Williamspoint Photos Du Jour: Rides

June 4, 2009 ·
Filed under: Greenpoint Magic, Long Island City, Williamsburg 

fredtsanford

North 1st Street

love

Manhattan Avenue

geo

44th Drive*

Miss Heather

*Yes, this item hails from Long Island City. But I couldn’t resist posting it in the hope it will inspire someone to trick out a Yugo.

Introducing The Newtown Pentacle

waxmanLast night I had the damnedest time falling asleep. At 2:00 a.m. I found myself tossing and turning so I decided to get a glass of milk and poke around on the computer. I am glad I did because I came across a pingback from a new site called The Newtown Pentacle. Intrigued I checked it out. Although only a handful of posts strong I have to admit this site looks very promising. As for what it is about I’ll let the author, Mitch Waxman, do the talking (from his inaugural post dating from May 29, 2009):

The colonial era towns of Green Point, Brooklyn and the Queens towns of Astoria, Ravenswood, Hunter’s Point, Bowery Bay, and Middletown were called Newtown in Dutch and English times. In the early 19th century, the Queens villages combined to form Long Island City. The industrial center of the area was and still is Newtown Creek. The most polluted body of water on earth, this ancient inlet was once home to the Maspaetche Indians. Dutch Orchards and English farms gave way to Yankee rail and then Standard Oil as time went by. Today, its waters are a curious shade of copper green, and the largest oil spill in history gurgles back and forth through deep subterranean channels between Green Point and Long Island City.  The architecture of the place is disturbingly heterogeneous. A rough tumble of styles are represented in this area — 19th century wrought iron row houses predominate, but 18th century warehouses are still on active duty in some places. Near Hunter’s Point and in Old Astoria, Antebellum mansions abut hideous Le Corbusier-influenced modernism. To the south and the east can be found some of the most interesting stone work in New York City as one explores the cemetery belt along the Brooklyn and Queens border.
Three million New Yorkers lie in Calvary cemetery alone. In this, the Necropolis of New York City, the living population of Queens is outnumbered three to one.

After a health scare a couple of years ago, my doctors recommended a course of clean living and regimen of physical exercise as the best curative. An amateur antiquarian and connoisseur of odd information, I elected to use my prescriptive exertions as an opportunity to explore and record. I toured crumbling Long Island City, the tree lined lanes of Victorian Astoria, and rusty coastlines of foetid Newtown Creek. Headphones on, camera in hand. The journey has taken me to many odd and forgotten places, and led me to discover a fascinating group of people. Follow me on these long walks, I promise you’ll see something amazing.

The previous isn’t just a bunch of verbiage either: Mr. Waxman delivers. Do give this site a whirl. It’s fascinating.

Miss Heather

Photo Credit: Mitch Waxman

Williamsburg Photo Du Jour: Siamese Connections

June 4, 2009 ·
Filed under: Street Art, Williamsburg 

siamese

From Hope Street.

Miss Heather

Best Tree Pit In Brooklyn!

June 4, 2009 ·
Filed under: Greenpoint Magic 

oldsoulSo let’s recap. We have recently learned that Manhattan Avenue is now graced with a terrifyingly nice art gallery and in the previous post we checked out a wonderful garden on the Southside (where the sign to the left can be found). What do these previous two items have in common, you ask? Not very much I suppose— but they are both very germane to this post.

Inasmuch as I harbor a fascination for the abject the fact of the matter is I also take great pleasure in things that are visually pleasing. The furniture I saw at Gallery 1889 was aesthetically stunning but not the kind of thing I would want in my home. It was a little too sterile and user “unfriendly” for my taste. Simply put, I liked the form but there was a sore lack of attention to function.

Now that I have established my philosophy about items made for human use I would like to segue to the subject of trees. Or more specifically how people in Greenpoint tend to treat them. This is can be summarized in two words:

garbagebags

1: Like

trash-and-dogshit

2: SHIT

But Greenpoint’s trees (and tree pits) are not only used as ad hoc trash receptacles and public lavatories. Anyone who has the misfortune of living on Greenpoint Avenue between Manhattan Avenue and Franklin Street will tell you they are often employed as bike racks with appalling results. Yours truly has seen many a bike lock and/or chain digging into the trunk of some hapless tree all because some asshole is too damned lazy to keep his or her bicycle in his/her apartment (where, I will add, it belongs).

If one cannot bother to be friendly to our leafy companions he or she should simply leave them alone. I fail to understand why some harbor such antagonism towards our photosynthesizing friends. Especially when you can do something incredibly nifty that helps them and gives you a place relax and/or watch the world go by.

