Something about the kid’s expression…I can’t quite place it. It wouldn’t be out of place on a DEVO album, especially with the plate of giant sausages floating next to him.

These bright, saturated orange and yellows popped cheerily on the shelf and drew me right in. Then again that could be due to placement next to a refrigerated case full of de-fleshed cow legs. Whole cow legs, hoof and all. Mmmmm boy.

We on the East Coast are geographically fortunate, mostly avoiding natural disasters that plague the rest of the country. We’re on a major fault line, but it’s mostly inactive. We do get storms, but they’re weakened after moving up the coast. We’ve even had the occasional tornado, though with the dense build-up they’re rarely as destructive as those in the Midwest and barely touch down. So it’s a bit of a surprise having a hurricane follow an earthquake in less than a week.

The yin and yang of stereotypical New York mindsets, the high-strung neurotic and the blasè rock, are reacting about as expected. For every gallery owner panic-grabbing fontina and prosecco at Eataly screaming “I HAVE CHILDREN TO THINK OF!”, there’s a stoopfull of elderly Hispanic guys quietly chatting and playing dominoes (which they would continue doing whether the sun came out or a car exploded in front of them). Given how hectic day-to-day life in a crowded city is, either mentality is an acceptable coping mechanism, but it’s funny how few major disasters the city has to deal with. With the 10-year anniversary of September 11th drawing near that may seem strange to write, but it’s the 10-year anniversary, and how many large-scale terrorist attacks have we experienced since? Exactly.

Which brings me rather long-windedly around to this week’s pattern, from a state that’s no stranger to devastating natural events.

Stay safe, everyone.

On a random tangent, I declare the Allan Moore lookalike the Stevie Nicks of Kansas, for while the rest of the band plays 12 instruments each, he sings and plays tambourine. And sports a boss beard.

No relation to Dunkin’ Donuts. Or ‘The French Connection’.

Walking past this salon I thought they’d used Wendy O. as their mascot. Nope! Just a random punk lady glowing over a roomful of Dominican ladies done up in enormous curlers at 11pm on a Thursday.

Easy there, Hulk. Focus on one social message at a time and you’ll have more impact.

Ziiiinc! Come baaack, zinc! ZINC! (‘A World Without Zinc’ HAS to be based on ‘Spring Fever’, an actual histronic educational movie about the horrors of a world without a particular unloved item).

It took me a minute of staring to realize this said ‘Forty’, not ‘Farty’. Classy.

Queso Boricua? Queso Columbiano? ?Que queso es el mejor?? Aaaayyy, que problema.

BUY AMERICAN (envelopes).

This has nothing to do with Puerto Rico and everything to do with some guys fixing a kid’s motorized Escalade.

Yep. They were chastity post-its, covering up scandalous cleavage so the eye wouldn’t commit the sin of oggling. Apparently this goes for cleavage of all kinds.

I’m assuming this has something to do with Islamic law, as more intensive versions of censorship have come to light, most hilariously the Photoshopped covers of Mariah Carey albums sold in Saudi Arabia. What I’m still unsure of is whether the cover-up was for the sake of the kiosk operators or us, the gullible masses. Whoever’s eyes were to be averted, there were some major quality control issues going on. Trina’s ass is too much, but Katy Perry’s boobs get a free pass? What are your parameters?!

The Insane Clown Posse? Here? While there’s an urban vampire movement scattered in small clumps around Brooklyn and parts of Queens, The Dark Carnival has yet to make a deep impression in New York City (not counting their ironically appreciating fanbase among the supposedly erudite). Insane Clown Posse are proudly Midwestern, and despite both urban vampires and Juggalos trading in ridiculous makeup, eye contacts, baggy bondage pants and a love of the cartoonishly, gratuitously violent, the two groups appear to have little crossover*.

Please bear in mind, I wandered outside at about 2:00 pm. Doors for the show couldn’t have opened earlier than 7:00 pm, and yet there were devoted Juggalos in full make up lined up outside behind the barricade. I suspect the Juggalos showed up first, then, realizing the the crowd potential, the management set up the barricade 5 hours earlier than expected.

*As I haven’t deeply researched this, I could be totally wrong. Perhaps there’s a series of anthropological papers out on the confluence of the urban and suburban relationship between these two groups and their respective love of clown-themed horror-rap.

Verily, I shall!

This mannequin is tellin’ all a y’all IT’S SABOTAAAAGE!

No, no, no, no, no. This flavor probably tastes like cheap perfume and fake vanilla, the first of many reasons to not follow the title.

Huh, connecter cable. That’s always useful to have around the house…wait a minute…

….Huh. Thank you…..RCA cable.

(images from the NYPL Digital Archive and Shorpy (click on the Shorpy images for more information/larger sizes)).