Makes Me Think of Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Central Park)

Sunset on Hamilton Hamilton Place (view from 141st St., Manhattan)

Toys on a Church Fence (139th Street, Manhattan)

The cross on the tree and the proximity of a church suggested to me that there might be more going on here than meets the eye. Is it a memorial for a child? A monument to childhood? A resting spot for lost toys?

The World Looks Smaller from Here (Overlooking the Hudson River)

Some friends just moved into a new apartment building with a roof deck that offers views of ... everything.

St. Patrick's Night (Bay Ridge, Brooklyn)

I've often seen Christmas lights, of course, but never St. Patrick's lights until I walked passed this house tonight in Bay Ridge.

Spring is for Weddings & Snow (Marriage Bureau & Riverside Park, Manhattan)

My friends John and Vincent got married today. Like my husband and I, they've been together for nearly 30 years (29 in their case, to be exact), so in a sense, the wedding was putting a bit of legal icing on the cake of their relationship (a horrible metaphor but weddings make me think of cake, I guess). I was honored and joyful to serve as a witness, and I also got a kick out of seeing once again the clockwork machinations of the Manhattan Marriage Bureau. There seemed to have been hundreds of folks there when we arrived, each group waiting for their number to be called.

It was the first day of Spring, so seemed only appropriate that by the time we left, snow had begun to fall. And by late afternoon, the trees in Riverside Park were thoroughly (and beautifully) covered.

Hotel Closed (Midtown, Manhattan)

I pass this corner almost every day but never noticed until today the "Hotel Closed" signs in almost half the windows. There's no obvious clue from street level that it was a hotel. I wonder why someone felt it was important to tell passing birds, and the rare New Yorker who might bother glancing up, that it was once a hotel and that it is, in fact, closed.

Noah Baumbach Q&A (Lincoln Center, Manhattan)

I saw a screening tonight of While We're Young, Noah Baumbach's new film, due to be released in 10 days. It's a funny, fast-moving film peripherally about documentary film-making but mostly about aging and the poignant allure of youth (in this case a young Brooklyn hipster-y couple) to those entering middle-age (in this case a childless, somewhat directionless couple whose biggest thrill comes from Googling information on their iPhones).

In answering the question "How do other films influence your work?" he explains in the clip I filmed below that the black socks with brown shoes worn by Robert Redford's character in ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN had "a real impact" that influenced his film THE SQUID AND THE WHALE. He doesn't explain the impact further but the comment elicited a chuckle from the crowd.

Mr. Moneybags & Subway Repair (14th Street & 8th Avenue Subway Station, Manhattan)

I know countless people have photographed the many statues of Tom Otterness' Life Underground installation at the 14th St. & 8th Ave. subway station, so there's no real need to add to the gazillions already spinning through the internet. One of the many charms of the little statues scattered throughout the station is how they're smoothly integrated into the environment of the station. In this instance, this little guy, who looks like a close relation of Monopoly's Rich Uncle Pennybags, appears to be  waiting patiently for the next subway, presumably so he can take the sack of money he's clutching to the bank. This day, however, he enjoyed a brief respite from his perpetual waiting as transit workers installed a new pipe within his line of sight, and I felt that this break in the ordinary course of events was worthy of capturing with my cell phone camera.

Venti Steamed Skim Latte with Draftsmen, Hold the Easel (Astor Place, Manhattan)

It's the second Thursday in a row that the Starbucks at Astor Place has been full of earnest draftsmen. #DrawingForCoffee #NYC #ArtistsAtWork

New Bricks for an Old Building (Manhattan)

Anyone who's visited New York City has seen building after building under veils of scaffolding and netting. My building was one of those buildings this past summer as workers re-pointed brick, removed asbestos from the roof and labored to make the fixes needed to keep the 100-plus-year-old structure standing for, hopefully, a wee bit more. Even though most of the scaffolding came down a month ago, workers are still keeping busy, as I couldn't help but notice this morning out our window.

Celebrity Scrum

All lenses are on Charlotte Gainsbourg, at opening night of the Rendez-Vous with French Cinema festival at Lincoln Center. We were there tonight to see her in Benoît Jacquot's  3 Coeurs (3 Hearts), a good, interesting, disturbing, if unrealistic in many ways film that felt more like a parable than a portrait of reality.

Snow: the Good & the Bad (Midtown Manhattan)

New York has two faces when it comes to snow storms. There's there the beautiful moment when the snow is fresh or even still falling, and the flakes collect on branches and sidewalks, softening sounds and conveying tranquility. The calm and beauty is especially evident on side streets, like 43rd between 10th and 9th pictured.

Then there are the days post-snowfall, when the white turns gray. Sometimes, at busy intersections, the gray appears instantaneously, especially when the new snow combines with old snow. Such was the case a few minutes ago in Times Square, where a man was trying to squeegee away a huge puddle of slushy snow from the corner of 42nd and 8th Avenue.