the food of the future

new website and blog!

2009-09-16T13:17:00.002-04:00

i'm giving up on blogger and moving over to a word-press powered site at www.samhorine.com/blog + please redirect your RSS feeds to reflect this change and i look forward to seeing you over at the new site and blog. post's so far have dealt with street art in the gowanus, the raffa-chen wedding and storm troopers west of union square.

cheers, sam!

Type rest of the post here

quality of life

2008-10-06T17:11:00.005-04:00

it's embarrassing that i haven't updated the food of the future since the beginning of the summer. and with that aside, come on out to the show on friday! new works from sam horine, luna park, street stars & jake dobkin.

1053 flushing ave, brooklyn.
l to morgan ave.

friday oct. 10th 6-10pm

a quick preview after the jump

sam horine

luna park

street stars

jake dobkin

Click!

2008-06-26T14:39:00.005-04:00

My photograph of the Revere Sugar Refinery in Red Hook was selected to be part of the Brooklyn Museum's crowd curated exhibition, entitled Click!. Starting tomorrow, June 27th, you can see my work hanging on the walls of the Museum. For more information, click here

the bell house

2008-06-26T14:07:00.005-04:00

I had the privilege of getting to check out the new venue being built by the guys over at Union Hall yesterday. As you can see from the above photograph, it's a huge space which will surely bring some big name acts to the Gowanus. Located on 7th street between 2nd and 3rd avenues, it's convenient to the R/M and F trains as well as the super reliable G train at Smith and 9th. Construction is moving quickly and they are hoping to open by early September -- and you can be sure that they will be enforcing a strict no stroller policy at the door.

bluejake

2008-06-02T23:49:00.003-04:00

check out the wnyc video of jake talking about photography and nyc - i make my appearance at T - 30 seconds!

2008-05-07T19:01:00.002-04:00

in you're in nyc be sure to pick up a copy of the latest L magazine featuring a shot of mine on the cover.

Photo Issue

2008-04-28T15:47:00.006-04:00

I've got a couple of pictures in the L magazine's annual photo issue, which comes out on May 7th. Shown above is last years cover, featuring an excellent shot by fellow photographer / blogger Dalton Rooney.

According to an email I got from the editor, there will be a group show featuring all the contributing photographers on Monday, May 5th 2008 from 6-8pm at the 68 Jay Street Bar, located conveniently at 68 Jay St in DUMBO (F train to York St.)

Dead Horse Bay

2008-04-28T15:26:00.002-04:00

Spent some time wandering the brooklyn coast with Jake on Saturday - lots of abandoned boats. Many more then i had remembered from the last time I visited this remote area, it's mostly accessibly from a rest stop off the Belt Parkway. Else you could ride a bike along a rickety bike path beginning in Bay Ridge and ending somewhere around the edge of Queens.

The Yard

2008-04-28T15:16:00.002-04:00

Been doing some work on getting the backyard up to standard. Should be easier this year as most of the really difficult work was done last year. Hopefully we'll be able to grow a wider variety of flowers and even perhaps some buckets of vegetables.

Here's two shots of the yard when we first started the renovation project.

Jill Freedman

2008-04-28T14:33:00.004-04:00

A great slide show by photographer Jill Freedman over on NYT today.
Check it out here

subivor

2008-04-22T18:42:00.002-04:00

There's a couple of these cars that park on my block. sometimes the owners walk around putting flyer's on all the other cars. I've also noticed that they have started putting up signs by the highway. It must be weird to drive around with an image of an exploding subway train on your car.

Southside Coffee

2008-04-22T18:24:00.004-04:00

Walking down 6th ave last week I noticed that we had lost a hair salon. Looking in the open front door, I spied an espresso machine. As of yesterday, they were open for business serving up pastries, from colson, and a fair trade certified coffee. I had an iced coffee and it was pretty good, although it was made from espresso and water as opposed to the cold brewing process that I prefer.

Southside Coffee is located on the corner of 19th street and 6th ave

Open Source

2008-04-22T18:11:00.002-04:00

A new gallery space opened up on 17th street around the corner from 5th called Open Source. Although small, it's still good to see people investing in the neighborhood. There's not a website as of yet, but the current show of paintings runs through 27th of April if my memory is correct.

Eurotrip

2008-04-22T17:14:00.006-04:00

5th Avenue's newest restaurant, Eurotrip, opened up a week or so back. I've browsed the internet menu but haven't gone in yet. Seems like they have an interesting selection of European beers, however sadly, unlike Cafe Steinhof, they don't have Kostritzer on tap.

So far the Chowhound boards have been quiet on the place.

EuroTrip
667 5th ave
btw 19th & 20th streets

east 2nd

2008-04-18T13:58:00.004-04:00

an interesting article on relative investment over at nymag.com compares a number of theoretical $100,000 investments made in 1998.

in the backfield

2008-04-08T22:26:00.009-04:00

you may remember that i had entered the crowd curated exhibition "click!" at the brooklyn museum last month. the submission process is done and now the voting has commenced. my photograph is number 318 (out of 389)- given it's spot in the line it's doubtful that it will win. if i were a betting man, i would wager that the majority of winners will hail from the front of the pack as they will get the most votes. i'm trying to find a workaround to enable me to link directly to the image, in the meantime - keep your fingers crossed and head over to the site if you've got some time to kill. there are some interesting images and some downright awful snapshots.

click!

update - readers have informed me that the museum's site randomizes the order of images with each new account created - effectively evening the field for everyone involved. my apologies for jumping to conclusions before having all of the facts.

print sale

2008-04-01T19:04:00.003-04:00

check the set for available photos - all prints are darkroom printed by master printer carol fonde and measure 20 x 24 with an actual image size of 18 x 18. email me if you're interested and i'll be more than happy to discuss price / pickup / delivery

SUPER COMBO

2008-04-01T18:58:00.004-04:00

(Photo by C-M.)

the artistic collaborations of:

Abe Lincoln Jr., Celso, Darkcloud,
DAVe, Brad Downey, Elbowtoe,
Endless Love Crew, Ryan Frank, Gaia,
Anthony Goicolea, Gore-B, Haculla, infinity,
Mark Jenkins, Klepto, Evelyn Metzger, Skewville,
Stickman and special guests

April 4 – April 25, 2008
Reception: Friday, April 4, 6-9PM

chashama ABC Gallery
169 Avenue C (at 11th Street)
Lower East Side
NYC

Gallery Hours: Tues.-Sat. 11-6 p.m.

inflatable bear

2008-03-30T13:14:00.004-04:00

as much as i've been generally unimpressed with the current state of street art here in nyc, sometimes something comes along that's just too good not to mention. as is the case of joshua allen harris and his inflatable trash bag art. creating animals and people out of old bags, he then affixes them to the grates above the subway. when train passes underneath, the rush of exiting air causes the bags to inflate and come to life.

- via the always interesting woostercollective.com

you tube thursday

2008-03-27T16:57:00.002-04:00

view a slideshow of some other banksy works here

atlantic yards

2008-03-21T18:56:00.003-04:00

anyone following the atlantic yards development projects might be interested in this recent article from the times in which ratner talks about his plans for building in the current economy.

these polaroids were shot in the summer of 2006 when i was subletting an apartment near the yards. for another look at the yards, check out nate kensinger's photographs from underneath the project.

third ave.

2008-03-21T18:17:00.004-04:00

the new york times has an interesting portrait of third avenue. additionally gothamist has a piece on the new bbq (and pizza, although not yet) place on the corner of 3rd and 6th. the picture above is from the summer when the building was still the home of ephemera press.

harlem

2008-03-12T01:41:00.004-04:00

"you will be eclipsed by the younger versions of you"

after a week, not nearly done, yet still filled with ups and downs, i've been haunted by this quote from suckapants. looking forward to the trip to texas on thursday, the place i'm staying looks pretty nice but with all that's going on in austin i doubt i'll spend too much time there.

banksy video

2008-03-08T19:08:00.009-05:00

continuing the recent trend of art talk here on food of the future - here's an interesting video shot by jeremy gibbs. he filmed the tesco piece for over an hour, observing the ways in which the public interacts with the piece.

photo by tsevic

the soundtrack is distinctively british and lacks narration, but the piece is very much a testament to the impact of public art.

