Underage Chicken Smokers

I think this photo speaks for itself:

[From 50 Unexplainable Black & White Photos]

Omar Comin', Yo

[From The Quintessentially Victorian Vision of Ogden's "The Wire"]

Oyster Bay

Across the way from Sea Cliff lies the sleepy hamlet of Oyster Bay. Though known as the summer residence of Theodore Roosevelt, it was also the childhood home of the writer Thomas Pynchon and likely inspired the setting of his short story "The Secret Integration." Other notable figures associated with the area include Captain Kidd, Typhoid Mary, and Robert Townsend of the Revolutionary War-era Culper Spy Ring.


Moore's Building on a downtown intersection. Originally a humble grocery store, later the location of Roosevelt's Summer Executive Offices.




Snouder's Drug Store, for decades the location of the town social center, aka soda fountain.


Oyster Bay Harbor.


The Raynham Museum, originally known as the Townsend Homestead where the Culper Spy Ring allegedly thwarted Benedict Arnold's plot to surrender West Point to the British.









The Derby-Hall Bandstand. The base of the civil war cannon was fashioned from scrap metal taken from the USS Maine, the sinking of which led to the Spanish-American War, a subject close to Roosevelt's heart.


A house across the harbor on Centre Island, as viewed from the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Park.


Moments after I snapped this photo a seagull dropped an oyster from a great height which smashed against the pavement close enough to pelt my pantleg with shrapnel. The winged perpetrator acted like it was just a standard technique for getting the food out, but I saw the cold-blooded glint of murder in his eyes. He was hunting bigger game than oysters.


Cove Neck in the distance.


The Theodore Roosevelt Monument Assemblage. Each rock represents a chapter in his life. There were a lot of chapters.

Sea Cliff

Sea Cliff is a small picturesque village perched atop a bluff on the north shore (or "Gold Coast") of Long Island. It lies just over an hour's trainride from Manhattan. Architecture ranges from Victorian and Queen Anne to Carpenter Gothic styles. There's even a Frank Lloyd Wright hidden somewhere in the midst. Quiet and sleepy, at least in late winter, the place veritably reeks of arts and crafts.


This wasn't the first thing I spotted as I strolled into town, but I figured it deserved top billing.


I think this qualifies as a typical "painted ladies" style of architecture.


An irksome hedge.


All centers of town should be indicated by an old clock.


Hempstead Harbor.


The original wooden staircase which led down to the boardwalk was destroyed by a hurricane in 1944. The town finally got around to replacing it in 2007.


This witch tree will strangle that house one day, if the power lines don't get to it first.


At just about this spot some dude pulled up in his car and asked if I wanted a ride. I couldn't tell if he was being neighborly or creepy, but a solid Brooklyn glare took care of the situation.


This house is for sale if you're in the market. A woman indicated no sign of leaving the porch any time soon, so I stood where a tree blocked her out. Crafty, no?


The main entrance to Sea Cliff is admittedly a little impractical.


No shortage of winding roads.


When Teddy Roosevelt died in 1909 he was entombed in this tree.


The Gate to Nevermore.


Ye olde train station.

The Significant Otter

What distinguishes the 14th Street/Eighth Avenue subway station in Manhattan from all the others is the whimsical bronze sculptures of Tom Otterness, peaking out from strange corners to amuse the commuters. Titled "Life Underground," the 2001 installation was inspired in part by the 19th century caricatures of Thomas Nast published in Harper's Weekly. To me they've always suggested an amalgamation of the troublesome brooms from Disney's Sorcerer's Apprentice, Gyro Gearloose's lightbulb-headed helper, and Rich Uncle Pennybags from the Monopoly board game.

Recent Listening

Here are the recent albums that, according to Last.fm, compel me to keep hitting repeat.

PJ Harvey: Let England Shake
Darkly-bruised folk battle hymns. Her first album to really grab me since Stories from the City.

Radiohead: The King of Limbs
Lulling and hypnotic.

Sufjan Stevens: The Age of Adz
A concept album in which I have no idea what the concept is. Something vaguely apocalyptical, I figure, with all its mentions of volcanoes and ghosts. The arrangements remind me of an electronic wizard version of the controlled chaos orchestrated by Van Dyke Parks for Joanna Newsom's Ys album.

Kanye West: My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
I'm not qualified to speak for his emcee skills, but production-wise the dude knows his business behind a mixing console.

Arcade Fire: The Suburbs
You've probably never heard of them.