It's not hard, not far to reach

I'm going a little bit out of order, but I'm starting with Rockaway Beach. These photos are from July, but I just went there on Sunday so it's still fresh in my mind, in a way.

We've been going to the beach at Jacob Riis Park for the last couple of years (definitely the best beach in the city!), but I'd never realized there was a boardwalk a couple of miles down. I still prefer Riis for their huge parking lot (we drove around quite awhile looking for a spot near the boardwalk) and the awesome abandoned military base, but the boardwalk has its perks.

This year they've opened up a series of hipster concession stands, including Blue Bottle Coffee, Caracas Arepa Bar, Rockaway Taco, and Rippers, a burger joint that has a decent quinoa black bean burger.

I'll bet it's weird for the locals (definitely heard some guy complaining about "all the faggy shit") but it's a great ploy to get people to make the trek there from Brooklyn and Manhattan. I'd still be going out there anyway but I love that now the day involves great food too.

I was a little skeptical at all the surfboards I saw people carrying, but look--people actually surfing (albeit on tiny waves).


Under the boardwalk

A rusty yet active skatepark just off the boardwalk.

Eames house of cards

Several years ago, after being inspired by this DIY project, I made a custom Eames-style house of cards and gave it to Dave for Christmas. Much like the classic Eames card decks, which are adorned with brightly colored images of what the Eames called the "good stuff," these feature sections of various photographs, paintings, vintage advertisements and postcards, which I scoured from the magazine clippings I'd been saving for years (this is the type of thing for which that comes in handy).

And then they sat there in a stack for a couple of years, until a few months ago when we decided to finally start playing with them. (We like to make it a game, each taking turns adding a card.) Here's our first design.

After seeing some pretty impressive and intricate constructions on flickr, we decided to try to incorporate an arch. This one's been left up for awhile now, but I think I'm ready to take it down and try a new one. In fact, I'm thinking about making some more cards in general so we can create some really complex structures.

Museum of the Moving Image now open!

On Saturday we headed out to the American Museum of the Moving Image for their grand re-opening after being closed for the past few years. We're very excited about all of the great programming that's coming up, especially now that we've decided to buy a membership.

After watching several rare 8 mm George Kuchar films from the early 60s, we toured the museum, which was a combination of brand-new, bright white interiors and old familiar exhibit space. The gallery of vintage video games no longer exists, with most of the games having been moved to a different, smaller area.

I didn't see Tempest, but otherwise most of the classics are still represented.

Dave played a little Breakout.

Afterward we went into Tut's Fever, a reproduction of an Egyptian-style movie palace that shows old serials in the afternoons. If you "pull here" the coffin opens (with a surprise inside).

After we left the museum we consumed veggie burgers and the best chocolate milkshake ever at Bare Burger, and headed to Williamsburg to see Tyvek at Glasslands (blurry photo above). I hadn't been there in a couple of years, and the interior has changed a bit since then. Not only do they now have a fully functioning bar, but there's a crazy kind of paper sculpture hanging above the stage that, when combined with white Christmas lights, creates a really cool effect. I found a few random photos on flickr that better illustrate this.

My very own yeti

Last year I got to work a bit with a book called Beasties, which is a craft book on how to sew imaginary beings. The author built some great staged scenes of the projects using cinnamon sticks, cardboard, watercolors, and the like. (You can see a few of them here.) My department purchased a few of them from the author for our sales people's use, and I became rather enchanted with the yeti.

A couple of months ago, I had the nice surprise of receiving one of my own from the author as thanks for the work I'd done to promote the book. (She actually made various creatures for everyone who worked on the book, which is pretty crazy as they seem rather involved--but no complaints here!) Right now he's been hanging out on my bookshelf.

He looks kind of terrified in this picture. I suppose the ominous shadows in the background don't help.

I know you are, but what am I?

I'm interrupting my vacation coverage (haha) to report back on The Pee Wee Herman Show: it is 90 minutes of awesomeness. If you are in the NY area, you need to go! Now! (It ends January 2 so there's not a lot of time left.) Most of the classic Pee Wee's Playhouse characters are there, some played by the original actors (Miss Yvonne, Jambi, and Mailman Mike), with a few new ones, including a talking Sham Wow. Pee Wee wears an abstinence ring, and does a pretty great trick involving a balloon. I was trying to show off my Cabazon Dinosaurs shirt, though you can't really see it in the picture.

I now leave you with one of the greatest photographs I've ever seen (okay maybe that's an exaggeration but it's still pretty great).

Let's talk about your big but.

Tonight I'm off to see the Pee Wee Herman Show on Broadway (!) so in honor of PW, I give you...

The Cabazon dinosaurs. I was pretty excited when I found out that these dinosaurs from Pee Wee's Big Adventure were right on the way out to Palm Springs (which is where we were headed on Wednesday).

