Category Archives: new york city

2nd Annual “Brooklyn Loves Michael Jackson” Party!

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Posted by Anna at D16 on August 30, 2010 – 11:20 am
Filed under music, new york city

I’m half-deaf, my nose is sunburned, and my throat feels like sandpaper, but I’m still high on happiness following yesterday’s 52nd birthday celebration for Michael Jackson in Prospect Park. It was 95° in New York City (with zero cloud cover), which made standing in the middle of an open field for six hours akin to roasting in an oven, but no matter. The fun and joy of the day outweighed the unpleasantness of heat and sweat (and for me, that’s saying a lot).

An estimated 50,000 (!!!) people came out to celebrate together, making this year’s event even bigger and more successful than last year’s.

I have a huge amount of respect for Spike Lee as a filmmaker (including the three videos he made for MJ), and I’m so grateful that he’s put this massive—and FREE—party on for the past two years . . . and that he plans to continue to do it every year.

As he did last year, poet and performance artist Lemon Andersen delivered spoken-word pieces that honored both the legacy of the entire Jackson family and the wonder that is BROOKLYN.

This girl was so full of energy and confidence. She did a wicked air-guitar solo during "Beat It" that would’ve made Jennifer Batten proud.

DJ Spinna was amazing again this year. His knowledge and love of all eras of Michael’s career—with and without the Jackson 5—is what makes it possible to spend six hours listening to a single artist (with a small handful of associated acts thrown in) without getting bored.

AHHHHHHH!!! Snoop Dogg!!! (And yes, that’s Warren G behind Spike!) I love me some Snoop, and his appearance yesterday was a complete surprise. I like that the party is really about celebrating Michael’s music (as he recorded it, and not being performed by other artists), but a few minutes of Snoop droppin’ it like it’s hot never hurt anyone.

The Reverend Al Sharpton came out again this year to deliver a beautiful eulogy for Michael and to speak about the 5th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. (No photos, as I was recording video.)

Lots more photos in my Flickr set. I can’t wait to do this all again next year. Happy birthday, Mike.

p.s. Check out Nubby Twiglet’s birthday tribute to MJ, too!

EDIT: Spike has posted a thank-you note on his site that nicely summarizes the day. Thank YOU, Spike!

EDIT #2: Here are a couple of clips from interviews with Snoop and Reverend Al. If you watch carefully, you’ll see me and my camera all hot and sweaty in the front row . . .

Missing Brooklyn.

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Posted by Anna at D16 on August 2, 2010 – 6:35 pm
Filed under new york city

We left Brooklyn in 2004. I doubt we’ll ever live there again, but I do still miss it. A couple of weeks ago, I met up with Jenna and Sara (and associated friends and family members!) for dinner on the outskirts of my old neighborhood, and despite the huge amount of change that’s occurred in those parts in the past 6 years, I had some seriously pangs of nostalgia as I walked the length of Smith Street and rounded onto Atlantic Avenue.

So I dug out some old photos, just to remember. All were taken between 1996 and 2004.

Brooklyn Loves Michael Jackson.

8
Posted by Anna at D16 on July 28, 2010 – 11:38 am
Filed under music, new york city

Last summer, Spike Lee organized the first-annual Brooklyn Loves Michael Jackson Birthday Party in Prospect Park, and it was awesome. I’ve never attended an even of that scale (20,000 people!) before that didn’t have problems, but this one went off without a hitch—everyone was nice to each other, no one was arrested, and nobody got stupid. It really was a mass celebration of L.O.V.E. + music + dancing + family + friends + FUN, which is exactly what a Michael Jackson birthday party should be.

I find it dismaying how many supposed “Michael Jackson tribute” events (not to mention all of the awards show events) have been held around the world in the past year that have really been little more than an excuse for greedy people to make money (or to promote other artists) by exploiting MJ’s name. Spike is doing this for FREE (with the inimitable DJ Spinna!), and he’s doing it RIGHT. I’m so pleased that it wasn’t a one-time thing, either. I’d love to see this celebration become an annual event. Thank you, Spike! (For more information, visit the event page on Facebook.)

Haircut & sunglasses.

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Posted by Anna at D16 on June 11, 2010 – 5:47 pm
Filed under food, new york city, vanity

My old stylist moved to the other side of the world, so today I got a haircut from Lisa at Fringe on Broome Street for the first time. The salon is super cute, the staff is very sweet, and Lisa did a great job. I’ll be going back to her again for sure.

I’m also modeling my new sunglasses from Anne et Valentin (this is the “Hello” style). I’m really bad about wearing sunglasses even though I know I’m supposed to, but since these are so crazy cool and fancy (check out the detail on the frames—love those ridges), I’m hoping I’ll be more inclined to put them on.

