Wednesday, December 17, 2008

travelblogging, my landmark is the trump building

Had the day off yesterday and we went to the Yonkers Raceway Diner, had the Irish Breakfast and he had the Country-Style. You always have to have a cup of joe in a diner, it's mandatory and so I suggest we go to the newly renovated Greenburgh Public Library which just reopened yesterday. We work our way there, it's a meandering roadtrip as always 'cause that's how we like to do it and we pass the porno guy. He's a little shop on a busy, heavily traveled commercial thoroughfare and my friend goes "what's up with the main entrance? People go to this place, people they know can see them going in. It should have a back entrance or something, you have to go to the back of the hardware store first and then go through the sewer system." "Yeah, he can meet you midway in the ventilation duct." On the way to the fresh SuperLibrary, you can feel the pull of the magnetic structure at this point and I have a slight problem with our celebrity culture and media overexposure: "Jennifer Aniston does nothing for my life, how does it help?" We go inside the library, it's modern and hip architecture all the way, a corporate look, more spatial dimensions than anything else and it's so damn quiet. I know libraries are supposed to be this way but it's more than a tad eerie. You get that very strong futuristic sense "like some android or cyborg in a white lab coat asks if he can help you" - "I'm not John Connor." Great computer lab here though, a guy can blog his heart away. The main goal of our trip now over he says let's go over to the White Plains Mall. It's easy to go to from here, just follow the Landmark. I'm not too thrilled with this place, it's rundown and doesn't even have a FYE store but he tells the story of it's one of the original malls in the country. I think it's gangster but we go anyway. The comic and graphic books store is closed though on Tuesdays, must be the dork's high holy day or something so we hit the Japanese supermarket instead. Great seafood area, a big squid on ice with its eye looking at you, 10+ lb. bluefish, red snappers, Chilean Sea Bass, blue-claw crabs. Not too keen on the butcher section though, there's some cow tongue on display, some stomachs but I'm told it's a cultural thing, the Japanese use every part of the animal, it's their way of honoring it. That's nice but I think I'll pass on the chicken feet. We were barely in the mall for half an hour, maybe a little more and the municipal parking cost us 3 dollars!! (thuganomics). Now we're right up close to the new Trump Building in White Plains, a monstrosity, a beacon, a landmark, a tribute to EGO and my friend says he can see it all the way from the Palisades Parkway in Jersey. No matter where I drive I can see it for literally miles, it could even pass for a navigational marker for extraterrestrials. We drive past the wholesale flower place we used to work at, it's a nostalgic thing but it's now an electrical supply company, nothing lasts anymore it seems, New World Order stuff. We head on home, we could get a porno air freshener but we pass. It was a good day and you kick back and you smoke your Gispert that you bought the other day at Mom's Cigars and you ponder it. The stars are out now as it's unnaturally pitch black at 5 in the evening. Goat testicles?

9 comments:

  1. Sounds like a fabulously fun day you had there.

    ReplyDelete
  2. OK, I'm vaguely familiar with the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World, but I never heard of the Trump Bldg....
    So, I looked it up. Turns out there are several. Then, I sought photos. Quite disappointed to find that the landmark didn't have
    a 'comb-over'..:)

    ReplyDelete
  3. It's fairly new BB, not even sure of the name or what it's used for, business I'm sure. The top or roof is actually at a sharp angle jutting up into the sky. I remember driving through White Plains when they were building it. It was a good day Beth, much better than tomorrow might be. Supposed to get a mess up here in the Northeast and then again on Sunday. I might not even be online tomorrow but I hope to.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Not worth risking it if the weather is really bad, afterall you can write your thoughts in your journal and catch up when you can.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I went to the library early but then it started to snow so I went to Stew Leonard's and then went home and stayed cooped up all day. I'm the kind of person who has to get out at least part of the day, I don't care if it's to buy a pack of gum in Peekskill but for me to stay home all day is like prison boredom but I resigned myself to it.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I know what you mean, time ticks so slowly when at home all day.

    ReplyDelete
  7. The books on the shelf, I've read them already or at least browsed through them enough. The daytime tv shows, nothing but court shows, even the Spanish stations have them. Sometimes in such a situation I'll just walk to the store for the exercise and shovel snow although people seem to do less and less of that these days. In my day after a decent snowfall half the neighborhood would be out shoveling but we're a mamby-pamby society right now, better to let the snow banks get ice hard so you have trouble parking at night - yuppies!

    ReplyDelete
  8. What about your DVD collection, nothing worth watching on a snowy day?

    ReplyDelete
  9. I have to get to those DVD extras but it's like you have to be in the mood first. I wasn't in a Blacula kind of mood that day I guess.

    ReplyDelete