Sunday, November 23, 2008

My Guide to Greenpoint: Part One!

i've been speaking out so much lately on behalf of Greenpoint, even boldly declaring it the BEST AREA OF BROOKLYN (oooh, controversial!), so i figured that this lovely, northernmost part of the borough deserved to be written about. maybe one day in the future i will start a blog solely dedicated to Greenpoint. ah, dreams!

i have moved 3 times since i've been in Brooklyn, recently settling in the best abode of all. my room was unfurnished so i had to get creative with books & cd's used as tables or shelves or something. i also put fun stuff on my walls to add a bit of personal FLAV-OR.



notice my adorable, super cool (hey now, don't make fun of me!) Welsh Corgi calendar, side by side with some inspirational Feelies & Buddy Holly pictures.



my very minimal wall.



i live near McGolrick Park which is bound by Nassau and Driggs Avenues. it must be named after some Polish person.



this is one of the many beautiful churches in Greenpoint, on Manhattan Ave., and you can see it from all different points in the area. it's called St. Anthony of Padua Church i believe.



peaking out...



so, now, onto some of my favorite places in Greenpoint!!

sometimes, after a day of not eating very much, i am really hungry and i'll go down to the deli on the corner of Sutton & Nassau and get a bagel with cream cheese for 1 whole dollar. and, when i am workin' in Greenpoint and not in the big city, while everyone else is having some type of meat-y lunch, i'll go down there and get a delicious cheese sandwich. piled high with sharp cheddar, lettuce and tomato, and lots of mustard on a big old roll, it only costs me $2.50!!!! amazing!

another of my favorite food places is Amarin, a Thai restaurant on Manhattan between Driggs & Nassau. sometimes when i am out of Diet Cokes and don't feel like leaving the house, i'll order delivery from them so that they can bring me one. i also get some tasty, surprisingly light and very spicy! pad thai with tofu out of the deal.

one of my favorite non-food places around here is Susan's Laundromat at Diamond & Driggs. before i moved to Brooklyn, i had never dropped off my laundry- i'd always suffered through the dredgery of doing it myself, miserable the whole time. but since i discovered this place, i have changed my ways. i just give them everything & it's only 10 bucks and they do such an amazing job. they are so sweet and neatly hang and fold everything, it is such a joy!

there aren't many "cool" "hip" hotspots in my area of Greenpoint (clearly, since i am talking about LAUNDROMATS in my Guide), but there is one good place called Bar Matchless, at Manhattan & Driggs, right by McCarren Park (we'll get to that later). i recently went there to see my friend's band Pow Wow! [www.myspace.com/powwownyc] play a show. it was also where i spent Election Night! alongside a bunch of happy, drunk hipsters! by the way, only a few blocks down from Matchless, on Bedford Ave. in Williamsburg, there was some major craziness on Election Night! there was a bit of drama eventually, but it looked pretty amazing for the most part. this picture is courtesy of Brooklyn Vegan [www.brooklynvegan.com] which is a great source for music news & happenings in BK.



the only non-positive thing one might be able to say about Greenpoint is the transportation situation. the L is a 15 or 20 minute walk, to either the Graham or Bedford stops. the G is a little closer, with locations on Nassau and Greenpoint Ave., but the G seems to be pretty universally disliked. there is a good place to use the bathroom right before the G stop on Nassau, if you were wondering. i've used it a few times on my way to far-off destinations like Park Slope. anyway.
cab drivers also have no idea how to get to Greenpoint (or Brooklyn in general). despite being located right off the BQE, the few times i've taken a cab in the past 3 months, i've had to direct my driver where to go. which, if you know anything about my sense of direction, is a scary thought.

so i end up walking A LOT. and there are a few certain walks that i make frequetly that i absolutely love. one is the walk from Greenpoint to the Bedford area of Williamsburg. i do this walk if i am going to the subway or Salvation Army or, most commonly, the Music Hall of Williamsburg. i walk past the lovely, lively McCarren Park, which is always swarming with families with small children, kids playing sports, people jogging, old people, young people, hip people, normal people. it's very fun.



then, on my way back home, when it's late at night and i've just been to a show, i love to go to Anna Maria Pizzeria on Bedford for an incredible slice of pizza. they stay open until like 5 am and the place is always packed with drunk people (funny if you are drunk too, highly annoying if you aren't) and the guys who work there are kind of wiseasses and try to sell you 5 slices instead of 1, but all that insanity is worth it, because that pizza is seriously amazing. i eat it as i walk back down Bedford towards Greenpoint, where even very late at night there are people around and it is 100% safe and i get to take in all the beautiful sights that look downright magical at night, like this school right by McCarren Park.



