Whatever Happened to Neck Face?

I was very fond of the Gowanus Neck Face graffiti you could see from the F train a few years back. I still see tags scattered about from time to time, but they're nothing special & much smaller than his earlier work. This van appears on my block every so often, but I don't know who it belongs to. Could it be his?

   

Juana del Pipa

Here's the late, incomparable Juana del Pipa. I was trying to find out when she died, but couldn't come up with any details. She was one of the featured performers in the film Gypsy Caravan, that came out a couple of years ago. Del Pipa was part of a legendary flamenco dynasty, and also saw many of her family destroyed by drugs. What a voice.

Creepy Babies

The Knives Are Out

A savage review of The Pregnant Widow from John Crace! With a vicious illustration by Neal Fox ...

National Trust

Here's a poem from the 1970s collection, The School of Eloquence, by Tony Harrison. The collection is prefaced with a quotation from E.P. Thompson's The Making of the English Working Class:
"In 1779 special legislation was introduced "utterly suppressing and prohibiting" by name the London Corresponding Society and the United Englishmen. Even the indefatigible conspirator, John Binns, felt that further national organization was hopeless...When arrested he was found in possession of a ticket which was perhaps one of the last "covers" for the old L.C.S: Admit for the Season to the School of Eloquence."

National Trust

Bottomless pits. There’s one in Castleton,
and stout upholders of our law and order
one day thought its depth worth wagering on
and borrowed a convict hush-hush from his warder
and winched him down; and back, flayed, grey, mad, dumb.

Not even a good flogging made him holler!

O gentlemen, a better way to plumb
the depths of Britain’s dangling a scholar,
say, here at the booming shaft at Towanroath,
now National Trust, a place where they got tin,
those gentlemen who silenced the men’s oath
and killed the language that they swore it in.

The dumb go down in history and disappear
and not one gentleman ’s been brought to book:

Mes den hep tavas a-gollas y dyr

(Cornish)—
‘the tongueless man gets his land took

Red October

New Brooklyn Bus Routes

Brownstoner links to the MTA watchdog blog 2nd Ave.Sagas, where you can find details of changes to several local bus routes. Alas, the B77 is to be no more - it will be incorporated into the B61 & extend into Windsor Terrace. The B75 will also disappear, but some of that route will also be taken over by the 61. From a selfish point of view, I'll still be able to hop on the 61 bus close by, & I won't mind the bus going further along Columbia Street & into downtown Brooklyn. I'll miss having the route start on my doorstep though. I could always get a perfect seat & this felt pretty luxurious. Casting aside selfish motives, it's pretty crappy that these changes are going into effect. Anyone taking the old B75 route now has to take two buses to get to Cobble Hill, & if you're elderly, it's harsh stuff. Ditto the reduction from two Red Hook bus routes to one, which will make Red Hook transportation more meagre & crowded than ever. Shabby treatment.

This Is Not A Wal

Hitchens/Hannity

On a day when I was repulsed by Pat Robertson's latest remarks concerning Haiti, it was immensely cheering to be sent a link to a 2007 clip of Christopher H. taking on Ralph Reed & Hannity on the subject of Jerry Falwell's demise. Talk about vorpal blade ...

13th Street

Top 50 Television Dramas

The Guardian critics have chosen their top 50 television dramas of all time. Quite an interesting mix of English and US work, with The Sopranos taking pride of place at No.1. Check out the list here.

Family Britain/Of Time and The City

Having just romped through David Kynaston's 700 page Family Britain, and being somewhat preoccupied with postwar social conditioning (mine own included), it was just the right time to rewatch Terence Davies' Of Time and the City, which I saw last year at Film Forum. It's an autobiographical collage of Davies' early life in Liverpool: using documentary footage & a mixed musical soundtrack, Davies explores the working class culture of the city, & the evolution & dissolution of his faith. Some of the scenes are astoundingly beautiful - check in at around minute nineteen when the scene draws away from a steep terraced street and then shows a medley of shots of children playing in the schoolyard, women toiling at the washhouses, and a solitary child lost in his own thoughts on a front doorstep. As in Kynaston's book, Davies pays attention to the destruction of postwar housing stock and the rise of bleak, community eroding, tower blocks. The film is well worth seeing, but at times Davies' narrative is overly mannered. It would have been better if at times he'd allowed his choices of image and melody to speak for him.

