New York Miscellany for Faraway Friends

Springing Forward!

2011-06-10T00:04:00.000-04:00

Ah, looks like I am almost up to date on the catch-up posts!

First up, I had a visit from faraway friends Milla and Colin, as well as a fly-by visit from Bich Thu—all of whom live in London these days. I love it when friends of friends all become friends! We decided to celebrate that friendship with a lot of meat at Peter Luger's Steakhouse.

I have to say, I think Colin and I ate most of that giant plate o'meat. The rest of them? Practically useless!

But very cute!

May Day was Julia's birthday: Happy Birthday, Julia!

We had to do a big ride of course, and what better destination than scenic Staten Island? Our first stop was a delicious all-you-can-eat brunch buffet at Lakruwana, right down the street from the ferry. Afterward, we needed a big lawn to lay down on, so we rode down to bucolic Sailor's Snug Harbor.

Obligatory bike pile-up shot.

Snug Harbor also has a Chinese Scholar's Garden, which for some reason was free that day.

After that, we headed to the abandoned ship graveyard, because nothing says "birthday" like a tetanus shot!

I'm leaving out the mile-long hike on the beach dragging our bikes. I guess we were all having too much fun (!) to take any pictures. I joke.
What else happened in spring? Well, the cherry blossoms came and went.

We tried a few different coffee places. D'Espresso—this is their midtown location, where they have a very small space and some mind-boggling wallpaper.

Even on the floor!

Julia and I checked out a place in Soho called Saturdays Surf, which must have the best-looking clientele and baristi and by far the cutest dogs! Also, a great outdoor space in the back! Oh, the coffee was pretty good, too.

And I had a delicious cup of tea and scones at Alice's Tea Cup on the Upper East Side.

And summer's here already - popsicle time!

Looking Back, December and January

2011-03-28T17:12:00.007-04:00

I'm combining December and January since it was a pretty quiet winter. And by quiet, I mean snowy! It seemed like every other week, we had another blizzard. There was even a night with both thunder and snow, otherwise known as THUNDERSNOW!!

I'm pretty much a fair-weather biker, but maybe I get vicarious props for having friends this hardcore:

April had a party, where her birdies came out to mix and mingle with us!

These days, though, April has been super busy, fostering dogs. So far, she's had three doggie friends adopted to their forever homes (four if you count the one she's adopted herself)! Stop by her blog to find out more, especially if you're looking for a doggie friend of your own (although not the super-cute pup in the picture below, who has already been adopted!).

So what was I doing all this time? Knitting! I decided Christmas 2010 was going to be as handmade as possible. I must have knit ten items - hats, cowls, scarves — for family. A couple examples:

And before I knew it, Christmas was upon us!

After the consumerfest of Christmas, we all felt the need to slim down our closets and clutter, so Nim had a post-Christmas swap. Everyone brought two items, many of which were hilarious, and at least two of which were leopard print. Why yes, that is a leopard print Snuggie.

And some clothing that *somehow* didn't make the cut!

Looking Back, November Edition

2011-02-25T13:03:00.012-05:00

I haven't posted anything for a *long* time! Luckily, my blogmates have taken up the slack. I was looking through iphoto and realized I have all these pictures from the fall and winter that I never got around to posting. So I'll start sharing again, but only if you'll forgive the long absence! Here's November that was.

First things first: I took Julia to see The Pee-Wee Herman Show as a late (very late) birthday gift. I think "overjoyed" wouldn't even cover Julia's feelings, but here's the picture so you can judge for yourself.

Julia, Matthew, Stella, and I biked over to Newtown Creek to enjoy the recently opened "nature walk." Apparently Newtown Creek is home to more than toxic sludge and the sewage treatment plant! What a perfect location for a nature walk. For real, though the walk itself is actually nicely designed and maybe a superfund site *is* the perfect place to try to appreciate something we did a good job effing up.
The nature walk starts out concrete. Go figure.

Besides that, one or two things other things puzzle me. For instance,access to the water. For what purpose, exactly? To better enjoy the view of the garbage scows in the distance, or to appreciate the scent of the fuggy breeze wafting off the canal?

Food plants in the "fragrance garden." Really, who would even consider that?

I don't think you have to worry about anyone swimming here (except for a certain Brooklyn assemblyman), but just in case:

Still, we did get the "nature," as promised.

And a nice view walking back. If by "nice," you mean "industrial," which I do.

My last bike outing of 2010 was a Bayside bike ride. We took Time Out New York's word for it, and made a big loop from the last stop on the F train to Fort Totten and back. I'm not sure if we did the entire loop suggested by the article, but it was a beautiful, picturesque ride with some delicious Thai food at the end, so no complaints.

We wrapped up November with a terrarium making workshop at Hannah's studio. We made large terrariums

small terrariums

Fun, crafty times!

"Tokens of Love"

2011-01-31T22:59:00.001-05:00

The good people of Time's Up really brightened my commute this morning when they ambushed me with smiles and candy and hokey cheers at the base of the bridge, thanking me for riding my bike on a cold winter's day--my pleasure!!

Quiet Before the Storm

2011-01-12T12:01:00.001-05:00

Was remembering Walter DeMaria's piece in that field in New Mexico, the other day. Want to go back to that time, and to that place.

Yup

2010-12-29T19:01:00.001-05:00

Snow!!

2010-12-29T01:19:00.003-05:00

Canoeing the Gowanus was Superfund!

2010-10-10T22:45:00.009-04:00

Before we ventured into the murky waters, David Krieger of the Gowanus Community Development Corporation gave a brief history of the canal, which was named after a chief in the Lenape tribe back when it was still a creek. This was around the time when the borough of Brooklyn was a wee town named Breukelen! During the Gowanus' glory days right after World War I, it was the most trafficked commercial canal in the country.

We entered at one of the few non-private points of access to the canal, at the dead end of cobble stoned 2nd street. Here's google's street view:

We canoed towards the pretty gnarly northern end of the canal first. Lots of filmy layers of grime sitting on the surface of the water, along with of course floating trash bags, beer cans, and lots of unidentifiable slime.

There are several houseboats along the edges of the canal, including this charming one:

It was fun cruising under the bridges that I normally ride my bike over--what a strange perspective!

It was high tide and we just barely managed to clear this really low one. Oh god.

The southern end of the canal is less filthy, because it's closer to the bay. That's also where the two remaining operational cement factories are. These guys piped in the banjo music from Deliverance on their PA system as we paddled by...

All along the banks are bus depots, abandoned lots, and towering reminders of the waterway's industrial past.

What a magical way to spend a gorgeous Saturday morning--I'd gladly do it again! Just gotta be sure to check the tide tables next time.

It just isn't right...

2010-10-02T01:51:00.005-04:00

... that this sweatshirt belongs to me and not Patricia.

There, that's better!

HK Karaoke madness

2010-09-27T06:53:00.004-04:00

My silly family!

Haha

2010-09-19T17:18:00.004-04:00

I have no idea where this photo came from or how old it is, but does it really matter?!!!!!?!!!

Feeling nostalgic for two months ago

2010-09-19T16:30:00.003-04:00

Summer is almost over and I don't wanna let go! It was a good one.

We sweated through three hours of brooklyn and queens by bike on one of the hottest days of the summer, to get to an art party at a marina in Far Rockaway that Olivia was hosting. The reward: cold Bud and a dip in the grimy sound, surrounded by sex dolls bobbing in the water around us (art!).

Emi was born! Congratulations Carl & Ros, she's lovely. And at less than two weeks old, so tiny.

I spent 5 days on Fire Island, with Jens & Jenny and many of their friends. Activities consisted almost exclusively of laying on the beach, drinking beer, and eating giant group meals.

I hosted Otto at my house while Audrey was away in Paris reportaging the Tour de France.

