Crazy clouds over Manhattan

Last Friday, while having some dinner at Mexican Radio (after missing a Michael Jackson tribute in Times Square), I and 8 million or so New Yorkers were treated to some amazing cloud formations and lighting as the sun set on a crazy week in general.

Luckily, I had my camera with me and was able to grab a few decent shots to remember just how weird everything looked. I’ve posted them on my Flickr account and Gothamist even posted one in their gallery about the mammatus clouds.

And additionally, you could download the Crazy Clouds Over Manhattan image as a desktop wallpaper over at MyBestDesktops.com.

I should remember to carry my camera with me as much as I can.

Update: In a roundabout way one of the photos I took of the clouds made its way onto CNN via a video report that featured  Gothamist which had a thumbnail of the shot. It’s tiny and only there for a second, but it’s there:

Sure it’s morbid and probably been over exposed through the years from folks like Warhol, but I’ve never seen this photo before and am bizarrely drawn into it’s story.

I should remember to be a bit more morbid and get back to taking photos.

Via The most beautiful suicide kottke.org

Sometimes, it’s very easy for me to forget to be creative and keep coming up with new interesting things. (Not just stuff I’m comfortable with.) For some reason this video seems so inspirational to me. It makes me want to go out and create something incredibly individual… something only I could do.Oh well, I hope I remember to stay inspired.

Ahh, found the original creator: Sander Plug.

Who could have thought that a bizarre first person puzzle game with two unlikely stars in an insane testing computer promising cake and the lovable Weighted Companion Cube would turn out to be literally one of the best games ever made? Since the Orange Box’s release, the web has embraced Weighted Companion Cube with nothing but the love he (?) deserved! There have been fan movies, Halloween costumes, cuddly plush recreations, papercraft versions, cake versions and more.

Weighted Companion Cube, we love you… and we’re sorry we killed you.

I should remember to build or buy my own Weighted Companion Cube.

I don’t know what the makers of this game were thinking when they were coming up with this shooter/fighter/dodger thing, but for some reason, they decided the one thing that could act like icing on the cake of their masterpiece would be an announcer with a bizarre Mexican accent shouting “You win!” and a bunch of other sound bytes.

To play the game, you stand in front of the arcade box holding a gun like Time Crisis or House of the Dead, but instead of going through a story, you fight other cyborgs (though no real explanation is given) in more of a Tekken or Virtual Fighter (which everyone was playing in Japan) style… but with guns!!

Your opponent in the game stands across from you and you’re both supposed to use use cover to hide from bullets and then shoot back. This control is accomplished by left and right foot pedals. The whole thing was very awkward at the beginning, but quickly became bizarrely fun. I would imagine they could pretty easily port something like this to the Wii, especially since the graphics weren’t mind-blowing or anything.

I gotta remember to hit more arcades whenever I get the chance… and figure out why this game is named “Too Spicy!”

If I ever become single, I have to remember never to go here again. Basically, I think I would go straight to jail. The place is simply full to overflowing with the finest young Japanese women purchasing and modeling the tiniest clothes I’ve seen while in Japan.

Found in a large silver building in Shibuya, this place is a mecca for all the sexiest Japanese teenagers.

The funniest thing about the whole place, though, has to be the fact that none of the shops have sizes!! Yes, all sexy Japanese women are 1 size. I don’t exactly know what that size is, but I can tell you it’s very small.

This is something I didn’t know, but now I doubt I can forget.

I should remember to check The Great Yokai War out again now that it’s on DVD. I would imagine the special features on the DVD are great.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

This was history in the making, so I had to check it out. The place was mobbed with people in 2 lines that extended for a combined 10 blocks at least by the time I left. Luckily, I got there around 11am when things were still a little sane. Unfortunately, James was late. He showed up around 2pm when people were already supposed to be going through the Apollo at 1.

Anyway, the line experience was full of well meaning comradery… for the most part. (The initial delay and the fact that celebrities and other “dignitaries” were allowed in first before anyone else had almost everyone grumbling and occasionally shouting at police.) But walking through the Apollo, onto the stage, and looking at this very small, old, dead man in a purple suit with a quirky smile frozen on his face was truly, truly, bizarre.

I don’t think I’ll forget this freaky day.

(Update: I had forgotten until today that old song from the 90′s by Lords of Acid, “James Brown is Dead”)

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.

That was the plan anyway. I’ve had a bottle of authentic absinthe (smuggled in from Europe) for a while, but never tried it, so when I heard there was a show also called Absinthe at the traveling Speigeltent that had recently set up a temporary camp under the Manhattan side of the Brooklyn Bridge, I figured it was now or never.

To make a long story short, absinthe doesn’t taste very good (though I will try it again), however Absinthe was a real treat. The show was kind of a mix of vaudeville, gymnastics, sultry singers, hoolahoopers and a half-naked guy in a bathtub all done on a tiny, tiny stage in the middle of a very cozy tentish structure.

This week is their last week in New York it would seem, however I should remember to swing back around to have a beer in their beer garden under the bridge before they pack up if only for the excellent view.