Small Town America: Café Land

Cafe table with Guinness

There were not a lot of opportunities for me to people watch and gaze at the scenery growing up. The cul-de-sac lifestyle of the typical track home, split ranch 70s suburb did not afford such luxuries, nor were those types of charming little spots easily accessible. Petty battles over cars, gas usage, and mileage became standard teenage fare, as a means of exerting control and drawing turf lines. 

Fortunately for me, I love to walk, and I can adapt to most mass transit schedules, but I still didn't know the good places to go, because I didn't have the freedom to roam and explore. Now that my family has switched up locales, I'm enjoying the small town experience a lot more as an adult. There's much to be said for living within range to a town with amenities. You see more, you exercise more, you live a little more. It's a great way to go when the world doesn't pass you by in a blur of speeding images.

For many of us, we moved to the city after college simply to have access to a better lifestyle, because the rural 'burbs can be hard for many people who live an active life, and also love fine dining. Driving a car after hoisting a few is certainly not the way to go, and designated driving is one of those ideas that sounds good in theory, but doesn't pan out in real life. I hope you find some time this weekend to safely stop and smell the roses, or a bouquet of the finest. Slainte!

Nature: Bunny Rabbits!

Rainy day, young bunny rabbit

Two adorable young rabbits have taken up residence near the dwelling where I currently reside, and it couldn't be more charming. Both had short little "bun bun" ears (Yes, I do squeal to no one in particular when I see them, "BUN BUN!") when I arrived, which have lengthened and scarred as they aged over several weeks. A larger bunny developed a tear lengthwise, and another has a small indent on its' previously perfect baby ear. 

Neither seem afraid of humans or cars or artificial noises, proving that nature becomes infinitely adaptable despite human encroachment. One night as we watched them rest close to us, cleaning, grooming, and almost sleeping as they pressed into the ground, it was a comforting thought to turn over in my mind, sitting on the balcony: that nature endures and always prevails, one way or another.

Small Town America: Cow Towns

http://www.deephollowranch.com/

I came across an article in a travel magazine the other day that I wanted to share with you, the reader, because I found it so interesting. It's contrast lies in direct proportion to the typical American myth that cowboys only live somewhere Out West, where the desert is dry and tumbleweeds blow, and men ride on horseback wearing big ten-gallon hats, squinting through the dust à la John Wayne. Not so.

The first cattle ranch was established in 1658, and it lies on the eastern tip of....wait for it... LAWNGUYLAND! That's Long Island, for those of you outside of the tri-state area. It's called Deep Hollow Ranch, and it still functions as a ranch, though mostly in horses, way out in Montauk. 

For those of you who want to grove to the beat of a horses' hooves, 
it really can be as easy as a drive on the L.I.E., or as we fondly call it, The Long Island ExSTRESSway, because the traffic is so bad, that if you weren't in sore need of a vacation before you set out, you sure as hell need a cocktail (or two, or three, or four) and some beach time at the end of your ride to get out there.

Hmm. On second thought, maybe you are better off taking your chances on a dude ranch somewhere in the middle of nowhere. The accents will be just as hard to understand, anyway. Write me if you go horseback riding at Deep Hollow, or even better, send me pics.  
Enjoy, New York!

A Walk in the Park: Kennedy Dells

Mushroom Tree

One of the nicer aspects of any homecoming is revisiting those areas we have fond memories of. 

I discovered Kennedy Dells Park years after I moved away out of sheer necessity. My very large and energetic Malamute anxiously needed lots of space for his urgent morning walk, and like any harried parent, I rushed to the computer for an online search of just such nearby places in Rockland County.

Out of the woods

Growing up in New City, I mostly hiked the Harriman State Park system because of its' close proximity and enormous intersection of trails; infamous, historic ones at that, like The Appalachian Trail and The Long Path, overlooking nearer spots, or maybe this park just wasn't around at the time. Whatever the case, I come back to this place time and again throughout the seasons, and I'm always struck by the beauty of New York's wooded paths, with its' variety of nature so close at hand.

Field of green

Path through the thicket

I honestly had my heart set on hiking High Tor State Park yesterday, but it was closed. More on that trip later in the summer. In the meantime, here's some of the wild lush beauty I saw on Memorial Day, so alive and teeming with growth, that the very vines seemed to grow before me, like magical apparitions out of a child's fable.

Nothing but blue sky and fields to roam

The happy hiker

It was the perfect Spring day: warm and sunny but not hot, cool in the shade without a chill, and a bright, crisp, cloudless blue sky overhead. Add in the burger and fries I had, followed by a hot fudge Sunday, and you've got one healthy slice of the American pie. That’s the kind of day it was.

Treeline and sky

Small Town America: Nyack Memorial Park

Nyack Memorial Park, Memorial Day Weekend 2013

Hello, Readers! This weekend may have begun cool and rainy, but it ends with something grand: the remembrance of heroes past. I started practicing Tai Chi Chuan again, here in this beautiful park (weather permitting) and at the end of class, our venerable Lao Shi (Teacher), told us that it is a law for Americans to take a moment of silence today at 3:00 pm for our vets. 

