Having recently finished A Tree Grows in Brooklyn as a prerequisite to moving to New York, I was more excited than most New Yorkers to learn that Shelley had an upcoming meeting in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Better/Worse yet, the meeting was set for noon on an otherwise open Saturday. Already planning to make the "trek" with Shelley in a show of solidarity, we logged onto Google Maps to double-check out route.As most of you know, Google instigated a technology called "street view" a little more than a year ago. While simple in concept, the project involved photographing 360 degree shots from the road for all streets in a given city. This was made possible through some fancy optical logarithms, and more than anything a TON of data collection and organization.
From the comfort of your own cubicle, you can now not only navigate subways and fly through the aerial view, but you can actually re-trace (or, actually, pre-trace) your intended route and note all the appropriate land marks from a pedestrian-eye view.
In this particular case, we discovered that Shelley's rundown warehouse-turned-experimental-theatre was almost directly across the street from the Brooklyn Brewery, which offered seasonal brews on tap and an hourly tour.
Surprisingly, as much fun as the brewery was (the Pumpkin Ale lives up to its accolades), the greatest discoveries came earlier and cheaper. First was Anne Marie's pizza (8th & Bedford), which gets to put its hat in the enormous "best pizza in New York" ring. I'm not backing up the assertion, but I'm putting it out there.But the best-in-show of this wickedly fun weekend was, in the spirit of the times, just across the street from Anne Marie's: the Salvation Army.
Thrift has always been a _____ (blank) of mine; where blank can alternate between several meanings: hobby, passion, joy, obsession, or weakness.
It's a marriage of both my childish wonder at discovery and my crotchedy-old-man penny-pinching.
Rather than continuing to delve into the psychosis of my second-hand fetish, I'll put forward the results, and you can test the pudding (to see if the proof's in it).
Here's what I scored for $30:
Snazzy Brown Corduroy Blazer
Debonair Khaki Corduroy Hat
Dances with Wolves VHS
Star Wars original (pre-CGI) Triology
The Beginning Stages of... The Polyphonic Spree CD
What makes this most awesome is that:
1) I have a friend in NYC who is among the few anglophones on Earth not to have seen the original trilogy - an offense that shames us all by association.
2) I was just telling Shelley how badly I wanted to see Dances with Wolves, to which she groaned and took solace in the fact that I (at that time) had no possible way to inflict such a proposal upon her.
In short, I made out like a Somali Pirate, and let me tell you, they're making out well these days.
But hey, even if you're just scraping by, at least thrift can help you do so in style.
And Kudos to Brooklyn.
Weber (the lame texpatriot)
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Yeah, what IS up with pirates taking whole freighters?
ReplyDeleteAnyhoo, isn't street view awesome (and a little creepy)? Congrats on your thrift store finds. Tell Shelley I said, "Tatanka."
I've been reading up on this whole Somali Pirate biz and it is straight outta Conrad. My favorite was when the New York times did a phone interview with the leader of one group (via satellite phone from the bridge of a hijacked tanker). When asked the name of his terrorist organization, the man paused, and responded "The Somali Coast Guard."
ReplyDeleteWith millions of dollars made in ransom, and a very small body count, they are an impressive band of brigands. Cap'n Jack be proud.
Given the fact that apparently the cargo (Russian-made weapons) of the Ukrainian freighter was apparently destined for southern Sudan by way of Kenya, I'm beginning to suspect these pirates were something more organized than just pirates. It's beginning to move from Conrad to Graham Greene, and with a few choice technical descriptions of the weaponry into Tom Clancy territory. I just hope we get to see someone walk the plank.
ReplyDeleteGood haul from the Salvation Army. I've been almost nostalgic for Dances With Wolves lately, myself.
Street view, though, while useful I still find somewhat Orwellian--and I prefer my technology to be more Douglas Adams-y.
Just to follow up on the points mentioned:
ReplyDelete1) Tatanka - indeed.
2) oh, this pirate biz is getting all sorts of nuts. In the past year, the activity shifted from the East coast to the much more active Gulf of Yemen (primary entrance to Red Sea). US ships couldn't pursue into Somali waters, but a new UN resolution basically gives UN ships free entry in pursuit, so that'll be exciting. The French have already had one successful aphibious assault (a la Rainbow Warrior), with another threatened.
If only Clany would right a story on this plot line, it'd be fresher fodder than his last 8 spin-offs provided. Net Force my ass.
3) Dances with Wolves - meet - Tantanka joke.
"Manu, Manu" (you have to combine a lot of levels of nerd to get this particular idiosyncratic joke)
4) Did you know there are whole on-line communities that spend hours searching Google Maps and Streetview for certain things, like high-tech scavenger hunts? My favorite (so far!) is scouring for US and Russian submarines (always in dock - no chance on the open sea).