j train

weekend jaunt

Plans for this weekend were up and down, back and forth, resulting in where I sit right now- on the Amtrak hugging the Hudson River, somewhere south of Poughkeepsie, on my way to Brooklyn. Meeting D&P for the flurry of activity that is the borough of Kings. Oh, and Queens. Today we'll see Rachael perform with her band Mesiko at the People's Garden in Bushwick. Coincidentally the same community garden that was near my first Brooklyn apartment. Then on Sunday another of D's friends is having a giant yard sale in Astoria, not too far from my first apartment in nyc. Should be fun. Btw, this is my first mobile blog post! update: had to give a few formatting tweaks to the mobile post.

sodafine pop-up

exciting, exciting news! my long-time brooklyn friend erin weckerle is resurrecting her dear shop sodafine as a pop-up in greenpoint this summer. and who was asked, amongst a roster of talented ladies, to sell her wares at said pop-up? why me, silly! this is the first opportunity since the hurricane for me to get some of my work out there- and to have a reason to make some new things. I'm currently working on the knotted pieces, as pictured below, and those will be available for sale at the pop-up.

brooklyn weekend

I have to say that trying to deal with so many government agencies, to so little avail, for months on end, had left me quite depressed. On top of that I've been feeling lonely in Kingston. When we moved from a city of 8.3 million people to one of 25,000 Bryan and I discussed that fact that neither of us had lived in the country before, but were interested in trying it out. I'm glad that spring is here and I know the Hudson Valley will emerge from its slumber as the weather warms up. But given that we arrived just as winter was starting, it's been tough. Businesses here close early- like 5pm early. We're used to the pace of Brooklyn, where we would wake up at some not-too-early hour, get some work done, then mosey out in the late afternoon or early evening for a walk and maybe some dinner. Add to that the fact that I was still in the throes of my nearly nine-year love affair with New York City when we left, warts and all. So when our buddy Derrick told us he'd be taking out the video equipment to again participate in the Red Hook Criterium, we decided to take a trip to Brooklyn.

Pamela and I walked out to the harbor before the race. This is looking southeast at the former warehouse everyone calls the "Fairway Building," which houses the popular supermarket on the ground floor and apartments and work studios above. Fairway is at the end of Van Brunt Street, the main drag in the neighborhood, where we used to have our store.

Sunset from Liberty Pier, looking west towards New Jersey, and I think that's the edge of Staten island on the left.

The artwork of et.per.se.and, projected onto four trucks. The Crit takes place in the asphalt yard of the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal.

Cyclists fooling around during the awards ceremony.

Pizza Moto brought their mobile oven to Van Brunt Street the night of the Crit. Good eatin'!

breather

Here is a post I wrote on November 21 but never published. Each day I mean to do a post, but it's just too hard. I want to recount the whole experience. I want to tell of my trials and tribulations with FEMA. I want people to know. All I do is think about the storm. And all we seem to do is tell people what we've been through in the past three months. All we do is live it every day. But writing about it is a different thing. So here goes.

it's been three weeks since the hurricane. bryan is trying to sleep; derrick and pamela are taking a well-deserved break from the two of us. internet has been off, then on, then off, now back on again. phone service has been spotty.

today was the day we finished clearing our stuff out of the apartment. the landlord had been telling us that he wanted to start the renovation a.s.a.p. getting the cleanup done was nothing we could rush. we worked 25 days straight, adding various logistical tasks and wading through bureaucratic nonsense. the first few days, piles of friends of ours and our hosts showed up to fill contractor bags full of wet, drywall-covered personal possessions, discard ruined furniture, mop muddy floors, sift through mud for treasures, wash things off, and do loads and loads of laundry. they were kind and showed moral support. some were close friends, many of them I had never met before. friends of d's drove down from boston and helped us out, then went to other areas of the city to to see how else they could help. friends of mine, after helping us, volunteered through red hook initiative, a community organization that normally serves teens from the Red Hook Houses. RHI became an early triage center, accepting donations and volunteers so that the neighborhood could be served hot meals, given water and flashlights, be seen by a doctor and have any kind of question answered. as the number of people both needing and offering help increased, recovery centers spread throughout the neighborhood. carolina of portside new york turned 351 van brunt (our former store) into an information and meeting center. the sidewalk in front of the restaurant fort defiance was where volunteers came to get their assignments. visitation and good shepherd churches gave out packaged food, cleaning supplies and clothing.

on october 29 I packed my pink book bag thinking we'd be staying at d&p's two nights at the most. I brought a couple of changes of underwear and socks, something to sleep in, a toothbrush, my laptop, my two cameras and my passport. I remembered the battery charger for my pocket camera, but left my phone charger at home. b gave me a wind-up flashlight. I wore pink jeans, a lightweight sweatshirt, a cardigan, rain jacket and converse. I carried my rain boots with me.

