Greenpoint
Lorven Pharmacy
Culture on the Cheap
New York Shitty Day Starter: Summer Love
Filed under: 11211, 11222, Greenpoint, Greenpoint Brooklyn, Greenpoint Magic, Manhattan, Williamsburg, Williamsburg Brooklyn
East 20 Street, Manhattan, 10010
North 1 Street, Brooklyn, 11211
Leonard Street, Brooklyn, 11222
Miss Heather
New York Shitty Day Ender: 211 Huron Street
On August 10, 2009 I wrote:
…Anyone care to bet on how many stories will be completed before the Department of Buildings issues a Stop Work Order?
They’re well on their way to floor #3. They’re even built a stairwell to it!
Miss Heather
P.S.: They still have no valid permits.
From The Brooklyn Daily Eagle Archives: John Alexander’s Fence
Filed under: 11211, 11222, Greenpoint, Greenpoint Brooklyn, Greenpoint Magic, Williamsburg, Williamsburg Brooklyn
Today was the first day of Mister Heather’s two week vacation. Upon waking up I quickly got dressed and left Chez Shitty for a walk. Two weeks is a lot of “quality time” and it has been my experience that such “togetherness” it is best enjoyed in small doses. This ended up being a good decision as:
- It gave the Mister an opportunity to play video games and listen to NPR all afternoon without driving me crazy.
- I was reminded of a post I have long been meaning to write.
As I was walking down Manhattan Avenue I noticed an older gentleman taking a photograph of the entrance of 905 Manhattan Avenue: one of the many four story, eight apartment tenement buildings that grace the Garden Spot’s landscape. The object of his interest was not the doorway. His sights were set lower. Much lower.
I learned this after striking up a conversation with him; he was interested in iron manufacturing. Among the items on his itinerary (to this end he had an annotated map in hand to guide his journey— one has to admire that level of organization) was a manhole cover on Clay Street and a former factory on Monitor Street. What had attracted this chap’s attention when I encountered him was a cast iron pilaster not unlike these— which can be found on Greenpoint Avenue between Manhattan Avenue and Franklin Street.
There are a great number of these to be found in north Brooklyn. What’s more, a fair number of them were manufactured here as well!
Take this example at Grand Street. I cannot make out the manufacturer’s name but its place of origin is “Brooklyn E.D.”. In the days before Levitra and Viagra “E.D.” stood for Eastern District— which included what is now Greenpoint, Williamsburg and Bushwick. But let’s head a little closer to home, shall we?
171 Greenpoint Avenue, 11222
1035 Manhattan Avenue, 11222
Who was “J. Alexander”, you ask? Well, his name was John Alexander and he was the founder of one of the numerous iron foundries in Greenpoint of old. Mr. Alexander’s facility was located on Quay Street between Franklin and Washington Street (now known as West). This is now the site of the MTA’s (delightfully named) Mobile Wash Unit garage.
It should also be noted that Alexander’s foundry had a pretty famous neighbor: the Continental Iron Works. If this name rings a bell it is because this facility assembled and launched what is now America’s best known iron clad: the U.S.S. Monitor.*
QUICK ASIDE: the next time you walk past Bushwick Inlet, look carefully for the American flag stationed across from the Bayside Tanks. This was where the Monitor was launched.
But let’s get back to Mr. Alexander— and the site of one of the Garden Spot’s more colorful land grabs. It’s a classic tale of man versus machine. Or in the case of this article from the April 9, 1878 edition of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle: a man’s fence versus a locomotive. The results are pretty predictable but that doesn’t make this tome any less fun to read. Enjoy!
So the next time you walk around the Garden Spot keep in mind that history is all around you. All you need to do is look for it. And sometimes the neatest things can be found not by looking up— but looking down.
Miss Heather
P.S.: This post is dedicated to the incredibly cool dude I met on Manhattan Avenue— and his love of the more esoteric points of New York City’s history.
*Those of you who are interested in learning more about the Continental Iron Works will be hard pressed to find anything better than this great memoir written by the great grandson of one of the co-founders. Check it out!
New York Shitty Day Starter*: Dupont Street
This menagerie (which is located just off of Franklin Street) just keeps getting better. Note the addition of stuffed animals and Christmas lights to the tree truck. Very nice.
