Monday, October 31, 2011

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!


This years spooky masterpiece is an Abi Turner original!

Pumpkin Carving...

There was some pretty impressive pumpkin carving going on in Union Square this afternoon...


We're doing some pumpkin carving of our own this evening... 
If all goes according to plan, there'll be a photo coming soon!

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Snowy Autumn in the Park...

It's been a funny weekend weatherwise, Friday was a bit wet, Saturday was a snow blizzard with thunder and lightning, followed by a gale and then today it was beautifully sunny!

So I went over to the park to take some pictures of the trees and their lovely leaves before they all get blown off.
There was still some snow on the ground and the gale must have been really strong in Manhattan because there were branches all over the place, and some whole trees had been taken down. So walking along the pathways was a bit tricky, a lot of areas were completely taped off.
The park look absolutely amazing in the afternoon light, shining through the trees, all with different colours leaves...

 
  It was so beautiful and calm.

Central Park around this time of year, especially by the lake, is one of my favourite places... New York in general at this time of year is just so beautiful.

I can't wait for it to become more snowy, the snow this weekend got me feeling very Christmassy and very excited about December this year... Not long now!

Bellocq...

On Saturday afternoon, we braved the blizzard and went to find Bellocq, a very special tea shop in Brooklyn.

We went along to Bellocq to do some research for a job we're doing in London - and as it's not too far away from us on the train, we volunteered to go and have a look.

It was in a really industrial part of Greenpoint, and from the outside, it didn't look like much...

 But on the inside, it was a like a beautiful, comfy, calm, grotto full of tea.


We had a good chat with the owner - who made us some Lapsung tea (which was deeeeeelicious) and chatted to him about all the different teas they have made and sell...

He was saying that when they're creating new teas, they think which people in the world would drink them, one of their newest concoptions was inspired by Mr. Obama, so they're going to send him some and see if he likes it. They also had a blend that they said was inspired by Camilla Parker Bowles, because it was slightly old and dusty smelling!


It was an amazing little shop, which is still being finished - they hope to have a little tasting room round the back, and convert an old kitchen into a smoke house to smoke some teas.

 It was a proper hidden oasis in the middle of all the old factory buildings, and with all the snow outside, and the warmth inside, I think it was the perfect place to be on a snowy Saturday afternoon.

Saturday, October 29, 2011

Urm...

IT'S SNOOOOOOOOOOWING!?!?!

 

Occupy Wall Street...

Yesterday morning I went along to a client meeting at a business school near Wall Street, after the meeting we decided to take a bit of a detour and go and see the people camping out for the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations.

I'm not sure how much has been on the news back at home, but it seems the 'Occupy' protests are going global. They started off in Zuccotti Park near Wall Street, then spread to other major cities like Washington DC (and we saw some in Boston) and now it's gone global.

I think the jist of it is that the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer, by paying too many taxes. There's a lot of talk about the '99%', so I think it's about the 1% of the population (ie. the mega rich) are being looked after, whereas the other 99% are being swindled.

There have been various protests around New York as well as the permanent camp site at Wall Street. The other weekend - when we were enjoying a calm and peaceful time in Greenwich Village - there were protests right around the corner from us (although we never saw them), and later that night Times Square was FULL of protesters. Then the other night, when I came out of the G.Love gig there were loads and loads of police at Union Square - I later found out that while I'd been in the gig around 300 protesters had marched to Union Square and then decided to go back to Wall Street.

 

Regardless of all the political stuff - it was fascinating to go down and see the campsite, it actually felt more like a little village. It's quite incredible that in the 2 months that people have been camping out they've set up library's, food kitchens, classes and workshops, media stations for web interviews and blogging, there are people giving lectures, there are people screen printing t-shirts for the protesters.

 They've created a whole little village community down there!

As you'd expect there were some crazies there, some weird conspirators who'd written about the police and the 9/11 attacks and George Bush being behind them - so that side of it was a little weird...

... and I'm pretty sure a fair few of the people camping out were homeless anyway and have found somewhere where they can be safe and have food (which isn't a bad thing!). But it's admirable what they're doing - although now the cold weather's suddenly arrived (it's forecast for some snow today), it'll be interesting to see how long the make-shift village lasts.

It's funny, watching the different news stations here in American, you can get a completely different spin on what's happening. We were flicking and saw a bit of Fox News last night and they were reporting on the Occupy Wall Street protests, carefully selecting clips from interviews with protesters who weren't as switched on as the others, who didn't really know what they wanted the outcome of all this to be. Then the reporter was saying how the whole protest is based on 'moaning' and has no political backing or structure to it.

You wouldn't get that bias on the good old BBC would you?
I wonder what Hugh Edwards has got to say about all of this?! 