Of course, no one will come to your house and arrest you if you don't, representing another brilliant, beautiful part of our shared American experience: freedom. Oftentimes, I make work about the inequities and flaws within our system, but it is always done with the greatest of love. 

I believe that our society and government represent the ultimate experiment ever endeavored in the history of the human race: the quest for a true equality. That's certainly something worth fighting for, don't you think? All of us living together in relative harmony, here on Earth. It's a lovely thought, and a worthy ideal. Peace! Osu!

Small Town America: Memorial Day

We cherish, too, the poppy red
That grows on fields where valor led;
It seems to signal to the skies
That blood of heroes never dies,
But lends a lustre to the red
Of the flower that blooms above the dead
In Flanders Fields. 

 

excerpt from We Shall Keep the Faith, Moina Michael, November 1918

Small Town America

I thought the traditional kick off for summer here in America, this weekend's upcoming Memorial Day holiday, served as a great time to introduce a new series of mine called Small Town America. 

I've recently relocated back to the county of my childhood, which is Rockland County, a mostly inconvenient NYC suburb that still retains some of the farm roots it had when we first moved here as a young family from the city. 

It wasn't always easy to be a curly-haired artist in these here parts, but growing up in this beautiful country planted within me a love for the rural, wild, natural beauty of upstate New York that remains undiminished for me as an adult. 

I'm looking forward to seeing the towns and lands of my youth through the eyes of mature, seasoned artist for the fruits that it may bear. Stay tuned! There’s more to come.

White building with flag.

Around Town: Clouds and Haze

A storm front moving in from the lower Catskills.

For the people of Oklahoma.

Small Town America: Hitchin' a Ride

Bus stop reflection

I love road trips by car, bus, or rail. As a result, I feel comfortable using mass transit way more than your average, car-obsessed American. I like looking out the window at the scenery, or maybe taking a few pictures, or listening to music, or just thinking (or not), which is easy to do when someone else is doing the driving.

Thumbing it for the camera

I grew up in a suburb that is mass transit-challenged, because it serves mainly as a bedroom community for city workers. In the morning and the evenings, hopping on a bus or a train is great because it's quick and easy, but other than those specific times, you have to wait for the slow bus that ambles up to the stop on country time.

On one such day, I took pictures and danced around to pass the time, because in the burning daylight of a noontime bus stop, there ain't much else to do.

  Happy trails to you, today.

Around Town: East River

The Williamsburg Bridge

Fisherman

Around Town: Hawthorne in Bloom

Happy Mutha's Day, New Yawk!

Sometimes it's best to stick with the classics. For the residents of Pearl River, N.Y. who saw me at CVS yesterday, reading cards aloud to my mom, welcome to my life. This. Is. Real.

One Flew by the Cuckoo's Nest

Creeping vines, at the Rockland Psychiatric Center

This is a series of images I shot during a bus commute to and from New York City. One circuitous route takes riders through the Rockland Psychiatric Center, a facility that has a large abandoned portion of its' campus, most likely due to modern health care cutbacks. Talk about the heebie jeebies! It's a weird scene, man.

Long shadows, at the Rockland Psychiatric Center.

Like something out of a horror movie, even in the sunny light of day, there's empty building after empty building. We stopped at the end of one such block, and two riders got on, jabbering nervously about their latest bout of nerves, the more frightening being a skinny, stringy-haired woman with black roots and peroxide hair who reeked of stale smoke. What nightmares these buildings must elicit from some poor soul, brutally tired from a trying nighttime commute home after a long, hard week at work! I hope I captured the haunted feeling of the ghosts of restless spirits past. What a truly creepy place.

Around Town: The answer is love

Love is the answer

Art: The Scream

The Scream, at MoMa.

Edvard Munch was mental, y'all. I got that right away looking at his work up close for myself, and frankly, I'm tired of the whole crazy artist schtick. Maybe back in the day it sold tickets to the freak show but honestly, me and my friends could not perform at the level we do as often as we do if we were totally bat shit insane. Not to mention that his technqiue looked about as interesting as opening a box of crayons and telling the doctor where it hurts. Yeesh.

Novelty acts are great fun and all, but the true test of endurance comes with consistency paired with craft, and there are no shortcuts. My big secret (which is no secret at all) is that I go to bed at a decent hour so I can get plenty of rest, so I can wake up early the next day and do it again....and again....and again. Lather, rinse, repeat. 

And also, Da Vinci rules. That is all.

Street Art: Hookah Jellyfish

Jellyfish likes hookah: in Park Slope, Brooklyn.

Around Town: Sakura Matsuri

Cherry Blossoms in Stuyvesant Town

Stuyvesant Square Park

Spring's lush bounty is brief and beautiful in New York. I'm savoring the sights and picking small bouquets as often as I can. Enjoy.