Saltie, street fairs, steel, strawberries, asparagus, green garlic. Planning for pickles and preserving. Handmade bicycles, lilacs. Pie and peonies. And an invitation to escape to the Catskills. New superadobe stories and these sandy punks swinging by their knees from geodesic domes selling screenprints and copies of Buckminster Fuller.
Posts Tagged ‘Brooklyn’
Sublet?
In flaneurie on May 5, 2010 at 1:42 amMs Renee Ra has a spot she’d like you to make yours. July and August, $1100 a month for a spacious one bedroom south of Prospect Park. Lovely views, elevator, AC (though you’ll have to pay the electric bill). Interested? Let me know and I’ll put you in touch.
Pirates and Steamfitters
In Stating the Obvious, various on April 29, 2009 at 5:52 pmEventually: my promised report back on the Pirate Bay talk, which was great, and after which Mister Mux Tape explained that commercial software is, by its very nature, better than free and open source software and then asked me if I worked for the FSF when I called him on that bizarre and baseless assertion. I’m not even talking about Apache here. Or I am, but at the present moment, Open Office is better documented than the MS Office suite. And calc’s financial functions are just plain better. I didn’t point out that I don’t think that the Free Software Foundation really has the staff resources to travel the Eastern seaboard heckling speakers at community arts talks. I also didn’t point out that there are people in this world (no really, there are!) who hold opinions they aren’t paid to hold and expertise on subjects they are not professional lobbyists on behalf of.
Actually, I could kind of wrap that one up and repeat what we already know which is that the Bureau of Piracy is great, you should take a look at the links on the original post and (this is the part I hope you already know) that the real problem with the prosecution of the buccaneers is about free speech. Not about my right to swap music willy-nilly, copyright be damned (another thing I didn’t say to Mux Man: there is, I think, a big difference between software and music) but about whether a file sharing platform should be held accountable for the files shared over it. Particularly in a world where some musicians do want to make large files (their own) available free of charge and politically significant data sets can be a difficult thing to host on your own little server. Fundamentally, neither the laws nor the recording industry have kept up with the modern world and it is worth asking why that is really the fault of the Pirate Bureau.
That was rough. I might come back and try to make it sound a little coherent. Read the rest of this entry »
NYPD to Amanda: Drop Dead
In various on October 23, 2008 at 4:59 pmGot a ticket this morning, and had to stand on a traffic island with Brooklyn Bridge-bound cars whizzing by while I waited for Officer Illegible to write me up.
Apparently, you aren’t actually allowed to ride a bike from the bike lane on the street to the bike lane on the bridge. Because you have to enter the crosswalk to do so. You’re supposed to wait until all the cars coming up Tillary get a green turn signal, and then cross their path to get to the bridge. Read the rest of this entry »
Cracker, Go Home
In various on October 12, 2008 at 4:12 pmLast night, we went with a bunch of Merry’s apprentices to see Danny Hoch’s new show in a high school auditorium in Bushwick. An auditorium decorated with murals that tell the story of the mankind on earth, in which very fair skinned naked people are blessed by a winged angel (“The Dawn of Civilization”) and then bestowed the flame (“The Gift of Fire”). And with fire the story ends.
Before I start, just so you know, I’m struggling with the fact that last year’s RAT was really inspiring and rejuvenating for me but without something to offer I can’t see myself going again.
So I saw a play finally. Some live theater. Saw it with a couple of teenagers (both named Hector) whose entire previous experience with live theater consisted of a trip to Lincoln Center to see the Nutcracker (shorter Hector) and “we saw this play once at school” (larger Hector). Read the rest of this entry »
Theater. Like, plays. And stuff.
In various on September 18, 2008 at 2:05 pmMy cousin is coming to town and she wants to go to a play. Fair enough: I live in New York City. I ought to be able to hook that up. Only, I don’t go to plays and the people I know who do fall into difficult categories. Either they love Broadway (I don’t) or they are so immersed in theater that they don’t have a good answer. They don’t know what to recommend because they don’t know what to suggest. No one knows how to say “Well, I’ve been wanting to see …” There’s no Good Reads for theater, where I can skim my friends favorites. Which is part of why I can count on one hand the number of staged performances of anything that I’ve seen in the last decade. Actually, that is totally not true. I see more live performing arts than that.
It is too easy to say “gahh, not Broadway” but what I really mean is that I don’t want sparkly musicals. When I was 10 I loved Cats. I also loved Les Miserables. I probably would have loved anything other big bang musicals at that age. It was like the circus, only better. People like what they like and there’s nothing wrong with that (she says with a snicker) but it won’t make me happy to go see Cats today.
Broadway is more complex than that. I saw Angels in America with May and Kiffy. I don’t actually know if it was the Broadway cast but it was a short run in San Francisco. It was great and I’d see it all over again. On Broadway if that is where it was playing.
