A unique perspective for NYC visitors

Posted on June 12, 2019 by Brian D. Butler

Visitors to New York City sometimes find themselves overwhelmed by the crowds and hustle. A good way for tourists to get a break is to spend some time on NYC’s waterways and waterfront. This can be accomplished by using the city’s ferries to get around, by taking an old school sightseeing cruise around Manhattan Island, or even a trip across the harbor on the wonderful iconic Staten Island Ferry. But more adventurous visitors can take advantage of a unique and free way to get a new view on the city by kayaking on the East River.

Since 2010, the Brooklyn Bridge Boathouse Park has been offering free kayaks to all comers three days a week. Just show up—no reservations are taken—and they will provide everything you need. The free watercraft are available on Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays. Check the website for more details. The best way to get there is via public transit:

 

Subway: 4/5 to Borough Hall, A/C to High Street, F to York Street, or 2/3 to Clark Street stations
Bus: the nearest buses are the B25, B61, B63, B67
NYC Ferry: East River route to Dumbo or South Brooklyn Route to Atlantic Ave/Pier 6

 

 

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Brooklyn Bridge Park Boathouse is located in Brooklyn NY, between Piers 1 & 2, a few blocks south of the Brooklyn Bridge (look for their floating dock near the rollerskating rink)

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Island Reading

Posted on June 11, 2019 by Brian D. Butler

Residents of the tiny Greek island of Kimolos, located in the southwest of the Cyclades island group, have installed free lending libraries at all the major beaches of the island to make tourists’ visits even more enjoyable.

The little free libraries, made in the shape of dories, and painted in hues of blue and white, will be lending books printed in Greek, English and other languages this summer.

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Words and Music

Posted on June 10, 2019 by Brian D. Butler

Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts has evolved from the humble  Worthy Farm Pop Festival in 1970 headlined by T-Rex and attended by around 1,500 people, to a renowned cultural phenomena—one of the biggest festivals in the world.

Over the decades, it has seen performances from The Rolling Stones, Beyoncé, Radiohead, Neil Young, Björk, David Bowie, Coldplay, and Paul McCartney. Each year, Glastonbury attracts more than 100,000 music lovers.

To mark the upcoming 50th anniversary of Glastonbury in 2020, Michael Eavis and daughter Emily (who has co-organised the festival since 2000) are releasing their first official book, Glastonbury 50. A statement from Emily on the festival website reads:

“It’s been a total joy to look back through piles of old photo albums and scrapbooks and to reflect upon what it meant at the time, and the incredible evolution of the event. I hope people who’ve been over the years will be able to reminisce and get a flavour of the rich history of Glastonbury through five amazing decades.”

The book, to be published on October 31, 2019 by Trapeze books, will also feature contributions from an impressive roster of previous performers including Adele, Jay-Z, Chris Martin, and many more artists.

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La Sagesse

Posted on June 9, 2019 by Brian D. Butler

La Sagesse (1940-1941). Tamara de Lempicka (Polish, 1898-1980). Oil on panel.

La Sagesse, or “Wisdom,” takes its inspiration from the Old Masters, all the while exuding Lempicka’s signature style. The layout and type of figure in this painting bring to mind work by the Flemish painter Quentin Metsys. Lempicka’s ability to seamlessly blend a brashly contemporary look with historical models marked her distinctive style from the outset of her career.

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Another Roadside Attraction

Posted on June 8, 2019 by Brian D. Butler

About this time last year, I was on a roadtrip around the U.S. Southwest, which included a drive between Durango and Telluride, Colorado. That stretch was mainly on the beautiful Route 145 through the San Juan Mountains.  So I sat up and took notice when I read about this transportation nightmare. On  May 24th at the start of the Memorial Day weekend, this 4 million kilogram boulder rolled off a cliff and destroyed part of a highway just north of the village of Dolores, Colorado. Blowing it up to clear the way would cost the state $200,000 so instead Governor Jared Polis turned the huge rock into a tourism plus. The “house-sized” boulder is now named Memorial Rock and is a designated tourist attraction. From UPI:

“We expect that for generations to come, people will have the opportunity to observe this geological masterpiece that we’re calling Memorial Rock,” Polis said at a news conference earlier this week…

The highway will be widened with additional shoulder and a new guardrail will be installed near the rock, Lisa Schwantes, the transportation department’s southwest Colorado spokeswoman, told UPI.

Fixing the two-lane highway will cost about $1.3 million, Polis said, but most of that money will come from emergency funds from the Federal Highway Administration.

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Beloved Books

Posted on June 7, 2019 by Brian D. Butler

h/t Grant Snider watch this space for news on his first children’s book

 

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Public Transit Manners

Posted on June 6, 2019 by Brian D. Butler

h/t Michael Pederson

 

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A Bookstore on Wheels

Posted on June 5, 2019 by Brian D. Butler

After 25 years as a school teacher, Melanie Moore was ready for a change. She long dreamed of opening her own bookstore , but was put off by the enormous start-up costs involved in launching a bricks and mortar shop. So, she did the next best thing and created the Cincy Book Bus: A Bookstore on Wheels. With help from her husband Tony, she transformed a vintage VW Transported truck into a beautiful rolling bookshop.

In 2018, Moore began making the rounds of regional markets, fairs, festivals, coffeeshops, schools, and local events in and around Cincinnati, Ohio.

Moore has committed to sharing the Book Bus profits with her community by buying books for local school libraries and literacy projects.

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In Bruges

Posted on June 4, 2019 by Brian D. Butler

I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to visit Bruges before it became completely Disney-fied by over tourism. Still, I never got to see the Belgian gem as viewed in these amazing Photochrom prints from the 1890s. This series of images is part of a wonderful collection available on the U.S. Library of Congress website.

 

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Men of Other Planets

Posted on June 3, 2019 by Brian D. Butler

n 1953, astronomer and physicist Kenneth Heuer wrote Men of Other Planets (Pellegrini & Cudahy, NYC) where he speculated on the forms of humanoid life that was possible on the other planets, moons and asteroids of outer space. In the early years of flying saucer sightings and shocking sci-fi films such as The Day the Earth Stood Still the public’s appetite for both solid space science and fictional musings was insatiable.

The times were ripe for Heuer’s heady mix of hard science and wild speculation about the cosmos.The full-page scratch board illustration by R.T. Crane added an aura to the quirky notions set forth in this book.

Probably the most startling concept in the book is Heuer’s suggestion that we may be their descendants. of space aliens. He floated the possibility that eons ago our ancestors came from outer space as human-like beings in space ships.

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