Day 11, Wednesday November 5, 2008- This was a great day in NY… good times..
David returned from his trip today, so I packed up all my belongings and tidied up the apartment. The day really began hunting for flowers to say thank you. Roslyn and I picked out a beautiful kind of red flower that was about to bloom… red to match David’s apartment and a potted plant about to bloom so he could witness that incredible part of the life cycle instead of cut flowers gradually wilting.
David's Upper East Side studio apartment
This is the kitchen... all of it...
red flower about to bloom
Roslyn and I then headed to Williamsburg, Brooklyn to do some exploring. The goldmine was finding Buffalo Exchange… an awesome stylish thrift store. I wasn’t expecting to buy clothes, but I had some finds that were super affordable. Sometimes great deals come at awkward times, but I acted on it anyway. $50 later I walked out with three shirts and a sweater… My favorite part was that I decided to stuff everything into my shoulder bag and not carry an additional plastic bag. As a reward for not using a plastic bag, I was given a 5 cent wooden nickel to deposit in one of three charity boxes. That was fun. Even five cents adds up. As we left the store, I turned around to snap a shot of it and a girl came walking down the sidewalk into the picture. It turns out she was staff. She was so excited I was taking a picture she proudly agreed to pose in it. Damn! If every employee was that happy to go to work this world would be a much better place. I was impressed. Below is the photo starring the Buffalo Exchange employee and some other amusing shots I took in Williamsburg. I should also mention Ros and I went to an awesome gallery in Williamsburg called Like the Spice Gallery and saw some really interesting experimental photography… color photograms… We talked to the owner/director Marisa Sage and it turns out she went to SU as an undergrad. How about that? We also stopped by Pierogi, another gallery in Brooklyn, which had some good work up…
Buffalo Exchange in Brooklyn with proud employee
shoes in Brooklyn
bikes in Brooklyn featuring Hello Kitty
public art in Brooklyn
Roslyn and I headed back into Manhattan after grabbing a sandwich at a place in Brooklyn (which, by the way, had all its sandwiches named after Adirondack water sources… the waiter had no idea… They are a best kept secret, even in NYC…). We went to NYU to listen to an artist speak… can’t remember the guy’s name, but he… get this… He built a remake of the first submarine. The first submarine was built by a New England farmer who then used it to try to bomb a ship in the Boston harbor. It didn’t succeed. The artist built a submarine following the description outlined by the farmer. He lived in a town that had negotiated a deal with Cruise Ships that he wasn’t fond of. It wasn’t in the best interest of the taxpayers, so he tried to take the submarine up to the edge of the Queen Mary 2, or QM2 as he refers to it, and got arrested. The submarine was not illegal but he got too close to the ship and a tv crew flew over so the police were under pressure to follow procedure. Otherwise, he probably just would have been towed away and maybe given a fine. The submarine was included in an exhibition on Democracy in the Armory in NYC. That’s all I’ve got about the subject.
The next stop in a most wonderful day was a splurge… For about a week Roslyn & I had been talking about going to this chocolate place called “Chocolate By the Bald Man: Max Brenner.” Just walking in there smelled amazing. Ros ordered a chai with white chocolate and I, a Mexican (like red chili powder spicy) Hot Chocolate. We split an ice cream waffle sundae… The waffle had chocolate covered crispies and separate chocolate syrup. The topping was dark chocolate ice cream with whipped cream and special ordered strawberries. Yum.
After that we went to the final event of the evening. A band that Roslyn heard in Ithaca plays every Wednesday night with belly dancers at an Asian Restaurant with a special on pad thai and sake. She had wanted to go for awhile so I stayed in town today to go along. We paid $10 admission, ate spicy pad thai and drank $3 sake while watching belly dancers and this band play. The band was really good… an Eastern flavor. It made sense with the belly dancers, who were mostly very good.
The end of the night consisted of returning to David’s on the Upper East Side to claim my stuff, my car, say goodbye and head back to Hoboken, thoroughly satisfied with the day.
crunchy waffle sundae... waffle, dark chocolate ice cream, whipped cream, chocolate crunchies, chocolate syrup and later strawberries... chocolate by the bald man, Max Brenner, mmmm
Roslyn's chai with white chocolate
HugMug by Max Brenner, chocolate by the bald man
belly dancer with band
