Random Photos

One more week of classes to go, and the fall semester, my first at Rutgers-Newark, will conclude. At times it has felt like it passed in an eyeblink, at others as slowly as a glacier, but the disruption of Tropical Storm Sandy scrambled things sufficiently enough that it has really been like no other teaching experience save my first semester at Brown, in the fall of 2001, when 9/11 took place. That horror launched the term and shadowed the rest of the year; this event divided it into two halves, with the ripples still drawing faint but perceptible circles. I reckoned the new position, new classes, new students, and new programs would all require a considerable amount of work and I wasn't wrong; one casualty has been my blogging here. There are days when I ask myself how I ever managed, amidst all the work at Northwestern, to nearly meet my 365-day project total back in 2005-6, and I realize it was mostly determination and madness. Short of both, it often feels like a miracle if I can get to this blog once a week, if at all. Taking photos (awful as they are) is easy, though, so here are a few photos from recent weeks. Enjoy.

The final Writers at Newark reading of the fall:
MC Jim Goodman with readers Tayari Jones, and Nick Flynn

Replacement parts on pallets in Exchange Place Station

On 7th Avenue

A sample sale, on 14th Street

Before my reading at Robert Reid-Pharr's
l-r: Robert Reid Pharr, me, Greg Pardlo
(Tyehimba Jess in foreground; photo by Reggie Harris)

Park Avenue, looking south

Christmas Tree street market

The 9/11 Memorial Preview Site (with the endless lines)

On 6th Avenue, in Midtown

Alex Bittar sample sale, pop-up store, 14th Street

14th and 9th, Meatpacking District

Rag & Bone sample sale, Chelsea Market

NBC Studios, Midtown

Rockefeller Center Christmas tree, fully decorated (and mobbed)

Google's New York Headquarters, Meatpacking district

Chelsea Market, 9th Avenue

Offensive Art Basel Miami sign

Ticker-tape diode, 7th Avenue

#payphoneography

Somnolent Jersey City street

Park Avenue, with MetLife Building in the background

Full moon over Jersey City

At filmmaker David Moore's (standing at right) birthday party in Brooklyn