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.
Welcome to another adventure in the Kitchen With Ken and this time around I was in the mood for something akin to fish tacos. I’ve long been a taco fan but only ever had a fish taco when I went to an area McCormack and Schmidicks restaurant for their Happy Hour. The particular concoction from the kitchen of PiercingKen is probably only a fish taco in name based on the overall difference. The rationale behind this was to use some stuff in the fridge so it would not go bad and had a little bit of an idea to make my own little treats. So wash your hands and help out as I take you through this one, I promise to be brief since this was on the easy side. You will first need a small pan to bake some of our fish products in.
The other day while adventuring around the city on the way to the Book Expo America, my buddy Skeleton Pete and I saw a literal caravan of teenagers who were carrying and handing out cookies no less. This was apparently a promotion from one of the nearby hotels and they were having a blast of a time surprising the New York City workaday travelers with their offerings. Some were shouting and others singing and it was all in the name of the cookie. Not a bad way to get some attention. This was truly a great way to start the day and I made sure to secure my cookie in my bag for later consumption. I figured that it was better to be able to enjoy it while sitting down and relaxing after a hopefully productive day of journalistic tasks.
The band of merry travelers of the cookie actually handed me a couple of them, and I was not going to argue about this at all. It’s packaging was appealing to the eye and spirit and cited that “stressed spelled backward is desserts”. Talk about your level of Socratic wisdom. Once home, I did open it up to let you see just how well it was baked. It was a chocolate chip cookie and it had a lot of chunks of the stuff which is something I always prefer at the end of the day. As you can see by the image below, this was a very sizable treat and I used a penny to give you a sense of scale. Don’t worry I didn’t eat the penny in case you were wondering about that.
I’m sorry if this made you jealous but it really was not my intent. I only felt like sharing this small bit of good fortune with you readers. It sure was tasty though. Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.
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.