"it's like going to a museum to look at pictures of food"

2008-03-06T12:21:00.004-05:00

the times is running a bit on street art today - i really didn't need the nyt to tell me to look around and notice things but maybe some people do. anyway - check it out here and definitely make sure to check out the sideshow gallery for the full experience.

this makes two days in a row that the nyt has been riding the street art train - check out yesterdays (much better, imo) article on street culture in berlin. and for even more berlin awesomeness check out my pics from a trip last spring

a couple more pics after the jump

you tube thursday

2008-03-06T11:18:00.004-05:00

annie leibovitz shoots the queen, clocks in somewhere around 6 minutes and takes a moment to get into it but otherwise fascinating stuff.

via: a photo editor

banksy

2008-03-05T15:28:00.003-05:00

the british prankster was in new york earlier this month, while he was here he did a couple of stencils around town. looks like he's been studying the works of kara walker or perhaps arthur rackham. compared to the ones in la - i think we got the short end of the stick, although the bronco boy one is quite clever and bo peep was pretty cool before she lost her phone.

Click! A Crowd-Curated Exhibition

2008-03-05T15:14:00.003-05:00

i'm participating in the brooklyn museum's crowd curated exhibition. voting starts on the 1st of april. more information on the museum's website

speaking of the arts - a couple of blogs to note.

1. c-monster.net - the goto for the got to know set
2. street-fodder - observationally interesting for a number of reasons

brooklyn museum

2008-02-25T12:57:00.004-05:00

i was contacted by the brooklyn museum a couple of months back about a video they were putting together that would feature portraits of museum guests as well as museum stills shot by a number of brooklyn photographers. i finally got to watch the video and it's pretty cool. check it out below.

brooklynmuseum.org

south slope food news

2008-02-20T11:34:00.003-05:00

toby's public house may or may not be opening up soon...wonder if they will be better then their big brother up the block, kitchen bar.

another new restaurant is also opening up down the block, it goes by the name of euro trip, the first thing that sprang to mind was that, should it be bad, it would quickly be known as "euro crap." you gotta consider the negative nicknames you could accrue when naming a place. heck, even plain old trip would be better. euro trip sounds so dumb, why do people think that they need to take it there?

lastly union market seems to be doing very well, i see a lot of people with multiple bags walking south as i walk north in the evening. even if they are selling $8 per pound baby cauliflower.

south slope snowfall

2008-02-20T11:32:00.002-05:00

finally got a bit of snow last week, it lasted for all of one day. also it should be noted that it was nearly 70 on monday - today, it's a nifty 25 in the sun

old holga

2008-02-20T11:25:00.003-05:00

found some old holga scans laying around the other day, these were all taken on a trip up to maine for what must the thanksgiving before last....

bushwick

2008-02-20T11:11:00.003-05:00

spent a couple of hours wandering around the bushwick section of brooklyn, a few weeks back. lots of street art going on, lots of illegal housing too. on a side not the music scene out there is very impressive these days - venues like silent barn and goodbye blue monday as well as the brand new market hotel are def blazing paths and breaking new artists. head out there almost any night of the week if you want to see bands that are going to be selling out bowery presents venues later this year.

writer's strike

2008-02-20T11:05:00.005-05:00

checked out the bombin' magazine sponsored writer's strike show at lott gallery a couple of weeks back, a pretty cool mix of street art and graffiti.

view the full set over on villagevoice.com

january jump start

2008-02-20T10:59:00.003-05:00

well, we ended up winning 2nd place in the apartment therapy contest...not so bad, we'll see what they end up sending us as a prize. robin is thinking bobble head and i'm going with coffee cup

see all the winners here

idiotarod 08

2008-02-03T12:40:00.000-05:00

the race ran from chinatown over the manhattan bridge into dumbo and then through gowanus and carroll gardens before terminating on the edge of red hook.

full set over on the voice.com

january jump start

2008-01-24T11:41:00.000-05:00

as part an apartment therapy contest robin and i (mostly her, ok all her) redid the bedroom.

voting should happen sometime between now and feb 7th - i'll post the link when i get it.

vote now

the full set of pictures can be seen here

union market

2008-01-16T17:15:00.000-05:00

a hand lettered sign welcomed customers to the new 7th avenue (between 12th and 13th) union market this morning. although bigger than the original, it's layout and selections are pretty much the same. lots of fresh produce, sullivan street breads and a large section devoted to prepared foods - none of which can be described as inexpensive.

how convenient

2008-01-16T17:01:00.000-05:00

the stretch of 5th ave between 13th and 14th is quickly becoming the classiest block in the south slope. first came wamu, then the green condo and now, finally, a 7-eleven. only thing missing is the baby gap - or perhaps an applebee's

behind the seen

2007-12-22T13:17:00.000-05:00

went over to ad hoc art for the mike defeo currated show "behind the seen" last thursday and saw some pretty good stuff. one very interesting one was the ron english "cathy cowgirl" (above right)holographic print made by rabbitholes.

speaking of good stuff, seeing as it's the end of the year i thought i would have a look at the traffic statistics for this site and see how they compared to last year. the good news is that visits to food of the future are up over 400% compared to this time last year and page views are up almost 500%. many thanks to everyone who visited this year. See you again in '08.

7th street / south slope news

2007-12-11T14:02:00.000-05:00

according to a couple of sources, 7th street between 2nd and 3rd aves will soon be home to a new musical venue run by the good folks at union hall. given the problems that i've heard about with their current location - i.e. noise complaints, it makes sense to open something in a location where noise is not an issue. additionally moving the music aspect of their business down the street opens up the basement for quieter activities such as the brilliantly booked sunday night comedy shows - an example being:

Sunday, December 16, 7:30pm
TEARING THE VEIL OF MAYA
comedy with Eugene Mirman + Michael Showalter + Aziz Ansari + Jon Glaser + special guest
$7 : tickets available at the door

In the coming months, I expect a lot will change down on 3rd and 4th avenues. speaking of change, i noticed that the fencing has come down from the "no baby gap" building on the corner of 13th and 5th.

no idea if an actual baby gap is going to be the retail anchor for this new "green" condo project but it will be interesting to see what does open here in the next couple of months.

oh lastly - the union market on 7th and 13th looks like it's going to open any day now, beer table is still awaiting it's liquor license. a sign announcing a new tapas restaurant has appeared on the old aarons space on 5th and 17th. kitchen bar's "public house," the new pizza and beer location on 6th and 21st is looking like it's fairly ready to open as is the mystery restaurant/bar on 5th and 20th.

garage gallery

2007-12-08T19:38:00.001-05:00

packed up the garage gallery show yesterday and have put the remaining suitcase prints up in the etsy shop - all pictures are framed 4"x6" prints, printed on kodak professional metallic paper. with frame, the total size is 5"x7"

available suitcase prints can be seen here.

also, i still have a number of the holga prints available. these can be seen as a slide show here.

all holga prints measure 20" x 24" and come framed.

all holga prints have been printed on fuji super glossy paper by acclaimed color printer carol fonde

Prices are Negotiable

* images in slide show are negative scans and not actual prints - please contact me to arrange a private viewing.

lastly - i still have the large canvas print for sale or trade.

measures 36" x 50" - printed on canvas with archival ink.

high line

2007-12-04T13:20:00.000-05:00

i was in manhattan for the banksy opening and afterwards, decided to take a walk on the high line - which is a semi-abandoned elevated railway running along the west side, starting in hells kitchen and ending in the meat packing district. with the fresh snow that had just fallen the night before, it was especially beautiful.

related - an interesting article on the future of the west side

Interactive photography

2007-12-03T12:44:00.001-05:00

I did one final piece for the closing party - it was a 7'x41/2' print made from 50 sheets of paper reassembled with scotch tape and gluesticks and attached to the wall with packing tape which had been embossed with a frame print. then i let people draw on it....here's the original image

all in all the show went, i came pretty close to making back what was spent on producing the show. be on the lookout for prints to come up on etsy very soon.

