WERD

Lately, I've been using the urban slang werd, to express my affirmations.  However, I realized I didn't know where this expression came from or what its etymology was.  So I googled and found its origin is based in remembrance of WERD 860 AM, the first black-owned and operated radio station.

WERD was founded in Atlanta, Georgia in 1949 by Jesse B. Blayton, a university professor and accountant.  Its programming was marketed toward the black community and served as an important means of media exposure for Dr. Martin Luther King, who had his Southern Christian Leadership Conference headquartered in the same building.

In the segregated south of the 1950's and 60's, I'm sure WERD was an important and needed mouthpiece for black culture and popular expression.  It's no wonder that the tribute slang werd is used as a declaration of positivity.

One of the most spirited DJ's of WERD was no doubt James "Alley Pat" Patrick, who screamed and ad-libbed over many of the AM broadcasts, as heard in this clip for Holts Auto....

Moving from Greenpoint

8 years.  8 years filled with G-train commuting, Newtown Creek superfunding, rooftop farming, downward dogging, sidewalk picnicing, mobile wash uniting, pulaski bridge crossing, kielbasa eating, 10 alarm fire gazing, good-times-a-havin' in glorious Greenpoint, Brooklyn.  With mixed emotion I'm packing my bags and moving on.  Not a big move, mind you.  Just to another part of Brooklyn, but nonetheless, it feels like a bigger deal to me.  A lot has happened in those 8 years; to both myself and the neighborhood.  But in other ways, nothing's changed.

Here's a list of my key favorite places in Greenpoint.  Some I will continue to visit, others I may not.  But I love them all just the same.  This list is confined to north Greenpoint, which is defined as anywhere north of Calyer St.  At least in my view, it's up for debate of course.

Kusala has been my regular go-to for yoga.  Melissa runs a great studio for yoga and meditation in a laid-back and spiritually-angled atmosphere.  It used to be on the corner of Franklin and India, but has since moved to a bit more secluded spot on Green St.

The Franklin Corner Cafe on Franklin and Huron will always be known for it's delicious, hot pressed sandwiches.  The list to choose from is quite extensive, with notable names as the Sammy Sosa, the Guillaume and the Tazmanian.  The quality of the sandwiches have somewhat declined in recent years with new management, but are still quite enjoyable and the staff is always full of smiles.

The Astral is located on Franklin between India and Java and was built in 1885 to house local workers in a kerosene factory.  I've never stepped inside this building.  I've heard it's had a dicey past but it's a real beauty on the exterior, with it's vaulted arches and terracotta brick-work.  I used to live an in apartment that faced the back of the building.  On some nights I would gaze through my window to peep at the goings-on inside.

The Brooklyn Label, on the corner of Franklin and Java (in the Astral building), is one of my regular hang outs in the neighborhood.  I only go for brunch.  It kinda feels like my "Cheers" since I know a bunch of the people that work there.

Kill Devil Hill is run by my friend Mary.  A handsome, general store beautifully maintained and filled with great gift items.  I always love the windows Mary lovingly puts together every few weeks.  Last year, the shop would host art openings, with drinks served in the back which would always have a good turn out.  I miss these events, as it was a great way to meet new people, and KDH always attracts good, friendly types.

One of the coolest buildings in Brooklyn.  A prime example of late 19th century beaux arts style in America.  Must be a nice corner apartment on the top floor.

The Pencil Factory.  Another one of my regulars; a bar I have been patroning since before I lived here.  It's great to spend hours in the summer nights, sipping your beer outside, while watching the mobile wash units drive by in a parade-like fashion.  I've had so many good times here it's impossible to count.

Alter is a great women's and men's clothing boutique run by the affable Tommy and Roy.  I've been going here ever since they first opened and am friendly with the owners.  I will continue to make trips here.

  

Le Gamin didn't start in Greenpoint.  It has a couple other locations around New York, but it's hands down the best restaurant in the neighborhood.  Delicious french cooking for brunch or dinner with charming and friendly service.

Diamond Bar is located on the furthermost edge of Greenpoint's borders.  Until The Calyer opened there was nothing around it for blocks.  A true diamond in the rough, the place only serves a small selection of beer and wine and tends to attract a more "mature" crowd.  I had my Goodbye Greenpoint party here last weekend and couldn't think of a better bar to host.

As we venture off of Franklin and walk down Manhattan Avenue, we find many of the more old school establishments.  Christina's is a no-frills Polish diner, representing the large Polish community that has resided in Greenpoint long before the recent gentrification of the past 10 or so years.  I haven't been here in a while, but it used to be one of the only spots to get breakfast at.  My friends and I would order the cheese blintzes and eye the cute Polish waitresses dressed in black.

One of the many local spots to pick up your kielbasa and sauerkraut.  The W-Nassau Meat Market.  Not sure why it's called that, since it's not particularly close to Nassau St and it's not West of it either.  Out of all the Polish meat markets on Manhattan Ave this is by far the most popular, lines often going out the door.  Hours of operation are a bit confusing (it was closed when I passed it in the middle of a Sunday afternoon).

