Old McDonald Had a Farm

So in just two short days I have become the livestock and barnyard correspondent for the paper I work for. Friday...chickens in Brooklyn, Monday...goats in Manhattan.

Its the 10th anniversary of the Children's Zoo in Central Park. Happy Birthday to ewe, Happy Birthday to ewe, etc.

So with the President of Iran in New York, people setting themselves on fire in Midtown to protest, Columbia University hunkering down for demonstrations armed with flying pigs and thousands of screaming crazy people breaking out in chanting around the City, I get to photograph the goat party in the Park.

Eeii Eeii O!

Up against the wall mother clucker

Oh yeah, I finished the week chasing half a dozen chickens (YES, chickens) around a lot in Red Hook, Brooklyn for a story on people who keep fowl as pets in NYC.

I'm a city guy, so I unknow about these little cluckers. What I learned:
-They do NOT come when called. In fact naming them is a waste of time, as they can not differentiate their name being called from the sound of someone yelling "Boil water, add salt, get some veggies and throw the bird in the pot, its time for SOUP!"
-The owner couldn't remember which was which and changed the names on the birds like three times.
-They crap all over the place.
-They are not friendly.
-Did I mention that they crap all over the place?

So after an hour of chasing the girls around a construction debris strewn lot, I managed to come up with a few pix.

Viva la Photojournalism!

Bary Bonds Ball and I

As a photojournalist in New York, I get to do all types of interesting things. Like last week, Marc Ecko, who just paid $750,000 for Barry Bonds record setting home run ball, called a group of photogs into his office for a photo session.

There were only four of us, and he took the ball out of its small plastic case and asked "Who wants to hold the ball? Its everyones ball. Hold it"

Hey, I am NOT a baseball fan but when given the opportunity to co-exist with history in a unique way, who am I to say no.

So here I am, me, Marc, and Barry Bond's ball. Please note that I DID toss it in the air a few times and caught it an equal number of times. Clearly I didn't want an asterisk next to the ball, in the history books, that said "This home run ball was in great shape until David Handschuh dropped it and it rolled out the window into traffic on a midtown street where it was struck by a cab and rolled down a sewer."

Ruh-Row says Astro.