Has Anyone Seen Brooklyn?

May 15, 2009 ·
Filed under: Crazy Cat Lady, Williamsburg 

The pitbull mix, that is!

brooklynthedog

This flier hails from Roebling Street and Metropolitan Avenue and is the second furkid named after the Boro of Kings who has gone MIA in as many months! If you have seen this rather formidable (but friendly) dude or know of his whereabouts please contact his owner via the above phone numbers.

Thanks!

Miss Heather

East Williamsburg Photo Du Jour: Convergence

May 14, 2009 ·
Filed under: Williamsburg 

convergancenys

From Grand Street.

Miss Heather

Interesting Consumer Item Part I: Grand Street

April 25, 2009 ·
Filed under: Williamsburg 

Some of you might have noticed the blogging here has been sparse and erratic of late. There are several reasons for this:

A. This “on-again-off-again” love affair April is having with winter is wreaking havoc on my person.
B. Sometimes I need a break:

  1. from the “Brooklyn blogosphere”
  2. from bloggers in general (nothing personal)
  3. from my own blogging so as to…
  4. enjoy my life by indulging my own artistic inclinations and
  5. savoring the work of others.

Which brings me to this…

livenudeelf

in my “downtime” I devoured this book.* It is (and on occasion all at once) poignant, smutty and very funny. I recommend it highly. It also had a wonderful passage which I will endeavor to paraphrase here:

The way to get a man is to be perfect until you can reveal yourself for being big asshole you really are.

Jen’s probably right. But I never mastered Duplicity 101. It was not out lack of ability or training. I learned feminine wiles from the best: my tiny and insanely cute southern grandmother (who was, in fact, one of the most terrifying women I have ever met). Rather, it was my sense of honesty, abject laziness and most importantly feminism that did me in. After spending 30 years of dealing with assholes less intelligent, creative, and charismatic than myself I wanted to break the (gl)ass ceiling:

Dicks be damned…

I said to myself.

I am going to be the biggest asshole I can be!

This exercise in self-realization did wonders for my self-esteem. The same cannot be said for my dating life. Honesty is something New Yorkers (and Americans in general)  find disquieting— what’s more, they don’t want it. In the metaphorical dating pool that is New York City I was a Baby Ruth bar mistaken for a turd.

Thankfully I met my Carl. His name is Mister Heather. When I told him about a special art project I was cooking up Thursday night he took interest. What’s more, we argued about how to do it. After acquiring the most crucial components Friday I needed we still needed one vital component to pull it all together.

We’re going to Grand Street.

I said. And they did. Have what we we looking for. Along with this:

fuxing-padsnys

Too bad “FuXing” doesn’t make feminine hygiene products. I’d love nothing more than to shout at my husband in my, most delicate, female time of need:

GET ME SOME FUXING PADS!

Oh, wait. I do that already.

Miss Heather

*Jen will be part of a panel discussion today starting at 2:00 p.m.:

NY Center for Independent Publishing
NY Round Table Writers’ Conference
20 West 44th Street
New York, New York 10036

Willamspoint Photos Du Jour: People In My Neighborhood

April 9, 2009 ·
Filed under: Greenpoint Magic, Williamsburg 

foursome

coolthing

rosemarys

Bedford Avenue

tourists

Metropolitan Avenue

cooldudeongrand

Grand Street

americanplayground1

theroundtable

Franklin Street

nattydresser

Kent Avenue

cooperpark

Maspeth Avenue

footlong

Manhattan Avenue

Miss Heather

Today’s Bit ‘O’ Blight: Karl Fischer Style

April 8, 2009 ·
Filed under: Williamsburg 

This eyesore (and serious public safety hazard) comes courtesy of 227 Grand Street. Be careful where you walk!

Miss Heather

Williamsburg Video Du Jour: Sunday Afternoon On Manhattan Avenue

April 7, 2009 ·
Filed under: Recession, Williamsburg 

Today’s example of developer blight comes courtesy of a smallish lot on Manhattan Avenue just north of Grand Street. What initially caught my eye was the “gate” to this site gently listing back and forth in the breeze. Having had a considerable amount of experience with illegal weekend construction I figured there would be workers busy hammering, sawing and riveting. As you will see this ended up not being the case.

