monkey invasion...

curious co-incidence...

from one of yourstruly's fave cartoonies, Get Fuzzy,
the storyline begins here;
via the wonder that is clusterflock, a monkey invasion story

A man, a uke, a canoe

NYT article about Christopher Bell. All around nice guy. His page.

Reminds me too that every couple of years we make it to the Moravian Pottery & Tile Works in Doylestown, PA, and then futz around a bit along the Delaware and kick a couple of stones along the Delaware Canal, which I would like to walk or ride along the length of some day when I'm young and care free or old and retired or middle aged and what the heck.

Designing the 21st Century Street

Well, the things we don't know would stun an ox.
Just a couple of blocks from the homestead, Transit Alternatives is sponsoring a competition to redesign the intersection of 4th Ave and 9th Street. Lookee here. 4th & 9th and 5th & 9th are both hairy enough that I always try to take an alternate route - whether on 'ittle 'ikey or in the mini if there's gonna be a left hand turn involved. Of course, it pales in comparison to Mel's Boulevard of Death, but we have to live with our own woes.

(Notice the ambulance and patrol car at the northeast corner by Thomas Aquinas - not so unusual. Also notice the cars parked at the southwest corner - I betcha a nickel the one closest to the corner does not have a license plate on it and is for sale. This blows me down. Who's getting schmeared to allow this? For about 10 years running I've gotten a ticket on the day my inspection expires, but someone out there is using one of the busiest intersections in the Seven Eight as an auto lot, parking cars without tags? Puhleeese!)

Bam Bam joins McDonald's and Anheuser-Busch as Olympic advertisers: Me, I'm just trying to sell this guitar...

Rumor has it Charlie Rose will be having Dante on the show in the next week to discuss Bam Bam's becoming the Official US Presidential Candidate of the Olympics. (OK, maybe that overstates things.)

Me? I'm just trying to sell this fine guitar through the good folks at Mazzotti Music. Get down there and give it a strum.

Stop the Presses!

ex-astronaut sez there be space aliens...

credit for the heads up to BoingBoing (be sure to read thru the comments...)

field trip planned very, very soon...

hey dere, how y'all doink?

from the NYT, in regard favorite yummy treat, soft serve ice cream;
mentioned therein is Berkeley ice cream emporium Sketch which yourstruly has every intention to visit and indulge in much sampling (MUCH !), after which we shall report to ye here and include photos of the expedition.

(seems the sketch folks offer up a webloggy thing too...)

B.O.M.B

While I was freeing 'ittle 'ikey last night I saw that car & guy over there to the left (no, I can't read it either, bad phonecam snap) and felt compelled to go over and chat. O, I'm glad I did.

Meet Scott Witter, folks, mastermind of Brooklyn's Other Museum of Brooklyn (B.O.M.B). Scott was out there letting folks know all about the hearing going on inside the municipal building re the status of the nearly-demolished-but-for-a-technicality Admiral's Row at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, and the efforts to get the buildings and grounds landmarked (they meet all criteria, says Mr. Witter) and keep them standing and spanky.

Red Hook vendors: The ceviche hasn't suffered, but the huraches are dangerously cramped

Dan and Nina tried weekend before this last and, of course, nada. But Lota and I were there this weekend, hot as it was, and had the shrimp ceviche and the tuna sopa. And cheese empanadas. But we didn't know about the cart / truck arrangements. Here's a Gothamist link, voicing some of the crowd's disappointment. It's true what some of the comments say - what had been a beautiful, earthy neighborhood thing has been squeezed into tin cans. Gone are the big tarps over the woodchips at the edge of the fields and the crowds around the chairs and tables. But, damn, that tuna soup is still mindblowing.

Joe Ades - my all time favorite street vendor

I passed by a Halal vendor cart on Water Street yesterday and noticed sign it bore saying that it was a finalist for a 2007 Vendy award. Heck, I never knew there was such a thing - that led me this morning to the Street Vendor Project and browsing there I saw the article Don't Cry for Me and it's link out to New York Daily Photo's December 6, 2006 shot of Joe Ades. I find myself mentioning Joe Ades (but not by name - I didn't know his name until just now) to people all the time, and I'm amazed when I speak to long-time New Yorkers who've never seen him. I saw him last only a month ago, outside the courts downtown Brooklyn, near where I lock up 'ittle Bikey.

