Who Needs the Hamptons?

F.I.B is still alive but moving kind of slow in this heatwave. I cooled off at Fort Tilden the other day. Amazing how it is located within New York City (on the Rockaway Peninsula, Queens) limits yet so ghostly, peaceful and natural. If it were not for the distant hazy skyline of Manhattan in the background, I would of thought I was on Fire Island or Cape Cod or something.
Fire Island does not have structures like this, which were built to protect New York Harbor from foreign invaders. The appearance of it amongst the greenery reminded me of that scene in "Planet of the Apes" when Charlton Heston comes across the bombed out Statue of Liberty on the beach. Although not as dramatic (not many can top Charlton in that department) Fort Tilden has that kind of vibe.The insides of these structures have been bombed with some of the best graffiti I have seen around. Everything looked fresh.You quickly forget about those last vestiges of urbanness once you get past the remains of Fort Tilden and you are left with a peaceful, natural beach. On the the late afternoon I was there, there were hardly any other humans to be found. And the few that were there were au natural.


To learn more about Fort Tilden click here.
F.I.B stayed till the sun set and found upon leaving the beach that the buildings on the grounds of Fort Tilden were no longer ghostly and had come to life. There was a lot going on! On Thursday nights the Rockaway Artists Alliance has a free open mike starting at 8pm and there seemed to be some punk rock bands getting ready to go.

And! Upon seeing some men wearing skirts it was learned that the final dress rehearsal going on for "A Funny Thing Happened on the way to the Forum" by the Rockaway Theatre company. It's playing for the next couple of weeks. Click for the schedule here. I am sorry I missed their production of one of my favorite movies, Cactus Flower! The Odd Couple is coming up next!

Hope you are all keeping cool! You don't need to be rich to go to the beach, all you need is $4.50 or a bike to get you to Coney, Brighton, Riis Park, Fort Tilden and Rockaway Beach! While the beaches at Coney and Brighton are great for people watching and eating food and drink from the various vendors (both legal and illegal), the beaches in the Rockaways offer a more calming natural experience. Also!The pools are free! F.I.B has been swimming laps at the Double-D pool in Gowanus. Click here for a full list of NYC pools.

Between the beaches, the pools, the free outdoor concerts and movies, you have no excuse to complain that you are "stuck in the city this summer!"

Take the A Train

Who needs Cape Cod?

Snapshots of Far Rockaway from inside a speeding A Train on a rainy day last week.

New York Calling Reading in Queens Tonight

Nevermind the fact F.I.B is todays guest blogger on editor of New York Calling: From Blackout To Bloomberg's blog Who Walk in Brooklyn what's also important is that it's the last stop (for now) on the New York Calling: From Blackout to Bloomberg book tour. The gang is ending up in Queens.

They rep Queens!
Brian Berger (Rockaway Beach, WWIB), Joseph Anastasio (Astoria, LTV Squad) & Kevin Walsh (Flushing, Forgotten New York) are reading TONIGHT!

WHERE?
Barnes & Noble
176-60 Union Turnpike
Fresh Meadows, Killa' Queens
(The F to 169th Street is closest subway.)November 28 at 7:30 pm

Check Who Walk in Brooklyn for more details.

Found in Queens

In today's installment of "Found in Queens" I find my mother's old hair as I am clearing out my recently departed Grandmother’s apartment in Flushing, Queens. Yup, twelve years of her hair growth to be exact. I found it at the bottom of a cedar chest in her bedroom, carefully wrapped in tissue paper. I knew these long dark blonde braids were my mothers, because, like everything else in the apartment they were labeled and dated.Ernas's Braids-Cut 1946-Age 12 Years

My mother's response to me shrieking and running into the kitchen to show her?

"Get rid of them! I couldn't wait to get those cut off so I could look like everybody else!"

One of the stories my mother would tell about her childhood in the Bronx was about getting teased and getting her hair pulled. These braids are about two feet long. Now I understand why she was such an easy target!

I've never felt disembodied human hair before. It is an eery experience to touch them. The hair feels alive, it feels like what a twelve-year-old girls hair should feel like. It’s smooth, thick and shiny. It even has a little curls on the ends.

I asked my mother, "Is this normal?" She answered,"No! Just get rid of them!"

She had absolutely no interest and barely even looked at them.

I threw them in the vintage 1960's Pan Am flight bag which was found in some other cluttered corner of the apartment. The apartment is now looking more like a "pack mouses" apartment, it is slightly less cluttered. It took me four days to clear out one small closet, two dressers, two side tables and a chest. Four days!

And, by the way, she didn't want her old dolls or just about anything else to do with her childhood, so it all got toted home to Brooklyn in the Pan Am bag.

Related posts:
Note to self:Do not be a pack rat
The Pope

Found in Queens

I took another trip out to Queens where I spent the day attempting to clear out my Grandmother's apartment with my folks. I just want to say, everything that Queens Crap says about Flushing is absolutely true. I believe it all started 20 odd years ago when U-HAUL put their giant sign in front of the old clock tower building, obscuring the clock. You see it right before you go into the tunnel to Main Street and I curse it every single time. It's criminal. It's like Flushing's bad feng-shui beacon of doom.

Anyway, as I mentioned before about the situation at my Grandmother's apartment, the woman was a total pack rat. I spent about five hours in one corner of her bedroom. it looked a little different when I left, but not much! I didn't find an unused Merv Griffin ticket like last time but interestingly enough I found a postcard of my local beer supplier Thrifty Beverage Center in Cobble Hill. It's still there on Court Street & Kane. It looks like it's from the early 1960's. I am beyond asking why she had this or anything else in her apartment. I'm imagining she probrably was in Brooklyn for jury duty and took a stroll down Court Street. She saw the Thrifty Beverage Center and just had to go in and of course bring home a souvenir of her visit!Here are some other great postcards I found. She had tons. I imagine she went to these places on weekend bus trips or something.These are two of the "Three Little Bakers", that's Nick and Hugo, Al was probrably dead at this point if you are wondering why there are only two. They scare me a little, my grandfather was pastry chef and he never felt the need to incorporate baking and dinner theater!The "Famous" Smorgasbord at Woodloch Pines Lodge in Hawley, PA!This scene looks scarey and cold, note the mean looking woman is wearing a full on coat and fur hat.And of course, The Pope! I mentioned before that I was finding newspaper clippings and photos of the Pope everywhere. Didn't matter which Pope, as long as he was The Pope. There was definitely an obsession there. I guess if she were born in a different era she would she'd be worshipping rock stars instead.