I'd like to find out a bit more about what the real protests are about and maybe go down there again and take some better photos, there were some real characters down there. I'll just have to time it when the police aren't using mace and the protesters aren't getting ready to march anywhere.

Thursday, October 27, 2011

G.Love & Special Sauce...

Last night I went to go and see G.Love & Special Sauce play at the Irving Plaza, round the corner from work... they were FANTASTIC!

I've seen G.Love a couple of times when he's supported Jack Johnson, but seeing him do a full set on his own tour was great. The atmosphere at the gig was brilliant too, everyone was having so much fun.

Here's his version of 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover...


The bass player was incredible! The bass solos in 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover were soooooo good, and he played an upright for the majority of the songs, spinning it round, playing chords, doing all sorts of amazing solos... it was great.

They played for about two hours, doing lots of old stuff and some tracks of the latest album. The encore was another cover, this time with Kristy Lee (the support act), they did a Johnny Cash song...


It was a grrrrrreat night - so much fun and the band were so talented! I'd love to see them play again very soon.

Man With A (Spooky) Van...


This spooky beast of a van was driving up and down Myrtle Avenue last weekend with a nobody behind the wheel!!!!

(Only joking, it had a nice driver who stopped to let me take a photo)

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Bye Bye Boston...

We had a fantastic time in Boston - it was a speedy visit, but we got to see a got to see loads, and we've got a good long list of things we want to see the next time we go. We'll just have to make sure the museums are open next time!

Boston's got a really British feel to it (no wonder really) and feels so different to New York, so it was a refreshing change from the busyness of Manhattan, and it felt like a proper little holiday!

Down by the River...

We went down to the river to have a look at the Boston Tea Party Ship and museum, but unfortunately the ship wasn't there and the museum looked like it was being rebuilt from scratch!

So we had a walk round the marina instead...


There were some beautiful boats in the marina - like this speed boat that was in James Bond!


We went over the bridge to look at the big milk bottle we could see from the other side. When we got closer we found it was a little milkshake and icecream parlour (but it was shut) right by the Children's Museum...


Oliver Street...

They've got good taste in street names in Boston...


The Freedom Trail...

Marked by a red brick line, the Freedom Trail runs from the middle of Boston Common all the way into Charlestown, and goes passed some fascinating placed along the way.


We joined the trail by Faneuil Hall and walked up Union Street, and along Hanover Street - which I'm not sure, but felt like a little Italy. Full of Italian restaurants, pizza places, and pastry shops that all seemed to have loooooooooooong queues outside.

We resisted the urge to wait for a pastry and carried on following the red line towards Paul Revere's House...

 Paul Revere was the tell-tale who told everyone that we Brits were coming. He was also friends with Samuel Adams, of the Sam Adams beer fame.

We reinacted the famous 'The British are coming!' moment for ourselves in the gift shop...

 Because we were a bit rushed for time, and we wanted to see as much of the Freedom Trail as possible and then get down to the see the Tea Party Ship, we didn't go in the house (which I regret now), but it's on our list for when we go back to Boston (which we definitely will!).

The Freedom Trail then goes along Hull Street, where we walked towards the Old North Church, passed the statue of Paul Revere himself...

 By the church was a special memorial for all of the soldiers who Boston had lost to wars, it was a quiet and understated memorial, but it was pretty powerful at the same time. Each solider was represented by a silver dog tag...

 Just round the corner from the church Abi spotted a sign that said 'Printing Press' - so we went to investigate a little further. It turned out to be a man, dressed in full period clothing, using a replica of the printing press that would have been used to print the newspapers and flyers encouraging boys to become soldiers...

It was fascinating watching him apply the ink with a big spongy ball, and winding the big wheel to press down the block on top of the paper and leave an impression - making the newsletter. It certainly made us appreciate how much easier it is to print something now!


We carried on following the red brick road and the lovely brass plaques along the trail, over to the river, looking over to Charlestown. We didn't cross the bridge, as the clouds were starting to look a little gloomy and we had some other places we wanted to see before the clouds turned to rain.

The clouds looked like a tidal wave coming in!

We strayed from the Freedom Trail on the way back towards Quincy Market, wandering down some of the little side streets before getting back onto Hanover Street. Some of the houses around that area have turned a fascinating shade of green...

There were quite a few buildings that had turned this colour, we couldn't worked out what it was, it couldn't be that the whole house was covered in copper - could it?!

 We walked back passed all the shops, and passed the market...

Where there was some brass rubbish embedded in the ground...

... and then we made our way down towards the river, passed Faneuil Hall, passed Quincy Market, passed a beautiful Shire Horse and kart...

 ... and passed the Old State House...

It's another beautiful old building, steeped in history, surrounded by modern skyscrapers - unfortunately it was also closed for refurbishment. Another thing that was added to the list for our next visit to Boston.