1071ma

Which is exactly what the folks at 1071 Manhattan Avenue have done.

seating

Someone put a lot of thought and effort into creating this premium example of street seating. I will highlight a few of my favorite features.

mesh

First up: wire mesh has been employed to discourage canines (and their human counterparts) from giving this tree a golden shower. Or using it as a waste basket.

tableandbag

Speaking of trash, note how a bag has been thoughtfully placed on the back of the bench to provide a receptacle your garbage. As for the table/newspaper rack that’s genius. Plain and simple.

garden

The garden (replete with tulips) is the icing on the cake!

In closing whoever designed and executed this, the best tree pit in Brooklyn, deserves some real and lasting recognition be it from our municipal government or the design community as a whole. It has an elegant simplicity and feel for human use one does not see much nowadays. In other words it is a perfect marriage of form and function. This is the Falling Water of tree pits.

Miss Heather

P.S.: Special thanks go out to Laura Hofmann for reminding me to write about this. Thanks!

New York Shitty Day Starter: A Walk On The Southside

June 3, 2009 ·
Filed under: Street Art, Williamsburg 

golden-bird-housenys

Tuesday afternoon (before the sun decided to take another extended vacation) I finally got around to taking an extended walk on the Southside. There is much to be enjoyed in the way of architecture, gardens and street life or even art for that matter on South First through South 4th Streets. This area has something the Northside simply does not possess: a soul. Follows are some shots from my latest excursion to this fascinating neighborhood. Enjoy!

In closing those of you who happen to be in the area should swing by the public garden on South 2nd Street between Kent and Wythe Avenue. The people behind this sorely-needed bit of greenery did a smash-up job of this space last year and if what we saw in the previous slideshow is any indication I think they are going to top themselves this year. I am especially fond of the bird houses. Good stuff!

Miss Heather

New York Shitty Day Ender: Cheesecake

June 3, 2009 ·
Filed under: Street Art, Williamsburg 

lady1

North 9 Street

buyedge

North 6 Street

Miss Heather

P.S.: Anyone care to enlighten me as to what this “job contingency” incentive is that the Edge is offering? Man oh man they must be getting desperate.

New & Noteworthy: Gallery 1889

June 3, 2009 ·
Filed under: Greenpoint Magic 

Today as I was running errands I stumbled upon a most pleasant and unexpected surprise…

gallery-1889nys

…an art gallery has opened on Manhattan Avenue! Obviously I simply had to go inside and see what this Gallery 1889 was all about. Much to my surprise the work they had on display was actually good. Even more surprising the woman working there nice enough to tell me a little about the space (like when it officially opened which was May 15th, if you’re wondering) and gladly let me poke around and take a few photographs. Follows is a little taste of what I found. Enjoy!

These images hardly do this work (especially the really neat whirligig contraption in the window) justice. Go to Gallery 1889 and see this show, RE/BUILD, for yourself. It’s quite something.

Gallery 1889
1066 Manhattan Avenue
Brooklyn, New York 11222

Miss Heather

Southside Photo Du Jour: What’s In Name?

June 3, 2009 ·
Filed under: Williamsburg 

jacksnys

What exactly are “cancellation shoes” you ask? I honestly have no idea. But for those of you who simply must find out I’d recommend going to 161 Havemeyer Street. Be sure to ask for Jack.

Miss Heather

Crosstown Local Photos Du Jour: Size Matters

June 3, 2009 ·
Filed under: Crosstown Local, Greenpoint Magic 

A friend of mine recently made the brilliant observation that Twitter is the “bathroom room wall” of the Internet. Not only do I think this is true, but I would like to take his logic one step further: the Greenpoint Avenue stop of the G train is the Twitter of the New York City subway system. Follows is how I came to this conclusion.

The demographic of both Twitter and the Crosstown Local is more or less the same: people wishing they were somewhere else, e.g.; in the case of Twitter somewhere other than work and in the case of the Crosstown Local riding the G train. Eventually this ennui degenerates into anger and the exchanges start to get heated. This is when it starts to get interesting. Take this exchange I found on the Queens bound platform recently, for example.

royalpains

As you can see rather lively dialogue is taking place on this poster for Royal Pains. Let’s go in for a closer look!

prettydoctor

small

I guess size really does matter after all. Or does it?

moron

To paraphrase Mark Twain:

It’s not the size of the sharpie in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the sharpie .

Miss Heather

Williamsburg Photos Du Jour: Signs Of The Times

June 3, 2009 ·
Filed under: Recession, Williamsburg 

survivalfair

Metropolitan Avenue

keepcalm

Bedford Avenue

donations

North 9 Street

Miss Heather

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