When I visit a place I like to pretend I live there.
From 9/25-10/2, I lived in Brooklyn — half the week in Carroll Gardens, half in South Slope. All this week, I’ll be writing about last week.
On Monday, my lovely hostess had some clothes to sell, so we visited Beacon’s Closet. She made bank and I bought a short-sleeved Uniqlo hoodie of a pleasing shade of gray.
(Photo taken the day after I got back to Portland, hence my manic, punchy expression.)
Of course there was more street art:
There was another striking image that I crossed the street to photograph, only to discover that it was an Obey ad.
This led to a discussion of how much branding is inherent in street art — obviously, taggers have their tags, stickerers their stickers, stencilers their stencils, all designed to be easily recognizable and memorable. Any notion that there’s something out there you could classify as “authentic street art” is no doubt inherently flawed. Obey creator Shepard Fairey says that “although he’s hired to create visuals and marketing plans, he always finds a way to inject his agenda into the client’s work.” But I still wasn’t interested in spreading that particular meme.
Oh yeah, the food: dumplings and sauteed morning glories at a dark quiet Chinese restaurant, and later, superior chicken enchiladas with pumpkin sauce in a slightly louder but also dimly lit Mexican restaurant with Day of the Dead skeletons rendered in stained glass.
The ominous glow that appears to emanate from the lady skeleton’s neck is in actuality the flash from my camera.
Tomorrow: Taking Manhattan.