Halloween Costume Idea

If you still need a costume idea, you could do worse than dress in drag and walk around with a “Queens For Mike Bloomberg” sign:

See also: Bloomberg For Mayor 2009.

Beach, Bridge, Shawarma

Our long-dormant EZ-Pass got a workout towards the end of August, when we borrowed a friend’s car to go to and fro. First stop, Jacob Riis Beach in the Rockaways, which is actually not as nice as the City-run Rockaway Beach:

Later that day we got takeout at Karam’s Restaurant in Bay Ridge:

Traveling between Rockaway Peninsula and Brooklyn meant traversing another bridge, the Marine Parkway Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge between Brooklyn and Queens:

August 1-10, 2009

Mom and Dad were in town, so we spent time doing more touristy things in and around the area at the beginning of August . . .

August 1, 2009

Dinner at Agnanti in Astoria, including their Rooster specialty dish:

The kids went to Shannon Pot after dropping off the parents:

August 2, 2009

It rained in Ridgewood, New Jersey:

But we had a nice view of Midtown from the Secaucus Junction Train Station on the way back home:

August 3, 2009

One of the aforementioned Mets games at Citi Field.

August 4, 2009

The Frick Collection:

We watched the sun set from the North Recreation and Interpretive Area in Gantry Plaza State Park in Long Island City:

August 5, 2009

A trip to one of Mom’s favorite NYC stores, Fishs Eddy:

We tried impressing the parents with the soft serve at Dessert Club, ChikaLicious:

August 6, 2009

Dinner at Taverna Kyclades in Astoria:

August 7, 2009

We rented a car to go up into the Hudson Valley for the day. This was the first car, a Chevrolet Aveo:

By the way, Old Yankee Stadium is still there:

We made a pit stop at the Palisades Interstate Park Commission Visitor Center (otherwise known as a place to go to the bathroom) on the Palisades Interstate Parkway:

On the way out, we (I) hit this mammoth pothole and popped a hole in the front left tire of the Aveo:

The nine-dollar-a-day insurance came in handy, so we returned the car to Budget at Stewart International Airport. This required a detour through Newburgh, but not before a stop at the US 9W Overlook above West Point:

Everything looked different than when we visited there last fall:

The detour through Newburgh, New York:

Then returning the car at Stewart International Airport. I had never been to Stewart, so it was a chance to check it out. While there, a well-intentioned State Trooper asked why I was taking a picture of the terminal. The folks cheerfully explained that we had a website where we put up pictures of anything and everything. He was alarmed, and took a look at the pictures we’d taken. Exterior shots of the airport were OK, but this image had, in his words, “no apparent aesthetic value,” language which I remembered hearing about:

You may wonder what the purpose of the Big Map is. Fair enough. I think the pictures have many purposes, including aesthetics (sometimes!) but also in terms of transmitting information. In the above image, there is an ad for Nyack in the foreground, the airlines that fly out of Stewart in the background and people in 2009 dressing a certain way and using particular types of luggage (carry-ons!). Many years from now people might be interested in these details. When I look at archival photos I’m often more interested in details that the photographer probably overlooked — stuff like clothes, cars, advertisements. Our own photos have adjusted over time with this in mind; it used to be that I’d avoid cars in a street scene until I realized that those details were what made images. Places like strip malls then become interesting — this is how we live today and what it looks like. Spots like IKEA that you wouldn’t normally think are interesting then become interesting — incidentally, I think the reverse is also true: sometimes those closeups of historic cornices are lame in that they’re interesting to contemporary audiences who get jazzed about old stuff, but they’re chronologically out of context (I’m not judging, either — I get sidetracked by cool old cornices all the time — but I also know that series of images of landmarked neighborhoods have a staleness about them; those are places that by definition remain static, and there’s less of a reason to run out to photograph them — of course those are the places that people love to look at). It goes on and on. But anyway, like I was saying, I think the purpose of photos changes over time. The utilitarian look of Stewart might be interesting years from now, even if it looks pedestrian today. In a way, it’s silly to talk about stuff like this, but the State Trooper made us think about it, so it’s worth remembering as you peruse the Big Map photos. (By the way, I’m smart enough not to take photos of the security areas, but those kinds of images will be interesting one day, too, in showing among other stuff how we live today.) For me, why do I want to take a picture of Stewart? Because I’ve never been there and I want to know what it looks like. And I want to fill in the spaces of the Big Map . . .

