Dry Ice Factory

Professional Copy and Print, the printshop on 42nd and the Ave, has been gutted by fire. Everything inside is destroyed, and the area reeks of burnt chemicals and plastic. What's amazing is that the fire appears to have been contained within that space. None of the apartments above seem to have been burned, and Bulldog News, which abuts it to the north, is also undamaged except for the stench of smoke.

I got my last passport photo taken in that shop. I think I also printed Travels with the Wild Child there in 1996, although I may be misremembering.

My first thought was to wonder if the Taliban set fire to place. The idea is a bizarre non sequitur even to myself! I've always assumed that the place was run by Pakistanis, but I actually have pretty much no reason to believe that. They have a sub-continental accent, but that's about the extent of my fact base. This is the danger of an overly active imagination, I guess. Say, isn't Obama Pakistani? I hear he reads Urdu poetry.

Local music store Cellophane Square is apparently going out of business. I remember when they started out (at least to the best of my knowledge) in the space that is now a Taco del Mar on NE 42nd St. I've bought a lot of used DVDs from them in the past couple of years. Feels like a real institution is gone.