"cityscapes 06-07" closing reception

2007-11-26T12:56:00.001-05:00

my show at the garage gallery is coming to a close on the 1st of december - you should come by and say hi. lots of affordable prints (under $30) as well as some beautiful prints of my holga work by acclaimed color printer carol fonde.

creative time

2007-11-20T13:49:00.000-05:00

shot some pictures for the good people over at creativetime on saturday night at the closing of the "Six Actions for New York City" book launch & Allan Kaprow reinvention of the happening - "Push and Pull: A Furniture Comedy for Hans Hoffmann." Curated by Mark Beasley.

also on the site is a very cool time lapse video of the three day installation. towards the end you can easily spot me because i am wearing a ridiculously green sweatshirt...

street art / across the pond edition

2007-11-20T13:14:00.000-05:00

photo by markstravelphotos

elbow-toe recently had a show in london - while he was over there he put up a few pieces that he had done from a session i had done with him over the summer. pretty cool to see myself on the streets of london like that.

street art

2007-11-17T14:22:00.000-05:00

hadn't been shooting as much street art these past couple of months. the danish artist armsrock recently opened a show in williamsburg in collaboration with the folks over at wooster collective. i had wanted to go to the opening but it was right in the middle of cmj which didn't allow for a trip across the river.

coney island creek

2007-11-01T11:29:00.000-04:00

an abnormally low tide was a pretty good reason to head to coney island creek to check out some abandoned / scuttled boats including one submarine that was launched in the 70's (in an attempt to recover valuables from a shipwreck off the coast of nantucket) - which promptly sunk.

another shot from the trip can be seen over at bluejake.com

related - a trip to another boat graveyard

also related -

- just read about a photo exhibition opening soon at the brooklyn museum entitled "Goodbye Coney Island?" - "It consists of more than fifty photos from the museum's collection and "traces traces the evolution of this fabled part of New York over the past 125 years. Coney Island has undergone many transformations since it first became a popular resort in the nineteenth century and a prospective redevelopment plan may yet again change this section of Brooklyn." The photos will be on display from November 28, 2007–April 6, 2008, in the Visible Storage Study Center of the Luce Center for American Art. About a third of the photographs are prints of digitally scanned late nineteenth and early twentieth-century glass-plate negatives from the Brooklyn Museum collection."

cmj

2007-10-30T16:21:00.000-04:00

aside from getting the show put together, the second big project that i had been working on was the recent cmj music marathon taking place here in nyc. over the span of five days i saw 30 some odd bands - some were really great and some were less than. one of my favorites - that i was completely unfamiliar with prior to the beginning of the festival was yeasayer.

hailing from just down the street from me, strangely enough as well. look for big things from these guys in the next year.

haven't had a a chance to really go though all of the cmj material yet, but a full set of all of the shows i attended can be seen here

opening

2007-10-30T16:18:00.001-04:00

so i know i haven't been posting as much here as i would like to but the busy has been in effect for the past couple of weeks. now that things are returning to normal i'll be doing regular updates again.

for now, check out some more pictures from the opening here

upcoming show

2007-10-14T17:19:00.001-04:00

i'm opening a solo show on the 27th of october - if you're around you should come by and say hi.

also prints will be available via my etsy shop after november 1st.

a preview of the show can be seen here.

sunset park

2007-10-10T12:34:00.000-04:00

sitting here, i just realized that today is the 6th anniversary of my move to nyc. god, the time has flown by. when i first moved here, i was living out in sunset park - which was where i found myself on an unseasonably warm saturday.

which incidentally, was also day 1 of open house new york - a weekend were many things that are normally off limits to the general public are opened up for tours. in the past, i had always wanted to go and see the brooklyn army terminal and finally, i got the chance.

many other things going on - too many to list here, but trust me - there's a reason why i haven't updated the blog in almost a month. the one thing worth mentioning is that i am having a solo show, which will open on the 27th of october, here in park slope. it will feature some digital work and some holga and perhaps a few polaroids.

lastly - check out a couple pictures of me.

a few more shots of sunset park after the expansion

bushwick

2007-09-20T17:25:00.000-04:00

in what can only be described as a strange coincidence, one of my freelance jobs asked me to go out to bushwick and shoot the moore street retail market. the moore street and essex street markets were both created in the 40's by mayor laguardia in an effort to ease congestion by removing pushcart vendors from the streets. I think that there were a few more built as well, one in downtown brooklyn, one in flushing and one in harlem. the markets were neighborhood hubs for some time but then became mostly obsolete as more people started shopping elsewhere.
today, the moore street space is full of smaller businesses and vendors, catering to the needs of the neighborhood-- there's a barber shop, a meat market, a fish market, vegetable stands, a small pharmacy and a couple of restaurants.

the future of the market is up in the air, it has been not doing well for some time and the city has stated that it's planning on closing down the vendors by next summer. if the market is indeed closed, according to an employee i spoke with, the plan is to build housing, which will take the form of an addition to the roof.

what type of housing it will be is another story, will it be affordable housing or condos? if it's condos, the question of who will choose to live there becomes pertinent. it's not too far from the L train, but is surrounded on two sides by high and low-rise projects. the neighborhood is not bad, but given the current and future options for condos in north brooklyn one can only wonder who would choose to buy here.

creative time w/ mike nelson

2007-09-11T12:51:00.000-04:00

got the chance to check out the newest mike nelson installation yesterday - it's pretty amazing. in a partnership with creative time and the city, he took over the unused essex street market building on the lower east side and painstakingly created a parallel world. you enter through an old chinese restaurant on delancey street and then make your way through a maze of interconnected rooms and passageways, each decorated with material the artist has found or salvaged.

see the full set over on flickr

related
the NYT ran an article on this a few weeks back, read their writeup here

more shots after the expansion

brooklyn waterfront

2007-09-05T13:56:00.001-04:00

the edges of sunset park are still relatively free of development. this shot was taken out at the end of an old pier. as we were hiking in, a barge with train cars floated up and proceeded to offload the box cars onto the rails nearby.

summer eats

2007-08-30T14:16:00.000-04:00

if there is one good thing that can be attributed to the end of summer it's the amazing produce available at the farmers market. the tomato is as close to perfect as it's going to get and so when i discovered this recipe for a tomato bread soup yesterday, i knew that i had to make it as soon as possible. it was really simple to make and the only problem was that i've eaten it all and i still want more.

tomato bread soup

3 pounds plum tomatoes
3 tablespoons of olive oil
1 small onion
3 cloves garlic
salt & pepper
2 cups diced sourdough bread.
1/2 cup grated ricotta salata
basil

- quarter the tomatoes and remove the seeds, put into a food processor and pulse several times until the tomatoes are well chopped.

- set aside the tomato and heat the oil in an appropriate sized pot, dice up the onion and add it in with the minced garlic

- sauté the onions and garlic until translucent and tender, add the tomato and season to taste with salt and pepper. turn down the heat, cover and simmer for 45 minutes.

- meanwhile, trim the crust off the bread and cut into cubes, after 45 minutes of simmering add the bread into the soup and simmer for another 15 minutes.

- top each bowl with some torn basil and some grated ricotta salata and enjoy hot, cold or somewhere in between.

3rd avenue

2007-08-29T15:39:00.000-04:00

3rd avenue feels like a leftover from the 80's. an expressway rumbles above you while cars rattle by at top speed on hamilton avenue, which runs underneath. most of the business being done seems to revolve around gas stations, car washes and tire shops. at night and on weekends the area is especially desolate which can make for some interesting shooting. if you head north from here, you skirt along the waterfront, passing warehouses, factory's, box stores and a federal prison.

i really like how they took the time to give the garage some nice details.

continuing down 3rd on my way to the mugs record release party, i noticed that it looks like the new restaurant on 3rd avenue at 9th street was still progressing along at a fair rate. they had poured some new concrete in what looks like it could be an outdoor seating area.

lastly, a couple more pictures after the expansion.

3k

2007-08-23T14:12:00.000-04:00

last night i put up photo number 3,000 on flickr, in the beginning i wasn't nearly as selective-- i would put almost anything up, in any amount, with little post-processing. however, once my flickr site started attracting a lot of traffic, the process started to change, and now although i log in much more, (usually to check in on friends and respond to messages) i upload much less and try to keep my shots to a much higher standard then in the past. however, as useful as flickr has been, i still need to get a personal portfolio website put together, so if you're a graphic designer/programmer and want to help out with that, shoot me an email. hello [at] samhorine [dot] com.

