Standing Tall...

Gantry Plaza State Park...

This afternoon I went for a mooch around Greenpoint and Long Island City, I'd set out to go the art book fair at PS1 but I never quite made it because I got distracted by the beautiful Gantry Plaza State Park down on the river front...

The park is right across the river from the U.N. Building and has amazing views of the Manhattan Skyline - it was particularly beautiful today because I was there in that afternoon/evening sunshine time when the sun's just beginning to set...

 The last time I was down in that area the park was still being built, there were lots of metal fences up and you couldn't really walk around, but now everything's open, the trees and plants are beautiful and the grass is luscious and green.

There were lots of benches and sun-loungery type things for people to sit or lie and enjoy the view, there were little hidden seating areas in the bushes, little play areas for children, walkways along the river and piers for fishing off.

Now that the park's open, you can get right up close to the huge Pepsi sign that's there too.

The area was obviously an old boat dock, and they've managed to keep some of the old bits, like these fantastic cabins on top of some old crane type things...

It was lovely and quiet too, there weren't many people around. It was the perfect place for a sunny Sunday late afternoon, it'll be lovely to go back there soon - we were thinking we might try and get the East River Ferry there instead of the subway, we'll get some great views from that!

On The River...

Out & About...

The Global Citizen Festival...

Yesterday evening Abi and I were lucky enough to be able to go to the Global Citizen Festival in Central Park...

It was a Live Aid type concert, raising awareness of global poverty - an amazing FREE festival for 60,000 people. The line-up was absolutley amazing, a DREAM line-up, Band of Horses, The Black Keys and FOO FIGHTERS! Not only that, but Neil Young was headlining... incredible.

There were some celebrities there too, making announcements and handing out Global Citizen awards to people who have done amazing things to help fight poverty around the world. In between the bands there were inspiring (and heartbreaking) videos about the desperate situations going on around the world, there was even a video about malaria in Swaziland. Seeing that video made me feel especially sad, and made me want to go back there and do some more volunteer work.

The music however was like one big party - the first act K'Naan was brilliant, he was from Somalia and had a bit of Bob Marley about him, his lyrics were great. Then Band of Horses came on and sang a few songs, they always sound fantastic live. Then it was time for The Black Keys...

I've wanted to see The Black Keys live for aaaaaaaaaages, so where better to see them than at a concert smack bang in the middle of Manhattan. The sounded amazing, far grittier than their albums (which is good), their bluesy riffs are so catchy, they had everyone dancing around (even the two very little boys next to us, they were loving it in their pushchairs!).

There was a HUGE eruption of cheers when Mr. Grohl took to the stage. He started the Foos set with a solo version of Times Like These before the rest of the band joined in...

This was my 18th time seeing the Foo Fighters play live, I'm not sure how long I'll have to wait for my 19th time as they announced that this was their last gig for a while... hopefully it won't be too long a wait though, I want to notch it up to 20 times!

I thought we were standing quite close to the back, but through-out the night I turned around and looked back and we must have been smack bang in the middle of the 60,000 people, it looked amazing, especially as you could see the skyscrapers behind the crowd too, the bands must have had an awesome view.

It was a really incredible night - a great gig for a great cause. I think they're repeating the whole thing online, so I might watch it and see if I can spot Abi and me in the crowd!

Breaking News...

Lillies does Sausage Rolls!

The pub across the road from work (literally 15 paces door-to-door) now serves scotch eggs and deeeeeeelicious sausage rolls... I have a feeling I might need to do a wee bit more cycling at the weekends to work of the Friday treats.

Little Rumbler...

I saw this little beauty when I was out on my morning cycle the other day...

 I bet it makes a great noise!

Bright & Cheery...

Tacombi...

It's amazing what you stumble across just mooching around New York - on Sunday afternoon, Abi and I happened across a great place called Tacombi...

We felt like we were back in Mexico as soon as we walked in, it was amazing. It's a big open plan taco restaurant, serving up tacos from a VW van parked in the restaurant...

The breeze block walls were covered in brightly coloured, hand painted signs, with crates of brightly coloured drinks stacked up against the walls and rows and rows of pineapples on the kitchen shelves...

 They had metal tables and chairs, all with old Mexican beer branding on, the ceiling had strings of lights drapped across and there was a live DJ up on a little balcony playing Bob Marley... it was fantastic! 

They had all sorts of different tacos to try - too many to pick really, so we just shared a little sample platter to get a taste. Admittedly they weren't as good as the ones we'd had in Mexico, but it was lovely to remember our holiday and feel like we were in another country for a little while.

It turns out that there are two Tacombi restaurants, one in New York and the other is Playa Del Carmen - where we went in Mexico! We thought that was reason enough to go in!

I'd never seen anything like it before, having the VW camper in there was an amazing idea, you can hire Tacombi for catering and they come in the van and cook tacos for your party! What a great idea.

I think having a food truck would be an amazing job! Maybe Abi and I will pack in the design stuff and take to the roads in a little food truck instead...?

Mr. Hot Dog...

Just another Sunday afternoon in Brooklyn!

This is the 1200th post on this blog aaaaaaand Pigeon Post has official broken the 30,000 views barrier! Not too shabby a statistic.

myThread Pavillion...

Nike's Bowery Stadium isn't really a Stadium (but it is on Bowery), it's a shop unit that Nike uses for different showcase and exhibitions relating to events their involved in or new products their releasing. 

At the moment there's a special installation called the myThread Pavillion, marking the release of their Flyknit running trainers...

They're super light weight, almost crocheted looking trainers. They're made out of some fancy new material that weights next to nothing and is super flexible. So to show off their new space-age knitwear, they commissioned artist Jenny Sabin to create an installation using the flyknit technology...

It was a bit like a huge tubular spiders web, all the overlapping materials made some pretty amazing effects...

 

It's clever that Nike are doing stuff like this and showcasing their products and technology in a unique way - now that we know where the Bowery Stadium is, it'll be interesting to see what the next exhibition will be.

Out & About...

Some More Mint & Serf...