(e:Southernyankee) Hi. :) I'm actually going to be starting a new training routine soon so I can sympathize - the one used by the U.S. Army Rangers. Maybe thats a little hardcore, but the only thing I can think of offhand is the usual generic advice of starting small and working your way up. I think its very cool that you are doing that bikeride - if you ask me completing something like that is a big accomplishment, and I for one am hella impressed!

e-strippers - I made an abhorration of a smoothie today and I need some advice. I used bananas, plums, some odd cross between a tangerine and an orange, ice and some pre-fab mixed juice. The taste is pleasant, if not a bit too tart for me... but visually the smoothie looks like someone dropped flecks of truffle into my drink. Gross... Any ideas for some different fruit combos for a kick ass smoothie?

(e:Jasonsback) - Fuck off! I'm not evil. I'm Machiavellian, self-confident and monolithic but not evil! :)

Anyhow I'm not particularly concerned with being "accepted" - that is shit that high school kids worry about. I'm just here to chat. If I were gagging for love and acceptance I would get a puppy.

(e:angryshortkid) - I somewhat share in your pain. What I'm interested in is whether or not a certain % decrease in payroll will end up reflecting in an equal % decrease in ticket prices here. In some markets hockey will always be expensive to watch, but I think to an extent hockey has gotten to be an expensive ("expensive" being relative) commodity here. I still have my stub from the '97 playoffs where we sat in the corner, 4 rows from the ice - $45. that same seat 3 years later - us vs. The Pens (Haseks last game as a Sabre!) cost $110 a seat. The bottom line is that families are priced out of regular attendance, yet families are really the NHL's key demographic in small markets.

What stinks even worse about this, IMO, is the infrastructure thats affected by the lack of NHL hockey here. Lots of businesses and various establishments count on that seasonal revenue, and in our case we had an entire sports network disappear simply because their ace in the hole was the Sabres. Loss of money, loss of jobs... not a happy time for us regardless if you are a sports fan or not.

(e:Hodown) - insofar as there is a measured number of New Yorkers who hated it, I think their estimation was correct. :) People who happen to appreciate the manhours and can somehow derive some sort of artistic merit are also more than welcome to their opinion and I certainly respect it. However lets not pretend that there aren't a measured number of New Yorkers who aren't EXACTLY as I described. I know that the funding was entirely the artists, but for me "patronizing" means more than just paying for things, so I suppose I should have been more clear. If you go to Albright-Knox on Sundays for free, or any other gallery, you are patronizing the arts by attending. Maybe I generalized but like I said, I was being cynical! :P I think tourists will dig it because it will be something interesting to photograph. Tourists always have been and always will be ubiquitous in New York, don't rough them up too bad! Haha. :)

Personally, the work of art that Manhattan has coming to it that will dwarf this particular installation in beauty and importance is the replacement complex for the WTC.

(e:Matthew) - my twin and I never really did any of the cool things twins do, like swap out on dates. Its a shame! However, I do usually do all kinds of dirty work for him so I suppose it evens out. I assure you that my twin is no designer imposter, he is very real.

... New Yorkers, that is, in reference to "The Gates." This is probably the most absurd abuse of good steel and fabric that I've ever seen in my entire life, and I have abused a lot of steel and fabric. This tepid and vapid excuse for art has taken NYC by storm, and the hilarious thing is that New Yorkers are too obsessed with looking hip to actually say what they think about it. The American art patronizing community hasn't been this hardcore bamboozled since "Piss Jesus." Orange colored steel and fabric (goddamnit Josh its SAFFRON) yeah fuck off, its orange, multiplied manyfold and mass-produced like they rolled off the Ford plant in Detroit does not art make. You know what, I'm feeling frisky today. Give ME that $21 million. I'd be happy to make an artistic statement by erecting the Golden Arches in Niagara Square then hang shower curtains off of it... and take the other $20,990,000 and run the hell away before somebody actually catches on.

Oh, and before anybody asks me - "What is art to you then, Josh?" Art is art when I say its art... period, end of sentence. Welcome to my cynical side.

In unrelated news - The America's Cup. Who doesn't care... except, um... everybody? This would normally not register with me, but amazingly enough somebody in this quasi-sport for the obscenely rich actually HIT A WHALE WITH THEIR YACHT. Ok... somebody speed me up here. How did this whale manage to creep up on this poor, innocent unsuspecting yacht? Its not as if it could have jumped out of the bush Viet-Cong style, guns blazing, hoping to wreak massive carnage. I think some fat guy wearing ye ol' captains hat tipped back the Dom P a little too much behind the wheel. Somebody this stupid definitely merits an ending worthy of a Darwin Award.

Hi - I thought I would introduce myself and say a few things first since I've been reading and lurking for a while.

I'm Josh - I'm 26 and a Gemini. I live directly on the strip. I have a fraternal twin brother - its nice because you have a best friend for life, but its also bad because you have someone that can eternally irritate you on occasion. I have a Bachelor of Science from U.B.'s School of Management but to be honest I want to pursue something else. Perhaps a law degree - the system is set up explicitly so that lawyers can make money off of EVERYTHING, and we do live in a city where ambulance chasing is an industry unto itself, so why not? Ha.

Favorite author? Maybe Kerouac, maybe Poe, maybe Kafka. I don't have a favorite book because I love so many, but perhaps the most influential book I've read the past few years was "Siddartha" by Hermann Hesse. I HATED "Naked Lunch" to the absolute extreme - I put it down after 100 pages. In general I am into 20th/21st C. American fiction but I am open to most lit., so if you have a suggestion lemme know! Poetry is fine as well, although I think most modern poetry is boring, heartless and contrived. I love good art, and I love going to the gallery. I don't know as much about art as I do about other things, so I count on other people to help me out. :)

I'm a nice guy (the kiss of death) and I like to do things for people, but alternately if someone tries to irritate me for no reason except their own social ineptness I turn into a bastard 4-headed flame-breathing dragon. I'm old-school to the extent that I really believe in being a gentleman and not treating women like pieces of fem-flesh. I like to open doors for women. I have a very broad sense of humor, and I love all kinds of offensive and inoffensive jokes... nothing is off limits. I tend to see the glass as half-full at all times. When people are down I like to try to cheer them up. I despise political correctness.

Anyhow, hi.