Doing Laps

Took a ride this morning at sunrise. Rolling over the willy, chasing fog over the East River. Tired faces pass by as I do the reverse commute. Do a SF-inspired wiggle through the BQE mess off ramps and watch long shadows go short. It's hot today. People know it too and pale legs abound through Williamsburg. All that ghotly skin goes bronze further out on Metropolitan and definitely by Flushing. Pass through Bushwick then Ridgewood then Greenpoint and back into Wburg. Caught a couple flicks. Surprised when a few familiar trucks rolled by.

Waters Rising

What better way to spend a rainy day than in the decaying warmth of an abandoned nursing home. Including the flooded basement there are 3 floors with a 4th addition on the street-facing side.

A live Miles Davis cassette tape paperweights a 'Get Well' card. The message in pencil is smeared while the real lead lies in the chipping walls. Floral wallpaper over lavendar paint. Black-eyed susans on baby blue. Flipped over patient beds and boxes of disposable gloves. Pigeons add gradients of grey. It's all at work.

Overhead you can hear the M line, better yet, you can see it. Clues be done.

But Seriously...

Paste with N.D'A in east Williamsburg, Brooklyn

CA$H4

More to come from Brooklyn's finest, CASh4

RIPO Shouts Back

Everytime I check in on Ripo I'm amazed at the amount of work he's put out. Like this rad new piece slapped up on the banks of the Barcelona port.

Aside from Ripo's clean lettering is his success in saying something with his letters. Here's an excerpt from Ripo's site about the below pic.

For years this was a spot I could go to paint with friends and visitors with little stress except the wind blowing our pieces across the wall. Literally hundreds of artists had painted this kilometer stretch of cement (front and back) separating the Barcelona port from the Mediterranean Sea. Layer upon layer of beautiful artwork was created, faded by the sun and seawater, and repainted, giving life, color, meaning, and history to what would have been a barren stretch of cement. That is until they finished constructing the new towering W Hotel a few months ago. Along with this luxury hotel came one of the biggest washes of Grey paint and powerblasting I’ve ever seen. The ENTIRE wall, front and back, was cleaned to a boring grey slab. So Much History had been Erased so that those at the hotel can feel like we were never there.

Derivative Derive

It's been so cold lately I haven't been biking. The one day that I did my tire cracked and the tube came bursting out of a quarter-sized slot. It hissed like a cobra tongue with green slime from past patch-proofing. By this time my fingers were numb and gloves futile to the pulverizing wind. So in the meantime I've been walking a lot. It's enjoyable under a heavy coat and pocketed hands. I blow around from here to there, maintaining a general end but let the buildings do what they must to me. Sometimes an alley breaks left when I want to go right or a fire escape appears when I want to keep on track. I take them naturally not knowing if it is randomizing my day or making it more the same. Growing up around casino's taught me about odds. It's only odd that I think it's odd. And the outside remains predictable until I can derive out of my head.

Brooklyn Stand Up