T-shirt #293 - New York City Coffee with Stain

The illustration above is clearly labeled, so I do not have to repeat the credits. It's very gothic, so it says New York to me. I have been meaning to share it. Francavilla has a blog called Pulp Sunday, and this the banner for it. He has not updated it since August of 2013 as of this writing.

T-shirt #293 - New York City Coffee with Stain

I have no idea where the stain on today's T-shirt came from. I am thinking it may be a coffee stain, which would be appropriate given the art on today's shirts, which I bought during one of my many visits to New York in the years since 1985 when I lived there for an internship at Marvel Comics.

Yes, let me repeat that in case you missed it.

I worked in New York for three months in 1985 as an intern at Marvel Comics.

I have only one post in my New York category so far: T-shirt #236: Happy Ending Massage Parlor and T-shirt #126: New York: Open 24 Hours.

The entry for T-shirt #236: Happy Ending Massage Parlor does not contain much in the way of New York content. I simply included it in the category because I bought it in New York, and as such, I referenced New York.

My T-shirt #126: New York: Open 24 Hours gave some basics of that time in New York, though I have discovered many things since in subsequent visits. Since I have other New York shirts, I will attempt to spread out my New York content.

BTW, the image to the left is the back of the shirt, and the images above and below are from the front of the shirt, showing the mysterious stain.

Those who have tuned into the blog during the construction period may have seen that this post was under development for a couple of days. In the interest of speed and catching up, I am going to keep things short today.

I flew to New York right about this time of year back in 1985 in the aftermath of one of the worst ice storms in west Michigan recorded weather history. My family had been without power for a week, until my father bought a generator, our first, which did not vent well, but did provide us with enough power to have lights, heat, do laundry, cook, and even for me to record several tapes of music to take with me as I had borrowed a friend's cassette deck for this purpose, a stereo component that I am embarrassed to say I still have in my possession today, though I have tried to return it and re-establish contact with this friend (yes, you Mr. Locke) many times.

I lived in the Century Paramount hotel. Check these links.

CENTURY PARAMOUNT HOTEL OFFICIAL SITE

CENTURY PARAMOUNT HOTEL ON WIKIPEDIA

It has undergone a great transformation in the gentrification of the Times Square area of New York that has been underway since the late 1980s. When I lived there, a man was stabbed in a fifth floor room by his wife and stumbled to the lobby, smearing blood all over the nice marble floors. We had a fire, for which we were evacuated when I was very ill and unwilling to be moved. The firemen pounded on my door and kicked me out. There were also flying cockroaches that were over two inches long. It has been really transformed since then. The website shows amazing photos, though I still recognize much about the building, especially the exterior.

Even though I kept my stuff at the Paramount, I also, more or less, lived with someone on a boat at the 79th Street Boat Basin, which was quite an adventure in winter in New York. The boat had a coal stove. Try finding scrap wood for fires in New York in the winter. Sounds easy, and it is once you know the meat packing district. But then getting such kindling from the lower west side all the way to West 79th street on the subway at rush hour is a bit of challenge.

This area has been re-modeled and gentrified as well. When I was staying there, these colonnades were abandoned or often the squatting temporary living places of homeless people. I saw New York rat scuttle through once as I walked under the West Side highway. It looked the size of a small child's bicycle.

These are my New York stories for today. I will share more later.

COUNTDOWN TO END OF THE BLOG YEAR - 72 shirts remaining

- chris tower - first publication - 1401.08 - 21:20
Final publication - 1401.10 - 18:57