Greenpoint
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Culture on the Cheap
Fun With Internet Image Filchers
As time goes on I am getting more and more peevish at people who for lack of proper netiquette (be it out of ignorance, sense of entitlement or sheer laziness) use/upload my images without bothering to ask, much less giving proper citation(s) of said image(s). For those of you who are wondering, here is the proper protocol for using my images:
- ASK. In all likelihood I’ll say yes. What’s more I will be very grateful
- At the very least cite who captured said image. READ: me.
The previous having been said you can imagine my delight when I received this missive from fellow Greenpointer, nice guy and incredibly talented photographer: Kitchen Prof. He wrote:
Hey Heather
I ended up having some fun, and I thought I’d tell you about it. Since Alan Colmes is quitting “Hannity and Colmes,” the pictures of Colmes from a blog post I did a while ago have been “borrowed” by bloggers writing about it. So, I thought it might be entertaining to switch out MY pictures on THEIR blogs.
These extreme right wing clowns got their Colmes pictures replaced by W in a nice uniform (screen capture attached in case it’s gone when you see this).
As of last night this image has been replaced. However I saw its modified incarnation. It was quite something.
You can see a larger image by clicking here. What amused me about this act of image theft was the perpetrators didn’t even bother to download it: they linked to it directly. Thus enabling the Professor to have quite a bit of fun. And it didn’t stop there.
And the other picture I replaced another blog remains. Alan Colmes has become a large tuna…
the Professor wrote.
And as of the writing of this post it still does. But in the event it gets pulled down here it is.
So there have you. Let’s see how long it takes before I get angry missives from the proprietors* of these respective blogs. Regardless of your political inclinations, dear readers, grabbing images on the web without citing them is not very nice. Granted, we’re all guilty of this to some degree or another but let’s try to make the web a nicer place. Okay?
Miss Heather
*Let’s face facts: anyone who would propagate this kind of claptrap HAS to be male— and probably fantasizes about wearing a dog collar and eating from a dog dish. It has been my observation that the people who make these kinds of accusations do so because they’re guilty of it themselves. Or very much want to be.
Image Credits: Freedom Brothers Screencap courtesy of Kitchen Prof
Freedom of the Press for NYC’s Bloggers
Filed under: Area 51
Speaking as someone who operates a blog I can safely assert that while I might shoulder some of the burdens shared by my friends in the print (READ: legit) media the same cannot be said about the benefits. I have been grilled by the police for taking photographs of Christmas decorations (of all things). A number of my colleagues (both in print and online) use my site as a source for news leads without citing it. Others filch images and/or intellectual property from New York Shitty and shill it as if they were their own. The previous know who they are and I see no need to mention them here.
In any case, there are a couple of blog-related items I have been meaning to pass along. First up this item I received from Queens Crap:
Dear Blogger:
ChangeNYC.Org, a new grassroots action network, was formed in part to empower New York City’s blogging community. We feel that as citizen journalists of the New Media, bloggers do a better job covering their neighborhoods, community issues, and local politics than the mainstream media. We are on the ground – in the grassroots – instantly reporting the news as we see it, free of corporate bias and control.
That’s why ChangeNYC.Org is taking a strong stand to support a lawsuit brought by civil rights attorney Norman Siegel on behalf of a City Hall blogger and two other online journalists denied press passes by New York City. We have just begun an online petition calling on the City to reform its press credentialing system to assert and protect the First Amendment rights of bloggers.
Please sign the petition below and post a link to it on your blogs, so we can show the City just how many people depend upon the work that you do:
http://www.petitiononline.com/12151791/petition.html
For more information on this lawsuit and the plaintiffs involved, check out this link:
http://truenewsfromchangenyc.blogspot.com/2008/11/freedom-of-press-for-nyc-bloggers.html
I have signed this petition. If you value reading (or writing) online content you should as well.
