Almost.
I posted a photo of this ad when I first passed by it months ago. But it wasn't a very good shot, so I'm replacing it with this one!
Home of the Walking Sisters since 1862, this convent was shuttered a couple years ago after the order's leaders deemed it too costly to make all the necessary repairs to the aging building.
This was once the headquarters of New York and New Jersey Telephone and Telegraph.
Walk around New York for a while and you're bound to run into some of this guy's works.
This 149-foot-tall column and its surroundings in Fort Greene Park commemorate the 11,500 American prisoners of war who died of disease and starvation aboard British prison ships moored in the East River during the Revolutionary War, some of whose remains are interred in a crypt beneath the monument. Believe it or not, the number of deaths on those ships exceeds the total number of Americans killed in battle during the entirety of the war (disease took the lives of far more troops than combat did in those days).
Absent since 1962, when they were removed following repeated instances of vandalism, Adolph Weinman's eagles were finally returned to their original home at the Prison Ship Martyrs Monument in Fort Greene Park as part of a restoration completed in 2008.
UPDATE (Jan. 13, 2015): I spoke to Jonathan Kuhn, Director of Art & Antiquities at the Parks Department, and he told me that two of the monument's four eagles are originals and two are replicas. The other two originals can be found at the Arsenal, the Parks Department's headquarters in Central Park.
This memorial to thousands of tortured souls now serves as a peaceful oasis of relaxation and recreation, with the tragic story it commemorates unknown to most of its visitors. As this beautiful essay points out, this is a common fate — the physical structures of our monuments often outlive the memories they were intended to preserve.
It must be Cekis! We've already come across at least three of his other works.
Founded in 1898, Cascade grew to become the largest laundry and linen supply firm in the world before going out of business in 2010.
When I passed by its western terminus back in January, I knew I wasn't ready. But today, after months of preparation, and in a feat that will surely be inscribed in the history books of generations to come, I successfully walked the entire length of this grand boulevard, from Avenues Tompkins to Marcy, all within a span of less than 24 hours.
Woodhull is home to the Artist Access program, which allows artists to offer their talents in exchange for medical care.
This ramp, located at the edge of New York City in southeastern Queens, and providing access to the NYC Water Trail, is part of Idlewild Park Preserve, which comprises over 200 acres of wetlands just off Jamaica Bay. That's Nassau County right in front of us, on the other side of the creek.
Idlewild Park Preserve preserves the name of Idlewild Airport. (The airport's name was officially changed to New York International Airport before it opened, but it was still popularly called Idlewild.) In late 1963, after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, the airport was renamed in his honor. Looking out over the marsh here, you can see the JFK air traffic control tower off in the distance, as well as a plane that just took off.
North Woodmere in Nassau County is located just across Hook Creek from Rosedale, Queens.
That's what you get when you multiply one of these intersecting street numbers by the other. As I learned from walking around with Moses Gates, this is the highest such product in the city. Thanks to Queens's confusing numbering system, there are actually three different intersections with this product (all within a few hundred yards of each other): 262nd Place and 149th Road, 262nd Street and 149th Road, and 262nd Street and 149th Avenue.
Dismemberment seems to have become part of his modus operandi ever since he arrived on the scene in NYC. I think it's high time we started pressuring Ray Kelly and the NYPD to step up their hunt for this depraved criminal. How many grisly murders will it take before they get serious about this guy? Toys are humans too, Ray!
I couldn't tell if the tree had swallowed the entire bottle or just the bottom of it.
With apologies to Miss Heather.
That crumbling wall marks the boundary between NYC and South Valley Stream.
There's a certain largest retailer in the world that has, so far, been unable to break into the NYC market. They've made a couple of pushes to open stores in the city, but both attempts were met with vehement community opposition. I always assumed they had some locations elsewhere in the metro area, but what I didn't realize, and what I discovered today after peering through a fence at the end of a dead-end street in Rosedale, is that...
...one of those locations essentially borders NYC! Unwanted by the city, Wal-Mart has sidled up about as close as you can get — this store in South Valley Stream is located less than 100 feet from the Queens/Nassau boundary (which is marked by the fence and razor wire). A classic case of "I'm not touching you I'm not touching you I'm not touching you".
This is also the store where an employee was trampled to death on Black Friday a few years ago, and it seems to be generally beloved by its customers.
And here we have another couple of fowl who seem bizarrely enthusiastic about their impending deaths.
I didn't spend the night over at Cherry Tree Trixie's house — honest!
Named for the nearby Sunrise Highway, this playground boasts a number of sun-related features, including the sunfish you see pictured, and you can find the following nuggets of solar wisdom inscribed in the ground:
- A day without laughter is a day without sunshine
- Make haste while the sun shines
- Light travels 93 million miles from the sun to the earth in 8 minutes
- Look for the silver lining and find the sunny side of life
- No sun without a shadow
- Nobody can be in good health without fresh air, sunshine and good water
- The sun is 5 billion years old, and will shine for another 5 billion years
- The sun loses nothing by shining on a puddle
- Again the sun! Anew each day and new and new and new, that comes into and steadies my soul
- The sunrise has not failed us yet
I've come across quite a few sets of these Hindu prayer flags on my journey so far.
Day 93
I’m finished!
April 1st, 2012Yesterday I consumed my first-ever energy drink, Brain Xplozion, and it was so tasty that I had to have another. And another. And before I knew it, I had kicked the whole case. I was suddenly engulfed by a raging frenzy of kinetic energy, and found myself tearing through the streets of New York at a furious pace. I couldn't stop moving, and continued my rampage all through the night, covering every single remaining block in the city. Wow, 7000+ miles in less than 24 hours. That's got to be some kind of record. Anyway, thanks for following along these three months! Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go have a heart attack and take a nap. I'll post the 18,537 photos I took just as soon as I can get my hands on some more BX.
Air conditioning, whose existence is rooted in the whims of physical pleasure and comfort, would seem to be squarely at odds with the Gnostic quest for salvation from the material world.