After seeing art, we stopped by Woodbury Common Premium Outlets to run errands:

Oh, and in case you hadn’t heard:

August 8, 2009

I took the car back to LaGuardia early in the morning, and waited for the bus home by the MTA Bus LaGuardia Depot. Again, a security guard asked why I was taking pictures, but he seemed satisfied when I pointed to this cool old bus:

So you see, an old timey-time bus is fair — and fair enough, more reasonable people will look at that and think, “Oh, cool!” and it makes sense that you’re taking a photo of it. But there are also the newer buses there — and in time they will become cool, too. Or maybe transportation will look totally different years from now and all these vehicles — or even the idea that there’s a depot to begin with — will have a different meaning to people. We — I — don’t know.

You can’t take pictures from the upper levels of the Guggenheim, but that leaves a lot to enjoy in the big rotunda on the ground floor of the museum:

Later, a drink at Pier 66 Maritime:

August 9, 2009

A visit to the TKTS booth in Duffy Square:

We got tickets to South Pacific at Lincoln Center:

I think Mom and Dad had a nice visit.

Mets In August At Citi Field

Three Mets games at Citi Field . . . and we discover how to park for free near the stadium!

The first game was the Mets vs. Diamondbacks on August 3, 2009. We located the sad old Shea Stadium Home Run Apple:

An excellent sunset over Manhattan:

I complained before about the obstructed views from the upper rows of Section 538, but the dirty secret about Citi Field seems to be that there are obstructed views nearly everywhere, including Section 524:

And it’s not just in the 500 level. A friend said he came across tickets seven rows behind the Mets dugout and couldn’t see the right field corner (his regular seats, part of a season ticket, are above the Spongetech sign in the outfield where he can’t see most of the left field corner):

We sat a little lower in Section 426 for the game against the Phillies on August 21, 2009 and still couldn’t see the left field corner:

And there is a lot of interference when looking at the field from that part of the stadium:

I know part of the knock against Shea Stadium was that it was so cavernous, but at least you could see the entire field from most (if not all) the seats. How you can spend $800 million and have obstructed views of any sort seems strange. And charging people what the Mets are charging seems outrageous. The face value of our Section 426 seats was $42. For that you had to listen to the crowd to discern whether Gary Sheffield gave enough of a shit to catch the ball. Weird.

Then there’s the out-of-town scoreboard that doesn’t feature “2s,” so you didn’t know that the Yankees were actually beating the Red Sox 20 to 7, instead of 10 to 7:

Before the game we took a walk from Hinton Park in Corona to Citi Field. This is also known as a way to avoid spending $18 to park, a tip I learned from the Mets Police blog. In only eight minutes, you can get from here, at 34th Avenue and 114th Street:

To here, the Left Field Gate at Citi Field:

Along the way you get to walk along the Whitestone Expressway:

The Monday day game against the Phillies on August 24 was a perfect day:

These seats, in Section 518, actually had a full view of the field. You know things are bad with the sightlines when StubHub sellers boast that a particular seat has a “full view of the field.”

That weekend the Mets were celebrating the 1969 World Series-winning team with specially mowed grass and painted “1969s”:

It was the day after Phillies utility man Eric “Beardo” Bruntlett made a super-rare game-ending unassisted triple play, only the 15th in the history of major league baseball:

An aside — I happened to be at Yankee Stadium to witness the 11th unassisted triple play in a major league game in 2000 — on the scorecard, see Shane Spencer’s sixth-inning at-bat, with the “4U TP”:

You can change the stadium but you can’t change the flightpath — I actually love watching the planes fly into LaGuardia, even if they’re a little loud (and the city somehow believes they can develop Willets Point when planes fly through there until late into the evening every night . . . hmmm):

The late-afternoon shadows fall over the field and Mets fans endure yet another loss:

Meta Squirrel

Squirrel on Squirrel Action, Andrews Grove, Hunters Point, Long Island City, Queens, July 11, 2009:

We Need Another Dan Quayle

Misspelled, “Beefstake Tomatoes,” Food Cellar, 4-85 47th Road, Hunters Point, Long Island City, Queens, July 11, 2009:

Two Parks

Two New York City parks opened recently — the much-heralded High Line on Manhattan’s West Side and the much less-heralded (and clunkily named — at least the label for it I discerned on a map at the park) North Recreation and Interpretive Area portion of Gantry Plaza State Park in the Hunters Point corner of Long Island City, Queens.

