the times, they are changing

This image is a screen capture from one of a series of monitors at a fast food establishment near the New York Times Building, a picture of Pinnochio from its photo archive of a Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade from the 1930s. The Times recently moved their offices from 43rd Street (near Ninth Avenue) to Eight Avenue across from the Port Authority. I used to live directly across the street from the original building in 1987-88 in a semi-converted former doctor's office. Living in the building with me were a variety of less-than-upright citizens, substance abusers, prostitutes, and others with a colorful past as well as transexuals. Times Square was wildly different back then. In the years that have past all of that local color has been diluted and painted over with the corporate stencils of Disney, Time Warner, Darden restaurant chains, 7-11 and so forth. New Yorkers are slowly watching their entire city disappear into one big corporate conglomerate. Nearly gone are the days of successful and sustainable privately owned small businesses, the people and boutiques that made New York so interesting. I choose this image because every time Pinnochio told a lie his nose would grow ever longer. Hmm... If we only had the advantage of having people in charge suffer a physical deformity every time they told a lie. We would no doubt be managed by a band of freaks.

In a bit of unrelated news, little-known photographer Joe O'Donnell died today.