Archives for July 2012

High-pitched laughter and the sound of splashing cuts through the dense heat wave at Madison Square Park, as young children gallop through the sprinklers, all in the effort to beat the heat. Adults and kids alike are covered with a sheet of sweat, and the air is filled with the smells of summer.

For some New Yorkers, summer weather is a reason to rejoice, while others prefer to escape the stifling temperatures.

“I like the hot weather, just not when it’s too humid,” said Alicia Bryan, who works for the city’s Parks Department. “You cant breathe.”

The city’s public pools and park’s spray sprinklers are one way residents can catch a break.

“I’m here with my son. We’re usually here during the day so that I can let him run around and cool off,” said 27-year-old Margaret McCloskey, from Manhattan, who was enjoying the spray fountains at Augustus Saint Gaudens Park.

Another place locals go to keep out of the heat is the sanctuary of air-conditioned movie theaters.

“I can’t take it,” Mique Sultan, 54, moaned, with sweat poured down his face, as he waited on line to buy a ticket. “It’s too hot.”

For some, rising temperatures present a business opportunity. Sitting in a broken chair by the Union Square No. 6 train, Maria Roberta, 46, endures the daily grind despite the recent heat waves, carting around coolers filled with soda, water and Gatorades.

“One dollar soda, one dollar water. One dollar, one dollar,” shouted Roberta, as she tried to attract customers.

At Ralph’s Famous Italian Ices on 24th Street, locals have been lining up for refreshing and cool desserts and drinks.

“Business has been very good, very busy. Summertime is usually the best time for ices,” said Tyrone Banks, 21, an employee at Ralph’s.

Out-of-towners, visiting from even warmer climates, say New York’s summer can’t compare to temperatures in their home turf.

“This is nothing to us, we’re from Arizona,” said Lisa Akien, who was enjoying a milkshake with her family under the shade of a large tree in Union Square Park.

Even some locals say they don’t mind the warmer weather.

“I like sunshine. I think people complain too much,” said Maggie Dale, 24, from Spanish Harlem. “I love walking this wonderful city, enjoying the weather.”

Comedy at it’s finest.

He’s an awkward rookie agent.

She’s the speedy and precise senior agent.

They’re dating and neither of them realize each other’s secret identities.

It’s a recipe for disaster.

But none the less, after three years apart, they meet again unexpectedly…in the men’s bathroom…while he’s using the urinal.

It’s a great scene though and it relights their relationship.

Kang Ji Hwan’s comedic scenes were the highlight of the entire movie. Although he had some slightly serious fight scenes, he did a great job of incorporating comedy into them making this such a light and relaxing film to watch.

His scenes with Ryoo Seung Ryong are great as well. They were the perfect comedy duo in this.

Kim Ha Neul didn’t disappoint with her comedic scenes as well. But her fight scenes were done very well and it was hard to notice that her usual roles are fun and happy. This really opens up a new road for her in acting.

The foreign actors on the other hand could have been better but they weren’t the focus so I didn’t really mind. 

But the ending although hilarious and very unexpected, did not wrap up all of the loose ends from the movie. It didn’t conclude as well as I would have liked it to, but in the end it did deliver a healthy serving of fun.

It’s a great movie to watch even when you’re preoccupied with the happenings of the London Olympics

Comedic action movie + shock induced excitement from the London Olympics = best Saturday afternoon!

In the past few years, as blogging and Facebook have become more popular, people are updating their statuses and tweeting more frequently, and with less thought.

 

Kids are spending so much time sharing their lives on the web, that they’re not living it. They spend their days typing about every single thing that pops into their head and put no thought into each post.

 

Some of these teens even post 48 times a day! That’s two per hour.

 

Lets face it. No one wants to know if and when you’re sitting on the toilet. 

We recently watched the movie The Paper. The Paper depicts the life of a journalist Henry Hackett and how his life changed within a day.

