Say It Ain't So!

Tillerman says bring on the gloom, so OK, here we go with a few bars of the blues.

The Mozzarella Blues.

I made a woeful discovery on Tuesday. Not quite a tragedy (I'd reserve that word for things that happened in other places this week) but still, I set out on a mission in the fine warm weather that Tuesday brought to New York City and instead found sadness and disappointment. Auwe! Alas, alack, and well-a-day!

I brought my camera today to recreate Tuesday's trauma for you.

First, the lead-in: 

The company cafeteria was closed for an event. Nothing the in-house coffee bar and snack shop had to offer was appealing to me. I left the building trying to decide what I felt like getting at Duke's (the closest deli) and stepped out into a lovely warm afternoon. We've been having a pleasant, quiet week at the office, and it suddenly hit me that it was the perfect sort of afternoon to treat myself to a sandwich from my hands-down favorite food discovery of 2012, the long-established SoHo cheesemaker Joe's Dairy, home of some of the best danged mozzarella I've ever eaten anywhere including during a couple of summers in Italy (although I was much younger then and didn't always know what to look for). Definitely some of the best "mootz" (to borrow Baydog's term) in my area. They had fresh and smoked and both were amazing, I'd gone quite crazy for the stuff, treated myself and TQ on a fairly regular basis, took the smoked (which travelled better) along with some of the hard sausages Joe's also carried to a couple of family gatherings and other get-togethers - everybody loved it. They also sold sandwiches of a couple of varieties, sundried tomatoes or roasted peppers with fresh or smoked on great chewy rolls. Yum. That's was what I was after on Tuesday. 

And now - the photographic re-enactment:

I headed west on Prince Street and then turned right on Sullivan, approaching the shop from the south. All sorts of trendy little eateries on this block, but I hardly notice 'em. 

 There's the place - just past the gated entryway to the St. Anthony's Rectory.  Joe's Dairy! Cheeses! Hooray! All I was thinking about was which kind of sandwich should I get, and whether I should get some to take home and have for dinner, or just get the sandwich, choices choices...

 But then as the storefront came into view beyond the rectory's little "patio" -- wait -- what? -- what's this???

Closed? How? It's Tuesday! Joe's is closed on Mondays! It is Tuesday, right? Yes, yes, it's Tuesday...wait, there's a sign. Maybe this is the week they always go on vacation. Nice week to go on vacation, the week before Memorial Day, yeah, that must be it, proprietors of little mom-and-pop establishments need a break every now and then. Yes. The sign must say that they are on vacation, or temporarily closed due to some family thing...

Let's read it and find out when they'll be open again:

 Wait. What???? NOOOOOOO!!!! 

Yes, another SoHo classic gone, poof, like Las Brisas del Caribe, my old favorite Cuban hole-in-the-wall (which I was introduced to by an old favorite New Yorker - I wonder what happened to him? Nice guy, his kindness helped me through some very rough times with the kayak company and then we just sort of lost touch), long since replaced by a fancy deli that's exactly like the fancy deli half a block to the north, the fancy deli half a block to the south and the fancy deli across the street and two blocks towards Houston Street. 

The shop that housed Joe's is on a nice block in SoHo.

As I said, there are all sorts of trendy little places.

The storefront will surely be snapped up quickly by another hip-yet-cookie-cutter organic fair-trade gluten-free yadda yadda coffee shop - 

I might go there, though, if the owner is clever enough to sell sandwiches made with Joe's Dairy mozzarella. The fact that Joe's Dairy is not actually going out of business entirely, just out of retail, was the one thing I was happy to see on that sign. Looking into the closing after returning to the office with a mozzarella sandwich from a fancy sandwich shop nearby (yech, rubbery, definitely not Joe's), I read that the walk-in traffic at the shop just wasn't generating enough revenue to keep it open. That, I guess I can believe - most gourmet food places in NYC you're waiting in lines or taking numbers, here I would always walk in and be served immediately; if there was another person in front of me, they were usually a second from done with their purchase. It's lovely to not have to wait, but I should have recognized that for a bad sign. If I can figure out which local places have it, that would be a big draw for me.

For more details, visit Jeremiah's Vanishing New York.

Glad I at least found out about it before it was too late. 

And you know what? When I mentioned the closing of the shop over on Facebook,  Baydog said he could actually teach me how to make my own. Funny thing is, it was the shutdown of Las Brisas that started me cooking my own pernil, which I now do rather well, if I may say so myself. Maybe I should try my hand at cheesemaking next.

Setting the tone...

Done with my temporary spell of posts of cuteness here on the blog. Prepare yourself, soon it will be time for:

Glooooooom.

Gloom, despair and agony, even.

Still more cuteness!

