Isn't there a better way?!!

Tired of using a spoon or fork to get your hummus?
Now you can just squeeze it!
It appears this new idea is being marketing to hot dog vendors on the NYC block closest to our hearts.
You are seeing the future—today!

Giant red ball in New York's most happening parking lot.

Free Bananas on 39(8/9)!!!

get 'em while you can!
they're in season.
unfortunately, no Gros Michel or cavendish types.
don't get greedy

Fuck Popo!!!

It's amazing the wisdom one can find scrawled on the tops of trucks here on 39 (8/9). I mean, at first I kind of liked Popo. But then after that shit he pulled with Jimmy Skids. I gotta agree: Fuck Popo.

My least favorite number is 39

On my first little league baseball team, I was issued a t-shirt with the number 2 on the back.
I thought to myself, "Yeah, that makes sense, 'cause I'm the shit!"

Over the years, the thought of a least favorite number never really occurred to me—until now.
I am not a hater and a negative person, but I cannot deny how much 39 sucks.

Finck Unbound.

After so many months, nay, years, the true splendor of the Finck building emerges from its plywood sheathing for public perusal.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn...

...and I'm stuck on 39(8/9). How I wish that I was in Brooklyn right now.

Only on 39th Street

Tip of the fedora to TC for the inspired fotogrifying. No plastic bags were harmed in the filming of this blog post.

I'm following this guy!

Clown Murder

Unless my schooling has misinformed me, clowns bleed a very bright red looking blood.
Based on that, it appears a clown murder crime scene was being covered up on 39(8/9) last friday.
I waited to see mention in the police blotter, but it is being kept very quiet which worries me.
Mindful of my safety, I decided to wait until i was a safe distance away from NYC in order to post this information.
Any other details are welcome—anonymous or otherwise.

Scrim of filth

Thanks for your constructive criticism Geo, but it's hard to plumb the depths of the human experience when our view is obstructed by this never-ending rain of filth. What wonders are taking place this very second on 39 (8/9)? Only the filth can say.

Fuck you all.

For not writing.

Apartments for Rent

Just like Brooklyn—the bad part

The garbage grows.

In the corners of out lot, the garbage grows. The bagel is gone. The refuse multiplies. The filth of a million broken dreams collects in corners and makes a nest for rats. Behind the little shack where parking fees were paid not long ago, is a place to pee. Some hipsters stole two signs that were screwed to the western wall. Now yellowed plywood takes their place.

Our lot. In life?

Stay Late, Party Down

39(8/9) after hours

Late summer: 39th (8/9)

It's like Keats was writing just for us! Especially the part about the "clammy cells"...

SEASON of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run;
To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease;
For Summer has o'erbrimm'd their clammy cells.

It rained.

The rain,
the constant steady rain came down with the insistence of a high-school Vice Principal.
It hadn't rained, really rained, for weeks, and now this rain, which assaulted the asphalt with the fury of a middleweight's combination, threatened to wash the stink off the block.

No, that's wrong.
Nothing could wash off the accumulated grime, the gum spots as numerous as the stars in heaven, the filth--both human and animal, of the street. The surface might be scoured. But the filth, the grime, the tears, blood and sweat of a thousand broken dreams were permanent as the puke dried to a marble-hardness in the corner of the abandoned parking lot that dominated the landscape.

Back to our roots...

This blog wasn't always about snapping a photo on the infamous block and penning a cheeky caption.

This blog used to be a place where people came up with ideas.
Where people gathered to better mankind and maybe even learn something.

We need to get back to our roots. Upton Sinclair, August Strindberg, and J. D. Salinger.
Al Sharpton, Cesar Chavez, and Clarence Darrow.
Dick Van Dycke, Jay-Z, and Joan Allen.

Let's take that figurative piece of paper and violently crush it into a ball, toss it in the dustbin, and start over.

A Swede grows on 39(8/9)

Chicken Condo Blu still on the market

In another sign of the worsening economic crisis, Aleef has lowered its asking price for Chicken Condo Blu. Chicken Club also available.

Someone famous coming to 39(8/9).

March of the refrigerators

It's that time of year again

Give us this day...

Our Daley Wanzer.

Bite me

Bagels loiter unscathed while buildings get bites taken out of them. What a block.

Bagel Watch 2010. Day 12.

Reminds me of the old ditty:
As I turned to talk to Conrad Nagle,
He scraped the cream cheese off my bagel.

Bagel Watch 2010. Day 9.

Broken but not defeated.

Striking a leggy pose on 39(8/9).

Bagel Watch 2010. Day 8.

It lives.

Mystery reader: Stand up and identify yourself.

