Monday, June 30, 2008

Maybe I should have saved this for July 4th.

During our walk home Friday, Bighead and I also came across tree shading a plaque set in stone.

The plaque read:
Historic Marker of Battle Pass. At this point the Old Porte Road or Valley Grove Road intersected the line of hills separating Flatbush from Brooklyn and Gowanus. In the Battle of Long Island, August 27, 1776, this pass was barricaded in front by Dongan Oak and other obstructions. It was protected by artillery on Redout Hill just to the east. Here the American forces stood their ground against the Hessians coming from the south till flanked from the river by a body of British troops. General Sullivan was captured, but most of his troops retreated across what is now the Long Meadow, joining the Maryland and other troops for the final resistance near the old stone house of Gowanus.


Later on down the road we passed a tree with a marker noting it as the "Line of Defense" and my interest was thoroughly piqued. I knew nothing about the Battle of Long Island but I'm glad that I came across that stone which led me to investigate.

I knew that Proespect Park was used by the militia for regiment training and practice but I had no idea that is was the site of the first battle in the American Revolution after the Declaration of Independence.
I really love Prospect Park and lately I've just been reminded more and more of why that is so. The City has so much to offer that even a pleasant evening stroll can get you off and running on some new tangent about it.

I wonder if people do re-enactments in the Park. I think that I'd be really interested in seeing one.

Sunday, June 29, 2008

Proud.


Happy Pride New York City!

NYC Bouquet.

On our way home Friday evening, Bighead and I had a nice walk through the park which led us to the south side of the zoo.

There, between the greenery and the zoo bars (and zoo smell) and park foliage was this beautiful orange flower.



Today while on the train to Tarrytown I saw more of these orange flowers lining the tracks in some places.
It was really lovely. The Hudson was on the West side of the train and the flowers were on the East and though I liked seeing the flowers all in bunches it was really more striking to see the lone flower on our relaxing stroll home.

It would appear that the orange flowers are orange lilies and that their beauty belies their malicious meaning.

Thursday, June 26, 2008

I found some pictures...

...rather, I saved some pictures that I found as part of a City Room blog post on the NY Times website.


This is what I saw on my subway ride this morning.



And this one is just my favourite.



I get high with a little help from my friends.

Here's something with a picture.


Yesterday's NY Times published the newly unveiled plans for phase one of transforming the Highline from it's current state of pretty much nothingness to a grand urban park landscape.

I think that everyone can agree that this is a good idea. What everyone cannot agree upon is whether or not this is a good idea now (especially cost-wise and in light of the fact that some think that a more efficient use of the space would be for trains or an express lane for cabs) and whether or not joggers should be allowed. Some are even poitning out that perhaps another city park on the west side of Manhattan doesn't exactly send a good message to the rest of Manhattan. I'm from Brooklyn, so I can't exactly share in the pain of Manhattanites about how hard it is that the City is focussing more money and effort for a project for their borrough (again).

But most everyone can agree that park = good. And I think that most everyone is pleased that this wonderful piece of City history is being preserved and moved into the new century.

I wonder if I can check this off of the list.

I saw the Brooklyn Bridge waterfall from the Q train as I was on my way into Manhattan to sign up for an audition at the Equity Office.

It was amazing. I scanned the faces on the train to see if other people had noticed... only a couple did. It was rush hour in NY and the way to surivive it is generally just to keep your head down and push through it.

The waterfalls, though, are a reason to pick your head up and look around.

I hope to be able to post pictures (from Google Images of course) later.

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Answers that lead to more questions.

So it appears the Connecticut Muffin is a Brooklyn-based chain.

I'm confused.
Most Brooklyn based companies/brands try and promote, well, their Brooklyn-ness (here's looking at you Brooklyn Industries, Brooklyn Brewery, Biggie Smalls) and this company is bucking that trend.

Or maybe, the idea is that Brooklyn does Connecticut better than Connecticut does.
And that I can get down with.

(scratches head)

It's now official. I've seen way more Connecticut Muffins in New York City than I've ever seen in the entire state of Connecticut.

(Though I'm not sure that this is a win for NYC.)

Saturday, June 21, 2008

Addition to The List

6. Join the Brooklyn Central Branch of the NY Public Library.

Summer To-Do List

I keep coming across happenings in The City and saying something to the effect of I'm going to add that to this Summer's To-Do list and that fact is that I don't actually have a Summer To-Do List.

Yet.

I mean, then, yet, I didn't.

Anyhoodle the point is that I do now. I will be adding things to it as the they come up.