Public safety hazard or a new jungle gym for neighborhood youth? I’ll leave you to draw your own conclusions.

Miss Heather

Found On The Southside

April 7, 2009 ·
Filed under: Street Art, Urban Artifact, Williamsburg 

Whenever I want to see something that makes me scratch my head and wonder:

What the fuck?

I head over to the Southside. It is not my intent to sound like I putting this great neighborhood down: nothing could be further from the truth. Of all the neighborhoods in all of Brooklyn only this bit of 11211 straddling the BQE even comes close to some of the oddities I find here in Greenpoint. And on that note follows is something I encountered at the junction of Borinquen Place, South 1st Street and Grand Street recently. I would presume it to be an art work of some kind. Or some hitherto unknown pagan deity. Who knows? Life is mysterious.

sculpture1

Here is a view of its head. If you ask me it resembles Homer Simpson crossed with Mr. Peanut.* On acid.

sculpture2

Here is a frontal view. As you can see our little fella has rather protuberant buttocks. Astroturf appears to have been employed as well. Speaking as someone who once was both a teaching fellow and teaching assistant I have to admit nothing like this ever found its way into my classroom. It’s a shame, really. Had some fresh-faced student proffered up something like this I probably would have had a lot more interest in teaching. So it goes.

In any case if this item tickles your fancy (or you’re looking for a gift for that hard-to-shop-for person) better get down there fast. I doubt this urban artifact will be without a home for long.

Miss Heather

*And bears more than a passing resemblance to the following, which is located on Metropolitan Avenue.

dreamofhappiness

A Girl And Her Blog

April 6, 2009 ·
Filed under: Abjectecture, Brooklyn, Greenpoint Magic, Recession, Williamsburg 

It would appear that politicians (and the developers to whom they are beholden) have done a smashing job of removing “urban blight” (READ: the working class/poor) from north Brooklyn. Who needs nuclear bombs when re-zoning, complicity and bureaucratic incompetence/apathy will do the job? Nonetheless the end product is more or less the same: a community whose quality of life has been compromised.

Follows is a revue of developer-induced blight in north Brooklyn I captured yesterday, April 5. I have entitled it After The Gold Rush.

The sad reality is re-zoning, tax bennies, and easy credit have done little to benefit my neighborhood. There were once businesses that gave people decent, well paying  jobs. Affordable rental property was once in abundance in Greenpoint as well. No more. Thanks to our city’s leadership much of my wonderful neighborhood has become a wasteland peppered by vacant lots, failed condominiums cum overpriced rental property, illegal hostels and super-sized tourist destinations operated by and for the affluent.

The time is long overdue for north Brooklyn to be developed in a manner sensitive to the needs of the people who constitute this community, not the ones Mayor Bloomberg’s rich cronies envision living here.

TO BE CONTINUED.

Miss Heather

P.S.: This one’s for you, Bob.

Greenwick Photos Du Jour: The Word On The Street

March 18, 2009 ·
Filed under: Bushwick, Greenpoint Magic, Williamsburg 

kyle

Lorimer Street

haveagreatday

Norman Avenue

visa

Jewel Street

now

Meeker Avenue

yorsnys

Vandervoort Avenue

iloveyoupowersst

Powers Street

i-heart-money

Grand Street

bornrulermeadownys

Meserole Street

yo

ourheartslie

White Street

exceptusnys

no-war

Cook Street

Miss Heather

East Williamsburg Photos Du Jour: Spring Is In The Air!

March 17, 2009 ·
Filed under: Bushwick, Williamsburg 

badpiggy

Maspeth Avenue

mannequinandsaranwrap

Grand Street

buttercupfucker

Scholes Street

larryking

orangebike

free1

leprecaun

Bogart Street

killjesus

Cook Street

Miss Heather

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