(Photos by Bald Punk – click twice to fully enlarge)

I remember years ago going to this great bar in the building at 14 Wall Street(one photo below). It was on the 31st floor and used to be J.P. Morgan’s apartment. He was the Bill Gates of his day. I think the bar was also a French restaurant. It’s since gone out of business . . .

These photos are just okay.

Here are my STORIES and PHOTOS

 (Photos by Bald Punk)

Most of these photos I took at the corner of Wall, Pearl, and Beaver Streets. I guess you wouldn’t really call it a corner, a junction maybe . . .

Because of this blog I love taking photos. When I’m trying to find the right angles I sometimes feel like I’m breaking a secret code. In the process I do a little dance; don’t know if that helps.

I took these pics on my way to Carrie Robbins’ apartment. I will post more about her and Max Beckley soon.

Here are my STORIES and PHOTOS

(Broadway by Bowling Green. It’s right up the block from South Ferry)

Are you busy? Can you come with me?

I got out of work early and have my camera with me. My idea is to take pictures the entire length of Broadway. When I see something that catches my eye – “SNAP!”

<< CLICK HERE TO SEE ALL THE PICTURES. >>

<< There are 150 pictures. THEY ARE IN THE ORDER I TOOK THEM. >>

<< I will try to put them in a slide show later on. >>

<< Some of the names of the buildings and streets are in the urls. >>

BTW . . .

I started down by South Ferry, where I had a small demo job.

It was pretty hot and humid and about ninety degrees.

That park where Broadway meets State Street is real nice. Don’t you think?

Right past the park is The Bull. I’ve passed it a million times and just before, because I was taking pictures for you—I noticed that he has huge balls.

I was sweating like a mofo and gave up real soon on walking Broadway from start to finish. I figured I’d just make it to Canal Street and hop on an uptown train. Hope you’re okay with that. Another time I can get pics of the rest of Broadway for you

Broadway by Wall Street is real shady (as in shadowy). Nice.

Over by City Hall where my friend Mike Bloomberg works, there was a bum on the sidewalk . He had one of those “work for food” signs. I was going to take his picture, but I didn’t want to invade his privacy. Plus I would have probably had to give him a buck for the pic and I was low on cash.

The funny thing is, because I was thinking about getting good pics for you (when I say you, I mean all my readers. I get hits from all over the known universe except from the UK) I was looking up and around, and was impressed by the place. I noticied lots of buildings that I didn’t before. I was surprised by how many have overhangs. I moved closer to the street in case something fell.

Years ago when I worked at Lehman Brothers, I had to shuttle crap from 3WFC to 2WTC, and also over to 2 Broadway, and I didn’t notice shit. I was young. A building was a building. I was more interested in the ladies.

I was most impressed by the Woolworth Building. The limestone was smothered in this sweet, creamy glow. I took a many pics of it for you, but in them you can’t see the cream!    :-(

I was also sniffing a lot–

You remember how in the movie Good Will Hunting, Robin William’s character says to Matt Damon–who was a savant– something like “… you could probably recite all sorts of crap about Michelangelo, but you can’t tell me what it smells like in the Sistine Chapel?” You remember that movie. Good! That’s why I was sniffing . . . I figure it would be nice if I could smell something special for you.

(Sistine Chapel – I bet it smells like tourists = cologne, perfume and BO.)

By the time I got to City Hall the only smell I had for you was exhaust. NYC exhaust probably smells just like it does where you live. I was kind of hoping for maybe a breezy scent from the harbor or one of the rivers or the phantom smell of vanilla like the one they have in Gettysburg, PA(I’ll tell you about that another time).

One of my favorite short stories is “The Lingering Scent of Woodsmoke” by Harlan Ellison. There’s this line in it: “Even under the smothering canopy of woven branches, they could hear the Vistula rushing fast and deep toward Czechoslovakia; they could smell the high Carpathians just to the north.” I was thinking about that line, too . . .

I totally forgot if I even heard a sound. It was like high school. I wasn’t paying attention. But I was zoned into taking pics for you!

Where was I?