Well, they weren't glowing, but they were still pretty awesome. I got curious about their history and learned that they were built in 1964 by Knott's Berry Farm sculptor Claude Bell in an attempt to bring in customers to his restaurant, the Wheel Inn (the diner where Pee Wee pays off his meal by washing dishes, hair net and all).

After re-watching the movie when we got home I remembered that Pee Wee and Simone pass the night up in the T-Rex's mouth, which made me sad that we didn't try to go up there. (A search on flickr shows that you can get up there, though there is no seating and the teeth are covered in chicken wire.)

We did walk up into the apatosaurus (named Dinny), which is actually a giant gift shop. And that's when we discovered something rather surprising.

It seems that the dinosaurs changed ownership in the mid '90s following Bell's death, and the new owners are using them to promote creationism. You can buy T-shirts and books that say "by design, not by chance," and there are signs telling you that "creationist scientists" have found evidence that man and dinosaurs lived at the same time (6,000 years ago, at the same time Adam and Eve first hit the scene).

We went into the Wheel Inn to see if we could find any real souvenirs and we certainly did. These T-shirts were available in every color imaginable. I settled on a nice baby blue.

The restaurant, by the way, was absolutely deserted. I didn't see a single customer. No shrine to Large Marge either.

Just behind the dinosaurs are these wind turbines lined up as far as the eye can see (well maybe not that far). They look pretty awesome, and together with two other locations in the state, they are responsible for producing much of the world's wind energy. ( In 1995, these areas produced 30 percent of the entire world's wind-generated electricity--I don't know what the stats are today, as for some reason they're not listed on the website.)

Halloween party 2010

I've written before about Penguin's epic Halloween parties. Every year on the Friday of Halloween week, the various departments transform themselves from typical office decor into ancient Egypt, the Island of Misfit Toys, TGI Friday's--err, Penguin's, the Addams Family, and so on (those are a few of the actual themes from this year). And a lot of booze is consumed.

Actually, this year they banned hard alcohol, so with a little nod to the show Boardwalk Empire, my department went with a prohibition-era theme. I'm all the way to the right, with the black and red dress. I made a sequined and felt headband for the costume and realized that I look pretty good in headbands (I might have to make a non-sequined version for everyday use.) I wish I had some better photos of the decorations, as some of them came out pretty great. You can kind of see the brown paper boardwalk, giant movie marquee, and antique wooden crates (contraband liquor).

Here's a shot of the speakeasy, in sepia tone for effect. The fake barrel has a bucket of alcohol inside it (beer and wine was deemed okay). I made the Women's Temperance League sign in the background (it took way too long to cut out those letters.) Somehow the G-man and the Temperance Leaguer ended up behind the bar...seems a bit suspect.

A closer shot of the bar and bartender (sans mustache). The mirror and the empty bottles were a nice touch. (Lots of emails were exchanged about the collection of bottles, with replies like "I'll have a few more empties by lunchtime!" Good one.)

Here we are at the casino. I learned to play blackjack for the first time, and I won a lot of chips (no money though).

The worst part of Halloween is the Monday after, when you have to tear down all the fun stuff you put up and go back to boring office decor. The boardwalk was pretty haggard-looking (it was no match for spiky heels and general drunkenness) but I kind of wished we could have left up the movie marquee for a little while longer.

Mad Men party

Lately my main focus at work has been Mad Men. Luckily, I am a big fan of the show, and so this is a good focus to have. We've just published the book Mad Men: The Illustrated World, which is an illustrated guide to the show and the 1960s era. It looks gorgeous, and the writing is on the irreverent/funny side. (To take a look at some of the pages and enter for a chance to win a copy of the book, plus the first three seasons on DVD, head to penguin.com/madmen. Okay, enough selling.)

Not only did we do a lot of advertising for this book, but we also threw a little office party to celebrate the publication, and to reward ourselves for all of our hard work. (Which in my case was admittedly fun work.)

Here I am (all the way to the left) channeling my best Peggy look. I actually wore pantyhose instead of black tights in order to be more period-appropriate. I tried to make my hair a little bit bigger but that didn't last very long. So I covered it up with a hat. Also pictured are the publisher, publicist, and editor.

A few days before the party we made these cupcake toppers by shrinking some of the drawings from the book, printing them out in color, laminating them with a sticker backing, cutting them out, and sticking a toothpick between the adhesive part of the sticker and the backing. Which I think worked pretty well.

We also made these two life-sized cut-outs of the characters holding copies of the book so that people could pose as Joan or Don. (Or in some cases both.)

Whiskey sours were served, and the Mad Men soundtrack was playing in the background. Overall I think it was a pretty successful party.

Pickin raspberries

Last year I picked my own raspberries for the first time at Secor Farms in north Jersey, and it was for the most part a good experience. We'd been meaning to go back again this year, and before we knew it, the summer was nearly over. Luckily, it's still not too late!

The lateness of our trip actually made it better. The weather wasn't as hot, and by now they've waived the "two pint per person minimum" rule.