While I was attending a Smashing Pumpkins concert with Adam at Terminal 5, some jerk tried to steal my bike. S/he was thwarted by my kryptonite chain, but my bike was rendered unrideable in the process. Matthew swooped in to find me an exact replacement--Maruishi Jr was shipped to me (aided by the kindness of Corvallis, OR resident Mike Cunningham) a couple weeks later!

Weekend in Montauk

2010-08-09T09:06:00.003-04:00

Went up to Montauk this weekend with Ilmi. It's really pretty out there -- the beaches are backed by cliffs, the waves are good for surfing and water feels really clean.

Ilmi and his friend Dave caught some early morning waves while I watched from the beach.

We "ate local"!

Camping in Minnewaska State Park

2010-07-26T11:05:00.007-04:00

Peter and I camped in Minnewaska State Park this weekend.

We splashed around in this amazing waterfall.

Picked blueberries to our hearts content and brought bags of them back home too! The trail we hiked along was lined with them -- much like Harriman.

No camping allowed in the park, but we were quiet and broke down the tent at first light. It was completely deserted at night! Not a soul! Almost eerie, but definitely amazing.

The water is crystal clear -- the lake has a limestone bedrock so the pH is not suitable for fish and other animals.

It would be amazing to go back in the fall when the leaves are turning!

Mama's birthday

2010-07-01T15:20:00.000-04:00

I helped Mom celebrate her birthday this year by coaxing her off the isle of Manhattan over to my house in Brooklyn, where we meandered our way through Dumbo and Brooklyn Heights over to the new Pier 6 playground and ferry dock. Destination: Governors Island! The boarding line was long and inched along, and the sun was mighty hot, but we had a baguette from Almondine and some Jacques Torres chocolate to sustain us!

The two minute ferry journey behind us, we ambled until we found a shady patch of grass to sprawl out on, and dug into our lazy picnic lunch.

That was all we had really bargained for for the day, but once we took a walk around the island, we realized there were all sorts of enticing things around us. Like public art, and couples riding rental tandem bikes, and the new water taxi beach!

It seemed too perfect to have stumbled upon that, complete with real sand and a beach volleyball court, so we set up shop on our little tatami mat all over again.

And ordered a beer. We played a game of scrabble, and people watched. Stayed for a few songs by the band--not sure but it might have been the Freelance Whales.

The plastic, light-up, blinking palm trees really added to the atmosphere--we were both quite taken by them! Once dusk started to fall, we packed up and headed to the on-location photobooth to cap off our day with a little sponsored photo session:

Weekend by Brooklyn

2010-05-18T01:12:00.001-04:00

Hester Street Fair with Audrey and Keith. Ran into Sandy & Francis on their way out. Not as death-by-horde-of-hipsters as I was lead to believe it would be. I even spied a smattering of older Chinese neighborhood types and older Hasidic neighborhood types. And yes, a bunch of hipsters too. Ok this was LES, not Brooklyn, but just a 10 minute bike ride away!

Bought (and ate) a vegan raspberry coconut thing from Boomtown--I'd patronize them again for sure.

Onwards and eastwards to the Franklin Street Immersion. I don't know that there were any events scheduled up and down the block per se, maybe more of a Greenpoint BID kind of thing, but a fine enough excuse to meet up with Stella and Matthew and Monica and wander around the neighborhood. Van Leeuwen ice cream was consumed, and apparently it's very good stuff.

Monica showed off the mural she helped paint. It's even got her name on a plaque next to it!

Admiration all around.

It was hot, hot, hot. We swung by Word and browsed. We stopped in at Brooklyn Label and Audrey got this coffee soda drink that sounds so disgusting but tasted so, so yummy. We ambled around.

West between Green & Freeman: Greenpoint's most appealing block--not that this photo quite conveys it, but it really just is.

Later on that night, watermelon & beer on Keith's stoop in Clinton Hill.

We test rode clown bikes with banana seats at the Bike Jumble the next day!

The one that got away from Via Bicycle--worth every penny of its $20 price tag, but somehow, there were no takers.

The children of Park Slope are as effervescent as they are omnipresent. Here's us charmed by one particularly saucy little boy with an unzipped fly who was demonstrating some crazy skidz on his bike with training wheels, outside of Grumpy's. We OWNED this bench for at least an hour and a half.

After taste-testing the failed home-brewing experiment known as Chirndl, it turns out the real lowlight of the weekend was court summonses for all (except me and Yasa!) at Valentino Pier in Red Hook. Apparently it closes at 10pm, though you would never know by the signs posted at the entrance.

Still, Brooklyn did us right this weekend!

Philly by bike [day 2]

2010-05-06T22:08:00.000-04:00

We woke up on Sunday primed for a day of pure laziness, and the first things on our agenda were coffee and food.

We left the lovely hostel and took a bike path south along the Schuykill River, where there was some sort of crewing event happening.

We made our way over to the charming Fishtown neighborhood, and stopped at a coffee shop for the first of many iced coffees of the day. It was already SO HOT out, maybe worse than Saturday. Like mid-August heat wave style. We settled on brunch at Cantina Dos Segundos, where we landed a large table right by the front window, and which had a nice selection of dishes for meat eaters and vegans alike. We also finally got the long-awaited beers that had eluded us the night before, and I think we were all pretty pleased with the day so far except that our meal was kind of overpriced.

The rest of the day was spent in and out of book stores, cafes, and other air conditioned spaces.

We also spent a good portion of time scouring the city for a vegan milk shake for me, which sadly, never materialized. Eventually though, we did end up at a sidewalk table at Govinda's for ice cream. Next time I'm in town I'd like to go back there to try their food, which looked tasty, but we were all still so full from our huge Mexican brunch.

And that was really all there was to the day. Food, bikes, iced coffee, bookstore browsing. An awesome way to go. We were also planning on paying a visit to Via Bicycle because Matthew has heard so many great things about them, but they're closed on Sundays. Their website awesomely evokes the era known as Web 1.0, which is probably an accurate representation of the reality of the brick and mortars shop--three or four floors of used bikes, vintage parts and accessories, and a proprietor with a handlebar mustache.

Our weekend adventure was drawing to a close, and now the only thing left was to get ourselves and all six of our bikes back to New York via Chinatown bus. Once the bus pulled up, we thought it would take endless finagling and begging, but we were very non-chalantly allowed to nestle all of the bikes in the ample luggage hold down below--Septa can kiss New Century's butt!

I loved our weekend full of fun, sweaty times.

Philly by bike [day 1]

2010-05-04T00:05:00.011-04:00

Another epic and epically wtf bike outing! The plan was simple, one which we thought would require no more than a modicum of determination and quad strength: ride bikes from New York to Philly. That was before the blowdryer-in-the-face weather defeated us like the wusses we are (and by "us", I mean everyone except Keith).

To back it up to the beginning though, we met at 8:15 at the Staten Island ferry terminal

doing a dazzling impression of a cmyk color space.

On the boat ride over, we took the time to ambush the bare bars on Cara's bike, which Yasa was borrowing.

We cruised along Bay Street and Richmond Terrace (getting a "no brakes!" holler from a middle aged couple in sweatpants hanging out by a bodega), making our merry way to the Goethals Bridge, which was to be our point of exit from New York State. We had anticipated that this might turn out to be a hairy portion of our ride, as this message on the Port Authority's website indicates:

But we kinda just thought we were gonna be able to wing it, until we spotted the police vehicles up ahead.

We came upon a cop casting a watchful eye over the scene, who told us in no uncertain terms that he would make no exceptions in allowing us to cross the bridge on our bikes, and that if we tried, he would have to haul us all off in handcuffs. He was stern but quite likeable, in the way you want a police officer to be.

He then told us in no uncertain terms that I better stop taking pictures, and that his photo better not be appearing on youtube.