The Garden has been selling organic, health food long before it became trendy.  This is my number one food shopping spot.  I love their homemade peanut butter.  On the Kent St side of the building is a graffiti of a black cat, looking as if it's dancing on the iron fence in front of it.  This has been here as long as I can remember.  No one knows who spray painted it or why but the owner doesn't seem to mind it and remain it does.

Photoplay is beating the odds as one of the only dvd/video stores still standing in this Netflix age we live in.  And it's constantly packed, with devoted customers, like myself, who love the selection and the personal touch of receiving great recommendations by the owner, Michael Sayers (who used to be a programmer at the Film Forum).  All this time I've refused to subscribe to online retailers, like Netflix, because I see no need with Photoplay down the block.  However, now that I'm moving, it looks like I'll have to.

Another regular hang out for me.  Habitat is the only bar with a television (3 televisions!) that I like.  Great bar food and I love their Tuesday wing nights.  Conveniently located between the subway stop and my house.

My local, 24 hour grocer.  Prices are higher than others, but the food quality is excellent, it's open 24 hours and the staff is great.  Until this place expanded it's hours, there was nowhere to get food in my neighborhood past 8:00pm.

Triangolo, located on Manhattan and Green, has been my local pizza slice stop since I've lived in Greenpoint.  "What'll it be?" the benevolent store owner says to me as I walk in.  Just a plain slice is my usual choice.

I don't go here too often, but Milk & Roses gets special mention because the atmosphere is great and it has the prettiest girls to be found in Greenpoint, both employees and customers.

Of course this list is comprised of places, buildings and businesses.  It's the people and friends residing within that I cherish the most.  The people make the town.  I will always love Greenpoint and the friends I've made there.  I'll be back time and time again, I know.

The view from my rooftop can't be beat.  I'll miss living right by the river.

The Enigmatic Creme Egg

Now that Easter is here, lovers of junk food can rejoice.  Jellybeans, Peeps, Chocolate Bunnies......but none please your author more than Cadbury Creme Eggs!  Yes, those chocolate-covered, gooey, mysterious treats that only appear on the candy shelf once a year.  Many people find them kinda gross, but I love 'em.  Ever since I was a kid I would methodically unwrap the colorful foil wrapping and gaze with wonder at the familiar egg shape and then take a bite.  Observing my teeth impression in the chocolate as the sugary, white and yellow-dyed goo would stick all over my fingers and chin.  There is just something about this seasonal sweet egg that brings me unbridled delight.

The only problem is that I can never find it, even during the Easter time of year when it's supposed to be available.  For some reason this is a very rare egg in the boundaries of New York City.  About a month ago I came upon a few of them in a Duane Reade and I bought one.  I showed my co-workers back at the office, holding aloft my new-found treasure.  No one could believe my excitement.  But to my dismay, the next few weeks have passed and I have yet to see them re-stocked on the shelves.  Does this city simply not have the means to order more Cadbury Creme Eggs?  Is there not enough demand from the five boroughs?  Is there too much demand?  Am I looking in the wrong places?

I have yet to find answers to the mystery of the missing eggs.  I even once had an ex-girlfriend's mom mail me a box of eggs from Chicago every year.  But this year another Easter season is passing and I've only been fortunate enough to eat one solitary Cadbury Creme Egg.

As I was preparing to write this post I also found that there was a Cadbury Creme Egg scandal a few years ago when Cadbury shrunk the size of the egg without an explanation to its customers.  At first the company denied it, but when they could no longer get away with the lie, they finally admitted the egg had indeed shrunk by 5g in the United States because of a financial decision (i.e. rip off customers) made by their American distributor, Hershey.

Here's a video below of an actor and fellow Creme Egg lover talking about the proof of the difference in size.

RIP Davy

Goodbye, Davy Jones.  You sang one of my favorite feel-good songs.


 

El Potrero Chico

I was at Brooklyn Boulders, belaying a friend, when Jesse came up to me and said, "There's a place in Mexico that has the tallest sport routes in the world.  I don't remember what it's called but it has a route called Time Wave Zero that I want to climb.  It's 23 pitches."  A 23-pitch sport route?!?  I looked it up that night and found the area is called Potrero Chico and that Time Wave Zero is indeed 23 pitches, about 2,300 ft of vertical climbing.  The area looked like climbers paradise....hundreds of routes, most multi-pitch between 400-over a 1000 ft walls.  All within a 10 minute walk of the accommodations.  I called Jesse and said, "We're going!"
Within 2 months we were packing our gear and getting on the plane to Monterrey, Mexico.  Potrero Chico is about an hour from Monterrey, which happens to be one of the most dangerous cities in the country, suffering from the worst drug cartel violence in recent history.  This news, of course, worried us a bit (not to mention our disapproving parents), but after doing some research we came to the conclusion that the violence was sporadic and mostly confined to the city itself (which we would not be entering).

