To briefly paraphrase / plagiarize / Internetize Jon Stewart of The Daily Show, last week it seemed like things were getting a bit better for New Yorkers … Over the weekend the weather was beautiful, Central Park was full, mentions of protests on Wall Street had simmered down and Obama had survived his first 100 days in office and was doing reasonably well, according to the Pew Research Center at least.
Describing an afternoon ‘disco blading’ through Central Park in his newly-cut ‘jean shorts’ Stewart says: “I gotta tell you, I really felt, you know what, we’re about to turn this thing around.”
[CUT TO THE SCARY PRESENTERS AT FOX]
Female presenter: “This is a FOX. NEWS. ALERT. The White House now declaring a public health emergency to deal with the threat of the SWINE FLU…” (You’ll understand the emphases if you listen to her talk)
[CUT TO ANDERSON COOPER AND HIS BEAUTIFUL SILVERY HAIR]
The Silver Fox: “Breaking news. A fast moving new strain of the flu, and at this hour, the death toll is rising.” Another correspondent asks, is this a pandemic?
[Cut to Jon Stewart, lip stuck out next to a picture of a pig with the banner: SNOUTBREAK '09.]
Jon Stewart: “MOTHERF—!! A pandemic. Seriously?! You’re adding a pandemic?”
What I love about Stewart is how beautifully he captures the feelings of so many people with his “fake” nightly newscasts. It’s true. The mood of New York has improved slightly since the tremendous economic crash last year. The fact that several New York City children had contracted a mild form of the swine flu (several more have been found since but none have died) was really horrible. Just when we thought it couldn’t get worse, it did.
And then the Defense Force decided to do this:
It was quite possibly, the stupidest thing the Defense Force could’ve done – flying Air Force One low over Manhattan without making sure that the city, the Mayor and residents were informed on some level. Of course, people panicked and thousands self-evacuated their buildings. The spectre of 9/11 is still very present. Whenever I am evacuated from a building (last Tuesday at the BBC offices on 34th Street was the most recent incident) I think back on that time, and I’m not even a New Yorker. I can’t imagine what must have gone through the minds of people who saw the plane fly low over the skyscrapers of Manhattan. I accompanied the BBC correspondent on this a shoot near Ground Zero which was later added on to the 6pm news segement (Here is the story without the correspondent).
My day at the BBC also included packing some dust masks, AA batteries and equipment from Brooklyn and rushing it over to a correspondent who was about to leave for a flight to Mexico City. The BBC has done great coverage of the story as its developed, I much prefer them to network news, which I find quite panicky.
Talking of work, I also just submitted a freelance story for Women’s eNews, which you can find here: Visco Sets Her Own Pace in 9-Month Run Across U.S. That was a fun story to write!
Last weekend was really nice … on Saturday we celebrated Spring Festival at Sakura Park outside I-House in beautiful weather, and on Sunday we headed out to Central Park for a picnic and a very lazy afternoon. I really needed the break … most of this week has been spent working on our magazine, which will go to the printers on Sunday, and our project for Global Post on remittances, which is due on Monday. Hopefully after that, it’s the home stretch! At any rate it looks like I’ll have a Master’s degree in 2 1/2 weeks time! That’s just craziness.
So, that’s just a short update of where I am right now … lots of things happening but I’m going with the flow and doing what I (think) I do best, which is obsess over details and work on several million things at once. Tonight: a film screening of sex trafficking in New York City, tomorrow; work for the Alumni Office (more OCVD), time coding an interview with Arabic-speaking Yemenis, hopefully helping with website design, trying to write an overview for Global Post, sorting out interviewing for the weekend, etc etc etc. I’m incredibly excited to see the fam in a few weeks …
Missing you all! Lots of love Jax
p.s. I leave you with a strip of one of the best comics out there …
http://xkcd.com/
Back in February of this year, 40,000 Mexicans gathered in the Zocalo, Mexico City’s main plaza, for a massive kiss-in, setting a new Guinness World Record for the largest number of people to gather together for a big collective kiss.
Still high from setting one record, they gathered again this weekend, this time to set a different record: the largest number of people to gather together simultaneously in a single place to re-enact Michael Jackson’s video for the song “Thriller.”
While New Yorkers were gathering in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park to celebrate the late pop star’s birthday in a bash sponsored by the film director Spike Lee, Mexicans gathered at the Monument of the Revolution in full Jackson regalia: black fedoras, aviator sunglasses, and bloody make-up, according to NPR’s Mexico City correspondent, Jason Beaubien.
It didn’t take much to break the existing record, which was set by 242 people at the College of William and Mary earlier this year.
An estimated 12,000-13,000 people showed up to dance, while as many as 40,000 more showed up to watch.
While the Guinness officials convene to ensure whether all of the dancers performed the song from start to finish, you can check out some video footage from the event:
Interested in bizarre record-breaking feats? Peru won the world’s largest ceviche title earlier this year, and Anandita Dutta Tamuly won a Guinness title for downing the most hot chiles –51–in less than a minute. I don’t know about you, but I think I’d rather moonwalk.
Der Winter ist da! Selbst im Flachland gab es schon den ersten Schnee. Und in den Alpen gibt es schon in der Vorsaison traumhafte Schneebedingungen durch starke Schneefälle. In manchen Skigebieten in Österreich fiel bereits bis zu zwei Meter Neuschnee! Höchste Zeit den Skiurlaub in Österreich, Südtirol oder der Schweiz zu buchen!
Auch für ein junges, kostenbewusstes Publikum und für Singles gibt es im Internet preiswerte Skireisen in die schönsten und schneesichersten Skigebiete der europäischen Alpen. Bei TrendTown Travel und Pfiff Skireisen findet ihr günstige Skihotels, Skihütten, Pensionen und Sportclubs. Die Sportclubs und Hotels befinden sich alle in oder nahe bei attraktiven Skigebieten in Österreich, Frankreich, Italien und der Schweiz. Für Singles gibt es spezielle Reiseangebote, die orange gekennzeichnet sind und ihr müsst ihr kein Einzelzimmer buchen, bucht einfach einzelne Plätze im Doppel- oder Mehrbettzimmer.
Informiert Euch hier über die diesjährigen Skireisen.
Posted in italien, Reisen, Sportreisen, Unterkunft, Urlaub Tagged: ski, skifahren, skigebiete, skireise, skireisen buchen, skiurlaub, skiurlaub österreich, skiurlaub schweiz, Urlaub, winterurlaub