#2999

head over to my flickr by clicking here
on a related note, lots of people are talking about flickr here

hotel chelsea

2007-08-21T12:53:00.000-04:00

last week, when it was (much) nicer out, i got the opportunity to go onto the roof of a new york institution, the hotel chelsea. a friend of a friend was shooting some video of john vanderslice performing on the roof at sunset and the opportunity to tag along was too good to pass up. while the "hotel," as a whole, is a mix of permanent residents and rooms for let, the penthouse level is comprised entirely of apartments. all of which have been created by combining rooms and building additions. the results are spectacular (in a tetris'esque way), with each apartment having multiple levels and terraced gardens. each seemingly their own private oasis, with easy access to a large semi-public space in the center.

the rooftop also offered exceptional views of the surrounding city, more shots of the rooftop and surrounding view after the expansion. also, bluejake has a shot of me on the roof running on his site.

here tomorrow

2007-08-17T10:48:00.000-04:00

here tomorrow is the title of the newest record from the brooklyn based four-piece, the mugs. and fittingly enough, it will be available ~~tomorrow~~ on monday (8/20/07) to stream, in it's entirety, from the mugs website. i wholeheartedly encourage you to stop by and give it a listen. the physical record will hit stores in new york and seattle on the 28th of august and can also be pre-ordered here.

the mugs will be having the record release party for here tomorrow at union hall in brooklyn on the 25th-- where they will be joined by condo and the diggs.

album cover and track listing after the expansion

1. Sinister Six
2. Clovers & Wine
3. Lady Liberty
4. Indian God
5. Grey Cat Row
6. Hindsight 2012
7. Woman Opens Man
8. Asleep All Day
9. Salt March
10. Arizona
11. Here Tomorrow

more information can be found on myspace and at the mugs website

ted leo....

2007-08-17T10:39:00.000-04:00

ted leo and the pharmacists played at the mccarren pool last sunday with the birds of avalon and the thermals. the folks over at tell all your friends pr were kind enough to let rob and i watch the performance for behind the stage.

....hold steady

2007-08-14T14:26:00.000-04:00

check out the loose record review (with my pictures) here

south slope eats

2007-08-08T16:15:00.000-04:00

south slopers had few choices when it came to food last year, there were a few taco spots on 5th avenue, an el salvadorian restaurant (which is rumored to be one of the better ones in the city), the forgettable kitchen bar and it's better neighbor bar bq--both on 6th. there was more of a selection up on 7th after you passed 16th street heading north. one of my favorites along that stretch was tost, which sadly closed it's doors earlier this year. i have to suspect that it was because it was mainly a sandwich/salad place and it wasn't open during the day during the week- which always seemed like a mistake to me. the good news is that another restaurant is currently working on renovating the space.

the new restaurant is, as i'm told, going to be a german restaurant/bar which will specialize in esoteric german beers and small plates. hopefully they will have our favorite german beer, kostritzer, on tap.

the other two tidbits that i've heard about come from chowhound. where a commenter speculates that a sushi bar is going in where ~~the diner~~ coffeeshack used to be, which is on 5th ave. between 17th and 18th street.

the commenter "fat hot" also notes that "where Aaron's used to be will be a, and here I'm just reporting what I heard, a "Southwestern French" place. That's Southwestern as in Southwestern American, not Southwest France..." very interesting, considering that the space would have to be seriosuly subdivided as it currently is a whopping 7,500 square feet. although according to the sign, the owners are very much willing to do just that. my favorite rumor that i had heard as of yet was that someone was going to turn it into a music hall in the spirit of southpaw. that would be really amazing and i'll bet you that it could do a thriving business.

another active pit of speculation has been the new restaurant that's rumored to open on 5th ave. between 19th and 20th. when i walked by it appeared to be true, however still very much in the renovation phase. the DOB signage read that they were adding an extension to the back and the permits had been filed for an eating and drinking establishment.

more on the snacks at quarter and kb:pizza bar after the expansion

finally, the snacks at quarter are pretty good too. we had the meat and cheese platter ($8) which was tasty (and giant) the other night for dinner and last night sampled one of the curry vegetable pies, which reminded me very much of a samosa. in total, they also carry three types of DUB pies including steak and cheese, shepard's pie and curry vegetable for $5 each.

oh and lastly, the kitchen bar:pizza bar - which is located on the corner of 21st and 6th looks like it's going to open ~~anytime now~~ in the next couple of month. i had heard that they had done a really nice job with building the bar area (and i can only hope that they do a better job with the menu than their, imo, misguided big brother up the street) and when i peeked in the window today it seemed like they were making some decent progress.

21st street

2007-08-07T15:17:00.000-04:00

caught this post running on brownstoner today, this building is 3 doors up from our apartment and has been the subject of much speculation as to how much they're asking and, more specifically, who's going to pay the overinflated prices they are sure to be asking. brownstoner is speculating that since the listing has been pulled from the corcoran site, the building will become rentals. apparently, only one of the eight units has sold in the approximately two months that it has been on the market. lastly, i might point out that the building sits next to the worst building on the block...the front door is always wide open, stray cats wander in and out, people are coming and going at all sorts of odd hours of the night. the day before one of the open houses, in what can only be called preemptive damage control, the neighbors gate was freshly painted, the normally overflowing trash was neatly organized and there was a suspicious lack of kids hanging out on the stoop. however the "no loitering, no ball playing, no hanging out, no exceptions" sign was still prominently displayed next to the wide open front door.

view the corcoran listing here

read about the minerva on street easy

read the update on brownstoner

explosion!

2007-08-06T17:19:00.001-04:00

i'm from barcelona played mccarren park pool on sunday with blonde redhead as part of jelly nyc's continuing series of sunday afternoon "pool parties"

blonde redhead

expand for more pictures and myspace links.

crowd

blonde redhead

i'm from barcelona

i'm from barcelona

for more, check out the set of pool party pictures on flickr

blonde redhead - myspace
i'm from barcelona - myspace
pool parties - website

it came from the yard

2007-08-02T12:59:00.001-04:00

where to begin - the prospect of having a yard was one of the strongest appeals of the apartment. it was visions of gardening and bbq's that ran through my head those cool autumn days as i peered out the kitchen window into the weedy abyss. i can say with certainty, that is was not the hours of strenuous, back-wrenching work that it would take to make that happen in an affordable manor the general decision in the fall was that it was far too overgrown (and filled with raccoons) for us to make any headway and that it was best to wait for spring.

winter passed and finally, late in march, we got a look at the full scope of what we were about to undertake.

walking around the littered lot gave one a sense of the the enormity of the project. the visions of bbq's, a garden (and waging war on mosquitoes) were still quite alluring and filled us with a good deal of motivation and over the course of the next several weekends we managed to bag up a couple of boxes worth of contractors bags filled with trash from the yard. suddenly, things didn't seem quite so bad.

see the results after the expansion

we had lost some time (and ground to weeds)when we left for the trip to berlin, however by the middle of june things were really starting to come together. we erected some lattice as a privacy fence. planted some flowering pants and were now only faced with the dilemma of what to do with the center area that was ringed with concrete (and filled with dirt and broken glass.)

the initial idea was that i buy some bricks and create a patio. that was discarded when we did the math and realized that it would take over 1,000 bricks to do the job. the next concept was to deck it over, that too was eventually seen as too expensive of a solution. we considered paving stones, but like brick they were proving to be expensive and numerous (and 36 lbs apiece). lastly, we reconsidered using cedar mulch and keeping open the option of using pavers on part of it to create a sitting area.

currently, we're pretty close to done. we've purchased a grill, a table and chairs, some tiki torches to keep the bugs away. most of the trash is out of the back, some of our plants (morning glories and four o'clocks) are growing and there are only really a few more small bits to work out before we'll have rehabbed the yard.

however, one of those last bits, is actually one of the bigger projects that we'll embark upon and that is installing a door to the yard. currently, we access it through a door sized window off the living room -

- i've spoken with the landlord about putting in a door and building a small set of steps and he seems ok with it, so now it's just finding someone who can do at a price that's reasonable. so if that's you - shoot me an email: hello [at] samhorine [dot] com.