OK, so tonight I am going to post a sad post, a woeful post, an alas-alack-and-well-a-day post. But first here's Lucy, who was also a factor in the high cuteness quotient at the club on Saturday. Lucy is also an incredibly nice little dog, loves people but is especially devoted to her owner Dennis, for whom she was keeping a sharp lookout when I took this shot (hence the intent expression).

That'll be it for cuteness - tonight, gloom, sorrow and sadness. FB friends may have an idea of the topic -- no spoilers in comments please!

And in case anyone missed the link the other day, here's a slideshow from Saturday's Open House. Not a big big turnout but I think everybody, both members and guests, had a good time. BTW, I've added captions now so if you're curious about any of the pictures, click on the slideshow to head on over to the gallery. Enjoy!  

More Cuteness!

Here's another photo from Saturday that I really liked. We didn't have a very big turnout on Saturday - there wasn't as much advance publicity as we've sometimes done, and then instead of the perfect weather that had been forecast (72 degrees, partly sunny, light winds) it was overcast and drizzly, which tends to make people not want to come out boating.

However this year's event did have an extremely high c.q. - Cuteness Quotient! And I think we have to thank the revivified Canoe Committee for that. With more canoes in the mix (and there were more canoes plying the Paerdegat on Saturday then I think I've ever seen out there), suddenly there's a perfect spot for the youngsters who are a little too little to keep up in a kayak - and the kids seem to love it. In fact I think it was the littlest of the three girls, the one in the blue lifejacket, who burst into tears when her first canoe trip of the day was over and it was time to get out of the big "canot du Nord" and give her paddle back (all of us on the dock were SO worried when we heard the sobs because at first we were afraid she'd gotten scared, but it was quite the opposite). Fortunately Dan Olsen, our canoe committee chair, was ready and willing to get the group back out on the water in one of our smaller canoes, and here she's all smiles again. A paddler is born? We don't know for sure but it certainly looks like a possibility. Hooray for canoes!

And to anyone out there who works on a bigger boat - happy National Maritime day. There's a very nice, if somewhat sad, post in honor of the day over on the Old Salt Blog -- I'll finish this off with a link to that:http://www.oldsaltblog.com/2013/05/musings-on-national-maritime-day-the-wisdom-of-pogo/

Happy Safe Boating Week!

I took this at the Sebago Open House on Saturday - this is clubmate John M's granddaughter getting ready to take some furry friends paddling, and our Canoe Committee chair made sure everyone was ready and safe for the trip! 

More pictures from the day here (although you've seen the cutest already): 

https://picasaweb.google.com/105942635735197164645/SebagoCanoeClubOpenHouse5182013

And more about Safe Boating Week Here:
http://www.safeboatingcampaign.com/

uh oh

pretty bad infestation there...

And here's this year's "Get 'Tooned Adults-Only No-Kids-Allowed Cocktail and Claymation" production. Penguins at 1:42, they spell out "NYICFF", the initials of the New York International Children's Film Festival (I don't think anyone would guess that out of context although people at the benefit were getting it by the "C"). Once again, great fun for a good cause. And yes, unfortunately that is my hand at 1:50, I barely finished the penguins in time and I was rushing to get the animation done!

More Fast Boats (plus schooner Arabella, and a duck)

I was feeling a bit wiped out at the end of the work day last night, so I decided to head home instead of going to Blue Drinks (hopefully there'll be another later in the summer). On my way home, though, I did loop by North Cove again, this time to see, and of course take some pictures of, the Atlantic Cup fleet (thank you Harry M. for cluing me in). A few of my favorite photos are down at the end of the writing. The big 3-masted vessel, btw, is NOT a Cup contender, that's the schooner Arabella. Not sure what she's doing in NYC but she's been here for a while (Update 5/20 - I finally found out, answer's in the comments). And the duck is a duck.

BTW, Icarus, #116, has a local connection - she belongs to the USMMA at King's Point! Go NY! 

The Atlantic Cup is an interesting 3-legged race. Two sailors on each boat and see, they stand next to each other on the dock with their arms around each other's shoulders and then they have their 2 adjacent legs tied together and...no, no, no, not really. Although that would be an interesting race too. This one's three distinctly different legs. 

From the Cup's website: "The first stage is a long offshore, double-handed leg from Charleston, South Carolina to New York City. The second stage is a sprint leg, also double-handed from New York to Newport, Rhode Island. The third and final stage will be a fully crewed inshore series raced over a weekend in Newport."  For more info, visit AtlanticCup.org. 

IDEC wasn't there but according to the website he's still here on standby - maybe Joyon decided to take some friends sailing or something, it was a very pretty evening and maybe it's fun for a singlehander to occasionally have other people on board.

Here are my favorites from last night's pictures - it was an excellent night for picture-taking, too, the late afternoon light is always pretty and when you get lucky enough to have a large black cloud that's passed by and is to the east, stuff just glows. Didn't actually storm this time as far as I know, but it sure looked dramatic!

