Last year my birthday did not turn out as well as I hoped, and so this year I left nothing to chance. With the help of my friends I planned the “perfect Brooklyn day” on my actual birthday, May 26. This followed Lauren and my 7th annual co-organized birthday party on the 24th, which was a picnic in prospect park. The “perfect Brooklyn day” started with bagels in Emily’s backyard in Fort Greene, proceeded to a bike ride to Coney Island via Prospect Park and Ocean Parkway, and ended with tacos at Tacos Matamoros in Sunset Park. Highlights of the day included Andi’s bright pink bike helmet; finding Beer Island, which is a vacant lot filled with sand and a beer shack behind the board walk at Coney Island; eating tons of guacamole; finishing the day covered in bike grease and sand. I chronicled it all in a set on flickr (which you can get to by clicking on the title of this photo) and there’s an article on Eater about Beer Island where they compare it to Water Taxi Beach here: http://eater.com/archives/2008/05/beach_wars_ther.php
I disagree with them, because I think Beer Island rules in a MTV spring break kind of way.
Category Archives: New York
NYC Grassroots Media Conference
I will be participating in the NYC Grassroots Media Conference on March 2nd with my colleagues talking about connecting teaching strategies for visual literacy and media literacy. I’m really looking forward to this conference and hope those in the NYC area will make it! If there’s nerdy media, art and museum educators coming to the conference, I hope you’ll make it to our workshop!
My Favorite Pastime
While I enjoy waking up to NPR’s morning addition or the BBC world service (I also used to fall asleep to the BBC when I lived in Oregon) I have a favorite new radio show: Fair Game with host Faith Salie. A mixture of political commentary, sketch comedy, interviews and musical performances, all pulled together by Faith’s valley girl voice had me first saying, “This is NPR? I just can’t believe it!” While Terry Gross she is not (thankfully), Faith is an upbeat and critical host. I now I find myself looking forward to each weekday evening between 8 and 9 when I can cook dinner and listen to Fair Game. My favorite segment? Bathed in Glory, which highlights really hideous things people do, like run over a 17 year old and then sue the deceased boy’s family for damages to the car. Last night I even found myself in the kitchen after I had finished dinner (and the dishes). I realized I was engaging in a very old fashioned pastime: sitting around, listening to the radio. If you love WNYC as much as I do, today is the last day of their fund drive, so donate if you can (I am guilty of not donating this time, but next time! I swear!).
Scene From a Movie
it’s easy in New York to imagine that you are living in a movie. Tonight was no exception. Freezing wind and squalling snow caused us to dash into the Fort Hamilton Parkway subway stop, only to wait on the plant form as tumbleweeds rolled by on the unused center express track and the “N” was no where to be found. The station was complete with a deserted feeling, graffiti and a chainlink fence above rattling in the wind. I’m not sure what happens next, but probably something sinister.
Trip to the Queens County Farm Museum
Last weekend, in honor of all things Halloween, Andi organized a trip to the Queens County Farm Museum. It was really far away (it’s practically in Nassau county), but once we got there I felt like I had been transported back to Maine and the Cumberland County Fair. There were sad looking animals in small pens, a cord maze (it was too crowded to go) and a pumpkin patch where you could pick out your own pumpkin, which we did. I’m glad that there is a place that is trying to teach city people about farming, but I wish the farm was a little less hokey in a way. We had fun though and next year I want to go back when it’s less crowded and try the amazing maize maze!
LJ reading at ABC No Rio
Several weeks ago (time is going too fast!) there was a zine reading at ABC No Rio as part of their “Art of Zines” show. It was pretty awesome to hear some old school zinesters like LJ and Elissa Nelson read. I thought about how not only had I started reading their zines about 10 years ago, but how amazing it is that we have become friends. There has been a small amount of zine activity around the city lately (I taught a workshop and attended a reading at Think Coffee the week previous) and I find that so interesting and important. Even though I’m not always sure what the power of zines are in the digital age, I know they have power. Seeing all the zines also motivated me to finally finish a new one. It’s going to be about art (big suprise) and especially about art I hate (nothing like a good rant for a zine, right?).
Lucky NYC Moments
Sometimes there are just some lucky moments in NYC. I think I am more suprised at “acts of nature” here because even though nature is all around us (hello, islands) we are also isolated from it by brick and concrete. Thus, sudden downpours, snowstorms and more pleasent things like sunsets and rainbows make a large, unexpected impression on me.
Punks at Pure Food and Wine
The blow of all these departures was softened by a visit from the Maine punks Dugan (now living in Cincinnati and studying to be Portland’s furture planner) and Matt. We celebrated by going to Pure Food and Wine, where our friend Neal is the head chef. We got desserts, including the peach parfait and tiramisu. All vegan and raw… wow.
11 Spring, all closed up
Leaving the show at Petra Projects last night (see thoughts in the entries below) we passed right by 11 Spring and I managed to snap this picture, bringing back memories of actually being inside the building on that one weekend back in December. I’m glad to see that Street Art still festoons the building and it hasn’t all completely disapeared yet…
Coney Island in January
G. and I’s adventures also took us to Coney Island, bien sur! We got there right at the “magic hour” and I took pictures I’ve taken a thousand times before, but I never get tired of the Cyclone, Wonder Wheel or Parachute Drop. One visitor from Milwaukee called the Parachute Drop the “Eiffel Tower of Brooklyn” and I couldn’t aggree more. We walked along the beach and evaded freezing waves (though I heard the Brooklyn Polar Bear club declared it too warm for their New Years dip and instead had a moment of silence for the real polar bears suffering due to melting arctic ice). You can see more photos of G. and my adventures close to (my) home and more Coney Isalnd pics on flickr.
Killerfemme 