soho

2007-08-02T09:21:00.000-04:00

yesterday i had to go into the city to pick up my newly sharpened knives at broadway panhandler. they did a very nice job, much better then that old guy who drives around brownstone brooklyn. instead of heading straight back to brooklyn with a bag of knives, i took a walk through the west village and soho. the way in which the mid-summer late afternoon/early evening light filters down through the trees and between the buildings is unusually pretty. at this point, you may be thinking to yourself, well that must have led to some good pictures? well, actually no. despite walking around with the camera out, nothing was catching my eye. i've been feeling lately like i might be slipping into a bit of a photographic slump. i've been shooting lots of pictures, mostly of shows - but as far as personal stuff goes, i don't think i've taken a good shot in a month. so, i mostly just walked the streets, enjoying the light and shooting some street art that i came across.

a few more shots after the expansion

momofuku ssam bar

2007-07-30T13:53:00.000-04:00

on friday it was robin's birthday and to celebrate, her, i and six friends went to momofuku ssam bar and dined on an entire pork butt. the butt is actually the shoulder portion and chef david chang had performed some magic on this one. we started out with a few small plates to whet our appetites - not that we needed to, as when the bo ssam ( that's what the meal we had is properly titled) came out it was a full seven pounds of fatty love. before i skip ahead too far, we started with a dish of fried cauliflower

and then moved on to a selection of seasonal pickles

and lastly decided to try the spicy squid salad

by this time, everyone had arrived and we settled in for the big one. they brought out the dozen oysters first and then they followed that by the bibb lettuce, rice and four types of sauces. two kimchi's a scallion puree and a spicy kimchi puree. then they brought out the pork butt.

the proper way to eat the bo ssam, according to the waiter was to take a lettuce leaf and add some pork, an oyster, some rice and some sauce - roll it up and say good-bye. it was some serious good eats, the pork appeared to have been heavily seasoned and seared on all sides first and then set in a very low oven for some hours. when it came out, the waiter placed it on the table, handed us some tongs and said "no forks will be needed." he gave a quick demonstration by poking the pork with a tong which caused the meat to fall apart. after that it was about an hour of silence as we all dug in.

more pictures after the expansion

siren festival '07

2007-07-23T11:53:00.000-04:00

M.I.A.

matt & kim

black lips

backstage with a new york doll

noisettes

elvis perkins in dearland

black lips crowd

black lips

post is coming soon, i swear - for now check out the full siren set over on flickr or view it as a slide show which looks pretty slick with a black background and large sizes.

return to redhook

2007-07-18T17:41:00.000-04:00

about the only time i go down to red hook these days is for a run to fairway. while it was once a favorite haunt, these days i find really kind of depressing. about the only good thing happening down there are the weekend vendors at the soccer fields and, for the sake of my health, i try to eat the delicious (and heavily fried) mexican home cooking only a few times over the course of a summer. a recent trip out to the long island ikea got me thinking about the brooklyn ikea (gotta do something while sitting in weekend long island traffic) and how i should perhaps pay red hook another visit.

the first stop was over to the old revere sugar refinery, which is still in the process of demolition. there is no plan for what to do with the parcel of land (that i'm aware of) at this point. there have been a few renderings of proposals, the problem for now is that the land is still zoned as heavy industrial.

12/08/06

07/17/07

they seem to have torn down a whole lot of buildings in the past seven months.

continuing on, i rode my bike along beard street, which has been mostly shrouded by blue construction fencing for the past year or so...

don't worry that "graffiti" was quickly painted over

there were signs for detours, but the roadway was still open and it appeared as if they were reinforcing the cobblestone streets for the massive upsurge in car traffic that will result from the opening of the store. as i biked past, i was able to see workers applying the fireproof insulation to the roof and inner-skeleton of the store. peering through the fence, it appeared to be very close to structural completion.

continuing on, i glanced over at the grain terminal, then turned the corner to columbia street and ducked into the empty lot next door-- which currently functions as an open air graffiti gallery.

i'm not sure if ikea owns this lot or not, if so i imagine that it will be parking or perhaps another big box store-- similar to the bed, bath and beyond that's rumored to be built on the eastern edge of the site.

the trademark blue siding is going up fast, and i suspect that before christmas the store will open.

a few more pictures from my trip to red hook as well as the proposed renderings for the revere sugar site after the expansion.

blue siding

ikea as seen from revere sugar

ugly rendering of proposed revere site

cold-brewed iced coffee

2007-07-18T14:10:00.000-04:00

i read about the cold brewing process in the nyt a few weeks back, ever since then i've been making it 2-3 times a week. the recipe is incredibly simple, takes no time whatsoever and the results are pretty spectacular.

1 -mix 5-7 tablespoons of ground coffee (i prefer la colombe) into 2 quarts of cold water.
2- cover.
3- let sit for anywhere from 12-24 hours depending on how strong you desire, i like it in the 12-18 hr stength.
4- strain using a coffee filter and a sieve.
5- pour over ice and cut it down with a bit of water to taste.
6- i mix in a touch of milk, which is completely optional.
7- store it in the fridge.

south slope restaurant news

2007-07-17T11:45:00.000-04:00

i can recall the first time i took the b63 bus from my first brooklyn apartment in sunset park (7th and 42nd) down to my friends house on 18th between 5th and 6th -- the trip down 5th ave. was a trip through, what seemed to be at the time, a no-mans land. I passed by the cemetery on my right and quickly glanced at the low rise industrial buildings to my left as the bus sped through the thirties. passing through the twenties, the bus stopped a bit more frequently to pick up a few families heading further down 5th. the bus started to stop with a bit more regularity as it rolled through the teens-- and having realized that i had missed my stop, i got off at ninth street. this was sometime in late 2001 and as it was, 9th street seemed very much like a dividing line. walking back towards 18th street, i took note of the many 99 cent stores, the discount electronic shops, a few mexican restaurants and a bunch of bodegas.

jumping forward six years, the scene is quite different. the thirties are still dominated by greenwood cemetery and low rise industrials, while the twenties are home to a few pioneers and the teens are becoming quite busy.

in restaurant news, i hear that the guys who run bar toto (6th and 11) are opening up another spot on the corner of 3rd ave. and 9th street. I have passed by this location many times and always been intrigued by the large bay windows across the front. it looks as if they are going to have an outdoor seating area possibly along 9th street. although, personally, that's a tough corner to want to sit on with the traffic and the lovely view of enterprise rent-a-car/ auto body repair shop.

in other news, i hear that the ecuadorian restaurant salinas, best known in my mind for serving guinea pig (and i might note that it was the most expensive item on the menu) is closed for good and will re-open in the next few weeks as an upscale mexican restaurant, and by upscale i hear we're talking mezcals style. doesn't seem like the best choice - but that's just my opinion.

moving down 5th ave. i noticed that aniello pizzeria on 5th and 11th has taken down their iconic sign. a hand written note on the gate claims that they are closed for renovations, i wonder if will they open up as a pizza joint or something else? my money is on something else, as personally, i think the pizza up the street at joe's is far superior.

sidecar has been getting mixed reviews - the atmosphere and decor are getting high marks, while the food is getting up and down reviews. i suspect that it's a case of figuring everything out. so far, i've heard that the buttermilk fried chicken is really good, the blt soup is tasty and the brandade is excellent. the burgers are well seasoned, however there have been some issues with getting the proper level of done-ness. i'm hoping to try them at some point this week-- for now, you can check out the menu below. sidecar is open tuesday - sunday 5pm to midnight and is still byo for the next several weeks.

click image to expand

click to expand

a couple of words about a new sushi restaurant and vin rouge after the expansion

lastly, i hear that a new sushi restaurant is opening up on 5th ave. between 17th and 18th in the former coffee shack store front and on one final note, i have yet to mention the wine bar, vin rouge that opened up on 5th and 17th several months ago.

i've yet to go in,and i'm not sure why because i rather like wine and snacks but something strikes me as a bit off about this place. maybe i'm just really kind of peculiar about wine and what i'm willing to pay 8/9 a glass for. anybody been in with a good review?

sunday brunch at alchemy

2007-07-16T15:47:00.001-04:00

burger w/ fries

skate sandwich

blue point toasted lager

after talking about going to alchemy for several months, rob and i finally made the long walk down 5th avenue to check it out. I had the burger, which was well flavored and cooked perfectly. it was topped with a shallot confit and pancetta. rob had the fried skate sandwich. which was also quite nice, the fish was crisp and very fresh tasting. there was no problem with switching out the fries for a salad, which is always nice. the meal was nicely complimented with a couple of blue points. my only complaint was that the brunch menu was a bit heavy on the breakfast side of the things, i would have liked to see more lunch items. all in all, will definitely go back to check out their dinner.

