Noel Duan

13 Mar 2011
Comments

8 notes

Public transportation

Sometimes, I really hate public transportation. I’m always convinced I’ll catch germs because someone sneezed on the handrails. I’ve gotten yelled at twice already; once because I was talking to a friend, and once because I accidentally stepped on someone’s foot. I’ve been pushed, squished, and punched on New York public transportation. Great. Still using my Metro Card.

Yesterday, on the way back from the Lower East Side with a friend, a group of high school breakdancers started dancing to Justin Bieber’s “Baby” on the subway. Maybe I sound crazy right now, but they flipped using the handrails, spun on the floor, and did some pseudo-pole dancing. I don’t know the dance lingo, but it was awesome.

Anyway, that’s why I won’t cab it unless I have to. When you bring hundreds of people together to the same spot everyday, there’s bound to be something interesting to see.

22 Jan 2011
Comments

9 notes

“One night I got caught by a security guard. He became angry at me because he said I could’ve ‘hurt myself’ up there. Nothing could be farther from the truth – it’s rooftops that keep me sane. They are my therapy and my friends, and I want to share them with the world. When I’m sitting next to a satellite dish high up on a hotel three blocks from the Empire State Building, or hanging off the edge of Columbia’s Butler library, or sitting on the uppermost flight of a fire escape with a pretty girl, I imagine the real world fading beneath my feet; I stand on my tiptoes and touch the sky. I breathe in, and all I hear is the gentle wind around me; the throbbing pulse of the streets is reduced to a soft hum far below. It is during these moments that I’m on top; I’m the boss of the world again, and nothing but a child at the same time. I am a rooftop superstar, and briefly, I am invincible.”

—

Wilfred Chan, Rooftop Superstar

One of my good friends wrote this. When I stand on rooftops in New York, I feel the closest I have ever felt to the heavens. Back home in California, I would go stargazing with my friends. Over here in New York, you can barely see the stars — but you can see the sparkling city lights underneath and around you when you’re standing on a rooftop.

And just like the night sky, the cityscape makes me feel alone yet connected, free yet imprisoned, and invincible yet mortal.

3 Nov 2010
Comments

88 notes

teresawu:

Yesterday while Halloween shopping around Union Square, Annie and I spotted a tweenbot! Of course, we stopped to help it on its way.

Tweenbots are human-dependent robots that navigate the city with the help of pedestrians they encounter. Rolling at a constant speed, in a straight line, Tweenbots have a destination displayed on a flag, and rely on people they meet to read this flag and to aim them in the right direction to reach their goal.

The journey the Tweenbots take each time they are released in the city becomes a story of people’s willingness to engage with a creature that mirrors human characteristics of vulnerability, of being lost, and of having intention without the means of achieving its goal alone. As each encounter with a helpful pedestrian takes the robot one step closer to attaining its destination, the significance of our random discoveries and individual actions accumulates into a story about a vast space made small by an even smaller robot.

Read more about tweenbots here!

This is so cute. Another reason why I love New York City.

3 Nov 2010
Comments

6 notes

“I was tired of hearing the same diatribe from all my Manhattan friends: “You have to fight to the death to get the job you want! You have to spend every waking minute stalking people down and personally handing them your resume! Then you have to send them and their assistants cupcakes! Then you have to mail them a hand-written note to follow up! Then you have to offer them your first-born child!” In Paris, it’s kind of like, “What do you feel like eating tonight?” and “I hear there’s a good art exhibit at the Pompidou. Maybe we’ll go.” There aren’t so many SHOULDS in Paris as there are in New York.”

— Haley Hogan, Addicted to Strangers

12 Sep 2010
Comments

1 note

The view from here

Sometime soon, I am going to post some photos of my view. It is truly a glorious sight — I can see all of Morningside Park, Central Park, Harlem, Upper East Side, and Midtown from my window. Manhattan is so big and yet so small.