Weird Pictures From Sylvan Cemetery In Staten Island

So yesterday Alison and I went to Princeton Record Exchange in NJ (a pretty bad ass store) and one the way home stopped in Staten Island. There's this weird abandoned cemetery there called Sylvan Cemetery. From what I can find online, it started as a private/family burying ground and then became a public cemetery for a while. It seems to be made up primarily of the graves of two families, The Deckers and The Cannons. And one point it supposedly transferred over to a local church who, without funding, couldn't afford the upkeep and it's since fallen into abandonement and disrepair and not much has been done to it since the 1920s. Currently there is a new sign up (it wasn't there the first time we drove by it a couple of months ago) and someone has cut back some of the brush and grass around most of the graves in addition to putting down some cedar chips to create a possible parking lot? It's hard to tell. Someone's been trying to clean it up a bit at least.

Regardless, it's a very strange area and there's a simultaneously sad and eerie vibe to the whole place.

If you don't mind scrolling down about half way through the page, you can read an interesting (albeit fairly incomplete and seven years out of date) history of the cemetery and how it came to be abandoned here. There's also some interesting information about the cemetery and the surrounding area on the Forgotten NY page. Here's another article on how volunteers have started work on cleaning up the cemetery. That last article was written less than a month ago which would explain why, the last time we drove past the area, there wasn't any work done to it and why the work that has been done to it since looks so fresh. They've still got a ways to go before restoring the land to any sort of proper burial ground. I'm kind of glad I got some pictures before it is all cleaned up though. It's much stranger in its current state than it would be all spiffed up.

A few pictures...









Some of the pictures are a little washed out. It's dark in there even during the day time and I had to use a flash when I didn't really want to. A lot of the graves are really old an in terrible shape. Some of them are also very small (if you look you can see how some of them aren't much bigger than the leaves around them) and you can trip over them if you're not careful. Years of partying has resulted in some odd litter, mostly beer cans and stuff, as well as a fair amount of vandalism.









The last four... wierd how stuff like this just gets forgotten about and falls into disrepair, especially when you consider that, although SI is the most remote of the five burroughs, this is still technically part of NYC proper.

Crazy guy or brilliant Republican marketing campaign?

So today I'm taking the subway to work like I always do and this strange squirrley looking guy gets on shorlty after I do. I take a seat and read Conan comics and he starts scratching at himself and making squeeky noises. Once he's finished scratching himself, he starts to rant...

"Ladies and gentlemen of the subway, I need to tell you a secret. You have to make sure that this secret does not leave this subway car, otherwise it won't be a secret anymore. OK? You all unnerstand me, right? OK... the secret is... you don't need to know shit. You don't need to know a damn thing and you'll be just fine."

I felt that this was a rather underwhelming secret considering the build up, but whatever. I went back to my comic book and my iPod.

The he gets weirder....

"Barrack Obama, all he wants to do is take old ideas and make you believe that they're new ideas. He shouldn't be president because he can't follow orders. John McCain, he should be president because he CAN follow orders. You know who didn't follow orders? Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy. They didn't follow orders and because of that, we replaced them. I know who replaced them. And I know that if Barrack Obama is elected, he'll get replaced to. So vote for John McCain."

After that I think he started singing the national anthem. When I got off the subway, I went to the cart across the street to get my coffee like I always do and while I was in line I saw a real, honest-to-God bearded lady. I've seen her in the area a few times.

It was kind of a weird trip to work.

R.I.P. xBox 360....

So over the weekend I got the 'red ring of death.' It wasn't bowel related, it was xBox related. My 360 gave up the ghost which presents a two fold problem.

1 - I had an extensive game library.

2 - I had an even more extensive HD-DVD library.

Seeing as HD-DVD was sent to an early grave during the first quarter of this year, I opted not to have the 360 repaired or replaced and am in the process of unloading my HD-DVDs in hopes that sooner rather than later they'll all make it over to Blu-ray.

Stupid format war. Stupid inferior Microsoft products. The damn thing was only 2 years old.

Sigh...

Too Gosh Darned Busy For My Own Good

So this working for a living thing is overrated. I all of a sudden don't have as much spare time as I used to. Go figure.

A few random thoughts....

-the MTA subway amazes me in this city. Yes, it's dirty, hot, overcrowded and prone to weirdos and it's true that an old Chinese man broke wind on my leg while riding the F train last week, but really, you can go all the way around NYC for $2.00 and that's pretty rad.

-now that I'm in my thirties, I get sunburnt way too easily. Alison's son and I went swimming yesterday afternoon at her Aunt and Uncle's place (hooray for Long Island BBQ) and I woke up this morning feeling like a bag of hammered poop. If I'd have had too much to drink or done something to deserve it, that'd have been one thing but really, all I did was swim with a kid who didn't want to be in the pool by himself (can't blame him for that) and now my body feels like it's melting.

-the new Street Dogs album is excellent and the new Judas Priest is so epic it's almost too much. Notice I said almost. A two disc rock opera about Nostradamus? Not just any band can pull that off.

-there's a weird homeless dude who hangs out near the subway entrance by the office I work at. He makes his outfits out of strange things. So far I've seen him sporting suits (two piece suits, literally) made out of rags, paper towels, umbrellas, and what looked like odor eaters. I'm pretty sure he's nuts.

-did you know there are four Starbucks locations inside the midtown Macy's? For some reason, that annoys me to no end. There were Starbucks' inside the Fred Meyers in Portland and it didn't but me but for some reason this does.

-this week I made an effeminate catering director at a very prestigious Times Square hotel burst into tears on the phone when I accused him of price gouging. I felt guilty at first, but then I realized it was actually kind of funny.