We visited the High Line both during the day and at dusk. First things first, it’s cool — a nice way to “repurpose” an industrial relic. Nicolai Ouroussoff was elated. The project has received nation wide and world wide attention. It will surely raise property values in a once-blighted part of the city (though it hasn’t really been that blighted for twenty or thirty years now as property values there steadily rose anyway). The plantings are very artful, though as a friend remarked, she’ll also be excited to visit the High Line in the winter, when it will likely resemble its former state.

The High Line is also really, really expensive. The entire project, once it is built up to 30th Street, will cost $152 million, $108 million of which coming from the city, according to the papers (and with private donors chipping in $44 million, you can bet that they’ll feel a great sense of ownership over it). And it’s like 30 feet wide. So yes, it’s cool and all, but $108 million could build a lot of playgrounds, and that $44 million is $44 million that won’t be available for other philanthropic endeavors (even other non-profit park endeavors). (And remember that West Side redevelopment remains one of Bloomberg’s legacy projects.)

But for now, it’s cool to see New Yorkers and visitors so jazzed at the novelty of the High Line. I just hope Ouroussoff’s “shifting narrative” is worth it in the long run.

Maybe you like billboard advertisements in your parks. If so, you’ll love the High Line:

Then there’s the Standard Hotel, which is (I think) the only new building that the High Line runs through:

Reports are that it has become a hotspot for exhibitionists and voyeurs alike, which is what it is; it’s got a bunch of glass, after all. But then the Standard people apparently started actually soliciting “hot” “erotic” photos, which is when it gets into the realm of media whorism, verging on fucking disgusting. So why not tax those assholes all you can? Yay, gross people humping in a window! Enjoy it — that’s your Meatpacking District. Hoodely doo.

While Mayor Bloomberg and whoever else were cutting ribbons at the High Line, another park opened in Queens, with more modest press. At the risk of sounding all Armond White about it, yeah, the High Line is cool, but have you actually seen the new North Recreation and Interpretive Area portion of Gantry Plaza State Park? Now that’s a park. There is room to sit, stroll, play, relax or whatever it is people do when they patronize public parks:

And they’ve got hammocks:

Where the views from the High Line are intriguing (an old warehouse from the vantage point of the second floor — I get it), the views of the city from the new part of Gantry Plaza State Park are stunning:

And then there are the Adirondack chairs:

And I don’t think this park cost $150 million, either.

The other salient point is that Gantry Plaza State Park is, as its name indicates, a State park — not a City park (as the High Line is — sort of, now that it’s maintained by a non-profit conservancy, which is another issue altogether). At some point these past couple of months I began wondering if the State is actually building or putting together all the greatest parks in the city now. This new spot in Long Island City is one, but there’s also the crazy popularity of Governors Island and then even stuff like the reconstituted Pool Parties at East River State Park in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Where the Bloomberg administration seems preoccupied with development — not only around the High Line but also at Coney Island, the people in charge of the city’s state parks seem more interested in people actually using open space. That’s something to think about.

Fireworks!

The Queensboro Bridge Centennial Fireworks Display, May 31, 2009 over the East River:

A YouTube of the finale:

Mets vs. Phillies, May 7, 2009

Another Mets vs. Phillies game, this time from Section 512:

The Section 512 seats were much better than the Section 538 seats we had, which you can see, about where the Chicago-Houston score is posted:

I’ll tell you what, there’s a huge difference between the advertisements from last year at Shea and this year at Citi Field. Last year at Shea, you had Delta, Sharp, Chevy and Verizon:

Then State Farm and of course the infamous AIG:

This year, on the food media day before the stadium opened, on March 31, 2009, there was a sort of blank slate — not sure if they didn’t put the signs up yet or if (hrm!) they didn’t know who would buy signage:

So now that the stadium is up and running, note that AIG is notably absent, and in its place, an expanded “freecreditreport.com” presence:

They’re the ones with that ad with the garage band in the basement; still not sure what the catch is, and why this is a profitable enterprise.

As for the newcomers, there’s Bob’s Furniture:

spongetech.com (what is that exactly?) and superpages.com:

The old sell-your-gold thing:

Titan Motors:

And the Arpielle Equipment Co.:

In short, the Citi Field ads look a lot like what you’d see at a minor league game.

