So now I turrrrrrrrnnn to yoooooooooooouu........

... with ooooooooo-pen aaaaarmmmmmmmmmsssssss!

Air guitar on "Johnny B. Goode." I'd say that Chuck Berry is turning over in his grave, but I'm not 100% sure he's deceased.

Sometimes you've just got to put your whole body into it.
Melissa knows this. Knows it in her very marrow.

Karaoke. Not for the meek.

Greg and Melissa doing a duet.

(Nothing says "punk rock" like argyle sweaters.)

Strike a pose.

The September 11 tribute lights.

Fire!

There was a fire on Carmine and Bedford. I liked this shot of the hydrant spraying everywhere.

Firefighters entering via ladder as the smoke pours out on Carmine.

More smoke.

West Village Architecture I Like

Another favorite, these twinned houses with mansard roofs and a shared courtyard, on the corner of Commerce and Barrow.

One of my very favorite buildings in New York. A courtyard apartment on Commerce Street in the West Village. My life ambition is to move about 400 yards west.

Big white Newfie on a doorstep on fashionable West 4th Street.

It's Under A Toy Factory

At Back Room, on Norfolk Street, hard by the river next to the Manhattan mooring of the Williamsburgh Bridge down on the LES.

Matt shows off the 'hawk while trying to settle his stomach; earlier in the day, he ate the majority of last weekend's wounded cake. I was impressed with his gumption and stick-to-it'iveness.

R.I.P. Vanilla Cake w/ Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

Cake post-mortem this morning. There's a lot of finger tracks there.

Tinga Tinga!

Tinga Tinga karaoke on Madison Avenue in Koreatown.

Much fun was had. John Denver made an appearance, as did Journey and Madonna (natch). An intimate party of six crooners were joined by a beer or thirty, a big ol' bottle of vodka and tonic, plus a cake.

The cake didn't really get eaten. The frosting did.




Gwen can't figure out what's wrong with this microphone, but compensates the best way she knows how: volume.

David takes it down a notch or two, with open arms.

Yeah... getting towards the end of the night here, if you can't tell.

Gwen's riding the midnight train to Georgia, which was about 20 minutes early.

David goes wicked old school rock, while Rich looks on in horror/fascination.

Tinga Tinga, and a good spread. (Including cake!)

Karaoke... sometimes it gets a little out of hand.

Yankees over Indians 1-0: Wang and Robbie Represent

Enter Sandman.

Robbie Cano rounds the bases after his homer to the short porch in right. It would prove to be the only run of the game.

Chien-Ming Wang servin' up another grounder to second.

The Big House in the Bronx.

Getting off the train at 161st and River.

Kate's new home on Magazine Street... or at least it will be come September first.

Alana enjoys a late-night Italian sausage on her birthday.

NoLita and the Old 'Hood

Old advertisement from pre-area code days.

I really like the eaves on this building at the corner of Lafayette and Spring, though they had to do some violence to them when they installed the fire escapes.

This place was shuttered when I used to live in the neighborhood. I'll have to try it sometime late night.

Street fair, seen looking south on Mulberry from its intersection with Spring.

The nichest of niche foodshops.

Synagogues and Demolition in the Lower East Side

Another synagogue on Rivington, though this one looks operational. The Ten Commandments, again, above the gates. I really like the circular window.

Close up. I assume that this is the Decalogue, as I see five consecutive "Lo" ("No") in there. One of the few Hebrew words I can remember.

It looks as though the entryway is all that remains of the Roumanian Congregation synagogue.

Demolition, also on Rivington.

In Freeman's Alley, off Rivington near Bowery.

I've been questing after a dresser. For a damn long time. I spent an entire Saturday walking around the West 20s, poking my head in all the furniture shops. I combed flea markets. I looked at brand new stuff. I looked at old stuff. I looked in catalogs, I tried Froogle, and I scoured Craiglist.

When I was walking down Greenwich between Seventh and Sixth, on my way back from a haircut after work, I passed two furniture stores. One of them, Old Good Things, had the dresser I'd been looking for.

Tiger oak, quarter-cut, with locks and scrolled top drawers. Perfect.

And it was a few hundred yards from my house all this time.




Closer up on the grain of the tiger oak.

The scrolled top drawer of the tiger oak dresser.

The backs are in pretty good shape.

Both have dovetailed joins on the drawers.

Flat-cut oak. Original metal pulls.

Tiger oak. Scrolled top drawers. Wooden pulls.

I had come straight from work. Hence, the pink button down.

In the bleachers at a Yankees game.

Springtime on Leroy Street.

The view from the Brooklyn F train into Manhattan, overlooking Kentile floors.

Blooms outside the library at Sixth and Greenwich.