Hitch a Ride to Rockaway Beach

Baffling seagull behavior. They stand expectantly on the edge of the shore like lawn ornaments pointed at the sea, waiting for fish to crawl onto the beach and into their hungry maw. Ah, but as the wave sweeps in they aboutface and flee in terror on frantic spindlelegs. Never expected the ocean to rise up and come for them. The wave soon loses its ambition and retreats back into the sea. Relieved at their narrow escape, the seagulls straighten their feathers and return to their post at the edge of the shore, certain the defeated wave is unlikely to attempt another sneak attack.


9/11 Memorial, Tribute Park



Neponsit is a quiet upper-middle class residental neighborhood. A little too quiet, it turns out. Seven in the evening and not a sound but crickets and the distant rush of waves. No one is coming home from work, foraging in the kitchen for dinner, watching TV in the darkened living rooms. No children play in the yards or ride in the streets. Bicycles lie discarded in the intersections, as though the riders were seized by talons and carried away. The entire town must've been evacuated in the dead of night, screen door still swinging in the breeze.


Warning: submerged objects

Sands Point

Manhasset Neck, Long Island -- or "East Egg," as F Scott Fitzgerald renamed it in The Great Gatsby. Home of the Old Money.


Castle Gould, built by the son of railroad tycoon Jay Gould. On completion, Mrs Gould didn't like it so it was converted into a stable.


The Hempstead House -- one of Fitzgerald's "white palaces glittering on the water."


Site of Gatsby-style lawn parties.


Rocco Road.


Bootleggers' Cliff.


The Long Island Sound.


Jay Gatsby wooed Daisy Buchanan on this bench. As far as you know.

Weekly playlist

The Bonzo Dog Band: The Doughnut in Granny's Greenhouse
Frank Zappa: Uncle Meat
Gilbert & Sullivan: Greatest Hits
Mike Keneally: Hat
New Order: Low-Life
Apples in Stereo: New Magnetic Wonder
Van der Graaf Generator: H to He, Who Am the Only One
Serge Gainsbourg: Histoire de Melody Nelson
Sly & the Family Stone: There's a Riot Goin' On