Fringe is conveniently located next door to Babycakes, an all-vegan bakery. Right now there are vegan carrot cake and red velvet cupcakes chilling in my refrigerator, waiting for it to be dessert-time…

Post-haircut, I headed over to Teany, (formerly) Moby’s vegetarian cafe and tea house. Teany had a fire last year and were closed for a long, long time afterward, and this was my first visit post-renovation. It’s not quite as cute is it used to be (I guess because there are a lot of new materials in there and it’s not as charmingly ramshackle as it once was), but the food is still REALLY, REALLY GOOD. Between 2002 and 2006, I ate so many of their vegan “turkey” club sandwiches that it’s kind of absurd. I actually don’t think I’ve ever ordered anything else (though I’ve eaten plenty of nibbles off of other people’s plates!), and today was no different.

A couple of months ago, a D16 reader asked if I was in the Teany book. I’d never seen it before, so I actually had NO idea that I am indeed in there! I saw a copy on a shelf at Teany today, so I took a picture of the page with my photo so you can see how goofy I look when someone else takes my picture. I guess I was having a bad bangs day, too!! I vaguely remember a Teany employee taking my picture years ago and asking me to fill out a little survey, but I never questioned what it was for. Hah!

On my way out, I stopped to take a photo of the floor in Teany’s bathroom. Look familiar??!! So funny.

Oh, summer. You are so…hot.

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Posted by Anna at D16 on June 3, 2010 – 3:34 pm
Filed under food, new york city, wearable

I’m stating the obvious for those of you living in New York, but it’s really warm outside. New York City is its own special kind of warm. Hot. Sticky. And since transportation here consists in large part of hoofing it around on foot, it’s hard to not get a little (or a lot) melty in the months from June to September. This past weekend was particularly brutal—Evan (doesn’t he look cute up there in his new straw hat?) and I decided to stay in the city in an effort to avoid traffic, and instead spent most of our three days off walking all over the place.

We had a super-yummy vegan brunch at Counter. Evan had the East Side Burger, and I had the Roasted Pepper & Leek Frittata (tofu-based). It came with this tomato jam that was completely delicious. Afterward we walked over to Lula’s Sweet Apothecary for a midday dessert, forgetting that they don’t open until 3:00pm! Lula’s is a full-service, old-fashioned ice cream shop (or is it “shoppe”?) that happens to be totally vegan (!), so we didn’t mind killing a little time until the doors finally opened to an already-long line of people. Well worth the wait, too. Evan had a malted milkshake that was to die for, and I had a two-scoop sundae with coconut and peanut butter fudge ice creams (cashew-based), hot caramel sauce, crushed graham crackers, and coconut milk-based whipped cream. SO. GOOD.

I wanted to take this little guy home with me. He mostly just wanted me to stop trying to take his picture. Oh well.

Anyway, this is my 35th summer here on planet Earth (no, I’m not sure where I was before that), and I still don’t know how to dress appropriately for the heat. Every year I’m out there in my mostly-black layers (head to toe, lest anyone be subjected to my translucent, pasty-white flabby arms and chicken legs), broiling under the hot sun and looking like a total mess. I don’t have a “summer wardrobe” or “winter clothes”. It’s all pretty much the same thing, give or take a cardigan.

To my fellow layerers-of-clothing who wish every month could be October: WHAT DO YOU WEAR IN THE SUMMER? HELP.

p.s. HELLO to all of the Door Sixteen readers who stopped to say hi when Evan and I were out and about this weekend!! Isn’t it funny what a huge-small city this is?

Let’s pretend we’re tourists, #2.

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Posted by Anna at D16 on May 28, 2010 – 5:52 pm
Filed under new york city, voyages

Today is a nearly-perfect-weather day in New York City, and with work letting out early for the Memorial Day weekend, I decided to do some walking and touristy picture-taking again (don’t worry, I stayed in the slow lane). Armed with a fry cone (average-but-okay fries; too much ketchup), I started at Rockefeller Center and walked up Sixth Avenue to Central Park. This is some of what I saw in those 10 blocks:

It always amazes me how many ice cream trucks there are in Manhattan. Nearly every block in midtown! (No, they don’t roll around with Scott Joplin music playing, they just park & sell.)

William Crovello’s great “Cubed Curve” sculpture at the Time & Life building. Photos never quite manage to capture how vibrant the blue is.

Black Rock (CBS headquarters), the only skyscraper designed by Eero Saarinen. Construction was not completed until four years after his death. The black granite exterior is phenomenal, as is the lobby. (The upper floors are less impressive, sadly.)

