p s e u d o r e a l

Better Than Real Because It's Not.


Monday September 29th 2008, 5:05 am
Filed under: General

(September 7) I was determined to make it to the HOWL Festival this year. It was only a token appearance, but I made it.

write this down somewhere
Waiting for the F from Brooklyn to the East Village, I noticed we’ve got a higher grade of graffitti artist in the neighborhood

"Things the wait for a train inspires, for $200, Alex?"
Along with some random doodling

oh kay
You know you’re in the East Village when the local entertainment includes “Cannibal! The Musical”, and “Poultrygeist”

but at what price?
Free Fortunes!

where's my damn money?
Right about now, would be really good.

on the stage
Low Life

shirts
It’s very Tompkins Sq. Park, yes.

I'll bet he doesn't remember being there
He’s got a bad memory

the somethingorotherwithstrings
He plays it well, whatever it is.


Sunday September 28th 2008, 1:00 pm
Filed under: General

(September 6) I had never been to Astroland in Coney Island, and on the day before it is apparently this this time for reals, closing, I decided to go get photos. In the rain. I thought there was something apropos about the remnants of a large storm blowing through at the end.

rollercoaster
The Cyclone and the Wonder Wheel have landmark protection and will remain. Not sure how that’s going to work out.

ferris wheel
Wonder Wheel

whipping winds
Down at the beach

boardwalk
Back on the boardwalk

happy trippy trash
I shared the boardwalk with maybe a half dozen other people.

fireman ride
This is probably where Tony_M went to play as a child.

sell short!
Oddly enough, I ran into the architect of the US economy for the past 30 years. You’d have thought he had more important things to do right around now.

saturn 6
The rocket to somewhere, but not back to here.

very, very near
The end is near.

but, will there be balloons?
As previously noted, the gift shop marks the end of the event.
And so thus ends our tour of of world famous Astroland on the Coney Island boardwalk.

hot dog hq
Heading back to the subway, I passed what I think is the Nathan’s mothership

.
And their Countdown to Gluttony

F track
Exit, Coney Island

rain, rain, go away,...
Back out into the rain on Smith St.

orange zinnia, no relation to orange crush
I suppose the rain is good for something

perseverance
This cone has known better days. I understand how it feels.

oh the smell
Somehow, really don’t think the Gowanus Canal has any chance of being non-toxic any time in the foreseeable future.


Saturday September 27th 2008, 8:02 pm
Filed under: General

(September 3) The parts of my life that generally go off without a hitch are those whose dates and times are well established long in advance. Primarily these are Python workshops and Dorkbot meetings. This month they were on consecutive days.

sys.exit()
Python

sam pluta
One of the presenters is a shape-shifter.

canal street: the remake
After Dorkbot, I finally got a replacement shot for an image I’d put into masthead image rotation. I liked the original shot, but I’d taken it from the wrong angle, and it had a fuzziness that I grew not to care for.

raindrops keep falling on my head...
Cue the Burt Bacharach, hurricane season is in full swing.

Speaking of rain…


Monday September 08th 2008, 10:52 am
Filed under: General

(August 30) Visit to the Manhattan Bridge, walking from DUMBO, Brooklyn to Chinatown, Manhattan, continued.

up!

brooklyn bridge over east river
Span of the Brooklyn Bridge

walkway wisdom
More advice from the sages that inhabit the metropolitan area bridges

fdr drive

¡rawr!
… you rawr, we all rawr

no, *you* suck.
I’ll bet it says that to everyone on the bridge

chinatown
Chinatown

chinatown street

graffitti for the benefit of subway riders

none of it in chinese

the view from chinatown

roof graffitti

on the wall

the air isn't white, therefore not beijing
Can you tell it’s not Beijing?

to the bridge!
Almost there now!

green, yellow, red

mr. sparkle!
Homer Simpson says buy something!

on the ground in chinatown
Peking duck? (Peking Pork?)

the end
The end of any adventure. The gift shop.


Saturday September 06th 2008, 8:22 am
Filed under: General

(August 30) Viza will be pleased to know that having walked the Brooklyn and Williamsburg bridges, that I finally went to the Brooklyn end of the Manhattan Bridge, and ventured across. I had planned on exploring further into Manhattan, but I was pretty tired by the time I stepped off the bridge in Chinatown. I need to return to Chinatown with my camera again.

manhattan bridge
When last I saw the Manhattan Bridge, it was from the grounds of Brooklyn Bridge Park.

ad two point oh
I walked past this on my way to the F station.
At what point do we stop pretending blogs aren’t mainstream even if the vast majority of people don’t have one?

plaza
The plaza at the foot of the steps.

entrance to the bridge
This is much nicer than the entrance to the Brooklyn Bridge.
Unfortunately, this would prove to be the only win for the Manhattan Bridge,
It suffers from the visual pollution of chain link fence,
meaning the view seen through my camera far exceeds what reality provides.

walkway
Unlike the Brooklyn and Williamsburg bridges, the bike lanes in both directions are together, as are the walkways.

skybridge
One of the defining characteristics of this neighborhood is the unusually large number of skybridges, which link the many Watchtower Buildings.

tennis, anyone?
You get an interesting view from up here, like of rooftop tennis courts

photographer
In a city of eight million people, someone’s always thinking something very similar to what you’re thinking

trees on the roofs
I’m a kid from the suburbs, and the woods this is not.
But if I were going to waste a lot of money living in the city,
I wouldn’t mind having one of these rooftop gardens

traffic dept.
On this bridge you’ll see no traffic at all.
Unfortunately the same cannot be said about seeing subways trains.

locked gate
I’ll bet the views from these are great

pigeon
The pigeon, who laughs at the locked gates, mocked me

rooftops
I wouldn’t mind having rooftop access, period, like these people

windows

the seafaring version of the checker cab
We can only hope the Water Taxi is more safely operated than the street taxis are

wedding
I’m getting the impression it’s non-stop weddings at this spot of the park

brooklyn bridge park
Brooklyn Bridge Park

jetskis
The idea of East River water touching my body creeps me out

1901 - 1910

Part two coming soon.