69th Street and Columbus Avenue

Happy Halloween!

Sixth Avenue and 35th Street

"I'm trying to decide between Catwoman and a swan." —overheard on the street

Water Street and Fulton Street

Lovely letterpressed cards and such are now available at the newly reopened Bowne and Company Stationers. And it's worth a browse in the store, even if you don't buy anything, just to catch a glimpse of the glossy, old printing equipment and to bask in all those possibilities of type. Bonus: right now, with every purchase, you get to choose five vintage buttons (for clothes) from a box supplied by Tinsel Trading, which is about to open up a holiday pop-up shop next door.

Broadway and 72nd Street

Accidental vignette of the Upper West Side: pale roses, raven, faded magazines, and art classes (pink sign).

Broadway and Leonard Street

A few things at Jem Fabric Warehouse, which appears to have whatever you might need—velvet, brocade, distressed leather, tweeds, feathers—for costumes or clothes or pillow covers (or whatever).

Broadway and Murray Street

"Time rushes by, love rushes by, life rushes by, but the Red Shoes go on."  —from The Red Shoes (the movie, based on the fairy tale)

Tenth Avenue and 24th Street

With a menu of American flavors and a French accent (that's a country pâté
 on the plate) and Moroccan lanterns hanging down, The Red Cat feels just right (around midnight), where/when I recently had an amazing roasted cod with saffron mussels for dinner. (They also have a cookbook and a sister restaurant, The Harrison.)

Broadway and Leonard Street

Tired of antler decor? Stay away from the new Organic Modernism store. Though they have other things, too, of course, such as nice, highly polished tree-stump stools.

Canal Street and Sixth Avenue

Birds occur in the subway. Usually sparrows, I think, flutter up the stairs or fly low along the tracks. Blackbirds are a surprise.

Franklin Street and Church Street

Composition with reflection in the window at the New York Academy of Art.

Tenth Avenue and 23rd Street

A minimalist neon sign outside of an art gallery. Take a look at some more traditional signs around town over at Project Neon, which has some really lovely nighttime photography.

Franklin Street and Broadway

The cupcakes on these cards look just like the cupcakes behind glass at Billy's Bakery, where I bypassed the pastel options and bought a nice petite pumpkin example. (I asked the salesperson which flavor was the best, and she said—as clerks do in every bakery—red velvet.)

West Broadway and Murray Street

I was intrigued by the nonstandard spelling, and then the motto made me think that maybe I should be drinking it, and then, overheard on the street: "The good news for the planet is that our species won’t survive."

Fifth Avenue and 26th Street

Everything one (woman) could want, one afternoon, on (lower) Fifth Avenue. (Although this new book Willpower says that the key to the good life is self-control.)

Somewhere in Battery Park City

The end of Indian summer (maybe), by the river, with the Statue of Liberty.

Sullivan Street and Spring Street

Geometry/greenery on a blank (blue) page of afternoon. Enjoy the holiday weekend!

Columbus Circle

Always a good idea to live in a place where the possibility of pink fountains exists. Pink is always (to me) the color of fantasy and imagination, a shade of Wallace Stevens’s red weather. (But here, it probably means support of Breast Cancer Awareness Month.)

Prince Street and Greene Street

You’ll always end up in this city. Don’t hope for things elsewhere:
there’s no ship for you, there’s no road.

            —C. P. Cavafy, from his poem “The City”

35th Street and Sixth Avenue

But there is always more than one way.

Grand Central Station

It is not true that it doesn’t matter where you live, that you are in Hartford or Dallas merely yourself. Also it is not true that all are linked naturally to their regions. Many are flung down carelessly at birth…..
   The highway, the asphalt paths, the thieves, the contaminated skies like a suffocating cloak of mangy fur, the millions in their boroughs—that is truly home.

                        —Elizabeth Hardwick in Sleepless Nights