love

Someone You Love: A Feel-Good NYC Project

While we’re on the topic of delightful participatory art, I’m also smitten by theВ “Someone You Love” project.

Matt Adams, formerly the videographer for Improv Everywhere (remember this awesome conducting stunt?), recently asked New Yorkers to do three things: call, write to and kiss someone they love. He captured their reactions, which are priceless.

For “Call Someone You Love,” Adams taped quarters to a Brooklyn phone booth and put up a sign asking people to do just that.

For “Write Someone You Love,” he invited New Yorkers in Central Park to draw on postcards, which he then mailed.

“Kiss Someone You Love” is my favorite. I wish I had been in McCarren Park the day Adams was there!

I’m all for public art that brings happiness to the streets of NYCВ and reminds people how lucky they are to have loved ones in their lives. Bravo!

(Images via Someone You Love; found via SwissMiss)

Happy Valentine’s Day

While I’m a firm believer in showing love for those you care about every day, the romantic in me appreciates that there is a holiday devoted to love. (At least, this year. On other V-Days, my feelings have run the gamut from sad to excited to indifferent to content.)

This afternoon, my sister, parents and I were on a group text, sharing our V-Day plans and photos and cards we’d created for the holiday. I got the warm-fuzzies hearing the nice evenings they’d be enjoying. And my sister must have been feeling the same, because she wrote:

Glad we all have so much love and happiness in our lives! Best fam ever!!!

Compared to how snowy and miserable it’s been, NYC was 40 degrees today, which felt positively balmy. Seeing so many people walking around carrying bouquets of flowers added nice pops of color (and a bit of spring) to a city that’s felt iced over and gray for weeks. I couldn’t help but smile at the scene—not to mention at this brilliant sign I stumbled upon at Columbus Circle.

Hope you had a wonderful V-Day, as well!

Love and Hate in NYC

How awesome is this graphic? John Nelson, a UX and mapping manager (and clearly a super-cool guy), mapped out all the tweets that contained the words “love” and “hate” in the NYC-area over the course of a few weeks–which essentially created a pointillistic map of the city.

I love the clear outline of Manhattan, especially downtown, which, not surprisingly, seems to have the densest population of Twitterati. It’s intriguing to see how densely the tweets run along Broadway–you can easily spot the diagonal cutting across the island–and how there’s a gaping void right where Central Park is. Plus, I was amused that a bunch of negative tweets were in the LaGuardia airport area. (Who actually enjoys going through airline security!?)

But most of all, I appreciate there were almost 75% more “love” than “hate” tweets. Here’s to positivity in NYC!

(Photo via IDV User Experience; found via Travel and Leisure)

NYC Expeditionist

Travel | Ballet | NYC

love

Someone You Love: A Feel-Good NYC Project

Happy Valentine’s Day

Love and Hate in NYC