Category Archives: visuals

photos, images, etc

  

ProPublica Investigates Dialysis: For-Profit Providers Flourish as Care Quality Flounders

A great in-depth look by my ProPublica colleague Robin Fields into the dialysis industry. It was a field I was barely familiar with, as only about 400,000 Americans are on dialysis, but the entitlement as grown from $135 million to $20 billion annually, with mixed and depressing results.

I took this photo of a woman whose mother nearly bled to death after being improperly hooked up to a dialysis machine.

Cathleen Sharkey holds a frame of photographs of her mother, Barbara Scott, whose bloodline became disconnected during a dialysis treatment at Dutchess Dialysis Center. Scott never fully recovered and died shortly after of heart failure. (Dan Nguyen/ProPublica)

  

Model Casting Snapshots for 2010 Fashion Week, for Spring/Summer

I got to help a friend with model casting for Fashion Week. It was both amazing and painful, mostly because I think I pulled something in my back after lifting my camera to take shots of several hundred people. After seeing that many models, I’m still not sure of the difference between a skinny tall person and a runway model. And also, how someone plain in person can look amazing in photos.

My photos were only so the designers could see how the models looked outside of their portfolio, so I didn’t do any direction (i.e. ‘OK, now give me mad. Now give me confused. Fabulous!’. It was basically yearbook photo day at the world’s most glamorous high school. And I couldn’t tell if their I-just-woke-up-barely-in-time-to-go-to-a-casting-call-and-didn’t-have-time-to-get-made-up was real or carefully constructed. It wouldn’t surprise me if their disheveled look was real, and what makes them a model is that they can do that and still look better than everyone else.


  

Signs from WTC Ground Zero Protest of Park51/Cordoba Center/Mosque, Sept. 11, 2010

9/11 "Ground Zero Mosque" Protest/Anti-Protest, Sept. 11, 2010

Caught the tail end of the protest against the proposed Cordoba House and mosque near Ground Zero. Some interesting signs.

Apparently, the amount of stars and stripes patternage is important to your message. This amount of flagginess is hard to argue against.

9/11 "Ground Zero Mosque" Protest/Anti-Protest, Sept. 11, 2010



Yet, Kid Rock makes a good point here:

9/11 "Ground Zero Mosque" Protest/Anti-Protest, Sept. 11, 2010



The top part of the right-sign says “What would Jesus Do?” Lose in a knife fight against Mohammed, apparently? That’s heresy in some circles.

9/11 "Ground Zero Mosque" Protest/Anti-Protest, Sept. 11, 2010



You can tell this lady is old-fashioned by the way she added two spaces after the sentence-ending period. That’s indicative of the typewriter era and monospace fonts. Modern word processors automatically add the correct spacing.

9/11 "Ground Zero Mosque" Protest/Anti-Protest, Sept. 11, 2010



It’s hard to see here, but the woman’s sign says “Cordoba = Conquer” and “NOT HERE!!”. Maybe her message would be more effective she put more effort and production into it than a Crayola marker. The pro-Cordoba (pro-conquest, apparently) used photos and colors to point out that “Islam has been in New York for 400 years”.

9/11 "Ground Zero Mosque" Protest/Anti-Protest, Sept. 11, 2010



If this woman’s posterior were wider, her message (I think it said, “Religion of Peace My ASS”) would be readable. But it still works in a practical sense, as a label of which side of her body is facing you. Efficient!

9/11 "Ground Zero Mosque" Protest/Anti-Protest, Sept. 11, 2010
  

WTC 9/11 Tribute in Light, as seen from the Brooklyn Bridge Park

More photos of the World Trade Center memorial lights can be see on my Flickr account. In years past, it went a whole week, though due to lack of funding, the lights were shown for just a few days this year. There was even doubt that they wouldn’t be up next year, the attacks’ 10th anniversary…

Apparently the lights were shut down temporarily last night at around 11, because of the birds it attracted. Looking from a vantage point near the base of the lights, the lights stretch so high up that they could be mistaken for a futuring city, and the birds a flock of speeding, circiling aircraft.

WTC 9/11 Tribute in Light, Bird flock
  

Hacks/Hackers Meetup on Gawker Rooftop, Sept. 8, 2010

From the “Business and Pleasure” mixer for the news geeks group, Hacks/Hackers on the Gawker Media rooftop in Nolita. There was an open bar, but yet the dance floor was empty, which I’m sure was entirely unrelated to the infrequency of Lady GaGa selections by the DJ.

The Tribute in Light, as seen from the Gawker roof:

Hacks/Hackers Meetup on Gawker Rooftop, Sept. 8, 2010
  

Anna Kendrick, etc. at the Apple SoHo store

The cast of “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World” made an appearance at the SoHo Apple store. I think I was the oldest person there, except for the older uncle who was pathetically trying to give kids money for their Scott Pilgrim cheap-ass memorabilia (even for $20-$40, no kid wanted to talk to him. I ended up giving him my lanyard because I felt sorry, and the sad fellow didn’t even say thank you).

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World at SoHo Apple Store, Michael Cera, An

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World at SoHo Apple Store, Michael Cera, Anna Kendrick, Jason Schwartzman, Edgar Wright

Kendrick plays such a difficult, uptight character in “Up in the Air”, which wasn’t a favorite of mine to begin with, that you forget that behind all those acting chops is an old fashioned hottie.

Scott Pilgrim cast at SoHo Apple Store

I would’ve gone just to see Edgar Wright talk, though. Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz were pretty much brilliant. Without his name behind the helm of “Scott Pilgrim”, I would’ve dismissed it as another cute-but-not-as-good-as-Superbad-Michael-Cera-teen-comedy. Cera was funny, but the awkward-kid-schtick only goes so far, it was a lot more interesting to hear Wright talk about trying to emulate Hong Kong movies.

  

Xi’an Famous Foods, Savory Cumin Lamb Noodles

The best $6.00 meal ever: Savory Cumin Lamb Noodles, or just “D1″. Xi’an Famous Foods just opened in the East Village to much fanfare. I guess they have a few spots throughout the city and have been featured on the Food Network and Anthony Bourdain’s show.

I’m no noodle expert, but their hand pulled liang pi noodles are the best noodles in the entire world, and conveniently located in the East Village on St. Marks. Well, they must be pretty good if they’re the number 2 result for liang pi in Google.

Here’s a picture of the tiny interior. Go to the Flickr full size version to zoom into the actual menu items and prices.

Xi'an Famous Foods

  

Bedbugs Mattress Art on St. Marks Place

Saw this a few days ago on St. Marks and sent it out to EV Grieve, who was kind enough to link to the Flickr. Curbed NY and ScoutMob (who didn’t credit EVG or me, but I’ll let it pass, because of their yummy deals) also posted the photo. You can’t underestimate our fascination with bedbugs…New York has been under terror alert with the news that some of our greatest American icons, Victoria Secret and Abercrombie & Fitch, have succumbed to the evil bugs.

I blame the heightened fear on this well-written, terrifying New York magazine piece by Marshall Sella…I didn’t even know bedbugs were that bad until I read this. Now I will never sleep outside of my hyperbaric chamber again.

Update: The WSJ profiles the artist, a “Samuel Mark“