That's about it. That's what's been going through my mind lately. Just random stuff. I find that I think a lot, probably too much, on the subway too and from work about random nonsensical stuff. You'd think I might find a better use of my time, but on the flip side of that coin, if I don't think about these things then, when will I think about them?

So it's been a busy few weeks. Not this past weekend but the one before was interesting. On Sat. I went to a Japanese book star in Manhattan to meet Tatsuya Nakadai, which was rad. If you don't know who he is, shame on you. He was in a bunch of Kurosawa films (he first appeared in The Seven Samurai but his roll is very brief) and he's a bit of a big deal in samurai film/Japanese cinema circles. He told me though a translater 'your height intimidates me and your sideburns remind me of Toshiro Mifune.' I took that as a compliment. The next day we did the Autism Benefit Walk, which was encouraging and very positive and a fair bit of fun too. I got to see Southside Seaport, an old part of town I'd never been to before.

This past weekend Alison and I went to Chicago where we hung out with some friends at a film convention. I officially invested in a film for the first time and we got to meet George Romero. How cool is that? I also drank some beers and bought some comic books, but that's really not all that interesting. Some would say it's par for the course.

Works been going well, even if I'm still leaning which makes it seem more hectic than it really is. Other than that, things are good. I'm happy, healthy (aside from the head cold) and enjoying life a lot more than I have in ages. There's a lot of neat stuff coming to a boil right now and the second half of this year should be a pretty interesting one.

Scream for me New York City!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So it's been a busy week. I started my new job which is going quite well so far and I actually like it which is a nice change - the money isn't bad either and they're sending me to Colorado for a week in August and, get this, probably Portland for a couple of days in the fall. I hope to make a happy hour at the Lucky Lab if/when that happens and dammit, as big as NYC is, the record shops in PDX are way, way, way better.

Thursday Eddie and I spent the afternoon exploring Brooklyn and Friday we went to Six Flags in Jersey. I hate Jersey. Really. I fear it.

At any rate, Sunday night we went to see Iron Maiden play at Madison Square Gardens. I've been listening to Iron Maiden since I was eight. That's a quarter of a century's worth of cheesy (but remarkably intelligent) lyrics, galloping guitars, and bad fashion all culminating in one night's worth of heavy metal bliss. I'd never seen them before that night and the wait was completely worth it. They only played 80s era material which was nice as although I thought that the last album was okay, the few that preceeded it weren't very good. It was basically a greatest hits tour and they played for well over two hours straight. Lots of explosions and lighting tricks and Eddie (their mascot) came out as a mummy and in his 'Somewhere In Time/Stranger In A Strange Land' guise to make trouble. I was surprised how much pyro they used in the show and just how freakin' good they sounded live. At one point, about 2/3 of the way through Powerslave ironically enough, something blew on the soundboard. The band played soccer on stage while the techs fixed it. Aside from some dink accidentily pouring a frozen daquiri on Alison (who drinks a frozen daquiri at an Iron Maiden show????) it was a seriously good time. I'd go see them again in a heartbeat.

This week it's work, work, work. This weekend we have the Autism Walk on Saturday and will probably spend the rest of the weekend slacking. I have two free passes for The Hulk so we might go see that but really I'm just looking forward to being lazy and hanging out with my gal.

Next weekend, however, it's Flashback Weekend in Chicago. I'm gonna give George Romero a high five, buy bootleg movies and potentially drink a beer or two. I'm also gonna ink some paper that will officially allow me to invest in a movie that's slated to be made later this year. But more on that later.

Happy Birthday To Me!

So last week was busy, productive and fun all at the same time. I turned 33 on Thursday and Alison and her son decided to wake me up at a reasonable time in the morning and give me my gift (the Dirty Harry Collection on Blu-ray, huzzah!). When she got home from work we hit up this crazy Dominican restaurant near the airport. It was covered in thatched roof style grass and all the furniture was made out of bamboo. The interior was done up like the inside of a cave, it was pretty cool. The grill a mean steak and don't charge and unreasonable amount of money for it.

Saturday night we had a few friends over for a small party. Much beer was consumed, many hamburgers were eaten, and a fair amount of chicken, sausage, and chili-cheese dip filled people up. We yapped and argued about movies and other nonsense, enjoyed some Planet Earth in high def, and enjoyed some Thor videos. It was during the Thor video that Alison decided to bring out the Cookie Puss cake. Before anyone gets the wrong idea, click this link. This was a big deal to me because for whatever reason, I'd been obsessing over Cookie Puss lately. I remember the ads from when I was a kid. Growing up on a border town in Canada, we got no shortage of American television and the commercials were all over the Buffalo channels. I'd never actually seen a Cookie Puss before, though, let alone have someone give me one for my birthday. You can tell by the picture, I'm appropriately excited.

It was a nice night and people came out to Queens for once (instead of making us take the train into Manhattan, which is the norm). I also watched an episode of the Incredible Hulk where some jerk gave the Hulk acid by slipping some LSD into Dr. Banner's orange juice. I've been obsessing over that lately too.

In other, and likely more important, news the four job interviews I had last week bore fruit. I got an offer today that I accepted and I'm happy, excited, and relieved. I didn't want to piss away all my savings and now I don't have to. The money is good, and while there aren't any benefits yet, that will probably change soon as the company expands. The interviews went really well, and the office isn't too far at all from the DISTINGUISHED WAKAMBA LOUNGE! So if I get the craving for Spanairds, expensive booze and urine it'll only be two blocks away. So, hooray for me. I'm another year old but likely no wiser. At least I've got a job now.

Oh, and the new five disc Pogues boxed set that came out in the UK last week? Amazing and completely worth every penny.