Things To Do This Summer
  1. Go to Coney Island. Spend some money in Astroland trying to win prizes and eat carnival type food. Take a picture in front of The Cyclone and buy a T-Shirt.
  2. See at least one of Olafur Eliasson’s NYC Waterfalls and possibly take in his Take Your Time while it’s still here.
  3. Buy Bighead Swedish Meatballs at Redhook’s IKEA.
  4. Trek up to the Bronx to get a gander at The Floating Lady (and maybe dip my toes in).
  5. Go kayaking.

Nessun Dorma at the Park

Tonight my friend Jared and I went to the Met Summer Concert in Prospect Park and I must say that the whole evening turned out to be my favourite night of the Summer thus far.

We started out by walking around the park from PLG to Windsor Terrace where we had dinner in the Windsor Cafe and then walked over to the lawn where the concert was already in progress.

The concert began at 8 and we got there a little bit after 9 there were three songs left in the program. Angela Gheorghiu was singing Un Bel Di Vedremo as we took our seat on the grass under the pleasantly cool night sky. She has rather lovely tones and was very expressive. Then there was a selection from the The Met's Chorus and then a duet with both Angela and her husband, Roberto Alagna. They were very fun and playful with each other it was a joy to watch.

And then they sang about 30 or so minutes of encore. It was really quite a treat. He did Nessun Dorma and it was really splendid. They did O Sole Mio and then sand in English It's Now or Never and many others. They had a great time and it showed.

And what was really so wonderful about the evening was that everyone else had a great time too. Regular Met goers schlepped out to Brooklyn, my fellow Brooklynites brought their kids and their loved ones and their wine and sat under the night sky and took it in. It was beautiful. All of that wonderful music in that familiar and distinctly NY landscape. I felt very sure, tonight, that NYC was the best city in the entire world and I was over the moon with the pleasure of being able to live in it and experience it first hand.

Friday, June 20, 2008

Bravo

The more and more that I read about him, the more and more I like that Peter Gelb and what he's doing for The Met.

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

I've got no upper body strength.

Today it occurred to me that NYC moms have a to be pretty strong after lifting their strollers up and down the subway stairs.

Note to the MTA: in a couple of months when you hike our fares again, how's about doing something so that these ladies don't have to get that intense a kind of work out.

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Something new for the Summer To-Do List

IKEA is coming to Brooklyn.

There are a lot of mixed feelings about its addition to our waterfront (and not just mine). I've decided to be optimistic and hope that IKEA is able to provide jobs with adequate pay for the neighborhood residents and that the increase in traffic doesn't destroy the quite vibe the the residents of Redhook cherish.

Big box stores in NYC are a delicate balance. It's quite a feat to fit something that's so... cookie cutter into a city that prides itself on being unique. Each of its neighborhoods values its identity and no one wants to be identified with a big box store that can be found in every other (run of the mill) town.

But, as I am a fan of rugs (our new lease says that we need to cover at least 80% of our apartment in them and we've got none) and couch covers and trinkets with Swedish accents, I am going to give it a go. And now that Head's taking a break form being vegan she can enjoy their meatballs as we stare out at the Statue of Liberty.

Also... check out this awesome new use for IKEA boxes.

Sweet!

Swoon.

Saturday, June 14, 2008

Well okay then.

My Super just climbed through my living room window and down the fire escape to let downstairs neighbor in after he locked himself out of the house.

And it Jamaica Avenue was so flooded in some places it looked like a river.

Just your average Saturday in NYC.

Friday, June 13, 2008

Free Swim!

Then:





Now:






Now, while I must admit that something about the "Public Pool" concept (especially in NYC) gives me the squiggies the thought of swimming in the Floating Lady is a way a better option that this:



Swimming in a barge sounds pretty freaking neat.


Open Letter

Dear Gentleman on the Coney Island-bound Q Train yesterday circa 6:45PM:

Sir it is OK to use deodorant. More than OK it is the preferred choice of all of those around you who are sharing this cramped hot Sardinian space with you.

We do not share your love of the funk (unless that is the Parliament-Funkadelic and then, yes, and I believe that I can speak for all us of, we do). I you can’t do it for yourself, do it for The City. Do it for the children.

And me. Mostly do it for me.
Thank you.

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

How to find yourself lonely in a city of millions.

In The City you know that the season has turned when your theater friends start to leave for Summer gigs elsewhere.

Monday, June 9, 2008

More on the closing of Coney Island.




It looks like even Coney Island (which, in the past few years had seemed content with to be a seedy homage to the past) is caught up in the battle of how to move toward the future while doing justice to it's history.

I am nostalgic for the Coney Island of my dreams even though nothing like it has ever existed in my lifetime, while at the same time being a little weary of how this remodel is going to change it.

Change comes fast and hard to a city that never sleep and even well loved relics by the sea are not exempt from the force of the future.

The good. The bad. The ugly. All NYC.

