Babbling Brooklyn

"New York loves you when you’re there, but doesn’t miss you when you’re gone."

Tue, 21 May 2013 15:28:45 -0400

“New York loves you when you’re there, but doesn’t miss you when you’re gone.”

- Dan Jones (Taaffe Manor housemate)

This American Life.

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 06:16:19 -0400

If you’ve never listened to This American Life, it’s hard to explain why it’s so great. Every week this radio programme based in Chicago chooses a theme and proceeds to tell stories of real people around that theme. The host, Ira Glass, has the most delicious voice, it’s listening to honey drip off a spoon. You know sometimes when the sound of somebody’s voice is so amazing, almost soporific, that you’re not even listening to what they’re saying? But all you want them to do is keep talking, so you think of ways to continue the conversation even though you’re not listening to the answers…

This is what listening to this radio programme is like. Except you are listening to the answers. In fact, you are completely hooked. Mesmerised by every word.

All I can say is that you HAVE to listen to it. It will improve the quality of your life by 200%. If you like it as much as I do, please consider making a donation to secure the future of free downloads. You won’t regret it, in fact you’ll probably be entranced every week for the rest of your life.

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/492/dr-gilmer-and-mr-hyde

Our old neighbour from Carroll Gardens posted this saying it...

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 14:57:27 -0400

Our old neighbour from Carroll Gardens posted this saying it reminded him of the moment on the F train (our old local train) as you go above ground. If you’ve never gone further south on the F line than Carroll Street, I can highly recommend it. The view over Brooklyn is the stuff of dreams.

Paris je t'aime.

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 03:30:27 -0400

As if I need another reason! I bring you Nailmatic, selling non-toxic nail varnishes that are not tested on animals and all made in France. You wanna know the best part? They sell them from vending machines! Hell yes.

The D&G show brought back vivid memories of a visit to the...

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 03:30:21 -0400

The D&G show brought back vivid memories of a visit to the Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta on the island of Torcello near Venice. As a massive fan of mosaics, living in Italy was amazing as they were everywhere, from the church down the road to Ravenna and beyond. But the cathedral at Torcello was the holy grain for me. A work of staggering beauty dating from the 12th century, it covers the whole wall of the church and depicts the Last Judgement. I was mesmerized, absorbing each and every detail like a giant sponge (and I later wrote it all down so I would never forget it!).

I love how these tiny tiles of colors show such depth and detail and emotion. The meaning is never lost, regardless of whether you are really close up looking at one intimate detail or far away drinking in the whole picture.

Byzantine Princesses, Medieval Queens and Regal Red...

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 03:30:30 -0400

Byzantine Princesses, Medieval Queens and Regal Red Warrior(esse)s marching into battle.

I tend to think of D&G as the upmarket version of Italians that love gold trainers. Slightly over the top and trashy but think they’re super stylish (we’ve all seen them!)

But here, showing at Milan fashion week for Fall/Winter 2013, I must eat my crown. Dolce & Gabbana at their Renaissance best, perfectly blurring the lines between art and fashion with these breathtakingly beautiful mosaic dresses. Viva Italia!

Photos courtesy The Sartorialist.

Petit short for your viewing pleasure by the girl I wish was my...

Sun, 24 Mar 2013 06:59:28 -0400

Petit short for your viewing pleasure by the girl I wish was my best friend, Lena Durham.

Merci mille fois a Garance Doré, pour rendre mon pratique français plus amusant. I love seeing the world of fashion through her eyes: the whimsy and beauty of the shows, the astounding theatricals of the venues and the people that make it all come together. But best of all, she laughs. All the time. At her herself, at others and at the fashion industry. She invites you into her world and all of a sudden these powerful fashion players become real people - creative, intuitive, vulnerable.

I have always believed in fashion as a force for good. But democratic fashion that allows you to dream, well that’s the best it can be.

Happy St. Patrick’s day.

Sat, 16 Mar 2013 22:13:41 -0400

Happy St. Patrick’s day.

Fresh off of a UK Arena tour in support of Mumford & Sons,...

