snyppet

Hudson Street and Spring Street

2012-02-02T09:24:00.000-05:00

This specimen of Flaming Cactus went up for the holidays but seems pretty indestructible. “My experience with public art, is that no one is in a big hurry to take down something that is making the neighborhood more beautiful,” says one of the artists in this Downtown Express article.

58th Street and Seventh Avenue

2012-02-01T09:35:00.000-05:00

Tiny village perched in a windowsill. (Someone might be living in it.)

Murray Street and Church Street

2012-01-31T09:25:00.000-05:00

Doesn’t this look like a photo from a hundred years ago? (There's a construction project going on in the middle, with workers on the roof.) But it’s Manhattan 2012—after I put my photo through the super-easy-to-use old photo generator at this Japanese site. (Which I first read about here, at the always inspirational Improvised Life blog.)

Christopher Street and Bleecker Street

2012-01-30T09:25:00.001-05:00

Fruit-flavored crocodiles at Swedish candy store Sockerbit were more photogenic (but less tasty) than the chocolate balls with a crackly inside “smuggled from the palace.”

Greenwich Street and Morton Street

2012-01-27T09:27:00.000-05:00

Window display at Maccarone gallery (and part of the current exhibition there, it seems). The attribution in parentheses says “after Marcel Duchamp,” who surely would have approved: “Art is not about itself but the attention we bring to it.”

Smith Street and Butler Street (Brooklyn)

2012-01-26T09:32:00.000-05:00

A bit of the bar at the old-fashioned-feeling Clover Club. “But what makes Clover Club better than other turn-of-the-century-style joints is that all of that oldness never overshadows a Brooklyn-style casualness,” according to GQ. Here, I had a Widow’s Kiss (and here’s a recipe), an “alcohol forward” cocktail, according to the waitress. (What she meant is: strong drink.)

14th Street and University Place

2012-01-25T09:25:00.000-05:00

I discovered, after visiting angelsnaturenyc.com, as advertised on the canvas here, that the stone “attuned” to my astrological sign is carnelian (“stone of action, focus, and purpose”), which is fine, except that I don’t love carnelian. I’d rather have aquamarine, “stone of courage and serinity”—and serenity, too, it seems.

Second Avenue and 6th Street

2012-01-24T09:16:00.000-05:00

Thoughts of Amsterdam, through the window at Dutch/Danish restaurant Vandaag. I ignored the “grade pending” sign from the health department to have waterzooi (wonderful), charred romaine, smoked oysters, and no problems (that I know of).

Murray Street and West Broadway

2012-01-23T09:26:00.000-05:00

Weekend morning: one quiet blue umbrella, no traffic, no signs.

Bond Street and Union Street (Brooklyn)

2012-01-20T09:23:00.000-05:00

Where the food trucks go to park, apparently. (That looks like Rocco DiSpirito’s healthy food truck in the middle of the pack.) But probably not for long. “Artists and small businesses priced out of other neighborhoods have been taking up residence in the old warehouses. Nightclubs have popped up on streets that taxi repair shops and truck depots once dominated,” according to this Times report.

West Street and Vesey Street

2012-01-19T09:35:00.000-05:00

A glance up at the progress at One World Trade Center (as seen from inside the World Financial Center, on the staircase). National Geographic has a nice, interactive panorama of what the view from the observation deck will look like (so you don’t actually have to go up there.)

Christopher Street and Seventh Avenue

2012-01-18T09:22:00.001-05:00

I don’t know what this is all about (and in a church courtyard) but who can ignore the advertisement—or is it a plea—for “more poems by me.”

Dean Street and Fifth Avenue (Brooklyn)

2012-01-17T09:18:00.000-05:00

Menus on the marble wall and a shout-out to Pellegrino Artusi, “the father of Italian cooking who almost single-handedly overcame regional divisions to create a truly national cuisine.” This reference was pointed out to us when we asked what kind of Italian cuisine this tiny new restaurant in a converted garage was serving: southern, northern, Tuscan, Venetian? In any case, what I had at Va Beh’ was simple, delicious, and inexpensive: roasted eggplant crostini, pickled grapes with pecorino, cavatelli with turkey sausage and broccoli rabe.

