The Calm Before the Storm

by baad lamb

Waiting for the overhyped and underwhelming Irene to arrive, I was up very early on Saturday morning and took a long slow stroll in Central Park.

There was a grey sky, a gentle mist and a rich green glow all about, as grasses caressed shrubs that tickled trees, all pasted together by the thin swirls of a late August algae bloom on The Lake.

The Hurricane Hype

by Ivan Vargas

So here I am sitting in front of my laptop, looking out at my cute lil' street that is now dark and peppered with the warm glow of lights from inside every family home, a tiny sliver of the New York skyline visible for my entertainment as the Woolworth tower.

It's still windy and there is the possibility of a little more rain tonight, but nothing like last night when it came in bands and just as quickly, were gone, only to come back slamming at my walls and windows and shake the house. A house that has seen quite a bit of storms and may still stand to see even more.

You see, the media blew (pun intended) this out of the water and it's the reason I've stopped following much of it when an impending event is about to take place. Anyone who's seen The History Channel or NatGeo has at one point seen their descriptive love letters to destruction porn -- it's not if, it's when, is their catchphrase. Needless to say hurricanes have been covered, the what-ifs of a Cat 5 hurricane into New York City, the images of iconic buildings, streets, parks, subways and overall infrastructure yielding to a water invasion, leaving the city in tatters.