Tag Archives: technology

Part 4: New Year’s Eve in Brooklyn 2014/2015

11 Jan

January 11, 2014

Saarah and I got out of the car. Our reason? Somebody had to get the party started. Oh no, not me. I’m never that person. But I figured someone had to be and maybe we’d find him. We went over to the only brightly lit area, which was between the parachute jump and the carousel and wonder of wonders, there were people there!

About 15 of them, all very, very visibly cold. There were some little kids wrapped in blankets, looking around with big glassy eyes, wondering why they were being punished. Most of the people were gathered around the entrance to the carousel building, which although barricaded and locked, was lit up so maybe, just maybe, they’d be let in and could thaw out.

A few people were standing around an area between the jump and carousel which was barricaded off and inside was a lone man setting up some DJ equipment. The ad had promised “the best local music artists” but none were to be seen. Laid out on the ground a few feet away were some tent poles. Why all the prep was left to the last minute was beyond me, but then again, it isn’t like there were overwhelming crowds to deal with.

It was still a few minutes before nine and, satisfied that we were in the right place (and that this was not some population control measure to do away with idiots who show up and freeze to death) we ran back to the car to wait for the “party,” and at this point I really have to put that in quotation marks, to start.

As we rushed back to the parking lot, we almost knocked over a man in his 50’s who had stopped to photograph a little sneaker laying on the pavement that some little child had lost.

Or maybe he just put it there himself. Lots of odd people in Coney Island.

 

To Be Continued

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Picture Postcard: 7up and Kentile Signs

12 May

May 12, 2013

New York can sometimes seem like a city of non-stop progress to those who don’t live here, but to New Yorkers, it is less a city of gleaming skyscrapers and more of a city of hidden enclaves. This is one of the not-so hidden ones. Most people have heard of Little Italy in Manhattan, but the Bronx boasts its own little Italy, on a stretch of Arthur Avenue. As I was walking down the avenue, I spotted an interesting sign down the street and sprinted over to see it up close. This is a very old 7up sign, on 187th street two blocks off Arthur Avenue.

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There just aren’t many old signs like that left in the city, and the ones you do find often aren’t intact. I don’t know if this still lights up, and unfortunately I may never know as the luncheonette it is attached to is closed and empty, for sale. Luncheonettes are also a dying breed.

Here is the full street scene:

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And here’s a dramatic shot of the other side of the sign, showing that both sides are intact:

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And here’s a bonus. Last week, the iconic Kentile sign by the Gowanus canal and BQE highway in Brooklyn was lit up for the first time in years. This sign has been unlit for decades, but a tech company aimed lasers at it and lit it up from a distance for one night only. This isn’t just an old sign lit up again, this is an old sign lit up by focused laser beams.

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