Gowanus Cat

On a walk in Gowanus, just after sunset and with the sky still bright, I came upon a Caterpillar 980G front-end loader parked in the Ferrara Brothers lot.

There are a surprising number of videos of these particular beasts in operation, naturally shot by men; I guess we're still six-year-old boys at heart.

For example, this video of an owner and operator trying out his new 980G. I love the sinuous way the machine moves.

And then, there's this video of a Cat driver freestylin'.

That's right. I just linked to some cute Cat videos.

Enjoy.

Odd Flower

Is this decorative broccoli? A spray of mutant violets? A little help here, please.

After Irene

 

I suppose you could find a metaphor in this picture. But it also shows the sunset sky of the evening that after that hurricane passed.

I am posting this picture because it is pretty.

 

It's a lotus blossom.

This picture reminds me of the moment when I saw the thing.

Coney Dog

 

Coney sauce--that is, chili.
Grated cheese.
A stripe of mustard.
A few raw onions.
And a chocolate shake with syrup drizzled down the inside of the glass.

Heaven.

Photo Day 31: No Flower

 

I can't tell you exactly why I like this picture so much.

It's just leaves and sky, after all.

Photo Day 30: Texture and Color

 

COR-TEN steel is a specific kind of weathering steel, and has a combination of chromium, silicon, phosphorus, manganese, copper, nickle and sometimes vanadium added to the iron and carbon that make up most steel alloys. Over a period of wetting and drying cycles, the alloy develops a tough patina that both gives it a distinctive texture and color and protects it from further oxidation. US Steel developed Cor-Ten in the 1930's, primarily for use in railway coal wagons.

Flies have always been with us. I have no idea if they normally contain vanadium, nor do I know the variety of fly that appears in this picture, resting for a moment on sculpture in Frederik Meijer Gardens.

Photo Day 29: Bronze 25 and Bronze 26

 

Today, as I left Steiner Studios after a wardrobe fitting for some background work on "Pan Am," I was startled by the sunset over Manhattan. So I sent out a tweet.

Sunset over NYC from the Steiner Studios lot. Wish I'd brought my damned DSLR. I'll just have to remember.

What I meant is that I'll just have to remember what it really looked like, because there was no way in hell the puny camera on my phone could capture a tenth of what I was seeing in person.

But a camera doesn't just capture something. It changes it in the process.

In Italian, one choses the moment per fare un fotografia, to "make" a photograph.

Which makes as much sense as what we say in English.

Two bronze sculptures by Hanneke Beaumont caught my eye as I walked through Frederik Meijer Gardens this summer.

Actually, a lot of things caught my eye. But at this moment, I am particularly happy what I made of these.

Photo Day 28: It Is Not A Very Small Dragon

 

It was only because I paused a second that this caught my eye. A stem or twig, lying on the ground, looked to me as though it were something completely different. So I took a picture of it, cropped it, and uploaded it to my blog.

Photo Day 27: Whippi-Dip

 

For your post-beach frozen custard fix.

Or, as in my case, Butter Pecan from Hudsonville Ice Cream.

(Note all the sandals.)

Photo Day 26: Oystercatcher in Flight

 

I have a renewed respect for wildlife photographers.

Still, for all its blur and grain, I like this picture. It's true to life; in the moment, all you can take in is an impression of the actual thing.

Photo Day 25: South Brooklyn Pizza

 

A slice at South Brooklyn Pizza on 4th Avenue near Carroll Street costs four bucks. If you want, you can go to Two Brothers Pizza--at locations all over Manhattan--and get a slice for one quarter that price. Both are outstanding values. The slice from Two Brothers is sloppy, hot and fresh. The South Brooklyn slice is fresh, too, but also delicate and perfect. You can bitch all you want about price of this or location of that. Just don't forget you live in one of the best damned cities in the world when it comes to pizza and that you are luckier than you can imagine.

Photo Day 24: Scallop Shell

 

On my first and only trip to Martha's Vineyard, a friend of mine showed me a jogging path, a sandy road which led to a quiet bay with a boat launch. It was so quiet that it looked to me like an inlet on a small freshwater lake, even though the inlet led in fact to the Atlantic Ocean.

With a seaworthy boat I could have sailed out into the open, headed south, and not run out of water until I reached the Dominican Republic. (After that, Venezuela.)

I am sure that there are hundreds of inlets like these. But I am a City boy, by way of Michigan and Colorado, and I rarely see them. So my first thought was: What a nice, quiet pond.

Fifty feet or so from the water stood a gray, weathered wooden table. By the table, a pile of clam shells, with a few scallop and oyster shells mixed in. I don't know if people came to the table and shucked clams there, or if they just found this a convenient spot to dump shells from elsewhere.

To some people, this pile of remains would look like a smelly mess. To me: evidence of briny, delicious meals past.

My friend, the runner, talked about how years ago he used to sit down at the counter of the Oyster Bar in Grand Central and order a half dozen Malapeques. Sometimes he would find himself in conversation with the guy sitting next to him. Always, he would enjoy the oysters.

Then he discovered that he had terrible cholesterol and became something close to a vegetarian. From there it was a short step to following certain dietary laws, and since he was (and is) a nice Jewish boy from the Bronx, he started keeping kosher. He eats meat now, but still follows kashruth. So: no more oysters and no more trips to the Oyster Bar in Grand Central. It's been so long since he had shellfish that he had to be reminded which of the shards in the pile came from oysters.

I only made one trip down that sandy jogging path, and although I took hundreds of pictures elsewhere on the island, I didn't have my camera. I would have liked a picture of that midden of clams' remains. Something about the repeating, haphazard pattern of fluted shells attracts my eye. It soothes and intrigues me. I wish I did have my camera then.

But anyhow, earlier in the trip, I did take this picture. I kind of like it.

Anyone want to go to the Oyster Bar in Grand Central, and sit at the counter?

Photo Day 23: Bee on a Flower

 

The little buggers are so damned hard to get into focus.

Photo Day 22: Glee

 

I held the camera at my waist when I took the picture, but she still saw me. When you have nothing better to do, you notice things.