Jim Dine and Robert Indiana…

I love the tippy-top of the Barbizon Plaza Hotel (aka Trump Parc). Great colors.

There are a lot of beautiful things in NYC, and Central Park is a pretty big one. So lush and green right now. Can you believe these photos were only taken 2 1/2 months ago?

Out & about.

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Posted by Anna at D16 on April 8, 2010 – 1:40 pm
Filed under four legs, new york city, voyages

1) No, I’m not dead!
2) Yes, I am super-duper busy.
3) Wow, it’s really hot out.
4) Indeed, I will be back soon.

In conclusion: How are you? What’s going on out there that I should know about? Can you even believe how cruddy this season of Project Runway has been? Ugh—I’m all about RuPaul’s Drag Race these days.

And another question: When you see someone out and about with a really cute dog, do you feel comfortable asking if you can pet/snorgle it? I get so shy and can never bring myself to do it.

(p.s. Spring!!!)

Let’s pretend we’re tourists.

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Posted by Anna at D16 on March 4, 2010 – 12:55 am
Filed under new york city, voyages

I’ve often thought that I’d like to be able to see New York City through the eyes of a tourist. I suppose this is probably the case with every city, but the longer a place is part of your everyday life, the less you tend to observe in your surroundings. This is especially true in “vertical” cities where above-ground traveling is primarily done on foot. Who remembers to look up? Tourists, that’s who.

So when Evan and I went to MoMA (something I do embarrassingly infrequently), I tried to pretend I was a tourist. I wasn’t really successful, but I did manage to get over my fear of looking like a dork (um, I look like a dork no matter what, so I might as well do it with a camera in my hands) and take a few pictures.

I never get tired of snow.

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Posted by Anna at D16 on February 10, 2010 – 4:50 pm
Filed under new york city

Manhattan is so beautiful in the snow, especially up here in the Heights where nature still runs (a tiny bit) wild. I love having views of trees and primordial rocks.

I’m sure that those of you living in parts of the planet where it hasn’t been snowing like mad are starting to roll your eyes and say Enough already with the snow photos, everyone, but I can’t help myself. It was hard enough to limit myself to two!

I put in a 3/4-day at work, then headed for the apartment to hole up with Evan (also home early), Bruno, Fritz, and a big cup of lemon-ginger tea with raw honey. I’ve been fighting a cold for the last couple of days, and right now, nothing is better than being inside while looking outside at fluffy, falling snow.

Apartment kitchen progress!

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Posted by Anna at D16 on January 7, 2010 – 10:55 am
Filed under apartment, new york city

Wait…it’s 2010?! Wow. I completely missed entering the future while we were busy cleaning and caulking and making trips to IKEA and painting. And painting. And painting. And painting.

Last night was my first night sleeping in the apartment—not really a cause for celebration, considering the present lack of a bed or shower curtain. I was up until 3:30 AM (yes, more caulking…and more painting), then curled up in a little ball on the floor to sleep for a few hours. The magical part of the experience was leaving for work at 8:40 AM, though! Normally at that time of the day we’re already an hour and forty minutes into our commute.

Anyway, the kitchen! It’s coming together, and definitely starting to look as I had envisioned it. (What was that about finishing the whole apartment in six days? Um. No.)

The SNODD knobs from IKEA are so cute I can barely stand it. They really make the kitchen. I love the cabinets, by the way. I was overjoyed to find an apartment with a kitchen that hadn’t been renovated in about 20 years, and with frameless doors. Solid wood with a maple veneer, too. Nice.

I love how perfectly the microwave fits in the VÄRDE shelving unit. If I have to have a microwave in my life at all, I need it to be below my line of sight. We still have to hang the shelves above the unit—that’s where I plant to keep all of our pantry-type goods in glass jars.

(Do you like how the entire food-related contents of our kitchen currently consist of two cans of coffee, a jar of raw sugar, and a hilariously over-sized pepper mill? Oh, and I think there’s an apple and a little carton of soy milk in the fridge. This says a lot about us.)

Uh-oh. You can see my grubby paint brushes! And the Chinese delivery menus on the fridge, the vacuum cleaner, paper towels, and caulk. (Yes, and my beloved Keep Cup!) Are you happy now? I didn’t have the energy to move them for the photo. The important thing to focus on is the black wall! It’s painted with Benjamin Moore ‘Soot’ (Aura Matte finish, for those of you who like to know these things). The white walls and trim are are Benjamin Moore ‘Simply White’ (Aura Matte and Satin Impervo, respectively).