It begins as a radio broadcast. Henry wakes up and then goes to work, while his pregnant wife, Martha, tries to take it easy. Henry then uncovers the truth about two young, black teenagers who were falsely accused of murdering two white businessman. Henry, along with his co-worker McDougal, manage to acquire information from an officer. They write an article which prompts the police to release the teenagers. Finally, the movie ends in the same way it started.

The movie depicted a day in the life of a journalist well. Journalists have hectic lives, because they must make sure that they get everything in before deadline. The director, Ron Howard, probably decided to make the movie take place in a day because he wanted to show the rush of journalism. Sometimes, one can feel the craziness that is happening to Henry.

I recommend that you watch it. The movie appeals to people, especially to those who work constantly.

    On Monday afternoon around 3:30pm, I got off the train and strolled myself back home. Unexpected, I noticed black clouds of smoke building up in the midair and it was getting darker each second. I It was a block away from my house and my heart automatically skipped a beat. It was interesting and horrifying at the same time. I wasn’t sure where it was coming from at the moment so I ran to my house and dropped everything off on the sofa and opened the window. It was a better view since I am on the second floor of the house. The smoke was very dark, a mixture of dark grey and black. I watch as it swirled up and block out the blue sky. Sirens blast in streets and every minute, a fire truck and police cars stormed by. At that time, I was just hoping that no death occurred from the fire. I decided to take a picture as well so I snapped a couple of pictures from my window view and the fire was coming from the vacant factory in my neighborhood. There were more than 200 fire fighters and it took 16 hours to settle the fire down!

    The trains that run in my neighborhood are not underground. So I was wondering whether or not the smoke would block the view of the driver running the train. As expected, the MTA decided to close down all trains running between Broadway Junction all the way to Jamaica. As an alternative, we will need to take the bus and transfer. It didn’t affect me at that moment because I was at home right on time before the MTA decided to declare this.

     After finding out about the fire, I was wondering how the media will respond to this news. Since it is my neighborhood, I searched online to see how different news company reacts. I read different articles from companies like NY1, DNAinfo, myfoxny, wall street journal, nbc and brownstoner. I compared their pictures and it’s pretty interesting to see the different angles the aimed when snapping pictures of the burning factory. It seemed competitive because I realized that each company posted their story about this fire at different time. Some were faster and some posted slower than the other.

            After this incident, it allowed me to visual how journalism works when something actually happens in my own area. It also made me realize how quickly journalists report their story and gather quotes and sources. I regret not going close up to the scene to get a watch of how journalists talk to sources. I could imagine a bunch of people with notebooks, camera and pen in their hands trying to break through the crowd and talk to witnesses and officials. If I actually went, I wonder if I would be one of the sources. Too bad, I guess I missed the chance.

 

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has constantly been criticized by residents over the span of his political career, in part because of the numerous amounts of health initiatives that many view as ineffective, intrusive and excessive.

His list of past health initiatives include, banning of trans-fats and smoking in public places, restaurants and bars. The mayor has also required city restaurants to make calorie counts available on restaurant menus.

A recent article in the AM New York newspaper, revealed a recent study conducted by the Annals of Internal Medicine which showed that the mayor’s trans-fat ban has actually made New Yorker’s healthier. The study showed that New Yorkers consumed an average of 2.4 grams less of trans fats from 2007 to 2009. It was based on a five-year study into the city’s eating habits at more than 160 fast food restaurants.

The article also says that the trans-fat ban has been effective in inspiring people to be more conscious of what they eat. They also suggested that the federal government should take notice and implement a similar health initiative throughout the nation.

Bloomberg’s latest “soda ban” proposal has also flared a lot of controversy. Some feel that the government should not infringe on what they choose to eat, while others feel that the sole focus on sweetened beverages is not fair.

Supporters like New York City Health Department Commissioner Dr. Thomas Farley think that anything that improves the health of city residents is great. On a recent public hearing he said, “Obesity is a crisis this City cannot afford to ignore. If a virus were killing 5,800 New Yorkers in a single year, people would be clamoring for government action to stop it. The fact that obesity kills that many year after year only increase’s our duty to respond.”