Gowanus Lounge again

On Sunday, when I mentioned the change of ownership of the Gowanus Lounge site (reported by Gothamist),I neglected to add that Guskind's posts are still available on BobGuskind.com. Hope they stay there.

Clover Barber

Lost City notes the especially good Clover Barber sign at the corner of 12th & 7th. Alas, Clover has been closed since 2008(the elderly Italian owner, Ercole Riccardelli, became too frail to continue working) & every time I go by I wonder what will become of the place. The interior is all-original, right down to hair product ads., red leather chairs & the children's fire-truck ride. I took my son there regularly when he was young, until the haircuts became a bit too wobbly & lopsided to justify the experience. I'm pretty sure Riccardelli owns/owned the building, but I don't know what's going on there. It would be a fine shop to preserve. In the same area of 7th, I gather that there's finally a permanent sign up honoring Whitey(John Glendinning), a much loved neighborhood fixture who died in 2008. I have to get by there this weekend to get a photograph. The Daily News had a great profile of Whitey back in '07.

The Newseum

A friend just sent a link to Newseum, a site that displays the front pages of newspapers from all over the world. U.S. newspapers predominate, but you can check out headlines from Oradea (Romania) to Calcutta, & apparently you can access whole newspapers on some of the sites. Interesting to see what's front page news around the country or globe.

Old Grey Whistle Test, 1973

Alex Harvey Band doing Brel, circa 1973. I distinctly remember watching this performance. The clothing is quite a troubling reminder of 70's style (especially that mime-faced, stripey pants-clad guy), but the music holds up nicely. Their version of Tom Jones "Delilah" was not so bad either...

Gowanus Lounge?

Gothamist reports on the acquisition of Bob Guskind's Gowanus Lounge website. Don't know why the site couldn't just stay as a piece of local history & a shining tribute to Bob.

Mona Lisa

Peter Pan Bakery

With the G train running all the way to Church Avenue, it's very easy to get directly to Greenpoint, & close to the Nassau stop is the excellent Peter Pan Bakery (Manhattan Avenue between Meserole & Norman). This place has been open since 1951 & it's now my favourite donut store. Everything about it is just right: a perfectly preserved interior, a gaggle of elderly local ladies at a back counter, bustling, no-nonsense waitresses & a heavenly array of doughnuts (sour cream, jelly, apple crumb...). I'm not much of a donut eater, but this place could change things.

Without Camera, Other Images Must Suffice

Camera malfunction this weekend. Here's a photograph of a building (the oldest part of the current Bodleian Library, originally the Divinity School) right across from John Donne's college, Hertford (then Hart Hall). Breathtaking.

The Shortest Day (December 21st)

A NOCTURNAL UPON ST. LUCY'S DAY,
BEING THE SHORTEST DAY.
by John Donne


'TIS the year's midnight, and it is the day's,
Lucy's, who scarce seven hours herself unmasks ;
The sun is spent, and now his flasks
Send forth light squibs, no constant rays ;
The world's whole sap is sunk ;
The general balm th' hydroptic earth hath drunk,
Whither, as to the bed's-feet, life is shrunk,
Dead and interr'd ; yet all these seem to laugh,
Compared with me, who am their epitaph.

Study me then, you who shall lovers be
At the next world, that is, at the next spring ;
For I am every dead thing,
In whom Love wrought new alchemy.
For his art did express
A quintessence even from nothingness,
From dull privations, and lean emptiness ;
He ruin'd me, and I am re-begot
Of absence, darkness, death—things which are not.

All others, from all things, draw all that's good,
Life, soul, form, spirit, whence they being have ;
I, by Love's limbec, am the grave
Of all, that's nothing. Oft a flood
Have we two wept, and so
Drown'd the whole world, us two ; oft did we grow,
To be two chaoses, when we did show
Care to aught else ; and often absences
Withdrew our souls, and made us carcasses.

But I am by her death—which word wrongs her—
Of the first nothing the elixir grown ;
Were I a man, that I were one
I needs must know ; I should prefer,
If I were any beast,
Some ends, some means ; yea plants, yea stones detest,
And love ; all, all some properties invest.
If I an ordinary nothing were,
As shadow, a light, and body must be here.