speaking of long walks, last weekend i was at a party in a different area of Greenpoint, down near the East River by Java and India Streets, and by 2 am, i was the only one ready to head home. so as to not send me on my way totally defenseless, D and J "borrowed" a big umbrella for me. what gentlemen. so i walked down bustling Manhattan Ave., in a light rain at 2 am, using this sweet umbrella as a sort of walking-stick. like a cane. like when Kramer was a pimp on Seinfeld.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Notes From the Street:

(said in gruff, New York, homeless guy voice)

"Hey blondie! Smile! It gets worse, believe me!!!"

-yelled by dude slumped against a wall in Union Square, to me, as i was walking down the street, apparently not smiling, probably because i was carrying two heavy Trader Joe's bags and in desperate need of a Diet Coke.

Friday, November 7, 2008

walk around, walk around, shake

even though i've got no $$, i'm bidding on these glasses because i like them lots



i'm also contemplating going after these in addition to the grey pair



if it was possible to get sick from listening to one album too much i think i might have died already due to the number of times i've played Opposite Sex by the Vulgar Boatmen in the past 4 days. i only heard it for the first time on Monday night, the day before the Election (!). and i'd be frightened to even guess how many times i've listened to it since. MAN, IS IT GOOD OR WHAT. just bear with me as i go through my VB Obsession Stage 2 here, folks.

look how cool & dorky they looked



i'm going to devote my life to writing a book about them. well, i might not devote my whole life to it, but i'm definitely going to do it! maybe it will be entitled Women and Boatmen First, the title of one of their early cassette-only recordings, or it could be called Right to Left, the name of the band Dale Lawrence (one of the 2 main dudes) was in before the VB. hey, don't steal my ideas now! i know everyone's just dying to get a piece of this goldmine of a project.

and here is this song, it's a really early one by them, or maybe it's even by Right to Left, but Dale Lawrence is singing (there's also Robert Ray, he wrote most of the songs, way to go Rob!) and it's a song called "Over You," that is not on any of their releases and the first time i played this video i was honestly speechless. it's from some 20 year old recording, made in someone's basement somewhere, and yet the beauty and urgency and melody and power of the song manage to completely overwhelm. the song has one lyric: "i'm over you" repeated for 2 and a half minutes, and it's pure bliss, every single second of it.

Monday, November 3, 2008

This Is The Day.

the last election four years ago was My First Vote. it was also my first year of college. so i was basically surrounded by zealous first-time voters in an incredibly idealistic & liberal bubble. i guess we really felt like we were in control for the first time. so when, around 2 am, things started going downhill very very quickly, it was utterly crushing. we took it personally. the next day, after the defeat was official, the whole campus was just sulking around. classes were cancelled. i remember showing up to my African Art class and our professor saying, "you all don't want to be here do you? everyone is too depressed." we all just morosely nodded "yes" and left.

SO ANYWAY! TOMORROW! HAPPY THOUGHTS! because despite the last election feeling huge, this one is unfathomably huger. a trillion times bigger. this is our last chance to get it right.

so in honor of November 4th, 2008, what else would i do but create a mixtape?

here you go, Election Day, enjoy.

1. Super Tuesday- vic chesnutt
2. Washington, D.C.- magnetic fields
3. November- the desert wolves
4. America Is- violent femmes
5. Politics- girls at our best!
6. Christ for President- billy bragg & wilco
7. Heroes & Villains- the beach boys
8. George Says He Has Lost His Way In This World- the clientele
9. Leader of Men- let's active
10. Until the Poorest of People Have Money to Spend- west coast pop art experimental band
11. Welfare Bread- king khan & the shrines
12. Workin' in the Coalmine- lee dorsey
13. I Fought the Law- the crickets
14. Running the World- jarvis cocker
15. The Greedy Ugly People- hefner
16. We Are All Bourgeois Now- mccarthy
17. Don't Worry About the Government- talking heads
18. Never Been in a Riot- mekons
19. Police & Thieves- the clash
20. Government Center- the modern lovers
21. Middle Class- pointed sticks
22. Help Save the Youth of America- billy bragg
23. 2 Little Hitlers- elvis costello
24. Exhuming McCarthy- r.e.m.
25. Dear God- xtc
26. Finally Free- elf power
27. Change the World All Around- vulgar boatmen
28. Dismantled King is Off the Throne- felt
29. Freedom- the housemartins
30. Glad To See You Go- ramones