Although there are many people and organizations that say the government has no right to restrict what they eat, I supporter the mayor’s recent initiative.

Obesity and diabetes are major problems that many New York City residents face and it doesn’t only affect their lives. People who suffer from obesity and diabetes because of poor diets affect all New York City residents by costing them to pay more taxes to fund health care. It also affects employers who have obese and diabetic employees because it may decrease productivity and often times force them to miss workdays because of frequent trips to the doctor, in turn making them a liability for the company.

Childhood and teen obesity is also affecting America a great deal. According to the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, between 16 and 33 percent of children and adolescents are obese in America, costing a whopping $100 billion annually to society.

I also agree with the recent AM New York and think that the federal government should also try to pass a similar initiative like the mayor’s proposed “soda ban” to combat obesity and diabetes throughout the nation.

Journalism enters USA with sex, scandals, and classic USA political dramas
By Yakov Gavrilov

USAs recent mini-series casts an alternate version of the Clinton family as the main cast. The new name of this political family is the Hammond family.

Elaine a recently divorced first lady of former president Bud Hammond; loses the 2008 presidential election and takes the possession of Secretary of State – Ring a bell.

The former first lady has not one daughter in the new mini-series but 2 twin sons. Douglas Hammond the younger brother the Chief of Staff of the white house and is waiting for his wedding to take place. The older brother takes little light into the political powers of the White House and wants to open a night club as his business.

Thomas Hammond the first openly gay son of a president that has had near death experiences last Christmas because of the pressure of being forced to come out to the world at a young age.
This is where the only main cast member that’s not in the family makes an appearance. Susan Berg a journalist gets her hands on this information.

She refuses to put it in the newspaper because it goes against journalisms ethics if she wrote a story on it but she does blackmail the first lady into having an interview with her.

She uses this information to get the former First Lady to talk about the hostage situation in Iran, with three journalists being held at gun point.

Susan Berg tells her editor about the near death experience with Thomas Hammond and he gives the information to another female employee and tells her to write the story.

Susan is infatuated the Editor and when she receives the news that the story has been written by another female employee she accuses him of cheating on her.

He tells her that the newspaper industry is a dying business and needed the story.

Susan did not believe that is the true reason he gave her the story
.
He admits to it and tells her it’s because she has been caring more about the story than she has about him.

Susan walks out the news room telling him that the relationship is over and goes to the Secretary of State at a nearby elephant park.

Pleading forgiveness and telling her what her what her true intent was that she did not want to print the story and what her editor did to her.

Elaine fells sympathy for Susan because she has been in that situation where a man lies and cheats to you and tells her the current situation of the hostages in Iran.

Elaine continued that she invited her hear because she adores Elephants because after they mate the female elephant dethrones the male and takes charge.

Later in the politically protected vehicle Elaine tells her security guard that she is going to run for president once more.

The episode ends.

47 stars out of 50

It was a presumably going to be a normal day at work for me last Wednesday afternoon. As I was working behind the counter glancing at all the sweet confectioneries, a white over sized white truck plopped in front of the bakery. A couple of men came out of the truck, opened the back door and pulled out what looked like light posts and studio
Cameras. After a while I didn’t think much of it.

I went on break, I walked up the block and to my surprise found more trucks, and more people and more equipment. Tents were set up with people running filimg with huge video cameras, it was pretty hectic. As I was heading back to work At first glance the store looked really busy, but then I noticed there were strangers behind the counter, and the customers weren’t our everyday customers. Not even touristy looking, they all greeted me really politely and a guy asked if I can turn the refrigerator, air conditioners , and any lights that made faint buzzing noises. With the weirdest look on my face I asked why? He replied because we don’t want any noise interfering with our microphones.

They were shooting the show “Point of Interest” on TBS in the bakery I work in. I met Michael Emerson who starred in Lost and the horror film Saw. It was quite an unexpected day.