Last up, I have long mulled over creating a blog whose sole purpose is calling out miscreants for intellectual property theft and plagiarism. Obviously I have never gotten around to this. I’m a busy Greenpointer. Thankfully I do not need to: someone has already done it.
The site is called You Thought We’d Wouldn’t Notice…but we did and while its primary emphasis seems to be things artistic the above item should be of interest to anyone who has had their online images appropriated without their permission. Do give it a read. Those of you who wish to make a submission can learn how by clicking here.
Miss Heather
Promising New Brooklyn Blog Of The Year…
and perhaps this decade.
Yesterday I was busy doing what many of you, dear readers, have probably been engaged in: preparing for Thanksgiving. Thankfully I had some time to moderate comments this evening and after doing so I noticed a most curious incoming link:
Naturally I was all over this like a bedbug on a Greenpoint mattress. It’s not that I want to hate Park Slope or anything —although to be fair I kind of do. It’s just that the place is so damned weird. To my little Greenpoint eye it’s sort of like Levittown and The Stepford Wives got together and built an enclave in Brooklyn. With double-wide strollers and wifi.
Let’s consider the latter most advertisement for a moment, shall we? I seriously doubt anyone in Greenpoint, Williamsburg, Bushwick or Bedford-Stuyvesant would have to troll the webs in search of cockroaches. Just last week I watched one of our cats eviscerate one such creature in our kitchen. He was considerate enough to eat it afterwards. I don’t think it measured 1 1/2 inches though. What is Lee getting at here? Is waiting for the G train too much of a bother? Are Greenpoint cockroaches not good enough for him?!?
Size queen.
This is the latest entry. For those of you who are wondering follows are a few of the Facebook groups which F.I.P.S. has unearthed which hail from the Slope that is Park:
*New Park Slope Ladies Funtime Goodtimes Group (8 members)
*You Know You’re From Park Slope When… (426 members)
*Park Slope Ultimate Frisbee League (PSUFL) (54 members)
*The Inevitable Damnation of Park Slope (25 members)
*Ive (sic) Burned in Park Slope dis Summer (17 members)
*I Am Suspended from The Park Slope Food Coop (7 members)
*Get the NY Times To Shut Up About Park Slope Already (4 members)
*Dem Slope Boyz (a Park Slope Frat!!!) (request to join)
Yup. If the first three days Fucked In Park Slope has been in publication are any indication, I will be an avid reader for a very, very long time. Now if you don’t mind some cockroaches and I have a date with a can of RAID.
Miss Heather
Today’s Moment Of Zen
Filed under: Area 51
I found this gem over at Reflections From The End Of The Night. Other than that I honestly do not know what to say.
Miss Heather
A Year In The Life Of Lee Fisher Part 3: The End
Filed under: Area 51
The last time we checked on Mr. Fisher he was beating the heat and took a month-long vacation to the country (imagine doing that today). When he doesn’t mention is America’s entry in World War I. After the draft was instituted in September the “Great War” as some call it is clearly on Lee’s mind as he mentions seeing his friends off and mulls over enlisting (over his family’s objections). But this is not to suggest everything was gloom and doom. Life for Mr. Fisher is pretty much “business as usual”— with a trip to the south to boot. Enjoy!
September 2, 1917
After breakfast went to Coney. Stayed at Sarah’s all day. At night came Alex. family. Left them at 8 PM. Come home to bed at 9.
September 10, 1917
In store until 9 P.M.. Came home, had supper & heard the heart-breaking news about Gertie & her house, Played the violin. Read a book. To bed.
(You can read his diary entries for September by clicking here.)
October 1 & 2, 1917
This morning I registered to enlist in the U.S.A. Had some dinner. Mother & I saw Yiddish play. Stayed home at night. Read a book. To bed.
This morning I passed my physical exam for the U.S.A. Had dinner. B.A. & I saw a vaud. show. The family greatly disapproves & B.A. cried before me. Attended a concert at night. To bed.