click for a larger size

afterwards we headed over to smith street to check out some of the bastille day festivities going on.

pictures after the expansion.

petanque

tournament

skateboarding = france?

the streets had been closed off and filled in with sand for an all day petanque tournament, at on end there was a small skate park set up. all of the restaurants from had moved their seating and in some cases, kitchens, outdoors. everybody seemed to be having a great time, however, it was very hot, humid and crowded-- so after a leisurely stroll about (and an icy mojito) we headed back to the slope.

new feature

2007-07-16T15:18:00.000-04:00

crab cakes w/ caesar salad

panacota w/ sour cherry syrup

a new, hopefully regular, feature around here is going to feature dishes made by the lovely robin wellington. i'll be shooting them and she'll be offering up some of her recipes and a bit of commentary about the creation process.

street art

2007-07-13T14:08:00.000-04:00

finally the heat and humidity broke after wednesday evenings severe thunderstorms. i decided to take advantage to the beautiful weather by taking the bike for a spin around williamsburg to shoot some street art.

r.robot

obey

revs

a few more after the expansion

knitta, please

faro

imminent disaster

summertime

2007-07-10T14:36:00.000-04:00

It's been really warm here the past few days, highs in the nineties everyday. Seemed like as good of a time as any to go and see for myself how people were handling it. the first stop was the brand new floating pool (and sandy beach) that had been created under the brooklyn heights promenade.

barge pool

sandy beach

the food situation at the barge, seems to be limited to hot dogs and ice cream at this point, but according to ny magazine, that may be changing very soon. they wouldn't let me onto the barge without a bracelet, so i set off towards the next destination. stop 2 was the double d pool, on third avenue near the gowanus canal.

double d pool

easy cool down

lastly, the kids on my street have been running the hydrant for the past couple of days.

21st street.

the only other news is that sidecar had taken down the paper covering the windows and appeared to be open as i drove past today...

sidecar (560 Fifth Ave., between 15th and 16th streets, Brooklyn, 718-369-0077)

sources report that a liquor license is "coming soon," for now it's B.Y.O.

south slope (part 2.5)

2007-07-09T13:28:00.000-04:00

spent the weekend upstate in tivoli, ny. after a longish drive back to the city, we decided to check out the new italian restaurant that opened on 7th avenue at 10th street.

scalino took the place of a noodle house-- that had taken the place of a sushi place, which incidentally, was where i ate my first meal in brooklyn. there was a fairly good crowd as we walked in, made up of mostly families and even though it was warm outside, it was warmer inside (and did i mention that the place was full of kids.) we decided to site outside, which promptly filled up as well. the waiter gave us a bit of a jokingly hard sell on a pasta special with a cream sauce and then took off to tend to another table, leaving us to ponder the menu. the thing that i immediately liked about the place was that the menu was short-- five or six appetizers, three salads, a handful of pastas and a couple of mains. we decided upon a bufala mozzarella salad with arugula, grilled baby artichokes, an endive salad with golden beets and a bresaola platter with arugula. they were out of the bufala, and after some further prompting he admitted that he was also out of the artichokes. if there is one this that i dislike about eating out, it's a lack of full disclosure about menu availability. we ended up with the bresaola and beets as starters and splitting a spinach and ricotta ravioli (which to their credit, they split in the kitchen.) the salads were fine, not revelatory but not bad, and at roughly $7 a piece - a decent size. the ravioli portion was large and finished with an olive oil and sage sauce - which was pretty flavorless and imho, would have been greatly improved upon had they gone the brown butter route instead.

all in all, scalino is not bad and with a byob policy, quite affordable. i would give it another try in a couple of months and see how the food changes with seasonal availability.

bikes lanes and another visit to quarter after the expansion.

walking back, i noticed that the 9th street bike lanes have been painted.

lastly, stopped by quarter again on the way home. robin had a rather delicious drink called a "plantation" which was muddled basil with gin and lime, i had a six points ipa, which was also delicious.

we sat in the back yard, which had undergone some nice landscaping since the last visit. additionally, it seems that they now serve snacks as well, as a couple sitting next to us had ordered a (rather large) cheese plate.

south slope (part 2)

2007-07-06T12:40:00.000-04:00

there is never a dull day in the south slope. usually that's because of the raccoons that plague the neighborhood . or possibly because of the stray cats that live in the backyard or maybe it's the seemingly never ending construction. however, today is a particularly exciting day. a tipster reports that a union market is opening a location next to the bagel hole on 7th avenue between 12th and 13th streets. no longer will the neighborhood gourmets have to trek all the way to union to purchase their d'artagnan wild boar roasts.

apparently, there was also a story in the brooklyn paper several weeks ago about this.

some information on sidecar, kitchen bar: pizza bar and quarter -- as well as a totally unofficial review of nick after the expansion.

a friend reports that sidecar (5th ave. btw 15+16) is going to soft open (for friends and family) this weekend. they also report that the second business partner is an owner of o'connors. i'm excited to hear their thoughts on this much anticipated restaurant.

speaking of anticipated restaurants, kitchen bar is supposedly opening up an outpost ~~across the street from their current location (6th and 20th). Currently, it's an empty lot - so it seems to have a long way to go before they fire up any ovens~~ down the street on the corner of 21st . i can only hope for my sake, that by the time they open, they'll have figured out that the trick to running a good restaurant is to pick several things that you do very well and stick with that formula instead of attempting to be everything for everyone.

quarter is a new bar that recently opened on 5th ave between 20th and 21st. a few of us popped in there late last weekend, the place had a nice ambiance and the staff seemed friendly. will stop in again for a better review when it's not so late.

nick is the new thai delivery spot that opened where brawta used to be on 7th ave and 15th. it seems like the last thing 7th ave needs is another thai restaurant, i think that we already have 4 or 5 and none of them are that great. a friend had the lunch delivery and the report was not great. overly sweet pad thai with a tasty curry puff.

wandering the atlantic yards

2007-07-06T12:25:00.000-04:00

vanderbilt ave.

last saturday, while robin ran some errands at the atlantic center mall, i spent an hour or so wandering around the footprint of the atlantic yards. it seems like each successive time i come back to the yards, another building has been demolished. this time around i noticed that the historic ward's bakery (the one that partially collapsed during demo a few weeks back) had been sheathed in a white wrapper. perhaps it's the work of christo?

ward's bakery

a few more pictures from the area after the expansion.

fireworks

2007-07-05T12:01:00.000-04:00

a couple more after the expansion

the fourth was a pretty good time this year - the rain held off for most of the day and night. my team won the first game of kickball easily...22 - 13 was the final score. the second game, well, that one didn't go so well. afterwards, we packed up the picnic and headed over to brooklyn heights to watch the fireworks from a friends 12th floor terrace. looking straight ahead, you could see the downtown fireworks as well some going off closer to new jersey. and if you were to turn to your right, you had a pretty decent view of the williamsburg fireworks as well.

williamsburg / happy 4th

2007-07-04T07:48:00.000-04:00

old vs. new

setting sun

williamsburg has a certain beauty at sunset, and with that beauty comes the danger of getting splashed by a wave while watching said sunset. hope everyone has a good time celebrating our independence today. personally, i'll be playing kickball and enjoying some bbq in prospect park with some rooftop fireworks viewing afterwards.

oh - and i changed the color from black to white - makes the text a bit easier to read and it's more office appropriate i hear.

pictures from the rest of the day (man man at the pool parties) after the expansion.

man man

mccarren pool

pool party crowd

man man from philly sound like singing pirates with a propensity for odd instrumentation and tom waits style vocals.
- man man myspace

south slope

2007-06-29T12:44:00.000-04:00

when i first moved to park slope in early 2003, i moved here because my friends lived around here and there were still good apartment deals to be found, especially if you didn't mind being south of ninth street. i got an apartment on 13th street and 5th avenue - a one bedroom on the top floor of a three floor townhouse. it was next to an old karate studio that, according to the woman who owned the building (and lived in the garden apartment) had in a previous incarnation been a chop shop. across the street, there was a salvation army and about 5 blocks away, there was a lone neighborhood bar. however, there were a whole lot of 99 cent stores and plenty of discount electronics stores for all your cheap-o shopping needs. after a couple of years, we got cafe regular (my favorite coffee shop), commonwealth (a really great bar - full disclosure, owned by a friend) and several well known bank branches. the only establishments still missing were (and still are) the restaurants - however, word on the street is that a new (late night) dining spot is being opened by a former employee of blue ribbon on 5th + 15th st. called sidecar, which sounds promising.