None of the pics there show the amazing star thing he sometimes does with carrots.

龍爭虎鬥

Hi, kids. I think I'm back. Great fun last night - BRIC commissioned Karsh Kale to write a new musical score for Enter The Dragon, and perform it live with the MIDIval Punditz to the thousands who jammed into the bandshell for the giant projection of the film. Yowza! That's entertainment!

(Still have to get it together to cross the borough line & see a film with M&P @ Socrates...)

a weekend in El Dorado county...

visiting J & J's place in Fairplay (near Placerville), yourstruly spent a very pleasant afternoon hanging out at two fine wineries, those folks at Shadow Ranch who always make us feel like friends, and our first visit to TooGood was made all the more memorable by meeting some really nice people from Hawaii who accompanied us during the barrel tasting, hosted by Seth (Thanks, Seth!) whose generousity (well, it ain't like it was his wine, right?) was greatly appreciated.

that pic up there is ms Judy herowndarnself, feeding a baby possum, one of the four five survivors of a litter of nine ten. She and her pals do good work under the guise of Sierra Wildlife Rescue

Summer in the City

A couple more notes about what's happening here at home in NYC.

More green news! The city is creating a public esplanade along that ugly eight-block stretch of Broadway between Times Square and Herald Square. It will feature pedestrian-only areas and a real bike path with planters to separate it from the car traffic (which will be reduced by two lanes). Hallelujah!

Here in Queens, the free movies at Socrates Sculpture Park began screening last Wednesday. We'll be organizing a regular picnic-party each week starting on July 23 with the screening of "Chop Shop," which is set along the strip of auto body repair shops in the Willet's Point section of my hometown, Flushing. This area is the targeted for major redevelopment which not everybody is happy about. Here's the latest on the subject via Queenscrap.

Still away from keyboards, computers and BKLYN...

... But wanting to chat w/ Juju y Mel. So am sending from the thingy a snap of the parking lot taken last Sunday at the Portland blues fest.

Sent via thingy

as esteban's somewhere out here on the left coast...

and we hopin' that balloon not drifting too far north, by the way...
(me see dat MellieMel taking care of the place with mention of her recent travels, welcome home Mel...)

so, wassup?

mine doppelganger JP ret'd recently from visit to desert southwest, his Moms just out of hospital and doing fine, he say "thank ye for asking". most his time there was spent in company of the materfamilias, as is fitting.

If you be near the great american music hall on friday,
19 June: 8th annual sleepless nights Gram Parsons tribute...

also, ye better Buy Thy Tickets Soon! Seva Foundation's 30th Anniversary Celebration, Oakland's Paramount Theatre, September 27th. YOW !

oh dear, almost forgot-
celebrate a berkeley institution : Moe's Books Birthday Celebration,
this Saturday, noonish...

and (thanx again to those fine minds at clusterflock) in re that picture ye may have seen here and there re those iranian missles...
(Later that same day - NY Times acknowledgement )
(Much Later that same day - courtesy BoingBoing - more on the iranian photoshopped image )

mebbe mo' from us later...

Bike Talk

Lots of talk around town about the bike rental program the City wants to implement. Paul and I just returned from Paris, where we took advantage of their glorious Vélib' program. Spent one magical day cycling the streets and it cost us less than $2.

Our friend, AJW, just purchased an electric-assist bike to get to her new job at the Georgetown Law Library. You go girl!

By the way, AJW also keeps a not-so-secret blog.

Not currently in BKLYN

We've ballooned to the j.p. coast but landed one state too north, and find ourselves drifting even further so...

MUTO by Blu!

MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

Schein on mein neighborhood

Saw Jenny Scheinman @ Barbes last evening. I've been listening a lot to her latest (vocal) album. Last night was not that but was intense & fun more or less at the same time. Show was being taped - does she always do that with her eyes, or was it the camera? Begorah!

Got mail today Slope Cellars for the first time (just joined their list). I like them a lot and no one there is snooty, unlike the shop that is closer to me where I have been snooted at more than once and I won't name big nose. I like, too, that in their email there are shameless plugs for bands, bars, and the shop next door. O, a fine place to buy whatever wine you're buying.