We figured we'd just call around and find a car service that could pick us up on the Staten Island side, drive us across the bridge, and drop us off on the New Jersey side, but none of them were having it. Next we spent 20 minutes trying to flag down flatbed trucks to ferry us across state lines. Wasn't happening either. Finally Stella had the genius idea of doubling back to the Home Depot we had passed a few blocks earlier, to see if we could drum up some pity from any of the contractors that were sure to be milling around the parking lot with nothing better to do than help a bunch of stranded bicyclists in a bind. We found a guy who was not only receptive, but also had a spacious and empty cargo van at his disposal! He kindly spread out some moving blankets

and we piled all six bikes and all six people into the cargo hold!

At $8 a head, I suppose we would have been remiss to expect our ride to be anything more than the glorified go kart that it was.

The rear doors were held shut with what the driver gleefully proclaimed was his "new lock"--frayed twine and a shred of ribbon tied in a granny knot!

We thanked him profusely as we piled out on the New Jersey side of the bridge, on the outskirts of Elizabeth. It was about 11am at this point, and we only had 8 miles of riding under our belts. The temperature was rising and the sun was beating down on us, and we figured we had lots of mileage to catch up on, so we jumped in our saddles and rode. Through Rahway, Iselin, and Metuchen. Edison, Highland Park, and New Brunswick, then on past Kendall Park and Kingston.

Somewhere along the way is where the 90°+ temperatures and utter lack of shade got the best of us. There was some major heat exhaustion going on, so we made the decision to take a lunch break in Princeton, roughly a third of the way to our final destination, and assess the situation.

We stopped at what is now my new favorite grocery store in all of New Jersey, where we spent the next couple hours regrouping--clustering in front of the air conditioning vents, taking sink showers, stuffing our faces with free food and drink samples, and generally acting like utter vagabonds.

The group decision was made to abort the mission of riding the full way to Philly, and to instead get there by whatever other means were available: New Jersey Transit from Princeton Junction to Trenton, and then Septa the rest of the way into Philly. This is where Keith decided to jump back on his bike and ride the rest of the 40+ miles SOLO, illustrating the fact that he is an iron man while the rest of us are all withering pansies.

A few highly aggravating snafus (involving surly train conductors) later, our now five person group finally disembarked from the 30th Street Septa station just as the sun was starting to set. We navigated our way towards the Chamounix Mansion, which is what's got to be the classiest hostel in all of North America.

Here's the obligatory bike pileup shot (nestled beneath the covered porch out back):

I think we all had the best showers of our lives, and then headed out for the only dinner option within walking distance: pizza and french fries, washed down with coke and sprite. Yum!

Back at the hostel, tucked into our dorm beds, sleep came quickly.

Birthday Picnic

2010-05-03T15:36:00.009-04:00

Last weekend, we had a picnic to celebrate Julia's and Yasaman's birthdays at the newly opened Pier 1 (not the furniture store) at Brooklyn Bridge Park. It was a beautiful day, though a bit chilly there on the water. It felt like coming out of hibernation!

I'm not sure who took these beautiful shots of Rowena and Amyjoy playing on the grass (Angelique?), but I love them!

After it got too chilly, we repaired to a local bar to keep the birthday fun going for a couple more hours!

We don't need much to have fun. Just a hat!

Those toes!

2010-05-03T12:16:00.001-04:00

Sabina's baptism

2010-04-06T22:47:00.005-04:00

This weekend I renounced satan and partook of the body and blood of JC, and in more mundane matters, had brunch with the joint Kincaid-Li clan, and also, it isn't a post on the nymiscellany blog (apparently) without a photo of a cute baby (who taught herself to crawl since the last time I saw her!) in someone's lap:

Rainy Monday evening

2010-03-29T23:36:00.000-04:00

The weather being so crappy today, I stayed in after getting home from work and was mega productive! Made lunch for the next couple days (quinoa & french lentil salad with sauteed cauliflower), brewed myself a jug of rooibus iced tea, shopped online for a new rear cassette to supplement Matthew's Sunday afternoon labor on my bike, and baked up a batch of granola. Sometime this week I'll start on the BEER!

Sabina time

2010-03-24T12:45:00.004-04:00

What I did last weekend:

Bike ride to Nyack Bushwhacking our way up Henry Hudson Drive

2010-03-08T00:58:00.005-05:00

The plan was to do a ride up to Nyack, ridicule lycra-clad roadies at the Runcible Spoon, and then head back home in time to not watch the Oscars.

Here's Henry Hudson Drive--the portion of it that was rideable:

And here's us navigating the rest of Henry Hudson Drive, a veritable tree slaughter fest:

I think it's accurate to say that this portion of the "ride" went on for about an hour plus. I heard a lot of "FUCK!" and "I'm totally over this!" along the way and I think the general mood at the time can be summed up with "Waahhhhh!" but I also think that in retrospect we can all agree it was a grand time. So we had to scrap Nyack as a destination because of all the lost time, but we lucked out and got our fill of lycra after all:

And a close-up of Cara's look of abject horror at the team of identically dressed road warriors that passed by single file:

Bet they didn't get asked to pose for a style photo today!

Anyway we re-routed through Creskill and on to Tenafly, in search of food:

Which we did a killer job of finding:

Then we rode back over the George Washington Bridge just as the sun was starting to set, and that was that:

Miles logged, about 50 total: route map

Christina and Micah's Wedding Part II

2010-02-05T14:36:00.009-05:00

The morning of the wedding, we paid a visit to the yard of Joe Minter, an outsider artist who lives and works in Birmingham. Although we didn't actually get to talk to Mr. Minter, we were able to see a lot of his work in the yard, where he creates sculptures out of found materials dealing with aspects of American history. We heard that he is happy to guide people through his "African Village in America," so we were disappointed that we missed him.

Right next to his yard is a historic black graveyard.

We couldn't spend too long exploring, though, before we had to go back to get pretty for the wedding. Here's Mags in her beautiful blue and gold sari.

She and Micah's best man, Reiner, sang a duet

there was a kiss

and they were married!

And then we got down!

Congratulations Christina and Micah!

Christina and Micah's Wedding

2010-01-31T14:04:00.006-05:00

Last Thanksgiving, the halfie crew drove (yes, *drove*) down to Birmingham, AL to celebrate Christina and Micah's wedding. We stood around the kitchen with the bride's father,

made some new friends,

and sampled the down home cuisine.

What I'm trying right there is a specialty of Micah's family. It's orange jello with a marshmallow topping, sprinkled with grated cheddar cheese. I don't think it needs further explanation.
While the menfolk watched the football game, the ladies gathered to get a preview of the wedding dress.

A lot of Christina's family had come. There were pleats to be arranged, bling to be decided on, and a sister to snuggle.

Then we had a song, courtesy of Christina's mom.

Afterwards, we went out with friends of Christina and Micah's to sample some of Birmingham nightlife. Dinner,

and dancing, of course!

To quote a friend: FU 2009

2010-01-04T18:50:00.003-05:00

I GOT A NEW CAMERA! The Canon G11. Thanks Claud, Matthias & Eleanor!! Haven't figured out how to use it yet so these pictures are pretty middling, but here's the quiet part of my new years eve. Oh yeah, also, Carl & Ros announced that they got married last week and are having a baby--what!!!! So happy for them.

Holidays in the burbs

2009-12-28T17:44:00.011-05:00

Claud and Eleanor hosted Christmas this year, and I got to meet Sabina finally! Aurally, she's channeling Darth Vader or maybe a pack-a-day piglet, because she's crazy congested, and apparently it's a learned skill to blow snot out of your nose, or also to suck it in. So she's a very crusty and heavy breather right now because all the snot just sits in her nostrils and about every five breaths she'll inadvertently let out a snort, and every so often she also blows snot bubbles out of her nostrils. She's really taking full advantage of that window in life where whatever you do, no matter how disgusting, the world thinks it's the cutest thing ever.

