Sakura of DOOM

My experiences of California are such that most of the people of color I run into are either Asian or Hispanic. There is a very clear class divide. The places I go to around here tend to be upper-middle class, which is almost exclusively Asian and white in the very gentrified Silicon Valley (excluding Oakland, Berkeley, San Jose proper, etc.). Many of the Hispanics I see tend to be in the service industry, and I very rarely see black people. It is very easy for me to avoid seeing other non-Asian people of color, much less talk to them. I would like to pretend that I'm not consciously avoiding them, but since I'm also not actively seeking them out and since I do avoid neighborhoods are "bad," that's really not saying much.

In New York, it was more difficult to avoid other people of color. I don't live there, so I can't say why, though a) less of a class divide, b) neighborhoods closer together, and c) more people of color overall are my uneducated guesses. People in the service industry still tended to be people of color. On the other hand, there were many more POC on the subways and the streets, at least in the parts of Manhattan that I was going around. It felt like there were much fewer Asians, though, with the obvious exception of Chinatown.

I tended to notice and count POC more on the subway than anywhere else, for reasons that may be purely idiosyncratic.

Personal experiences:

• My sister and I were the only two Asian women in Sam Ash, a music store. There were several black men, both customers and salespeople. I felt extremely awkward and unsure and ashamed of my instinctive action to be frightened. Naturally, the salesguy (black) who ended up helping us was immensely polite and nice.



• I saw a "Jews for Jesus" poster in the subway and mentally shook my fist at it for coffeeandink.



• There was one subway ad for occupational education that featured an Indian, a black person, and a Hispanic person in the pictures (I don't remember if there was an Asian), with explanations of how each of them entered the program, earned their college degrees and got higher-paying jobs. I cannot decide if the specifically targeted marketing is merely practical from a business standpoint or annoying from a moral standpoint.



• There were many Jewish bookstores and shops with Hebrew in the windows; I am not sure if I thought there were many simply because I don't see a lot in CA, or because I have only started to notice.



• I noticed many more POC around lower Manhattan than upper, particularly when we were trooping around Upper East Side for the Met.



• While my sister, her friend and I were walking up Upper East Side to go to Le Pain Quotidian, a man on the street (I think he was white, though I am not sure) yelled, "Get out of America!" I tried to ignore him and unobtrusively look around at the same time to see if he was yelling at anyone else. There was a middle-aged white couple behind us, but other than that, it was just us (three Asian women) walking by the guy. The man from the middle-aged white couple started arguing back with the man on the street, though his wife pulled him away. I thanked him for trying. It took about half the meal to shake off the fear. My sister and her friend said that it had never happened to them before.



• I saw even more ads for the new NBC drama Heroes, along with a magazine spread. I've decided to Tivo the pilot at least, if only because the cast is multiracial (4 out of the 9 are visibly minorities, and I am guessing the two brothers are supposed to be Italian-American). I am particularly happy because while two of the minorities are black and Hispanic, the other two are Indian and Japanese. On the other hand, I am very irked that all the white people, the Italian-Americans (duh), the black woman and the Hispanic man are the Americans, while the Indian lives in India and the Japanese guy lives in Japan. I appreciate the attempt to be international, as cursory as it is (and it is very cursory!), but I am pissed off because it feels like the Japanese guy and the Indian guy were only cast because of their characters' nationalities. Like there aren't Japanese and Indian people in America!

(pictures behind the cuts!)

I spent all of Monday with my sister, since it was her birthday. We started out with ( pedicures. )

After this, we moved on to lunch at Le Pain Quotidien, an extremely cute, very organic bakery. They don't really have individual settings, just one, long table that everyone sits at. Also, they have the Best Bread Ever. We got a Tuscany platter, which had a tapenade, pesto, ricotto, parm and prosciutto, all of which were delicious on the bread, along with apricot preserves, 4 berry preserves, and a very, very delicious hazelnut praline spread. Better than Nutella! Also, I got Belgian waffles, since I've been craving waffles for forever, and they were extremely good. They came hot off the press, delightfully crispy on the outside and steaming and tender and soft and chewy on the inside. Mmmm.

Then we headed off to the Met to see Anglomania, but on the way, I was distracted by a ( fat pigeon perched on a ledge. )
I like pigeons. Well, I like scaring pigeons. Really, it's almost the same...

There was also a very stunning house with a ( nicely gargoyle-y gate-keeper ).
He was accompanied by a ( draconic gate-keeper ).
The dragon looked very dignified. Yay Park Ave.

I took some pictures of the door to Anglomania, which was an exhibition on tradition and transgression in British fashion, as exemplified by a bewigged mannequin in livery, paired with a punk rocker with torn livery and a very tall, very colorful mohawk. Sadly, my pictures were extremely out of focus, and we weren't allowed to take any pictures inside the exhibit. chi_zu's description is quite nifty. I just wish that there were more of the exhibit, particularly since it ended after a few rooms. I think my favorite piece was the turn-of-the-century Worth gown, absolutely gorgeous.

We also schlepped through the arms and armor section (swords!), and I was particularly amused by one piece of ( samurai armor. )
The large noseguard rocks.

