It took me less than an hour to get to Brooklyn and find a parking spot across the street from Jess & Tommy's apartment. This includes a horrible detour on the way to the Holland Tunnel, and the time it took me to interrupt a cop who was reading his newspaper, to ask him where I was.
Fast forward to
Red Hook, Brooklyn (this is a fascinating site) - a gritty-being gentrified-section of the city with cobblestone streets and no subway. You can get there on foot, by bike, car or bus - but not by train. There was a hope to bring back the trolleys, or even to establish a trolley museum - but oh, dear. Here they sit - sadly rusting away.
an interior shot
The building you see behind them used to be a dilapidated warehouse - Van Brunt Stores. Wasn't it beautiful? My kind of building.
Today, I don't know what is on the upper floors but the first floor is a to-die-for Fairway market. The most gorgeous selection of fish, meat, cheeses, coffee, organic and regular produce, and groceries from every part of the world.
The building has all these wonderful shutters that we couldn't figure out - except maybe they were hurricane shutters because the building is right on the water? A mystery. Here it is from the back.
But I am getting ahead of myself. After Jess and I shared a delicious IKEA 99 cent breakfast of bacon, eggs, and home fries (biggest bargain on planewe spent a couple of hours looking at kitchen cabinets, etc. and got a lot of good ideas. We finally got out of there and headed for Fairway, where we had lunch outside on the water. After lunch, pictures.
Lady Liberty
the mother
the daughter
the tugboat with the Verrazzano Bridge
The Waterfront Museum barge
and that's all she wrote. It was a gorgeous day, well spent. Tomorrow, the studio (hooray!). Rachel and I are going to try our hands at my new Akua-Kolor relief inks, paper, and the press - and see what happens.
Fast forward to Red Hook, Brooklyn (this is a fascinating site) - a gritty-being gentrified-section of the city with cobblestone streets and no subway. You can get there on foot, by bike, car or bus - but not by train. There was a hope to bring back the trolleys, or even to establish a trolley museum - but oh, dear. Here they sit - sadly rusting away.
7 comments:
I can see you using that wonderful old building in some printing! I'm always thrilled when someone has the vision to reuse these lovely old structures, rather than tear them down.
Sounds like you had a fun day. Hope you'll post pics of your studio adventures today with Rachel.
xo
What a wonderful day you had!
Wow, Rayna. Great photos! DH and I took pictures around the Red Hook ship yards a while back. He's a professional photo artist and he's shown several of the pictures from there. I had fun, like you obviously did as well. Thanks.
You post such interesting places and events on your blog. If I should ever turn up in your neck of the woods will you be my tour guide to all the wonderful sights? Sort of a "Rayna's View of NYC" - I'll pay! Love, Del-at-home
I'm always grateful if these old buildings are kept and secured and renovated. Unfortunately, often they are renovated to death. But my hope is that the weather may restore some of the old patina in time. This one is really amazing! How good that it is still there. I love all your reports from your trips, it is almost like being taken there.
Seen this one?
http://fadingad.wordpress.com
Beautiful pictures of you and Jess, oh, and the buildings, too. New York seems so mysterious to me, a left coast girl. I hope I can see your part of the world one of these days! A big hug to you, Rayna!
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