what about the plastic animals?

At the Greenmarket

I made my usual Saturday morning trip to the Union Square Greenmarket today. Everything looked so good this morning. Peaches are finally widely available and there were lots more heirloom tomatoes available this morning than last week.

For the record this is what I bought:

- heirloom tomatoes - very tasty
- peaches - not quite ripe, may need to cook something with them (see blueberries below)
- frying peppers
- cheese
- rosemary - impulse purchase, not sure why other than I like the smell
- purple carrots - because they're purple
- blueberries - may make blueberry-peach cobbler
- small watermelon - about to be sampled

You can keep up with what's available at the market by reading Lucy's Greenmarket Report

Unrelated: The Pro Cycling Tour is in New York tomorrow. Races are downtown and start very early in the morning. I saw the men's race last year so I'm going to the women's race this time. If you've never been to a bike race the riders are incredible athletes and fun to watch. I'm hoping the rain holds off.

Park Slope at Night (or why I'm tempted to get a tripod)

Two photos from when I went to Prospect Park last week. I've begun to enjoy taking nighttime photos without flash lately. I don't have a tripod so I've got to find somewhere to prop the camera (bottom photo, on a railing) or be very, very still (top). There's not always a place to prop the camera and it is not exactly smart to stand in the middle of the street, even a sleepy street like this one, concentrating on being still rather than paying attention to traffic.

Things you do when you're bored

Empty 3 train.

Detail from the "See Something, Say Something" poster with a few modifications.

Has everyone seen the "See Something, Say Something" posters in the subway that encourage riders to report suspicious packages? The poster has a picture of a blue plastic bag under a bench as an example of a suspicious package we should report should we see one. As my form of protest during the Republican Convention next month I'm tempted to report every single plastic bag or cardboard box that I find. For goodness' sake, there's a plastic grocery bag half-filled with crap on every platform in the subway system at all hours of the day. If everyone would report each bag the system would grind to a halt in a matter of minutes.

Two Cranes

This is a really misleading photo. It is misleading because it is just a small portion of a much larger set of murals on the Chelsea Market. The market is a great urban mall with mainly food-related businesses on the first floor and several cable tv channels on the higher floors. The building used to be a National Biscuit Co. (Nabisco) bakery, and is where the Oreo cookie was invented. Anyway, there are several murals done in a Japanese (? - sorry my ignorance of art is showing) style on the exterior of the building. This small portion was the only mural I liked.

Wall Art Large and Small

Corie's posted a more pristine version in Williamsburg on Callalillie, and you can see the artist herself, sort of, on the Wooster Collective.

Here's a much bigger version. Can you find the Swoon?

A couple of examples of art pasted to walls in the East Village and Lower East Side. Coincidentally, Jake posted a more detailed view of the trees in the bottom photo yesterday.

From the Lost and Found Dept.

As a general rule I only post things that I find interesting or entertaining. Sometimes I think other people, people I don't even know, will find what I put on these pages entertaining as well (and I'm flattered when they do). Sometimes I know what I post has a very limited audience other than myself. Often those posts are intended for family and old friends. On rare occasions I will put something here that only one or two people will understand, or care about.

For example, I know of only two people that will be interested in this tidbit:

There I am, lying on the couch last night, reading Six Degrees by Duncan Watts while listening to Tom Scharpling's show on WFMU. My hand absent-mindedly reaches down behind a couch cushion and I feel the brim of a baseball cap.

"That's unusual," I think "how could my baseball cap have gotten out of my backpack by the dining room table to behind the cushion all by itself?"

I pull the cap out and see that I'm holding one of the world's hardiest hats. It has been to the Northern, Southern, Eastern and Western Hemispheres. It has survived a temperature range of at least 150 degrees. It has even "enjoyed" a gospel choir and the Hard Rock Cafe in Philadelphia. And, it will soon be in the mail to its rightful owner.

Miscellaneous Sign Follow-up

Is it just me, or are these pages loaded really slowly today for everyone?

Found not too far from this sign seen a couple of weeks ago. I guess the fine is less because they aren't using a new camera. It almost goes without saying that there is no camera, the fine for illegal dumping is levied by the city not the business, and the fine isn't $3000.

East Harlem Crop Report

East Harlem isn't known for its agricultural productivity, but the peach and corn crops in the community gardens along E. 110th St. were looking pretty good on Sunday.

Large Dog Sitting at a Picnic Table

You thought I was joking when I said I saw a large dog sitting at a picnic table? I was not joking. You thought I was having a drunken delusion when I said I I saw a large dog sitting at a picnic table? I was not delusional. Here are the photos to prove that I saw a large dog sitting at a picnic table next to Automotive High:

Semi-related: Jake's photos of Williamsburg.

Tien's Housewarming Party

It was decided Tien needed his hair braided.

The finished product. Sorry, my photography skills were a bit impaired by this point in the evening.