Fri, 15 Mar 2013 13:03:00 -0400

Fresh off of a UK Arena tour in support of Mumford & Sons, my very good friends Post War Years have just released their latest album Galapagos. My opinion of it is totally biased so form your own via this stripped back version of one of their new tracks.

For more, go here: iTunes:http://smarturl.it/galapagos

Amazon: http://smarturl.it/galapagos_a

Vinyl: http://smarturl.it/galapagosvinyl

Difficult to talk about dystopian visions of the 1980s New York...

Thu, 14 Mar 2013 12:09:17 -0400

Difficult to talk about dystopian visions of the 1980s New York City subway without mentioning The Warriors. Essential viewing.

(It got made into a pretty good video game as well. Unfortunately the name of the company that adapted it momentarily escapes me…..)

Last few. Too many good photos not to post them all.

Thu, 14 Mar 2013 10:00:54 -0400

Last few. Too many good photos not to post them all.

A few more photos of the subway in the 80s.

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 13:58:57 -0400

A few more photos of the subway in the 80s.

Broken Windows Theory

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 10:01:15 -0400

I recently re-read Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point , after picking it up from the stoop of a Fort Greene brownstone on my way back from the farmers market. It contains an interesting passage on the 1980s crimewave in New York City, focusing on the subway system and the introduction of Broken Windows Theory. Gladwell writes that during the 1980s, the NY subway “could only be described as chaotic….in 1984 there was a fire somewhere on the system every day [and] everyone of the 6,000 cars in the Transit Authority fleet was covered in graffiti, top to bottom, inside and out.” He quotes a man named William Bratton describing riding the subway as like “going into the transit version of Dante’s Inferno.”

By coincidence, I recently came across a series of photographs of the subway system from that era. Gladwell does not exaggerate the state of affairs. He goes onto describe how several men, turned around the subway system in a little over a decade by applying what criminologists refer to as Broken Windows Theory - that crime is the inevitable result of disorder: criminals “believe they reduce their chances of being caught… if they operate on streets where potential victims are already intimidated by prevailing conditions” such as broken windows or graffiti.

I love these photographs. They show a parallel universe where New York is no longer the envy of the world but instead a dungeon. There are criminals, and there are victims and there is no middle ground. Classic 80s dystopian sci-fi films like Blade Runner and The Running Man suddenly seem like, when they were made, they could have been plausible descriptions of the future. Thankfully New York cleaned itself up, and now we ride safe and shiny tubes without fear of reprisal. The only visual pollution comes from the advertising companies who at least pay to keep the system running.

I’d like to go back for one day to see it for myself. Just one day though; and not a moment longer.

Broadway-Lafayette

Sun, 10 Mar 2013 21:23:00 -0400

This boy stands on the white concourse of Broadway-Lafayette station more days than not, drawing with distinct sincerity. He faces down the hallway, as though taking in the landscape, but I have sneaked peeks at this scratch pad and his doodlings have little to do with the porcelain vista that surrounds him. He is always immaculately dressed in classic NY streetwear: plaid shirts, thick rimmed glasses and boxfresh sneaks; impressively I’ve seen him sometimes wearing two snapbacks at once, one on his head and one dangling from a belt loop. He listens to music and he never sits. I don’t know how long he stays there for, I simply marvel at him as I drudge past on my way home, wondering why he would choose to stand in this spot, doodling every day. What inspiration can he draw from something I perceive only as a utilitarian thoroughfare? Who in New York has time to do this? Why on earth would you do it at Broadway-Lafayette? The distinct elements of the environments that I associated with relaxation (nature, solitude, peace) are completely absent here. But perhaps those ideals have been fed to me from others, and if only I’d look I’d find creative inspiration in an unlikely source. Maybe this kid’s street art needs the New York avenues to guide itself. I’ve never considered that the brick walls of this town were not merely blank canvas but directly inform the free public works of art that they house. Maybe he’s just waiting for the right train.

This gentleman also find peace and solitude at Broadway-Lafayette. Every day he sits in this same wooden seat, two-thirds of the way down the Brooklyn-bound BDFM platform. In my head I call him the Fed-Ex guy, because of the black fleece he wears no matter what the weather. he’s always sound asleep, sometimes lolled across three seats with his mouth wide open. He looks like he couldn’t possibly be comfortable, but I swear he dreams like babies do. I’ve never seen him awake, or half awake, or even moving. I’ve never seen him arriving, or leaving or anywhere else around the station. I’ve never even seen him in one of the seats either side of this one. He’s either here, or he’s not.

