The World Examining Works

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.

Queens

 

The hinterland just the other side of the East River

lots of rail yards and things

then Queens which has a quite different Karma --see shop front above

then the real shops which sell artificial flowers galore

beneath the elevated subway tracks (sort of an oxymoron)

a deco elevator door to a building behind which there is a secret and magic garden

with very nice flowers

a birdbath

a glittering blue asteroid

cool snacks

two exotic cats Lorenzo el Magnificat and Suleiman Somethingorother

and a red room with a sparkle-dusted feather.

Then home on the subwayto the relative normacly of Manhattan

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.

 

I Break out of my Usual Rut

 

We go to dinner in Queens

not to Ovidio's bar, where there are 'barmaids' apparently........

Perhaps the barmaids wear dresses as .....as.... indescribable as this one.

 New Yorkers wear uniforms of all different kinds; most of them are black. This afternoon I'm going out to buy a dress for something. I think it may not be black, but you never know.

 
It certainly won't be white like the one I saw the day before the wedding.

Last week I went to a supper where the table was decorated with the first peonies of the season and there was asparagus risotto.

Ah! The joys of spring!

 

 

 

New

 

 

Ah, so much moralizing and philosophizing for the new year!

Bah! Humbug!...........

and yet

 

a crossroads

a journey with the colors washed out

and Queens seen palely from a Long Island Railroad train.

Susanna came in the other day with David Nesbitt from Canada and we took photos on the roof. I just looked at her blog with its much better photos than mine. Envy and admiration.  Robert says Susanna has a toaster-sized camera. She does and it takes super pictures.

How bloggers persist in recording things -- which I'm sure we all will in 2011.

Wishing all of you out there a splendid, healthy and madly creative new year.

 

 

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

 

 

Queens' Colors

Could the light possibly be different in Queens?

Rather an odd idea. Sitting in the Thai Restarant looking across the street...

at the beauty parlor which had a sort of Hopper-ish air.

Then we walked out on to Roosevelt Avenue.