I loved the Berkeley Rep production of Bright Room Called Day. I do like more than just Kushner, honest. If someone were to stage a production of The terrible but unfinished story of Norodom Sihanouk, King of Cambodia I would probably faint. I would certainly go. I came across it ten (sneeze. really? yes. ten.) years ago when Jason and I tried to write a play about Cambodia that got as far as Henry Kissenger before we discovered that we weren’t very good collaborators just as our respective lives were intervening to flummox the project anyway. He went on to become a famous playwright. Me, not so much. Pipe Bomb Sonata was excellent, though I never saw it staged, just read it. If I were a more dutiful friend I would have more to say about the rest of his resume but … oh nevermind.
I would have loved to go see Tanque on stage. I don’t actually know why I didn’t. Ganso bought tickets. A whole posse went. We’ll get back to that, later, my inability to just plug in when I know I’d have a good time.
To entertain my cousin I have to look forward, not back. It doesn’t have to be straight theater. Performance art is cool. I’d gladly take Gabriela to see the Swimming Cities of Switchback Sea sail down the Hudson, but the flotilla’s nearly mothballed by now. Once upon a time, I went to some spaghetti dinners at PS 122, where I first saw Coco Rosie. They made me weak in the knees. Great Small Works last updated their schedule in 2003, so I’m guessing there are no spaghetti dinners coming up. Everyone else might be over her, but I still think that Laurie Anderson is a genius. Moby Dick was genius. Actually, it wasn’t. It was just good, but I loved it.
On the other hand, family friends took us to see Love, Janis in the West Village whenever it was that it was plastered all over busses and playing in the West Village. It was painful. I might have loved to read her letters home, but seeing them staged all sugar coated was just weird. Also, no one sings like Janis Joplin. Staging a performance based entirely around covers of Janis Joplin is bound to be agonizing. I don’t think better singers or better acting would have improved it. I still think about it a lot. I have it filed away with The Cockettes in my personal history of the San Francisco my mother lived in when she was my age. Except she wasn’t my age yet. She was a lot younger. She’s going to call me up and tell me that actually her life wasn’t nearly as tragic or arty or drug addled as Janis Joplin or Sweet Pam, but I still like to imagine that San Francisco swirling around her. What I’m trying to say is that I got a lot out of Love, Janis, but I would come up with about eight excuses to avoid seeing it again.
Glengary Glen Ross, which we really did see on Broadway, was excellent. But I didn’t enjoy it as much as I should have because we saw it on Broadway and I wasn’t in the mood for the neighborhood and the whole sensibility of going out for proper theater. Plus there isn’t anyplace that I’d want to eat anywhere near 42nd Street. It isn’t a scene that works for me. It wasn’t for me, though. It is N’s favorite play and the tickets were his birthday present. So I shouldn’t be whining. Plus, on account of it being his favorite play, we own the DVD and I’ve watched it a hundred times and it isn’t my favorite play so the 101th viewing was just that.
I know that atmosphere matters to me. So does location. I don’t want to be treated like royalty, I don’t want to feel like I’m dressed all wrong or everyone around me is going to drive back to Connecticut later. I’d like to be able to see the stage. I’d rather not be way the hell up town. Brooklyn would be great. Some of these things are contradictory, I realize. There’s as much society at the Soho Rep as anywhere on 42nd Street, but it is a society I feel a lot more comfortable with. Or a little more comfortable with. Walking distance from home trumps everything else. BAM or a smallish downtown theater, is what I’m saying.
Facebook reports that Jason is planning to go see Oh What War, and Tanque has tickets for A Kite Cut Loose in the Middle of the Sky which is damn useful information to have. Jason’s blog is useful, too, he posted about Blasted at the Soho Rep. Only Oh What War is an option for 9/26.
Creative Time has a whole festival in progress coming up. Some talks about art and politics, which isn’t exactly theater but it is something to do. Good luck figuring out when anything is happening, their website is to sexy for a schedule.
Eyebeam (also too avant garde to offer a usable website. Though they do have a decent calendar.) has some interesting work up but they’re art, so their openings are on Thursdays. Lucky for Gabriela, they won’t be hacking Linux onto PDAs until later in October. I’d ditch her for that. I want a mood tracking database on my Treo.
Between the Lines is back at BAM. Let me know if you want to come: Oct 16, Nov 6, Dec 18.
Other places I sometimes go but haven’t in a while, most of which don’t have anything on tap for the 26th:
Galapagos,
Free103point9, Not an Alternative (okay, NaA is different but I can’t take a cousin to Jelly. BAM
Seriously, though: back to theater. Where do you look? Are there plays or other staged performances you’ve been wanting to see? Thinking of seeing?
Meet Me At The
In various on July 16, 2008 at 1:04 pm1) We do not own it yet. We believe. We have absolute faith. But we do not own. Tomorrow a new appraisal, hopefully a closing date settled. Everything seems to hang on these threads, teeny tiny little threads. This is a damn nerve wracking time for the banking industry to be going to hell in a handbasket. Later, when we’re depending on rent to make ends meet, that will also not be a good time for the economy to go to hell in a handbasket.