We visited the pediatrician and she said she's pretty sure the eyes are gonna stay blue! Also, at just over four months she weighs in at a whopping 16.4 pounds, putting her in the 99th percentile for her age/size; I'm looking forward to getting her hand me downs starting sometime around next year...

Day Eight

2009-12-07T16:23:00.014-05:00

We woke up early so we could see the sun come up. While the sunset made the dunes lavender, the sunrise made them pink.

It had been a quiet night in our little tent.

When we got out and walked around, though, we were surprised to see little tracks everywhere in the sand. There was definitely some bird and insect life around. I'm not sure if you can make it out in my photos.

I don't mind waking up early to greet the sun, but after about 20 minutes, I considered it greeted and went back to bed. Julia stayed up to get the full nature experience.

Before we left, we took a few more turns on the sled.

And followed the posts back to the Impala.

We spent the day driving through Southwestern New Mexico. We stopped again in Las Cruces and the tiny town of La Mesilla. We ate, or rather, I ate lunch accompanied by Julia, at La Posta, which used to be a stop on the Butterfield Stagecoach. Julia could at least have a beer, since I was driving.

Outside La Posta, I took a picture of strings of dried peppers which is something we saw *everywhere* in New Mexico. Chili peppers are big here.

They're a real feature in the cuisine, and we heard stories about how much people miss them when they move away, and beg all their New Mexican friends to send them a giant bag at chili pepper season (August, btw).
We also found a pottery shop in La Mesilla, with colorfully-painted pottery. Some in the shape of, say, pigs, or cats. I think there are fawns there, next to the pigs.

La Mesilla also had a thrift shop! It had clothing, hats,

and curiosities

We left La Mesilla with a definite soft spot in our thrift-shop-loving hearts, but we had to get back on the road. We finally made it to the campgrounds at Gila National Forest, where they have natural hot springs!! I believe the name of the campsite was the Gila River Campground, and that it was. It was a pretty ideal spot. It had a kitchen, bathroom facilities, and did I mention, hot springs?

It even had a nice log bench from which to take in the river view while enjoying a brewski and waiting out turn for a quiet soak in the hot springs (pics to come in Day Nine).

Day Seven

2009-12-01T15:10:00.014-05:00

We woke up early in beautiful Cloudcroft,

and drove back into town to Burro Street, where they have a quaint collection of shops.

On our way out of town, we ran into a shop called the Old Apple Barn, owned by Beverly and Bill Niffenegger. Beverly was possibly the most outgoing, friendliest person we met, but I still somehow couldn't bring myself to ask about the salt and pepper shakers I saw in the store.

And a close up:

We were a little late getting back on the road, and had to rush a bit to get over to White Sands National Monument to book our campsite for that night. They only have 10 campsites, and what with the beautiful weather and summer vacation, we didn't know how crowded it might be. In our worst nightmares, we pictured getting there in the early afternoon only to find that the campsites were all filled. So we got there around 1pm to reserve our spot and were told to return at 6 that evening to sign in for the night.

In the intervening hours, we drove up to the Three Rivers Petroglyphs site north of Las Cruces, with a short stop in Alamogordo's Shell Station to change the oil in the Impala.

Las Cruces was actually a pretty cute place from what we could see. At least we managed to amuse ourselves with crafts and ice cream (not pictured).

The petroglyphs to the north of Las Cruces were left by the Jornada Mogollon (pronounced Muggy-own, we found out) people who used stone tools to abrade designs into the rocks between 900 and 1400 AD. They feature animals, birds, even fish, as well as abstract designs.

I believe these are arrows sticking out of this ram. Wishful thinking?

We were a little shocked because the petroglyphs weren't protected in any way. If some wiseass were to come along and add some of their own scratchitti, there's nothing to stop, or even discourage it. It's really just a bunch of rocks on an open hill in the New Mexican countryside.

On the other hand, it's such an intimate experience to have nothing between you and these works, and to feel so integrated into the landscape. And I didn't see any defacement so far. I guess the people that go see this are a self-selecting group who aren't looking to damage the artifacts they drove a few hours to get to.

We got back on the road to White Sands with baited breath. Would we have to share White Sands with too many other campers? How many? Would they be loud? Wailing babies? Boy Scouts? We arrived promptly at 6 for our orientation only to find that we were the only ones spending the night in the entire park! Even the lecture on unexploded ordinance didn't dim our spirits!

The sands of white sands are actually gypsum, which is water soluble. But since the Tularosa Basin has no outlet to the sea, wikipedia tells me that the rain leaves the gypsum in its crystalline, apparently sandy form, selenite. The road is packed down selenite, with white dunes in every direction. Here's the shadow of our trusty Impala in the "parking lot" of the campgrounds.

Note the rainbow in the background. Also note the sled we bought at the park gift shop.

Finding our campground wasn't too difficult, thanks to posts that guide you across the dunes. You move to a post, and then stay right there until you see the next one.

We got there just about an hour of light left, and we rushed to set up our tent so we could enjoy the sunset over the dunes. We were a little worried we were going to get creamed by this rather ominous-looking cloud,

but it passed us by without a drop. So we got busy with the sled on those dunes!

After a while, though, we had to just stop and admire the changing colors in the sky.

It was already quiet, but in the semi-light, with no one else in sight or hearing, we could have been the last people on earth.

Halloween

2009-11-02T17:29:00.009-05:00

Halloween, my favorite holiday, ever! The fun of dressing up, plus the joy of candy? What could be better? Right off, let me say that Angelique took the cake for best costume, as a dark cloud with a silver lining, as well as a shiny lightning bolt:

I went as "stripes," although I allowed people to say "zebra" if they were conceptually challenged.

We started off at Lovely Day, where there were several cool costumes to see. I don't know this girl, but she had a great thing going on, with a mask and antlers? antennae? That's Sameer next to her, dressed in scrubs.

Here's a group shot, so you can see everyone's costume. Monica is a gypsy (doing a booming business with the palm reading), Cara is a 60's airline stewardess, Angelique as the dark cloud, John is the killing moon (hiding his bloody machete for some reason), and Francis and Sandy as cat burglars.

After swinging by Andrew's fabulous party for a bit, we headed over to the party at the Angel Orensanz Center for a party.

Boy George was there.

As well as a couple of flamingos.

And cats...

and, something else...

and dancing!!

There was a fight right outside, that I kind of got caught in the middle of. Alas, I was too busy dodging blows (successfully, I might add) to take pictures. Ah, good times with good friends!

And strangers.

Day Six

2009-11-02T15:18:00.006-05:00

The next day, we toured the famous Caverns at Carlsbad National Park. The entrance to the Caverns looks like...a giant hole in the earth.

And you walk down into it.

And you keep walking until you can't see any more. Then you keep walking. Seriously, though, you go 750 feet down. It's a mile long trail, but it didn't seem all that steep. The cave is 56° year round, which can feel nice in the middle of August in New Mexico. The rock formations are amazingly varied. And they all have evocative names that I can no longer match up with what I took a picture of. Still, here they are

After spending the morning and early afternoon in the cave, the bright, sunny, New Mexican day was a relief. Cloudless and blue, and, of course, hot.

We drove a couple of hours west into the Sacramento Mountains to a tiny town called Cloudcroft and found the Cloudcroft hostel. The scenery outside the car window changed dramatically from the ocher colored desert to lush green pine forests, in just a couple of hours. The air even felt less dry, and as the afternoon lengthened, we were shocked to see mist rising from the mountains. Cloudcroft (allegedly 9,000 feet above stress level, if the website is to be believed) was pretty adorable, but we left the exploring for the next day. We spent a quiet evening talking with the hostel's owner, John, as the sun set behind the mountains of the Lincoln National Forest.

Day Five

2009-10-21T12:34:00.009-04:00

Here are our early morning pictures from Storrie Lake.

You can see an RV in the background on the right. One of many.

