And here's the other side of that crochet street art piece in Williamsburg. But I'm pretty sure the letters have been rearranged by some sort of vandal with crafting skills. I think they once spelled out "imagine" or other hopeful sentiment. ‪#‎streetart‬ ‪#‎crochet‬ ‪#‎brooklyn‬

Or maybe "the magic"? Well, the magic is gone because someone stole the letters. And the vibrancy of the yarn has certainly faded too.

"Life-size banana" and "I will miss... you". A two-in-one street art piece. #wheatpaste #grandstreet #williamsburg #streetart

File this under other things strung up on powerlines in Williamsburg. ‪#‎awww‬ ‪#‎brooklyn‬

I purposely kept that first hashtag ambiguous. Do I mean awww cute or awww sad and distorted and odd?

Vice. #shoetossing #powerlines #brooklyn #watertower

Returning home one day on the B32 bus, I caught a glimpse of an insanely charming and inviting cafe on what was heretofore a not-so-charming and not-so-inviting street in Greenpoint. I recently made a trip to find it by retracing the bus route. It's Bakeri. Their first location is in Williamsburg on Wythe, another place I always want to go but have not yet in the five years since they opened. The Greenpoint location is somewhat Frenchy, not that Frenchy is a bad thing with all the tartines and brioches and galettes. Their hours are Tuesday-Sunday, 8am-6pm. Meet me for coffee! We can soak up the decor and discover their offerings together.

Bakeri 
105 Freeman Street
Greenpoint, Brooklyn
718.349.1542

The best biscotti in all of NYC (as sampled by me thus far) is tied between Court Pastry Shop (since 1948, Sicilian) and an Italian bakery in Astoria on 30th Ave. But we were here yesterday for Italian ice! Two dollars for a small. You can't beat it. Can you believe this is a small? Can you tell I'm pretty excited about this fact? They had my favorite flavor -- cremolata -- which is almond with real almonds in it. They call it custard, but it was cremolata alright. Just amazing!

Court Pastry Shop
298 Court Street
Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn
718.875.4820

Greenpoint Avenue, East River, looking toward Manhattan


Greenpoint Avenue, East River, looking toward Manhattan


Water tower, Franklin Street

Manhattan Avenue, Greenpoint, looking toward LIC

Last night between around 7:30pm, the sun was setting and everything looked like a Netherlandish painting. The light was doing amazing things.

The B62


Sunday evening kickball in McCarren Park.
Russian Orthodox Cathedral in the background. Beautiful.

Word, Franklin Street


Shayz Lounge, Franklin Street


Old Hollywood gets sarcastic, Franklin Street


Kent Street, trees intact


Random unlucky tree blown to the right, yet branches off the the left?


Brooklyn Label, Franklin Street. The only ones who go the plywood route.


Fallen umbrella, Franklin Street


East River Ferry, India Street. Guy wades in gross puddle for photo op. Ew.


East River Ferry, India Street. Lots of people walk through gross puddle to get to pier.
Cops soon come to encourage them to leave.

Battened: cellar door


Unbattened: cellar door & metal garbage cans. The lids, they're battened.


Unbattened: this is not going to be pretty. At all.

NYC is on lock-down. The MTA shut everything down at noon today. But today is Saturday, August 27, the day before Hurricane Irene is due to hit. While we were running around the track this morning, I heard two runners saying, "Yeah the mayor is a fascist. He cancelled all events, and we could have run the Bronx Half today no problem." And I was like, oh yeah! That was today. That would be a bummer if that was your first Half today, after all that training and anticipating. My hubby ran it last year. But I digress.

I guess I was rather irked that they shut down the city a day early. I had to respond with Battened & Unbattened in Brooklyn. I struck out in Greenpoint at around 2:30pm with camera in one hand and umbrella in the other, expecting to see all the stores closed; but instead, found lots of people out and plenty of stores open. It made me feel better. Plus it never rained. Be sure to read all the picture captions. I got to vent about my true feeling about chain stores too :-).

In observing New York's pre-emptive frenzy, my conclusion: New Yorker's don't really know how to batten.

Battened?


Battened: garment bags & Hefty bags scotch-taped to windows.
So not really battened.


Battened on the top floor: x'ed windows,
but they get to keep their AC window unit.


Battened: Evacuating with provisions out of ZONE B. Whatevs.


Unbattened, but pre-broken.


Unbattened: all the Polish Stores are still open for biz, but the
Duane Reade & the Starbucks pre-emptively close. Chain stores. Bluck.


Starbucks has many typos. (Sbux in Gpoint) One customer does not let one
typo go uncorrected. But lets "insident" slide. Note: correction is made directly
on the window. Sign posted on the inside of the glass.


A cop telling ZONE B to evacuate. We were mostly outraged.


Unbattened: all Polish bakeries still open. That is nice :-)


Unbattened: the B43 still running! 2 1/2 hours after the noon cut-off.
Hmm. Conspiracy!



The Media.


Kindly Unbattened: our video store enforces a nice Irene policy.
Also, note their perfect spelling, unlike yucky chain stores.
Sbux, I am speaking about you.


Unbattened: thankfully no panic-lines in our 'hood.


Battened. Subways but not busses. Again, conspiracy?


Battened: with plastic. Okay.


Battened: yes tape and plastic will surely hold. Surely.

Over-battened.


Battened with a mattress. See the dude's white socks through the window
to the left? He's lying on another mattress. Not pictured: giant plate glass
window just above mattress. So again, not so battened.


Battened: the Chinese casino busses are moved to dryer ground,
just a wee bit outside of where they park. Like a half a block. Phew.


Battened: our water tower protectorate.

On the way to the farmer's market today, we spotted this brand new graffiti. And it is pure and untouched. Not for long in Greenpoint, so enjoy it here. I just love old-fashioned supermarket signage.

August 12, 2011, 8:10am

TGIFerry!

Now this is a proper start to a Friday. The East River Ferry! There is nothing like standing on the Port side of the boat (that's the shady side) with the wind messing up half of your hair. Nothing! That salty East River air makes you feel like you're on vacation, even though you're just going to work.

The waves off the Port side of the boat. Look at the colors today!

59th Street Bridge & LIC piers [R] where we run