View from Tien's roof.

Tien had a housewarming party last night at his new apartment in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. He has a really nice place, of which I took no pictures. Oh, I took some shots in the kitchen, but they were shots of a liquid variety. There were a whole bunch of people there, including most of the Wednesday night crew. I finally got to meet Mike and Janelle whose websites I read almost daily and with whom I've corresponded.

More photos from Tien and Jake

On the walk back to the L train I somehow noticed Neckface on a hydrant:

How I noticed anything that subtle given the condition I was in was a bit of a miracle. A couple minutes later I saw a large dog sitting at a picnic table. We talked for a few minutes then I bid him farewell and finished my walk to the subway station.

If thy eye offend thee...

Sometimes things turn out right. The band Pere Ubu was playing at Prospect Park Thursday night and I wanted to see them. If you haven't heard of them they are a semi-obscure, but very influential art-punk band from Cleveland that has existed in various mutations off and on for thirty years. The one constant has been their founder David Thomas. One way to think of their influence is Pere Ubu is to the Pixies as the Pixies are to any number of current bands.

But I was not having a good afternoon. I was dead tired. There was a horrendous traffic jam getting to the bridge. I stopped in a deli to get the smoked turkey and brie sandwich advertised on their specials board only to be told "we don't have any brie". I guess that's what made it special. I got home, ate half the curry chicken sandwich bought at another deli and fell asleep on the couch for 15 minutes. I was not in the mood to go to Brooklyn, but decided to check the schedule to see when the show started.

What do I see? A picture of Ray Milland in X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes, a classic Roger Corman film that I haven't seen in years. Pere Ubu will be playing along with the movie. Hmmm, a band from Cleveland whose music often has science fiction overtones playing along with a sci-fi classic? Having lived in Ohio and being a fan of old horror movies, I suspect this can only mean good things are about to happen.

Minutes later I'm on the 3 train to Grand Army Plaza.

I get to the bandshell just as the opening act finishes. I find a semi-decent seat. After the huge screen is set up David Thomas comes out and introduces the band because "after an hour-and-a-half movie I'll have to leave to take a pee." He pauses and says "This is dedicated to 'Ghoulardi' Ernie Anderson." and mentions something about Anderson's son.

My suspicions are correct! Back in the sixties Anderson played an anarchic horror movie host named Ghoulardi on WJW TV in Cleveland (great Fangoria magazine profile of Ghoulardi written by Michael Weldon, another Cleveland native and publisher of Psychotronic Video). Ghoulardi would interject himself into the movie, blow things up with firecrackers, and played records over the movie. The band was going to play the role of what must have been one of their childhood heroes.

They played off the movie almost perfectly. They played over the movie, under the movie, sound clips from other movies ("Calling Dr. Howard. Calling Dr. Fine."), and interjected new dialogue into scenes. It wasn't the concert I was expecting. It was something rarer and more than this sleepy guy could have hoped for.

A new place to sit

After suffering too many years on a cheap office chair I finally upgraded to a much nicer sitting environment. I bought a Herman Miller Caper multitask chair on Sunday and it was delivered a few minutes ago. So far the only task I've used it for is sitting. I can lean back! And I no longer have to contort myself into odd positions to get comfortable. This is a definite improvement.

Busy as a bee today and tomorrow so I may not post again until Friday.

Belated Birthday Greetings

Technically I didn't forget. Technically I was thinking Shawn's birthday was next month, not last week. That's slightly different than forgetting isn't it? Shawn is three! Happy Birthday, Shawn!

Tomb of an Amiable Child

"Erected to the memory of an amiable child St. Claire Pollock Died 15 July 1797 in the fifth year of his age."

Tomb of an amiable child (foreground) with Grant's Tomb and Riverside Church in background (photo taken last March).

On July 15th, 1797 five-year old St. Claire Pollock died. Most likely from a fall down the cliffs of Claremont Hill to the rocky shore of the Hudson. In 1800 George Pollock, either St. Claire's father or uncle, sold the land with the restriction that the grave of the child be kept "always enclosed and sacred". And so it has for 207 years (see photo circa 1900). This is the third monument that the grave has had. Quite coincidentally I walked by on July 16th, one day after the anniversary of Pollock's death. I think there are one or two other single-person burial spots in Manhattan (General William Jenkins Worth is buried near Madison Square Park and Mother Cabrini is resting in Inwood).

New York's best known tomb is across the street from the amiable child. Ulysses S. and Julia D. Grant are interred in Grant's Tomb in the background of the second photo.

Foreshadowing

Gotta love a park where parents and guardians have to be told where in public it is proper for their children to urinate.

About a week ago I started working on a photography project that came to me on far west 72nd St. on a really cold day last winter. It is good. You will laugh. More photos still need to be taken. Tune in on August 1st or soon thereafter for the debut.