Patchwork

I forget the name, but this is some kind of art or performance space.

Re-sort

Headless

Wythe and Grand

Six Degrees of Wythe Street

Six Degrees is shooting down around N3rd St. today.

No blank walls allowed

This wall was blank on August 8.

Pierogi II

Picnic

I think the top one is the better crop, but I like that older lady on the right in the lower one so I felt bad cropping her out.

McCarren park is full of these kinds of picnics. I call them minivan picnics because there's usually a huge family who pulls up in a mini van, sets up the grill and chairs and toys like an outdoor living room, and then leaves the side door of the van open so they can hear the radio play salsa music. No doubt lots of great memories are being made.

One thing that'll make an interesting contrast is when those million dollar apartments in the background start selling, with views from the living room of less wealthy familys making a temporary living room in the park.

Wet

New Hampshire

Porchblogging

Pine Plains, NY
Another for my under the umbrella series.

Perched

Mike's subs

Angie's Food

Yeah, more diner photos. I think the reason I like diner photos is that there are so many tools for eating on display.

Newburyport

Massachusettes, that is.

The Squan

No color correction here because the place actually was this yellow.

Crab for two

Jetty

Funny contrast with that Seattle beach last month. It might be fun to come up with an "under the umbrella" series.

Sand castle

We thought this was a hotel and enjoyed imagining rich New Jersey weddings in it until we figured out its condos. Still a pretty amazing face and setting.

Standing by

Main St. in Manesquan

Night light

Villa Parkhouse

Land of the porches

Spring Lake

I'm just going to put up all of my "what I did on my Summer vacation" photos in one shot so we can move on and get back to city blogging.

Night at the lake

Sky on fire

Beach house

There are some really great houses down here.

Stopping willow

Nice shape to that tree.

Water tower water

Ocean Road, Spring Lake, NJ

Italian ices

Belmar, NJ
Could all of these people really be here just for the Italian ices?

On the road again

Greetings from Spring Lake, New Jersey.
I'm away from the city for the week, which is why I put up all my neighborhood newsy shots today. Hopefully I'll continue to have Internet access so I won't have any down time on the blog.

Hot spot

There are empty storefronts and new places all over Williamsburg, but this one is literally at Bedford and N7. A hot spot to be sure. What would you put there?

Pierogi

N8 and Roebling (or so)

Trinity nearly complete

Of the three commercial spaces on N12 at the bottom of McCarren Park on Driggs, the middle one has been the only one occupied (pet supply place.) Last week a new place opened, Mamalu (below), one of those baby/kid cafes like Willy Bee's down on Metropolitan. Basically a coffe bar in front with a huge play area in the back. Now I see there's serious work going on in the third space (above). It was still pretty rough looking in there, but still something to keep an eye on and look forward to.

DnD on the fast track

It's amazing how fast the corporate places come together. This photo is only a couple days old and it's already out of date. This morning all the signage was up and the inside was getting close to being finished. Meanwhile, I got a peek in the door of Baker's Dozen, which promises to be an exciting bagel source on Manhattan Ave if they can ever actually open. The glimpse I got was not promising.

Here's a picture of Peter Pan to make you feel better.

Fix

N11 off Bedford.

The Astral

Hey Matt, check out what I walked past the other day.
The C-Town on the other side of the block has a superior selection of baby food apparently.
Franklin between India and Java.

Fun with Polish junk food

It product to direct consumption it, was it been possible was to pass from milk, juices, yoghurt or fruit.

They're basically corn puffs with no flavored powder.

Shadow's edge

B61

Greenpoint Coffee House

Est. 2003
Franklin St.

Purple Petals (pedals)

Commute highlights II

Shots in DUMBO/Vinegar Hill from a couple weeks ago that I have kicking around but I want to get up for reference so I'm sneaking them out in a weekend post...

Adams St., you can see J Condo in the background. That's the Manhattan Bridge poking through there.


above and below, 20 Jay Street. I took these while I was trying to figure out what the Jay Building is.


Farther down Front St, this reminds me of some kind of theme restaurant in Orlando. One random building plopped down on another one. I like the little guy in the shot below with his arms up, like it was his job to guide the crane that was going to put the yellow structure on top of the garage, but he had a poor angle and mis-estimated the building next door.

For the longest time I thought someone had purchased a McDonalds and converted it to a private dwelling or club or something. Turns out, it's a Buddhist temple. This is Front St. at Gold St.
Below is across the street from the temple. I like the saw blade terraces. Presumable they're angled for a better view of the bridges.

Faded Swoon

Gateway

Out to dry

Assorted Brooklyn clotheslines.

Runway

The running track and soccer field at McCarren Park is so dynamic, but it's hard to show that with a still photo.

Disco drugs

The Eckerd's on Manhattan Ave has been many things, including a dance club, which is why there's a disco ball over the shampoo aisle.

Skaters

They had a Reservoir Dogs look as they walked toward me. Not sure it works in reverse.
Nassau Ave.

Star on the nose

Hangin'

New mural

This is one of those "when did that get there?" items, but since I have the "before" picture from the end of May at least I know I'm not completely crazy. (Photoblogging as a means of warding off senility.)
Bedford Ave.

