New York Fall Round Up and Almost Halloween

The artist Berch has decorated windows in Chelsea for years.

These are a few of this year's Halloween selection at the RailLine Diner.

Speaking of diners -which I love - one of my favorites is called EAT HERE NOW.

An excellent suggestion - so I did. A splendidly unhealthy lunch - but how delicious!

The diner is in the east 60's on Lexington Avenue and is slightly below street level so you see all the traffic zooming by. The waitress is from the Ukraine but looks like someone Manet painted long ago.

I do love public transportation. But you do need to be patient.

You need to be even more patient on the bus - but you do get to meet  people. This is a very chatty woman who took me for a tourist. She hoped I had a nice visit in New York and said New York people were friendly even if they didn't seem like it at first. She is the only person in the city I have seen sporting a Trump button. I did not discuss politics.

Then on to Union Square where there were.....

squash and pumpkins

 and astounding pumpkins

Here is a horse near Union Square who was having a snack.

Here is a very small cauliflower sitting for its portrait on a plate I bought in Italy in 1971.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Subway Series

Was heading down to Soho this morning.

and discovered that the subway seemed a very popular place to sleep.

The end of the line was about four stops on so I expect they woke up then. 

In the photos the metal rails look like the intestines of a prehistoric fish ....sort of.

Anyway, we get to Spring Street

and emerge into the light

where I see a very jolly Christmas dress

 (which I do not buy since I doubt I would look good in it)

and pretty jewels in another window. I buy rubber weather

 boots and a bar of soap and some other things

 which I will not mention since the recipients

 have been known to read this blog.

A child sleeping in the subway

and another child in a jolly hat heading somewhere nice, I hope.

Things that Go

A rather usual sort of day..... subway downtown.

A walk in the new park at the end of 23rd Street

and a visit to the Museum of the American Indian in the former custom house at One Bowling Green which used to be a custom house. Here a mural makes the Hudson look much busier than it does today.

My main blog is now here 

Subway

Everyone looks rather bored hanging about waiting for the train.

The only solution, really, is to eat stuff.

Abstracty Things and Some Food

Heading uptown to MoMa, a rather patriotic train.

More red and stripes on the escalator at 54th Street. We are 

lucky Claudia works for a museum and we can bypass

the horrible long lines with a gazillion, poor, patient people

waiting to get in. I feel a bit guilty but even so.......

 

The building almost always impresses me more than anything else.

Such angles and vistas. We go to the Ensor show which is quirky

 and batty and made me think of the work of David Shrigley which

 I love in its utter insanity. Ensor lived in his parents' attic for 

many, many  years...........hm..............

Anyway, any good museum visit brings on a desire for snacks,

so we went to one of their cafes high up overlooking the garden

where the croissant was perfect: crispy outside and light inside.

Cultural Heritage: Bohemian Beer Garden, Queens

All good New York journeys begin on the subway...

where I spy a Bohunk heading to Queens in search of beer. 

(You can recognize them by their large hands.)

Astoria Boulevard has shadows for Shadow Shot Sunday.

You can tell we are entering central Europe by the bar signs...

and the oompah band

and little girls in lovely costumes

and lots of people eating pork and sauerkraut and dumplings

and poppy seed cake

and dancing....

and drinking Pilsner Urquell or even water.

Distressed

High winds this morning billowing the blue tarps on the new building opposite. 

Performance art at its best.

The subway map on the C and E lines is now an example of altered art . 

Transmuted into something entirely new.

Near Pearl Paint on Lispenard Street the graffiti has reached the higher echelons of palimpsest--or something...

An altered movie poster. Also Lispenard Street.

Another New York art form: the appalling tabloid headline.

Poor A-Roid

A-Fraud

Etc etc. 

Serenity at last in Soho.

Shadow Shot Sunday/ Mostly Transportation

Underneath 'the el' - elevated railway/subway line.



Very typically Queens.



A different shot of the subway train - when it's above ground.



Lower Manhattan with lots of shadows cast by tall buildings.



The stunning letters of the Staten Island ferry.
Tip to visitors: the ferry is FREE and there are no waits to get on and stunning views of the harbor.

Orange/Queens

Having said I didn't like orange, I have to admit it has a certain in-you-face charm.



We went to Queens by subway yesterday to look at stone for a counter top.
Needless to say, the seats were orange.



In fact the whole subway experience was orange.



When we eventually found the marble/granite warehouse we noticed a whole list of safety regulations on the walls. For example: no open toed shoes/safety goggles at all times. These were completely ignored. Obviously, we were not crushed to a soggy pulp, though it was an ever present possibility.
Having escaped death, we needed lunch. Queens has amazing ethic possibilities. We checked out the Czech place (pun.hahha) since R's heritage is Czech and we have never been there. The pink wall was attractive but the lunch choices very heavy for a hot day.
In the winter perhaps?
Since we were in Astoria we had Greek stuff instead.



Getting back to Chelsea on the subway meant a change at 42nd Street and a fairly long underground (beastly hot) hike.
However, this was enlivened by mosaic murals.
I was especially taken by the attentive dog in this one.



Here they are doing something constructive but some how the man in the middle looks as if he is using crutches.