But I am none ; nor will my sun renew.
You lovers, for whose sake the lesser sun
At this time to the Goat is run
To fetch new lust, and give it you,
Enjoy your summer all,
Since she enjoys her long night's festival.
Let me prepare towards her, and let me call
This hour her vigil, and her eve, since this
Both the year's and the day's deep midnight is.

Hitchens on Military Evangelists & "Foxhole Atheists"

From Vanity Fair:

MTA Cuts II

So today I've been trying to check up on the fate of the B77. The Times did not list it in the roster of service cuts approved by the MTA yesterday, but the Brooklyn Paper did. I called Jim Brennan's office, but they weren't sure about the 77, & a 311 call resulted in no information whatsoever. The MTA offered no news on their website, & no help by phone (a "look on the website" response from a general operator & a transfer to a higher up admin. number where no-one picked up). The folks at Brooklyn Borough Hall were much more helpful, & returned my call within a few minutes! The B77 situation seems to be a bit of an enigma, but apparently the 77 may well not be on the hit list & may be something of a high priority to protect if it is. The IKEA connection gives it quite a bit of clout apparently (business ever more important than residents), so this is good for Red Hook bus riders. Many thanks to B. Borough Hall for their quick response - I'm hardly a Marty fan, but this was very good consumer PR. I hope to get to a Brooklyn public forum meeting on the proposed cuts, whenever this may be.

Depressing Christmas Songs

The Dish picked up on Buzzfeed's 10 Most Depressing Christmas Songs . The collection is growing, as more & more songs of gloom are being added. I liked Merle Haggard's If We Make It Through December a lot, & the Charlie Brown Christmas song is certainly melancholy but Dolly Parton's Hard Candy Christmas may just beat the competition. What a classic.

MTA Cuts

I'm assuming that many of the MTA's proposed service cuts won't actually happen, but I'm very nervous about the planned elimination of weekend service on the B77. The 77 route begins/ends just a hop, skip & a jump from my house & I use the bus regularly. I feel very lucky to have it close by, & to be able to get to Fairway, get down to the waterfront etc. so easily. It's a city pleasure & a real boost to my quality of life. For many Red Hook residents though, given their limited transit situation & meagre retail choices, it's a vital resource, & it would be callous in the extreme if the MTA cut back this route. Tons of people come in from R.H. to shop around Fifth Ave. & use other services in the neighborhood, & taking the route away at weekends is absurd. The 77 is also an important link from Red Hook Houses to the subway system at Smith & 9th. Given that the Smith & 9th Station will be soon temporarily closed for repairs to the Culver Viaduct, the 77 will become an even more important means of getting to to the (distant) subway stops at 4th Avenue, as well as to other bus services. How far are people expected to walk for transportation? I can't believe the 77 cuts will happen, but who knows? Contact your local reps. & voice your concern.

London Calling (The Clash)

Released thirty years ago this week:

Grey

Henry Street

Sinatra (Carroll between Third & Fourth)

Hillside & 148th St.

Seasonal Music

Posting the Sutphin Boulevard Christmas greeting made me decide it was time for some seasonal music. Despite my non-believer status, I still love a good carol, & I put in my time at many a church service in my youth. In our house we are somewhat obsessive about Good King Wencelas: it's such a little drama of a carol (can't you just picture the frame of the peasant & Saint Agnes' fountain as you hear it?) & the king/page dialogue is a delight to listen to & even better to sing! It inspires a lot of affection, & a certain amount of frivolity & the lyrics ("mark my footsteps, good my page"; "heat was in the very sod"; "where the snow lay dinted") are very satisfying indeed. This video is rather blurry, but the page is a treat. Good King Wenceslas: The Movie - I think it's a distinct possibility, & I'm only half joking ...

On the Way Back from Work

Prize Winning South Slope Architecture

Village at Dusk

Haves vs. Havenots

Flatbush Ave.

Ground Grippers

I had to make a quick stop at the Mid Manhattan Library late this afternoon. Heading downtown afterwards, with the weather wet and gusty, I was happy to come across this shoestore(39th between 5th & Madison). If it hadn't been so windy, and if I hadn't been made slightly self conscious by the palm reader sitting just out of the picture, I would have tried to take better photographs. Side streets offer up treasures.

Devil's Rebels

Gothamist finds a period piece, a 1976 NBC story on The Devil's Rebels gang in Bushwick, with a young Brian Ross reporting.

Madison Ave.