Kick off your shoes

In Brooklyn, the party shoes grow among the weeds from the very soil beneath your feet.

Heavy traffic

I see crushed cars pass through Williamsbug every day but I have yet to find their destination. Uncle Ed speculates that they end up at some kind of processing place so there isn't an actual crushed car graveyard around.

Brooklyn cascade

Metropolitan Ave.

Rules of the road

Somewhere in the top ten rules of the road must be "don't ask directions from a clown on a motorcycle."

Elevated

Bronx

N8 and Wythe, pending

The telltale mark of the liquor license application. I haven't been here long enough to know what used to be here, but the empty store had a picnic table and a small kitchenette.

Nom De Guerre to N6th

The store fronts are slowly filling it. It's amazing how each new one slightly changes the character of the block. Maybe it's all in my head.

Boxed in

The previous day a guy was driving what can only be described as a massive sewing machine on the sidewalk, popping holes in the cement. Those holes now contain the support posts for the particle board. I wonder if this means they're doing something more than regular scaffolding can handle.

Set stumbling, Six degress, Kidnapped

Six Degrees, shooting in Washington Square Park


Kidnapped shooting on Wythe and Northside side streets

One Ten 3rd (before)

Curbed says the Toll brothers are acting fast on this building. They must be acting really fast because the photo I took on Tuesday is farther along than the one Curbed posted on Friday.

I see the Toll Brothers are also doing North 8, which I would say is not acting fast because I was by there last week and didn't see enough difference since last time I was by there to take another picture.

Old Second St.

In his study of Williamsburg, Kevin at Forgotten NY mentions that the streets used to have different names and numbering. That explains why the east corner of Wythe and N8th is marked as "second street."

The opposite corner has Wythe correctly current.

Though they make sense as old signs, I'm thinking the ones on The Williamsburg Cafe are reproductions.

I was upstate

That 70s Street

I didn't see any Oscar winners when American Gangster was shooting here, but I did see all the period prop cars they parked all over the place. They must use some kind of car club or something. Some drove away, others left on flatbed trucks.



The low angle on the above photos is because I have to put the camera on something very steady to take a shot in this much darkness, so some are with the camera on the ground.

Oh Domino

St. Anthony of Padua, cont.

It was by our view that I knew the scaffolding was down.



I liked the idea of these when I took them, but now I'm less enamored.




Full view of the church was posted here earlier.

Water towering

That's the Franklin St. station at the bottom. I just like the water tower on top.

Bamonte's

The reviews that advise ordering the ravioli are correct. Eggplant rollantino also very good. Arugula salad was more abundant than I needed. Not mentioned in reviews I read is the cannoli. If you don't order one, you've let yourself down.

Wrecks in a yard

Two significant points about the shots above. First, the cars are actually props in the American Gangster movie shooting here today. (See below.) Second, all the grafitti is gone. I managed to dig up this old shot so you can see basically what was there. The movie people did a pretty amazing job cleaning it all off.

Enid's

On a Monday night it's better than your living room.
Greenpoint.

LESplanade

I had the opportunity to hang out of a passenger side window while going over the outer roadway of the Williamsburg Bridge. That makes this lower east side waterfront that's being smoothed out and probably reinforced (against bore worms).

Relish

I don't know why every place I go to in Brooklyn has a diner theme.

The park takes one

There are worse ways to go than in your sleep in the grass in McCarren Park on a clear summer day.

We chatted with some bystanders:

Us: Did you find him?

Bystanders: No, people were saying he was there this morning but he was moving.

Us: Is it a homeless guy?

Bs: Yeah, maybe. It could be. It's one of the regulars, you know. The regulars.

Us: I alwasy wonder, sometimes with those guys.

Bs: What gets me is all the people just sitting around there having their day like it's nothing. They're right next to him!

Sure enough, if you look at the far right in this shot, not 20 feet away are a group of people who couldn't be bothered to move their blanket away from the body.

Detour

Berry St.

Stacked

Gangster takes Berry St.

From around N10th all the way up to Guernsey on Berry, plus a good amount of side streets, they'll be shooting Monday. Earlier in the week they shot down under the bridge and in the Southside on Berry St. Hopefully the movie itself will be worth watching.

It looks like they're finished shooting under the bridge, but they had trucks lined up to eternity tonight.
***Keep an eye out for Russell Crowe or Denzel.

Sprinkle

Barley boxes

Yeah, more dumpsters full of food. Actually, not quite food. This is behind the Brooklyn Brewery. If I'm not mistaken, it's barley, presumably already-been-brewed barley, though I admit I don't really know much about the brewing process (but why else would it be in a dumpster?)

Half moon

I know, the moon never comes out. But tell me you didn't try to take a picture of that sky.

Must be a hipster event in Williamsburg

Hot

Clean your plate

Apparently Brooklyn is also the home of all the food you didn't eat.

Horses in the park

It wasn't clear whether they were part of a party or just a couple guys with horses trying to make a few bucks.

Rat wall

Dobbin St.

St. Anthony's unshrouded

They took the black wrapper off of St. Anthony of Padua on Manhattan Ave. I have a few more details shots I'll post later.

Mailbox Island

OK, it's not exactly an Ikea bus stop, but still an improvement.