Photos of the Day: Perching Pumpkins

 Saturday, August 31, 2013

Caramoor, Katonah, NY

Nominally the last day of the summer, what to do?

Pick pumpkins, of course.

But not these beauts. They found a way to perch in the patch away from predators.

Watch out for the thorny climbing roses.

Summer Scenes 2012: Commuting Views

Although working through the loss of a second camera in about six months (RIP Ms. RubyNikon), I've still been trying to document some of the things I see around me. Thanks to a cell phone and/or an iTouch, I've managed to photograph some of the daily scenes in the life of Auntie Nettie.

l: I take photos. A photo of a photo ... too meta?
r: How do New Yorkers wash their cars? Double park on the avenue, run a hose to the local building/fire department, and wash them right there in the street! (Don't try this at home. Use a car-wash or your driveway, like most of the country.)

At the office building

l: Behold the current state of the corridor outside my office. Such loveliness/health hazards. Corridors of Power? HA!
r: The view outside the building only reflects how nice the outside is, versus the insides. Storm clouds passing - look for sunlight on the horizon.

One day I came out the service exit to see that the local mounted police were keeping the street safe - for children of all ages and species. Note: I had to take a series of photos to get this one on the right. I knew it would happen. You just have to wait for the moment to occur. The officer was more patient than his steed; that horse was ready for the stable and his oats!

Heading home:

It's not just the people of New York who eek out a living off the little patches of land between concrete.
l: a little urban garden spotted off the train tracks right by a highway on-ramp.
r. This doe was spotted on my way home, as I was walking over a highway overpass. She just emerged out of the thicket on the highway ramp. You don't usually see deer near this particular highway. I guess the coyotes aren't far behind. I got funny looks for taking the photo, but still. When the wildlife decides to move in, you start wondering about the deer ticks taking up residence in your hood too.

Series: Juxtaposition of looking down and looking ahead

l: Encroaching foliage into the Concrete Jungle
r: It's a rat-eat-pigeon squab world up in the overpass rafters.
Urban decay takes on a whole new meaning.

Walking home to the setting sun.

l: To find that it's July and the Christmas lights are still up above and below me.
r: Working dinner, while fielding phone calls and working on the computer.
So glamorous ... not!

Just a random assortment, I know, but it's good to off-set all the childhood pictures from time to time, too. Real life and stuff keeps happening in the present, while I look to the past.

Photos of the Day: I'd rather be barefoot!

I've been staring at the lawn since it was just steel beams, girders, and hirsute union guys. And then I watched as multitudes of people and puppets tromped all over it. I had never managed to cross the street and climb up there myself -- until a few weeks ago.

Ah, grass. It was so nice on my pale dry feet.

Sadly, now I know how badly I need to go and get a pedicure!

Horsing Around on the Lawn

You never know what you are going to see out your window at the Big J. Seriously. One day it was POTUS, another day it was a Passion Day parade for Holy Week. The Halloween costume "parades" featuring students from the two local high schools are some of the most "interesting" displays ever of the sublime, slutty, and the ridiculous.

But then there are just the normal view of every-day events on the Lincoln Center plaza and lawn. Last year, Lincoln Center officially opened the Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Lawn,

"an elevated, 7,203 square foot expanse of public green that slopes gracefully toward Paul Milstein Pool and Terrace. Technically described as a hyperbolic paraboloid, the Illumination Lawn brings another dimension of visual interest to Hearst Plaza—its texture contrasting with the surrounding materials, and its unexpected shape setting off the linear quality of the buildings around it. Designed to provide a tranquil, verdant oasis for students, artists, and visitors, the green serves as a dynamic gathering space, as well as the roof of a pavilion housing the new destination restaurant ..."

Whatever (pretentious architects). We that look at it every day call it the twisty, tessellating, or rolling lawn where all the tourists and half naked kids go to sprawl about. It's also the destination of choice for the early childhood classes and nannies, so it's not uncommon to just get caught up watching little kids run about with glee, and the adults chase after them with some concern. Some of those corners dip suddenly, and we're just waiting for the day when someone launches over the sides or the glass gives way.

This great rolling expanse of green (or brown depending on the season) across the way has been closed for the winter and for the spring so that the grass could grow. [For a New York Times article on the special art of this particular lawn's care, click here.] One day earlier this month, however, we noticed a flurry of activity near the entrance stairs. With a big red bow, it could only mean a grand opening! YIPPEE.

This wasn't just a normal grand opening, with human beings cutting the bow. Nope. This year, the giant puppet war horses from the production at the Lincoln Center Theater made it a synergistic opening. Not only were the two featured horses there, but the teeny tiny ballerina girls from the School of American Ballet were there to frolic together on the lawn. Seriously, all they needed was Brunhilde from the Wagner opera at the Met and fancy canapes from the seriously overpriced restaurant to overload on the cross-constituent promotion.

But, more to the point, it was a fun view minutes for all of us peering through our windows. Tickets for the show are selling out very quickly, so this was probably our only opportunity to see the stars of the production. Those puppets are amazing. When the 3 puppeteers are manipulating the horses you almost can't believe that they aren't real. They snort, prance, and rear just like real animals, and if you don't think about it too much, you can believe the illusion. (Also a point of pride, a few of those puppeteers are Big J trained actors.)

