 11:11 am to submit it – that is 11/11 at 11:11 am.

Four syndicates accept the feature electronically, one only accepts it by snail mail, so I may snail mail the one at 11:11 am at the post office and then wait until 11:11 pm to submit the remaining four electronically.

To be continued.

My favorite time of the week

My favorite time of the week is Tuesday night, about 9 pm. I don’t know why, but that’s the sweet spot for me. I also like the same time on Wednesdays and Thursdays, so Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at 9 pm are my favorite times of the week, Tuesday being the most favorite.

I’m not sure why.

Usually at that time, Tuesday at 9 pm and almost every night of the week, I go out to my balcony, which overlooks the bay and I sort of meditate, or I guess it’s more like contemplate. I’m only there a short time, maybe five minutes, but I do it almost every night of the week. I step outside, there is no one around, no one can see me. It’s sort of special.

The bay is black and it’s quiet. On full moon nights, which is this weekend I believe, the bay is lit up and it’s really something special. I manifest then. I guess the best time to manifest would be 11:11, but I do it at 9ish.

Years ago I used to love Mondays. Monday morning was the best. I would go to the beach on Mondays and it was empty since most people worked and they would obviously go over the weekend. I think I worked weekends then, so maybe Monday was my weekend. Whatever, it was quiet, just like my balcony at home at 9 pm.

Years ago, my favorite time of the week was about 9 pm on Saturdays. It was the sweet spot then. I went out most Saturdays about 11 pm, and I suppose 9 pm was earlier enough to enjoy the anticipation of the night and also it was right about when I was watching tv and just enjoying the weekend. What do they say, “the shank of the evening?”

Ha, that’s what Tuesday at 9 pm is now, The Shank of the Evening; The Shank of the Week.

It pays to have a sense of humor

I was at the drive thru at McDonald’s about 7:30 am yesterday. It was nice and peaceful as I sat waiting to move up to the window in my car. Out of the bushes comes an old homeless man who scared the crap out of me.

This happened to me once in Ft. Lauderdale at a Popeye’s and it was late at night, so that really freaked me out.

Anyway, I yelled at the old man and said, “Why are you jumping out from the bushes? You’re gonna scare the hell out of people!”

He said, “So what? It’s Halloween!”

That made me laugh. So I gave him money.

There’s nothing like a clever old homeless guy. I wish he would use his sense of humor to get out of being homeless. But at least he has that going for him.