Owlspotting

I am lucky (I guess) to be interning at a certain magazine in the midst of one of the biggest non-sex Washington scandals in recent years. And yet, as all the speculation and evasion and embarrassment swirls around me, I am reminded of the other news of the past week: the terrorist attacks in London. […]

A teenager was stabbed in Brooklyn late last week because he refused to hand over his iPod to his attackers, who fled with the mp3 player, a cell phone and the boy’s sneakers. The front page of the Sunday New York Post read “iPOD MURDER” and the New York Times also ran a brief on […]

July 4 fireworks, originally uploaded by owlspotting.We saw this year’s fireworks display from the lawn of the United Nations headquarters in New York. It was an amazing display of light and color and these photos don’t do it justice. I was too busy being amazed. Still, there are a few more shots here.

“I sure as hell hope New York doesn’t get it,” she says earnestly, looking around the room for nods of support. “Might as well draw a big target on us.” It’s about the 50th time she’s said this. But though I’m not sure of her title, I’m pretty sure she’s important to the grand hierarchy […]

Owl Spotting, in collaboration with the Internet, is proud to launch a new feature available online every Wednesday afternoon starting today. “8 with 8” is an eight-point Q&A session with a Brooklyn-based 8 ball notorious for providing correct answers. The ball has a tendency to avoid “no” answers, which is why the more positive the […]

Remember when the whole red state-blue state thing was fun, insidery jargon used by political junkies? Yeah, those were the good ole days. Much the same as we have to tolerate the thousands of permutations of Evangelicals Doing Stuff, now we have to put up with endless stories on the red-and-blue theme. One of the […]

A Romanian journalism student in Illinois posted a long comment in response to my rants on accents. I decided to upload some of it in case readers don’t click the “comments” link on past posts. You can read a story Luiza wrote about an Illinois Catholic worker here. Her comments on foreign students with accents […]

A post on the music-dominated blog BrooklynVegan inspired me to compile a top five of albums released so far in 2005. I can safely rank the first two: 1. The Decemberists – Picaresque 2. Bright Eyes – I’m wide awake… it’s morning And unranked, here are the other three: System of a Down – Mesmerize […]

I saw the World Trade Center site today. It was raining sugar crystal sized drops at machine gun pace, but New York seemed at a standstill. Lower Manhattan, with its towering steel and glass casting shadows on old high-rises, was like a time warp — a frame between a past when everything looked possible and […]

Am I a misanthrope? After having taken a quick break and run into my roommates and their guest, I’d have to say the answer is a resounding… maybe. Becoming a misanthrope is quite a commitment for someone my age. I haven’t seen them in a week, so I expect all their little quirks to be […]