ok, so that was the set up and here's the real reason for this post. after a couple of years of living at 275 13th it seemed like a good time to find another apartment. some of the reasons included the brand new metal bar that had opened up next door (in the former chop shop/karate studio) and the fact that they were in the process of tearing down the salvation army to build a brand new luxury condos .

a process that is still going on today, almost two years later.

yesterday, i got an email from the former downstairs neighbor with some news to share. as it turns out, the landlord is trying to sell the building. the catch, she wants 1.16 million for a building that, trust me, needs a whole lot of work to be worth anywhere near the asking price. that and the fact that it's the first house on the block, it's next to a metal bar (they are really nice, just very loud) and across the street from a seemingly perpetual construction site, are probably why it's been on the market since february. you can check out the corcoran pictures of what 1.16 million gets you these days in the southern end of park slope here.

more pictures and a floor plan after the expansion

floorplan of what 1.16 mil. gets you these days.

there was a rumor that the retail anchor for the new condos was a baby gap.

artists rendering of the new condos.

the real story here is not a new one, real estate in brooklyn is crazy. will she get her asking price? who knows...but i do know that the neighbors who sold next door had done extensive renovations (and converted, what was formerly two duplexes, into a single family home) got 1.33 for their home.
and perhaps the real kicker here, is that the house was purchased in the mid to late 90's for under 200k. not bad for a 10 year investment.

for more detailed property information check pshark.

+++ update +++

the house did not sell and is being removed from the market. the new plan is to keep the property as a rental. currently, she has purchased a house in new paltz and is going to "wait out the bar."

summer shows / rumors

2007-06-27T11:44:00.001-04:00

ah - summertime. the time of iced coffee, kickball in the park, canada day and lots of free shows. this past weekend i rode my bike out to mccarren pool to check out the first pool party of the summer. the line-up was +/- , oakley hall and superchunk. none of which are current favorites, but all of whom were entertaining. this first pool party was more for meeting up with friends and enjoying a few cold beers on a beautiful summer afternoon. the slip 'n slide was back this year as was the summer long dodgeball tournament. in addition, there was a misting tent and some of those strange inflatable windsocks that you often see whipping about on the side of the road advertising a carwash. the lineup looks to be pretty good this summer, man man is next week with illinios and dengue fever. other standout shows for the pool this summer include ted leo, the thermals, blonde redhead, tv on the radio, dan deacon, erase errata and a special guest on july 22nd - which is rumored to be gza / genius preforming "liquid swords."

manu chao at prospect park and a couple unconfirmed tidbits about the brooklyn dining scene after the expansion.

credit

i was lucky enough to catch manu chao [loud music plays after link] at the prospect park benefit show last night - thanks to a friend at slope cellars. i have to say, that for somebody i didn't know much about, he put on a pretty amazing show - it was standing room only and the crowd was going crazy pretty much the whole time. he was on his third encore as we were leaving. the only downside to the night was that i ran into some problems getting my camera inside the venue. once i was inside, i realized i had forgotten to check and see if there was a memory card in the camera before leaving the house...of course there wasn't. manu chao plays another sold out show at prospect park tonight, even listening from the lawn outside the gate would be pretty enjoyable i'll bet.

lastly, two rumors that i've heard.

1 - 360 in red hook is closed for good.

the phone number still states that they're closed for renovations, but it sure has been a long time. according to sources, arnaud + co. racked up a bit of debt and decided to take an extended vacation to the loire.

[- update - via eater -]

"More on the disintegrating state of affairs at Red Hook's one-time culinary pride and joy 360: 'The restaurant 360, which is currently "closed for renovation" may not re-open. Sources in Red Hook said, the chef/owner, Arnaud, is burnt out and tired of the place. He wants out and will probably sell it to one, or few, his staff. Arnaud is currently on vacation and probably scuba diving in some exotic locale with no intention of returning to work.'"

2 - the new development at 500 4th avenue in park slope will feature an olive garden as the retail anchor of the 11+ story apartment building.

brownstoner has an older post about 500 4th here

matt & kim

2007-06-25T20:49:00.000-04:00

matt & kim played a great show on friday night at an old cement storage facility next to ad hoc arts in the bushwick. the show was organized by todd p and also featured death set, best fwends & parts and labor.

matt & kim myspace
parts and labor myspace
best fwends myspace
death set myspace

a few more shots from the matt and kim set after the expansion.

2007-06-21T17:31:00.000-04:00

shepard fairey is in town for a show at jonathan levine -- which opens on saturday.
there's also an overflow show going on at an auxiliary space in dumbo that opens tonight.

new shepard fairey in union square

apparently there was an altercation of sorts at the show...gothamist has some updates on the people (who may or may not be the splasher) who were busted for attempting to set off some stink bombs at the obey opening last night.

domino revisted

2007-06-20T02:44:00.000-04:00

williamsburg bridge

the adant house

sugar hoppers

domino sugar round 2 - a few links and more pictures below.

old factory floor

new factory floor

rooftop

stairwell

crystallization room

domino sugar has been at the center of the debate over the future of the williamsburg waterfront since the plant ceased operations 2004.
recently the national trust for historic preservation released its 20th annual list of "the most endangered places" and brooklyn's industrial waterfront - stretching from sunset park to greenpoint made the list.
the municipal arts society of new york launched a website in conjunction with the release - the save industrial brooklyn's heritage website is a must read for anyone interested in the history and future of brooklyn.

and lastly, here is the initial post associated with domino.

staten island

2007-06-18T15:16:00.000-04:00

storm clouds

salt pile

view from above

kill van kull

abandoned factory with storm

reflective puddles

on saturday i rode the staten island ferry with mercurialn, gowanus and bluejake to go check out the north shore of staten island. after twenty minutes of beautiful weather, an intense storm transformed the sky and within moments, a torrential rain began to fall. luckily there was an old factory a few hundred yards away and after a quick dash my camera and i were safe from the downpour. as the rain fell, pools of water formed on the factory floor creating giant mirrors. after about an hour the rain tapered off and the sky returned to blue. as we were walking away, i looked back and a large rainbow was slumped over the kill van kull waterway.

chinatown from above

2007-06-15T17:05:00.000-04:00

yesterday jake and i checked out the views from a couple of rooftops in chinatown.

ikea / brooklyn

2007-06-15T12:51:00.001-04:00

the new brooklyn ikea store is rising quickly over in red hook, gowanus lounge reports that they are currently in the process of putting up the distinctive blue siding. personally, i think that this is a terrible location for a big box store and will be regarded as an urban planning disaster in the years to come. it's not near the subway, nor the highway -- so it's going have to be a bus or a car to get down here. early estimates predict over 50,000 cars per week will make the trip. it should also be noted that the main thoroughfare in red hook, van brundt street, has a grand total of 2 stop lights. one at the brooklyn cruise terminal and another further down the block. the later was only erected after various neighborhood groups came together to petition the city after a number of accidents, at least one of which was fatal.

- for some great photographs of the site -- check out nathan kensinger photography

- the recent apartment therapy article on the opening generated some interesting comments

- redhook-brooklyn.org is a good source of anti-ikea material.

- the official ikea site has no information posted yet but does list several job openings.

- lastly this is a proposed 2004 rendering of the site:

wallabout

2007-06-14T16:19:00.001-04:00

the stretch of waterfront between between dumbo and williamsburg contains the brooklyn navy yard -- what was once a teaming naval facility, is now but a shadow of its former self. the base closed in 1966 and was promptly sold to the city of new york. to the east of flushing avenue, the main thoroughfare, you can still spot a few remnants from when the area teemed with sailors and those who were in the business of serving them. the neighborhood is now called wallabout, and some are predicting that it will be the next neighborhood to see the gentrification that has rapidly transformed it's neighbors to the north and south.

apostle of hustle

2007-06-12T14:24:00.003-04:00

apostle of hustle is playing the mercury lounge every monday night this month.
listen to "my swords hand's anger" off of the newest record here or check out their myspace.

