photo diary 5

Here are some recent snaps of my adventures around the city...

prince street in soho

I went out to Astoria Queens on the N train and got off at 36 avenue, not quite sure where I was. The only other time I ventured into Queens was when I went to Flushing to eat a bunch of Chinese food. Queens is the next borough in line, ripe for gentrification, and the neighborhood where the Museum of the Moving Image is located has a very strange combination of elegant new structures and broken down tenements and brownstones. Give it a couple of years and Astoria will be Williamsburg. As for the museum itself, white and minimal, with bursts of color in unexpected places, it is the easiest of all the museums to enjoy in New York City. Consisting of historical artifacts of film and television history, I felt like a kid in a candy store, gobbling up each head shot, costume, and famous relics from the past with glee. Jim Carrey's mask from "The Mask", old costumes worn by Bette Davis and Marilyn Monroe, vintage Star Wars action figures were all beautifully displayed, but also not available for photography. The only shot I got was of the outside, which was pretty neat. 

museum of the moving image in astoria, queens 

brooklyn heights 

My experience at Katz Deli wasn't what I expected. I went at what I thought would be a slow period for the restaurant, about 3 pm on a Thursday. Not only was it not slow, it took 30 minutes to get my sandwich, but I couldn't find a place to sit. So I was wandering around with my tray of pastrami on rye with pickles, mouth watering, eyes darting around the large cafeteria, until I finally found a spot in the corner where I devoured my sandwich, and then felt full for the next 3 days.

the infamous pastrami on rye at Katz in the lower east side

the Helen Sung quintet at MoMa

best doughnuts in the city 

inside the public theater on lafayette street waiting for tickets 

writing at two hands in little italy

mott street, little italy 

little italy 

downtown brooklyn 

I went to my first show with my roommate, his girlfriend, and the new roommate in our apartment a couple of Wednesdays ago. It was a tiny venue 2 blocks from out apartment. The lead singer, I learned, was the guitarist on Solange Knowles tour previously. He was an electric performer who moved swiftly from keyboard to guitar to a crooning falsetto with ease.

friends and lovers, crown heights

When I went to the New York Historical Society a few weeks ago there was an exhibit on the classic children's book character Madeline. Ludwig Bemelmans was the creator and illustrator of Madeline, and spent most of his life in New York City writing and drawing stories about Madeline and her adventures in Paris. I learned that at the Carlyle Hotel on the Upper East Side inside Bemelmans Bars (named after him of course), you could go inside and see the mural he painted over 6o years ago, which included Madeline and different scenes from his various books and stories. So not only did I walk right into the Carlyle like I owned the place, but I was chauffeured by the receptionist to the bar who told me all about the mural. The lighting was not flattering, but here are some views of the amazing wall of Bemelman's drawings. 

I also wanted to show one more picture of the meatpacking district. When I went on a tour of the High Line with my favorite guide Renee, she told us some meaty (pun intended) info about the streets we were walking on. The meatpacking industry has these very dark, ominous looking awnings that extend out of the buildings to the end of the sidewalk before the pavement along almost every street. Almost a century ago, before stores like Diane vonFurstenberg and Warby Parker would hang their signs welcoming the upwardly trendy into their chic retail stores, these awnings were where you would find the hanging carcasses of cattle, pigs, boars, among other animals. The butchers, with their bloodied coats would hang them outside on display, the better to make a sale. Just another amazing fact about New York and this little neighborhood, one of my favorites.

gansevoort street, meatpacking