2) Contrary to rumors to the contrary, we’re sticking around this weekend. Thus, I’m hoping to make it to the Radical Reference benefit to see Freaks and Geeks. And I’ll definitely be making a stop at Michelle’s stoop sale:
This SUNDAY, JULY 20th, I’m having a big STOOP SALE. I’ll be getting rid of years of stuff:
Of course, lots of BOOKS, Clothes and costumery (including some WIGS and HATS), An almost new A/C
Nearly all my CDs (now that I’ve uploaded them all…) and some LPs.>>>And much more!< <<
There will also be a sizable FREE BOX and after 2pm, you can come by and fill a shopping bag with what remains from the sale for FIVE DOLLARS.I’ll be on the stoop all day, so even if you don’t want to shop, I encourage you to come by and hang out, maybe listen to some ukulele, maybe have a beer.
Afterwards, there’s a fair chance I’ll be heading to the Golem show in Prospect Park -
123 Garfield Place, betwixt 5th and 6th Avenues, Park Slope (R to Union St., then walk 2.5 blocks south to Garfield, take a left, and up the hill 2 blocks.; 2/3 to Bergen St., then 10 short blocks south on 6th Avenue
F to 4th Avenue, then walk up to 5th Avenue and take a left, then 10 blocks north to Garfield)
I need more books so I might try to stop by early-like. Soon as I’m done with the market, say.
And you? What’s on your weekend plate?
A Sloppy Wet Kiss and a Line Break, too.
In various on June 5, 2008 at 1:07 amHere is what happened: I worked too late for no good reason. I looked over at the clock as I was turning on the radio and thought to my self, “crap. It is 8:03. I have an entire hour before Fair Game is over. It really is only on when I want to listen to the news. Grumble grumble grumble.” I turned on the radio anyway and was pleasantly surprised to find On Point on the air instead. It isn’t my very favorite show ever, but I like it enough and when I’m home from work and ready to make some food or play scrabulous and listen to substantive news coverage, I definitely prefer Tom Ashbrook to Faith Salie. It looks from the WNYC schedule like a permanent change.
So whoever did this for me, I give to you a too tight hug and a giant kiss.
Also, I’m monkeying with this blasted postgres create statement that won’t translate properly to mysql, and to make things just that much trickier it has some kind of monkey business with the line breaks. The line breaks look just fine to the naked vim eye, but mysql was giving me errors with line numbers off. So for instance, this table definition (those are line numbers),
123 DROP TABLE IF EXISTS share_types;
124 CREATE TABLE share_types (
125 id serial not null primary key,
126 csa_id integer not null
127 CONSTRAINT share_type_csa_id_fk
128 REFERENCES csas(id)
129 ON UPDATE cascade
130 ON DELETE cascade,
131 share_type varchar(50) not null,
132 account_id integer not null
133 CONSTRAINT share_types_account_fk
134 REFERENCES accounts(id),
135 notes text,
136 updated_at timestamp not null default current_timestamp,
137 created_at timestamp DEFAULT 0,
138 position int,
139 CONSTRAINT share_type_csa_id_unq unique (csa_id, share_type)
140 )ENGINE=InnoDB;
Would generate an error like …
ERROR 1064 (42000) at line 124: You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near 'CONSTRAINT share_type_csa_id_fk
REFERENCES csas(id)
' at line 4
Why line 124 when the problem is at line 128? There were other signs, too. So I did this:
:%s/\n/^M/g
and now the line breaks are good. Whew!
If I Didn’t
In events, various on June 4, 2008 at 2:27 amhave a meeting to go to (there better be cookies!), I’d be at this on Thursday …
Floating Points 2008 Issue Project Room
This Festival, in its third year, (formerly points in a circle) explores the versatility of ISSUE Project Room’s Innovative house speaker system, designed by Stephan Moore.
In the hands of these diverse performers and sound artist, this fifteen-channel installation of hemisphere loudspeakers radically changes the concert experience for both performer and audience.
Each of the hemispheres radiates sound in all directions, activating the acoustics of this unique concert space. Immersive sonic environments are generated, electronic sounds take on the characteristic intimacy of acoustic instruments, and location is liberated as a musical dimension.
Thursday June 5
title: /body-in-pieces/
performance and installation by tianna kennedy and chad laird
/body-in-pieces/ is a partially pre-recorded, partially improvised performance riffing on two immediately recognizable themes from the horror genre: Bernard Herrmann’s cue to the first murder in Alfred Hitchcock’s /Psycho/ and John Williams Main Title theme from /Jaws/. Both reworked samples reside in popular culture as sonic tropes instantly signifying ‘horror,’ or the anticipation of immanent peril or violence to the body. By isolating, fragmenting, and manipulating these familiar soundtrack elements in space we hope to underscore the process by which sound and mise-en-scene in horror often not only prepare and condition the viewer for violence, but stand-in for or displace the traumatized body itself. /body-in-pieces/ also finds its way through thematically linked material such as Maurice Ravel’s Concerto for the Left Hand in D Major (written for a pianist who had lost his left arm in World War I) and motifs from Alice in Wonderland. Additionally, our installation/performance will be set to projections of abstract light sequences culled from 60s Italian Horror films.
Tianna Kennedy is a cellist, sometime-artist, and Brooklyn Program Director for free103point9. Chad Laird teaches art history at FIT and makes zombie movies.
What I learned this weekend, and other Odds and Ends.
In various on June 4, 2008 at 1:21 amFor the Escape from New York files, though we rented a car (a minivan, even) for the trip.
