I cover the waterfront.

It would appear that Brooklyn is currently the Featured Borough on NYTimes.com's CityRoom Blogs page. I am hard-pressed to think of another borough that deserves it more.

One of the many snippets is about a photographer capturing Brooklyn's fading industrial waterfront.

He's part of an exhibit at the Central Branch of the Brooklyn public library which I thought was pretty good when I saw it while getting my library card.

Gold Standard

Here's a really great article on New York City's Olympians.

(Note, as the articl points out, that none of these are former Olympians. Much like the mob, or WoW Cafe Theater, once you're in the family (of Olympians) you can never get out.

Atta girl!

I know that this Olympics has been all about Michael Phelps' achievements. And indeed, he has made history and more importantly, he's made it to the status of Honorary NYer.

But.

That's right, but.

Natalie Coughlin hasn't exactly been resting on her good looks and sparkling personality. (Both of which she has in abundance.)

Natalie has gone gold this Olympics. Defending her title in the 100-meter backstroke. And! Natalie has won six medals in this Olympic Games. That's more medals in one Olympic Games ever won by any female swimmer. Ever in history!

She has handled her intense schedule with aplomb. And I have no doubt that she would handle the hustle and bustle of our fair city with the same aplomb.

I am proud to name her an Honorary New Yorker. I'm also proud to offer her a place to crash if she's ever in The City. (Sorry Michael.)

Just around the bend.

It’s about a thirty to forty minute train ride on the Q from our house to Coney Island.

The train takes a turn between the Sheepshead Bay and Brighton Beach stops and you can see the ocean. When the doors opened at the Brighton Beach stop I could smell the salt air. I was listening to Ave Maria and the warm salt air through the doors and the swell of the music filled me with such unexpected happiness that I closed my eyes so that no one could see the welling tears.

I think that Proust said it best.

...The sea is not separated from the sky; it always harmonizes with the colors of the sky and it is deeply stirred by its most delicate nuances. The sea radiates under the sun and seems to die with it every evening. And when the sun has vanished, the sea keeps longing for it, keeps preserving a bit of its luminous reminiscence in the face of the uniformly somber earth. It is the moment of the sun’s melancholy reflections, which are so gentle that you feel your heat melting at the very sight of them. Once the night has almost fully thickened, and the sky is gloomy over the blackened earth, the sea still glimmer -who knows by what mystery, by what brilliant relic of the day, a relic buried beneath the waves.
The sea refreshes our imagination because it does not make us think of human life; yet it rejoices the soul, because, like the soul, it is an infinite and impotent striving, a strength that is ceaselessly broken by falls, an eternal and exquisite lament. The sea thus enchants us like music, which, unlike language, never bears the traces of things, never tells us anything about human beings, but imitates the stirrings of the soul. Sweeping up with the waves of those movements, plunging back with them, the heart thus forgets its own failures and finds solace in an intimate harmony between its own sadness and the sea’s sadness, which merges the sea’s destiny with the destinies of all things.

Yup, the ocean is purdy.

Grrr.

The weekends are hard for me as far as getting along with my neighbors in the house behind us.

The weekends make me hate them.

At least once a month there's some a loud party that starts in the early evening and lasts until about two ay em. I believe that I've ranted about the noise from these parties before.

And then there are the Saturday (and Sunday) mornings, like today, where someone from the house gets up early and begins to do loud outdoor tasks.
Like hammering on the pigeon coop that's right below our bedroom windows. Or using an electric saw to cut tin for the roof of that coop. This morning's favourite seems to be the use of the car alarm to tell time. Everywhere 5 to 10 minutes the car alarm would go off making it impossible to stay or return to sleep.
This has been going on since 7 ay em. There's nothing like waking up with a headache brought on by your inconsiderate neighbors.

Making Progress

So, as of June 21st my Summer To-Do List looked like this:

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

I am proud to say that I've actually been able to cross a few things off my list.
So today it looks like this:

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

And tomorrow, we're going to Coney Island.

I don't think that we're going to make it up to the Bronx; nor do I think that we're going to go kayaking but so far we've managed to check some things off and have quite a lovely summer doing so.

When the morning rush hour gets slow.

As of the late the mornings have been cool.
The breeze rolling down 7th Avenue from Central Park carries the scent of coffee and roasted nuts and sometimes the sound of a Children's chorus of violins from Carnegie Hall.

I wish that tourists could see New York like this. The City that we live in and work in. One that is more subtle and nuanced than the I<3 NY amusement park ride.