Tag: urbanism

Posted on
by
Photo of a very skinny house, not much wider than the front door. The house is overgrown with vines, the stoop is falling apart and the door is very weather beaten. The rear end of an abandoned car is visible on the left.
A very skinny house on Stillwell Avenue in Brooklyn.

Programming note: The notification email has been resurrected after many years. If you subscribed ten years ago and this email comes as total surprise, sorry—no hard feelings if you unsubscribe.

I’ve wanted to check out the MTA’s annual pop-up shop, but always find out about it after the fact. My luck changed this this year, I read about Debi Mazar’s subway shopping spree while the event was still on. By the time I got there, things were somewhat picked over, but they still had a lot on offer. It was mostly signs, but there were also some other items, such as air gauges and other random train parts. I walked away empty-handed, but it was worth the price of admission if only to see the excitement of the people coming out and posing for photos with their loot.

Since I was in the area, I walked down to Coney Island. On the way I saw this incredibly skinny house on Stillwell Avenue. Despite its compact size, the owners have a difficult time with upkeep.

Coney Island is quiet in the off season, but a couple of the places on the boardwalk are open. There were a surprising number of tourists milling about, confused about he ordering system at Nathan’s. Strange to see them so far from the more popular attractions. Good on them for exploring, even if the subway ride is more exiting than the destination this time of year.

Links

Posted on
by
Photo of a new, R211 series subway on the B line arriving at 7th Avenue Station in Brooklyn. The electronic sign displays the letter "B" in an orange circle with the text "CONCOURSE LOCAL".
New B!

I was pleasantly surprised to see one of the new R211 trains running on the B line.

A new train on one’s regular line is like getting a new car. Well, the new car smell isn’t quite as pronounced and it doesn’t require ponying up tens of thousands or dollars or crippling debt.

On second thought, it’s better than getting a new car.

Links

Posted on
by

Last week, I renounced YouTube, sort of, in hopes of redirecting that time towards other, more fulfilling activities. A week in, YouTube is still blocked on my computer–excellent! However, bass practice time increased only slightly. Judging from the number of links I’ve collected this week, most of that tubetime went towards reading feeds. While this may be better than watching rando videos, it’s not what I was shooting for. This week, more bass!

Even with only a couple practice sessions this week, jam night was better for me. Every little bit helps.

Also, full disclosure, I did watch CityNerd’s latest video on my phone. For me, it’s much easier to stop at the end of one video on the phone than on a PC.

Links

Posted on
by

We tried two new tunes in Friday’s jam session. They sounded surprisingly good given that this was the first time playing them together. I got complements the drum track for Last Time, I think it was because of the tambourine. We have a live jam coming up in a couple weeks we’re all looking forward to. Need to practice more than I have been.

We saw 80º (26.6º C) in NYC on Saturday. Pretty much everybody was outside, seemingly in or on there way to a city park. The Great Meadow in Prospect Park was absolutely rammed. There were so many people that the din of their collective conversations was noticeable to passers by.

Links

Posted on
by

The Rheingold beer sign retrofit I started last week (or three years ago, depending on when you start the clock) is finished. I ended up going with the simplest solution. I’ve been enjoying the warm glow of the sign–it really pulls the room together now.

Congestion pricing lasted about a month longer than I thought it would. This week Trump declared it dead and crowned himself in the process. What an asshole. Despite his declaration, they are still collecting the fees and the MTA is suing. I hope they can hold onto it as it seems to have the intended effect and, as expected, people are warming up to it.

We had a good Jamulus jam this week, but the after party was plagued with technical difficulties. We got through it though. I’m happy we have these regular jam sessions since it’s the only time I’ve been picking up the bass. That changes this week, I’m going to start my practice regimen again and also work on improving one of our songs.

Links