Sawmill Lake, in High Point State Park is a pretty good spot to retreat to if you’re game for some car camping. Dunno if we could have pulled off biking there. There’s talk of closing the park, however, so I don’t know how useful this tip is going to be in the long run. Contrary to the “already closed” captions on the Trail Conference site, I swam in Lake Marcia Saturday under the watchful eye of no less than four lifeguards. Too bad there’s no comprehensive searchable news site for New Jersey. I had a hellofa time finding any kind of data about the status of the park closures.
Finally, the real reason I’m going to go ahead and post this in all its half baked glory is that the campaign around Union Square and the Union Square Partnership is really shaping up and I want to help them up the ante on ye olde searching algorithms. You can help, too.
Forever, and other Loose Ends
In various on May 18, 2008 at 10:44 pmLouisa said that when she starts making lists she’s trying to make the best of not loving what is all around her. So then I stopped making lists, too. I’ve always been easily swayed.
But then I realized that I just want to let you know, just a thing or two. That I’m mesmerized by the things strangers wear. Muddy carrots and too many spring onions, Miranda July.
Also, after a few run-ins with rechargeable batteries that don’t, I do finally have pictures of the bodum cozy. They’re on Flickr, first, but I’m installing gallery. Flickr is cooler, for sure, but I started feeling wiggly after the Yahoo buyout, and then, this last week, the talk of Microsoft … I need to start weening myself.
Cheap Crashes (edited)
In various on May 14, 2008 at 2:18 pmA colleague recently asked for cheap places to stay in NYC and then circulated the list he’d aggregated. This is a question I’ve tried to answer before, for all kinds of people, from punk to professional to downright prissy. I know that not everyone can dig a youth hostel — if I’m coming to town for work I’m not sure I can stay in a dorm. So use your judgement. There’s something for everyone. If you’re looking for a place to stay that isn’t crazy expensive, take a look at:
Gross. Gross. Gross.
In various on May 8, 2008 at 8:22 pmOkay, not to go all bug paranoid on you all, dear readers, but having learned that Hoyt-Schermerhorn is teeming with bedbugs (yeah, you read that right, and yes I am exaggerating a little) I am totally revolted. I am also reminded that when I was a child my mother would not let me put my book bag on the kitchen table (she knew exactly where else it had been) and was very adamant that I should never set it down on the ground or on the floor of the bus. In more recent years I’ve grown lax about the latter. The former, not so much: I still think that bags you might ever possibly consider setting on the ground do not go on eating or food prep surfaces anymore than shoes do. I think it is about time for me to be a lot more conscious about where I set my bags down.
Wondering what Cherry Crush is doing underground? Well. Since I was experiencing chronic vertigo for a while … a lot of yoga and going to bed early seems to have mostly cleared it up, thank spaghetti monster; and since the vertigo more recently gave way to outrageous hay fever (and I seem to be constitutionally unable to digest antihistamines — I end up in the clouds. Way, way, way up in the clouds, not just a little bit up in the clouds.) … I have been riding the train a lot lately. Waiting for the Golly G at Hoyt-Schermerhorn, which you know can take a lifetime.
Yuck.
PS, everybody, be sure to visit New York soon!
PPS, no really: nothing is better for your immune system than a good rush of germs, right? Keep everything in good working order.
PPPS, I finally came up with an excuse to actually get in touch with Miss Heather who swears that she can to reign in her fucking language when it fucking suits her. Needless to say, I think her blog is hilarious, though I know that some of my dear readers won’t fully appreciate her richly layered vocabulary. I have been thinking about starting my own take on her original mission. Myself, I’d like to better document human fecal deposits in subway stair cases.
Why I Hate AT&T
In various on April 27, 2008 at 5:22 pmJust hung up on the customer service automaton. I was having such a nice morning, but after the third time that my phone went on a wringing binge, I decided to call. First, they have no service request on file for my number? How’s that? I tried filing one on the website but got no response. Now they need me to look up my most recent bill–why? I’m calling to say the line is broken. I could be the squatter living on the roof calling to say the line is broken. The line’d still be broken. Read the rest of this entry »
Helps People
In various on April 13, 2008 at 1:33 pmMy friends at Icarus are looking for a volunteer to help maintain Paula Caplan’s website. Will writes …
Paula Caplan is a feminist psychologist and lecturer at Harvard who works to critique sexism, racism, and other bias in psychiatric diagnosis. Her awesome website is www.psychdiagnosis.net.
She needs a volunteer to do really simple html updating of her brochureware website. Like one or two hours a month. I helped her with it some, but have too much on my plate at the moment.
If you are interested in this opportunity to make a big difference for just a little bit of effort, email me and I’ll put you in touch with her: will at theicarusproject.net.
Also, if you know of a 1+ bedroom for a friend ‘o mine, a mom and her five year old, or if you want to be roommates with my upstairs neighbor (small bedroom, great building) lemme know.
Shorts
In various on March 4, 2008 at 3:24 pmThings I’ve been meaning to articulate, (and in Magstock Style, I invite you to vote for your favorite followup.)
