Got the Jimmy Legs

October 30, 2008 – 2:00 pm

Rock the vote or else I'm gonna stick a knife through your eye

I've been paranoid about the election for a variety of reasons. But the only one I had any control over was where I'm voting. I never changed my registration from my old address, so I mailed in the form a few months ago. But I never received confirmation of any kind, which wouldn't have bugged me if my girlfriend hadn't received 2 separate confirmations of her registration. So for many moons now I've been mildly concerned that properly voting would entail dragging myself halfway across town back to the old neighborhood.

Just when I was about to break down and call the Board of Elections, the Internet comes through like a champ with an online form that allows me to find out where I'm voting without having to really do anything strenuous. Like, you know, talking to someone on the phone.

Anyway, if anybody else is out there suffering in silence, here's a link to the voter lookup in New York (also here's a poll locator). Now I can go back to worrying about the possible results of this election, and whether or not America is still as dumb as it has been for the last decade or so. *shudder*

By Jimmy Legs | Posted in Vote or Die mofos | Comments Off

October 22, 2008 – 2:29 pm

And I know you like the feeling going up, going down

Does anybody remember the mall-store Merry-Go-Round? When I think of it, I still see green spandex, mesh-front shirts and headbands. To me, it was the apogee of 80s fashion, jumping on every ridiculous leg-warming trend and running it directly into the ground. But nobody seems to remember it now. I can't even remember if my local mall had one; I don't remember shopping there, but I do remember how much I associated it with my pubescent days. You don't see stores like that anymore; but what happened to it?

My theory: like so many icons of the 80's, I think Merry-Go-Round was killed by grunge rock. It killed a lot of things: hair-metal, knit ties, Kurt Cobain. And Merry-Go-Round (not to mention pretenders to the throne like Chess King, who, it may interest you to know, was bought out by MGR at some point. I don't know why I feel bad about this, but considering how ingrained 80's nostalgia is in our stupid culture (largely now by people who were not even remotely in existence during the aforementioned decade), you'd think there'd be some kind of monument to it. Surely, if it weren't for Merry-Go-Round, 80's culture as we currently regard it would not exist.

Info on the store is a bit scant, but I did find this bizarre, press-release style company history, that oddly doesn't mention that the company went bankrupt (had to find that elsewhere). But it notes the kind of forward-thinking that should have given it immortal icon status:

When pop star Michael Jackson appeared on MTV wearing a red leather jacket with 27 zippers, Merry-Go-Round sold more than 50,000 similar jackets at $29 each. Similarly, when the lead singer in the rock band Def Leppard performed in a video sporting a Union Jack sweatshirt with cut-off sleeves, a new fad was born. Merry-Go-Round sold over 40,000 copies of the sweatshirt at $15 each.

Merry-Go-Round managed to eke into the 1990's, but by 94 it was pretty much over. I'm not exactly sad about it, but I guess I feel the company doesn't get its due in pop-culture history. I'm also hopeful that I won't be spending any more time in malls so these admittedly dorky notions don't obsess me further. Though I do have some lingering questions about Orange Julius …

By Jimmy Legs | Posted in Cleveland, Funny to Me, History, Shopping | Comments Off

October 21, 2008 – 1:30 pm

Do me a favor, open the door

Empty Cages Collective is having another adoption event at Muddy Paws in Greenpoint. When these guys started doing TNR work around the city, I'm not sure they knew they would end up with so many adorable, adoptable kittens on their hands. While many of these kittens were born on the street, they were trapped while young enough to be properly socialized to humans so they grow up to be totally normal house cats. Because of this, ECC couldn't bear to drop these kittens back on the street, so they put themselves in the adoption business!

So if you're in the market for a kitten, swing by and pick up a few. If you're in the market for some adult cats who have had the benefit of socialization in my home, check out these 4 charming cats!

By Jimmy Legs | Posted in Adoption, Cats | Comments Off

October 20, 2008 – 12:04 pm

Up from Flames: Bushwick Walking Tour

Bushwick was graced with another walking tour from the good folks at bcue.org, and as usual I nearly missed it. I got all confused about the dates and realized it was happening this past Sunday with some 20 minutes to spare. I made it to the Myrtle-Wyckoff station a little late, but hey, the walking tour is pretty easy to pick out of a crowd.

Apparently this tour was written up in Time Out: New York but I didn't catch the article (did anybody see it?) So besides the usual gaggle of old-timers and locals there were a few tourists. Though who can really tell these days.

This tour focused on Bushwick's most commonly-associated aspects, namely the blackout, the fires, the drugs, the mob influence, the crooked landlords, the specter of gentrification. Yet it was a lovely fall day and tour leader Adam Schwartz is great as an educator and raconteur, so he made sure it wasn't a total bummer. Some highlights included visiting St. Barbara's a Spanish Baroque style Catholic church built in 1909. Regardless your feelings on religion, you gotta admit this is a kick-ass building. You can't believe you're in Bushwick when you're inside it looking up at the insane level of detail on every available surface. Bushwick historian John Dereszewski was on hand and mentioned that he remembers an even stranger sight: St. Barbara's during Bushwick's nadir, pristine while surrounded by rubble and neglect.

We also covered the Hope Gardens housing project, which may bore some, but I find fascinating. It was the last housing project created before Reagan ended the whole 'experiment,' but has proven to be the most successful. Instead of monstrous high-rise buildings, Hope Gardens is mostly 3-story buildings, some set up like apartment complexes and some more like townhouses, complete with garden apartments. You see Hope Gardens in many locations throughout the neighborhood; its sprawling footprint was determined largely by which blocks were most decimated by fire. It's sort of too bad they weren't able to reproduce this model elsewhere.

The tour culminated with a stroll through Maria Hernandez Park (where people were playing volleyball, which kind of blew my mind until Adam explained its popularity in Ecuador and Mexico). We ended things at "The Well," a block of Knickerbocker that previously contained a seemingly-bottomless supply of drugs in the 80s. Say what you will about the neighborhood now, we're already a long way from that now.

Some photos from the tour are here.

By Jimmy Legs | Posted in BCUE, Bushwick, Walking Tours | Comments Off

October 16, 2008 – 11:22 am

When the winter took the tips of my ears

Today is apparently National Feral Cat Day. I haven't kept up the advocacy end of this cat business, so I was unaware that it was today or, indeed, that it existed at all. I guess I don't know if I'd done anything anyway, I'm always busy at work and busy with cats once I get home. I am finishing a couple of new winter shelters for the outdoor crew, I found one of those huge Rubbermaid bins in the neighbor's trash which I am converting into a cat condo, it's pretty common elsewhere, but normally I am limited to the bins half the size, since anything bigger is too hard to carry home (see photo by Lisacat of ECC's PJ with a similar shelter).

I went to Home Depot for supplies and miraculously they had mini bales of hay for $7 apiece. I got 3 of them, which left straw all over the store. I also got some Styrofoam insulation and, of course, more Great Stuff expanding foam. I love that stuff. Of course, our ferals seem to prefer the abandoned house down the street to the storage tub shelters, but perhaps laziness will win out and they'll stay with us, if only so they don't have to walk more than 20 feet for food.

It sounds like a friend will help put together the materials to turn the Empty Cages Collective into a true non-profit group! I have been hoping for this for a long time, as it helps legitimize their activities, plus will save them some dough on taxes. I don't know what sort of grants are out there for cat groups, but they will be able to apply for them. Plus people who donate money can deduct it from their taxes. All this time they've been basically scraping by on their own money and the favors of kindred spirits. Now, how do you explain tax-exempt status to a livery cab driver?

By Jimmy Legs | Posted in Feral | Comments Off