for no reason

Hope all had a happy weekend. The day we left for Virginia for Thanksgiving I was walking up 17th St. to pick up my car from the shop when I received a call from the mechanic saying our car had been involved in a collision while there. I couldn't get mad although a bit of self-righteous wrath might really have been useful under the circumstances. I guess I've been listening to too much banjo music.

Today I finally got to the police department to pick up the accident report and while there I noticed a sign on the wall that just said "happy." I guess they found time to take "Thanksgiving" down but not the holiday modifier. When things like this accident happen one wonders what story to make up (because that is what we do all day, make up stories). I told an acquaintace what had happened and she actually took a step away from me while we spoke, demonstrating the impact of the tragic view unfurling in her mind. But here's the story that pleases me, how lucky I am. SO LUCKY! And while I'm at it, I'll take that lone and detached "happy" I saw there on the police departmnet wall, up there for no reason at all, giving to us all the "happy" that needs no reason, and the gratitude that lost its justification so long ago it doesn't even look for it anymore.

Around Astoria

I was expecting to spend all day there while my daughter auditioned to get into Frank Sinatra HS for the Arts but to my surprise we were heading back to Brooklyn by noon. And miracle of miracles, she emerged from her tests smiling and grateful for the kindness of the man who auditioned her on guitar. I think he gave her hope, and whether it is false hope or promising hope, it made her day. She'll find out in February if she is one of 40 or so NYC 13-year olds to attend the music program there.

the eye of life

My friend Joe took my breath away recently when he wrote "Life is awake and aware of your desires." I wasn't expecting that, hearing those words felt like falling through a looking glass.

My friend Joe has the best nose for garbage I have ever come across, but his sense is hardwired to compassion and not the resentment you find in most people. He's not the kind of man you go around if you love your story and the way it abuses you every day. You can find more from him here.

the coordinates of paradise

Not far from this toxic vestige of industrial mania and the ancient topography of the area's watershed medievalist Nicola Masciandaro, drawing from Dante, may help us understand how we can love so deeply something so sullied. If my intuition serves me, that is. Maybe I'll see you at the Observatory?

Meanwhile in Haiti human angels are hard at work cleaning canals. “We do the bad,” Mr. Fils-Aimé, 41, said of his work, “and maybe people won’t get sick.

fall spring

another helping

compositions

How about them caruncles?

I didn't like to think too much about the hard looks that turkey was giving me, and anyway, I was too blown away to think about anything at all besides how something like that could exist outside of Hollywood. Ok, and whether or not this is a domestic or wild turkey. Either way this bird had such a dignified presence and surprising almond-shaped liquid eye that I was overeager to feed it corn from my hand, which it pecked at fairly mercilessly. Luckily its snood kept coming between my hand and its hard, pointy beak. I was also surprised by how much this bird, which we visited at Penning's Orcahrd, reminded me of a condor. I wonder if, at some point in its history, the baldness helped to keep traces of carrion from festering on its head too. Tofurkey this year?

Orange Country Apples

We took a trip to Penning's Orchard in Warwick, NY. My children wondered why we left New York and went to New Jersey to get to somewhere in New York. The answer is we like it complicated. The drive through the forests of Northern New Jersey was an unexpected pleasure and had many familiar segments - one part near looked exactly like the road my father lives on in Virginia, a route that snakes along Passage Creek in a narrow valley between Blue Ridge upheavels. Another stretch looked exactly like a familiar place up in Maine. Everyone seemed enchanted with that road, route 23, and we hadn't even seen the apples at the end of it, the small Braeburn trees heavily loaded with the last of the season.

saturday evening

There's a meadow across from the dog beach in Prospect Park, one of only 2 feral grasslands in the park I think. The other is the butterfly meadow on top of Lookout Hill. This one's off limits, clearly distinct from the ball fields across from it. You can stand on the periphery and wonder what goes on beyond the civilized zone, especially when the low light cuts it half. It seems like times no one can remember.

mugwort tea

Good for the stomach!

Leaf Collection at the E. 4th Street Community Garden

Some call leaves "tree litter." You can too if you like! I suppose they could also be called soil if your clock is a fast one and you're thinking a few years ahead. If you are of that disposition then you might like to know that the E. 4th St. is encouraging you to bring your rakings over to their NYC leaf initiative heap. Information below. The E. 4th St. garden is East of Ft. Hamilton Parkway in Kensington.

East 4th street community garden is a designated drop off point for leaf recycling as part the the NYC leaves initiative. We invite you to bring us your bagged leaves during the dates and times posted below. Please use clear plastic or brown paper bags. No branches, twigs or trash.

Sunday 11/14: 12pm-2pm

Saturday 11/20: 11am-1pm
Sunday 11/21: 12pm-2pm

Saturday 11/27: 11am-1pm
Sunday 11/28: 12pm-2pm

wet and dry

a better day

Monday morning: cyclones whirling every couple feet, howling wind, hail I think, behavior that could pass for demonic possession in addition to tantrums and scowls.

Tuesday morning: Kids waking up singing and gorilla dancing, 13-year old playing Somewhere Over the Rainbow on the ukulele before her feet hit the floor.

Om Tare Tuttare!

Art by Nora

case study

expectations

Excursion

We drove to Long Island City for a Halloween wedding ceremony held in an old factory where electrical wiring was once made. As we sat waiting for the ceremony I was feeling so many beautiful currents run through me, but is this so surprising considering the amount of love and affection circulating through all the dearly beloved gathered there that day? It was beautiful, all the best to Mike and Molly.