what about the plastic animals?

Two Bridges, Two Islands, Two Waterfalls

Not in a writing mood this week.  Here are bits of two bridges, two islands and two waterfalls.

Waterfalls

Waterfall under the Brooklyn Bridge.

Walk This Way

A couple weeks ago I walked across the Brooklyn Bridge and saw these odd markings on the street at the pedestrian entrance/exit on the Brooklyn side.  It turns out they were for a series of lighted arrows to help people find the entrance (for a landmark structure, the entrance is pretty hard to find).  Tonight was the bridge's 125th anniversary celebration, complete with these new lights, new energy efficient lighting on the bridge cables, and fireworks.  Today was the first day of the telectroscope, which is an underground telescopic tunnel that lets New Yorkers see Londoners and vice versa, and there will soon be a temporary waterfall under the bridge.  A two-year, 300 million dollar renovation of the bridge begins in 2009.

Stripes

Three mostly horizontal works in Dumbo, Brooklyn.

Large Covered Wagon

Large Covered Wagon by Tom Otterness, at the corner of Washington and Prospect Streets, Brooklyn (right here).

Sunday Bike Ride

Staten Island Ferry and Statue of Liberty, from Red Hook, Brooklyn

Brooklyn Reads to Babies, Brooklyn Book Festival

Brooklyn Bridge

McClure's Pickles, International Pickle Day, Orchard Street

This Sunday's bike ride took in a couple of festivals and, briefly, a concert.  The 2 train takes a little over an hour to go from 116th Street to the end of the line, Flatbush Ave/Brooklyn College.  The ride back, which was definitely not as the crow flies, took six hours.  That time included a half-hour breakfast break at Baked, an hour at the Brooklyn Book Festival, half an hour at Pickle Day, 15 minutes listening to a concert in Riverside Park and many, many short stops for picture taking.

The Brooklyn Book Festival was fun.  There were lots of authors, publishers, and bookstores present.  There were two stages set up for readings and a tent for kids' activities.  I only hit one person while walking my bike through the crowd.  It was just a tap.

I don't know what to make of it but there were a lot more people at Pickle Day, all packed into one block of Orchard Street.  I didn't even attempt to walk my bike through that crowd.  The garlic dill pickles from McClure's, pictured above, were tasty.  Someone else, I don't remember who, had pickled crab apples.  I really liked those.  What I didn't like was served with matzoh and goat cheese.  It was brown and almost inedibly sour.  I could barely keep it down, whatever it was.

One puzzle at both the book and pickle festivals was that the longest lines were for things you could get everyday.  The busiest publisher at the book festival was Harper's, whose books are in every general bookstore in the country.  The busiest bookstore display was for BookCourt, which is open late every night six blocks down on Court St.  Likewise at the pickle fest, where the line for a sample of Guss' Pickles, which is open six days a week, stretched half a block.  Good for Guss' and BookCourt if they can pull in a few new customers but, come on people, try something different for a change!

As I was riding through Riverside Park I saw a crowd in the distance.  I decided to check out what was going on and then head home.  What I found was the first of three Sunday concerts.  The Manhattan School of Music Brass Quintet was playing this afternoon.  Next Sunday the Manhattan School of Music Jazz Group plays, and the short series ends on the 30th with the Columbia University Wind Ensemble.  The concerts are on the middle level of the park at 116th Street.

Plenty of photos from today's trip will eventually make there way to Flickr.

Four from Brooklyn

Greenpoint Terminal Market remains

Joyva Corp.  Happy 100th!

Ideal Dinettes

Flats Fixed

Sunday morning I rode the 6 train down to Spring St. then rode my bike over the Williamsburg Bridge, up to Greenpoint, down through Williamsburg, over to Bushwick, back to downtown Brooklyn and Dumbo before going over the Brooklyn Bridge.  About 21 miles total, which is the furthest I've ridden this year.

Random thoughts from the ride:

What's the deal with the NYPD and DEP zipping up and down Kent Ave. in their cars early on a Sunday morning?  This is the second time I've seen this where several police cars are congregated on Kent near Grand.  The police talk to each other not through open windows but over their loudspeakers.  Every few minutes an NYPD and/or DEP car will speed, without sirens or lights, from there to the DEP building several blocks away and back for no apparent reason.

Joyva, makers of Halvah and other candies turns 100 this year.  The New York Food Museum is putting on an exhibit at the Mark Miller Gallery on the Lower East Side through August 31st.

Before she married my father, my mother owned a dinette store.  It wasn't this particular dinette store.

Not related to the ride, but still random:

Harlem Fur, who seems to be dipping into the catnip lately, has underestimated my photo taking mania.

No Longer Stinky

Late last week an Amorphophallus titanum, better known as a corpse flower, came into bloom at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.  Fascinating fact:  Amorphophallus is Latin for "deformed penis".  Thursday was officially "Baby, the Corpse Flower" Bloom Day in Brooklyn.  Baby was still in bloom when I went yesterday.  The flower no longer smelled like a rotting corpse.  The awful smell of the flower attracts insects that would normally lay their eggs in rotting flesh.  Along the way the insects pick up some pollen, which then gets distributed to other corpse flowers.  Not wanting to take a chance with insects, the botanic garden staff cut a small window into the flower yesterday morning and removed a bit of pollen.  According to a sign at the garden there's another corpse flower blooming at Virginia Tech and they are going to attempt to breed the two.

Surprise guests coming to town tomorrow.  I may not return here until the weekend.

Ferry to Fairway

Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges

Brooklyn Gantries

Forlorn Staten Island Ferry

Back of Fairway

Fairway shoppers

The obstacle course

Late last week I happened across an announcement from New York Water Taxi that they would be starting a free Saturday morning shuttle to the new Fairway grocery store in Red Hook.  The water taxi would leave the Fulton Ferry Landing at 9:00, go across the East River to the South Sea Seaport and then head to Red Hook, arriving at 9:20.  The ride to Red Hook is free, as is the ride back if you buy $100 of groceries.  If you don't spend that much the return trip is $7.  Although it meant waking up and getting to Dumbo early on Saturday, I hadn't been to the new Fairway and hadn't been to Red Hook since last fall.

At a little before 9:00 there were four eager Fairway shoppers waiting on the Fulton Ferry Landing.  No water taxi.  Five minutes later the taxi is leaving the South Street Seaport and heading toward us.  This is the reverse of the published schedule.  We were off to Red Hook.  Had it not been so foggy and misty we might have had nice views.

I presumed we would dock at the Van Brunt Pier, but Fairway had their own dock.  Even though it was a short walk from the dock into the store via their café, the café doors were closed.  We were directed around the building to the front entrance.  There was no sidewalk or walkway, we had to make our way around old trolley cars, construction debris, and other obstacles before hopping over a short wall and onto Van Brunt.

The new Fairway is larger than the one in Manhattanville, with a greater selection and more of each item.  I didn't notice any walk-in refrigerated rooms, however.  While I enjoyed the new store, I was hungry, so it was up Van Brunt to Baked for a second breakfast.

Williamsburg Street Art

More sights from Saturday.  These are mostly along Kent and Flushing Aves.  The corrugated metal fence of the second photo is falling down.  Bring home a panel today!  My favorite is the Swoon in the bottom picture that is slowly disappearing.

For all your street art needs don't forget to check out Streetsy.