Coney Island Mermaid Parade

The mermaid parade was a terrifically crowded celebration of everything nautical, and then some, in true Coney Island fashion.

Expanded Highline!

Yesterday I explored the newly opened extension of the Highline. The newest addition includes art installations that double as bird feeders, more seating areas, and additional spectacular views and railroad-based gardens.

It's worth checking out!

Lower Manhattan Splendor

While I typically don't hang around in the Financial District or Battery Park during my leisure time, this Sunday was an exception. And an absolutely lovely, mellow and fulfilling exception it was. So much so that it merits being called a staycation.

Some highlights of the day:

Lock Bikes to Street Fixtures At Your Own Risk

Huh. Apparently a few years ago NYC decided to apply an administrative code, 16-122-B, to not only cars but to bicycles. The website, Bicycletter suggests that NYC decided to institute this code to bikes in order to protest events such as Critical Mass. According to their website,


"Previous City administrations deliberately did not apply 16-122(b) to bicycles so as not to discourage bicycle use. This new interpretation appears to be related to recent police actions against cyclists participating in Critical Mass, where NYPD has removed bicycles locked up by Mass participants. Outside of these actions, NYPD has removed locked bikes from the street in only a handful of isolated incidents: from areas in Midtown during the RNC, and from the Bedford Ave (L) and Second Ave (F/V) subway station entrances.


The 5BBC has not heard of any other use of this policy against everyday cyclists. But we suggest that cyclists avoid locking to subway entrances, or in any way that might block pedestrian traffic."


I apparently parked my bike this afternoon to a pole in front of some (self-)important building in Greenpoint this afternoon and returned to it a few hours later with this sign affixed:

Would NYPD actually have removed my bike if I hadn't returned back to it in such a timely manner? I don't know, but the threat effectively scared me.... so be warned!

Highline Goodness!

My friend and I strolled through the Highline Park the other day. Truly a lovely urban park! And gorgeous, dare I say breathtaking, views.

Radio Play and NYPL Centennial

The trend is to celebrate the past. Especially with the threat of the imminent Rapture, it makes sense. Last night I saw Reggie Watts's and Tommy Smith's Radio Play at PS 122, a comedic, surreal send-up of old radio programs. Fittingly, it takes place mostly in the dark.

I recommend the show; it plays through May 28. Catch it! And/or a Reggie Watts performance anytime you have the chance.

(Reggie Watts, photo credit: Noah Kalina)

And this weekend marks the New York Public Library Centennial. Interesting, one of the free events for the centennial is a performance installation (really, isn't "play" such an antiquated, vague term anyway?) called Shuffle, which features passages from 1920s literature shuffled by computer algorithms. I expect the result will be as surreal and disorienting - and even humorous - as Radio Play.

(Photo credit: Caroline Voagen Nelson)

Carroll Gardens, Gowanus and Rainy Day Musings on Love

I didn't let the rain last night stop me from an adventure. My friends got in touch with me to see this indie documentary, My Heart Is An Idiot, at Littlefield, a performance and art space in the Gowanus.

Coming from Williamsburg, I figured my easiest route would be to take the G to Carroll Gardens and then walk over on Carroll St. to the Park Slope side of the Gowanus. And what a gorgeous walk. I even passed the old location of ISSUE Project Room, a gorgeous space on Carroll St. between Bond and Nevins that is now BKLYN Yard.

I snapped a couple of shots during my walk. These don't capture the ethereal beauty of the place, the fragrant gardens and the humid, earthly feeling of the misty night.

My Heart Is An Idiot was a thoughtful documentary that followed around one man, Davy Rothbart and his professed search for true love. Rothbart, the creator of Found Magazine, tours around the country promoting Found and musing about love, namely in the form of two girls: the one he is obsessed with but with whom he has yet to forge anything more than a friendship with sexual overtones, and the girl with whom he is romantically involved but with whom he lacks a sense of commitment. As even his mother said in the doc, he is a "con artist" who is more focused on the pursuit of true love than the actual commitment of a relationship; as his one female friend put it, he is good at romance but not relationships. The beauty of this documentary is that it portrays Rothbart as the flawed, quirky individual he is in a very humanistic and sympathetic way. Thank director, collaborator and friend David Meiklejohn for that.