Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Candy Says

Time for some Antony.  Here he is, back at a Lou Reed's Berlin concert in (?) 2008.  What a contrast between his voice & Lou's, which is decidedly wavery, but charismatic nonetheless.  Antony's voice is  haunting, & he does covers like nobody's business...

Monday, June 28, 2010

New B61

I got the B61 to Red Hook today, & then hopped on it again to get to Atlantic Avenue.  It certainly lacks the cosiness of the B77 run, & I can say goodbye to my pick of seats.  The route will be much more crowded, & Red Hook residents will be more poorly served than ever.  Also, people coming from the Slope/Terrace  now have to get off at Smith & Ninth to transfer to a bus going along Smith Street (the defunct B75 route), and this is especially inconvenient for the elderly (I saw several older people shuffling off the 61 at Smith & Ninth  in confused dismay).  Getting to the Columbia Street nabe & Atlantic Avenue from the South Slope is a slight compensation, for me at least, being a much more enjoyable route than the wretchedly slow B63, and the bus driver I spoke to this morning was ecstatic about his new route:  "I've lived in Brooklyn all my life, & this is a beautiful trip."

Signs, etc.



Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Monday's Guardian had an article about Bruce Davidson's photographic series on Brooklyn gang members in the 1950's. A video of the 2009 Dylan song, Beyond Here Lies Nothin', has a ton of Davidson's pictures, & the cover of the album from which the song is taken, Together Through Life (referenced in the Guardian piece), is a Davidson photograph.

Canal Life

Here are some photographs, via The Guardian, of canal life in Coventry & Oxford in the 1940's and '50's. When I was seven or eight, and living in rural Cheshire, I wanted to a) take off with the visiting gypsies who came to our house regularly each year, or b) live on one of the painted barges you could still see on the local canals. In my child's eye, both possibilities seemed infinitely romantic.

Monday, June 7, 2010

End Of An Era?





















There still seem to be customers milling above, so I'm wondering when the OTB (5th Avenue & 12th) finally shuts up shop.

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Union Turnpike/Kew Gardens














































The second in an occasional series of stops along the F line. This is a much better exit point than Van Wyck Boulevard. You get out at the intersection of the Turnpike & Queens Boulevard. The stores along the Boulevard are pretty generic, but if you cross over (bearing in mind its Boulevard of Death tag) there's the Supreme Court, and Queens Borough Hall, with modest landscaping & a bunch of folks sitting out enjoying the summer. Borough drones, court officers, lawyers, jury men & women, those on trial, & vaguely shiftless types hanging out at the edges of the scene. It's not a place I feel any urge to return to, but there a couple of minor points of interest. The Queens Tourist Office is a defunct number 7 subway car, with appalling ventilation, and a guide who was pretty chirpy, but then fell horribly silent when I identified the place where I work. Further along Q.B., right next to a subway exit, is the Statue of Civic Virtue, which was booted from its spot in front of City Hall by La Guardia, and "donated" to (hah!, forced upon, more like) the new borough hall.