Is it Frank Sinatra? Jimmy Hoffa? Judge Crater?

Or is something nefarious going on?

The NSA? The CIA? Dick Cheney?

Or something extraterrestrial?

Is our precious slice of asphalt and used bubble gum
being watched by aliens?

Working al Fresco.

What could be better than catching some rays on 39(8/9) while you work?

Bagel Watch 2010. Day 6.

Broken into a dozen pieces or more, but still there.

Splat.

From the Archives: 1968

Like many 39 (8/9)ers, I am endlessly intrigued by our Block of Broken Dreams. I recently spent an afternoon poring through the archives at the New York Public Library. I was able to secure a number of classic photographs of the welcoming bosom of ol' 39. Thank you Arthur Lindstrom of the NYPL for all your help! I am currently embarking on the costly and time-consuming process of transferring the photographs from their classic metallic plates to digital and will share them as they become available. Here's the first...

Parking lot. October 6, 1968. (Look closely! The bagel was there!)

Bagel Watch 2010. Day 5.

Last Thursday eagle-eyed observers of "the Lot of Dreams" noticed a beaten but uneaten pumpernickel bagel amid the garbage and pigeons.

It was there on Friday.

Would it last the weekend?

Or would it be "rat-ified" or be breakfast for a hobo?

I'm pleased to report, it's still there.

All the news that's fit to schmear. That's 39(8/9).

Aleef puts the "Hi" in Fa"Hi"ta.

Rodin's "The Thinker" on 39(8/9).

You call this television...

Show me some spicy ladies slapping each other across the face and MAYBE I'll pay attention...

A conversation at Law & Order offices

Writer: "We've got a new script for an episode! It's called 'the worst of the worst' and is about a serial killer who hates his victims so much that he leaves their bodies in the worst places in NYC."

Producer: "Sounds great, but where would victim 1's body be discovered at?"

Location Scout: "No question, 39(8/9). Even pigeons don't go there."

More breaking news!

Mariska Hargitay dashes off the set, carrying her son to enjoy the signature dish of 39(8/9)... Yes, a Vaggi Omelette from Aleef!

Breaking news!

Christopher Merloni dons the official attire of 39(8/9).

Our humble little parking lot...

In the Beginning...

there was a bus line.

I heard a Fly buzz -- when I died --

I heard a Fly buzz -- when I died --
The Stillness in the Room
Was like the Stillness in the Air --
Between the Heaves of Storm --

The Eyes around -- had wrung them dry --
And Breaths were gathering firm
For that last Onset -- when the King
Be witnessed -- in the Room --

I willed my Keepsakes -- Signed away
What portion of me be
Assignable -- and then it was
There interposed a Fly --

With Blue -- uncertain stumbling Buzz --
Between the light -- and me --
And then the Windows failed -- and then
I could not see to see --

--Emily Dickenson

She rode in on a beam of light...

changed her shoes in the old parking lot, and found her way into our hearts.

The parking lot chronicles.

Welcome home, Momma.

The sky above 39th (8/9)

It only looks blue

Don't make a fuss...

Not so fast Rockledge Scaffolding Company!
If someone gets hurt or there is an EMERGENCY, we are not dialing 311!!
This will not get swept under the rug, but we will shout from rooftops, sky write it, and (sit down for this) DIAL 911!!!!
Maybe that crap flies on Nepperhan Ave (is that real or did you make that up by the way?), but not on 39(8/9).

Guest commentator.

Missing.

The helmets are waiting.
Where are the workers?
Did Karl Marx beckon?

"Blue cup gang" terrorizes block

I bet that's not water!

They need a new media placement strategy

A philosophical van.

Parking lot? Or a Park we'll love a lot?

Hats off to a waggish friend of ours for finding this architect's rendering of the proposed "FashionForward Park" to be located on the former site of CitiParking, lot 107.

And wet too!

This weather update brought to you by Sabrett.

My kinda town.

Now they're taunting us

Some more detective work.

Reveal these plans for New York's newest park and our newest neighbor.

What's up with the former parking lot?

I did a bit of nosing around online and found this.

“We have a unique opportunity to create something special right in the center of Manhattan: a destination that preserves the Fashion District's natural energy and our area's history; creates a public park that is a magnet for New Yorkers and visitors; and innovatively develops the area to support the space's activities without burdening the taxpayer. We hope this landscape design competition will help jump-start those plans.”

“FashionForward Park can become the center of New York City’s Fashion District through the creation of world-class open spaces and parks,” said Dan Doctoroff, the Deputy Mayor for Economic Development. “The designs presented at this exhibit provide the vision for achieving this opportunity.”

A fat guy on 39(8/9).