Unexpected Photo Subject Empowered By Internet

This past Sunday, Dana, Sydney and I went to the Brooklyn Flea under the Brooklyn Bridge. It's a regular event with delicious food and interesting vendors. Throw in unseasonably beautiful weather and you have a perfect outing.

After enjoying some awesome pupusas from the Red Hook food vendors, Dana went in search of some shoes and I gave Sydney a bottle. I was pretty absorbed in playing with Sydney's hand, but for some reason Sydney and I looked up at the same time. I was surprised to see two women taking a photo of us. I didn't mind, and it's surprising that at least one of the photos (pictured) got me before I started laughing.

This afternoon the occurrence popped into my head, and I decided to take a 5 minute break to see if I could find out what happened to those pictures. It took me less than that amount of time to track down this picture as well as (I'm pretty sure) the identity of the other photographer. Could it be that anonymity has disappeared from the Interwebs? This Great Series of Tubes is all connected, after all. And as the Tubes suck up more and more of the 4 dimensional world, anonymity itself begins to disappear. Keep that in mind the next time you rob someone of their diamonds and pause to check your Facebook page.

Some of our shots from the day. See if you can pick yourself out!

*UPDATE: I've just confirmed the identity of the other photographer. I could have a career in research. Or cyber-stalking, if that's a career. OK, I kind of creeped myself out... back to work...

Atlantic Antic

Last weekend was the Atlantic Antic, which rocked from just down the street on 4th Ave all the way to the water... all on Atlantic Ave, obviously. The afternoon was full of great food and drink as well as interesting tents from local sellers. (This isn't your typical NY street fair, this is the biggest and best local street fair you could find.) More pictures here.
[Edit 2008-10-13: Link to photos fixed.]

Walking to Work

That's my walk to work right there - from the red box (give or take) to the green box (give or take). It's about 4 miles or so, depending on the route I take... so it's a nice way to start the day. Much more pleasant than competing to be the first one out of the Grand St D. On a few occasions, I've taken my camera along to capture some of the interesting sites leading up to and crossing the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges (depending on my route). I hope you enjoy them.

A few samples...

Snow Day!

I stuck my head out of our living room window to get a few shots of the first real snow day of the year. It's still in the "beautiful" phase, so we'll enjoy before the snow turns to blackish sludge. 

And me without boots. That's right: no boots. I'm going to have to wrap my feet in sandwich baggies, like I did when I was a kid heading to school, and go buy a pair at Atlantic Center. This is the first tim I've needed a pair of boots in over three years! I guess that means I can get myself a fancypants pair of steel-tipped kickers.

   

A Break For My Lead Arms

I have not been posting much because I have been so busy with the new apartment. Every day for weeks I've had to lift, pull, drill, hammer, pack, push, work! Don't get me wrong, it's very rewarding to see the place come together, but my arms feel like lead. So yesterday was going to be the one day I wouldn't do any physical labor. I decided to give my arms a day's rest. In the late afternoon, I was heading out to meet some friends and passed an older woman in the lobby. She had one of those large carts, packed with laundry, and she was getting into the elevator. I said hello, continued outside and didn't make it too far before I realized I forgot my phone. When I went back into the building, the woman was pulling her cart up the first step in the stairwell.
"You don't want to use the elevator?" I asked.
"It's not working," she replied.
Obviously I offered to carry it up for her. "What floor?"
"Six."
I needed the exercise.

U is for Uncompetent and also it's for Uncomparablefriends

We're in!

Saturday was the busy day, after the many busy days before it. Ben & Beth came out to South Orange on Friday night so that we could get an early start in the morning. I picked up bagels before 7AM from Sonny's, where they assured me that I would still be able to get good bagels in Brooklyn. In fact, good ole Bergen Bagel's is only a five-minute walk from our new place... I was there first thing on Sunday, at 10AM.

We also hired two professional movers we know, Edwin and Marlon, and this made the move run even smoother. Loading started at 8:20 and finished at 10:20. The result was a 17 foot U-Haul jam-packed with everything except the stuff we forgot. Not bad for only 6 pairs of hands.

My folks came and drove Dana and Beth to Brooklyn, along with some other stuff that had to get there one way or another. Ben and I took the truck. There to meet us at the new place at around noon were seven more: Cristi, Jay, Jon, Ken, Nate, Pierre and Randy. Thanks to these great friends, we were able to get the truck back to U-Haul at 2PM. It didn't stop there! As soon as all of our stuff was in the apartment, our mover/friends founds things to do: putting together the bed or the couch or the overcomplicated thing that goes over the toilet. Good friends.

We ordered Cherry Tree pizza, which was not closed, as Phil had reported, and which was excellent. The moving party turned into a regular party!

Since then, we've had the phone, Internet & cable installed. A burglar alarm, and C02 and smoke detectors. We've installed shelving and have been unpacking and organizing like mad... but the place is still not presentable. Until it is, all we have are the moving photos. I couldn't whip out the camera at the most interesting moments, like trying to get the 500lb armoire out of the truck and up four flights... if I had done that, I would have smacked myself.

*U is for Uncompetent refers to U-Haul. I suggest you never use them, even if it's cheaper.

