My Little Corner of the World

These illustrations are part of a project by James Gulliver Hancock to capture all the buildings in New York. He's made a decent start, as you can see if you check out his blog. I've been feeling quite nostalgic about New York as I make preparations to leave it on a new adventure, so I was delighted by them.

No time to be too nostalgic though, as I have a hectic few weeks coming up. And now, for your listening pleasure, "My Little Corner of the World" by Yo La Tengo.

Dutch Winter Landscapes are full of skaters

Hendrick Avercamp, Winter Scene on a Canal

Pieter Breughel, Winter Landscape with Skaters

Johannes Pieter van Wisselingh, Skaters in a Dutch Winter Landscape

These lovely ideals make me long for a world where winter is playful, joyful, and beautiful. Not to mention full of some of the most gorgeous trees. Then, however, for comparison's sake, I google "new york city winter." 

It looks like some ideals persist.

It's September!

And I'm so surprised I'm a day late noticing. Ooops!

From Hyperallergic's dead on calendar above (click for details)

So this means its that lovely time of year to make a Fall list so that you can hope to cram in all the great,and less of the not so great, art. I've got a lot to catch up on. Anything I should definitely pencil in for the New York area?

Colorful Morning in Brighton Beach

As I told you my new habitat is Brighton Beach, just a stretch of boardwalk down from Coney Island (home of the infamous 4th of July hot dog eating contest). To take advantage of my new surroundings, and because I feel compelled to do uncomfortable things that are good for me, I have started jogging.

Howl says the circus poster. I felt like howling myself, if I had the breath to, but luckily it's an interesting stretch of boardwalk to torture yourself on: full of joggers and sunbathers and swimmers. Even at 7 AM on a Saturday morning, the old people had made their way down to the shore line for sunbathing and calisthenics.

Barnum and Bailey circus has set up their tents just past Coney Island and before a gorgeous old landmark that is now a roller rink. The man in front was sporting a very chipper boating outfit complete with ship's captain hat.

Then, just as I was starting to feel really proud of my panting and puffing, I came across what appeared to be hundreds of  penguins. It turns out they were triathletes in wetsuits. It was a little demoralizing, but not as much as seeing people three times my age jogging past me.

At this point you might be wondering whatever happened to that art blog I had been writing--me too. I can't think why I'm dribbling on about my morning run except that all my mental space is currently occupied by my new job. Yesterday was my first day, and I left quite excited about some of the projects I will be working on. If you'll bear with me a bit though, I have some lovely interesting art posts that I'm working on as well.

My New Habitat

is a bit of a strange one, or at least not what you imagine initially for someone is living in New York. At the moment I am staying with family in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, sometimes called Little Odessa, which is just down the boardwalk from Coney Island with its famous amusement park. The Cyclone is one of the last wooden rollercoasters left and it is certainly one of the most jarring.

Stepping off the train here I'm only a block from the boardwalk and beyond that is the ocean. It is immediately relaxing. The pace of life suits a suburb, which it certainly is being an hour by train from Manhattan. I've been commuting back and forth for almost a month now and I assure you it is a long ride. Between that and not having internet at home, I'm planning on packing up my suitcase again in the near future.


But for this little piece of summer, it's a fantastic place to be. Living here makes me feel that my travels are not over, for its boasts a unique, sometimes campy, bizarre mix of elements. In fact, its mix of cultures and customs it might be more typical"New York" than I realized.

Photographs via Racoles on Flickr.