Why I Love New York # 2,008,656

There's always something in the air.

Rainbow laser light show

in the evening sky

"Sandy's Rainbow" over Abingdon Square, November 29, 2012

From the roof of the Standard Hotel

Across the far west Village

Over what was once the meat market

But now becomes a disco at the drop of a hat ... or destruction.

 New Yorkers know to look for rainbows after a storm.

Photographs of Sandy's Rainbow, an installation by artist Yvette Mattern,

by Tom Eubanks.

The worst moment on morning television. Ever.

Or perhaps I had fallen back to sleep and was experiencing an early morning nightmare?

I can't imagine having to share actual time with four more despicable celubutards. 

Poor Willie Geist had to conduct this 'panel,' if I recall correctly.

Still trying to shake it . . . 

First Snowperson of the Year

Spotted on 12th Street between 5th Avenue and University Place, 

in storm-ravaged Manhattan, en route to P.S. 19 

to mentor the most incredible 10-year-old artists.

I hope her name was Sandy.

                                                                                              --Tom Eubanks

Stock Up for Samhain and Frankenstorm Sandy 2012

To heighten the terror, 

they're made from 100% BPA & toxic dyes in a Chinese sweatshop.

The first in a random series of Halloween/Frankenstorm 2012 reflections by Tom Eubanks.

143 YEARS LATER . . .

September 15, 1869:

the day my great-great-grandfather, Abraham Chenoweth Van Meter, 

founded The St. Croix Republican in New Richmond, Wisconsin. 

It is now known as The New Richmond News.

Abe's son and grandson--my great-grandfather and grandfather--

ran The New Richmond News until 1969. 

From the end of the Civil War to the depths of the Viet Nam. 

I've been working on a book about my family and their contributions to their 

small, northwestern Wisconsin community--and I argue, to our nation--through their newspaper and unwavering civic duties. Essays from this project were excerpted in The New Richmond News, 

in Mary Sather's Sharing Memories column.

One hundred and forty three years later, 

my words appeared in the paper started by my great-great-grandfather.

These are the essays. More to come.

---Tom Eubanks, New York City, September 17, 2012

Thanks to Mary Sather and The New Richmond News.

Why I Love New York #1,957,993

July 31, 2012. 

Suddenly cool summer evening

windows open to a quiet courtyard

Olympics in the background.

Thunder!

(But the storms have passed.)

Explosion?

Flashes of color against windows and walls of neighboring buildings.

Fireworks!

 Down the stairs, down the sidewalk,

and there they were, in a slice of sky beneath scaffolding 

bursting over the Hudson.

People pass and giggle. Some stop and watch. 

A common passing refrain: 

"Like, what are the fireworks for?"

 

By Tom Eubanks

New York Scrawl

As the area code gets more expensive, the graffiti becomes more expansive.

Tom Eubanks