- This morning, the woman who passed me on Jay Street and said something so huffy and with such a terse look on her face I that I heard “bitch, you suck” before I realized that the actual words out of her mouth were “nice boots.” Right. Thanks. I do love New Yorkers.
- Where We Are Now, hope, change, mania and haters and how to talk about what it is that we’re all hoping for, what we think that change will bring. Something concrete that we can use to actually look back at this moment and measure success.
- Finally getting my own slot on the Idea Lab. And screwing up the grammar in my first post.
- Art, civic participation, conversations about consumerism (and maybe a little bit about why the really good stuff always seems to happen off line, or at least out of the public square.)
- A panel last night that was about two very different things and couldn’t quite find its way to a conversation, but got me thinking a lot anyway. Also, about salons, civics conversations, public spaces and how it isn’t easy to create a place where people come together to talk about ideas, but Beka, Winnie and Jason are here to tell you it isn’t that hard either.
- Zack Exley on faith, study and Christians, and why Speaking of Faith is one of my favorite shows.
- Savitri on creating our own faith.
And later, maybe someone can explain how I loused up my style sheet again such that lists aren’t. Feh.
Lately
In various on February 14, 2008 at 7:03 pmMoby Dick, which is brilliant and which I’ve been meaning to re-read ever since … actually I just went to Laurie Anderson’s site to find a URL and came up with a wee web radio of One White Whale. I like Laurie Anderson more than anyone else I know does. Anyway. I have been meaning to re-read Moby Dick ever since I saw Laurie Anderson at BAM in 1999, a fiasco unto itself. I think the day I broke up with Ahm Here he said something like “oh, I guess I should just give you these tickets I just got us, because I know you want them more than I do.” and I said we should go together to see if we can still be friends. We went, but he was late and in the meantime I ran into a friend who latched onto us (how could she know?) and it looked an awful lot like I’d rigged the whole thing to avoid being alone with him. He fell in love with someone eventually. I’m pretty sure they’re married. Still, I felt bad about that, because it was mean.
But Moby Dick. That was one. “Drinking chocolate” from Vosages is two. N. doesn’t read this so he won’t know I was there until later tonight. They’re out of the bacon chocolate bars anyway. Moby Dick, hot chocolate, good ideas that actually happen. My mother sending me her ERA bracelet, even if not everyone dear to me could actually tell what the Equal Rights Amendment is. Was. My copy of Moby Dick was my mother’s, too. It is full of her perfectly straight underlining and notes in the margins (“doubt makes belief more secure when finally reached”).
I once was lost …
In various on February 4, 2008 at 10:59 pmOctober 2006. I can’t find my winter coat so I just wear an extra sweatshirt. December 2006 I take everything out of the coat closet. January 2007, I cave and buy a new coat. This has driven me mad, though. Almost as mad as the pair of slacks (brown, a lovely blend of silk and wool) that disappeared from my apartment in Greenpoint sometime in 2001. How does a pair of pants just walk away? I don’t get it.
January 2008, a couple in Hawaii finds a message in a bottle that my brother tossed overboard in March of 2005. He made it sound like he might actually tell us more about where it started out and how he thinks it managed to avoid being ensnared in the Pacific’s famous texas sized flotsam mass. He’s still just promising that more is to come. Also, Brian and Betsy become betrothed (! congratulations!) and move in together.
February 2008, Germany and Brian clean out the last of the hall closets to make room for Jer’s new roommate.
My jacket is back.
old bones (jared needs a subletter)
In various on December 11, 2007 at 2:45 amLooking for a way to spend the winter in Brooklyn?
My old bones don’t seem to care so much for the cold weather any longer; so, in typical fashion, I am trying to avoid the winter. I would like to sublet my room from January 15 through the end of February. Most of you know the place, it is a large room in a quite building, high ceilings, wood floors, a bed, a dresser, a small couch, a much smaller television. I am looking for $550 per month, $825 total, which includes all bills as well as cable and internet, there is even a home phone. The place will be shared with a go to sleep early, wake up early kind of guy. We would like someone who is a clean and respectful localtarian. Please pass this on as you see fit.
Thanks,
Jared
Ask Cherry Crush (get me out of here)
In various on December 7, 2007 at 7:43 pmThis query didn’t come straight to Ask Cherry Crush, but I believe that our friend would have asked Cherry Crush if only she’d known how:
I am writing to see if any of youse can suggest cheap places my beloved and I might spend New Years’ Eve or perhaps a week in mid-January.
We are broke. As in one of us deep in debt and the other one barely treading water.
Still, we needs to get away and spend some quiet time. Was there a lovely cabin you rented once? A great funky b&b you stayed at? We can drive there, anywhere within a 6-hour drive of the city is fine. We can’t spend hundreds of dollars a night and we need to be able to cook.
Any suggestions you’ve got are great. If not, well, never hurts to ask!
This happens to be my favorite question, so funny someone should ask. The best part of this question? I do not know the answer! They have a car, which does make it all a little easier than my even more favorite question, “Can I do this by bike?” but still.
Maybe you know a guy?
In various on October 16, 2007 at 1:18 pmhey bike friends-
As some of you know, my trusty old pal the green bike dodged its last pothole a couple of weeks ago. We had some good times, me and that bike, but I guess it was time to ride off into that great stretch of fresh pavement in the sky.
