Metrotech Hall

No sign of Marty eating, alas ...

Philip Pullman's Call to Defend Libraries Resounds around Web (Guardian)

Garry in the Snow

Time for a little music.  Here's John Peel's favourite single of all time - Teenage Kicks, from the Undertones.

Condo Dwellers Rally

Like many others in the community, I'm not too keen on the Grand Prospect Hall's hotel plans.  The Park Slope Patch, covering the story, quotes the response of a nearby resident to the project:
"Our apartments all face the back of Grand Prospect Hall, and we’re going to be faced with a lack of light and a lack of privacy,” said Diana Mora, the President of the condo board at Suite Sixteen Condominiums at 200 16th Street.
Yes, lack of light and privacy is a very serious issue, as those of us who live in the shadows of ugly condo buildings know only too well.   We miss the sun and the views.

At the Promenade

NY Times City Room: A Guide to Houses No Gentleman Would Dare to Frequent

Record and Tape Center Still Firmly in Place (Except for That Front Door Glass)

Back in mid 2009, the Record and Tape Center (5th & 9th) was in danger of losing its lease and about to decamp to a smaller storefront up the block.  This was sad news to its many fans, and the story was widely reported. The store had been around on Fifth since 1965, and at the 9th Street location since 1971.  A one-off place, it represented an earlier kind of Slope, and the blast of good music you got when passing the corner always lifted your spirits. 
Well, Tony Mignone's place stayed put, but as far as I can tell (and I'm probably wrong) no news ever circulated about its fate.  Was it still teetering on the brink of eviction? Today, waiting for the B63 and cheered by Nina Simone, I went inside and found out that they did secure a new, four year lease with their next door landlord, only after going to some expense preparing their new spot for the move.  Good (old) news, and a happy 46th/40th to Mr. Mignone!

Diner

I missed this. When the Park Slope Diner merged with Green Kitchen, late last year, one piece of the past went with them.  The diner sign!

NY Times - the Pop-Pop-Pop of New Brooklyn Neighbors

The NY Times continues its daring forays into Brooklyn, focusing this week on some of our newer, condo-dwelling neighbors.  This week we can learn about the "New Cityscape" of Fourth Avenue:

Joseph DiFiore, a broker with Awaye Realty in Carroll Gardens, said that with each new building the avenue’s popularity had grown. “They’re hard to get started, it’s hard to sell to the first people,” he said. “But all of a sudden, once people see other people living there, it’s pop-pop-pop, like popcorn.”

We can also find out about cool young couples w. kids, who need to spice up their childrearing duties with a little Williamsburg excitement & a few mod. cons.

Eve and Rich Kessner left the West Village for Park Slope with their daughter, Avi, last March. But after six months, they found themselves looking for a new place to live.
“It felt really suburban to me,” said Ms. Kessner, 29, a jewelry designer and blogger. “Park Slope has puppets and guitar strumming for kids. In Williamsburg, it is like rock ’n’ roll for kids.”
The couple bought a two-bedroom corner unit in the Edge, two towers on Williamsburg’s waterfront, and moved in at the end of December. They have already become accustomed to the building’s long list of amenities for adults and children: a full-size indoor basketball court where Avi likes to kick balls around with Ms. Kessner; a swimming pool and a separate shallow pool for children (another of Avi’s favorites); a screening room; a gym; and a large playroom.

More of the Same, From the Median

Ex OTB Gets Glass

Union Street

East Second (by Gringer's)

Freddy's Set for Next Month Opening

Lots of buzz on the announcement of an opening date for the new Freddy's.  February 4th.  Here's some of the info, from Found in Brooklyn, whose artwork is incorporated into the bar's new/old look.

New Views from Fourth Avenue

If your subway travel is now disrupted by repairs to the Culver Viaduct, you're doubtless miserable & inconvenienced.  If, however, you use the Fourth Avenue station, you might get a pleasant surprise when you shuffle over to the temporary platform to take a Manhattan/Queens bound train.  Magnificent views!  With the new stairs in place (yes, the strange structure was finally installed), the panorama is just great.

Heating Oils

End of the Day on Fifth



I love this cluster of two storey houses on Fifth.  This size of building is unusual on this part of the Avenue, and the storefronts put up a dogged resistance to change.  Walk by when they're caught in end of the day sunlight, and store the moment.

Twelfth

This is quite a story ... Vivian Maier's photographs of Chicago and New York (Guardian).  You can find more of her work here.

Red Tree

Ninth

Shostakovich School

I clearly don't fit the market niche of Overflow, " a quarterly magazine geared toward the overeducated and the underutilized ... comprised of young adults" (of South Brooklyn) "who strive to break away from the stagnant ennui of extended adolescence, which New York City tends to perpetuate".  The readers of the magazine, its mission statement declares, are" interested in fashion, nightlife, real estate, and other trappings of modern urban life, but they do not seek cultural validation from any outdated or oversaturated institutions".  What a lofty tribe. Look in the current edition, & see what you think of South Brooklyn Slaughter, an article on some of the "bizarre and horrifying" murders that have taken place in the area over the last half dozen years.  Hmm.

