Now that’s not something you see every day! A 30 foot long whale was washed up on a Brooklyn beach earlier yesterday. Poor thing was most likely dead for a while before it arrived in NYC. Check out the New York Post for more on this sad story.
Tag Archives: Brooklyn
Ah, so that’s why
There are NYPD cops all over the place around 4pm this afternoon and there are railings the length of Park Avenue. This is the Upper East Side, what is going on?
One cop tells us that the President ‘may be coming down here soon, but we don’t know’. I overhear another cop tell a lady that there’s a film shoot going on, so they’re shutting down the streets. I tend to believe the former as I read in the New York Times that the President is in town to visit schools in Brooklyn and that they shut down Prospect Park because of it. Blimey. Well, I was on a train back from Washington last night, he could have sat next to me and kipped on our sofa bed. Much cheaper.
Hangin’ with the hipsters
Well, not exactly, just visiting Brooklyn, which is apparently full of them. R tried to explain to me what a ‘hipster’ is and occasionally points one out in the street, but I’m still not sure. They seem to be mostly blokes in bad dress, NHS inspired glasses (but with no prescription) and big boots. Too hot for all that yesterday in the DUMBO area of Brooklyn and where we made our latest discovery: the Smorgasburg. No, this is not a typo. It’s an open air food market, with the unfortunate name of Brooklyn Flea Food Market – flea means to me horrible old second hand stuff sold in a dank church hall, but here means a market with lots of lovely food. It was so good, with dozens of stalls selling mouth watering food and massive queues at the more popular salt beef sandwich stall. We see massive blocks of ice being shaved to get icy drinks; iced tea of new and exotic varieties and my favourite? Bon Chovie – Brooklyn’s only fried anchovy. Which for anyone with a passing knowledge of 80s soft rock groups sporting long hair and a lot of denim, is a great pun on the rock band Bon Jovi. Quite why anyone would deep fry an anchovy is beyond me, maybe it’s what hipsters eat?
A house tells the story of a changing area
I quite like reading about New York history, how areas have evolved over the decades and the personal stories that come with this. The Museum of the City of New York is a great place to indulge this and it, housed in its grand building on 5th Avenue way up on East 103rd Street, does this with great aplomb. I highly recommend a visit if you’re ever here. Reading the New York Times this weekend, I found a heart warming article in the Metropolitan section, which focused on one house in the little known area of Crown Heights, which is in Brooklyn. The article tracked the house move of the current owner (selling for $1.3 million) and recalled the past by digging through city records to see who had lived in this grand, turreted building. It was the best thing I read this weekend and well worth a look. It’s not all about Manhattan, it seems.
If you want to get ahead, get a hat
It is hot here in New York today. After two days of rain, it’s now officially summer. I am in downtown Brooklyn, which is a world apart from the Upper East Side. It is busy, there’s a lot of flesh on show and not in a good way. The pavements of Fulton Street are lined with all sorts of stalls selling hats, jewellery and clothing. Music blares out, competing with noise from stalls nearby. There are crowds of people in Macy’s (Brooklyn branch). I listen to harassed mothers who yell at their small children to ‘shut the f*** up’. I buy a hat in Macy’s: I am gratified that my head is not large in Brooklyn. I queue in the equally crowded Gap Outlet next door and am barked at by the cashier, ‘next guest!’. I know now that means next in the queue. I don’t feel much like a guest as I’ve queued for 20 minutes and put up with the horror of the outlet experience. I buy E a hat too and hope that head size isn’t hereditary. I walk back to the subway and find I am the only one wearing a hat. I will set a new trend. Alone.
Brooklyn buildings
Impressive buildings outside of Manhattan? Why yes, there’s a couple in Brooklyn.
How about the Brooklyn Museum? Although its steps appear to be missing, replaced with a rather odd glass atrium out the front. It is a formidable presence, towering over the very busy Eastern Parkway.
Or the Brooklyn Public Library? Certainly not your average public library with gold leaf columns. Check out how tall the front is, when you see how tiny my mum looks on the steps. Those are big doors!
And the glorious Brooklyn Botanical Gardens nestled between the two. No pictures of buildings, just an oasis in the middle of urban car noise.
I don’t think we’re in Manhattan any more
There are five boroughs in New York, with Manhattan being the most well known. Staten Island suffered horribly in the Hurricane and is often forgotten as the island off the bottom of Manhattan. The Bronx is at the other end of Manhattan and whilst I have discovered there is a zoo and a botanical garden there (to be visited on warmer days) it still makes me think of scary New York of the 70s. Ed Koch, Mayor between 1978 and 1990 died recently and was credited with transformation of the Bronx and other run down parts of New York. This leaves Queens and Brooklyn. The latter is of course well known because the Beckhams called their eldest son after the borough – it’s certainly up and coming now, with Park Slope known as the nappy valley of New York. I visited the Transit Museum today and got my first glance at Brooklyn. I only saw the civic parts around city hall and the MTA (transport authority) but it was a world apart from Manhattan. Lower built and more interesting to look at than the high rises of the Upper East Side. And as for Queens, well, I wouldn’t go there again unless there was a good reason. We went to Astoria, which is across the East River from the Upper East Side of Manhattan and it is pretty unloved and run down. The Museum of the Moving Image has been there for 20 years but it hasn’t led to any regeneration in the neighbourhood a la Tate Modern in London. The museum is great, hosting a computer games through the ages exhibit (or excuse for middle aged men to play with computer games dating back to their teens) and it did make me laugh to see the Wizard of Oz as part of the permanent exhibition, when the first thoughts I had when we emerged from the subway were “I don’t think we’re in Kansas any more, Toto”.
nw3 to nyc 