Ok Last One For August

I said to myself I would not write any more blogs in August but I could not help myself. I just got a bit excited as my article on Dasha is currently one of the most popular articles on the Lomocations part of the Lomography website. Now I just need to figure out how I can become a professional blogger.

Latest Lomocation Articles:
http://www.lomography.com/magazine/locations/2011/08/30/a-dogs-eye-view-of-new-york-city


http://www.lomography.com/magazine/locations/2011/08/30/nyc-flower-power

After the Storm

Irene has come and gone in what some might say was a slightly uneventful evening. The brunt of the storm came in the early hours of the morning and Manhattan certainly copped some wind and rain but nowhere near as much as was expected. There were still some other areas out of the city which copped a real hiding so all in all I think we came out reasonably well. There was some evidence of the power of the storm around this morning. Lots of leaves and branches on the ground, spot flooding and a storm surge at around 8am this morning. I'll let the pictures do the talking.

A very quiet 8th Ave @ 8am. What was I doing up this early on a Sunday for anyway?

Jane St

Someone pumping water out of their basement.

Spot flooding in the Meatpacking District.

The Hudson broke it's banks on the Westside walk. The water had dropped about 30 cm's an hour later.

Looking towards downtown. At this point in time the eye of the storm had just hit Coney Island.

Looking towards Jersey City.

We did not totally escape. Part of our roof collapsed.

CNN reporting from the Meatpacking District.

Dasha putting on a brave face. He is such a princess when it comes to rain.

But loving all the fallen branches.

On of the many umbrella casualties.

West 4th Street, West Village

Greenich Ave, West Village

The Calm Before The Storm

It's Saturday afternoon and NYC is post apocalyptic in preparation for the approaching hurricane. It literally is the calm before the storm. The streets are empty, the shops are closed and there is an eerie silence so unusual on New York streets. Dog owners come out of their apartments like ants between rain showers to get one last walk in for their pooch. 

Sandbags, tape and tarpaulins were number one on the shopping list today as the city prepares for a once in a century hurricane. The air is so humid you could almost cut it into blocks. All I can say is why did it have to come on a weekend.

Crumpler doing some abstract boarding up. Hmm Maybe I should close my window.

Every bin in Manhattan has been turned upside down in preparation of the hurricane.

And so the calm means NYC has been closed, stripped, bagged, boarded and bandaged.

Closed

Stripped

Bagged

Boarded

And Bandaged

Irene in the House

Well first it was a 5.8 earthquake and now we're waiting the arrival of Hurricane Irene. What a random week of weather. It's expected to hit late Saturday night to Sunday. Tracy and I cancelled our plans to go to Shelter Island and have loaded the fridge with all the essentials such as beer, sliced ham, dips and other random things and are ready to sit it out. Out of interest I noticed we're in a Zone C area which is subject to potential flooding. Everything in the city is shutting down Saturday afternoon so picking it's going to be pretty quiet. I hope the internet does not go down. Anyway to confirm we are all good and have atleast 5 days worth of dog food for Dasha.

Some Banksy from the Archives

After my little Paris street art book adventure I thought I would do something similar for London. I started trawling through my photos and came across a random picture I took in 2005 just off Brick Lane. The photo was of a tagged street sign but in the back ground there is a Banksy Stencil which is quite clearly visible. 


It does bring back memories of living in Shoreditch at the time and all the street art which was plastered up in the hood. Sadly I did not really have an interest in it back then and never appreciated the epicentre of art that I was living in. For example I clearly remember seeing one of Banksy's most famous pieces of the maid sweeping rubbish behind a painted curtain on the side of the White Cube gallery in Hoxton Square but never even took a photo of it.


When I went back to London in 2010 I wandered around a lot of the areas I had vague recollections of street art in. Sadly many of these had been cleaned in preparation for the 2012 Olympics. 

My First Lomo Location Published

http://www.lomography.com/magazine/locations/2011/08/21/tour-de-manhattan


Six more to come.........

The Burg of Willies, Brooklyn.

One thing we don't do enough is brush off our cool and jump on the L train at 14th Street and bust it over to Williamsburg in Brooklyn. It's a lazy four stops from my place to Bedford Ave, the Hipster epicentre of the world. I'll never be that cool but at least i can kick back an enjoy the coffee to be had in the hood.


A couple of weekends ago Tracy and I headed over there to aimlessly wander and take a few snaps of the street art which is quite prolific in this area. We had lunch at a great little back street cafe and then headed down to the river. The Brooklyn Flea market has set up a new site which specialises in food on Saturdays. It was really an amazing place. There were dozens of food stands and they were selling all manner of gourmet food. An absolute must visit if you're into that scene. By far the most popular stand was the frozen bananas which were dipped in chocolate. The ribs and lobster rolls also looked amazing. 


I'll defiantly be back but this time I wont eat before going there. Also has an awesome view back to Midtown, Manhattan.

One of the vendors was being filmed for a documentary.

The popular banana stand

The views back to Midtown, Manhattan.

Another picture on my Vespa against the wall theme.