 We were picked up at the airport by a guy named Magic Ed.  He's one of the original route-setters of the area, and helped set many of its most classic routes.  Ed and a handful of others spend half their lives in Potrero Chico, climbing and setting routes, splitting their time between Mexico and the United States.  We met a few other ex-pats there who had opened coffee shops, animal shelters, etc, making this part of Mexico their home.  It was a high-elevation desert with dry, dusty landscapes scattered with cactus, surrounded by the beautiful limestone cliffs.  Hidalgo is the nearest town, sparsely populated with friendly locals who will be happy to give you a ride from the market back to camp.

Cuties of Hidalgo

 There were only about 30 climbers in the whole valley scattered amongst a couple posadas and houses along a quiet stretch of road.  We stayed in the tents we brought ourselves and cooked and ate in the communal kitchen.  We stayed at La Posada, which I would recommend to anyone going there.  Everyone was super friendly and we made a lot of friends and climbing partners.  We also met another friend we know from the Gunks, Chalu, who had arrived a couple weeks prior.  We were there for a week and climbed every day.  The weather was perfect, like summer with only a slight chill in the night.  We climbed in shorts and a t-shirt (I was of course wearing sun-block for my burn-prone skin).

View from La Posada

This was a big trip for me for, although I have been climbing for a couple years and been to many great climbing destinations, I had only lead once before in Rumney.  Leading is when you go up the wall first, clipping into the bolts and anchors, in order to belay the others following below.  It's quite a bit more intimidating than being the second person up, where you're tied into a rope being belayed from above.  In leading, if you fall 10 feet above the last piece of protection, you'll fall over 20 feet down the side of a mountain!  Could be painful if the route is highly featured or angled.  But I went for it and lead 10 pitches while there, all intermediate levels (5.9's and 5.10's).  There were definitely times where I was like, "why am I doing this?" but it felt so good to complete a climb that you lead yourself.

Approaching early morning

Me climbing

Jesse Climbing

View from the top

In the week that we were there Jesse and I climbed multi-pitch routes like Cactus Pile, The Spires, Jungle Mountaineering and Will the Wolf Survive.  I also did a bunch of single-pitch crag climbing with some of the new friends I made while out there.  Jesse got to do his Time Wave Zero.  He did it with a young, strong guy we met out there and it took them about 9 hours I think (they left at about 5:00 in the morning).  I realized while there that I didn't have the right shoes for such long climbs.  My feet were killing me.  My shoes are very tight with narrow toes, good for aggressive climbing, but not good for the long haul (my toes are still tingling a week after our trip).  I didn't do any climbs more than 4 pitches because my feet needed a break.  I'd like to go back for sure and do the longer routes with more appropriate footwear (although Time Wave Zero will probably always be a bit much for me).

Meeting new friends

Chilling at La Posada

Adios, Potrero Chico!  See you again someday.

Cassettes Under My Bed

Download the free album HERE.

This is the year I've decided to post online a selection songs I've written and recorded that have yet to see the light of day. Most people haven't heard these songs, as they would be laid down to tape only to be forgotten about or stored away with no real plans for release.  I play all the instruments myself and they range from sketchy, rough demos to quite polished mixes. Some of these recordings are quite old, dating back to when I was in college. They were all originally recorded on cassettes, either on my 4-track or 8-track portastudios, and there were hundreds of songs to chose from.

I bought my first 4-track recorder in the early 90's and, with the help of my Tascam Portastudio and little more than a shure microphone, I would hole myself away in my bedroom or basement, recording any song idea or sound I could come up with. Thus began my life as a home recording enthusiast. I was inspired by all the low-fi releases popular at the time in the indie music circuit. I wrote many songs in those early years and I loved hearing them come to life, one overdub at a time, on the little blank cassette tapes I bought in bulk. Now all those cassettes sit in storage, under my bed actually, collecting dust, half-forgotten.

I somewhat recently decided to blow the dust off of those old tapes and digitally archive the songs I felt were worth preserving. While doing these transfers I found some of them were actually pretty good and felt if a shame no one else has heard them, so I decided to make a compilation of the choicest recordings and post them online.

There was a lot of material to choose from, and it took me years to edit down the tracks to a manageable number and figure out a way to organize them. I've decided to group them into 4 separate collections, chronologically divided into the different places I've lived: Volume 1 is Washington DC, Vol. 2 is Philadelphia, Vol. 3 is Manhattan and Vol. 4 is Brooklyn. Each volume gets about 9 or 10 songs. So far I've just posted Volume 1, but the other 3 volumes will quickly follow, about one posted a month. Most of the songs are remixed and improved sonically from the original hissy and muffled mixes (although there's still plenty of hiss to be heard on the early recordings).

I've mostly put this online collection together for myself, since I don't know too many people out there who would even be interested in this stuff. But I hope there are at least a few people who listen to and hopefully even enjoy the songs. They're really a part of me and a part of my life and I'm glad they're finally emerging from under my bed to see the light of day. Enjoy. 

Byrds Fight

The Byrds are one of my favorite bands.  At the end of the CD re-release of their 5th album, Notorious Byrd Brothers, is a 7 minute audio clip of a fight between the band members in the studio.  The main instigators of this squabble is David Crosby and their drummer, Michael Clarke.  By no small coincidence both band members we kicked out in the following weeks.


Here's the clip below, which I've posted to youtube.  Classic.