Yesterday, playing the game of life.

This is how the day went: I first noticed a gentleman on the G-train wearing this black jumpsuit. i thought it looked great. Then, at 86th and 4th Ave in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, I waited for the S93 bus to take me across the Verrazano Bridge to the college of Staten Island, where I teach. Then, after teaching I decided to take the Staten Island Ferry home rather than take the bus. 

While waiting for the Ferry on the SI side, I watched the security guys (who do they work for? the Port Authority? the NYPD? Homeland Security?) pick people out of the crowd to have their bags 'searched' by the bomb-sniffing dog. Everyone complied. Some said "thanks" after being searched. I felt highly ambivalent, not wanting to see random searches without warrants be totally okay with people, but also not wanting the ferry to be bombed and have me bobbing in freezing water hoping to be saved. Is it a tossup? 

On the ferry, my iPhone made a mistake and took a great picture that I could never have planned - a bifurcated scene, the top half of which is blurred and bleeding into the in-focus bottom half. I love this shot! Then off to Killarney Rose in the Financial District for a pow-wow with a friend. 

On my way home, there's a man doing classical Indian dancing in the Atlantic Terminal subway station. His girlfriend is on the side waiting patiently and texting most of the time. I exited the station behind a man pulling two large suitcases, and young boy. They seemed distressed. He was trying to figure out how to exit with the two bags and was relieved to find the elevator. And finally, my favorite bus, the B38, as it rolls down Lafayette Avenue towards Throop, and my home. That was my day. Pretty good, overall.

Noteworthy, mos def.

Another very locked door in the subway station. 

exit the subway

Aggressive jury-rigging, Nostrand Ave just north of Lafayette Ave. 

same same

A landscaping and gardening business on Fulton Ave. with a jury-rigged sensibility, which I like.

Hacking the space above the bay window.

A pin oak tree that never branched out on Lafayette Ave.

and next to it, what a pin oak is supposed to look like, people!

The largest magnolia tree north of the Mason-Dixon line is on Lafayette Ave. at the Hattie Carthan Cultural Center, Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn. And it didn't lose its leaves this winter.

Across the street from the largest magnolia tree are smaller ones with new buds. You know what that means, right?

A sure sign of Spring in NY - very large and very dirty, trash-filled mounds of snow on every block.

A preacher on Throop Ave. just north of Fulton Street.

A curious-looking lamp. Why didn't they get rid of it sooner, I wonder.

The best mural. On Fulton Street near Classon.

What I like to think of as ironic street art, more like a quotation of street art.

Bushwick and Bed-Stuy, friends 4-ever

Going up the steps to catch the J train, Broadway near DeKalb, right on the Bed-Stuy - Bushwick border.

What are the rents like in this neighborhood? Not too bad .... yet.

I love this old building across from the el. It looks like they tore down the rest of the block but just couldn't bring themselves to destroy this old treasure.

And further into Bushwick, one finds a Hallowe'en decoration still rockin' it.

Up close, it's actually pretty hideously frightening.

Flushing Avenue - corner of Tompkins, or thereabouts.

The dreaded Woodhull Hospital. Dreaded architecture and scary medical attention. Don't go here if you don't have to. 

At the 777 Deli - a humble hanging light within a grand setting.

But the setting itself is worth repeating, even without the light fixture.

This place at the Nostrand Ave. B38 bus stop - a failed deli that is now being turned into...another deli?

Ex-slave

unambiguous lock - R-train platform at 86th Street, Bay Ridge.

Above ground, Bay Ridge. A billboard about love.

 

A smokey scene, Park Slope.

Behind the scenes at the coop. I'm just having a sandwich in the conference room while waiting to start my shift. I do data entry!

Total junk on offer at Duane Reade's, Jay Street.

A new product - take better selfies!

The interior of Cinnamon Girl deli/coffee spot. I like this place.