You too can make a Brooklyn Plantation part of your Sunday afternoon outing. I truly did not know this about the Lefferts Homestead. I visited a year or so ago and they only had a couple of rooms downstairs open for viewing.

I certainly did not see the rooms where you could compare the sleeping accommodations of the slave and the master. I think that I am perfectly okay with that.

I just, take it for granted, sometimes, living here about how history isn't dead and buried. And even though The City is pretty liberal and "progressive" there are moments when I'm reminded of just how tenuous that is. A change in exhibit brings back a history that The City (and The North) would happily forget.

A change in neighborhood leaves Bighead and I wondering about whether or not we feel comfortable living out loud in coupledom. Just because a few blocks away The Gay Thing is rainbow flag history doesn't mean that we're completely free from some kind of rude awakening on an afternoon stroll through Prospect Park. (Not that this happened. It's an extended metaphor that might be a bit too weak for a direct connection to be inferred.)
It's tenuous and imperfect and it takes a you by surprise.

It's New York City every time.

Sunday, June 8, 2008

On a walk.

Today Bighead and I took a walk to the Flatbush Co-op (which we joined) and on our way we passed a little cemetery of the Flatbush Reformed Church. It had crumbling headstones and overgrown weeds and beautiful trees.

We went in and inspected the tombstones. The ones that we could read were from 1865, 1814 and 1810. The deceased were in the uppers 80s and 90s. It was so strange this piece of peace from centuries ago. It is between East 21st Street and Flatbush on Church Avenue, in the middle of all of this hustle and bustle and 21st century and this afternoon it was so unexpected and silent and perfect.


I guess it's Summer.

Tonight I made my first 311 call to complain about the noise of my neighbor's party.

The music, blaring since 8PM, is so loud that even with all of the windows closed, the fan and noise machine on, and the TV turned up as loud as I can stand, still makes watching TV nearly impossible and definitely prevents me from hearing myself think.

I guess that's just one more notch to add to the "True NewYorker" belt.

Saturday, June 7, 2008

Friday Night Fight


For some, taxis are a way of life in The City.
For me, they are the way to make me think about ending someone's life in The City.

Sure, now you can get a cabbie to take you into Brooklyn, but don't expect that he'll go out of his way to:
1. Get you there in one piece.
2. Not abduct you or hold you hostage.*
2. Listen to your directions.
3. Keep his displeasure about doing his job to himself.

Just your average Friday Night Fight in The City.


*Yes, I was actually abducted/held hostage by a cab driver. It was during the Transit Strike and it's a story for another time.

Thursday, June 5, 2008

Heh!


The NY Times makes news. Literally.





I guess, when a Parisian decides to scale your building, you needn't even break a sweat fact-checking.

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Nighttime sounds

There has been rhythmic singing/chanting and drum playing coming from, I believe, somewhere on Winthrop Street for the past hour or so.

It is raining and the little red house behind us has all of its lights on and its porch doors open and over the rain I hear singing and clapping.

I don’t know if it’s a church or not but whatever it is, it is an jubilant offering to the Universe.

Morning Sounds.

Thinks that there's little better than waking up to the sound of birds chirping.

Even if those birds are the pigeons in the coop next door.

Monday, June 2, 2008

Neat-o!

My boss' office on the 16th floor has quite a lovely view of Governor's Island.
Last week, while waiting for her to sign something, I looked out of the windows (as I am want to do) and saw something new along the coastline.

I saw scaffolding.
I couldn't figure out what it was. I thought that it might have been the beginnings of a ramp for speed boating but then I realized that the scaffolding was too high and close to the shore for that to be so and that it would just be plain irresponsible to do any kind of speed boating event in that particular area of the harbor because it's quite busy.

And then I came across this article in the NYTimes explaing that Olafur Eliasson is going to be doing a waterfall installment and I could barely contain my excitement. This is going to be so awesome! Apparently, Mr. Eliasson doesn't hold much truck with Paul McCartney.

Visting these waterfalls is TOTALLY on my Summer To-Do List!

Afternoon Stroll.




Today I circumnavigated Prospect Park.

I walked down Flatbush from Empire to Grand Army Plaza and then back up Prospect Park West to Prospect Park Southwest to Parkside Avenue (okay, so I guess because I didn't walk on Ocean it wasn't totally a circumnavigation but I am counting it as such because I had to go back down Flatbush again later in the evening to meet A for dinner).


It's a really beautiful park and it was really interesting to see the change in the neighborhoods (both the people and the architecture).
Seeing the Library and the Arch on one end to the beautiful statues of the gates on the other ends, and the lake and the Parade Grounds really filled me with a love of the Park and of Brooklyn (or at least this part). I could live pretty much anywhere around the Park and be perfectly happy -and feel perfectly at home and at ease with The City.