Tag: photography

Dyker Heights

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I was longing to see them up close, the famous Christmas lights in Dyker Heights. These are some of the decorations to be seen between 11th & 14th Avenues and 82nd & 85th Streets. They range from zero to elegant minimal to mesmerizing to hypnotizing to glorious to explosively colourful to downright extravagant. In all cases they are magnificent and are best enjoyed on foot. Choose any route but, whatever you do, save the displays on the Spata house at 1152 84th St. and that of Polizzotto at 1145 84th St. for last. You’ll be so bedazzled everything else will seem just a little bit dimmer (if that is even possible!) next to them.

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We took the subway from Manhattan: the D train to Brooklyn Heights until 18th Av. and on the way back, the R train from 86 St. The trip was an hour and-a-half long each way, with a 20-minute walk from/to the subway stations. But it was worth every minute.

December 27th, 2016

The Standard

The Humble Fabulist2 Comments

7:16pm

Built in 2009 around The High Line, the hotel offers unobstructed views of the City, Hudson river, people visiting restrooms and, scandalously, hot amorous couples showing off through the floor-to-ceiling windows in their rooms, turning unsuspecting passersby into unintended peeping toms.

From where I stand it’s too far to see – or is it?

May be if I waited for the lights to be turned on…

8:45pm

By the way, remember that incident when Solange Knowles lost it and attacked Jay Z in an elevator? That’s were it happened. Fame and Notoriety make good partners, I think as I gaze at life going on behind the windows.

September 7th, 2016

The Lincoln Center

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wp20160903_213912 wp20160903_2147261The Met’s Summer HD Festival of free outdoor opera screenings on Lincoln Center Plaza was still on. “The Merry Widow” was a “full house” screening that Saturday evening.

Later, seeking more information about the screenings, I read that people reserve the best seats by putting clothes, shopping bags or even papers with their names on early in the morning of the event, sometimes days in advance! They come, they grab and they go – only to appear again just before the screening to claim possession of their chosen seat. Meanwhile, people who arrive a – reasonable – couple of hours before the start have to seat wherever they can find a ”non-reserved” chair.

Complaints to the organizers have thus far been met with indifference and a generic response like ”seats are offered on the first-come first-served basis”. But shouldn’t there be a rule to define ”first-come” and narrow it down to – at least – a few hours ahead, on the same day of an event? Or, if the free screenings continue in the future, there’ll be more and more such ”reservations” each year.

September 3rd, 2016

A cool breathing spot

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20160829_212752Because of the pollution, congestion and August mugginess it is easy to forget that we actually live on an island, yet a cool breathing spot is always a breeze away. Whether you head east or west, a walk alongside the river at dusk is your escape route from the stifling heat.

Just follow any street on East-West axis.

Manhattan – August 29th, 2016