Great Jones Street and Bowery

2012-01-13T09:21:00.000-05:00

“One should never have to choose between flavor and calories. Lardo Mantecato makes it possible to enjoy both with ease.” At Il Buco Alimentari. I can’t vouch for this (I was eating their pistachio cake at the time), but I imagine a thin layer on some toasted bread would be delicious. (This lardo has been whipped up and flecked with rosemary and pepper.) Something to consider for the long weekend.

Hudson Street and 11th Street

2012-01-12T09:37:00.000-05:00

A few things to say about Frankies 570: crostini with Sicilian white anchovies, cavatelli with hot sausage and sage, red-wine-stewed prunes with mascarpone (amazing). Read more (with recipes) in the December issue of Saveur magazine.

Abingdon Square

2012-01-11T09:18:00.000-05:00

For a real look at time-lapse Manhattan, watch this beautiful video.

Bond Street and Lafayette Street

2012-01-10T09:19:00.000-05:00

The wall-writer must have been been reading Goethe (Faust): “Who strives always to the utmost /  For him there is salvation.”

St. Marks Place and Avenue A

2012-01-09T09:28:00.000-05:00

Inexplicably open on Saturday, the Holyland Market sells the most mesmerizing pita bread (thick and fluffy). Hard to believe these loaves can stay so tender and warm in their flimsy plastic bags. But then they don’t have long to last.

Fifth Avenue and 21st Street

2012-01-06T09:28:00.000-05:00

One swatch of splotchy city sky. A thought of all “dappled things.” And watch how the colors change, every five minutes.

Columbus Circle

2012-01-05T09:27:00.000-05:00

“Instead of making a New Year's resolution to get in shape, why not make a resolution to see more of the city?” —from “Walking Off the New Year’s Resolutions: Exploring New York City on Foot.”

West Broadway and Murray Street

2012-01-04T09:23:00.000-05:00

In the chaos of a wild, cold afternoon, a bit of Aegean blue.

Bryant Park

2012-01-03T09:19:00.000-05:00

Anything one does every day is important and imposing and anywhere one lives is interesting and beautiful.

—from Paris France by Gertrude Stein

Fifth Avenue and 68th Street

2012-01-02T09:42:00.000-05:00

Overheard on the street on New Year’s Eve: “Tomorrow is the real day for getting something started.” That is, yesterday. Or whenever. So let’s do it.

Rockefeller Center

2011-12-19T09:29:00.000-05:00

Christmas tree with green hat. Happy Holidays and New Year and all that!

Fifth Avenue and 59th Street

2011-12-16T09:28:00.000-05:00

Mid-afternoon, Fifth Avenue, Christmastime.

34th Street and Broadway

2011-12-15T09:34:00.000-05:00

This strip of green looked like something vintage and intriguing (I thought it might be related to the 1920s subway cars), but it turned out to be something newfangled and whimsical. It’s an “urban musical instrument,” called “Reach,” from Christopher Janney. Wave your hands in front of the small holes (the structure is pretty long) and different sounds come out of the speakers, creating music while you wait for the train.

17th Street and Fifth Avenue

2011-12-14T09:34:00.000-05:00

Festive dress in search of a party (perhaps). Maybe just hanging out.

Spring Street and Greene Street

2011-12-13T09:27:00.000-05:00

A glimpse of Soho from Vosges Haut Chocolate. (I crave their candy cane chocolate bar at this time of year—and Bapchi’s caramel toffee exotic bar all year round.)

Reade Street and West Broadway

2011-12-12T09:31:00.000-05:00

Ha! Humor from a street sign. (Trying to compete with the haiku traffic warnings?)

Church Street and Park Place

2011-12-09T09:36:00.000-05:00

Portrait of the Woolworth Building, in gray and white, with umbrella. (Perhaps this is what the top looks like.)

23rd Street and Sixth Avenue

2011-12-08T09:32:00.000-05:00

Christmas spirit at the food cart. (For a bit more bling, see this list of lights.)

North 11th Street and Wythe Avenue (Brooklyn)

2011-12-07T09:27:00.000-05:00

Local color (near the Brooklyn Brewery) that is not featured in a new book, New York in Color, previewable here, designed to capture some of this city’s “ever-changing visual collage best seen in color.”

