My Window View

Unbiased and I crossed our paths for the first time in College.

Granted, since English is my second language, I was struck by how frequent this elusive word appeared in classrooms and all around the campus, along with that great book called “Syllabus” that apparently every class used.

The bookstore did not carry any “Syllabus”, not even in the used books section, so I quickly arrived to the conclusion that the book, due to its immense popularity, must have been sold out.

Unbiased, however, continued to taunt me and I felt that further investigation was required, along with a solid dictionary software. I quickly, at least by my standards, grasped the concept of submitting unbiased reports and essay’s, yet I always found the concept to be quite ludicrous, as I found my self spending numerous hours writing occasionally profound pieces, which main point was to extract my own opinion from them.

It appeared as if every report, may it be from AP or Reuters, still was gathered by a person. A person observing an event, and then writing shorter text as if the person in question never had been there to begin with. Many of my peers were raving for this great triumph of transparency.

To me, it more seemed as if the word unbiased primarily existed to define its more successful antonym, namely bias. It appears to be virtually impossible to study and examine events and our surrounding world, pretending that we are not a part of it, and that our view will be influenced whether we chose to acknowledge it or not.

The Picture enclosed below does not necessarily have anything even remotely to do with my text, or perhaps it does.  In any event, it is a photo taken from my window, and I happen to find to be full of beauty.

Yours truly,

Anders

Finding Joe

Saturday Morning: Sometime early in the AM

I wanted to update the world before embarking on a journey few have dared, as only God knows if I’ll mange to return. Every beginning comes with an end. Since I might be writing the last paragraph of the New York  chapter of my life, I’ve decided to take matter into my own hands, and do what should have been done a long time ago: Rate the most prominent coffee shops on Manhattan.

It’s a quest only a fool would undertake, and I think I  might just have what it takes.  Moving to New York City, some two years ago, I was frustrated by the lack of solid recommendations on the ins and outs of the City’s Coffee shop world. By taking the matter into my own hands, I’m hoping that my new, self-proclaimed, legacy in the City will help other people in their  quest for the solitude only found in a well brewed cup of Joe.

Meanwhile, I’ve attached a few pictures capturing my summer in New York. Trips to the beach out in Long Island, Biking in Brooklyn, and endless glasses of Iced coffee.

– Yours truly

City View – Harlem, New York

Pacific Street, Cobble Hill, Brooklyn.

Interior of Pacifico – Mexican restaurant on Pacific St. Brooklyn

Playing shovels – Montauk, Long Island

Green and Black – Montauk, Long Island

A bird called Cookie – Montauk, Long Island

Vanishing footprints – Montauk, Long Island

XXX Coffee pornography – Harlem, Manhattan

the Roof

My roof.

It is with great sorrow that I announce the closing of our own rooftop here in Harlem. This little place, far from pretentious or elaborate in anyway, has still acted like an urban oasis, as the apartment’s dreadful humidity and summer heat, calls for cooler times.

Our roof.

I fear that my knowledge in civil rights is quite limited, but I do know that if there is one thing each New Yorker is entitled to, then it is having the access to a rundown rooftop area.

I have enclosed a few pics trying to capture these trivial, yet pivotal, occasions where laughter is shared amongst friends, a cup coffee about to ignite the digestive system, and shoes are photographed for dodgy Ebay business.

The roof,

is essentially a good place for good times.

The Origin: First, there was nothing – then there was more of it

It is with great expectations that I’m typing these first words on the blog. One cannot fathom what great ran through the minds of people like Mozart, Homer, Gandhi and Gretzky, before they pursued history. What really made them achieve unprecedented greatness?

I, for one, believe it was an extraordinary blend of many, tangible and intangible attributes joining forces, contributing to racing the bar from human to divine. Attributes, which I, alas, does not posses. However, knowing this, might in fact be the only thing that makes me somewhat salient in an already overpopulated digital world. My USP – if you may pardon my sorry business lingo – is to be downright mediocre, yet highly aware of it, living in a city where most people aren’t.

My mission with this blog is to shed light on the life, my life, in New York City; it is far from exceptional, yet highly trivial. Toilette paper will, like it does worldwide, run out in an unexpected and untimely fashion. Coffee filters will, without any sort of announcement, tear wide open while in transit from the Mr Coffee Maker to the trash bin.

My vision, is to share this with friends and foes, and become somewhat of an urban prophet without a cause. Fashion, or Style rather, will be discussed with  vague mix of snap shots from the city’s Music, food, and nightlife scenes. Bare in mind, existentialism is always a current topic, and you will be bored with occasional philosophical gibberish, derived from whatever someone smarter than I have written.

Please view my somewhat paradoxical title, not as something dogmatic, but as a celebration of my foolish attempt of initiating something remotely original, in a forum where few things are. I hope this blog will serve as a platform for discourse amongst whom ever that bothers reading it, making it a communal center for people finding solitude in the irony, and beauty, of life.

Godspeed

– Anders