We also spent a good deal of time in a wing that sort of reconstructed an Egyptian temple rescued from flooding.
( Pictures )

This gallery of the Met is just lovely and relaxing, and you can look outside to see families playing soccer in Central Park. Though there is a completely random hole in the window... I kept imagining it was some bullet hole from some sekrit assassination attempt in the museum, which just tells you that I have been reading too many museum-conspiracy-theory-type books. Ok, just Da Vinci Code a while back, but that's enough for anyone!

I really loved the contrast between the old and the new, giant expanses of glass next to worn-down stone, shiny geometric planes next to curvy hieroglyphics.

( Random subway sign )
Random subway sign. I thought it was a Chinese surname with an Indian given name, which would have been cool, since it was the Canal St. station, but my sister reminded me that first names go first here. Duh.

The next day, me and the sister person ventured out to St. Mark's, which is an awesome little district. Sadly, the izakaya-like place we were going to go to was closed for lunch, as were many other interesting looking places. However, somewhere down the street, we saw a ( giant pink storefront )
It's this place called Bamn!, which is a ginormous vending machine/store for food! It is very awesome, very pink, very automated, and very Japanese.

Just for fun, we got a ( mac and cheese croquette )
It's basically deep-fried mac and cheese. How can you go wrong with that? Ah, Japanese takes on Western food, how I love you! After that, we wandered down further in the rain and ended up at Pommes Frites, a little hole-in-the-wall Belgian fries place that seriously has the Best Fries Ever. I say that lots of things are the Best Things Ever, but these really are the Best Fries Ever. Ever!

They are wonderfully light and crunchy on the outside and soft and creamy on the inside, and I could just eat them by the bucket. But they come with a multitude of sauces that you can pick from, from rosemary mayo to "war sauce" (peanut satay, mayo and raw onions) or mango chutney. We ended up getting peanut satay, since the mayo, raw onions, ketchup and malt vinegar are free sides, and oh, so good! I was also quite amused by the very Bavarian interior, and the fact that all the tables and counters had little holes in them for you to place your paper cone full of fries in.

After that, we headed off to run errands with the idea of maybe going to the Strand as well. But it was pouring rain, and my sister remembered that there was a Beard Papa's around the area, so off we went! Sadly, they were out of the green tea ones and the pumpkin, but they still had mocha cream puffs. We split one, and they were quite good! Also, rachelmanija, there's one or two in LA, and I am so excited because apparently one just opened in SF and one will be opening in Redwood City as well! So I will be able to get them without schlepping to NYC or Taiwan!

That was basically the extent of lunch. But even though I had delicious food all throughout my NY stay, this may have been the best fooding day, just for the randomness and the little hole-in-the-wall bits.

And on the other side of the continent, my rats were having fun with the rat-sitter. ( Rattie picture spam )

I am in New York! Yay! I took the red-eye in and managed to sleep the entire way through, despite being in the row in front of two extremely unhappy babies. It was also funny because I sat between two people who were just starting at the college I graduated from, and when I took public transport in to the city, it was the same old landscape from years ago. I haven't been to this airport since I graduated, and honestly, I don't miss much of it at all.

Due to extreme stupidity, I didn't bother to check the weather before leaving, and arrived to find that everything was grey and wet. Alas and alack, pretty much nothing I've packed is good for the rain, particularly not my open-toed shoes. Oh well. I find I missed California dreadfully, particularly when taking the train in. Things are too green! Skies are too grey! I am confused!

I went to Pala Pizza with an old high school friend, which has really good pizza (we got a plain tomato/buffalo mozzarella/basil one), very good carpaccio, and very good desserts as well. Mmmmm.

After that, I went up to coffeeandink's place, and we both decided not to venture outdoors, given the truly miserable weather. I am quite proud of myself; I didn't get lost once. (Of course, now that I've typed this, tomorrow is sure to be a disaster.)

I got to watch VVC 2006 vids, including several Supernatural ones, as that is Mely's obsession du jour (du... month?), and I stood to the side as she handily prepared a meal of roast chicken and potato leek soup. I need to write up more vids, but suffice to say, sdwolfpup's "Fix You" still makes me grin like an idiot and e^y's "Have You Heard" makes me miss Angel dreadfully. I sadly don't remember that much from the SPN vids except that there is a great deal of fire and that Dean slams Sam against a wall a whole lot. Oh! Except the fun Wincest-y vid (look! I even know terminology!) in which I learned that Sam has very nice abs indeed.

After dinner and much ogling at Mely's wall of books and wall of manga, Mely then had me watch an episode of SPN, which ended up with me cowering on the sofa, since I am a complete and total wimp when it comes to anything even marginally resembling horror. On the other hand, she has also convinced me that Dean is awesome, not in the least because he is utterly practical and not one for emotions. Except, you know, slamming his brother against a wall. I may end up watching very slowly, with the rats, in the daytime.

After that, I very much did not want to take the subway down by myself (dark! loud noises! it's exactly like a haunted asylum, really it is!), I made Mely put in several episodes of Yami no Matsuei to make things better. It's not exactly cheerful and fluffy, but the Pure and True Love of Hisoka and Tsuzuki cheers me up no matter how much angst they are going through. In fact, the angst rather cheers me up in an embarrassingly OTP sort of way. We fast-forwarded through all the Muraki scenes, since there was no real need for his complete and total insanity (not the good kind, either) to ruin Moments of Pure and True Love.

I am very happy and very full and on vacation! Tomorrow, lunch with Mely and chi_zu, and dinner with sister and friends, and maybe a movie, or lounging around, or whatnot.