Broadway and 116th Street

2011-12-06T09:29:00.000-05:00

Eerie, icicle-like trees, but the comfort of streetlamps, on the Columbia campus.

Church Street and Murray Street

2011-12-05T09:18:00.000-05:00

Subway station contemplation: How close to the yellow today?

Brooklyn Bridge Park

2011-12-02T09:30:00.000-05:00

“and suddenly you're in a different place  
where everything seems to happen in waves”
—Elizabeth Bishop, “Letter to N.Y.”

Murray Street and West Broadway

2011-12-01T09:20:00.000-05:00

The first Christmas tree of the season spotted from my apartment window. (The big tree got lit up last night, too. Watch it here.)

40th Street and Sixth Avenue

2011-11-30T09:19:00.000-05:00

Overheard on the street: “What good is a phone if you keep it on vibrate at the bottom of your bag and never meet me when I call you?”

Hudson Street and Reade Street

2011-11-23T09:33:00.000-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving! Enjoy the long holiday.

Murray Street and West Street

2011-11-22T09:33:00.000-05:00

The croissants from François Payard Bakery are among the best in the city, or so I’ve often read. (The almond version was pretty good.) And now they’re in the Goldman Sachs arcade, under the scaffolding, across from the Shake Shack and next door to a new outpost of Artsee. All part of the retail and restaurant improvements going on over there. (Remember when there was just a sad Applebee’s and a few other uninspired places? I do miss DSW, however.)

Seventh Avenue and 16th Street

2011-11-21T09:25:00.000-05:00

Through a window screen, purple flowers in the pale light of a shaftway afternoon.

Columbus Circle

2011-11-18T09:37:00.000-05:00

A bit of art (through cropping) at the Time Warner Center. (I suppose I’m part of the Collage Culture, always appropriating, failing to innovate.) "And focus on the conspicuous," someone said, walking past me, into his cell phone.

42nd Street and Fifth Avenue

2011-11-17T09:28:00.000-05:00

I can’t believe I never stopped in here until recently, but this gets my vote for most beautiful public bathroom in Manhattan. (Those flowers are real.) This place is right behind the main library, on the edge of Bryant Park. (Here are some other good places to stop.)

Water Street and Dock Street (Brooklyn)

2011-11-16T09:31:00.000-05:00

Street art down under the scaffolding, Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass. This location is, apparently, one of the top five street art spots in Brooklyn.

Jones Street and Bleecker Street

2011-11-15T09:37:00.000-05:00

Tempura acorn squash on charred toast with homemade ricotta and truffle honey. What more do you need to know? (Maybe where to eat it: Perilla.)

Brooklyn Bridge Park

2011-11-14T09:25:00.000-05:00

A glimpse through Jean Nouvel’s acrylic cage of Jane’s Carousel in Dumbo. It is, I’ve just read here, the first carousel to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Bryant Park

2011-11-11T09:26:00.000-05:00

Christmas ornaments hanging under the trees at the holiday market in Bryant Park. After an afternoon of browsing, my favorite stalls are Juli Ra Design (where—full disclosure—some of my own crocheted-wire-and-crystal jewelry designs are for sale) and Vivi Sun Jewelry (where I couldn't resist a giant resin ring inset with a ton of tiny pearls and beads).

West Broadway and Thomas Street

2011-11-10T09:19:00.001-05:00

Ode to the Odeon, home of crowds all night and a lovely croque-monsieur in the morning. (Read a Vanity Fair essay on its history here.)

Park Place and Church Street

2011-11-09T09:13:00.000-05:00

It may not be forever, but
The zing of beauty in the middle
Of the day....

—Tom Disch, from "The Argument Resumed; Or, Up Through Tribeca"

West Broadway and Duane Street

2011-11-08T09:23:00.000-05:00

Toy subway cars for the five-year-old nostalgic for all the hours of his youth wasted on the train. Which one will he choose? Surely not the 1 train. Maybe the J, with its whiff of rapper romanticism. (Available at Boomerang Toys.)

25th Street and Sixth Avenue

2011-11-07T09:18:00.000-05:00

Overheard on the street: "Do you understand poetry?"