Unfortunately, I think that may be all the pictures I have of Day Five. Julia will probably have more. We spent most of the day driving. New Mexico is a huge state. Huge. The fifth largest. We had to go from Las Vegas, in the middle of the state to Carlsbad, waaaay down in the south of the state. Google maps tells me it's around 260 miles, and I believe it. We must have driven 6 hours that day. And what did we see? Not much. A lot of desert with its low scrubby vegetation, and tall dried up yucca blossoms. Roswell was pretty depressing. Everything had to be dressed up in some kind of martian gimmick. I spared you the pictures.

The good news is that we made it in time to see the bats leave Carlsbad Caverns, an occurrence that takes place nightly during the summer months. We got to the caverns around dusk, and waited in the Bat Amphitheater which looks onto the mouth of the famous caverns.

We waited. And waited. I didn't mind the wait, but it was a struggle for the families with small children, or impatient adults, to wait quietly without the distraction of their cameras or cell phones. Too much noise will throw the bats off their mojo as will the collective sound of everyone's electronics. We can't hear it, but if you're practically blind and fly by sonar, I guess it's pretty disruptive. So I don't have pictures, but I was able to cadge one from the Carlsbad National Park site.

About 300,000-500,000 bats leave the caverns every summer night. They can fly as far as West Texas for their nightly insect meal. They left the cave in a rush of wings, nearly soundless, that lasted for about an hour and a half. And they were tiny, tiny! Maybe the size of a sparrow, with delicate wings. If you got very close to the cavern entrance, you might hear a susurration like the rustling of leaves. Seeing them leave the cave left me with such a special feeling for them. They're so tiny and delicate and harmless, and really beneficial to us humans, and they've been so reviled for being ugly and creepy. I recently read a New Yorker article about a fungus that was killing bat populations all over the world. Realizing how precarious their survival is made me feel even more protective of them.

Here's a picture of a little guy called a javelina, native to New Mexico. We didn't actually see one, though I had my eyes peeled for them while we were there.

After the bats, we grabbed a Sonic Burger (ok, I grabbed a Sonic Burger, Julia grabbed some Sonic tater tots)

and went back to our hotel, the Stagecoach Motel. Don't ever *ever* go! Our room was so infested with roaches (3 killed in 20 minutes. And Julia did none of the killing), we had to set up the tent on the bed in order to feel okay falling asleep. The weird thing about the motel is that it had a beautiful, well-maintained pool, nicely screened from the highway with decorative plants and trees. Go figure. A hilarious picture of Julia on the bed with our tent.

Suddenly Wien

2009-10-12T17:51:00.009-04:00

Here I am, in Vienna a few months earlier than I had expected to be. The plan was to come visit Tante Gerda over Christmas, but when she passed away on the 19th of September, my mom and I flew out immediately. It's been a heavy fortnight, but working our way through Tante's belongings, accumulated in the elegant apartment that she lived in from 1958 until just a few weeks ago, has allowed for a sense of intimacy that was pretty intangible for me while she was alive.

Tante spent the last few hours of her life with her incredibly sweet cousin Elfi at her side. This woman is an angel. They held hands as Tante took her final breaths. The last time I saw Elfi I was a small child, and I'm grateful to have the opportunity to get to know her a little bit better during this visit.

Claud and Matthias flew in for the funeral, which was beautiful. My mom and I went out for another visit to the grave a few days later. My great grandmother, grandmother, great aunt, and great uncle now all lie there together, in the Baumgartner Friedhof.

Day Four

2009-10-11T19:46:00.021-04:00

We bid a fond farewell to Sandia Mountain Hostel and our donkey friends. Here's Bambina looking to start the day with a crust of bread or a melon rind. The sign on the door, aptly enough, says "please close the door to keep animals out of the hostel."

The day before, a gallery/shop owner in Madrid had told us about a national monument about 45 minutes away that was her favorite place to send people—one of her favorite things to do in the area. We figured we would trust the locals and visit Kasha-Ketuwe Tent Rocks National Monument. After a short coffee stop in Madrid, we drove out to Cochiti Lake, on the Pueblo de Cochiti Reservation. Pictures aren't allowed on the Reservations, but this is what our drive was mostly like:

The "tent rocks" are these enormous rock formations that are formed from different layers of rock and ash and tuff (volcanic ash). They settled over time and then were eroded away by wind and water. Since the layers all erode at different rates, the rock has striations with different colors. The giant rocks almost look like curtains (or tents, I guess), billowing in the hot wind.

Sometimes the path leads you through a narrow, twisty canyon with tent rocks on either side. It could be really dangerous to be here during a heavy rain. The summer months in New Mexico are notorious for flash floods. The weather can be clear one minute, blue skies and all, and then a huge storm will roll up out of nowhere and dump enough water to cause a flood in one of these "arroyos" or dry river beds. The lady who recommended Tent Rocks to us told us we wouldn't want to be there in the rain, but being Easterners, we thought she meant because there was no cover. Only when we got there, did we interpret her words to mean "it would be dangerous to be there in the rain."

It was quite a steep path near the top. The Canyon trail took us up to 630 feet up. Nearing the top:

At the top, though, we were rewarded with a great view of Tent Rocks below as well as the Rio Grande Valley, and the Sangre de Cristo, Jemez, and Sandia Mountains in the distance. This kid in the red shirt scared us half to death by playing along the edge. His dad didn't seem too concerned, but I could barely look long enough to take a picture. The boy (who was also sporting a grown-out mohawk) assured us that there was a ledge just 1o feet or so below him, but I couldn't even gather the courage to look.

After our Tent Rocks adventure, we had to put some distance between ourselves and the Sandia Mountains. We drove about 100 miles to the east to pull into Storrie Lake State Park just north of Las Vegas, NM. We blew through Las Vegas pretty fast, but we still managed to find the Fort Union Drive In Movie Theater. The drive-in experience got two thumbs up,

even if the movie itself left something to be desired.

Storrie Lake proved to be a bit of a disappointment. The lake itself was small and stagnant, with a large perimeter of boggy marsh surrounding it. Then, there was the management of the park. It's totally cool with the rangers, accepted park policy I guess, for everyone to drive their cars and giant RVs onto the grass and all over. So everywhere you go, the grass (not lush to begin with because of the dry, dry climate) is criss-crossed over with muddy tire tracks. Add on top of that the most unhelpful pair of rangers ever, and this campsite ends up with two thumbs down!! A side note: they actually have quite passable showers that smell nice and woody like a sauna, and have hot (though a bit sulfur-smelly) water. If you go and find a giant hairball sticking to the wall, though, don't blame this halfie. All this notwithstanding, I managed to take a picture that made it look gorgeous. It's all in the light and strategically cropping out the RVs.

I Just Have to Share

2009-09-22T18:07:00.001-04:00

My new favorite blog:

Fuck you, Penguin

Read, laugh, weep.

Day Three

2009-09-20T23:17:00.009-04:00

We woke up on our third day to find ourselves at the Sandia Mountain Hostel, surrounded by donkeys!

I guess there were only two of them roaming about, which would make it difficult for them, technically, to "surround" us, but they are so persistent in their nosings for food, that one easily feels surrounded. The two that were roaming around were Bambina and her foal, Pancho.

Absorb the cuteness:

Here's me and Pancho having a moment:

After palling around with the donkeys for a most of the morning, Julia and I, and our new friend and hostelmate Katrina went to the Tinkertown Museum, the lifelong work of folk artist Ross J. Ward. A mural painter for traveling carnivals by trade, he spent every spare moment carving miniature people and environments. He died in 2002, but lived to see his home grow into a museum that welcomes 200,000 people annually. And it really is something to see:

Many of the scenes have moving parts which, for 25 cents, will animate. They play music (Rusty's Band, up top), or chase a chicken, or do whatever seems appropriate to their situation.