(You can read his diary entries for October 1- November 5 by clicking here.)
November 10, 1917
Had supper with the engineer on board the Alabama. Met the whole crew. Rec’d an invitation for cousin Id’as wedding. To bed at 10.
(You can read his diary entries for November 6 – December 5 by clicking here.)
December 31, 1917
Up at 11. After dinner saw a burlesque show with M.C. After supper played pool, read and redressed for work. I was fined for sleeping while at work.
Fining someone for goofing off on New Year’s Eve?!? That’s pretty damned cold if you ask me. You can read Lee Fisher’s diary entries for December 6 – 31 by clicking here. I suppose this pretty much end our acquaintance with Lee Fisher— or does it? Methinks when I have a chance I’ll peruse the 1910 and 1920 Census data and try to learn what happened to him. In any case I hope he had a happy and healthy new year.
Miss Heather
How To Beat The High Cost Of Living…
Williamsburg style!
If there’s something I have to hand to my buddy down south (and by that I mean Brooklyn11211) it is this: he knows what I like!
11211 wrote:
This seems like something you’d be able to make something of. I assume they’ve named their product after the colonial Williamsburg, not the post-modern one. Not that either makes sense when you’re branding a pop-up camper.
This is not your run-of-the-mill Green–point or Bushwick four wheeling digs, dear readers. This is none other than the 2008 Fleetwood Williamsburg model! It sleeps six and is priced to own at measly $16,463.80 $13,499!
Amenities include:
- A factory installed 16,000 BTU Furnace with electric ignition and power roof system
- Light weight easy to pull, aluminum framed, new smooth sides (It’s like Scarano at a fraction of the price!)
- Integrated high pressure slide out outside stove
- Aluminum wheels
- Power Roof Lift
- Slide out Dinette eat in kitchen and last, but hardly least…
A 12 volt flushing cassette toilet! It doesn’t get much more “retro” (and therefore hip) than this folks: cassettes are the new LPs— especially whilst flushing on Flushing Avenue! As my father always said (and by this I mean never):
The family that shits together stays together.
I am certain this great “starter home” won’t be on the market for long. Parties interested in maintaining that valuable 11211 zip code without paying 11211 prices should point and click their way over to RV USA without delay. The only thing you have to lose is your dignity!*
Miss Heather
Photo Credits: RVUSA.com
*If you actually consider living in a trailer in Williamsburg as being a viable option the previous caveat is a moot point. You lost it a long, LONG time ago.
Subway Poster du Jour: All In One Day
Filed under: Area 51
While not as elegant as the work of Poster Boy, I felt this devilishly simple poster modification (which hails from the Queens-bound platform of the G train at Clinton-Washington) worth passing along. How could the designer of this poster NOT see this one coming? Seriously.
Miss Heather
A Year In The Life Of Lee Fisher, Part 2: Summer In The City
Filed under: Area 51
For those of you who have not been following I recently acquired a penny diary dating from 1917 that belonged to one Lee Fisher who hailed from Grand Street. From the best I can deduce he worked in a dry goods store on the Lower East Side (and seemed not to like it very much). In this installment (which covers early May through August) he does his best to beat the heat by checking out Central Park, sleeping on the roof, doing a little a lot of bathing in Coney and taking a vacation. Enjoy!
May 30, 1917
No work to day. “Decoration Day”. Walked thru Central Park with Belle. Visited Aunt Sherry at Hospital, Saw movies at night with B. Came home. To bed.
(You can read his diary entries for May 4 – June 2 by clicking here.)
June 13, 1917
All dressed up with no place to go. Went downtown bought 2 Liberty Bonds. Visited Tanty Shiny. Saw a vaud.(ville) show. Read. To bed.
(You can read his diary entries for June 3 – July 2 by clicking here.)