Sixth Avenue and Washington Place

2011-11-04T09:34:00.000-04:00

Tertulia feels like a slice of northern Spain in the West Village, especially while eating slices of jamón Ibérico. Among other things, such as wood-fired fish and tasty bits of pork cheeks and arroz a la plancha (watch the chef make it here). And don't read the Times review if you're hungry.

Trinity Place and Thames Street

2011-11-03T09:20:00.000-04:00

This juxtaposition seems (screams) New York to me. (And take a look at some much more professional combinations and compositions in the stunning new book New York: A Photographer's City, from Rizzoli.)

Somewhere on the Subway

2011-11-02T09:31:00.000-04:00

Man dressed as water cooler, heading downtown, on the weekend. The top is filled with cash instead of water and says, "The trickle down has stopped working."

Murray Street and Church Street

2011-11-01T09:26:00.000-04:00

Part of the endless construction/art project that is New York. A body of work that will always need repair. And I think of "An Urban Convalescence" by James Merrill: "Out for a walk, after a week in bed, / I find them tearing up part of my block."

69th Street and Columbus Avenue

2011-10-31T09:19:00.000-04:00

Happy Halloween!

Sixth Avenue and 35th Street

2011-10-28T09:32:00.000-04:00

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

Water Street and Fulton Street

2011-10-27T09:30:00.002-04:00

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

2011-10-26T09:23:00.000-04:00

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

Broadway and Leonard Street

2011-10-25T09:21:00.000-04:00

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

2011-10-24T09:27:00.000-04:00

"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

2011-10-21T09:29:00.000-04:00

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

2011-10-20T09:32:00.000-04:00

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

2011-10-19T09:23:00.000-04:00

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

2011-10-18T09:21:00.000-04:00

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

Tenth Avenue and 23rd Street

2011-10-17T09:35:00.000-04:00

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

2011-10-14T09:33:00.000-04:00

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

2011-10-13T09:24:00.001-04:00

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

2011-10-12T09:33:00.000-04:00

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

2011-10-11T09:22:00.000-04:00

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

Sullivan Street and Spring Street

2011-10-07T09:39:00.000-04:00

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

Columbus Circle

2011-10-06T09:25:00.000-04:00

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

2011-10-05T09:34:00.000-04:00

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

2011-10-04T09:21:00.000-04:00

But there is always more than one way.

Grand Central Station

2011-10-03T09:28:00.000-04:00

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

Houston Street and Broadway

2011-09-30T09:15:00.001-04:00

A smear of Broadway through a drizzle. (Take a look at these amazing paintings that look like photographs of traffic in the rain.)

Water Street and Pine Street

2011-09-29T09:33:00.000-04:00

Like a reflecting pool, this shimmering disk cut out of a slab mirrors its hole, and the whole landscape, up and down the sidewalk. (The AIA Guide to New York City says this sculpture is, in fact, Disk and Slab, by Yu Yu Yang.)

Bowery and Houston Street

2011-09-28T09:22:00.000-04:00

Bowl of blurry snails with curry, crispy lotus chips, and Thai sausage (wow: nice combination) at DBGB Kitchen and Bar, balanced by a glass of in-focus, local (Long Island) rosé. (This might be my new favorite restaurant.)

53rd Street and Sixth Avenue

2011-09-27T09:27:00.000-04:00

View from the hard café chairs, with coffee and a glimpse, just a bit, of Parisian-like architecture, past the metro sign, plus a feeling of foreignness in the MoMA sculpture garden.

Mulberry Street and Jersey Street

2011-09-26T09:14:00.000-04:00

Art installation by Softlab at the entrance to the San Gennaro festival (which ended yesterday).

South Street and Wall Street

2011-09-23T09:26:00.000-04:00

Seagull (ignoring the advice of an airline advertisement).

Murray Street and Church Street

2011-09-22T09:19:00.000-04:00

Sometimes the setting sun lights up the skyline as if it were a movie set, as if the sun were one of those film lights that drive the residents crazy.

Church Street and Murray Street

2011-09-21T09:15:00.000-04:00

“Urban luggage”: we all carry bags (baggage) here.

Fulton Street and Broadway

2011-09-20T09:22:00.000-04:00

The skeleton of a spiral rises at the Fulton Street Transit Center. Can’t wait to see the what the Calatrava station, which will be a couple of blocks away and connect to Fulton Street, apparently, looks like (one day).

