Tag Archives: Riverside Park

Winter Pics

 

It seems like everyone in NYC has some great shots of these past few weeks of winter…

well here are some of mine!

The camera is not great on the Nexus 5 but I managed to get a few good shots of my commute home and then a fun walk in Riverside too.

 

empire state in blizzard
empire state in a blizzard
Beckham in his underwear in the snow
Beckham’s underwear in the snow

 

IMG_20140121_141216 IMG_20140121_14120834th street unplowedIMG_20140203_154400IMG_20140203_154029The ParkIMG_20140122_205330 IMG_20140121_180534

 

IMG_20140203_153307IMG_20140203_154014IMG_20131214_193737the end of the walk

old car on the block

empire state the next morning
empire state the next morning

 

97th and Riverside this morning aka my brain

Fridge Poems to Ponder

I’ve been plugging away on my proposal – so most of my writing juice – in fact most of my time is going towards that endeavor.

This means there’s less time for fun things like reading, biking, and city seeing…Which also means less to write about.

Luckily I’m nearly done with this draft!

Until then, my brain feels like this:

97th and Riverside this morning aka my brain

What I do have time for is reading poems,  especially those from the New Yorker which are typically short, thoughtful and great for commutes, trips to the fridge or moments when you just want to ponder.

Here are three of my recent faves:

Another Lethal Party Favor

by Dean Young

Another Lethal Party Favor, by Dean Young
(Click to enlarge)
Shoulda, Woulda, Coulda

by A.E. Stallings

Shoulda, Woulda, Coulda by A. E. Stallings

 

 

 

 

 

And finally, Death of Argos got taken down, and possibly thrown away, because it was making Sand sad.

I read the Odyssey years ago in high school but this translation tells a piece of the story in a really amazing way:

Death of Argos, Translated by Stephen Mitchel

Free Citi Bikes on the Upper West Side!

Citi Bikes on the Upper West Side! If it was going to happen anywhere it would be here.

Riverside has always been a mystical park. Even as Guilliani and now Bloomberg whitewash the city Riverside resists.

Riverside No Smoking Sign

 

Riverside Rules

As youths, it was in Riverside where we escaped the confines of prep school to frolic in the animal kingdom, or trade stories with an old man who lived underground while his campfire cracked and licked at painted walls, and it was in Riverside on Christmas eve that Lester, Bat, Marley and I dove into piles of freshly discarded pines – light as haystacks and fragrant like a forest.

These days it is Riverside where the green turf fields turn to sheets of sparkling white – illuminated by the dipping winter sun, and in the summer it is Riverside were behemoth bottom trawling fish spill their guts, and bearded warblers sing of bygone eras.

So of course it would be Riverside where a wily band of nudniks chose to dump their dozen Citi Bikes. Were they stolen?  Has someone figured out how to hack a Citi Bike rack?

But it had to be a group because the nearest station is over a mile away, and to get twelve bikes to 97th – from 59th – that would take a lot of time. Were they somehow lost – at $1,000 per bike -that would be a hefty fine! Or was it a statement “Bring Citi Bikes to the Upper West Side, By Any Means!”.

Materializing after midnight and vanishing before dawn their origins and disappearance remain a Riverside enigma. Though the intent seems clear, these stolen Citi Bikes set free in Riverside Park send a message of dissent to the Bloombergian powers that be.

citi bikes 2

Upper West Side Sturgeon, not at Barney Greengrass, It’s in the Hudson!

Riding down Riverside with Manfrank, Marsky and Sanderson on a lovely sunny day.

While locking up our bikes near the Pier i Cafe on 72nd (I just learned this place had a name). Some tourists were exclaiming about the stench of the Hudson, or so I thought.

As a I peered over the boardwalk’s steel railing that divides the human and the marine I noticed that what stunk was not only the Hudson, but an enormous fish. Some claimed it was a barracuda, though the short nose and seemingly bottom feeding mouth made me think otherwise.

sturgeon cropped

Mankfrank, an accomplished fisherman in his own right, subsequently identified the fish as a sturgeon (shortnose? atlantic perhaps?). Who knew the Hudson was still home to this caliber of fish?

In fact the sturgeon is the Hudson River Estuary’s logo, though I’d never seen one outside this blue and white image posted on the highways and byways running along its shore.

hudson estuary sturgeon

And though it was dead after all, seeing evidence of large life in the Hudson could be a heartening sign of the river’s health.

Futie

2013 winter soccer  Snow covered Riverside pitch

 

I just finished reading “This is How You Lose Her”. Sometimes my body feels like Yunior’s.Though recently things have been going better. After a few years struggling with nagging injuries and not being able to play, in the passed few months I’ve finally been getting a few good games in! This isn’t me, but it’s a shot of one of my favorite places to join some pickup. Also, De Gea was ridiculous in the Champions league the other day.