LACE E OUT

2007-06-12T14:24:00.001-04:00

i saw this wall and thought of bluejake.

hello, brown.

2007-06-12T13:29:00.000-04:00

the gowanus has always been one of my favorite neighborhoods, it's a nice mix of industrial and residential spaces. old and new, tucked away in the no mans land between park slope, carroll gardens and red hook. it has also been, these past few years, a great spot to check out some really great street art. on sunday i decided to take the bike out for a spin and as there were a couple of revs pieces that i wanted to shoot, i headed in the direction of gowanus. i was across the 3rd street bridge and about to make a right on bond street when i noticed that someone had come along with some brown spray paint and painted over an old elbow-toe . curious, i decided to look around the corner and check out another spot that had been appropriated. this one had also been sprayed with the same brown spray paint-- as had a gore b below it. continuing down bond, i decided to have a look at first street (which was a pretty busy street for street art last summer when the empty vessel project was parked at the end of the block). to my disgust, the same person had come along and hit the remains of a swoon, three elbow-toe's, a cheekz, teo and a clever stencil. they also defaced a small sign which read "toll ahead" in reference to the new toll brothers construction project going up at the end of the block. oopps. lastly, as i was riding off, i noticed that our friend "mr. brown" had hit up another swoon, the remains of an armsrock, an elbow-toe stencil and the elbow-toe pasteup that has graced the abandoned building on union, at bond, for almost a year.

after the splasher nonsense it's hard to get too upset about street art getting defaced, after all it (for the most part) is pretty temporary stuff that is put up without the property owners permission. but still, it's kind of upsetting that someone would go out of their way (and over a 10 block radius) to sloppily spray a can of brown paint for a few seconds on each piece. some people love street art and some don't, but personally i would rather see something interesting and thought provoking on the wall then a brown scrawl.

domino sugar

2007-06-06T12:00:00.001-04:00

rooftop

tangled heart

chemistry lab

old factory

new factory

locker room

generator

refinery

molten sugar

the former domino sugar building occupies an 11 acre plot of land just north of the williamsburg bridge. it's neighbors to the north include the historic austin, nichols and co. building (seen in the previous post), the newest toll brothers development and a state park. the building complex includes buildings from the 1880's through the 1960's and has been nonoperational for several years. the property was recently purchased by a well known nyc developer with hopes of continuing the luxury condo building spree that's been happening in the area for several years now. the complex is one of the lest vestiges of the working waterfront that williamsburg once was, and if developers get their way, it will soon be razed. on the other side of the coin are the preservationist who are hard at work in an effort to landmark much of the complex. in no uncertain terms there will be some sort of development on the site - but as to whether it's landmarked and retrofitted, razed for new construction, rehabbed for affordable housing or something better - the tate modern comes to mind, we'll just have to wait and see. in the meantime, many people have weighed in on the issue in the curbed forums. additionally, wired new york has archived a couple of articles from the new york times and newsday that are worth reading. more pictures available from bluejake, gowanus and mercurialn and a domino set on flickr.

austin, nichols & co.

2007-05-31T15:26:00.001-04:00

austin, nichols & co., originally uploaded by f.trainer.

surveying the wall

2007-05-29T13:57:00.001-04:00

friday -the weather had been reasonable all week but by the time friday rolled around it was spectacular. sunny and 75, a nice breeze and also the day that we had to leave. blast. after trying for a couple of days to get a flight back to koln on saturday morning, (instead of taking the train -the flight was cheaper, but left us too little time before the big flight) we decided to take the night train which left friday night. that ment that we would skip out on the trip out to potsdam, which is where the summer palaces of the royals were built. instead we would do some shopping around prenzlauer berg and get out tickets for the train (as resevations were required for the night train) it turned out to be much more difficult to find a ticket office than we had imagined and it was too late to buy them on the internet. did a bit of shopping and packed up the apartment and headed over to the eastern train station to buy the tickets in person in case we had to leave on an earlier train then we had expected (7pm versus 12am). we bought the tickets for midnight, stashed the bags in a locker and headed out to get some dinner in the friedrichshain neighborhood that i had explored yesterday. along the way we randomly found the remains of the berlin wall which is known as the east side gallery these days. wandering around the remains of the wall as the sun was setting was to say the least a moving experience. rob and i talked about how crazy it was that almost everyone we had met and hung out with had grown up with the wall and the culture associated with it. the wall was 160m long when it was built and currently there is less than 1.5m left, most of it has been used to fill in potholes in the bombed out streets the rest has been scavenged, sold or is being housed in museum collections. afterwards we got some dinner, witnessed a german bridal shower, waited for a late train, ate at le-crobag, shopped for some books, cleared customs and flew back to america. we arrived back at the apartment in brooklyn, all in all 24 hours later.

berlin

2007-05-28T23:53:00.001-04:00

the graffiti gallery in the friedrichshain neighborhood of east berlin

friedrichshain

2007-05-25T14:10:00.001-04:00

thursday - it was an interesting day my many accounts. robin and i had decided to part ways, she to do some shopping about prenz'lberg and i to take a stroll over to friedrichshain. friedrichshain neighbors prenzlauer berg to the south east, and is maybe a few miles away. i had heard about an abandoned factory that was located near there as well as some pretty cool spots for street art which were located a bit further down where friedrichshain boarders the train tracks, the river and kreuzberg. the walk was pretty cool, as it really encompassed a lot of east berlin. starting with the monumental socialist boulevard, karl marx allee which showcased a lot of the former gdr style architecture. after that i checked out a former brewery for a couple of minutes and then knowing that i was running out of time headed down into the less industrial part of friedrichshain. while on the way, i stopped to look at some buildings that had been bombed during the war (which is where the above photograph comes from)
the area by the train station reminded me a lot of the williamsburg section of brooklyn. at least what i envision it probably looked like a few years back before its current state of hyper-gentrification. as i was running low on time, i wandered around for a bit and saw some interesting abandoned industrial buildings that had been taken over by graffiti artists and turned into make shift galleries as well as a solar powered trailer park. i think that the next time i come to berlin, i'll be staying in this part of town. afterwards, i caught the u-bahn back to the apartment and headed back to weinsteins to try their four couse austrian tasting menu. it was by far and away the best meal that we had the entire trip. it stated with a spring onion soup, followed by a salad of raw, shaved white asparagus with raw scallops. the main course was a rabbit dish served with a veal demi-glace and turnips. lastly we had a rhubarb soup served with a buttermilk sorbet. oh, and there were wine pairings with each of the courses. and for 40 euros a person, not a bad deal either.

mittwoch

2007-05-24T12:42:00.001-04:00

we started off on wednesday by checking out some street art in the mitte neighborhood of east berlin which has been fairly active in the past couple of years from what i've heard. we were lucky enough to stumble upon on really great wall/gated area that had been curated (in sort) by 4rtist.com. after that it's was back to the u-bahn for a trip into west berlin.

charlottenburg, was the name of the neighborhood and it was a great departure from what we had come to know so far. it was much more of a commercial mecca, with malls and western chains lining most of the boulevards. we had a couple of things planned: (1) check out the zoo. knut the polar bear fever was running high throughout berlin. that little baby was on everything. however, by the time we got to the zoo we realized that we would only have a few hours (and at 20 euros a person) we might not make the best use of our time at the zoo. so instead we headed off to men, war & peace at the helmut newton gallery. however, we first made a stop at witty's, which was an organic hot dog stand next to a giant mall, for some "bio-curry wurst." the last stop in this area for the day was over at stilwerk. which is a design mall that robin wanted to check out. afterwards, we headed back to the u-bahn to go and check out the area near unter der linden.

we got off the train at potzdamer platz which is sort of becoming a times square of sorts, there is a new giant sony center and a huge daimler chrysler building as well as some other banking buildings. it was pretty quiet by the time that we got there however. we looked around breifly and then headed up the street to see the brandenburg gate and the reichstag. both of which were rather impressive. however, it had been a long day and a storm was blowing in so we again headed over to the u-bahn and boarded the train towards home. when we got to the station, the storm had started in earnest so it was a rather wet walk back to the apartment.