whats mah name, whats mah game?

one way to go

suddenly, everything got darker, starker, and more real

just the hall windows

twos of shoes

kids playing famous

silwhoette?

brick-a-brack track

sometimes torn concrete blocks strewn about a side walk might characterize a rundown neighborhood but in the Hook it just seems to add plain old character.

who needs a Manhattan view with Queens catchin rays like these

the Strong Island City commercial district offers a golden view every morning from my home in Greenpoint. It seems pretty soon that this will be the only city skyline Im'a be able to see.

politics collide in historic Hook

apparently, there is a place where even opposing politics can co-exist on the same plane of existence. I had to see it for myself so took a trip to Red Hook this evening to catch a glimpse of future developments. If you don't know, check out what I saw below...

sugar shack

Once upon a time, Brooklyn was a captain of industrial production. Many of us know a little bit about this b/c we live in or rent out all those sweet converted industrial lofts right? But check check it out, long before Loft City was born Brooklyn was sweeting itself up the old-fashioned way. Among its greatest commercial endeavors, Brooklyn neighborhoods such as Greenpoint, Williamsburg and yes, Red Hook, home to the ancient Revere Sugar Refinery (seen above), were sugar capitals of the east coast. Got 30 seconds? Check out Channel 13's microwave history of Brooklyn.

covered

wee tree

bus'ted

retired buses on lockdown in RedHook.

night light

IKEA will soon demolish this eye candy

From WaterWire.net

"The waters of Buttermilk Channel, Upper New York Bay, and the Gowanus Bay border Red Hook in South Brooklyn. Dutch settlers named the area Roode Hoek, or red point, a name which later evolved into Red Hook. When Dutch settlers arrived in Red Hook in the mid 1600s, Native Americans already inhabited the area along the banks of the Gowanus. Three and a half centuries later, Red Hook is a unique residential and industrial neighborhood."

This beautiful snapshot of a working class past will soon concede its quiet place in the peaceful seaside neighborhood as the historic dock yards of Red Hook are sleighted to house the new IKEA co-optation.



Of course, the transition from abandoned beauty to the corporate duty hasn't been seamless by any means. Related articles:

Curbed article detailing IKEA's demolition fines
Brooklyn Papers interview some residents
The IKEA Red Hook development website

get the message?

fauxtography 'Destroy"'ed

graf calf Destroy Toyz colors in my own street art today in Greenpoint.

Haculla, Count Macula's lesser known first cousin spotted in the E.vil

apparently, Barney was actually part of a subversive Anarchist propaganda movement

Velma from Scooby Doo: actually a Williamsburg Hipster in disguise

(f)unk

Ving Rhames on cherry flavor and other vulgarities

Special Safety Announcement from the MTA

this train's seen weather like Eastwood's face

this dilapi-dated train on JMZ track rusts like the spirit of Brookland itself. Tres poetic I know. I caught this shot after an older gentlemen passed out from a heart attack in the car next to mine. With the train stopped indefinitely the natives became restless. One aging, dark skined, velour-clad panther began to rant "Is he black? I dont wanna see another one of our soldiers dyin on the tracks. Wait, he's white? Fuck'em then. And I mean that shit!" I couldn't make this up if I tried. Still evangelizing to everyone in earshot the man trailed me to the local bus running underneath the tracks up Broadway. It was a militant sermon strewn with shout-outs to the crackers (me being the nearest model) and The Man and it ended on Kosciozco St. with the aid of a police escort. The other passengers seemed relieved and looked to me for a nod of affirmation, yet despite being pedestaled as the object of his passionate hatred, there was something connecting my empathy and brotherhood to the man. I could have no anger or hate for such passion. Plus the cat was lyrical, sharper than a Sharpton. 30 mins later I rented a newly rennovated apartment to some nice ladies down the block.

Steve McQueen or some other scene?

i don't think it is, any thoughts on the matter?

only this building and the roaches...

...will be standing when someone finaly decides to atomize this city. Damn, this is the type of building (Lower East Side Projects btw) that says bitch, Ima slap you in the face with a rent stabilized section 8 rent stub every month. And the building's got more surface area than a 90s Winfrey, check it out:

does stucco tan or burn?

sun baked south side m'hattan

the L.E.S. was glowing this afternoon as I left a consulting meeting with the good folks at the Fuck Yoga store on Ludlow on my way to, what else, my yoga studio.

the only pink building outside of Frisco...

...houses a new graphic design firm in the east village. Not quite magenta but surely not salmon, this eye-catcher, sandwhiched between to of the dullest red n' brown brick brownstones I've ever seen generates more "well will you look at that"'s than Morris the male transvestite hooker with double-D breast implants on 28th and Park.

house of pain

anybody recollect the name of this hospital near the Marcy PJs?

