Archives for June 2010

Photo by Eric Wolman

Artists Exchange Creative Services for Healthcare  [WNYC]

Tenants bust back into Williamsburg building after legal win  [DailyNews]

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McCarren Park is the place to chill. But unlike other parks; Central Park in Manhattan and Hyde Park in London, it only seems to become habitable after 2pm. Before then it is only the lonesome dog walker and well, me. I have put this low frequency of people before this time to be due to the fact that hipsters (which many of the residents surrounding the park tend to be) are a semi-nocturnal animal. When the afternoon hours draw to an end and the evening begins, this small stretch of green begins to liven up.

It is also the pace of the park that differs. Not only are the people moving to a different beat, they tend to stay a lot longer. In London, when I sit on a park bench and watch the lives that pass me by, they zoom. People are always in a hurry. There are the business men and women that have a meeting to get to, so they sit, inhale their food and off they go. Even those that are meant to be just hanging out in a London park have a certain je ne sais quoi about their environment and are constantly moving around as if they cannot get comfortable in their sitting positions; when I lift my head to look again, they’re gone. This is not the case in McCarren Park. Dwellers do not rejuvenate, they multiply.

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Tourists, however good for the economy, tend to plague the city and although I do not live here, I don’t like to classify myself as one. I like to believe that I am 1/10 New Yorker, but that concept is thrown out by the fact that I have only just begun to explore Brooklyn and in particular Williamsburg and Greenpoint. When you exit the subway at Bedford Avenue you are taken to a non-fat New York; the tourist’s being the fat. The vibe is chilled and the air filled with creative vision, whatever the medium. There is culture galore, and I am excited to breathe in as much as I can.

My first few days in the area were a blur. A fast learning of streets and a new meaning of the word ‘hipster,’ which I am led to believe has a different connotation to its London meaning. The areas in London that carry a similar vibe tend to be pretentious and ketamine-ridden however so far I have yet to encounter either, which makes for an interesting change. Graffiti and street art are all around as well as musicians, artists and writers alike.

The World Cup began on Friday and the first interesting game was scheduled for Saturday; USA vs England. A bit more was expected from the English, who not only played badly but actually gave the Americans a goal! One thing that I love about the World Cup is not only does it give us a distraction from our lives for a month it also makes it socially acceptable to drink copious amounts of beer before 11am.

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