Quality Peoples

Nueva York, the big apple. home plate.

So our final stop was New York City. my second or third home, depending on how you see a thing. We ended up staying with my sister, Beth, who lives in the Fort Greene area of Brooklyn. On our arrival, we promptly set off to see the sights at the West Indian Day Parade over on Prospect Parkway. It was a great experience. lots of Caribbean flags and colors and people and music. lots and lots of people. Marcia didn’t understand a word of the dancehall and reggae flavors pouring out of the various floats. actually, neither did I. but it was great anyway.

Over the course of three days, we hit Ben’s Pizza in Soho, the South Street Seaport (don’t ask me why - being a native new yorker, this kind of tourist spot gives me the creeps, although the view of the brooklyn bridge was great), indian food (twice, Marcia’s new favorite), not-so-good sushi, China Town, the L.E.S, Park Slope, Williamsburg, D.U.M.B.O, and a trip up to Queens to check out PS.1, which had an awesome show on New York area artists. PS.1 was dipped from head to toe in all kinds of art, good and bad. Always nice to see so many artists’ work at once.

We checked on the brownstone that my Uncle Tim, the architect/builder is redoing in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn. It’s gorgeous and insanely designed. In 50 years people will appreciate it, long after Tim is gone. Tim is using all different kinds of plywood as the main finishing material with curved corners here and there. Every inch of the interior of the house has been designed and engineered. it’s insane. a living sculpture. Check out the last house he designed. Tim says that this is about “as good a job as he can do”, after this house he’s going to pack up shop and concentrate on painting, his first love. This is a bold statement coming from Tim, since he’s a complete maniacal perfectionist. basically he’s saying the house is perfect. insane.

I wanna thank my sister Beth and her man Taj, for dragging us around the entire new york area for 3 days straight. This was totally above and beyond the call of duty and they both deserve a big thanks. I also wanna give a big shout out to the peoples that I didn’t get to hang with, while I was there: Philbert Skiba, Kalz V, Michelle, and last but not least, my grand-pops Fredrick Bonsal Seggerman, who I affectionately call “Grumpy”. I feel terrible for not having the gumption to get it together to hook up with my grand-dad. Marcia basically met 90% of my family on both sides, it’s a shame I got all the way to NY and couldn’t get up to where he lives in Connecticut.

I’ll end this before all one of you who’s reading this falls asleep.

One last thing, it would have been really nice to take Marcia up to Croton-On-Hudson, the place where I grew up. I’d love to have shown her the house on Kings Street. and the funky little town that made me the sort of bad character I am today. Oh well, I guess we saved some goodies for the next trip…

and that, my friends, was new york in a nutshell.