BQE poetry

the Marcy/Broadway connection

brookland trends

why is this window smiling?

I've been told that the wrong kind of smile will get you boxed in the mouf.

BedStuy's contribution to the art of landscaping

for $1300/mo. this could be the back yard to your new 3 bedroom apartment (yes, 3 bedrooms. In fact, 3 rather LARGE bedrooms). Use the money you save on rent to pay the window washers...



interested in renting? Call me at 917.697.7616

once words of caution

a sticker fashioned in the style of the cautionary "do not..." signs in the NYC subway cars seems to have been edited by one passerby.

anarchist's and the homage to Dylan

psychological warfare on the Bowery

declare love on the Bowery

on mondays, as I walk down the Bowery to vollunteer at the Jivamukti Yoga Center, I look forward to passing by this long standing declaration.

Stop Shopping, please...

my dear friend Reverend Billy leads a sermon atop his makeshift pulpit in the Starbucks coffee house (14th st. and 5th). For those who dont know (but should), Rev. Billy is the favorite evangelist of the anti-globalization movement, preaching with his choir, from the depths of Disney and Toys R Us to the pits of Starbucks, against the wanton consumption and cultureless colonialization of the corporate caravan that camps wherever there is cool in our city streets. Praise be...

art crush

watching one of my all-time favorite artists in action, and I mean favorite in the history of art, left me a bit star struck. She however, is as down to earth as she is talented and meeting her was a real pleasure (a rare one too so Im told). Please, check out her art and perhaps you too will know what its like to have an art crush.

just a PAIN in the stained glASS window

yes, i know im clever.

You are Here.

hoodies at home in the L.E.S.

beware of WWF drop outs posing as chiropractors...

...the neck you save could be your own.

manhattan entomologists agree...

...a new species of street artist is evolving.

Fire Escape Artist

even on a warm day this sheManequin, cold as steel, is perching upon a Lower East Side fire escape on Ludlow.

holy place

hole-y face

White Sour!

hope of words

found on the side of a building in Berkeley, Ca that houses a second hand clothing store.

bird up.

it ok.

april foolishness.

this is the kind of nonsense that makes everything worthwhile.

good citizens communicate openly with the MTA

vallet parking, courtesey of Brookland.

fallen angel

mythology drowns in technology at the 28th st. city dump.

thesis

this discourse can be engaged in near F.I.T. on 28th st. and 9th ave.

shit happens all over New Yawk City

but shit like this only happens in Hells Kitchen.

NYPD corruption addressed in Queens

accounts of perverse sexual activity among Police and citizens have been documented on the walls of Astoria.

mold is rampant in Soho.

kitchen rennovations in progress.

spring cleaning has brought this mobile kitchen unit street level in the East Village. Tis the season for upgrades and I hear its becomming a fashionable demand to have a dishwasher unit installed; thus dinosaurs like this Playskool "My First Kitchen" may soon be deceased city-wide. Then again, one Suzy-Homemaker's trash is another burgeoning Betty Crocker's treasure.

someone is on the phone.

rock face

this true East Village rocker has probably been loitering around its home on St. Marks Place since the days when the Ramones were eating Gerber in their favowit bwankey.

the library lies drearily

actually this is the post office on 34th st. But I prefer my title anyway.

building poem

SunSun comes out more in the springspring

beautiful blue door

Pronounced "Pee-nel-ope"

Truer words were never spoken

your Queen to be...

a lucky snapshot of new developments on the Queensboro Bridge.

Monument of Malcontent

once upon a time, a group of intrepid event producers and I attempted to throw one of the largest underground parties in NYC history in this 3 story, 90,000 sqft factory in Queens. It was to be a two-weekend, four-day festival of dopeness. We spend two weeks and up to $70,000 in preparations and materials. We build massive states, miles of bar, and even a spiraling staircase from the first floor to the second....only for the event to be shut down by the city commissioner and half the state fire department just 2 hours before we opened the doors.

clever title.

Warriors, Come out and Play-EE-yay!

creative community efforts to preserve local culture have relocated to Greenpoint-Williamsburg this year. In this beautiful sunset you can make out just two of the hundreds of balloons dotting the Brooklyn water front today. These balloons set at different heights, seem to indicate where and how high these long proposed luxury housing developments are set to build. Impending legislation concerning development contracts leaves the neighborhood in a state of potentially drastic commercialization similar, some say, to those of the once seedy soho in Manhattan. The community effort to slow down such developments seems highly creative and well worth a serious consideration by housing and development authorities. For more information check out the Williamsburg Warriors and fuggedaboutit.