Brooklyn Royals

Do you remember the splash Duke Riley, artist and patriot, made with the Bushnell Turtle last summer? We haven't had a spectacle like that this year, the only thing that might measure up are Eliasson's waterfalls, that are sickening the trees at the River Cafe. It seems like big art always comes with a price. Big anything comes with a price. Riley got himself arrested, and his submersible didn't really submerge, but even so, the picture of the orb bobbing in the River was the olive in my martini last year. To think of something like that happening in S. Brooklyn filled me with happiness. Wondering what he's up to, I had a look at his website and didn't get much information, but saw his complicated and poetic scrimshaw pieces. What is it about scrimshaw, and who named it that?

I ran into another Brooklyn royal today, an old dog named Baron who was spending the afternoon on the stoop in front of his 9th St. Brownstone with his owner. My daughter freaked the old dog out but the owner interceded, insisting that the little one feel the dog's soft ear. Funny how it was so much like the fuzzy leaf of the mullein plant we had just felt up over on the corner. I've been wanting to see a mullein plant up close for a while, I haven't seen them since traveling interstate, they look so beautiful on roadsides, you know. I hadn't seen one in Brooklyn until this afternoon.

Thank God we didn't get lassoed into going to the playground. It's OK, but I get tired of all the prefabricated experiences people gravitate towards these days. I was spared from some of that impulse when the little one took a great interest in the elephant ear plants that hold a place in the landscaping around the 9th St entrance. Those can be very useful if you ever find yourself stuck in the park without your clothes. We also got to watch the Villa-Lobos Brothers practicing for tonight, and I heard that fiddler fiddle as dramatic changes took place in the clouds. Minutes later the roll cloud hit blowing debris in my eyes and dropping the temperature. To the North, the sky was blue and the clouds unreal.

We also watched this Jack Russell named Leo lapping water out of a can for a very very long time. What strong masculine names some of these little Brooklyn dogs have.

Happy 888! If you got to go see 88BoaDrum, don't tell me or I'll be sick with envy.