Madame Esmerelda, of course, is not something he created, but rather a salvaged carnival attraction. For 25 cents, she will give you a card that details your fortune. Good news for me: me and my beloved will never part!

After we checked out Tinkertown, we drove up to the top of the peak. It had a wonderful view of Albuquerque

And of course, that big, beautiful sky:

About 90 degrees to the left of Julia was this forest of antennae:

We considered it a day well-spent, but were anxious to explore the small towns north of Cedar Crest since we were hoping to strike out for points east early the next day. As it was, we only had time to do some shopping in the first town to the north, Madrid (pronounced MAD-rid, perhaps to distinguish it from the Spanish capitol). Madrid was an old mining "ghost" town that's had something of a renaissance. They now boast a main street with several galleries/stores, a thrift shop, a good coffee shop, although no stop light. They have an annual Chili Festival which was featured in the 2007 movie Wild Hogs (filmed on location in Madrid) starring John Travolta, William H. Macy et al.

On the way to Madrid, we saw our first rainbow of the trip. The weather in NM is extremely variable, and it always seems to be raining somewhere on the horizon, so rainbows are pretty common, even double rainbows.

We closed our visit to Madrid with a visit to its local bar, The Mine Shaft Tavern, which apparently boasts the longest stand up bar in New Mexico (who knew?). Jim had warned us away from it, saying it wasn't someplace you would meet your best friend in. He cast aspersions about the clientele. Does it make us bad people that his description of the place only made us want to go? What did we find when we went? Leather cowboy hats, worn without irony, yes. Leather and teflon jackets, grizzled men with tattoos, yes and yes. But plenty of people you would find anywhere else, stopping in for a beer or a burger. And a mural painted by none other than Ross Ward of Tinkertown fame:

And though I was a bit too shy (and wary) to take a picture of the bar, I cadged one from the world wide interweb of a busy night:

It was nowhere near as crowded the night we were there, but we were thoroughly satisfied with The Mine Shaft. The wall behind and above the bar also had paintings, one of which featured an angel approaching miners with a banner that reads (in Latin, no less) "It is better to drink than to work."

On the way back, we had a gorgeous sunset, as we often did in NM.

Shaky hands:

New Mexico Road Trip, Days One and Two

2009-09-14T17:05:00.013-04:00

I'm taking us back to the first day because, let's face it, I have a crazy number of photos, and it seems the only way to cover everything! Hopefully Julia and Cara will also be adding their photos (hint, hint!).

The very first day, we got into Albuquerque in the late afternoon and went directly to our hostel, Route 66 Hostel. We ate dinner, went to sleep, end of story. So I'm going to skip it, though perhaps Julia will share some of her outstanding pictures of the mural at the Albuquerque airport.

A few road trip themes you'll notice first off:

Driving pictures, not only of each other in the driver's seat, but also out the windshield and passenger windows. For those of you in faraway places where driving is the norm, please bear in mind that for New York Sea-ites such as us, driving is a novelty, and therefore completely picture-worthy.

Documenting the obsessive documenting:

(That's Julia documenting the difference between her tiny li'l soy cappuccino and my big bad funky drink that had five—five!!—espresso shots in it. Don't worry, I spilled it all over my bag instead of imbibing it, so my brain didn't actually explode from the caffeine.)

And bikers! I didn't take too many pictures of them, because they can look a bit forbidding, but they were everywhere. And they weren't the kind we have here in the northeast who are podiatrists and dermatologists during the week. These were full-time, hard-core, grizzled, cherry-chapstick-eschewing, for real bikers. These two were making friends. What could have been their topic of conversations? The dubious efficacy of her SPF? Leather chafing? One can only speculate.

I guess those are the three big themes that ran throughout the trip, although perhaps Julia can point out a few more. That first day, we noticed the cute signage all over Albaquerque's Central Avenue (aka, Route 66). Here are a few examples:

Ladies Choice Clothing Store [sic].

If you're wondering what they sell there, the side of the building had a mural that answers the burning question:

Elegant, no?

There were *lots* of cute motel signs. After a while, I just stopped taking pictures of them because there were too many.

Octopus Car Wash

After coffee, the first thing we did was check out the Buffalo Exchange, a huge thrift store close the campus of the University of New Mexico. Julia found this Pee-Wee Herman shirt, and I'm still a little shocked she didn't buy it. Are we getting old?

Our next stop was the University of New Mexico's Maxwell Museum of Anthropology. Sadly, we didn't get much time to look around the collection, but we did have a nice walk through UNM's lush, landscaped campus.

It didn't seem so out of place then, I think because we'd just come from New York, but all that green grass is an unusual site in New Mexico, and kind of stood out when I looked back on the trip. One wonders about their water usage! I guess the university bows to the stereotypical ideal for college campuses, when what would really be more appropriate is deserty scrub and piñon trees.

Our last stop of the day was the Rattlesnake Museum, where there were a lot of, oh, you know!!

That night we rolled into the Sandia Mountain Hostel, but since it was dark and we couldn't fully take in the charm (donkeys!), I'll save that for the Day Three post.

SABINA

2009-08-24T02:03:00.002-04:00

Claud's a dad and I'm an auntie!!!!!!

What's Doing On My Windowsill... At Work!

2009-08-07T12:42:00.004-04:00

Some pics of what's doing on my windowsill at work. Including my single PEA! It's so cute! And.. pointless :P

Thanks to Huong for the "Secret Seeds"!!

NM, yeah it'll be hot

2009-08-04T16:09:00.004-04:00

That's the full two week car rental price, holy poo balls! I'm loving this trip already. Hopefully food and lodging is just as affordable. And that we find lots of unsupervised motel pools along the way... Anyone know anything about the supposed secret room at the Dia cabin of the Lightning Field? Also, taking suggestions on absolutely anything to see or do in New Mexico and Arizona--Audrey and I've got two weeks of unfettered exploring ahead of us!

Moss at 11 weeks

2009-07-29T01:03:00.000-04:00

An Afternoon with Moss!

2009-06-29T16:54:00.004-04:00

On Sunday Julia and I went to see the latest (and cutest!) addition to the halfie crew, Ai's seven-week old son Moss.

While Moss caught up on some sleep,

we caught up over some fresh-baked bread (courtesy of Julia) and organic strawberries (courtesy Farmer Ted of the Stanton Street CSA).

After he woke up, we spent some time soaking up the cuteness:

And taking turns holding him

I think Julia has some more uber-cute photos of Moss with Daddy.

Tourist in suburbia

2009-05-11T22:20:00.029-04:00

This past weekend I paid a visit to Claud & Eleanor's current hometown (and where they'll likely be staying for another three years until Claud finishes his PhD): Natick, Massachusetts. This town has a very un-illustrious history as far as the decimation of the local Native American population is concerned (although really, which U.S. town doesn't?), being the place where Puritan missionary John Eliot "was best known for attempting to preserve the culture (minus the religion) of the Native Americans by putting them in thirteen planned towns where they could continue by their own rule, with Natick as the political and spiritual center." I can practically see the collective shoulder shrug of the wikipedia contributors who penned this entry. It continues, "A school was set up, a government established, and the Indians were encouraged to convert to Christianity. In November, during King Philip's War, the Natick Indians were sent to Deer Island. Many died of disease and cold, and the Indians who survived found their homes destroyed. The Indian village did not fully recover, and the land held in common by the Indian community was slowly sold off to white settlers to cover debts, and, by 1785, most of the Natick Indians had drifted away." Just kinda wandered off, just like that. Huh! Must've just been in the mood for a change of scenery, I guess.

From what I can tell, Natick is now a relatively middle to upper middle class suburban town, peppered with autobody shops, an inexplicably large number of martial arts studios, houses with vinyl siding

and lilac bushes.