Kenmare Street and Mott Street

2011-09-19T08:40:00.000-04:00

This might look like a simple, minimal meal, but that’s the fantastic kimchi-pancake-battered corndog at Asiadog. Bonus: you can get any of their preparations with vegetarian, chicken, or beef dogs. (Wasabi potato salad in the background.)

Fifth Avenue and 16th Street

2011-09-16T09:20:00.001-04:00

A last look at the summer view, up the avenue. (Autumn begins next week.)

Church Street and Lispenard Street

2011-09-15T09:17:00.000-04:00

Bordello vibe outside (and inside, especially downstairs) at Macao Trading Company. I was pleasantly surprised by how good the fusion (Portuguese/Chinese) food was here. Especially the fried eggplant cubes like crunchy cotton candy and the kaffir lime gimlet.

Broadway and Houston Street

2011-09-14T09:31:00.000-04:00

Soho collage with blue lipstick (perhaps not one of the most flattering colors for fall).

Somewhere on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway

2011-09-13T09:24:00.000-04:00

Upon return from escape from 9/11: happy to see the shape of the Empire State Building (still in place).

West Broadway and Warren Street

2011-09-09T09:31:00.000-04:00

One of the many murals painted around town after 9/11. I walk past this one every day, only a couple of blocks from Ground Zero, which will soon, I hope, be something else entirely.

Warren Street and West Street

2011-09-08T09:24:00.000-04:00

A glimpse of the progress at the World Trade Center site. (Here’s a video.)

And check out this week’s double issue of New York Magazine for its encyclopedia of 9/11. (One entry that particularly struck a chord was “Blue,” as in “what everyone would remember first.”)

Church Street and Barclay Street

2011-09-07T09:28:00.000-04:00

This twisted, shiny cross has replaced the steel crossbeams from the World Trade Center rubble that were displayed here for years. Some considered those original beams, found in the form of a cross, to be a sign—as I did (of geometry). Of this new piece, the sculptor says: “To me it is more of a body than a cross, and it sort of symbolizes our country.” (Read more of his comments and see pictures of both crosses in this article from the Tribeca Trib.)

Somewhere in Tuba City, Arizona

2011-09-06T09:17:00.000-04:00

Gearing up for 9/11, all across the country. Here’s what’s happening this week and next (in New York) as part of the anniversary.

Murray Street and Broadway

2011-08-25T09:27:00.000-04:00

I’m on vacation. Back after Labor Day. Enjoy the end of summer in the city (or wherever).

Fifth Avenue and 23rd Street

2011-08-24T09:16:00.000-04:00

Everything We See Is Never Enough (upon reflection).

Crosby Street and Spring Street

2011-08-23T09:17:00.000-04:00

”There are eight million stories in the naked city….”

West Broadway and Broome Street

2011-08-22T09:21:00.000-04:00

A few of the funky (spiky) things (backpacks, I think) available at Treasure and Bond, the new for-charity shop from Nordstrom. I also spotted some nice housewares and candles and some beautiful jewelry (some of which would also be useful, such as the metal cuff with a Tube map of London). One of their first non-profit partners to benefit from the sales is the New York Public Library Programs for Children and Young Adults. Nice!

Union Square

2011-08-18T09:39:00.001-04:00

“My idea of a good picture is one that's in focus and of a famous person,” said Andy Warhol, seen here in chrome and concrete as The Andy Monument, near one of his Factory locations. (The monument isn’t permanent, of course not.)

26th Street and 10th Avenue

2011-08-17T09:33:00.000-04:00

Portrait of an apartment (rear view).

Broadway and 20th Street

2011-08-16T09:25:00.000-04:00

A vat of handmade cheese at Beecher’s Handmade Cheese. They have, supposedly, the “world’s best” mac and cheese, and it’s available in the store to eat in or take out or frozen. (I tasted a sample and it was mighty fine, a perfectly old-fashioned version.) Here’s the recipe.

Madison Square Park

2011-08-15T09:16:00.000-04:00

A last look at the serene and “otherwordly” (as I’ve read more than once) Echo. (It was dismantled yesterday, if these exhibit dates are correct.)