Arpielle Equipment Co. also sponsors the Mets’ version of the ubiquitous [blank] vs. [blank] race, that computer-generated doodad where digitalized items “race” each other and the results are randomly generated. I think it’s supposed to elicit a crowd response, but I don’t feel at all bad not rooting for a computer program. At Yankee Stadium last year (haven’t been there this year yet) the B, D and 4 trains “raced” each other to the stadium. The Phillies do a similar thing with SEPTA and its joke of a subway system. At Army football games at West Point, they race tanks. Spectators at other ballparks seem to enjoy the eternal ketchup-mustard-relish match. But the Arpielle [blank] vs. [blank] at Citi Field is just inexplicable — it’s a fork lift against a light tower. I’m not even kidding:

I guess that stimulus money is good for something . . .

Mets vs. Phillies, Section 538, Citi Field, May 6, 2009

We saw our first game at Citi Field, the Mets vs. Phillies.

First off, Citi Field is cool. And I say this as someone who appreciated Shea Stadium and feels that too much of our 1960s architecture is being decimated and that one day we will all regret callously tearing it down. But you can’t argue with the amenities and the general atmosphere of the new stadium. The food is much, much better, as is the beer ($7.50 for Danny Meyer craft brews definitely beats overpriced Budweiser — and believe me, I drink more than my fair share of Budweiser when I’m not watching baseball). And for the most part, the Mets’ home has been updated in a way that lends itself to the ballpark experience. Good for them. You step off the 7 train and walk into this fantastic new stadium that isn’t a dump. That’s cool.

That said, the view from the upper rows of Section 538 is, well, crap. That big out-of-town scoreboard in left field must be wonderful to consult, but when you climb up to your seat and see a fancy high-definition screen on the back side of it, it’s a pretty good indication that your view is obstructed; Citi Field features amenities, but they wouldn’t include some amenities unless they had to:

Keep in mind, these are not considered “obstructed view” seats — the face value of these tickets is $19. Which is fine, whatever, but it’s strange that a new stadium — any new stadium — has obstructed-view seats. We can kill a terrorist in Waziristan from a drone piloted by a person in Tampa but HOK can’t figure out how to make the upper rows of Section 538 not feel utterly claustrophobic? That disappoints! Another beef: our Section 538 tickets were the “best available” when we got them. So where was everyone? There were so many empty seats around the stadium that the Mets skipped the “Guess the Attendance” feature. (By the way, I see Mike Lupica already found a way to fetishize and Terkelize Section 538.) But at least it’s not New Yankee Stadium, because that place sounds insane.

OK, and speaking of New Yankee Stadium — and its absurdly ridiculous prices for the best seats — the Mets don’t seem to be doing much better. I know the weather was funky and it’s early in the season, but, jeez, it’s the Phillies — you’d think this would be a hot ticket. But check out the difference between the field level section behind the dugout and the field level section behind the on-deck circle:

So being that this was a Mets-Phillies game, we expected heated emotions, though we didn’t see much of it until the walk — the long walk — down one of Citi Field’s long stairwells (no ramps?) where Mets fans commenced with the customary “Ass-Hole” tomahawk chop at hapless Phillies partisans:

Yeah, yeah, of course “Philly Sucks!” But let’s just recap for a second: Sure, Johan Santana pitched really well, but then so did Chan Ho Park, who gave up only one hit through six innings. Chan Ho Park. Chan. Ho. Park. And the one run the Mets did score was off a terrible throwing error on what should have been just a single. You’re chuffed? I don’t know that I would be. What’s more, you’re still in third place.

And I can’t wait for more games at Citi Field.

Pertinent Link: New York Mets vs. Philadelphia Phillies, Citi Field, Section 538, May 6, 2009.

May 1-3, 2009

Employees Washing Hands, Cacio E Pepe, 182 Second Avenue, East Village, Manhattan, May 1, 2009, 10:53 p.m.:

Employees Washing Hands, Jimmy’s No. 43, 43 East 7th Street, East Village, Manhattan, May 2, 2009, 1:00 a.m.:

Mariachi Entertainment, Tequila Sunrise, 40-01 Northern Boulevard, Astoria, Queens, May 2, 2009, 10:33 p.m.:

Dutch Kills Bar, 27-24 Jackson Avenue, Long Island City, Queens, May 3, 2009, 12:30 a.m.:

