Greenpoint
Lorven Pharmacy
Culture on the Cheap
The Word On The Street: Point/Counterpoint
Filed under: 10003, 11206, 11237, Bushwick, Bushwick Brooklyn, East Village, East Village Manhattan, East Williamsburg, East Williamsburg Brooklyn, The Word On The Street
Thames Street
George Street
Stagg Street
St Mark’s Place
The Word On The Street, Part II: Point/Counterpoint
Filed under: 11206, Bushwick, Bushwick Brooklyn, East Williamsburg, East Williamsburg Brooklyn, The Word On The Street
Thames Street
George Street
Taken February 25, 2013.
The Word On The Street, Part III: George Street*
Filed under: 11206, 11237, Bushwick, Bushwick Brooklyn, Stuff That Makes Miss Heather Happy, The Word On The Street
Closing on a related note, here’s a chandelier I’d like for Chez Shitty 2.0. WARNING/CAVEAT: NSFW.
*Dedicated to AC/DC (for obvious reasons).
Props/Linkback (for the chandelier): Street Art In The United States (via Facebook). If anyone knows who is responsible for this item, please let me know. Not only do I like to give credit where it is due, but I want to ask my new landlord if I can install this in our living room. Just kidding on the second part— or maybe I am not?
Fun With Rock Photography in New York City
(Or: Don’t F**K With The DOS’s Boulder)
It could be argued that the only thing I like more than getting a good mind fuck is administering one. You know what they say: it is much better to give than to receive. Today I arose to a beautiful day and after catching myself staring wistfully out my living room window one too many times I decided to table the blog and go for a walk. A long walk. On days such as this I long to get a little taste of spring time— albeit not in the manner many of my fellow New Yorkers do. When they head to the park or take a nice stroll along the waterfront I pay a visit to the hinterlands of north Brooklyn Industrialville. To bastardize my buddy Brando Robert Duvall* from Apocalypse Now:
I love the smell of PCBs in the morning.
Which brings me to the not-so-small rock gracing the beginning of this post and the subject of mind fucks. I found this item on Gardiner Avenue just north of Varick Street. For those of you who are not in the know this rock is located on a rather sizable plot of land owned by the Department of Sanitation. This facility is patrolled by a security guard who I had the pleasure of meeting. He was your average Joe with a job to do; in this case, preventing people (ostensibly terrorists) from photographing their installation. Our conversation started as follows:
You can’t photograph that.
He said. To wit I replied:
I’m not going to argue with you, but could you tell me why this rock is painted green?
“That rock belongs to the Department of Sanitation” he said “and they do not want anyone taking photographs of their facility”.
Understood.
I said. “Believe you me the last place I want to hang out at on a pretty day like this is a waste transfer facility on Whale Creek. I simply like to photograph oddities. Take that truck down the street, for example…
…I’ve found Betty Boop on more things than you can possibly imagine. Just a couple weeks ago a found a refrigerator covered in Betty Boop stickers. I took a photograph of that too. As for that rock, well, I suppose it makes sense that the Department of Sanitation would paint it green. As you said, it is their rock and they can do with it whatever they wish. There are a lot of big rocks in this area. Many of them are painted and I have taken photographs of a number of them. There’s one at the intersection George Street and Evergreen Avenue someone has clad in plaid.
I really like that one.”
There’s also a rather nice boulder at the corner of Vandervoort Avenue and Division Place. It advertises sand and gravel for sale. A pretty witty selling tool if you ask me.
Then of course there’s the rock at Morgan Avenue and Rock Street.
That one has since been removed. Why I don’t know. Some people thought it was ugly but I rather liked it.
And then you have Arbitration Rock. Haven’t seen that one yet but I plan to!
It was at this point my new friend smiled. I suspect his years of experience informed him that a daft 30-something broad clad in pink pants, pink shoes, pink shirt, pink jacket and pink hair held at bay with an aqua blue bandanna (I lost my pink one a month ago) babbling about North Brooklyn’s boulders did not constitute a security breach. At least not one worth contacting the authorities about. Long story made short he relented and let me take a photograph of the Department of Sanitation’s rock.
Whoever you are security dude I will be eternally grateful to your generosity for allowing me to add this big boy to my collection. Thanks!
Miss Heather
*See comments.
Divine Dog Shit Intervention: Bushwick Style
Filed under: Brooklyn, Bum Shit, Bushwick, Dog Shit, Dog Shit Signage, Dung of the Day, Other Shit
Churches give me the creeps. The tradition in many faiths is religion runs along matriarchal lines. My father is an avowed atheist, my mother was raised Methodist. My grandmother (my mother’s mother) tried to inculcate the Calvinist vision into my person.
It failed miserably. Probably because I do want to slave for a salvation I will probably not achieve. If god has already elected his own why should I bother? Besides, the Sunday School classes were downright stupid.*
In the spirit of good faith (and acknowledging the arguments set forth on both sides)— I reached a moral compromise: agnostic. But when I witnessed what I saw on George Street yesterday it made my agnosticism shudder with self-loathing Calvinistic doubt.
This is the Cathedral of Joy. It may not look very joyous but it is indeed a church and its mission is to save souls…
and fight dog shit.
This is a church. Have some respect for the house of the Lord. Please (unintelligible) or curb your dog. Thank you.
I found two turds and a pair of pink panties in front of this establishment. Across the street was another matter.
Thirteen turds. One for each apostle plus one. A veritable Last Supper of dog shit (Judas Iscariot included)!
My conclusion: the fear of/hand of god is motivating dog owners to take their shit elsewhere. Unfortunately in this case it is across the street.
But it is a start!
Perhaps the City of New York will take heed of this novel tactic?
Miss Heather
*Although it could arguably be good job training for corporate shills: rote memorization and repetition. Methodism makes for good stenographers. Regurgitating what has been said accurately without the onus of knowing what it means. No disrepect to stenographers. You work harder than Methodists do.
NYS Flickr Pool
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