Let Us Pray for You

Where was the singing coming from?  I heard it blocks away and finally saw the members of the Pentacostal Roca de Seguridad out on the sidewalk.  Their building was put on the market a few years ago, but it looked like the church had managed to keep it.  I swung back to the corner half an hour later to see if I could take a picture or two up close, only to find it empty.  I'd missed at least a couple of opportunities.

Aaron Rose's Coney Island

Aaron Rose  (Museum of the City of New York)

"July is here, and so, for many, is beach season. Aaron Rose, who made his art-world début in his late fifties, at the 1997 Whitney Biennial, spent three summers in the early nineteen-sixties photographing the beaches of Coney Island. Shooting inconspicuously with a 35-mm. Leica, Rose caught his subjects unawares, and, in the process, captured the sweaty languor of New York City’s most iconic summer attraction."  (New Yorker)

Summer of 1973

Shade 2 and King Kool 156 - photograph by Jack Stewart (Museum of the City of New York)

Rider

Hair Fair

Retail Prospects

The Prospect Care pharmacy that replaced Caesar's carpet store (moved across the street) has just opened.  Opposite the pharmacy there's been action at the empty Bravo store across the street, and good, it's another supermarket.

What's more, it looks like it'll be a decent one, if it's run like the Prospect Market on Prospect Park West in Windsor Terrace.  It should be a good addition to the avenue.

Young Ethel's, the new bar that at 13th that will replace comedy bar Salzi's is still in the works, and a block north, the long-empty store that housed the fascinating hanger-on Mezini/La Royale/Beba's La Royale will re-open as Winemak'her.  It's unclear if it's open yet, as the business website suggests, but if not, it looks like it's nearly there.

Winemak’her is a wine bistrot in Brooklyn Park Slope, offering woman winemaker wine from France and other countries of origin, and featuring an indoor pétanque (French popular ball sport) track.
We offer wine, beer, sweet wine, cocktails as well as French aperitif alcohols such as pastis. And small plate with organic and local food, to share.
We don’t aim to be too upscale, our prices are mid-range and aligned with the competition, but featuring a women winemaker-centered wine list, with lot of biologic wine, and also food that’s healthy, organic, and locally sourced.

Jukebox NYC boxing club/boot camp, a reincarnation of Rise Brooklyn Fitness, appears to have made a successful jump to its new location at Fifth & 12th & is always buzzing with activity when I walk by, a marked contrast to some of the other small gyms that have opened round here.

Food, booze, fitness & of course, nails.  And pets.  Petland Discounts closed (people order pet supplies online these days), but for now, at least, pet sitting isn't virtual.  Thus, on Fourth & 19th:

Hot

Sixth

Retail

Meanwhile, in pharmacy news, the Rite Aid at Fifth & 10th will become a Walgreens in August.  I'd noticed the store shelves were half-empty, and one of the store clerks (my favorite) told me about the change.  She'd said she'd be keeping her job.  Walgreens bought almost two thousand Rite Aid stores last year, and the majority of these will be rebranded by 2020.

I'm not much of a Rite Aid shopper.  I'm all for Neergaard.  But Walgreens owns the British company Boots, & if they stock some Boots No 7 products in their new store on Fifth they'll get me through the doors.

Very few Rite Aid pictures in the archives.  Here's one from 2010, when a car crashed into the place.

Several blocks farther south we can expect Not Just Chocolate soon.

Summer

Suddenly one evening the linden trees blossomed.  The smell lingered all along the avenue, so thick and sweet a perfume it was almost cloying.  The everyday blocks, unbuttoning themselves, reclined and turned languid.   We all began to take our time.

Early Sunday