Despite being towards the end of the season, we had no trouble filling up a couple of pints.

On a side note, it seems as though they were getting ready for the fall at Secor Farms--one of the greenhouses was full of these guys. They were all laid out on tables, making the building kind of resemble some kind of a morgue for scarecrows.

Getting back to the raspberries...yes.

The same night I made a batch of jam. I haven't tried it yet, as I want to finish the jar I currently have open (it's kind of torture, having to wait). And tonight I think a raspberry crisp is in my future. And maybe tomorrow, raspberries in my yogurt...

Weekend fun in Brooklyn and Governors Island

Saturday we took the ferry from Brooklyn to Governors Island, a 172-acre island just a half mile from the southern tip of Manhattan. The island has been open to the public for the past three summers, offering a variety of free activities, such as biking, picnicking, concerts, art exhibits, shops full of handmade wares (we bought a tea towel featuring the above illustration, courtesy of Claudia Pearson), etc. No one lives on the island anymore, but there are quite a few historic buildings, from the former mansions of royal governors (hence the name of the island) to inactive military forts, to apartment complexes, with quaint cobblestone streets and wrought iron signs. It's almost like stepping into a forgotten world.

I felt a little like David Sedaris in his essay "Possession," where he talks about how Anne Frank's secret annex is his dream apartment. Almost immediately upon setting foot on the island I knew I wanted to live there--all that open space, the cobblestone, the gorgeous houses, each one divided into two units--as I walked through one of them, now converted into a temporary art gallery, I found myself investigating closet space, designating "this one would be the computer room," etc--all just an extremely short ferry ride from Manhattan and Brooklyn. Except no one lives there, and no one ever will, as the transfer of Governors Island to the State of New York prohibits any permanent housing on the island. Needless to say, it makes for a fun afternoon, and now I'm going to show you a lot of pictures of it.

We started out the day in Williamsburg with insanely good fried green tomato sandwiches and beignets from the Goods trailer.

Then we drove (more like inched along in traffic on the BQE) to Brooklyn Heights to take the free ferry from Pier 6. It's a pretty quick trip--it probably took about as long to board the boat as it did to ride across the channel to Governors Island.

Above are...I'm not sure what. Orange and gray containers. But they look cool!

Most of the activity on the island is concentrated in one area. The other end, called Picnic Point, is essentially a field, with beautiful views, hammocks (not nearly enough though--we never got to try one out), picnic tables, and these makeshift metal huts, one of which we managed to snag. There are several food carts in Picnic Point, one of which I'm pretty sure is the best one on the island: Fauzia's Heavenly Delights. We ate vegetarian curry chicken (someone behind me in line was very puzzled by this concept), rice and beans, lentils and spinach, and a slice of carrot cake. We were not disappointed.

The island was run as a small town for military families until 1966, and after that, members of the Coast Guard and their families until 1996. Much of the island is still made up of abandoned and overgrown apartment complexes, which are fenced off from the public for obvious reasons. As nice as the rest of the island is, that part of it is slightly more intriguing. I want to know what's in those buildings, what it was like when they were in use.

Above you can see what looks like a former strip mall (illegible in the picture are generic signs like "hair salon" and "dry cleaners"), with a giant pile of rubble next to it.

A fire hydrant poking out of the weeds in an overgrown lot. Also nearby we spotted long-unused basketball hoops, playgrounds, and park benches.

Governors Island was the longest continually active military post in the country. It bears several fortification structures, including Castle Williams (currently under construction),

and Fort Jay. It's so strange to imagine cannons being shot out into the harbor at enemy ships. But I guess at one time that was a reality.

The fort is surrounded by what I imagine was once a moat, but is now just grass.

There are a number of apartments contained within Fort Jay, forming a border around a large square courtyard. Apparently the young adult writer Lois Lowry (The Giver, Number the Stars, etc) lived in one of these apartments. There were a number of rocking chairs on the porches available for anyone to sit and relax. The only thing missing was a mint julep. Seriously.

Beautiful wrought iron and brick detailing--the buildings on the island are all so incredible.

Another one of the many free activities is an outdoor sculpture garden and artist-designed mini golf course. I'm pretty sure it's the hardest mini golf course in existence, which is kind of annoying when there are lots of people waiting in line to play. We pretty much gave up keeping score.

After sweating on the golf course we cooled off with a couple of Arnold Palmers from Pyramid Cafe, a stand set up right next to it. You can actually choose which kind of iced tea you want to go in your drink, so I went with raspberry, while Dave chose Green Tea. (We did give these a shake after the picture was taken.)

Two things to note here: the five different containers of iced tea varieties, and the "Governors Island Wood Shop" sign above.

Water swirling around below.

After riding the ferry back to Brooklyn we walked to Dumbo to have dinner at Grimaldi's...and after seeing the insane line walked around the corner to Ignazio's instead. It was pretty good but it's no Grimaldi's. We should've just braved the line.