After careful thought I came to a conclusion tonight. If I ever give up on a career in art I'm going to language school to learn either Pashto or Punjabi and than I am going to get a taxi license. Last night I was in the mood for seafood so after the gallery I called a cab to run down to the South Street Seaport. Some of the best seafood in the city can be found at some little restaurants just outside the main part of the seaport, I guess you could say outside the tourist part. Did I mention they are cheaper too?
So when the cab picked me up I was on the phone and just muttered seaport to the driver. He knew what I meant but without an exact address he dropped me off outside Harbour Lights which is the most expensive restaurant in the area. He jumped out and opened the door for me, a nice touch, but than I saw him give a little wave to the doorman so I'm kind of thinking that he gets a diff kind of tip depending where he drops somebody off. This on top of tips which are on top of $35,000 a year. Export terrorists hell, Pakistan exports cabbies and they support whole tribes back home all on their own.
Earlier this week I managed to pass a new milestone in New York. I think it's safe to say that over the years I seem to have had more than my fair share of run ins with authority. It doesn't seem to matter where I happen to be living at the time, it's just a simple fact. But I have managed to keep a rather low profile since I moved to the Village, as low a profile as an almost six foot tall girl can anyway, but as karma would have it this too would come to an end.
I was in a subway station a couple days ago, minding my own business and taking a few shots as I always seem to be doing when I felt a hand on my shoulder. I turned around to face, I should say look down to, an NYPD officer who proceeded to ask if he could see my camera. Now you have to understand that nobody touches my camera and I wasn't about to hand it over to him. For all I knew he would get spooked by a track rat and drop it on the platform. Than he started to tell me that due to security measures adopted after 9/11 I wasn't allowed to take photos in the subway. I very politely told him bullshit.
Ever since I took some shots at ground zero about a month after the attack I make a point of knowing where I can and where I can't shoot. A ban was proposed years ago but was never adopted but he was hearing none of what I had to say because he said what I was doing was suspicious. Luckily just than a train pulled in and I quickly asked if I could go to which he said I should get home safe. As I stepped on the train I had no idea which train it was or where it was going but it seemed like a good idea to get the hell out of there.
Only me ....
Sirenia - The End Of It All