It's also home to the BJ's Wholesale Club corporate headquarters, the US Army Soldier Systems Center, and Casey's Diner--one of the last operational ten-stool diners in the US.

The Natick suburbs have a bit of nature to them too--literally steps from Claud & Eleanor's front door is the Tony Anniballi Memorial Park at Pegan Cove. We originally went on a night walk through some of the trails on Saturday evening, which was awesome and kinda spooky. Haven't gone on a night hike in something like a decade! Sunday is when we returned to experience the park in daylight.

It's a beautiful but diminutive nature preserve with a few towering pine trees,

a bit of a mucky stream,

lotsa poison ivy, and bordering the really large Lake Cochituate.

It was a gorgeously sunny day, but extremely windy.

We kept busy the rest of the weekend with gardening, cooking and eating.

The veggie garden plot:

Sugar snap pea sprouts ready for replanting:

Garlic sprouts:

The soon to be mother of my soon to be niece:

Unmistakeably:

Flattening seitan cutlets in a pasta press:

Sauteed chanterelles:

Fresh baked bread, before:

Fresh baked bread, after:

Dinner is served:

By the time I grace Natick with my next visit I'll be an aunt!

Happy Birthday!

2009-05-04T00:32:00.003-04:00

This week in Miscellany

2009-04-19T12:47:00.008-04:00

Mustache Contest!

François was runner up in the artistic mustache category!

Aya's first place artistic mustache!

Mustache mishap!
Impromptu music at Bich Thu's farewell party
Glorious glorious day on Zoe's rooftop
View of sunset and thong. So romantic.
Best ghost stories ever!

While We're on the Vegan Cupcake Theme...

2009-04-18T10:21:00.001-04:00

BabyCakes, the Book of Recipes: It's Here (Almost)! from BabyCakes NYC on Vimeo.

Knit Night Cupcakes

2009-04-13T14:32:00.003-04:00

Incredible works of art!

http://veganyumyum.com/2007/06/knit-night-cupcakes/

Easter Feaster

2009-04-12T22:35:00.005-04:00

Let's see...

Artichokes stuffed with breadcrumbs and sundried tomatoes
Pork chops
Asparagus
Israeli cous-cous with chickpeas, black olives and basil
Boiled/baked potatoes with olive oil, rosemary and smoked paprika
Vegan macadamia cupcakes with lemon icing
Oatmeal rasin nut cookies
Chocolate chip cookies
Chocolate "turtles"

Am I forgetting anything? I think our gluttony would have made Jesus proud.

Baby time

2009-03-29T21:23:00.005-04:00

Just got back from Ai's baby shower at Mina's house, and I was so distracted by this impossibly precious halfie baby that I totally forgot to take pictures of anybody else, Ai included, woops.

We made booties! Lots of em. Check out the array.

Spring is kinda sprung!

2009-03-20T01:07:00.013-04:00

The weather has finally allowed for the first few outdoor outings of the season! Thrilling. Chronicled: Three weekends ago, a picnic in the waterside park in Williamsburg. With fixings from Tops plus a mega pricey but extremely delicious fresh-baked loaf of bread bought off the street from the owners of that new-ish pizzeria in Bushwick (either Roberta's or Fortunata's, can't remember which). It was slightly too chilly for just sitting around, but we persevered through our meal and then played an invigorating (and spastic! I ain't too proud to admit) game of frisbee.

The weekend after that, a few of us embarked on a bike ride up to Pleasantville. We started at Van Cortland Park (my last visit likely being during the 1994 x-c boro champs meet!)--about 20 miles along what Nim thinks is some sort of repaved former railway line. Gorgeous day. We stopped for food at a cafe in Pleasantville, and then most of us rode back through muddy non-paved roads, in the dark--the best part of the ride! The least best part? The low-speed collision between me and Dominic, resulting in a bloody lip and hand for me, plus a few massive bruises. Still, all in all a very fabulous excursion.

And this past weekend, a hike up at Breakneck Ridge, right near the Bear Mountain Bridge. We took a zipcar, which between five of us came to only $24 per person! Again, perfectly crisp weather, and a supremely invigorating scramble up massive boulders for the first 1.5 miles of the trail.

Ringing Out 2008 at Moma

2009-01-17T10:13:00.010-05:00

The 31st of December, a few of us went to Moma to check out the Pipilotti Rist and the Marlene Dumas exhibits. Pipilotti Rist's "Pour Your Body Out" was pretty blissfully chill, and made for some great pics:

Being down in it was kind of like being inside a giant lava lamp.

We also went through the Rebus exhibit of Moma holdings curated by artist Vik Muniz. Here's Brooke, Julia, and Ian trying to tell the difference between art and life. (Where's Bich thu?)

Marlene Dumas was excellent btw, but no pictures allowed. Here's one I cadged from the www! This one is less sinister than most of the paintings on view at Moma.

Winter is here!!!

2009-01-12T19:33:00.004-05:00

Sean Travers, Francis, me, Mina + James at Camelback yesterday.

Terping

2008-12-19T11:23:00.003-05:00

Click here for a terping video featuring me and Eric Forman. If you want to experience it for yourself (and I highly recommend it!), Patrice is having another terp tonight at 7!! More info on Patrice's site!

Triple Birthday

2008-12-14T19:48:00.008-05:00

In celebration of Cara, Bich Thu and Nobuko's birthdays: a proper dance party that lasted until the wee hours of the morning--wouldn't expect anything less from NY-SEA's official Rumpshaker!

Fall Delhi, NY Pics

2008-12-06T15:02:00.003-05:00

It's been a while since I posted, so I thought I'd take it back to Delhi, NY. I've been sitting on these pictures for a while, and finally had some time on my hands to take a look. Carl, Cara, and I found these spores in the cornfield, and shook them out. Good, clean, fun until our allergies starting acting up!

What's doing in my apartment

2008-11-16T14:09:00.006-05:00

A slug in my kale. I put him in this bowl with a bunch of greens to be my temporary pet until I could bring him outside to a leafy spot. But he ran away. I followed the slime trail for a bit but it tapered off and now he's nowhere to be found. Come back, buddy!

Home baked bread! A little dense, but the crust is divine.

Psyched about the President-Elect!

2008-11-16T13:08:00.008-05:00

But Derrick's photos are much better.

Obama Cupcakes!

2008-10-29T15:02:00.001-04:00

Baking goes political!

Farm House

2008-10-23T18:18:00.005-04:00

Shorty laid claim to the coziest spot in the houseStrolling the grounds
Skinny as a corn stalk

Prepping the vegan feast

Amazing, amazing spread!!
And to top it all off -- a little bonfire!

CSA Farm Trip!!

2008-10-16T19:18:00.006-04:00

Aeolian Electric

2008-10-05T21:26:00.006-04:00

The NYSea Crew descended on Solar One last night to check out Aeolian Electric, an installation curated by our own Elliott Montgomery! There was windpowered art by Elliott that played a Winnie the Pooh song:

And a piece by Eric that flapped bird wings in a slightly creepy, cyborg way:

It was also a chance for some good ol'fashioned hanging out!

It was Nobuko and Julian's year anniversary in New York (which is why they are forming the letters U.S. in this picture)!

Ryan dressed foppishly for the occasion (btw, this picture has me thinking maybe we should all be fops for Halloween):

Sameer pedalled his bs for the camera:

Good clean fun all around:

Crazy long overdue pics from August in Europe with the Li family

2008-09-27T17:44:00.033-04:00

I started off my trip in Berlin. Here's me being a tourist at Checkpoint Charlie with Melissa, the world's best host:

After only a couple days in Berlin, I was off to Vienna to meet up with the family. Here's mom and Tante Gerda after lunch at "Zur Wuadn Goass", which is obscenely convoluted Viennese slang for "To the Wild Goat". This was the beginning of many days of potato dishes with potato sides for me. Why yes, that's Wiener Schnitzel on mom's plate. Don't pretend to be surprised! I think she ate one every other day for the entire ten days we were in the motherland.

