Audrey walked all the way around New York City this weekend as part of The Great Saunter. She is amazing. She did 32 miles. Poppy and I rode up to Harlem to see her, but it wasn’t until 90th or so that we could actually make our way to the East River and rendezvous with her. The Upper East Side is strange. She was happy to see us and looked in good spirits as she made her way along the East River towards downtown where she had started early in the morning.
I have one Bluesky person I follow who keeps publishing the coolest of the Kandinsky pieces. His work just grabs me every time. I also share them with Audrey, because they do the same to her. I love what art can do to you. I need this kind of reminder regularly, and need to spend more time learning about Kandinsky and what his story was. I know nothing about him.
When we do our morning walks to Central Park we always walk by a food cart at Columbus Circle that breaks my brain. When I read the side of the food cart I read Adam Schiff Halal Food, and I can’t unsee it no matter how many times I actually read it. It’s dumb. It is the way my broken brain works.
I was listening to my favorite song this morning. Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd. The song has many layers of meaning for me from over the years, but as I listened to it this morning, the song was about artificial intelligence. I love how a song can transition like this for me, adapting to the changing ways in how I see the world.
“… So, so you think you can tell
Heaven from hell? Blue skies from pain?
Can you tell a green field from a cold steel rail?
A smile from a veil? Do you think you can tell?”
The world is so messed up right now. The lack of care. The lack of decency. The lack of a desire to be better. We seem lost. I love how The Onion can capture things in the liminal space of our mind it exists within. The Supreme Court overturning Right v. Wrong simply captures just how broken we are right now, and how much healing we need.
Our Mayor released two new designs for restoring Park Avenue back to it’s original state, which shaped its name. One design focuses on being a pedestrian promenade with the other focused around a bike lane winding down the middle. With park all around. Park Avenue always makes me sad when I find myself walking or riding down it. It could be so much more. I am glad that Mamdani sees it.
I was introduced to Christian Gralingen’s work on the social medias this week. I absolutely love their work. It looks like the system view of our world I see each day. It had some organic, but it was very commercial mechanistic. I love this art at the edge of technology and capitalism, and the poster format inspires me to explore this format more when it comes to algorotoscope.
I ended up in Philadelphia this week. Well, Paoli, Pennsylvania. But I roll through Philadelphia. I love the view from the train the whole way in between NYC and Philadelphia. I had a great workshop with my partner Jerome, and talked to a potential candidate for a product manager. My work is fulfilling right now. I have anxiety regarding the acquisition of customers, but I am confident with the right work they will come.
When Poppy and I make our way around Central Park on our rides we always find ourselves rolling by the tennis courts on the Upper West Side. We don’t stop every time. But when it feels right we stop and slowly case the outer edge of the west side of courts looking for escaped tennis balls. Sometimes we find them. Sometimes people give us one. Sometimes we live empty handed. We are at the mercy of the courts.
On the second trip around Central Park we always stop at the top of Harlem Hills for Poppy to pee. I love it up there. It is dense woods up there. You only see the city south in the distance. The rest is woods. Poppy knows the stop well now and will anticipate it as we make our way up the hill. She likes to take a break. Chew on the grass. And stretch our legs.
When we set out for the Park today, as we turned onto 6th avenue, we found ourselves in the middle of the Five Boro Bike Tour. They were headed the same way we were so we just went with the flow. We made our way into the park and along East Drive until we got to the Harlem Hills, then the route took them into the Upper West Side. Poppy and I opted to keep rolling through the park on the West Drive, and then down to Times Square.
I am finding more energy for my professional project. API Evangelist, APIs.io, APIs.json, and API Commons all got some love this week. I was able to make improvements to the websites, push forward standards, and invest in the API Evangelist to APIs.io API profiling pipeline. It feels good to spend time working on my professional investments. I am all in on Naftiko right now, but this work also depends on the health of my ongoing side hustles.
Because the Five Boro Bike Ride was happening, as well as some neighborhood fairs, 7th Avenue was mostly blocked off beyond 42nd Street. Whenever we see this happening we take advantage of 7th Avenue being mostly car free, and ride down the middle of the street through Times Square. It is quite a feeling to roll through Times Square on a bike. There is a buzz to it. And I like to reclaim the streets from the automobiles.
After rolling by 42nd we noticed a street fair closure on the block to the left and after making the turn, Poppy noticed some chicken and pork on the grill. I noticed the corn. But we got one skewer of pork and one corn on the cob and parked in the middle of the street. Soooo good. The corn doesn’t even need butter, and the pork had a nice spice, but was just juicy deliciousness. I love rolling around the city and stumbling into goodness.
“And today is really the happiest day of your life, because today you woke up and stumbled across the shadow of your soul in broad daylight." - From Central Park Song