On Brighton Beach Ave.

Beach in Winter

Brighton Wear

New Wing Fat at Dusk

Remembering Adam Purple's Garden of Eden (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

Baroque Goings On at Fourth

This structure has just got a lot weirder.  What's with the two sets of stairs, leading to ... well, to an elevated view of the tracks?  It almost looks as if it's designed for some VIP address - perhaps a Papal blessing of the temporary platform?

Breeze

Those Crappy MTA Changes? Hardly a Surprise

Plenty of people seem surprised by the upcoming transit changes on the F line, which start in January, and will mess up service for many commuters until spring of 2012.  This is old news however.  The MTA announced back in October 2007 that the Smith & 9th St. station would be closed for up to a year, for repairs to be made to the Culver Viaduct and to the station itself. Then, in early 2009, future service disruptions at 15th Street & Fort Hamilton Stations - also a consequence of repair work - were outlined.  It's going to be a pretty disheartening time for the F train riders at 15th & Fort Hamilton, but at least they can detour in the opposite direction to get to their destinations.  A pain certainly, but not an insurmountable problem. The people who are really screwed are riders who use Smith & 9th, many of them coming from Red Hook. From January to May of 2011 they'll have to rely on the G train to detour to the F (bad enough), and then for at least a year (May 2011 to the vague & not terribly reliable sounding Spring of 2012) the Smith & 9th Street station will close completely. For Red Hook residents, who these days have just one bus service left in the neighborhood, getting out of the Hook to a train will mean either taking the 61 all the way into the Slope, to 4th Avenue, or in the other direction (even further) to downtown Brooklyn trains.  This is shameful.

Changes

The soldier of 11th Street is no more.   Queen in Bazaar goes back into hiding. 

Trial by Tabloid

If you follow the British press at all, you'll be aware of the ongoing investigation into the tragic murder of Joanna Yeates, a landscape architect living in Bristol.   Yeates' body was found on Christmas day, over a week after her mysterious disappearance.  While many murders in Britain get minimal exposure from the national press, the timing & circumstances of this one, and the demographic of a young, attractive, middle class victim, has turned it into a huge story. The primary suspect at this point seems to be her landlord, Chris Jefferies, a retired English teacher.  Last week Jefferies was arrested by the police on suspicion of murder, and released on bail a couple of days later.  He is now in hiding. While it's quite possible that Jefferies is guilty, any possibility of an impartial trial is being severely compromised by a torrent of sensationalist, speculative reporting, with lurid and frankly absurd references to his "wild hair", his interest in avant-garde films, and a taste for "morbid" poetry (penned by those moral reprobates Christina Rossetti and Oscar Wilde).  Of course the clear mark of his guilt, we are led to believe, is his status as "a bit of a loner".  If you Google this case, you will find a slew of wild allegations about Jefferies appearing by the hour, with even the so-called quality papers getting in on the act.  There are a few dissenting voices though. Brian Cathcart, writing in Index on Censorship, and  Robert Chesshyre, in First Post, discuss the weaknesses of & disregard for Britain's Contempt of Court laws, as they affect this case and others.  Craig Brown, in the Mail (surprisingly?) defends that stock character, the eccentric teacher, and finds eccentricity to be far more pedagogically effective than plodding, everyday cramming.

Video: Exploring New York's Tunnels, Sewers and Bridges (Gothamist)

What mystery in those small artefacts placed -so specifically, it seems -  in spots around the city streets.  Next to the 9th Street fence where the rice bag is hanging, you can also see this photograph.  It's sort of a sad little shot.  A memorial of some sort, or part of a missing person notice?

Very different in tone from these small domestic icons are the mural militiamen knocking about the place, courtesy of some local artist(s).  On a side wall of the American Legion building off Third,, abutting the same empty lot where you can find the rice bag and photograph,, is the much more flamboyant figure of a rifleman, installed here a while back.  Given that this general vicinity is the burial site of the "Maryland 400", the regiment that fought off the British in the Battle of Brooklyn (see the commemorative plaques outside the Legion hall, & find out more about this & more of the area in the Forgotten NY 3rd Avenue tour), he seems fitting.

Did the same artist paste this guy on 11th Street some time ago? 

Asturiano Pinxto

I was back at Despana today.  Best discovery - the sensational Asturiano Pintxo, with morcilla (blood) sausage, piquillo peppers, and aioli.  This is a knockout.

Down by the Water

Marchand & Meffre - Detroit

Look at these photographs of abandoned Detroit (Guardian).

2nd Ave.

At the same time as "ya blew it!!" went up, the same author put this message on the corner of 2nd Avenue.  If you click on the image, you'll also see an odd little face on the traffic light pole.

Catene's