We visited many of our childhood haunts, including the pool in Strandbad Klosterneuburg where Matthias and Claudius and I spent many happy summer days:

Since visiting Tante was the major reason for the trip, we spent a lot of time with her, reminiscing about the past, getting verbally flayed in a highly malicious manner... only slightly more of the latter than the former. Here's her immaculate dining room:

The "maid's quarters" of her apartment, which Tante has only ever used as a (pious!) dining nook:

Tante met her new grandniece-in-law (is that right??):

And promptly showed off a patch of blooming bruises on her legs, the result of a blood thinning medication she's on:

She also shared some old photos. This one is of her and her late husband, my great uncle. Onkel Walter was on the Austrian national downhill skiing team, and also competed professionally as a kayaker. What a dashing couple!

And while we're on the subject of photogenic relatives, check out this fox. She was an actress and Onkel Walter's mother. Clearly, handsome genes run in the family; it's only too bad we're not actually related by blood:

The Austrian version of tea time is called Jause, and involves (preferably home-baked... check) pastries and coffee topped with (also preferably home-made... check) whipped cream:

My favorite part of the vacation though, was our two day hiking trip over a pre-alpine mountain called Rax. We took a cable car to the trail head, and the view from up there was absolutely as idyllic as you might imagine:

Our trails took us through fields of wildflowers (we even saw some Edelweiss!),

herds of cows (omg to be able to do that with your tongue!!),

and patches of snow with enough ammo for a mini snowball fight!

It was a dreamy two days of nature-tastic fun.

Then it was back to Berlin, and more touristy photo opps:

Melissa and I rode bikes everywhere, visited an art squat called Tacheles, ran into (!) Carl and Jasmine at a falafel place in Kreuzberg, watched avant garde performance art, went dancing, hung out with a cute puppy, and baked vegan pie:

Park(ing) Day addendum

2008-09-27T17:07:00.004-04:00

And, this was posted on streetsblog within minutes of us rolling up our shirtsleeves and rolling out the sod!

Park(ing) Day

2008-09-19T13:51:00.009-04:00

Today All Y'all rolled out the (slightly stinky) sod for Park(ing) Day where we took over a parking space for a day and gave it back to the people. Our concept may have been a little hard to pin down (drill, baby, drill?), but that didn't stop people from enjoying our little slice of 8th Ave. South.
We set up our little patch o' paradise...

with teamwork
and muscle!
And then we kicked back!
We were promptly joined by an array of New Yorkers who lost no time in taking advantage of a little ad hoc greenspace. There was this lady, who had a lot to say to Dominic:

There was Victor, who spent about an hour with us before he headed off to midday mass:

a blogger from Treehugger
A Twin Peaks fan!!Lauren, the dogwalker,

and Abel, who loved...I mean LOVED the grass.
We handed out brownies

and vegan cupcakes.
And generally soaked up the NY love.

And one last time, a very happy dog.

Plus a little something to add to our media page!

Photos from Amyjoy & Audrey's Birthday Bash

2008-09-15T00:48:00.002-04:00

In case you guys don't want to look at the Facebook photo album, here's the entire night's set on flickr.

Swing Out New Hampshire (aka "Dance Camp")

2008-09-04T17:58:00.006-04:00

This one time at dance camp...

...we danced Balboa

...had campfire singalongs (with explicit lyrics!)

...had impromptu cabin-porch jam/dance sessions

...had dance lessons to live band music
...got silly on-stage for the Cabaret
...played the kazoo ...danced the Madison

...got silly on the dancefloor
...and only a select few managed to dance all night until breakfast was served!

Camping in Harriman!

2008-08-24T20:38:00.005-04:00

Hiking break.

The lake by our campsite.
Refreshing...!!
The ladies.
The view from our dining room.
Ai's soba noodles for dinner!
Rocking those chopsticks -- we are so Asian!
Our lakeside campsite!
We caught the tail end of blueberry season!
On the way back to civilization...

2 pics x 3 summer days = fun times

2008-08-22T17:47:00.007-04:00

SummerStage w/ the gang. Ran into Evan Rock!
Battles (pictured -- not that you can see it), Black Dice and Gang Gang Dance played. It was earsplittingly experimental.
On another night B2 and I went to her friend's art show (I missed most of it, walked in to find this naked girl standing on a podium in the middle of a bar... ok...) but what better way to shrug off the awkwardness than by going to a Jewish LES eatery (Sammy's Roumanian [sic]). There was an old dude playing piano and singing Frank Sinatra tunes (he actually sounded good! We thought it was a CD for the longest time), and they even got people to dance the hora.
All the gentiles in the house say What...(TF)?!!
And last for your viewing pleasure I present the Silent Rave. Another NYC summer oddity -- hundreds (of mostly HS age kids I reckon) gathered in Union Square and rocked out to their iPods.
This reveler's outfit said "Robot" in magic marker across the front.

Hairstylin'

2008-08-22T17:41:00.004-04:00

B2 - front/side French braid

Mina - 50s-ish up do

B2 - crown Dutch braid

Lookin' good in the neighborhood!!

Flat Long Island Pics

2008-08-10T20:25:00.003-04:00

Here are my pictures from our flat weekend in South Hampton.

And now, just for fun, a cat in a bag:

88 BoaDrum

2008-08-10T15:07:00.005-04:00

Before dark:

After dark:

Robert Moses

2008-08-04T18:39:00.007-04:00

Sunday at the beach with Ken...
Sandy and Amyjoy.

Octopus kite!

More photos from our flat weekend

2008-07-30T15:37:00.003-04:00

Sam Nadar hooked it up with a selection of cuttings from his gorgeous garden:

We rocked out to the Limp Bizkit station on Pandora. All weekend long. Dunno about you guys but I think I grew some chest hair this weekend...

Weekend in the Hamptons

2008-07-27T22:05:00.009-04:00

Julia, Audrey and I spent the weekend at Christina's place in the Hamptons. Her dad meticulously landscaped it and let us go home with a bunch of plant cuttings!Audrey in Julia's "Tante" (Aunt)'s bathing suit. So cute!
There was a lot of x-word puzzling.
And general flatness.

With minor bursts of activity in between.
A lovely super-relaxing weekend!

Cake Wrecks

2008-07-24T18:01:00.002-04:00

This one is my favorite so far.

Fourth of July

2008-07-15T13:20:00.009-04:00

On July 4th, we went down to Battery Park to hear Sonic Youth .

We actually got pretty close (thanks to Nicole, who'd scoped out a spot a *lot* closer to the stage).

as you can see in this picture looking the other way:

But with my new camera, what's a few hundred feet?

After the show, we were at a bit of a loss as to what to do. Until we remembered that I have a balcony! So some people came over,

Julia got serious on the grill,

Francis ate some bacon chocolate (for reals),

Bich Thu and I got silly,

etc...
and then we watched some fireworks!

More Harriman State Park camping pics

2008-07-14T22:23:00.014-04:00

The trails were literally lined with wild blueberry bushes, full of scrumptious berries.

After setting up camp and eating dinner, we killed another Sunday puzzle... IN PENCIL!!

We had a view of Lake Sebago from inside the tent, perfect.

We saw deer--three of them! Two does and a buck.

We chowed so many PB&J sandwiches that we went through an entire loaf of bread in one day...

We had a very amazing time.

Camping pics

2008-07-13T22:25:00.006-04:00

Julia being the designated photographer has most of the pics but I'll post a few of mine:

Our fab lakeside campsite!

We hiked over to the "beach" area where we refilled on water (so lucky -- we totally did not bring enough!!) and cooled off in the relatively warm lake, thereby indisputably proving Julia's theorem that it's *always* worthwhile to pack a bikini...

We found a perfect campsite for next time! Water lilies and all!