MacDougal Cat

Street Scene

Below Canal

Cloud Fun

A cloud wisps by the tallest building in New Jersey (located on the west bank of the mighty Hudson River across from lower Manhattan).

Graffiti Man

From Alphabet City in Manhattan...

Composition with Port Authority

Near 8th Avenue on 42nd Street in Manhattan...

Silver Mermaid Parade

Coney Island celebrated its 25th Annual Mermaid Parade on Saturday. Fantastic weather, too. Upper 70s and breezy...perfect! Scroll down for some highlights.



Shell mates!



I suppose when you've been to many mermaid parades, you get jaded and don't flinch when the tassles appear.



Moments before the start of the parade, mermaids happily capture some memories of their own.

Little Man Mermaid

Today, I made the journey via the D train to Coney Island to check out the 25th Annual Mermaid Parade. Come back tomorrow for more fun.

Pride

A scene from Park Avenue South in Manhattan...

Wall Flowers

Hanging on the outside of the Cooper-Hewitt NATIONAL DESIGN MUSEUM, these "flowers" can brighten anyone's day.

Little Man Greenie

The little man scoots down a side street as I distract Big Greenie on Madison Avenue.

McCarren Park Cloud

A puffy cloud floats over McCarren Park Pool in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

Carpet Man

You may remember this fellow from such television shows as THE SOPRANOS. The figure appears in the opening sequence of the show, as a cigar-smoking Tony Soprano drives by many interesting places on his way home from The City.

Wilson's House of Carpet is in Jersey City, NJ, under the Pulaski Skyway.

Burned Car

Sunday morning in Manhattan's TriBeCa, I came across this parked car. It almost looked normal from the SIDE but not so much from the front, as you can see.

Some of you may think this happens on an hourly basis in NYC. Well, it really doesn't...at least not in Manhattan. So, drive on in but make sure you have your insurance in order, just in case.

Graffiti Flora

I delight in transient things. Recording what will soon disappear seems like saving bits of time. Here, in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, we have graffiti on a temporary wall with a vegetation chaser. Nature and creativity tend to always find a way to thrive, if for only fleeting moments.

We, ourselves, are transients. Our hopes and plans and loves--our very lives--all have their time limits. So, let's enjoy the transient things in the "stop and smell the roses" kind of way. Enjoy or miss out...

Happy Father's Day!

Busy

So, I'm on the street and as I see this shot beginning to line up, I look to make sure I would have space on the sidewalk to stop for a photo op. No problem. I then turn on the camera and concentrate on framing the shot.

From out of nowhere, a woman steps to me with a flyer. Without hearing much of her rap or really seeing her, I said firmly, "I'm busy." Thankfully, she left me alone after that. But puh-leez! Why interrupt someone obviously all involved in something, especially if you then want them to do something for you? Give me a break!

James sailed...

Here's looking at you, kid!

King George's Flag

Happy Flag Day! ...and Happy International Weblogger's Day !

Here we see the flag of England's King George the Third. The yellow flag is New Jersey's state flag. See these flags and more at Liberty State Park, across the Hudson River from lower Manhattan.

No ESB

You may recall THIS VIEW from previous posts. A hazy afternoon gives us a pre-1930s version of Manhattan--a skyline without the Empire State Building.

All you have to do is cross the Hudson River to enjoy this vantage point.

Blocked Shot

New York City's SoHo--so many people every where you look. I photograph them, too, as you know, but , if it's a mural I want to get, I might wait for people to walk by before I snap the shutter.
.
..and then, I humbly submit "the happy accident". Just as the shutter snaps, the bicycle man swooshes through the frame. The blocked shot! He makes it or mars it.

Last second additions often wreck everything. This time, though, you gotta love that splash of red collage element, a sort of physical graffiti, if you will.

[produced on Broome Street]

Photo 365

This 8th Avenue, Manhattan scene becomes the 365th posted photo of the current Blog Year*. Thank you for visiting.


* (New York Nitty-Gritty began August 3rd, 2005).

Figment

For only an instant, the shadow lives. The cosmic ballet continues!

Mr. Poppins

The negative has many online venues but where do you look for something positive? With this question in mind, a fellow blogger, Neobluepanther, chose to start Blog Your Blessing Sunday. Each participating blogger posts about something positive in their life--you guessed it, on Sunday. In only a few months, the number of participants continues to grow.

For Neo, "Mr. Poppins", I dedicate this post. This nickname came from an intended insult by haters who found Neo's blog a bit too "sunny". For me, the name sticks as a badge of honor. These days, we can easily find lude rants and base content peppered throughout the blogosphere. Why not let a little sun shine in? At Neo's suggestion, at least for one day, a paragraph or two can get set aside to blog about something uplifting.

Thanks, Mr. Poppins, for showing the way. Indeed, a spoon full of sugar helps the medicine go down...

My Loaf

[scroll for another]

Billi Kid

From Alphabet City, Manhattan...

Little Man

The little man strides by 31st Street on Eighth Avenue in Manhattan.

Urban Tree

A tree grows on the sidewalk of West 46th Street in Manhattan--featuring old gum spots on the sidewalk and tossed cigarette butts for good measure.

Hot Child

No one knows who she is or what her name is
I don't know where she came from or what her game is

Hot child in the city
Hot child in the city
Runnin' wild and lookin' pretty
Hot child in the city

So young to be loose and on her own
Young boys, they all want to take her home
She goes downtown, the boys all stop and stare
When she goes downtown, she walks like she just don't care, care

Hot child in the city
Hot child in the city
Runnin' wild and lookin' pretty
Yeah
Hot child in the city

[ all apologies to Nick Gilder, HOT CHILD IN THE CITY ]

MINDFREAK!

Near Times Square, the MINDFREAK!, Criss Angel, performs a Houdini-esque stunt. He will escape from a cement-filled glass cube this morning or fall to earth in a dangerous crash. Here we see the cube or CEMENT BLOCK suspended from a crane as I saw it around 6 PM yesterday.

The new season of his show begins tonight on A&E. Are you ready??

Poppins Missing

Almost every time it rains here, you will see broken umbrellas. On the sidewalks, in the streets, inside trash cans, the broken and abandoned umbrella is a rainy day in NYC icon.

Sometimes, seeing the umbrella carcass makes me wonder if Mary Poppins didn't make it this time. I like to think that she did.

Mister Softee

You can't have summer in NYC without Mister Softee. Sure, you have your Kool Man, too, but that's another story. This one goes out to all the Mister Softee trucks serving the 5 boroughs and beyond. Gentlemen, start your engines!!!

STROMBOLI PIZZA

Two great things together on one sign...can "Chocolate Peanut Butter" be far behind?

Donder Wetter

Okay, so, no, we didn't have thunder. Not much anyway. But you can almost hear it, looking at this, no?