July 11 & August 1, 1917
In store until 7 P.M. Played craps during the day, lost $6.00. Met Miss Harlowe, in store. Put one over.* Had a Chinese dinner with her. Moe and I then repeated. To bed at 1 o’clock
In store until 7 P.M. Hot supper. Saw a vaud show. Talked with the boys. Was so hot I slept on the Roof.
(You can read his diary entries for July 3 – August 1 by clicking here.)
August 30, 1917
After breakfast went to Coney. Found Joe & Fannie & their first babe, a little girl. Home at 8:30. Went to bed.
(You can read his diary entries for August 2 – August 31 by clicking here.)
Autumn will prove to be an interesting month for Mr. Fisher. Not only does he quit his job but he travels to the south. Stay tuned. In the meantime you can see some nifty old pix of Central Park by clicking here.
Miss Heather
*For those of you who are not in the know this is parlance for ripping someone off.
Boobification Photo du Jour: Oh My…
Filed under: Area 51
One question I often find myself asking is when should something not be boobified. Well today (thanks to a very special correspondent) I got my answer:
When the article in question sports an ample rack…
and puts them to good use. This sculpture (which is wrong for too many reasons to go into here) graces a Civil War monument in front of Iowa’s state capital. I suspect I speak for many when I say Greenpoint needs some, um, uplifting public art like this.
Miss Heather
A Year In The Life Of Lee Fisher, Part I
Filed under: Area 51
One reason I do not keep a diary is because the one time I did my parents read it and I got bawled out. Big time. I suppose this is why twenty years later I elected my (on occasion) less-than-savory sentiments on the Internets: if I am to have no expectations of privacy, the more the merrier. As a matter of fact, my favorite reads from the junk shop are OTHER people’s diaries. These turn up pretty regularly. Most are pretty dull but occasionally I’ll find a real page-turner. As a result I know much intimate details from lives of people I have not and probably never will meet: the night-stands, bad days at work, good days at work, what he or she made for Christmas dinner six years ago and so forth. Which brings me to the item to the left. 
This is the frontispiece from a “penny diary” I found recently. It belonged to one Lee Fisher of 443 Grand Street, New York, New York. Since it was absolutely miserable out yesterday I gave it a read. While not very detailed it did give some indication as to what the daily life of an average Joe living in the Lower East Side almost 100 years ago was like.
After mulling it over a bit I decided to embark on a little project. Publish a series of posts featuring the tomes of Mr. Fisher. Since I have no images of him or the other folks who graced his life I decided to pair select entries with images from my cache of old New York City photographs.
Here is the first installment. Enjoy!
January 8, 1917
In store until 7:30 p.m. Met the boys at Stitch’s. Saw them beat up Harry Kaplan. Some fight. Read a book. To bed.
January 19, 1917
In store until 7 p.m. Heard an Anarchistic lecture by Emma Goldman and Alex Berkman, Read the “Blast”. To bed.
(You can read his diary entries for January 1 – February 2 by clicking here.)
February 9, 1917
In store until 7:30 p.m. Had some ruff words with Sam about the work. Played pool. Read a mag, a few newspapers. To bed.
(You can read his diary entries for February 3 – March 4 by clicking here.)
March 28 & 31, 1917
In store until 12 o’clock, The work is getting on my nerves, Though Spring just came around. Read a newspaper. To bed.
In store until 12 mid. Spring is certainly getting on my nerves. Read newspaper went to bed.
(You can read his diary entries for March 5 – April 3 by clicking here.)
May 2, 1917
No work today. Saw the “Twin Bess” with Sis Sarah in afternoon. Went to see Belle & did not enjoy as well as usual. To bed at one.
(You can read his dairy entries from April 4 – May 3 by clicking here.)
I hope you have enjoyed this voyeuristic trip back in time. In the next installment our protagonist whiles away the summer at Coney Island, goes “machine riding” with his friends and ponders taking a trip to Cuba. Stay tuned!
Miss Heather
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