We’re going to hang the Stendig calender on the black wall, right above our flip-down table for two (which I will be painting the same black as the wall).

One more thing! I need to sing the praises (again) of IKEA’s ENJE roller blinds. They are inexpensive, well-made, look great, and they really do filter light beautifully.

Apartment kitchen planning.

87
Posted by Anna at D16 on December 31, 2009 – 1:02 am
Filed under apartment, new york city

WHEW. I am totally exhausted. Evan and I have been going back and forth between our house and the new little apartment all week, and it’s wearing me out fast. I think this is what happens when you take time off from home renovations for a while—you lose your swing.

We started with the kitchen yesterday (my incredibly patient and determined mother came along and spent the day cleaning the filthy kitchen cabinets inside and out—and then spent an hour stuck in traffic with us en route to IKEA), and I’m hoping we’ll wrap things up tomorrow. Today we got a first coat of paint on the walls, new knobs on the cabinets, and assembled a butcherblock that we’ll be using for extra counter space and storage.

Do you think it’s possible for us to finish renovating and decorating the apartment in six days? I actually think it might be, despite the fact that we seem to be on the six(ty)-year plan when it comes to our house.

p.s. IKEA TO THE RESCUE, OMG. What do those of you who live in places without IKEA do when you need something beautiful and cheap and you don’t want to thrift for it? I have no idea.

Apartment, before.

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Posted by Anna at D16 on December 29, 2009 – 12:28 am
Filed under apartment, new york city

It’s not very cute right now, but it will be.

I feel a little bit like Evan and I are getting ready to go away to college. There are piles of pillows and blankets, dishes and kitchen gadgets in a corner of our dining room, just waiting to be loaded into the car and transported into the city.

It’s a funny thing, suddenly buying metal steamer baskets and ladles and garlic presses and measuring cups at this stage in my life. (Again.) It’s been 17 years since I left for college for real, and 15 years since I moved into my first apartment. I never expected to shop for these little things a second time. You forget how much you need.

It’s fun. Overwhelming at times, but fun.

D16, pied-à-terre style.

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Posted by Anna at D16 on December 21, 2009 – 11:22 pm
Filed under apartment, health, new york city

I’ve been storing up a big secret for a few weeks now, and it’s finally time to let the cat out of the bag: Evan and I have decided to rent a small (400 square feet) studio apartment in Manhattan!

No, we’re not selling our house, and no, we’re not moving away from Newburgh. We’re just giving ourselves another option throughout the course of the week. Evan and I both spend a lot of time in the city, and having a little place there will allow us to do things like go to museums or concerts or dinners with friends without having to think about taking a long train ride home afterward. (Bruno and Fritz will always be in tow, of course.)

Having a pied-à-terre in Manhattan is most definitely a luxury (though our apartment in decidedly no-frills), but as with the ongoing renovation of our house (work is currently on hiatus until February, by the way—we needed a break!), we’ll be doing everything on a supertight budget and with a lot of careful planning. And, of course, I’ll be blogging about all of it here!

I’m excited to be taking a new direction with Door Sixteen. Renovating and decorating a rental is a very different kind of undertaking than working on a house that you own—not to mention the challenge of making life work inside of much smaller place, and in one room to boot!

I hope you’ll follow along in this new space. Sunday the 27th will mark Day One of cleaning, painting, and planning. I can’t wait…

Tonight.

30
Posted by Anna at D16 on March 26, 2009 – 12:01 am
Filed under music, new york city

In 1994, I slept on the sidewalk outside of Carnegie Hall for two nights* (see, kids, this is what we had to suffer through before we had the internet) to get tickets to see Morrissey there. I got great seats (9th row center, if I recall correctly). The show was initially “postponed”, so I waited patiently for the new date to roll around six months later. Then, in true Morrissey form, he cancelled. And didn’t reschedule. HEARTBREAK. I still haven’t gotten over it.

15 years later, I am FINALLY going to see Morrissey at Carnegie Hall. This will be my 26th Morrissey concert, but I still feel nervous and excited every single time I see him.

(*Those were a craaaaazy couple of nights. MTV and the NY Times were there to film and interview us, and a radio station brought us breakfast in the mornings. The guy up at the front of the line had been there for days. I could never do something like that now, but I’m glad I was so ridiculous and silly once upon a time! Even though the concert was cancelled, I wouldn’t trade that experience for anything.)

Nine years ago.

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Posted by Anna at D16 on March 23, 2009 – 3:21 pm
Filed under new york city

These photos of my old brownstone apartment at 471 Henry Street in Brooklyn were taken in 1999 or 2000 or so.