So I’m looking for a new pair of wheels, and would love it if you could keep your eyes open. Something with some street sense, in a three- or a ten-speed. Must be a hardy soul who can live outside at night, likes long rambles around Brooklyn, and isn’t scared of some amateur bike repair. If you hear of any leads, secret stoop sales, or know a guy, please let me know.
thanks,
Alice
You know how to find me if you’ve got just the thing for Miss Hartley.
Dresser (you want?); and a thing to do on the 13th.
In various on October 1, 2007 at 1:20 pmBought a new dresser from Eddie this weekend, which means the old one is up for grabs. Posted it on craigs list, but if you want it the price is negotiable for friends. Just say the word.
Also, to file under upcoming, another batizado, October 13 at 5:30, PS 77 Auditorium, 62 Park Place between 5th and 6th Ave. In Brooklyn. You should come. It is just $10, and I’m graduating.
exactly what oliver promised I wouldn’t do
In various on September 12, 2007 at 12:53 pmI’m working on the whole “not that sort of blog” thing. I don’t want to whine. Or, I do want to whine, but I won’t. So no “ten things I hate about you, oh world.” Still, yesterday, I took the train and sat below a woman with deep bags under her eyes reading Andrew Weil. The title was something like Spontaneous Healing and I was sitting there, looking at her puffy eyes and tiredness and I wanted to say, “honey. Dear. Andrew Weil can’t help you if you don’t get enough sleep. Vitamins won’t make up for a decent night’s sleep.” She looked so earnest.
I’m still learning to mind my own business. I kept my mouth shut.
out of context
In various on August 31, 2007 at 2:00 pmIn better days, he said, “you could sit out on your lawn chair until 4 a.m. drinking espresso, and no one would bother you.”
N has accused me (not unfairly) of thinking everything is bad. Luisa keeps list of things that are making her happy, and coincidently, she doesn’t complain that much. I used to think it was because she led a charmed life that was without suffering or want, but like so many things that you think without thinking about them, I know that isn’t really true. So my own midsummer resolution is to dwell on what I enjoy, at least for a little while, until the curmudgeon needs to come up for air.
A man reminiscent for the days when he could sit in a lawn chair until 4 a.m. drinking espresso is a beautiful thing, even if it is coming out of a kind of thin AM-NY article about how Bushwick used to be different.
The young dissident naturally wanted to play tricks.
In various on August 25, 2007 at 6:52 pmDubin insisted the other night that she does read my blog even though it never makes any sense. I used to offer at least a few more updates about my life as a whole, I think.
The more time I spend with writers, the more I think about writing again. Really writing, not writing about how to use code. Not that it gets me anywhere, but I do think about it. I spent the weekend bouncing around the Hudson Valley with Lex and Tarikh, eating pie and corn and letting the immense quiet settle around me. 
I’m re-learning how to enjoy this world, missing stumbling upon things like this. Also, I lost my toothbrush. Dang.
I had a longish debate the other night about the One Laptop Per Child project, which everyone seems to assume I’ll love (computers! amanda likes computers!) nevermind that they’re semi-useless hunks of manufactured plastics, or that it is a classic story of international aid that we’re always building schools and never hiring teachers.
Today, I’m working. This is part of the puzzle, that I took on a full time job and it is a code-y job and I think it might have been a terrible mistake but I’m going to stick it out for now and see if I can challenge myself to make something of it without someone else whisking me off to make something of it for me. For now, I’m a little bored, which is scary and not the sort of thing you’re supposed to blog about.
I’ve been finishing things. The BaseBox has been done for a while, and Mayfirst’s Organic Internet book is out. And yet, the list of things to do is still longish and rote. How’d I end up with so many chores? Type minutes. Upgrade operating system. Repot carnivorous plants in something attractive (buy things. Meh.) Frame prints — more buying things, and last time I tried the clerk at the frame shop was so bizarrely rude to me that I was deeply demoralized and walked out without buying anything. Taliah says to go to Soho Art Materials instead.
Is that what you were looking for, or was it something different? I’m never sure.
Really Big Yard Sale
In events on July 26, 2007 at 8:00 pmThey’re calling it The Greatest Yardsale Fundraiser which might be an exaggeration, but they have a great selection of clothes, books, cds, videos, a sewing machine, boxing gloves, skiing goggles, a brand new ski bag, a couch, a small-framed woman’s mountain bike, bamboo window shades, bags, purses, jewellery, fresh baked vegan and non-vegan goodies, smoothies….the list goes on.
This is a fund-raiser for Capoeira Brooklyn’s 2007 Batizado. Stop by if you’re in the area, I’ll be around for an early shift probably.
Almost forgot.
In various on July 25, 2007 at 3:54 pmMy first post about anything nuptualish, following my own nuptuals, was a rambling rant about unfeminists and patriarchy and why it is that there aren’t more women at technology conferences. (you’d have to read between the lines for to catch that one)
Our wedding was great. I had a really good time. I had a lot of things I wanted to say, that I’d been writing down, but I lost my notebook in Montreal. Practical things and observations, like. Being married does feel different, but …
I am happy to talk about weddings and marriage and love, but over beer or while we turn the compost together. Not here. This was never meant to be one of those public diaries in which I share my every emotion with the world. There are enough of those already.