Miss Heather
*Yes, I know it is after 1:00 p.m. After celebrating two friend’s birthdays this weekend (Saturday and Sunday respectively) and the Mister’s being tomorrow I have been a little busy.
New York Shitty Day Ender: Holy Shit
Filed under: 11222, Criminal Activity, Greenpoint, Greenpoint Brooklyn, Greenpoint Magic
Anonymous writes:
Miss Heather,
Well, Greenpoint drivers continue their reign of terror.
I’m writing to report a traffic crash at McGuinness Blvd and Huron Street at around 6:15PM. A driver, evidently speeding at what must have been way over the speed limit (50 mph?), hit a lightpole (knocking it clean off the sidewalk) and a parked car on the southwest corner. The driver appeared unharmed but shaken. Of course he was not ticketed or arrested. Witnesses report that the driver almost hit several people on the sidewalk and in the crosswalk. One witness said that the driver was swerving to avoid another car, which fled the scene.
FDNY blocked off the intersection, but NYPD did not direct traffic. This encouraged stupid drivers to drive over the sidewalk to get down Huron. One driver got confrontational and threatened to assault pedestrians when they were “in their way” on the sidewalk.
Photos attached.
Looks like Lofts 305 got an unexpected visitor.
Apparently this is the motorist that was threatening pedestrians.
An officer heads over to talk to the driver.
Damn.
Miss Heather
New York Shitty Day Ender: Four Faces
One of the things I love about Greenpoint (and New York City for that matter) is you can walk down the same street a hundred times and still find something new. Take these great grotesques which grace the front of 735 Manhattan Avenue, for example. Although they may appear to be identical in actuality they are not.
Do go down in person and check them out. They’re really neat!
Miss Heather
Greenpoint Photos Du Jour: McGuinness Boulevard
Filed under: 11222, Area 51, Crazy People, Greenpoint, Greenpoint Brooklyn, Greenpoint Magic, Street Art
For those of you who are not in the know, McGuinness Boulevard (by the Pulaski) is a veritable paradise of street art.
It seems to rotate, but these big-eyed birds keep showing up. I’m not complaining: I adore them.
What’s more they have a few friends…
and this formidable (but friendly looking) fella. Across the street you can find this.
A little Pulaski poetry…
and indecipherable German-esque gibberish.*
Scrawled in dirt (?).*
With hearts.*
And this.*
If anyone knows “Ted”, has expertise in Chicago zombies or can decipher the above missives please email me at:
missheather(at)thatgreenpointblog(dot)com
or leave your findings via comments. Thanks!
Miss Heather
UPDATE, 8:30 p.m.: Here are some ideas I received in my inbox!
Sean writes:
The German on the wall, I believe, basically says that love, to who ever wrote it, is that he cant be without a woman.
Jason writes:
I believe the last glyph that you posted was the Japanese character for Enter or Entry… That would explain the arrow as well…
Griff notes:
That last pic looks suspiciously like a logo for Aphex Twin?
UPDATE, August 22, 1:30 p.m.: Here’s a few more!
Robert writes:
I saw that graffiti the other day while walking my dog. I thought to myself that someone was copying the style of A.R. Penck. A German artist whose work in the early 70’s was a mix of made up symbols and language. I work at MoMA and we have a few examples on our website of his early 70’s work.
http://www.moma.org/collection/object.php?object_id=86742
wiki say
Despite the anti-art aesthetic the rough and ready quality of their construction, they have the same symbolic, archetypal anthropomorphic forms as his flat symbolic paintings. The paintings are influenced by Paul Klee’s work and mix the flatness of Egyptian or Mayan writing with the crudity of the late black paintings by Jackson Pollock.But who knows?
Not writes:
http://www.newyorkshitty.com/?p=24135
that’s the lowercase greek glyph, lambda..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lambdacontext: it’s a usage popularized by the video game, half life..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half-Life_(video_game)
Erik writes:
The “lambda” looking symbol with an arrow that you photographed is actually taken from the video game Half Life 2. It is the symbol for the rebel/resistance organization fighting a conquering extraterrestrial species. The lambda symbol appears throughout the game painted on walls, with arrow directing the player to a safe room stocked with weapons, health, etc.