I wonder how many other commuters through Broadway-Lafayette have seen these two and spared them a thought for them. They have easy wants - there’s no demand or rush like I see in the faces of other New Yorkers as we cross the busy streets past each other. They have found their perfect spot, and they aren’t in a hurry to go anywhere else.

Listening to these beautiful lyrics today and day dreaming. Gold...

Thu, 07 Mar 2013 15:21:39 -0500

Listening to these beautiful lyrics today and day dreaming.

Gold teeth and gold jewelry
every piece of your dowry
throw them into the tomb with me
bury them with my name

Video

Sun, 03 Mar 2013 20:32:15 -0500

Taken at Dumbo Waterfront Park. August 2012

Sat, 02 Mar 2013 21:34:57 -0500

Taken at Dumbo Waterfront Park. August 2012

Katherine

Fri, 01 Mar 2013 06:00:58 -0500

Saturday morning barely awake you’ll see Kat leave the house with a bag full of golf clubs, bristling with energy and good fortune. The next day a tennis racket or a yoga mat or a snowboard tucked under-arm. Maybe tomorrow she’ll go for a bike ride to Rockaway Beach, or “Hey Max, you wanna go see the water lilies at New York Botanical Gardens?”. The answer is always yes.

Other days she’ll veg out on the couch, with a crafty smoke and yet another episode of Homeland, trying to find a comfy way to cuddle up with the bony cyclist’s body of her boyfriend Al. When he’s not around she talks about him the same way Steph talks about me; with a fond irritation for his homely flaws: messiness, forgetfulness, idleness. Al and I get on well.

While he’s off racing, Kat reminds me why I’m in New York. Together we rode the Cyclone and watched French ballet dancers flirt with each other on the beach at Coney Island. We cycled to Governor’s Island to hang out in the VIP area of a music festival and ignore all of the bands. We ate Dinosaur BBQ while watching Al bike around Harlem. We’ll drive to her grandma’s old house in the North Fork of Long Island to drink wine and make smores, or to Asbury Park, NJ for nightswimming and tacos. She gave me two days notice for a ski trip to the Catskills, and I made sure it happened.

Katherine left Taaffe last month. The first of the Taaffe Fam that I know to do so. Taaffe’s rebellious daughter left with a song and a dance and a smile and one last go on the hula hoop. She did three years, and knew it was time to move on.

To sum up Kat better than I ever could there’s this video of her on stage in her hometown of Austin, Texas. She blagged her way backstage before an Electric Six concert and demanded that the lead singer let her tap dance on stage to the song Gay Bar. Like me whenever she presents a crazy scheme, they found it hard to impossible to say no.

(To see the world through Kat’s eyes, check out her instagram feed: http://instagram.com/katshan..)

The best doughnuts in New York City are made two blocks from my...

Wed, 27 Feb 2013 03:30:25 -0500

The best doughnuts in New York City are made two blocks from my house. They are not merely doughnuts but puffs of moist airy dough topped with outrageous flavours such as hibiscus, earl grey, spanish blood orange or cheescake with red velvet crumb toppings. There is a line out the door at all kinds of day; this is because you can pay $2.25 for probably the best thing that will happen to you all day, and so it is impossible to resist.

Of course, the New York Times has delivered on this topic already, and there’s also a pretty cool little video here but I figured that pictures paint a thousand words so I hope you enjoy the above quin-tych of dough doughnuts being modelled with true passion by Stephanie Rose Chaplin.

A few choice snaps from Steph’s visit to NY, featuring me...

Tue, 26 Feb 2013 03:30:13 -0500

A few choice snaps from Steph’s visit to NY, featuring me sniffing the artworks at the History Of Perfume exhibition; the bansai colelction at Brooklyn Botanical Gardens; trying on glasses at Warby Parker; a tailor’s dummy that I gave to Steph for Valentines, wearing the hat that I wore the weekend that we got engaged; good times on the subway our old house mate, and good friend Dave.