Steampunk Say What?

Not too long ago, I stumbled upon something called steampunk. I was on one of Abe's favorite blogs, Gizmodo.com, and saw this article that described how to mod an LCD monitor a la steampunk.

Well, it was cool, but I had no idea what this "steampunk" thing was so I veered off and read up about it and visited some steampunk themed sites such as The Steampunk Workshop. I had no idea steampunk existed up until this point, but I was so happy I found it because fit right in with my imagination's personality.

From Wikipedia:
Steampunk is a subgenre of fantasy and speculative fiction which came into prominence in the 1980s and early 1990s. The term denotes works set in an era or world where steam power is still widely used—usually the 19th century, and often set in Victorian era England but with prominent elements of either science fiction or fantasy, such as fictional technological inventions like those found in the works of H. G. Wells and Jules Verne, or real technological developments like the computer occurring at an earlier date. Other examples of steampunk contain alternate history-style presentations of "the path not taken" of such technology as dirigibles or analog computers; these frequently are presented in an idealized light, or a presumption of functionality.

So anyway, Abe and I went for a bike ride to Long Island City yesterday and were looking at all the new buildings. There is one called The Powerhouse LIC that I LOVE, but Abe isn't really into. I think it looks like a steampunk building from the outside (the renderings on the website don't offer enough detail to really get the feeling) and I want to move in there. I wonder how much the units are...

Then somehow I ended up at ETSY and searching for steampunk items...bad/good idea depending on how you look at it. My favorites so far...

seller: BirdzNBeez

seller: SylviaAnderson

seller: Domestickate

Officially Summer

This weekend was a pretty great "officially summer" weekend. On Friday we had a 30th birthday BBQ and party for our friend Sam. That was pretty much 100% pure hijinks and tomfoolery.

Meredith balancing a watermelon.

Kebabs. Best ones I have ever had in my life.

Cake time.

Abe being difficult while he is fitted with a do-rag.

On Saturday the Grand Street Community Band, in which I play the alto clarinet, played a concert in McGorlick Park in Greenpoint. That was really fun because it was like guerrilla music making. There were no announcement, no formal audience...we just set up shop and played marching band music. Park were confused at first, but mid-way through our program we had a nice gathering and everyone was enjoying the free live music.


Me making a "Enough with the picture taking." face even though I asked Abe to take pictures.

On Sunday I went to the beach with Abe and my cousin, Eddie. We left at 8:30am and didn't hit any traffic and left around 2 and got back to Brooklyn just before a huge thunderstorm hit. I didn't take pictures because I took myself off the clock and just allowed myself to read junkie magazines and nap. I did finally get my cousin over to help me put some new script on my website so hopefully I'll have that up and running before July.

My Walk to Work

I see some pretty weird things at 8am when I'm walking over to Long Island City to catch the 7 train. I guess a lot of it has to do with my route - I have to walk down a street with lots of warehouses and then walk below a kind-of-highway and then over a small bridge.

Strange things happen around overpasses. I used to live next to the BQE and I saw a lot of weird things happen out there while looking out my window - including seeing a person killed while riding his bike across the on-ramp to the Williamsburg Bridge, which was really sad. And I totally had a dream about that guy last night and I talked to his ghost. Weird! I just remembered that.

Anyway, I saw a box on the sidewalk this morning and inside were a bunch of cassette tapes! Now, a box of cassette tapes may not be a treasure trove to most people, but my car only has a tape deck and I drive a lot for New Yorker.

1. Linda Ronstadt Greatest Hits
2. Herb Alpert's Tijuana Brass Whipped Cream & Other Delights
3. Gloria Estefan Into the Light
4. The Soundtrack from the Film Led Zeppelin
5. Neil Diamond The Greatest Hits 1966-1992 - tapes 1 & 2
6. Gloria Loring Gloria Loring
7. Paul Anka His All Time Greatest Hits (double length cassette - ooh la la)
   

After I pocketed my collection I walked up the stairs located under the overpass to get up on the Pulaski Bridge.

