Coney Island

I don't tend to think of myself as a lover of beaches. I associate them with being hot and sweaty, sunburn and squinting, and sand being stuck to everything. But I love beaches when it's cold out. I spent Saturday afternoon at Coney Island. It was sunny and windy and chilly and totally fantastic. I had no plans for the day, my roommate was working and a trip to Coney Island has been on my list of things to do for a while. So I got on the F train and headed out to the southern-most tip of Brooklyn. It is a surprisingly long train ride (Brooklyn is pretty massive) but a lot of the ride is above ground through some interesting neighborhoods. (There is a massive and awe-inspiring cemetery that you can see from the platform at Bay Parkway that I really want to explore.) Arriving at Coney Island I was actually surprised at how many people were there. I was expecting it to be totally empty save a few beach combers but there was a healthy number of people and plenty of other lone photographers like myself. Although a number of people told me they were sorry I had to spend the day wandering around Coney Island by myself, I really didn't mind being alone and actually rather liked it. It was pretty peaceful and a wonderful setting for some quite musings, a bit of reading, and just absorbing nature. I took my shoes off and walked along the beach for a while. My toes were freezing but it was great. Just walking along the Atlantic was wonderful. I felt so far away from the City. Looking out to a horizon and feeling as though you can look forever is not a sensation you ever get in the steel canyon landscape that is Manhattan. Standing there facing south, the sun on my face, with my toes just above the wave line and watching the waves roll on to the shore was just the closeness to nature that I was looking for. For a couple weeks I was really feeling like I needed to escape the cold grey city, but now I feel refreshed.

I took more than 200 pictures, I'll hopefully get around to posting them soon!

Long Overdue Inauguration Pictures

Musical Interlude

Two weeks ago (I know, I'm slow at getting these things on to my blog)... Two weeks ago, the highlight of my work week came in the form of a somewhat surreal musical experience. On Tuesdays and Thursdays I work in the basement of a church which serves a hot meal to homeless men and women around lunch time. When I find myself getting bored of work or if I'm having a particularly slow day, I usually find myself down in the kitchen hanging out with the chef, Mike--a really nice guy who lets me invade his sacred cooking space. The other afternoon, after lunch had been served and Mike was cleaning up, I was in the kitchen chatting and a friend of Mike's comes in. As I later learned, this guy is Brazilian and is just passing through the city. His dad is some well known Brazilian composer who went to school with Leonard Bernstein. Anyway, this friend makes a comment about us needing to hear this amazing violin he has. The next thing I know, he's playing these beautiful pieces on his violin in the kitchen. Everything else just sort of stops and I find myself totally absorbed by the music. The first piece I don't recognize at all but I'm totally enthralled by it none the less. The second, I do recognize but it is being played in a way that I've never heard before. With additional notes, riffs and key changes. Surprisingly, the acoustics in the kitchen were pretty good and I'm not sure how long I was standing just listening but the whole experience was breath-taking. I would venture to say that this guy's playing was genius-- but what do I know about violinists? Suffice it to say that it made my week and it is not something that I think I'll forget any time soon.