See http://www.visualwalkthroughs.com/halflife2/routekanal1/31.jpg for an example.
*I had to do some Photoshopping to make these images easier to read.
That Person
(Or: Thank You, Come Again… and again...)
I have a knack— “mojo” if you will— for attracting total strangers who feel comfortable “opening up” to me. I guess I come off as the kind of person who “will understand”. Truth be told I wasn’t very understanding at first: I simply smiled and nodded (usually to a friend in the hopes he or she would disentangle me from the labyrinth of someone else’s sordid consciousness I had somehow found myself mired in). But after 15 years of accumulated (and unsolicited) “openness” under my belt (and socked away in my brain— forever) I have, indeed, become that person.
Hence why, a week ago, when a highly intoxicated chap told me:
You’re hot. You gave me french fries. I like you.
it didn’t really faze me. This man was not even a “blip” on my “freakdar”. What’s more, he really needed/wanted those fries. I figured that out after he poured 3/4 cup of catsup on them and proceeded to scoop the resulting slurry into his mouth with a knife.
Not that I want to come off as judging the previous gentleman for his dissolute state— or unconventional take on flatware usage. We all have those days; you knock back a few beers after a rough day and before you know it they’re knocking you. We all need “friendship fries” at one time or another. Especially in Greenpoint. In these times.
That said, all because I might (probably) understand the problem which afflicts you doesn’t mean I want to know to know about it in the first place.
DATELINE: August 20, 2009;Â Greenpoint, Brooklyn, 11222
Sweaty mid-fortysomething man plops a VHS porno tape on the counter:
These are $2.00 each, right?
Me: Uh, I think so.
SMFM:
If I already have this one can return it and get another one?
Me: (Speechless)
(This is getting into territory I care not to tread upon. No worries, he goes there anyway.)
SMFM:
I’m buying this for my father. He has Parkinson’s Disease, you know what that is?
Me: Yes, my grandfather died from it.
SMFM:
Well, the medications he’s on. They have side effects. He wants to do nothing but buy lotto tickets and watch porn. My sister buys him the lotto tickets…
(ASIDE: If purchasing large quantities of lotto tickets and watching copious amounts of pornographic films is a “side effect”, I suspect a fair number of folks in my community are afflicted. Without fail if I need maxi pads— or beer (to go with said pads)— STAT— I get stuck behind some man purchasing $20.00 worth of “Quick Picks”. Or porn. Often both.
In the lattermost case(s) the person in question will ask me to help select his literature du jour: BIG BLACK BOOTY or the more prosaic (but straight to the point) ASS HOLES? That is the question— because I have become “that person”. An ad hoc Dorothy Parker moderating a round table of round rumps.
As I said before, I do not begrudge others for their human frailties. I have my own. I just wish they wouldn’t coincide so often. At the local bodega. When I’m on my period. I’m learning things about people I really don’t want to know. Which brings my back to the conclusion of this post.)
I’m buying him this movie. It’s the side effects. All he wants is lotto tickets and porn. He’s on something that had to with brain chemistry. Dope… dopa…
Me: Dopamine.
SMFM:
Yes! And that’s what makes him crave this stuff. I researched it on the Internet and it said so.
Me: Do you want a bag?
SMFM:
Yes, please, I do not want to be seen with this.
So I dug up an “Apple Store” bag that happened to be laying around, replete with drawstring, frosted plastic and silver logo. I grabbed Gang Bangers Vol. X…
Or was it Unfaithful White Trash Housewives
Or Dirty Debutantes Volume 45?
In the Astroglide slick, John Holmes thick, dark and hung highway that is my memory— replete with occasional DDD cup speed bump, big booty bypass or butt plug— I simply cannot recall which movie it was. After awhile it all becomes a blur of body parts. A geyser of guy juice. A mountain of mams. A world where Grey’s Anatomy has gone way, way, awry— and household objects are not used correctly.
I dropped the tape into that sack of respectability and mustered what little enthusiasm I had left and said:
Thank you, come again!
And I’m certain he will— in more ways than one.
Miss Heather
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