Moving Madness!

I'll be going offline for a little bit, after we leave South Orange and before TimeWarner gets our connection running in Brooklyn. I checked out the apartment earlier this week, and it's coming along beauticiously. Magnificious. Check out the cherry wood floors and great lighting:
The kitchen and bath might be a bit tight, but they're lined with brand new tiles and even backsplash tiles above the counters:

The fact that the place looks so good is making it a lot easier to deal with the knuckleheads I've had to deal with to move. The landlord has been OK, and the super has been great... but U-Haul? Well, at one point I had to ask a customer service representative if the 'U' stands for 'Useless.' Later on, when someone who works at my pick-up location called me to say he was concerned because he was located so far from South Orange, I called customer service again. I was explaining the situation, stopping because the woman on the other end was talking to someone else. Then she would say, "Go ahead, I'm listening." I would continue. She, too, would continue... talking with her coworker about lunch.

The last thing I said was, "And so can you tell me if there is a closer location where I can pick up the truck?"
A moment later she stopped talking and said, "Go ahead, I'm listening."
"I'm done," I responded.
"Well I don't know what you want me to do."
I replied, "I just asked you a direct question. Can you answer it?"
"I'm... What do you want me to do?"
"Do you want me to repeat what I was saying?"
"No, I was listening."
"OK."
[silence]
Finally, she asks, "What did you say?"

I love these people. Really, I'm just amused at this point.

Thoughts on Boerum Hill

Soon I will be a Boerum Hillite. Or is it just Boerumite? Or Boerumian. One sounds like a mineral, the other like a type of protohuman who lives in caves of boerumite. Whichever.

We will be moving to the neighborhood, so I decided to look into what "Boerum Hill" is, geographically speaking. I think it's a real estate term, with little historical importance... a word or phrase emphasized to encourage people to move in. For example, attaching "Park Slope" to an apartment helps it move in the market, so "Park Slope" has grown into surrounding areas seen to be not as cool as Park Slope.

"Boerum Hill" is a different sort of neighborhood. For a long time, it carried the connotation of a dangerous place to live. As time has passed, just as gentrification flipped Alphabet City, so has Boerum Hill found itself in the process of flipping.

What does this mess mean for finding a proper map? Well, I wanted to find some sort of online map. Preferably one that was updated daily to reflect Park Slope's expansion and Sunset Park's withdrawal to the south. No luck.

I did find some maps from the New York City Department of City Planning that clearly defined some zones. However, it was brought to my attention that some residents of a few neighborhoods in Brooklyn have created their own SuperSexyHood called BoCoCa. Obviously these people couldn't find the time to Google where they lived, panicked and created a new alliance of Brooklyn city-states: Boerum Hill + Cobble Hill + Carroll Gardens.

It's certainly catchy, but I'm wary about aligning ourselves too closely with those neighborhoods, thereby distancing ourselves from other, more powerful neighbors. ProFoPa (Prospect Heights, Fort Greene and Park Slope) would make a pretty hefty alliance, leaving those of us exposed at the eastern edge of BoCoCa in Boerum Hill particularly vulnerable. I think we should stay neutral and remember to maintain friendly relations with Downtown Brooklyn and Brooklyn Heights, ensuring access to the water as well as serious clout if we ever need it. And we can look into invading Red Hook if we need art, drugs, Swedish furniture or a distraction.

Landerpalooza 2007 or The Malt Assault Birthday Hop II

Saturday would have been the date of Landerpalooza 07, but it was bagged and replaced with The Malt Assault Birthday Hop II. Huh? Landerpalooza was once a time to celebrate all things Lander. The Malt Assault Birthday Hop II was a pub crawl through Brooklyn to celebrate all things Lander and DJ Gonzalez and anyone else whose birthday is around this time of year. Well, anyone who could make it out to Brooklyn. And who we knew.

It was a mega-crawl, starting at The Gutter for some beers and bowling in Greenpoint. We were there early enough to bowl, unlike last time, but I skipped it in favor of taking time to snap shots of the retro decor.

Second stop was The Diamond, a newish joint also in Brooklyn. For entertainment, these guys have indoor shuffleboard, which was good because we didn't have to start talking to each other until the third stop: The Brooklyn Brewery. Brooklyn Local One and homemade beef jerky (thanks Jon) - a perfect match!

The beef jerky put us in the mood for more meat, so it was a good thing the next stop was Fette Sau, the awesomest BBQ place in New York. I was happily stuffed with beef cheeks, sausages, pulled pork shoulder, baked beans and German potato salad. Fette Sau is built into an old garage and food is ordered by weight. Funky. Spuyten Duyvil, across the street, followed. Same owners, similar funkiness. SD has been a beer destination for years. A Williamsburg gem. With trucker hats and extremely rare beers.

The last stop for me was Barcade, also one of my favorite pubs. It's a cavernous bar with dozens of classic arcade games - games still cost a quarter. Unfortunately, Rampage was on the fritz, so I dropped a few into Dig Dug. The crawl continued to Wells Ales & Lagers, but I began the trek back to New Jersey. Thus ended a great Brooklyn Pub Walking Upright. Thanks Steve!

View it in stereoscope here.