More Brooklyn "pioneers"
Following up on the pioneer watch, I just read one of the Times' pieces about the "new" Brooklyn, in which Jeff Vandam discusses the area not far from our place where hipsters have settled into loft apartments. Vandam profiles Glen Bingham, who is (what else?) a singer in a rock band. Bingham tells Vandam: "I was like: 'Right on! This is nothing! We can make it something!' " Then, later, Bingham says, "I guess we're pioneers, but we're not homesteaders, you know?...I didn't move here to stay here and have it stay this way." At least Gideon Yago, talking to the appalling Toni Schlesinger, had the decency to say, "Oh, pioneers! Though I'm not sure I enjoy that term. There are people living here." That's what the other "pioneers" lack: a sense that there are people already here who might not want a Brooklyn Industries and a music scene. But then here's where I might be a hypocrite. When Vandam described the bar Kings County, I thought, "Maybe we should check that place out." I'd love to see more hang-outs and restaurants in our area, but unlike Bingham and the other "pioneers," I don't want to completely change what's here. We can have places here that we like without driving out all the places that are already here. Besides, does every street in Bushwick really need all the bars and galleries and boutiques that Williamsburg has?Wokka wokka
I got a pocket full of quarters, and I'm headed to the arcade. I don't have a lot of money, but I'm bringing ev'rything I made. I've got a callus on my finger, and my shoulder's hurting too. I'm gonna eat them all up, just as soon as they turn blue. Still Love At First BiteAway
Off to Detroit Rock City for a few days to visit Jen's family. We'll have my laptop and the use of the hotel's web hookups, but no telling how often we'll be online. Try not to break the Internot while we're gone.This is for you, JoSH
Also, I'm trying something new here. Since JoSH reads my blog in straight text format on his iPod, of all things (as webby as I am, I still can't believe how cool that is), he finds that HTML tags for links and images and so forth get in his way. I don't post images often, and I can't do much to help him when I do, but I can separate links out to the end of my post, as I've done in the previous two entries. Lemme know how this works for you. Aside: If LoSH means Legion of Super Heroes, what do you think JoSH means? Jugs of Super Heroines? Jumbled, or Short Handed? Gimme yer thoughts. [links: Laugh Stupid]Netboox?
I received an email today from Mitchell Silverman, a cofounder of the new book-trading site Bookins, which encourages readers to trade their books via the mail system. But let's let Mr. Silverman describe the service:I just launched a very unique book-trading website. Ron mentioned it on Beatrice -- perhaps your readers would also be interested. It is an automated system that finds good homes for members’ used-books, while getting them titles they want in exchange.
Membership is free, and it's easy to use. Like Netflix (the famous DVD-by mail website) everything is automated, and postage is provided. But instead of getting DVDs from a warehouse, members get books of equal value from other members. They receive a much greater return on their trade-in than at used bookstores, and we are connected to the US postal service, so postage and mailer labels print from their own printers ($3.99 to receive a book, no charge to ship them).
Well, color me intrigued. I think I'd seen some stirrings about this on other sites but never followed through to the link. Jen and I have been talking about offloading some of our books anyway, and this might be a great way to do that. [Links: Bookins; Ron's comments]More on the Queens high line
I first posted about this back in January, but the Times reported this week that the city is studying possible uses for the LIRR's abandoned Rockaway branch. The Regional Rail Working Group has been studying the matter and suggests refurbishing and reopening the line to train traffic. Advocates of this plan cite several advantages, two of which really stand out to me: First, it would cut the commute from the Rockaways to Manhattan in half, from one hour to half an hour. Second, if linked to the JFK AirTrain, it could provide a one-seat ride from Penn Station to JFK, at a fraction of the cost of Pataki's proposed link from Lower Manhattan to JFK. (Pataki's plan would cost 6 billion bucks and would probably entail digging a new tunnel under the East River, along with acquiring right-of-way. This plan would cost only 400 million and could use existing tunnels and right-of-way.) The cynic in me still feels, though, that the JFK/Lower Manhattan link is the sugar designed to coat the real medicine: increased LIRR access between the Financial District and the Long Island suburbs. As Ray Sanchez pointed out in Newsday this week, NYC usually gets the short shrift in transit funding, compared with the suburbs. [links: Times; RRWG; Newsday]It's raining men
Body Parts From Jet Hit a Long Island Home:A man's leg and part of his spine came crashing onto the roof of a woman's home in Nassau County near Kennedy International Airport yesterday morning, and a short while later the man himself was found dead in the wheel well of a South African Airways jetliner that had just landed.