It’s funny to see how differently I lived then; how important it was for me to have stuff all over the place. I still like it, though. I had no money, of course, and nearly everything I owned was either found on the sidewalk or came from a junk shop. It was such a comfortable space to be in! And OH how I loved (and still love) Louise Brooks!

The apartment was on the ground floor of the brownstone, with private access to the garden (which had a fig tree that produced a ton of fruit) and a full finished basement. With a washer and dryer! Such luxury for living in Brooklyn, I know, and it was cheap.

I still miss Brooklyn and Cobble Hill sometimes, but less now than when I first moved away in 2005. Leaving was so hard, but it got easier.

Manhattan.

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Posted by Anna at D16 on March 12, 2009 – 11:51 pm
Filed under inspiration, movies, new york city

I’m not usually big on naming favorites, but I have no problem giving that honor to the best movie ever, Manhattan. It is my favorite-favorite, and the intro is really just the best thing ever. Total perfection. If you love New York, I defy you to sit through the 3 minutes and 43 seconds of this clip without at the very least getting choked up.

Honestly, I could sit here all day just posting clips from Manhattan and Annie Hall and talking about how awesome both movies are, and how I could really just watch them both over and over and over again and reflect on how my reactions to both have changed throughout the course of my life—and how much Woody Allen’s directorial style and Gordon Willis’s cinematography have influenced my personal aesthetic and feelings about lifestyle and social comforts.

Just this one clip, though. Before I go to bed, to ensure sweet dreams. I love you, New York.

Where I work, part 2.

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Posted by Anna at D16 on August 25, 2008 – 3:41 pm
Filed under new york city, work

At my work-office, I try to keep my space very clean and tidy. I don’t have control over things like desks (they are awful wood-grain laminate) or carpet (industrial-grade blue), but over the past 10 years I’ve tried to make it a little more personal.

I have plants in the window. When I bought them, they were teeny-tiny. I’ve had to re-pot them twice (potting plants is a weird thing to do at work, but it had to be done!). I feel happy to see them every day, and to give them water from my bottle. I am very lucky to have this huge, old window to look out during the day! It’s especially wonderful when it’s snowing.

I keep a set of resuable plastic utensils here, as well as a supply of chemical-laden drink mix packets that encourage me to drink more water throughout the day. I also buy my own storage boxes (like this pink one, which holds CDs) instead of using the ugly black plastic ones from the office-supply catalog.

There are pictures of my loved ones, of course.

I keep my paper clips and rubber bands in a little green glass Marimekko dish. I bought this clock at a stoop sale years ago, and it worked perfectly until recently, when the cord suddenly started to dissolve and ooze green goo everywhere. It’s just for decoration now.

I have a Cable Turtle to control the slack on my extra-long mouse cord. I use an ugly, old Logitech mouse instead of a pretty Apple one because I’m so used to it. It’s hard for me to adjust to anything new!

My beloved Sigg bottle, which I fill up at least 4 times a day.

If you work outside of your house, what do you keep in your office to make your days a little happier?

Cooler weather, fresher air.

14
Posted by Anna at D16 on August 11, 2008 – 8:36 pm
Filed under friends and family, handmade, new york city

Veggie burgers and onion rings at SoHo Park, and an amazing painted door on Broadway.

Suddenly, it feels like Fall might be coming soon. (Remind me of this in a week when it’s roasting hot and humid again.)

Anna and Nicole.

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Posted by Anna at D16 on June 26, 2008 – 12:17 am
Filed under friends and family, new york city

Last night I got to see my oldest (and prettiest!) friend, Nicole McConville, for the first time in far, far too long. We grew up together (I’ve spared both of us the embarrassment of including any pre-1992 photos in that collage), but now we live 700 miles apart. Despite that distance and despite gaps in contact over the years, our lives have taken very similar paths. I am so lucky to have known Nicole for all this time. She is so special to me; I am so proud of who she’s become.

We went to Blossom for dinner with our matching, geeky husbands. The main courses were really super-delicious, but the desserts and coffee…not so much. It was just a couple of hours of time together, but it was enough to remind me that I really need to make an effort to see this girl more often.

p.s. This is Nicole’s house. Yes, seriously!!

Edible Estates/Animal Estates.

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Posted by Anna at D16 on April 24, 2008 – 10:16 am
Filed under art & design, four legs, garden, inspiration, new york city

Los Angeles architect Fritz Haeg narrows the divide between residents and their communities with projects like Edible Estates, an international effort to convert front lawns into working food gardens.

Watch it all the way through. It’ll make you feel great, I promise. (From Dwell.)

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