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The streets of New York

After parting from Jim Bennett at the Roosevelt Hotel, I had to get a shot of this classic bit of Capitalism. You feel wealthy just looking at it.

Old Rolls Royce
There is just a classy sexuality to the old Rolls that could never come out of the greyness of socialism.
Photo: copyright Dale Amon, All Rights Reserved

Instead of staying underground and taking the S train, I walked back through midtown. I always enjoy just passing through Times Square. It is never the same twice. Today I was surprised at the big Xinhua News adverts on the highest and probably priciest of the computer screens which have come to dominate the place.

Xinhua in Times Square
I sometimes wonder if I am in Times Square or crossed over into a Cyberpunk novel.
Photo: copyright Dale Amon, All Rights Reserved

The screens now cover the entire surfaces of some buildings in constantly shifting images.

Moving images on walls
New York or Shanghai? The world just keeps shrinking.
Photo: copyright Dale Amon, All Rights Reserved

I had to stop and take a photo of this advert on the wall of the 42nd Street Metro station near the stairs down to the A Train platform. I should not have been surprised by it, given that the Palestinians were asking the UN to tell them they are a State. In my opinion, based on what I hope happens out in the solar system with some Libertarian settlement someday, you do not ask the UN to be a state. You tell them. Of course the other side of this coin is that you try to make friends with your neighbors because if you shoot at them in a Libertarian world, they *will* shoot back…

Palestinian peace?
Is it really peace with Israel they want or is it Israel in pieces?
Photo: copyright Dale Amon, All Rights Reserved

10 comments to The streets of New York

  • Rignerd

    The Palestinian ad sounds so alluring. Give peace a chance!

    Does any rational person believe that the killing would continue if the Palestinians laid down their arms?

    Does any rational person believe there would be a Jewish survivor if they laid down their arms?

    The killing fields of Cambodia would pale in comparison to the massacre of the Jews.

  • Julie near Chicago

    What a perfectly revolting ad from the bowels of NYC. Take my advice and DON’T Take the A Train.

  • Eric

    A new life awaits you in the off-world colonies! A chance to begin again in a golden land of opportunity and adventure!

  • 'Nuke' Gray

    It’s a shame that New-yorkers have to go around in very old, indeed, antique, cars. Can’t they afford new stuff?
    And why are people so interested in Beryllium? Symbol ‘Be’?

  • 'Nuke' Gray

    It’s a shame that New-yorkers have to go around in very old, indeed, antique, cars. Can’t they afford new stuff?
    And why are people so interested in Beryllium? Symbol ‘Be’?

  • It needed to be raining for that true Blade Runner Effect.

    Socialism would produce a limo in black, for Party members and their cronies only. It would be vast (but seeing as the streets would be empty of vehicles, the proletariat being better off without them, natch, size is not a hindrance), badly made, intimidating. Bullet proof. Boot big enough for three bodies wearing overcoats.

    p.s. How about “end state military aid to both sides”? Oh no.

  • J Storrs Hall

    If you like the Rolls, there’s one for sale in Hershey, PA, this weekend:
    http://www.rmauctions.com/FeatureCars.cfm?SaleCode=HF11&CarID=r102&fc=0

    A little underpowered for my taste, though.

  • Dom

    “I had to get a shot of this classic bit of Capitalism.”

    I thought you meant the fat guy on the side.

  • Paul Marks

    I suspect I would have liked to visit New York better when that Rolls was new – less box shaped buildings and more interesting buildings (like the old, then not old, Penn State station).

    There were tall buildings in the 1920s – but they were interesting tall buildings (not just glass and steel boxes).

    “But Paul – there was no Fox News to visit then”.

    True enough – but security would most likely not let me visit anyway.

    If they are anything like me (when I was doing security work) they would politiely ask if I had an appointment with anyone – and when they found I did not, back on the street I would be.

    Still the museums and art galleries are still in New York – as is Central Park.

    No disrespect meant the the other boroughs (the consentation on M. island is a bit unfair) I know they have there own interesting museums and parks also.

    Although I would most likely prefore visiting the the boroughs in teh 1920s as well (or the late 1940s).

    However, New York is (by all accounts) a much better place now than it was before 1993 (back before Rudy G. was elected it had become a Hellhole).

  • Laird

    I’ve spent a lot of time in NYC during my life (grew up in its shadow, across the river in NJ), and every time it’s my misfortune to have to go there I come away thinking “that’s why I could never live here.” No question that there’s a lot of amazing stuff there, but I still can’t stand the place. I find it the congestion depressing.

    I guess I’m just a small town boy.

    Nice Rolls, though. Incidentally, the highest concentration of Rolls Royces I’ve ever seen was in Hong Kong, about 15 years ago (and maybe it’s still that way today). You want to see Capitalism in all its glory — that’s the place to go.