If you want to see the whole album, let me know and I’ll send you a link.
Speaking of beer … we have a lot of it in mini-kegs that we couldn’t open in Vermont. We’re taking suggestions on when and where to share it with you.
Afropunk
In various on July 1, 2007 at 7:01 pmAfro-Punk Festival
June 28-July 7
This Independence Day, celebrate some true revolutionaries during the third annual Afro-Punk Festival at BAM, featuring film, music, and art united under the banner of black rebellion. This year’s festival is focused on the Black Panther party, including a discussion with Black
Panther co-founder Bobby Seale, two programs on July 4 featuring documentaries about them, and an exhibit of archival photographs by the Black Panthers party photographer Stephen Shames. For the full line-up, visit BAM.org/afropunk.
OPENING NIGHT: On Thu, June 28, legendary Black Panther co-founder Bobby Seale discusses the history of the movement: where it’s been and where it’s going. Tickets are $15.
FILM: Music docs, cult classics, documentaries about the Black Panthers, and more. Highlights include a new print of Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (with clear parallels to the civil rights movement), Samuel Fuller’s White Dog (about a dog programmed to attack black people), The Final Comedown, Eyes of the Rainbow (a documentary about Black Panther leader Assata Shakur), and more.
ART: Selections from the book The Black Panthers: Making Sense of History. This exhibition looks at the history of the movement through the lens of official party photographer Stephen Shames. In partnership with Aperture Foundation.
MUSIC: The Afro-Punk Festival features live concerts and DJ sets by bands from the Afro-Punk scene, including Cutlery, The Objex, Bear in Wolf Fur, No Surrender, CX Kidtronik, and much more.
AFROPUNK BLOCK PARTY: Celebrate Brooklyn’s DIY spirit at the first-ever Afro-Punk Block Party, featuring live music, artists, vendors, crafts, food, and more.
For full information and to buy tickets: BAM.org/afropunk
Read the Fine Print, Sucker (or just rent local)
In various on June 16, 2007 at 11:43 pmIt is 7:30, and N just called me from Dollar, where he was supposed to be picking up our rental car so we can drive off into the sunset. “They’re saying that because we live in Brooklyn, there is some kind of $55/day fee? Does that sound right?”
So I go to their website and sure enough the fee is clearly stated in their general policies–their site actually says the fee is $77/day for Brooklynites. Apparently this isn’t even news. So, hang on to that Michigan drivers license or don’t rent from Dollar.
Jerks.
New York Rent-a-Car is friendly and obliging:
New York Rent A Car Inc
(718) 275-9155
333 Adams St
Brooklyn, NY
And plenty of our friends swear by Speedy’s on Union:
Speedy Rent-A-Car
(718) 783-0800 800 Union St
Brooklyn, NY
Back that *** up (and a plug for Mikey’s Hookup)
In linux on June 15, 2007 at 1:31 amN’s got a super-sketch-spyware-adware-trojan beast on his computer (that is what you get for browsing with IE, says I) — the kind of thing that you get from clicking the wrong button and launching some kind of ActiveX installer. It won’t go away. No amount of Spybot Search and Destroy or Spyware Doctor will make it go away (speaking of Spyware Doctor, later we can talk about how I feel that the Google Pack is all or nothing. What if I don’t want Google to take over my screen saver? Sure, I can uninstall it later, but why not let me choose in the beginning?).
We’ve given up trying to eradicate it, so I took a field trip to Mikey’s Hook Up where knowledgeable people took a break from their ping-pong game to ask me a few questions and point me towards a reasonably priced external hard drive so we can back up our home drives from his computer and start over. Got that? Knowledgeable people, enjoying their workday. I can’t tell J&R and Best Buy apart, but I am pretty sure that no one really tries to help you at either one. They sure don’t at Radio Shack. And you don’t get to play ping pong on your breaks at Best Buy. It is okay to shop someplace where the staff aren’t being forcibly crushed into a homogeneous model of “Perfect Customer Service” that involves no service whatsoever.
Back to the hard drive, though. I know that we could bring the malware with us, but, having evaluated the risk, we’re not that stressed out about it. Moreover, since the option is to just erase everything, we may as well try.
Since our fancy new LaCie (designed by Porsche, ooh la lah) drive has a gazillion gigs available, I get to back Brahms up, too.
Here’s what I did. I’d love to know if you’ve got a better idea:
[0 amanda@brahms ~]$ cd /media/LACIE/Brahms/
[0 amanda@brahms Brahms]$ sudo tar cvpfz backup.tgz --exclude=/proc --exclude=/lost+found --exclude=/mnt --exclude=/sys --exclude=/dev --exclude=/media --exclude=.Trash /
Note that Ubuntu mounted the drive of its own accord. It is not inconcievable that a person could have to mount a drive themselves if it doesn’t just automagically appear. If you don’t like my only relevant archive, you could try searching the internets.
I made up the “.Trash” part because I couldn’t find any documentation of how the tar --exclude option handles regular expressions. If I backed up the trash, okay, I backed up the trash. Worse things have happened.
