Just in time for Halloween (my favorite holiday of the year), I’ve paid a visit to Green-Wood Cemetery. Every time I go there I’m amazed by the place. Not only is it huge, but it’s also practically overflowing with ancient commemorations to the thousands of bodies just below the ground you walk on. I posted a bunch of photos to Flickr to help the memory.

I need to remember to go there at least once a year.

This memory happened over a month ago, so obviously I’m pretty fuzzy about the whole thing, but I was coming back from exchanging something at the Diesel store on 60th street at lunch time when I spotted a cute girl on the subway platform. Although we made eye contact, I wasn’t about to be all up in her business, so I began the process of pulling my iPod nano from my bag… only to have it swing free using the earphone cable like a tree vine. At precisely the perfect moment, it came unattached from the cable allowing it to make a beautiful arc in the air landing square in the middle of the E line tracks.

All I could do was look back at the cute girl whose eyes were bugged out when she said “oh shit!”

Now, I’m thinking to myself, “Hey, it’s right there. A mere 6 feet or so away. Just jump down and get it.” Then of course, the next thought is: “Are you kidding me? if you’re down there and the train comes, it’s death!”

The girl says something like: “What are you going to do?”

I’m like: “I got no idea… it seems pretty close…”

She’s all: “You are kidding, right!? I think you should go tell the attendant.” Note that the attendant at this station is waaaaay upstairs up a long escalator.

I think about this for a second. Consider my options. Weigh possible death or at the very least getting very dirty against the value of a sub $200 device. Briefly contemplate leaving it there should a train comes… but no train comes. Instead, I go upstairs leaving the girl on the platform and wait 20 or so minutes for some dispatched MTA workers to fetch my tiny music player.

I was actually really surprised at how fast the MTA workers showed up after being called, so I should remember that there’s no need to risk my life should I drop something on the tracks again.

(image by petrozo)

I need to remember how great it is to head out to St. John for a long weekend. All it takes is leaving mid-afternoon Thursday, then coming back late Sunday to make months of work and aggravation disappear. The weather was fantastic as usual (although we did experience a Saturday afternoon shower), the food was excellent (mmmm…. roti from Sogo’s), the accommodations at Gallows Point were just as fantastic as I remembered from having stayed there before and best of all, the whole thing was easy.

Unfortunately, there was getting stuck as usual in Puerto Rico for a night because the airport there has simply the worst service of any I’ve ever been to… ever! But we did manage to make the most of a bad situation and enjoy a night in Old San Juan. I can’t wait until Jet Blue starts flying directly from New York to St. Thomas (something that should be starting soon). Then I can finally say goodbye to going through San Juan and American Eagle.

I should remember to frequent St. John and my new favorite beach!

One additional item that happened perhaps as a result of not playing video games in September was that I managed to read a good book during my daily subway commute. Tokyo Cancelled by Rana Dasgupta is a collection of stories in the spirit of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales as told by characters stuck spending the night snowed into a Japanese airport after having to make an unscheduled landing.

The stories start out semi-normal, but their imaginativeness quickly spirals out of control into the fantastic. A woman in love with Robert DeNiro’s illegitimate son can turn into Madison Avenue shops by eating magical Oreo cookies, a guy creates a Japanese sex doll that turns on him after learning how to be a woman by surfing the internet, another woman is followed across thousands of miles by a bird whose wings have been cut off, a poor guy inflicted with a plant growing inside him takes an immortal being with him when he dies, a young Indian woman makes plants grow exponentially whenever she sleeps and more. (I’ve actually already forgotten some of the stories although not because of their lack of worth, but rather because of my lack of memory.)

Anyway, one of the early stories really stood out to me was about a guy who saved the people of the world from losing their memories by being a receptacle for everyone else’s memories (both good and bad) until he overflowed releasing the memories back out into the world. I wish I had a guy like that hanging onto my memories I so quickly forget until I need them….

Oh well, I should remember to read more books.

My first concert ever was a Steel Pulse concert back on St. Croix at the racetrack across the street from the airport. I was in highschool (although I can’t remember which grade) and my most memorable moment at the show was watching the grand finale which consisted of Steel Pulse playing and dancing to Rollerskates slower and slower and slower until they stopped… waited a moment… then starting to play the song backwards!!! Ever faster they jammed and danced around backwards until the whole crowd went insane with cheering.

Last night, I had the pleasure of catching Steel Pulse again. This time, in New York and around 15 years later, they were just as amazing as the first time I saw them and although there was no backwards playing, they performed the best concert I’ve seen in years. (Maybe even around 15 years.) I mean they got New Yorkers dancing and clapping and singing along like I thought it was impossible to do. Having a catalog that spans decades helps, I’m sure, but these guys were more than just tight. They were incredible.

I must remember to catch Steel Pulse shows whenever I can.

So, not playing video games in September proved to be fairly easy. In fact I should remember to do it again next year.

The main idea behind it was to try to fill all the time I previously spent playing games with some traditionally more fullfilling tasks like going out at night, being more creative, and just plain experiencing more of the city I live in. Just using this site as my main source of memory retention, I’ve been to this years New York Burlesque Festival, a wedding in Connecticut, The US Open for the first time, enjoy an Absinthe filled evening, and gone to a “secret” free Gnarls Barkley concert where I caught a glimpse of David Bowie… and that’s just the nights I wanted to remember. Additionally, I ate out a lot more. (I shouldn’t forget running into Justin Timberlake at Cafe Habana.)

In terms of being more creative, that was initially directed more towards drawing and painting and although early in the month I spent a couple nights working on some drawings, the majority of my creative pursuits in September were the result of buying that Nikon D80. Not only are the photos it can take breathtakingly sharp, but it got me out of the house first shooting architecture, then interacting with people on the street getting more human shots. In fact, yesterday I walked down streets I’d never been to in Brooklyn before exploring for new undiscovered visuals (like this sexy cake).

So, yeah, I went out at night more, I was much more creative, and I certainly experienced more of the city I live in (I even walked over the Brooklyn Bridge into Manhattan for the first time), BUT what that doesn’t mention is how much money I spent! I spent way more money than usual last month. Food, concerts, a new camera, camera gear, the obligatory new clothes… these things add up.

To me, this disproportionate spend in September shows that there needs to be some sort of balance for life to run smoothly, although it doesn’t hurt to have an experiment in behavioral changes now and then…