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| All Photos: © S. Banos |
I was on a mission- find the bar I had accidentally encountered one long hot summer's day in Greenpoint on a rather prolonged walk from Williamsburg (Brooklyn) to LIC (Queens) via the Pulaski Bridge. I knew the approximate area but...
Anyway, long story short, I was walking about taking note of all the latest tributes to gentrification writ large and small, when from a distance I saw the most surreal stone visage lording over its marbled domain. Hoping to get close enough take a decent photo, I noticed there were actually two imposing colossi of classical yet seemingly alien hybridization, and that the gates were wide open- I apparently had the entire area to roam free and unmolested (more like tentatively squeeze through the giant stone slabs, hoping they didn't collapse unnoticed upon me and become my own marble tombstone)! If only gentrification was a guarantee of such splendid surprises- instead of the monied banality it usually yields...
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| Much thanks to Dave Reichert for the tough love in editing, the first photo proved particularly problematic- considering my admittedly limited color/software skills. My "original" version proved an exercise in embarrassment of world class proportion! |
It was a most magical interlude on my sojourn to reconnect with what I would soon come to know as The Achilles Heel, a place I could readily visit every day of the year. Within it's Depression Era, unfinished wood interior (unlike so many a newly minted "authentic Irish Pub" with multiple 90in TV screens), one could easily imagine oneself in any of the first four decades of the century past. Beer in belly, I continued unto LIC for a very nice (and free) encounter with PS 1, currently celebrating it's 40th anniversary with free admission to all NYC residents (still got me NY Driver's License). I hadn't been there in a good decade, and it was certainly good to see it still retained it's playful yet challenging attitude toward art in general. A most validating end to a most validating day in NY indeed...
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| @ the foot of the Pulaski Bridge |
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