Taxis, Jackson Avenue and Queens Street, SE Corner, Long Island City, Queens, May 3, 2009, 2:51 a.m.:

44th Street and Broadway, Looking South, Times Square, Midtown Manhattan, May 3, 2009, 3:18 a.m.:

April 2009

• 2 Lafayette Street, Lower Manhattan
• Christopher Park, West Village, Manhattan
• Cooper Square, Noho, Manhattan
• 69th Regiment Armory, Manhattan
• The Lipstick Building at 885 Third Avenue in Midtown Manhattan
• Steeplechase Pier, Coney Island, Brooklyn
• Vernon Mall, Hunters Point, Long Island City, Queens
• Spuyten Duyvil Metro-North Station, The Bronx

April 18-20, 2009

Tick Tock Diner, Clifton, New Jersey:

Ehrhardt’s Waterfront Resort, Hawley, Pennsylvania:

A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees game at PNC Field:

Driving through Scranton and seeing Courthouse Square:

Shopping at The Crossings Premium Outlets in Tannersville, Pennsylvania:

Driving back into New York through the Lincoln Tunnel where we saw the booth where someone works a full shift each day checking on traffic and watching out for accidents:

And trying to get a picture of the elusive New York-New Jersey state line mosaic:

Then dinner at Koki-Ri Restaurant in Flushing:

And after returning the car at LaGuardia, pictures of the airport from the M60 bus:

Total for the weekend, 329 miles:

Menus, March 2009

Two new menus added:

• WunderBar German Grill & Bierhaus in Long Island City
• Indian Bread Co. in Greenwich Village

You can get the smoked “bacon” beer (”Rauchbier”) at WunderBar:

Both highly recommended . . .

Citi Field Preview

Some photos from the Culinary All-Stars Media Preview held at Citi Field on March 31, 2009. The Home Run Apple is still there:

Shea Stadium Demolition

Unlike Yankee Stadium, the demolition of Shea Stadium is moving along rather quickly. Not one but two articles this weekend pointed out this fact, so we figured we should get over there before it’s gone. It’s pretty fantastic to see:

It looks chintzy like a sardine can when they peel away the blue facade.

There were several groups of people taking pictures:

And a rookie cop was arrested for trespassing “early Friday” . . . even though you can roam right up to the chainlink fence, I guess they look down on hanging out there at night.

Sripraphai Menu

We updated the Sripraphai menu. The earlier one is still there (what happened to saute pork stomach and mudfish?); if memory serves, it’s from around 2003.

(I have no idea why the Sripraphai website isn’t the first Google hit but it’s not. I like New York Magazine as much as the next guy, but not only are their weekend hours for the restaurant wrong — they close at 9:30, not 10, which is why we had to get takeout — but if a restaurant has its own website, it seems odd that they’re not at the top of the Google hits, no?)

The restaurant has grown a lot since we first went there:

They added the storefront to the left (64-11 39th Avenue?) a few years back, and since then they added the storefront to the right in the picture (64-15 39th Avenue?). Yes, the Jungle Curry is still “Thai spicy.” The Sripraphai website also says that they’re opening a restaurant on Long Island soon.

Something that’s bothered me for a long time: If there can be an authentically cool Thai restaurant (or any authentic, accessible ethnic restaurant), why is there this brick wall when it comes to Chinese food? I hate, hate, hate the existence of a dual menu (or worse) and would be eternally grateful for a Chinese restaurant that not only welcomed adventuresome eaters but encouraged them. It’s especially striking that even in a place like New York there seems to be so few (maybe I’m wrong — if so, please email us!). You would think that they’d clean up. It’s not that there aren’t any great Chinese restaurants, just that more often than not you get the sense that there’s so much great stuff that you’re missing if you don’t read and/or speak Cantonese. Which is to say, I never got that from Sripraphai. Good stuff . . .

Jamaica Long Island Rail Road Station

Yup, it’s a train station. The first five pictures are from the summer months, in 2005 and 2006, on the way to Long Beach. The last three are from the other day. We happened to be on the train with Friday night Long Island-based revelers — they were pre-gaming it. I always found the idea of drinking on public transportation funny, which is not to say that I don’t enjoy a tall boy on the Staten Island Ferry — just that it doesn’t occur to me to brown bag on the M60. Some contend that drinking on the region’s commuter trains is a time-honored tradition. Others point to the “Vomit Comet” as proof that it’s a bad idea. Then there’s the Irish.