There are always weird things on this set of stairs...none of it very pretty. I've seen things from dead pigeons to bottles of pee to broken glass. It's not my favorite part of the morning, but it's the quickest route if I want to get coffee before getting on the train.

However, this morning's stair surprise was a little unusual to say the least:

I'm going to guess and say that this is a pan of baked ziti with a puttanesca sauce. How this happened is anyone's guess. Why was someone was carrying a pan of ziti down these stairs between the hours of 7pm (when I was last on the stairs) and 8am? No one will ever know. The first thing that popped into my head was that a mime wearing roller skates tried to carry a stack of pasta dishes down the stairs and slipped on a banana.

My other explaination is that this set of stairs is some kind of dump for people traveling across different time warp a la Quantum Leap.

Renegade Craft Fair :: Brooklyn

Oh man, pulling off a table at a big craft fair in 2 days is not something I would want to do again. I had all my product, but there is so much more to plan out when you don't do this all the time...tablecloths, signs, price tags, credit card machines...

Luckily, I have Abe, and he's happy to help...and willing to let me lash out at him when I'm stressed and tired and just need to complain. He's also good to have around because he's tall and can reach things without standing on a chair. This came in handy on Saturday when we had CRAZY thunderstorms and had to pull down signs and merchandise in .2 seconds.

It rained so hard the water was ankle-deep and we had to close up shop a couple hours early. Luckily I didn't lose any products, but it was still a bummer.

Sunday was better - it rained for the first part of the day, but from 4-7 it was great and business was booming. Unfortunately, I didn't take photos pre-storm on Saturday so I only have post-rain on Sunday when half my booth (and everyone around me) was soggy.

Drinking beer is a great stress-reliever.

Birthdays, Gardens, and Friends - Oh My!

I am full-on crashing right now due to lack of sleep, late-night cocktails, and scurrying around town trying to get myself together for the Renegade Craft Fair this weekend.

Yesterday was my 29th birthday - whoooopeee! It was a great one - at work my co-workers totally pranked me. The owner of the company was talking to me in my office about insurance and what I was doing this weekend. Meanwhile, our receptionist, pretty much the cutest & sweetest girl I've ever met, calls me and is like "Ryan, oh my god, the bathroom is flooding and spreading down the hallway!" I like ran out of my office and my co-worker told me she was in the conference room - as I was opening the glass door I realized that they got me good. On the conference table was a ring of my favorite beers encircling 29 cupcakes - and all of my co-workers. It was so awesome. My face must have been priceless.

After work I got to open up presents from my parents (my mom sent them home with me 3 weeks ago and I've had to see them every day and not touch them!). The highlights were a stainless steel Thermos, solar-powered garden lights, and a CD of songs from the Muppets (I have a special place in my heart for "The Rainbow Connection".

Then I went out to dinner with my 5 New York best friends (I know my Boston and LA best friends would have been here if they weren't do far away!) at Nita Nita. We had a great dinner and I got some awesome presents from Mere and Colleen (I also got a an awesome rabbit book-end from Piper last week). Margot has something up here sleeve, but it's still en route from England - how fancy.

After dinner Colleen, Piper and I continued the fun at Hotel Del Amo where we indulged in some fancy cocktails and made ourselves at home in the back room for a few hours.

Today I was in the backyard and saw that my tiger lilies bloomed!! This is why I love plants and flowers so much. I bought a small container of 3 lilies last year at Wal-Mart. They were on clearance and lasted for just a week or two. I totally neglected them and just let the container sit out in the open all winter. Well, holy crap, because this spring they came back with vengeance! There are like 6 or 7 of them in the pot and they are twice as tall - and blood red!

The heat wave this week has been painful, but my seeds have loved it. I planted arugula and lettuce seeds and within a couple days I had seedlings. Awesome.