Long Island RESTAURANT!

As first noted at Brooks of Sheffield's Lost City, the beautiful Long Island Restaurant in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, has closed. For how long nobody knows. The old Brooklyn diner/bar has a wondeful back story, three generations of one family running the place forever, until the family's grand dame passed away last year. I visited LI Restaurant years ago and spoke with this marvelous lady, who served me beer ina '50s-era glass. Entering LI Restaurant was like time travel, the mahagony bar perfectly polished, lace curtains in the window, ham and cheese sandwiches served on white bread with chips. They don't make 'em like this anymore.

Fix your TV lady?

Remember TV repair shops? Remember big tube television sets? How bout transistor radios? VCRs? Portable TVs? This old place in Brooklyn Heights has seen better days, even though their sign still looks new. G&D? Gone & Departed.

Coming soon to a country near you?

Wall Street's greed, corruption and stupidity has screwed the U.S., let's hope the world doesn't deflate from the shock..

war war war!

Revolutionary war enactment and the ladies who lunched in Princeton NJ

Laurie thought these ladies look melancholy. Perhaps their sons and husbands are making them do this?

Englishman on MacDougal

An Englishman In New York is currently being filmed on my charming block, and stars John Hurt as Quentin Crisp. Cynthia Nixon and Swoosie Kurtz too!  Enjoy these '70s era cars being used in the film.  Ahhh, the Kodak moments.         

9/11 Tribute or chance to party?

From moving tribute...


To Star Trek sci-fi surreal scape

…to a swell champagne party for those well heeled suits with passes…see the tents on the left?

9/11 Tribute in Light

Photographed from the 55th floor of the Chase Manhattan Building, two blocks from Ground Zero.

Tribute in Light

A second pic from my roof, up close..

Miss Your Lips

Am I overdoing this NYC street art thing? I dunno. I guess I see it as renegade protest against the encroaching corporate control dominating seemingly every public space in the city. Washington Square Park turns over its fountain to the multimillionaire Tisch family. The Mayor ignores local zoning laws so Donald Trump can build his 28 floor tower on Varrick Street. Condo blocks and chain stores going up all over town, while small businesses close. Meanwhile, Ground Zero is still a big hole in the ground. Enjoy the art! This is one crazy corner..

Popeye & West Village Urban Etiquette Signs

I've stood all I can stand and I can't stand no more!

From Weehawken Street, New York's "smallest" street...


Says who?

Grand Central eagle

Another shot from New York's Summer Streets weekend free for all!

Old Minetta Tavern

The Minetta Tavern on MacDougal is undergoing major renovation by a new owner. Word has it that he is keeping the interior intact, and only changing the menu -- a good thing. A long time hangout for the '50s beats and then the '60s NYC showbiz and literary crowd, Minetta Tavern is classic Greenwich Village. One things for sure, the photos that lined Minetta's walls are already gone, packed up and relocated with the old owner. So here they are, photographed during Christmas, 07. The beautiful Eva Marie Saint, fresh from her role in On The Waterfront.

Soupy Sales and Minetta's owner.
Joe Gould, Joseph Mitchell.

Old New York rulers...Party time..!

ever feel like this?

One nation indivisible?

America is becoming an increasingly strange place. Was the gov't behind 9/11? Is Bush bought off by the oil industry? Does American industry care only for shareholders, not Americans? Is America smart enough to elect Obama, someone who inspires rather than a backwards looking senior citizen? Something's gotta give. A sampling of more political street art.

Seaport ruin

Much of South Street Seaport is being developed for the well heeled and the tourists. Chain stores and walking tours fill old streets that were once dominiated by fishermen and the Mob. But on some streets hulks of the old buildings remain, ghosts of the past like this ancient column bordering a Front Street storefront.

Brooklyn Bridge 2

Straight up!

Directly below the bridge, looking at the arch.

A view from the Brooklyn side.

Wires, wires, wires...