I was in the city the other night with my good buddy Skeleton Pete as our plan for the day was to attend a music showcase that was being held by WeRoqq PR and their Baltimore based band “The Perfects“. It’s always par for the course when Peter and I hit an event that we arrive in the Big Apple a little earlier to accomplish some other wanderings and also be able to get a bite to eat without feeling rushed. As we walked through the streets downtown, I had wantd to see if anything had opened in the space where my beloved Acme Restaurant used to be and while there was still a shuttered space there was also some kind of Middle Eastern cultural event taking place. Both of us are fans of some of the delectable culinary offerings from this region but the event was closing out so we would not be able to indulge. We did strike up a conversation with some of the people milling about and discovered from one chap that this same event was going to take place in a part of Brooklyn called Bay Ridge (“if I had ever heard of it” he continued). I’m very familiar with the region as its home base for PiercingMetal and a lot of my family is here which brings me to the photographs in this blog posting.
I recently updated my computer and when I was in the middle of the process I felt that it was also time to look through all of the drawers and see what other technological devices I might have lying around unused for whatever reason. The initial reason for the dig was based on my being able to return a number of old tech things to Dell for proper recycling as opposed to garbage. Here was one of the things I found, my almost two decade old Iomega Zip Drive. Though it came out in 1994, I didn’t have access to one of them until around 1996 when one of the firms I worked for used them for training demos. After using it to do some tutorials I knew I had to have one for my home and all the massive amounts of files I could now easily save.
I’ve mentioned in some of my narratives about my being almost a lifelong resident of the Bay Ridge, Brooklyn area of New York City and if I am mistaken – well now you know 🙂 The region is rich in its Revolutionary War history based on its location in the city and if you head up to 101st Street and Fourth Avenue you can see one of the areas highlights in John Paul Jones Park. The area is most affectionately known as “Cannonball Park” by residents even though that is not its name. The nickname hails from the massive Parrott cannon that stands proudly between entrances to the park and just off the main thoroughfare. I shot these images back around September of 2010 and had been meaning to share them with the Blog readers but only am getting around to it now. Since this is an ever progressing piece of life in action I don’t think anyone will mind.
Just last week Bay Ridge’s own Street Sounds Music celebrated it’s annual “Gretsch Day” and for those fans of the wonderful instruments that come care of this fine company, this was the place to be on this almost Summer afternoon. Street Sounds is cited as the world’s largest retailer of these guitars and when you see the collection they offer you as a musician you can see why this is the case. This will be the third event of its kind being held at the location and it was going to be a fun filled day of special guests, food, prizes and music. Today was also the annual Mermaid Day Parade out in Coney Island but I felt my time was better spent socializing and reporting on this event. So read on dear readers and hopefully feel like you were there with us.
Welcome To Gretsch Day @ Street Sounds
The store was decorated up for the event with signs whose bright colors welcomed all passerby. Here’s a shot of the shop owner Rocky Schiano and guitarist Paul Pigat.
Proprietor Rocky Schiano & Paul Pigat
Next up a little better view of today’s musical menu. As you can see there would be appearances by Fred Gretsch and Joe Carducci along with Miss Kim Falcon. Fred Gretsch III actually was responsible for reviving the company a little over twenty years ago and Joe is their product specialist while Kim is their official spokes model/calendar girl. Now that you know all of these details we can continue along.
A view from way up high in the sky is this visual of the 65th Street Yards which is located at (you guessed it) 65th Street in Bay Ridge. Just off Second Avenue to be exact if you were wanting to get your own peek at this in person.
The 65th Street Yards From Above
I took this while gathering with friends on the Fourth of July holiday back in 2009 and I have always wanted to use this photo somewhere. Lucky for me the blog is here to showcase this kind of stuff every now and again. This train yard was something of a wild exploration area for many of the area youths way back in the day as it was unused for many years and unkempt. There were a lot more trees and even some small pond kind of regions if memory serves me correctly. It was always fun to wander around like something out of the movie “Stand By Me” and yes I used to go down there with my friends. You always feared getting caught but there was really nothing to do down there but walk around. The far end water you see is the Narrows but no one fished out of it.
It’s been in use for a number of years now, and I guess that it is better than being a vast unused space. If I ever get the chance to go down there for the purposes of photography you will see whatever results I get right here. I promise. I did manage to get a slightly different visual recently from a lower vantage point and appended it into this posting for your viewing pleasure.
