First stop was our favorite brunch spot in the city, the Great Jones Café.
After brunch we went to Other Music so I could use up a credit. I love it that most records now come with a code so you can download the MP3s for free—it makes CDs a totally outdated technology. Here's what I got (clockwise from top left: Grand Archives, Gutter Twins, Throw Me the Statue, Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks).
Next up we went to the Michel Gondry "Be Kind Rewind" exhibition at Deitch Projects.
There are a bunch of different sets and people can make their own little movies in the gallery.
We also went to the Visionaire Gallery for the Sound exhibition that I've been talking about.
Then I got some more records. I kind of went nuts this weekend because I haven't bought records for awhile. I'll post some MP3s later.
By then it was late afternoon and we decided to go to D.B.A. for a beer, and then to the Cherry Tavern for some more. Tracey took good care of us and they have Straight Outta Compton on the juke so we were quite content.
Next we grabbed a slice at the old East Village standby, Two Boots. It's by no means the city's best pizza (John's wins that battle), but it's unique and delicious nonetheless.
We ended up at Arrow (formerly known as The Rook), where my brother Sky bartends once or twice a week. That's his friend and fellow firefighter Ed on the right.
On Sunday we took a long walk to Newtown Creek, the border between Brooklyn and Queens. It's about five miles from our house in Fort Greene but there's tons of cool things to see on the way.
Kent Avenue, which runs along the East River, is like one big gallery—there's an ever-changing display of a paste-ups, graffiti, and little installations all over the place. This venus fly-trap is painted wood that has been epoxied to the side of a building. More pics from the neighborhood on my Flickr page.
When we got up to Greenpoint we stopped for lunch at this Polish restaurant. Lomzynianka means "girl from Lomza." It doesn't look like much from the outside, but the food is excellent and it's like eating a meal in someone's home.
The Polish are super-amped for Easter. There are great displays in the gift stores and bakeries on Manhattan Avenue.
Our final destination was the Newtown Creek sewage treatment facility—kind of smelly, yes, but architecturally really impressive and worth the trip.
The plant has been there since mid-century, but was remodeled by the Polshek Partnership, which also designed the Rose Center at the AMNH.
After that, we took the G train home, watched The Assasination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (beautiful score by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, amazing cinematography, a very solid movie all around—though sometimes it seemed like Brad Pitt was channeling Eric Bana in Chopper, and Bana himself would have been better). Then we watched the final episode of The Wire, and it was great.The End.