BTW, I have again put all the text at the top, here, nothing more to read, so you can just click on the first picture to get the much nicer slideshow view. Enjoy!

Really Random: Blue Drinks, Separated at Birth, IDEC in Motion, The Village Penguins, and Sebago's annual Open House

1. Blue Drinks! 


D'oh! Once again this done snuck up on me, there's another New York City Watertrail Association Blue Drinks waterfront social evening on the barge at Pier 66 TONIGHT!  These are always fun - I don't know if I'm going to make it tonight as I'm an antisocial butterfly having a social butterfly week & last night's event (claymation yay!) ran late - but I did at least want to spread the word. 6 pm, $20  donation includes 1-year NYCWTA membership, one drink (doesn't HAVE to be blue) , and a tide wheel (nifty device and very useful for trip planning). Click here for more info. 


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2. Separated at Birth?

Pandabonium at Sweet Bluesette wants to know if IDEC is based on a Klingon Qlb'etlh-class Battlecruiser. Well, what do you think?

Image found on the Scifi-Meshes forum.

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3. IDEC in Motion:

When I posted some of my IDEC photos on Facebook, my friend Harry M. shared this video, which I loved. These guys have a way of looking like they're doing 15 kts when they're tied to a dock - seeing 'em in action is fantastic.

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4. Village Penguins:

As I mentioned briefly in the Blue Drinks piece, last night was the New York International Children's Film Festival's 3rd annual Get 'Tooned No-Kids-Allowed Cocktails and Claymation benefit. I haven't managed to do any stop-motion stuff on my own since the Origami Bunny Dance, but I have a great time going and joining the folks at the fabulous NYICFF for this annual fundraiser. The first year I made a seal, the second I made a tiger -- this year I got ambitious and made an entire flock of penguins! The theme was At the Disco so of course the penguins are dressed up and end up spelling out "NYICFF" Village People style. I was joking about going for quantity instead of quality this year but they actually came out pretty cute.

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5. Last but definitely not least - Sebago Canoe Club's annual Open House is this coming Saturday! The club will be open from 10 am to 4 pm and there will be public boating all day long. We'll have kayaking, canoeing and sailboat rides; the trips will mostly on the Paerdegat Basin although the kayak trips may go take a look at the bay, depending on conditions and the ability of all the participants in any given group. The forecast looks lovely, partly sunny, high of 72, and light winds, should be a fine day on and by the water. You need to be able to swim (don't need to be Mark Spitz, we have lifejackets but you should basically be comfortable with being in water), but no boating experience is necessary, all equipment provided, just be ready for fun and dress to get wet. Mostly people don't fall in but you WILL get a wet backside in a kayak or a Sunfish, that's just how they are. We're on Paerdegat Avenue North in Canarsie. For full details, visit www.sebagocanoeclub.org.  

IDEC - A Baker's Dozen of a BIG FAST BOAT.

Here is the IDEC, waiting at North Cove. Isn't she something? Main regret from photo session - I got very tongue-tied when M. Joyon came up on deck, maybe if I had shouted out "Good luck!" he would have waved at me, and what a terrific picture that would have made! Ah well. Beyond that, for once in my bloggerheic (ha ha ha) life, I have nothing  to add. Click on the first picture and view in the slide-show set-up. Enjoy. 

IDEC arrives in NYC - Francis Joyon would like his record back, s'il vous plaît

As usual, click on the picture for a better view.

The singlehanded Trans-Atlantic speed record, that is. It was his from 2005-2008. He's here to try to get it back - and by sheer luck, I happened to catch his arrival.

Yes, it's another one from my Statue series taken at the Waterfront Museum on Sunday afternoon. Not the best picture I've ever taken but I suspected this boat was one of those fabulous ocean-going speed machines when I spotted it and I figured this one was likely to be in town for something interesting -- when this kind of boat appears in NY Harbor, it's generally for one of two reasons: a race, or a record attempt. I tossed this out on Facebook yesterday asking if anyone knew who she was and why she was here. Dan K, a trimaran man himself, immediately named the vessel as the racing trimaran IDEC. I remember enough of my high-school French to pick out the answer to the "why" half of the question without resorting to Google translate - IDEC is single-handed by Francis Joyon and yes, he's here to try to get back the single-handed Trans-Atlantic crossing record that he'd gotten in 2005 and then lost to Thomas Coville aboard the even BIGGER trimaran Sodeb'O in 2008 (story from that day here).

IDEC is supposed to be waiting for her weather window at North Cove Marina (although Capt. Michelle, one of my friends from my schooner-crew days, mentioned that Joyon was going to anchor out last night due to high winds making getting a boat with a 60' beam in through the can't-be-much-wider entrance to that marina too dicey to try). I will have to take my camera to work tomorrow and see if I can get some better shots - to this day I'm still regretting the fact that I didn't happen to have a camera along the day I was lucky enough to visit Sodeb'O when she was awaiting her crossing. She was actually waiting at the Gateway Marina in Dead Horse Bay, just outside the Marine Park bridge that spans the mouth of Jamaica Bay.