at 1:00 a.m., after the worst of the storm had passed, bryan, derrick and I took a walk to the apartment to see how the place had fared. I took my book bag with me, hoping to sleep at home that night. a block from our place we faced a downed willow tree, crushing the chain link fence beneath it and spilling out halfway across van brunt street. I got a sinking feeling when we passed the cafe home/made's side yard, where all of the furniture and items that had been stowed there were tossed about like they were nothing. we approached the house where we had been renting the bottom floor, then stopped and stared. the stairwell leading down into the apartment was filled to the sidewalk with water. seeing that one of the front windows was cracked, I knew that the apartment was filled with water as well. we looked at it for a moment and left.

we have been staying for three weeks at d&p's pad. their fourth-floor apartment is on one of red hook's few dry blocks. elevation increases as small as a few feet created dry spots in an otherwise flooded neighborhood. power was restored here within a few days, hot water came within a week, as well as heat. as I write this Con Ed has restored power to most of the neighborhood, requiring at first that electricians sign off on each building, then relaxing their rules. for weeks street and traffic lights were out. The Red Hook Houses had no power, heat or hot water. the 76th precinct patrolled and stationed itself at key points. they shone bright lights on high towers to prevent looting and muggings. the storm surge had blown our back door open, breaking the deadbolt off the door frame. our back yard became filled with the objects of our lives as they were pulled out of the wet wreckage. I was grateful to the 76th for keeping an eye on our things.

there is so much more to talk about but I will leave it here for now.

tree-y

later that day

a month later

souvenir from new york city's last great disaster

francis' house gets cleaned out

where did all these shopping carts come from?

fairway wants its cart back

leave the driving to us

hot rod

faded glory

peeling bananas

Kim and Aaron of Banana Peel Dance asked me to photograph the outdoor piece they performed for the Dumbo Arts Festival. The location was picturesque Pier 1 at Brooklyn Bridge Park, just a little hop and skip from my apartment. What great fun. The piece was over so quickly, and man did those dancers move fast!

CSA Love

b and I are enjoying the challenge of coming up with ways to use our CSA share. I feel spoiled, really. each week we get such a great variety of greens, herbs, aromatics, root vegetables, berries, stone fruits and eggs, and now zucchini. I've been snapping photos of our dishes- everything looks so pretty.


mizuna salad with radishes, garlic chives and tuna.


quinoa elbows with a light tomato sauce and tempeh. steamed broccoli and green beans. snips of fresh oregano.


ground beef bok choy wrap. I ate about 5 of these.


gringo tacos. name stolen from calexico.




oven roasted corn. garbanzo bowl: beans sauteed with onion, cumin and mustard seeds, simmered with some vegetable broth; seared summer squash with garlic; sauteed callaloo; millet. tahini sauce: tahini, lemon, tamari, water, minced garlic scape.

down on the farm

b and I joined the Red Hook CSA this year, and the pickups started last week. We are lucky not only to have a CSA in our neighborhood, but one that supports its own urban farm. Red Hook Farm sits on city park land that had formerly been a paved baseball field. (yes, that's how they used to do it) You can see its history in the remaining backstops and perimeter of London Plain trees, one of the city's most commonly planted species. When you're at the farm nature takes over and you can barely notice the Ikea right across the street! New York Harbor is on the other side of Ikea, its ocean breezes periodically breaking the heat on the farm. Membership requires that we work nine hours a season, and we've already fulfilled our requirement. As the farm will take walk-on volunteers, (show up at 10am on Saturdays if you're interested!) I have a feeling I'll be down on the farm a lot this summer.



Here's what I did with some of the ingredients from our first pickup:



Egg-bowl brunch. I sauteed chopped collard greens, kale and garlic scapes in a small pan. Since the heavy greens took a while to cook, I cracked the eggs right on top of them to finish cooking. The result was something between a fried and a poached egg. (I placed a lid on top for the last few seconds, to cook the whites) This went in a bowl, topped with my homemade kimchi, a dash of tamari and sprigs of oregano. Eaten with Finn Crisp. I made a similar version with zucchini (not from the farm) the next day, and placed the whole shebang on korean yam noodles. yummers!



Another use for the garlic scapes- hummus! While it can be tempting to pick up a tub at the supermarket, the amount of salt in most brands is insane! I prefer to make my own from dried garbanzos, tahini, lemon, a bit of cayenne and salt. Of course the variations on the recipe are endless. Substituting the scapes for bulb garlic was magic. Second pickup is today!