Still, I’m wondering. Did I do the right thing? I created separate (duplicate) backups of a couple of directories where I store working documents (my home directory and /var/www/html but those were a little more straightforward.
PS, can i just tell you how much it warms my heart that Princess Oh-my-god-she-saw-me-without-makeup Melissa also is totally over ga-ga weddings. It isn’t just because I’m a difficult and belligerent punk, it is because people go out of their heads and they need to just not.
For the Martha Peach files
In various on May 3, 2007 at 12:56 pm
Martha,
I hate to do this to you. I know you’re trying to get tenure someplace, trying to behave like a real grownup and maybe not wild about having a cyber stalker out there whose only connection to you is a scrap of paper found in a vacant lot a decade ago, but restraint has never been my strong point.
I’m wondering whether this is your kindergarden class picture hanging in my kitchen? It is framed so I may not scan it right away.
This, though, I thought I’d lost. I had just tucked it away for safe keeping. Tell me it isn’t great?
[tags]brooklyn, art, storytelling, letters-home[/tags]
Born of the Bubble (ask Cherry Crush)
In various on February 5, 2007 at 4:17 pmA few folks have asked for this, and so I am sharing it. With you, my dear readers. Here is what I know:
Buying a home is usually a smart idea. You can use all kinds of rent vs. own calculations, but the big truth is that unless you own your home, you live at the whim of the rental market. I know very few people who have enough money saved to make a down payment on a home, and you can all consider this your consolidated lecture. Financial security isn’t magic. It takes planning and saving. I have never met anyone who regrets having put money aside, but I know a lot of people, some of them a lot older than me, who are suddenly confronting the precariousness of renting. One friend, now in his sixties, told me about how he used to think he was so smart, watching his siblings struggle to make mortgage payments while he lived in his shared home with his roommates and his super cheap rent. He was free, liberated from the guy lines of the banking industry. They were bougie suckers. Hah!
Fast forward twenty years, and he watched as his siblings paid off their mortgages right about the time that he realized he was tired of negotiating with roommates. Today, he can’t quite afford a home of his own, and he’s feeling a little stuck. He’ll roll with it, but he regrets not being more proactive when he had the chance.
Yes, real estate in Brooklyn is outrageously expensive. Almost as outrageous as San Francisco. That doesn’t mean you can’t afford to buy. Buy what you can afford and take it from there. Renting is a fine way to live in the short term, but unless you’ve got some kind of rent controlled love shack, you need to think long term. (and, even if you are rent regulated, do you really want to stake your financial security on the continued vigilance of DHCR? I wouldn’t.)
Right now, today, if you have good credit, 20% to put down and a verifiable and stable income, you can get a fixed rate mortgage at 6%. For every missing piece, the interest rate goes up a bit. Getting a morgage isn’t any more complex than that. A mortgage broker might be able to get you a better deal, but the real challenge comes when you don’t have good credit or a verifiable income or cash to put down. I don’t know how to help you with those things, I’ve always been a by the book kind of a woman.
If you are counting on rental income to pay the mortgage, the bank won’t let you count on more than 75% of prevailing market rents. They know a thing or two about real estate and tenants. Figure they are about right and don’t count on getting higher than market rents or never having any vacancies.
You can find a thousand articles about tenancy-in-common gone awry, but they all have one thing in common–people didn’t communicate and they didn’t put things in writing. Do business with people you trust, yes, but there is no better way to be sure that everyone is on the same page than putting it all in writing. Be real. Marriages fall apart after 20 years. 30 years. People change. If you are investing in a home, don’t just trust anyone. Trust people, yes, but seal your trust with a sign on the line that is dotted.
Mortgage payments are a complicated thing, but roughly figure this:
a=(P*(r/12))/(1-(1+(r/12))^(0-n))
wherein a= monthly payment, r= rate, P= principal (if you are feeling dense, that would be the purchase price minus your downpayment …), n= term in months (there are 12 in a year …)
Property Tax in NYC is an arbitrary beast, water is expensive, so is heat. Those aren’t minor expenses. The attached spreadsheet includes realistic numbers for a house I recently looked at, but you should do your own homework. The department of finance has records online, so does the Department of Buildings. Property Shark is a great resource, too.
(OpenOffice Mortgage Calculator | Excel Mortgage Calculator)
Confidential to JF, you can usually use some of a retirement savings plan towards the purchase of your first home. Might be only $10,000 that you can use, though. At one point recently I was looking at a chart that broke it down for me, but I can’t find it right now.
C.O.B.R.A. cometh
In various on January 3, 2007 at 1:39 pm
I have a friend who said once “oh, yeah, we do that in Ann Arbor, too” and I am here to tell you that nobody does this in Ann Arbor. Fire breathing dragons? Surgery on the run? Menacing giant squid? I don’t think so.
27th of January in the year of aught seven
Some Classifieds
In various on November 27, 2006 at 10:28 pmBeka is looking for a co-worker; Maggie nees a roommate; Elizabeth needs a tenant and Pit needs neighbors. Let me know if any of these appeal to you. Read the rest of this entry »