I hadn't heard about the attempt, I just happened to take my surfski out for an afternoon spin on a quiet day and as the marina came into view, I spotted this enormous beast towering over the rest of the sailboats there. Had to go see. I was able to paddle right up to her, too, between her hulls and everything. Amazing, but only recorded in my own memory! View from the sidewalk around North Cove may not be quite as unique as that kayak's-eye view, but it's always fun to see these things up close. Hope to have more to share before too long! 

And another Statue from Red Hook picture -

A jam-packed Schooner Adirondack by the Statue of Liberty, taken a couple of hours before the sunset picture, same location (Red Hook, outside the Waterfront Museum, where I ended up going to see Moby Dick Rehearsed after the combination of high winds in the forecast and a rainy-day-popcorn-related thumb injury caused me to scratch all boating plans for the day).  For yesterday's winds, gusting into the low 30's, they went with one jib and a reefed main. They must have been having a blast out there! :D

Tonight's Sunset

 

Taken at the Waterfront Museum in Red Hook.

The Mussel Hunters

Wow. Might even be scarier than hunting walruses in tiny boats. But it must be beautiful under there.

Thanks for sending, Harry

What the frock?

Here is a thing I never imagined myself saying on social media:

"So the other day, I found myself irresistably drawn into the Prada shop on Broadway".

Only it happened. Because SPARKLY. "Dressing Gatsby", an exhibit of costumes from the upcoming movie, is on display there, and today I went back with a camera. I'm mostly not wildly interested in fashion of the ordinary sort, but this? Ooooh. Above and beyond. As usual, click for details.

 

PS - unusual though this may seem, this is not the first time flapper style has been featured on Frogma. Remember her?

Sewage Discharge Right-to-Know Law - More News Worth Sharing!

Good news for boaters and swimmers about sewage releases - as of today New York State Law requires that when sewage is released into the waterways, the public be notified about it quickly. 

 Click here for Riverkeeper's blog post (thanks for forwarding, Prof. M!).

 Click here to read the legislation.

Combined Sewage Outfalls, commonly known as CSO's, are an unpleasant fact of life for us NYC boaters and swimmers. There are a lot of people living in this town, and the sewage systems handles both the wastewater from our homes and businesses and natural rainfall. On an ordinary day most of our local waterways are swimmably clean, but the system is only set up to handle so much sewage at a time and when we get a bad rainstorm, the excess ends up going straight into the estuary. This isn't an entirely uncommon occurence, either. When I was first learning to paddle at Manhattan Kayak Company, I think I was told that it was a good rule of thumb to stay right-side up if there had been anything close to an inch of rain in the previous 24 hours; a string of rainy days could have the same effect. If it had been pouring for a few days straight the deterioration of the water quality became noticeable enough that you wouldn't want to go in but there are levels of contamination that you need testing to detect but still pose a health hazard.

Much more drastically, though, a couple of years ago there was a huge spill caused by a fire at the 125th street sewage treatment plant - it was in late July, it was hot, it had been pretty dry and there was all sorts of recreational boating activity going on. Those people all found out much later (anybody reading this remember how long it took? I'm tossing this up quickly at work - I think it was at least the next day that the word got out, right?) and that really focused people's attention on the lack of a proper system of notice.

Hopefully the new law will help. Seems like progress.

Another good thing that came out of that July 2011 mess was a citizen's water  testing program that the New York City Watertrail Association kicked off. The city maintains a site that shows water quality at the swimming beaches when they're open but that doesn't include anything except the Rockaway Peninsula, the south-facing beaches of Brooklyn and Staten Island plus a few on the Sound side of the Whitestone Bridge - the entire borough of Manhattan is a big blank to them and a lot of the local paddlers got involved in doing their own testing after that -- you can read more about that on the "Water Quality" tab at NYCWatertrail.org. 

Pegasus - Pretty Much Pau!

"Pau" meaning "finished" in Hawaiian. There she pretty much is! As usual, click for detail. 

Funny thing is that finishing sort of snuck up on me. I'd messed around with this some last night and then I got home tonight, looked at it and it suddenly hit me - holy cow, I'm almost done!

There are a few really minor things I could still mess around with. Like the happy trees are missing (only half kidding, there are trees along the waterfront here). But mostly it's done. Not perfect but not bad for winging it, right? This really was the most complicated thing I've ever tried doing with paint. It would be fun to take a lesson sometime - actually I think the Brooklyn Botanic Garden has classes sometimes, not that I have a whole lot of free time or anything but now that I've muddled through this it would be neat to go see how you're really supposed to do it.

Had fun with this though!