The World Examining Works

Hearts and Flowers and All That Good Stuff

 

What a day for cynics to sneer and the rest of us have fun!

Flowers from the deli

all baby's breath and red cellophane

An apple to tempt one

or a cookie like a heart

Hearts on the deli window

and flowers too

the Empire State Building was actually a sort of pink but looks purple here

We end with white flowers....

Happy Valentine's Day

 

 

Rockaway

 

Decided to discover the Rockaways --out beyond Brooklyn and Queens.

The subway pretty grubby

and we cross the Great South Bay on a little trestle

at first sight a little unpromising

I'm not sure I'd want a little house up on stilts

but we follow the families heading to the beach

past shops selling everything

a glory of plastic

I'm sure the town has seen better days

but even so

the creeper abounds

and the beach stretches for mile upon mile

 the water is warm and there are razor clams

and great piles of sand that look like the Sahara in the distance

the dress code traditional

after swimming we repair to the Last Stop Diner where the waitresses are sweet

the food and decor (Boomerang formica!) comfort indeed.

This last picture is simply because I like the colors.

Diner

 

There are diners in the city, but we rarely go to them. Like reading People Magazine in the nail parlor, some things are place-specific.

So we head to the diner our first morning on Long Island

and eat all sorts of cool bad stuff with butter and bacon and syrup.

Munday's is all decked out for the 4th of July still

all glittery.

The serious breakfasters sit at the bar.

 

 

Stripes

 

It is the time of year when in the early mornings and the late evenings the light comes slant-wise

and casts nice stripey shadows

through the somewhat rickety chairs

and the somewhat less rickety blinds.

On 8th Avenue stripes abound -- here very gay stripes

This picture isn't stripes exactly.....well, stars & stripes. The  local diner window decorated for the season.

I was making a collection of pictures of people wearing stripey clothing, but gave up as there were just too many of them --a positive epidemic of stripes

so here instead is a picture of the cakes the girls were looking at. I never saw anything as wonderful as the Religieuse.

Happy July 4th

Things Seen

 

When I forget to take my camera or my phone out, I feel quite bereft.

I might miss something terrifically important that I need to capture. You never know.

Yesterday morning it was the uniform truck outside the Highliner diner which was a symphony in gray and white.

One  of the workers was having his photo taken. I'm pretty sure he's from Africa and I wondered if the picture would be beamed round the world, so I started thinking how tough some of the entry level jobs are and how much difficult stuff first generation Americans have to put up with.

Next the picturessque house next to the High Line

and the Venetian/Moorish extravaganza overlooking Union Square.

Madison Square Park is so very deco

 

unlike the Old Town Bar which is quite as dumpy as the sign suggests --therefore rather cosy for lunch.

Berch has been at it again decorating the windows of the Moonstruck diner.

 

Hints of Things to Come

 

I really like this time of year, a time of gentle decay.

The dog wasn't quite sure what to make of  Vincent Desiderio's paintings at Marlborough Chelsea. I rather enjoyed his dark sensibility with hints of Fellini, Goya and Courbet.

The diner on 23rd Street  has decorated its window

and as for this house near the Bohemian Hall in Astoria, Queens

well!

Wowsers! I'm a little frightened already.

 

Dancing in the Streets

 

Sitting at home waiting for Hurricane Irene to pass. Luckily we were not too much affected. I feel very sorry for those without power or affected by flooding. Very grim. So thinking of cheerier things.

The other evening, we went to the diner on the corner of 14th Street and

lo and behold, in the little plaza outside the Apple store there was dancing

in the street.

This should happen every day.

So, sitting out the storm knitting elf hats and pondering good things. 

 

Reflections on Nyack

 

A small town on the Hudson --here a table in the public library where we enquire about Edward Hopper the town's most famous son.

Here a higgeldy-piggeldy independent bookshop which I didn't enter for fear of buying all sorts of things.

Here a consignment shop where we could have dropped off things.

A very old fashioned office with clock and photo of the founder, and,

at last, the Hopper House, which, since it was Monday, was closed to the public, so 

I took a photo of the porch

and the trash can outside, then

went in search of Hopper architecture

and lunch.

 

 

File Under: Too Much

 

 

Ah, shoes

in Florence

 more shoes (in Florence again)

and all the wonderful packages of pastilles

now the berries on 22nd Street

and the packages of snuff in Queens

not to mention the fast food restaurant near the Roosevelt Avenue subway stop

and looking up under the train tracks

rather an alarming collection of weaponry.

 

Happy Thanksgiving anyway

 

 

Chelsea Art

Once upon a time I was writing a poetry curriculum and thought I had better look up the definition of poetry in the dictionary. #2 suggestion was the products of a poet. This did not seem entirely useful to me.

But it's a loose enough definition to cover pretty much anything.........by that token: art is the product of an artist.........

People have spent all sorts of time and energy discussing the question: WHAT IS ART?

If you look amazingly closely at the picture above --through  the doors of the Gargosian Gallery on W.21st Street  -- you will see some of Monet's Waterlilies. Stunning and glorious, and gosh how much running back and forth he must have done to produce these very abstracty paintings that  form images from a distance.

   

This is not art at all, but fun nonetheless. On 23rd Street.....and not a lily in sight.

This is the work of my chum BERCH who decorates  local diners for every possible celebration.