Anyway, here's my pictures of the great lawn opening of 2011, as snapped via the zoom, from across the street and through a large dirty pane of glass. Better media can be seen here, courtesy of Lincoln Center Theater, or go to http://lct.org/showMedia.htm?id=199 or http://youtu.be/qw8ruoIqGxI.



I also have to report that standing barefoot in that grass without having to be concerned about what real horses would leave behind is very nice indeed.

Random Rooftop View from the East Side

A few weeks ago I had a girls' overnight in New York with a college friend. Waking up in an apartment on the 14th floor of a high rise is slightly, oh-so-slightly, quieter than the noises I'm used to experiencing in the studio in my bit of New York.

The views from her balcony were amazing. (Sadly, Auntie Nettie's Attic does not have a balcony, or access to the rooftop.) It also provides a glimpse into some of the secret lives of New Yorkers, and a different perspective on the City.

Views to the East

Looking down from the balcony, right across

This church is so close to its neighbors. Too close. Almost inseparable, you might say.craning to the left, andanother one down below -- to the left. I love the art on their brick wall.But by far, my favorite was the apartment and deck on the building farther across the way from the church. If you can't get to Sagg Harbor, you do your best to improvise.

One day, Auntie Nettie's Attic is going to have a balcony and/or deck, and the studio can move back into a real attic, where it truly belongs.

File this under: real estate envy/location, location, location jealousy.

Well we're movin on up,
To the east side.
To a deluxe apartment in the sky.
Movin on up,
To the east side.
We finally got a piece of the pie.

With apologies to the Jeffersons.

Darn it, now I want some pie!

Dispelling the Myth

Working and living in NYC is nothing like the media portrays it. All of the Candace Bushnell-spawned television programs and Meg Ryan movies to the contrary, it just isn’t like that at all.

What brings this up? Recently I got a comment on the blog from a non-NYer offering a major appliance for the opportunity to live in NYC. I think this an instance of “the grass is greener,” so let me do my part to dispel the myth.

To go on the record, I don’t actually live in the five boroughs. I’m a commuter from a suburb just over the Bronx border. Thanks to a train, shuttle, and subway, I manage to get work everyday. On a good day with an express train door-to-door it’s just about an hour of colorful interactions with my fellow “happy” commuters. On a not so good day, the commute is much longer and emotionally taxing. The worst one-way commute to this job so far has been two hours – and that was because of rain* … and I think I stood up the entire time. In general though, commuting is crowded, stressful, and an often sweaty and grimy affair. Glamorous? I think not.

Fancy Corner offices that you get to yourself? HA! I work in a Big Grey Box that’s in the midst of a five year construction/expansion project. The dulcet drone of the massive drilling project directly below my feet has a massage-like, yet deadening quality to it. While there’s a window in my office, I don’t look out it. I have a Dilbert Cube wall that separates my desk from the rest of the office that I share with two other people. (I’m lucky; one office has 5-7 people in it on any given day). My view, such as it is, five grey filing cabinets and reams and reams of paper. To combat the institutional grey, lack of opening windows, and the institutional air that’s vented in directly over my head, I’ve brought in splashes of color through my decorating, my oh-so-delightful personality, and some plants for CO2. Feng shui? I laugh in your general direction.




For every NYC worker and dweller, there are millions of these examples, some funny, some sad, some poignant, and some hysterical. For the most part though, we envy you as much as you envy us—for your open green space, room to park, lack of tourists, your real grocery stores with actual room to take a cart up and down the aisle, reasonable real estate rates, low crime rates, etc.

Once and a while though, we’ll experience a totally random moment that could only happen in a big city that makes us go: hey, this isn’t so bad. Like last Thursday when I stood on the subway platform in my usual location, grooving to my shuffle (TM). All of a sudden this guy walked up to me. Now, you have to understand, people don’t often walk up to me, though I’m starting to look “native” enough that people ask me for directions more and more (or is the L on my forehead that flashes “librarian”?). I wasn’t too concerned. It’s a safe platform, it was rush-hour, and he didn’t give off a “vibe.” Lots of people were around, and we’re all paranoid enough now that if “we see something, we say something.”I didn’t really have time to react when he reached out and handed me … 1 quarter. Yep. Just one quarter. 25 cents. That’s it. That was the transaction. I was so completely befuddled that I let the guy walk away before I could ask "why?". The business man from ABC standing next to me got one too. Bemused, we both looked at each other, and then turned and watched the guy as he worked his way all the way down the crowded platform, handing out one quarter to each person from his Ziploc bag full of about $20.00 worth of quarters.

Was it performance art? Am I supposed to pay it forward? Or it is just one of those weird New York Stories that offsets the grind of the commute and that brightens the finish on working in the Big Grey Box? Where is the grass greener?

You decide.


* I’ve managed to avoid the commutes that were affected by 9/11, the East Coast power outages, massive flooding, and transit strikes. Keep your fingers crossed.