Category Archives: life

World According to Art

Posted on by
May 26 is a massively important day. The preparation and celebration of said day tore me away from my blog for two whole days, yet surprisingly, this historical importance of this day is rarely taught in schools. Even so, May 26 fills the annals of history with exciting events and interesting personages.

For example:

1521, Martin Luther was declared an outlaw and his writings banned by the Edict of Worms.
1647, Alse Young becomes the first person executed as a witch in the American colonies
1689, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, English writer, bluestocking and eccentric was born
1799, Alexander Pushkin was born
1805, Napoléon Bonaparte assumed the title of King of Italy in the Duomo di Milano
1828, Mysterious feral child Kaspar Hauser was discovered in Nuremberg
1964, Lenny Kravitz was born
1984, I was born.

I’ll leave you to imagine which of these occasion caused such feasting and recovery that I couldn’t even post, and also what 7 pounds of lamb kebabs look like.

It’s rather an odd birthday for me, or rather part of an odd year. I took a ridiculous administrative job in a field that I have no interest in; it happened to pay more than my last job for a 4-day work week. I decided to take a year to pursue my interest in writing and art. It’s flown by. My birthday just reminds me how close I am to the end of my year, as of September 15, and how I have no clue what I will do (or am doing) with my life. Even worse, September 15 is my personal due date for my novel–and the novel is not cooperating!

On the upside, I saw a really interesting painting exhibition that I can’t wait to share. Thanks for your patience with the absence of posts, and happy 25th birthday to me!

And now for your regularly scheduled blog…

Fire! Goodbye to Hong Kong Supermarket in Chinatown

Posted on by
View from Henry St. and Pike St.

Last night the smoke I thought was from a neighbor grilling turned out to be from the biggest fire I have ever seen–at the end of my block. I watched for a few hours as Hong Kong Supermarket, a Chinatown landmark, and the apartment building attached to it burned down. It felt surreal, like a film noir movie in color: rain, mist, smoke, fire, trenchcoats and dramatic lighting. The streets were full of Chinese in pajamas and reporters with big cameras standing in the rain.

Unfortunately, the huge fire that drew trucks from across lower Manhattan destroyed these buildings. It was a 4 alarm fire (which is apparently a lot.) If it started in the bottom of the building next door, as the news reports, then my boyfriend and I were right to guess that it started as a kitchen fire in the subterranean Chinese restaurant.

Like a postman, I could carry on through smoke, and rain, and fire to our weekly ravels in review, but that seems decidedly anti-climatic. So let’s skip it and get to the photos:

The blaze kept coming back on the roof of Hong Kong Supermarket.

Water pouring out the back door of Hong Kong Supermarket as it is being hosed through the roof on the front.

At the intersection of Allen/Pike St. and East Broadway

Luckily the fire didn’t spread to the gas station across the street, or anymore buildings than Hong Kong Supermarket which, stuffed with packaging and boxes in an old warehouse, went up like a tinderbox.

This was taken at about 11:30, when the fire was under control and you could finally see through the smoke.

There were tons of photographers from the news there, and I even ended up on 1010Wins, a local station, myself (you have to listen to the audio to hear me).

I left the scene just before midnight and then couldn’t settle down until 2 AM, so I’m exhausted. I still can’t believe Hong Kong burned down. While there are no end of fruit and vegetable stands, nothing else in Manhattan’s Chinatown has that range of products. They imported all Asian products, so that the ramen you bought there was packaged in Manadarin characters and the soy milk you bought was literally soy+water (not quite to my taste.) It became a staple in the Asian community: I know three different friends whose parents are Asian immigrants and still shop there whenever they get the chance, even after moving to New Jersey or Queens. I hope they rebuild it.

It’s Official: I’m lovely

Posted on by

The word ‘lovely’ begins with an affecting root noun and adds an adverbial -ly to make it a descriptor. It’s a generally nice word that I’m rather fond of. All the more so when it is applied to none other than myself. Anna, the around the way girl, an ‘editrix’ who covers things sartorial and all around the way, plus some great images, gave me my first blog award.

Here are the rules:
1. Add the logo to your blog.
2. Link to the person from whom you received this award.
3. Nominate 7 or more blogs.
4. Leave a message on their blog, letting them know they are One Lovely Blog!


Step 3–oh dear, I read almost a hundred blogs. Obviously, I read them because I like them. They’re on hundreds of topics. Should I only mention great art blogs? Should I mention the ones that fit ‘lovely’ best? I finally chose the blogs written by people I would like to know based on his or her personable, lovely blog (da da dum):

  • Boredom’s Bounty: For the Love of Pictures takes pictures of her life in NYC and posts them every day. I like pictures, I like her stories. Like real life here, they aren’t all of the Empire State building. I see it and I think, ‘I should do that.’
  • The Blue Lantern: Jane not only works for NPR (cool), she writes arts journalism for the love of it. But she attacks it an a culturally voracious way that will take you from painters and design to hedgehogs. You must see the hedgehog post. Delightful.
  • The Age of Uncertainty: A lovely blog by a lovely man in Steerforth, England. You’re all free to be madly jealous of him, seeing as he recently took on an amazing job where he gets to sort through old books all day looking for gems.
  • Little People: A Tiny Street Art Project: OK, so this isn’t a person. The blog is of a series of miniature human figures placed around London in ways that create the most endearing and humorous storylines. It always a pleasure. Scroll down the page a bit to some great images like Crappy Christmas or Last Chance to Impress.
  • Wurthering Expectations: A new find, this blog is by a reader whose voraciousness surpasses mine. He is storming the bastions of English literature, and his blog might be a good refresher course for those of you who miss you old Victorian lit class. (Granted, I might be the only one who feels exactly like that.) The blog is lovely for many other reasons, as I’m sure you will see for yourself.
  • Under Construction/Art Contemplations: Bill is a blogger who knows about Medieval witch hunts AND art. Quite the combination. An artist himself, he shares his own work on his blog too.
  • The Lusty Reader: OK, the girl likes her Romance novels. I like the Romantic movement. So aside from a love of reading in general, we have little in common. Thus it says a lot that I enjoy reading her blog as much as I do.

Aside from my lovely blog award, what’s new with Art Ravels you might ask? Actually, let me frame that as a series of questions directed at you, dear Reader.

  • Is it true that you have to floss your teeth twice a day to prevent cavities? I floss mine once a day, which seems like more than enough, and my dentist told me I need 4 fillings from not flossing. REALLY?
  • How do you keep voracious, herb-eating, pepper-popping, all together EVIL birds out of your container garden? They have nibbled my mint to stubs in a matter of days, the basil looks depressed, and the oregano is diminishing at a rapid rate. I’m afraid the sage and thyme are going to walk out of the planter in protest. And don’t even get me started on the topless hot cherry bomb. (a plant, people, a pepper plant.)
  • If you are driving a taxi in midtown rush hour traffic and you see a biker in midtown biking in a straight line down the bus lane, do you speedily pull in front of him and stop to pick someone up? NO! No, you do not endanger said biker’s life. You take the extra 90 seconds to pull in behind them. May you heed the safety warning before said biker with a lovely blog becomes squashed.

In sum; dentists lie, birds are evil, and bikers must not be driven over. On the upside, Art Ravels is a lovely blog and so is my ride along the East River park before I hit Midtown.