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.

Street art at the library

Saturday after a visit to M0MA, we ventured across the street to the former Donnell Library Center to check out Pantheon,

a window exhibit featuring work by graffiti and street artists.

For me the whole appeal of street art is encountering art in an unexpected place, color and creativity where there is usually none. So when it's all collected together in a window, it loses something. Still, it was a pretty cool exhibition.

The location seems particularly fitting, considering the fate of the Donnell Library Center, which was one of the main branches of the New York Public Library for more than 50 years. In 2008 the library closed after the building was sold to Orient Express Hotels, with plans to raze the building and replace it with an 11-story luxury hotel, with the library operating in the lower level. Then of course after the financial crisis, the deal fell through and the library remains empty three years later.

Looking into a non-exhibit window at the construction inside.

I liked these door handles.

After that we got dinner at the Shake Shack (always worth the wait, even in the cold), were nearly attacked by a crazed squirrel hell-bent on stealing my fries, and saw a very funny movie.

Where I've been

Less than a week ago I was looking at this. I went on my first ever business trip (what a grown-up), for a conference in Florida. The conference part of it wasn't so much fun but it was nice to be able to eat outside and bask in the sun whenever I could. Then I came back to NY and the next day it snowed.

I looked at what I was posting about a year ago and apparently by late March 2010 we had already gone on at least one excursion. Which only made me more annoyed. It's warmed up a tad since my first day back, but it still seems kind of chilly--I guess I just need to man up and get outside before I go crazy with cabin fever.

In the meantime, I've pulled together a list of all the places around the NY and CT area that we went to last year, in no particular order. Some we'll revisit, but I do have a list of as yet unexplored places that I want to check out too. I wish these guys would get their way already!

Garrison, NY (Russel Wright House)
Beacon, NY
Jacob Riis Park/Fort Tilden
Old Croton Aqueduct Trail
Staten Island
Elephant's Trunk Flea Market
Red Hook, NY (the town, not the Brooklyn neighborhood)
Walkway Over the Hudson
Millerton, NY (apparently I didn't blog about it, but it was a pretty great day)
Brimfield Antique Fair
Roosevelt Island & Long Island City
Governor's Island
Storm King
Blue Hill Farms
Wave Hill
South Bronx
The High Line

The walk home

After leaving the armory we took the 4 train to the last stop and, after seeing that the next bus wasn't coming for another 20 minutes, we decided to walk home through the cemetery.

A little history: Woodlawn Cemetery opened in 1863, established as an alternative to Brooklyn's Greenwood cemetery, which at the time was the only place in the city deemed a proper burial ground for the well-to-do. Among the many notable people buried there are jazz legend Miles Davis, Moby-Dick author Herman Melville, former mayor Fiorello La Guardia, Joseph Pulitzer (of the prize), Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (founder of the Whitney museum), and on and on.

I'd never been in there before, but had been meaning to check it out for awhile. We stuck to the main route that leads from one gate to the other, but one day we'll go back and explore it in more detail. Regardless, what we did see was intriguing enough for now. I love this statue--the dirt covering the face really adds something.

When I took this photo I wondered if this particular Woolworth was the one with the department store, and apparently it is. The sphinxes guarding his tomb really make a statement.

I found myself drawn to this door (love the effect of the patination).

The roads within the cemetery are all marked with these quaint-looking green signs.

I noticed a bunch of these random letters on the ground. I'm guessing they're marking the sections of the plots.

So many beautiful, creepy statues.

I have to imagine that some joker put this "endowed" plaque next to the "Seaman" stone. Although I did see a number of those plaques elsewhere, and I have no idea what they're supposed to mean.

This tree trunk kind of reminds me of the Elephant Man. No disrespect.

The Eighth Regiment Armory

Now that we'd awoken our penchant for exploring*, on Sunday, despite its being a bit chillier than we'd hoped, we embarked on our first long walk in almost six months. The journey took us around the perimeter of Woodlawn Cemetery, past the subway station, along the southern tip of Van Cortlandt Park, curving around the Jerome Park Reservoir, and ended at the Kingsbridge Armory.

Built in 1910 to house a unit of the National Guard, today the Kingsbridge Armory is a gigantic empty castle in the middle of the Bronx. In recent years, there were plans to turn it into some kind of shopping center, which fell through because the developer would not require tenants to guarantee a living wage for their employees. Which is all pretty unfortunate because this building is incredible, and it'd be great to see it put to use for something. (At the same time, it'd be nice for people to be paid decently.)

There's a giant chain link fence going around the building, so it was tricky to get good photos, but you get the idea.

A stray cat slinking through the grass.

Here's one of the entrances. I think the engraving above the door says "258th field artillery."

A view from the subway platform. When you're on the 4 train coming the opposite way, it almost feels like you're going right into the armory, it's that close. In fact, seeing that view out the window is part of what inspired me to come check it out in more detail.

*I just spent about ten minutes trying to figure out how to word that without saying something silly like "whetted our appetite". That's about the best I could come up with.

First walk of the season

On Saturday the weather was actually kind of warm, so we decided to investigate the situation with Muskrat Cove, a trail that runs along the Bronx River near our apartment. It had been Dave's favorite jogging spot last summer but then it was covered in snow for a few months. Plus, someone had set up camp under this overpass, and it was kind of like running through someone's living room.

The snow and the tenant were gone, but due to excessive rain and flooding last week, the paved path looked a little like the bottom of a river in some parts.

This graffiti looks fresh. I like it.

I took more or less the same photo last time we were there but it still looks cool.

Not sure why, but I also took a lot of pictures of trash caught in tree branches.

I think there's actually more trash than tree in this one.

Someone spraypainted this sign solid pink.

I have no idea what this means but it's stenciled on the ground near the entrance.

Anyway, it was a pretty short walk but it was nice to get back outside—can't wait for more!

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.

NY Art Book Fair

I went to the NY Art Book Fair at P.S. 1 for the first time this past weekend. It was insanely crowded and it seemed like everything I wanted was priced at several hundred dollars. But there were a lot of cool books and posters. If I were a little bit (okay, a lot) richer I might have come home with lots of awesome stuff.

Dave took some great photos documenting the day.

In the P.S. 1 courtyard. I love how this person kind of fades into the mist.

I don't even know what we're looking at here.

Some book art on the walls.

I'm not sure what these were for but one seller had them stacked up.

On the wall in the subway station on the way home.

Chelsea walk

On Saturday we went for a short walk around the Meatpacking District/Chelsea, and Dave took some pretty great photos that I can't resist sharing.

I just saw this building on Bored to Death--it was a really cool shot that pulled out of the frame so you could watch the characters through the little portholes. (I feel like I didn't describe that quite right.)

At one point we found ourselves walking through a small craft fair. It was really not particularly auspicious weather for the occasion though, as you can see--a huge gust of wind more or less took out this booth. Hand-sewn bibs and beaded necklaces were blown into the streets. It was madness.

I don't know what it is about these things but every time I see one I cannot stop smiling.

Not pictured: chocolate ice box cake from Billy's Bakery. It was pretty intense.