Broadway! It has no smell–

Though right up around by City Hall I started to smell cooked shrimp. It was coming from a salad bar/deli of which there are a million in NYC. You know those places, they sell the green shit, and yummy hot food.

So to summarize, Broadway smells like exhaust and cooked shrimp.

Oh, when I passed City Hill the buildings got smaller and smaller. You can see in the pics. That’s cause as you head north there is less and less bedrock to build upon, that is, until you get to Midtown.

If NYC was all bedrock, I’d bet a billion dollars it would be all shady like it is on Broadway by Wall Street.

Speak about buildings tall-and-small- and-noticing things in NYC, one thing that will surprise you is how many 18^th and 19^th Century buildings you’ll find in the city. Maybe someday I can take pictures of all of them for you.

Okay, so we’re getting near Canal Street. I’m putting my camera away and gonna hop on the R-train.

See you later pal.

Your friend,

Bald Punk

Btw, I almost forgot to tell you! Right at the start of Broadway by Bowling Green you can see the Chrysler Building way up in midtown. I don’t know if you can see it in any of my pics. You’ll have to come to NYC and see it for yourself. (I’m required to say that because NYC loves tourist dollars. It’s because of you that we can put up huge, mofo hotels and put on shows that are like nowhere else.)

So–the Chrysler Building lines up perfectly with the center of Broadway. I’m embarrassed to say that I’ve never noticed it before. I guess my high school teachers were right . . .

I wouldn’t have noticed the building if I wasn’t taking pics for you! So thanks!!!

Lastly, did you know Broadway was originally laid out by the Native Americans. It was called the Wickquasgeck  Trail.

NYC is punk rock!

Bye!!!

(Chrysler Building)

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 (J. P Morgan Building, 60 Wall Street -  Photo by Bald Punk) 

First, thanks to everyone for stopping by. I’ve been doing this blog for a little over a month and am now getting as many as 200 unique visitors per day. Plus Google just gave me a P1 page ranking, which I’m told is good for such a short time.

I also appreciate the responses to my short story, DARK CHILD. I will put up more fiction in the future.

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Onto the emails, of which, I haven’t got all that many so far.

A couple of people wanted to know what I do for a living. I work for a demolition company. The work is grueling and I hate it. But I’ve had plenty of office jobs and didn’t like them all that much either. So…

One of the office jobs I had was at Lehman Brothers. It’s the investment bank that went out of business. I basically pushed papers in different directions. But the people were all real nice. Plus the building where I worked, 3 World Financial Center, is a simply magnificent place. The lobby has large murals and its adjacent to an atrium with tall palm trees and a glass ceiling. It’s called the Winter Garden. I need to go down there and take some pics to show you.

You might have read about the CEO of Lehman, Dick Fuld. Well, if you can believe it, one day I almost flattened him. I’m a big guy and I was not looking where I was going and I turned a corner in the hallway and almost plowed over him. But it would have been his fault, because he had his office on the trading floor and not in the penthouse suite. I was up there in the penthouse a few times. It seemed like a wasted of space. The had a few old men working up there. It looked like they worked out of their bedrooms. It was kinda creepy. But I guess the days of that crap are over anyway.

It’s a shame what happened with the company and even with Mr. Fuld. When I was there it seemed that everyone liked the guy. 

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Someone wanted to know my lady friend’s name. “Lady friend,” of course!

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Also, some mofo wanted me to recommend a restaurant in NYC. I’m more of a take-out kinda guy. I like to eat in front of the TV.

But I do like Puglia’s in Little Italy. There you can get up and dance on your chair between mouthfuls. And they got this mofo named Jorge who sings and plays the keyboard and accordion, and he sort of encourages you to have a nutty time. Some people think it’s a tourist trap, but I consider myself a tourist in most things I do.

That’s it on the questions.

Oh yeah, I did get one on writing a book from some mofo in Brazil. The guy had an idea and wanted my opinion as if I’m a font of knowledge. I’ll mull it over and see if I can give a thoughtful response in a day or so.

Thanks,

Baldie

Here are my STORIES and info on my Novels