As I come to Bobst Library during the intersession period, the lower level study area looks wonderfully deserted. During the last week of the semester, there were people in these seats throughout the entire day. Some were studying, but a good number of them were sleeping.

Bobst Library will remain calm for another week, until classes begin in the third week of the month. At that point, the spring semester will begin again and the bustle will return.

Today is November 11. Not only is it Armistice Day, Veteran’s Day, and Corduroy Day, it is also the day I bought my first and only SLR camera. I bought my Canon 20D on November 11, 2005. I didn’t actually remember that I bought it on this day, except that I was registering a new lens and a new flash, and the Canon website showed me the list of products. Evidently, I had bought the camera on this day back in 2005. Cool!

When I bought the camera, it was during the graduate student strike against NYU. The GSOC strike started only days earlier, and would continue into the cold days, cruel days of the winter. I brought my then-new camera to the picket line and found plenty of opportunities to shoot photos of the strike. One of the best opportunities came when GSOC’s undergraduate allies occupied Bobst Library.

I shot the photo above during that occupation. I posted it on an older version of this website, and it was seen by the GSOC brass. They eventually published the photo in a book about the strike, The University Against Itself: The NYU Strike and the Future of the Academic Workplace. Despite the attention we got and the perseverance of many on the picket line, the strike was a total bust, and almost no one remembers it. The union died that winter.

At least I got a little practice in amateur photojournalism.

After last month’s huge project in printing nearly 200 tote bags and as many t-shirts, I finally saw one of our products on the street.

I should say that the bag does look sharp!

Now, if we’d ever get paid for this job.