Flushing Ave

from the brooklyn navy yard to east williamsburg

rothko on the subway?

pretty kittens

HELLO!!



how could i resist?

afternoon walk in crown heights

and we welcome spring to (my view of) downtown brooklyn...beautiful day!


i live in the most interesting neighborhood in nyc


as you walk down eastern pkwy, or wander the sidestreets of crown heights, i don't see how you could avoid it. it's beautiful. i'll try to feature the architecture of the row houses more in the next week, but i'll say for now that i think it bests anything in park slope, the villages, or brooklyn heights. it's much more diverse and colorful (only bed-stuy rivals it, to me).


proof of spring? check the buds on the trees...



it's such a diverse neighborhood, dominated by two very different groups (the caribbean sections and the hasidic section). they've had their problems in the past, and perhaps still do, but now we can savor the experience of walking nostrand, or kingston, or utica, soaking in the sounds just as i might in a foreign country, letting my eyes wander from the island colors to the hebrew lettering...


i even saw a car covered in 'barbados' towels and flags parked right behind a mitzvah tank

(photos: eastern pkwy, at various spots between bedford ave and utica)

bonus post, no. 2

found this today walking home from the a train station at nostrand ave

corner of bedford and st marks

this is the second example i've found of these unusual figures posted on currently abandoned buildings in the area; there's also a vignette of two people and an identical bird on a franklin ave building. they both use a similar type of material, which appears to be very thin metal (?). the birds, above, extend to the three visible sides of the building in question, and are actually ABOVE the scaffolding currently on the building (slated for destruction? we'll see...)

you know what? i'll post the other building, since i have an old shot of it:



I recently learned that this building (a 19th century brewery, franklin ave at bergen st) was purchased by a development group, and will be preserved (though renovated) and turned into apartments. It's apparently one of this group's projects.

i've noticed a lot of gang-related graffiti in the neighborhood lately, mostly on franklin and classon. bloods and crips, red and blue paint. it's always nice to come across something more creative. i'll be looking for more from this particular artist...

bklyn is beautiful, nr. 2

this is the ugliness that i can't find ugly

but there's something beautiful about the trash, the decay, the ruined buildings. see my nyc photoblog links if you don't believe me

here are some more pictures of my neighborhood--we're sticking with prospect/crown heights until the gold mine has been exhausted.






most of the above from (near) the corner of underhill and dean st

borrowed poetry, vol. 1

in the delicate distance
of brown, i sit on a bus

with uneasy proximity
of tan, i look out on queens

shade shift my way to jfk
ride past ins possessing my access

in kind and card, swipe the coded
stripe and my name drops in ones and zeroes

somewhere a computer may know
Ladd is to Pratt as Cawthorne is to Willis is

to Pickett and on
what it won't show are the moments

of love or lust that swirl
through centuries and tans me here

making me one more momento
of a close-quartered world


all trinkets of time shrink space
a cluttered reflection of collecctions

am i a catalogue of memories
a series of possessions?

of an age within an age within an age
is a mirror to a mirror to a mirror
of a people to a people within a people

each image, descending in view like seeing
one's history through the core of a spine

stepping through the act
of self-appropriation

my mother relies on the old
negro spirit of reinvention

"i am a citizen of the world"


ta da she is

-mike ladd (from in what language? mike ladd/vijay iyer, pi recordings)

two views of a rock, and more

there are a few of these unusually painted rocks in the area



this one found on classon ave near dean st

---

there's often a lot of contrast between buildings only a block or two away from each other


above, a particularly lovely stretch in the crow hill section of crown heights (franklin ave btwn atlantic ave and pacific st)

below, an abandoned house a block up on franklin


might be a million-dollar home one day

---

the el?


the lirr running over atlantic ave...the nostrand ave station nearby

kittens, pt. 4: portrait of sasha

photos by kristen

Rain in Manhattan

a sea of umbrellas





broadway near bleecker

bonus post, no. 1

(i took a three day break, so we'll do a two-a-day)

'The Invisible Landscape' @ Living Theatre

live on 3.14.2008 at 10:30PM

this is Gunter Gruner's band (playing his compositions)




featured daniel carter on trumpet



and daniel carter on saxophone



and daniel carter on transcendence



the show was definitely interesting. it paired gunter's rather strict, angular compositions (5 musicians staring intently at their music stands) with daniel's free improvisations (1 musician, no stand, no eyes, all music).

go see Macbeth at BAM if you haven't. it's fabulous.

ft greene park in the afternoon after work

afternoon loveliness

two very different photos of bklyn:



day and night

old and new

unfinished and unkempt

fire and ice (...? ok, not really)




the first is dean st at vanderbilt ave


the second a new building eastern pkwy at grand army plaza (photo taken 12/2007)


it's a beautiful day in the city today. enjoy it.

kittens, pt. 3: sleepier

i don't think i'll ever get tired of posting pictures of the kittens...

change is coming

a trip down dean street

mostly on the corner of carlton and dean


my thoughts exactly

as for this one...hillary + ratner? really?


frustration about the atlantic yards projects boils over


not sure if this building/corner is slated for destruction thanks to the ratner project, but i know many of its neighbors are


the atlantic yards 'liaison' signs are everywhere in the area--this one's been edited a bit

you can see the atlantic terminal houses in the background--the original atlantic yards project(s), i suppose. some of my students live there.


one of my all-time favorite graffiti projects. unfortunate that it had to come in the ruins of what i assume is another casualty of the atlantic yards development