oni and lank make with the good weekend

my brother lank was in town this weekend.  we always have a nice time but this weekend was exceptionally loverly.  yesterday was hiking on hook mountain, a late mexican dinner and sleep.  today found us making an awesome breakfast and then seeing the artists at union square, then heading over to greenpoint/williamsburg to visit Brooklyn Brewery, and closing that outing with dinner at Peter's Since 1969.

We left on the five train from Pelham Parkway around 12:00pm and I managed to get in 900 words during the trip into the city.  We went to the bank then took a lookie loo at the art in Union Square.  the best thing i saw at the artist's at union square was some photographs in gold leaf and one photograph that was pigmented, a picture of some graff at 5 Points (see above for a different picture of the same graffiti.)  i might buy that picture for a friend next Sunday.  also i enjoyed a beautiful picture of a cat in whose eye i saw the reflection of a harbor, by an artist named Stavros something something, whose last name I forget, but who was very gracious and friendly.  That picture inspire me to take the mask picture featured later in this post.  That mask was awesome, I want one.

Then Lank and I took the L train (where a curly haired girl played mandolin and sang softly to an older black man who was carrying a guitar, and everyone smiled to each other and clapped at the end) to the Bedford stop, played a quick game of "look at the hipsters" then went over to the brewery.  they had a nice little bar there and a wonderful cat, Monster,  a ten-year old male neuter who is in charge of all mousing operations over there at the brewery.

Lank and I split twenty dollars worth of tokens, giving us three each.  We then exchanged the a token each for a cup of Brooklyn Brewery's Brown Ale and Weisse Ale respectively.  The Weisse was amazing.  We enjoyed those and I snapped some photos with his camera because it is awesome and mine is
a. not
b. currently misplaced and
c. has a scratched lens.

Then we had the tour which was amazingly brief and very entertaining due to the tour guide and his love anecdotes about Williamsburg in the 1990's.  I highly recommend the tour but have a beer or two first as otherwise you will disappointed by its brevity.

Then we took to the long beer-hall style tables in the bar and settled in to make some new friends.  We met a Derrick and a Carston who work for ZocDoc, a online company which allows you to book appointments with doctors who take your insurance, and which my dear friend Dann reviewed quiet favorably last week.  They were lovely ready-made drinking bodies and we discussed topics as diverse as the distribution of the world's Jewry, life in Brooklyn, small vs. large dogs, fiction writing, life being good, and a voice acting. here's to them.

 Then we decided we needed to eat.  we walked back to bedford and found a comfort-food joint called Peter's Since 1969.  I had chicken and mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes because i was tipsy and that means carbs don't count.  lank had more chicken and mashed potatoes with gravy and some string beans.  Everything was fantastic and not too expensive (round $10-$12 per meal).  I highly recommend them.

Then with very full tummies we bored the train and rode our way home to the Bronx.  I'm reading The Ask by Sam Lipsyte and Lank was dipping into the Idiot by Dostoevsky.  I'm enjoying The Ask, but found it to be more intelligible and enjoyable when I was tipsy, so take that for whatever it is worth.  I read the Idiot a few years ago and found it brilliant, albeit massively depressing.  Sometimes I need massively depressing literature to check my perspective :)  life is good.

I would go on to tell you all about the hike we did in Nyack yesterday but I am a bit weary and still have plans for this evening  Suffice to say mother nature shone exceptionally bright in yesterday's beautiful weather.  The trial was just difficult enough to be a bit challenge but not kill me, and we did about 8 miles over the day.  The view from the top was astonishing in its beauty and the birdwatchers we met at the summit were very interesting and quite willing to share their knowledge with us.  The best part of the trip, for me, was showing the 8 year old triplets that accompanied us some things in nature which I knew some things about.  I love an open mind and young people can be absolute sponges for knowledge, once you get your foot in the door past their too-cool exteriors.

 

photo by: Joe Svantner

blogging on da bus!

give some a slight tummyache... but it is awful neat and FUN.  actually the tummyache might be the result of the dirty-water dog i scarfed from the stand as i baked in line for the MEGABUS.  It left fifteen minutes late but I don't care, I'm always late, as long as it doesn't come early then it is the bus for me.

It was more than ten dollars cheaper than greyhound.  and it beats the heck out of the chinatown bus b/c i don't have to go down to chinatown, the workers speak better english and are marginally less gruff, and there is free wifi!  plus i've had one chinatown bus trip where the heat didn't work in January and I had to put on all the clothes I had in my luggage and I was still freezing, and another chinatown bus trip where the exhaust from the engine was somehow coming into the bus and people were getting headaches and barfing so i popped out the emergency hatch on the ceiling because the bus driver WOULD NOT stop and we needed oxygen.  That made him stop.

so, IMHO, megabus gets thumbs up and chinatown bus gets thumbs down except for mega short trips like to philly.

I am super-tired.  i couldn't sleep in the death heat last night and i don't have money to run the A.C.   sucks.  but that's what it is.  also i was nervous because i always get nervous before any trip, stupid but true.  I am going to Cape Cod with my mama :)  never been there and i've never been on  with my mama before  it will be mostly just she and i, but my brother kevin will be around too which is great because he wants to go biking, hiking, swimming, running and kayaking with me.

my headphones died and i had to pay $10 for a crap pair of "colby" headphones in Penn Station.  What a gyp.  they are like $2 at the discount store.  highway robbery!   oh well at least they work.  sort of

ok i'm gonna go take a nap b/c this air conditioning is the bee knees!

ps. i really like this ring:

 (by violet darkling)

i want it!

UPDATE I WOKE UP FREEZING and had to put on all the clothes and towels so i wouldn't die of hypothermia.  geez.  this is very silly.  i'm almost to albany now.  my papa is gonna pick me up.