Undiscovered Brooklyn Visits Provence
16 days in Provence in September was a good idea. Here is a recap of the top 10 places we visited, as well as a few things to avoid. Overall, it was a good itinerary. We drove around a lot and lucked out with a hybrid vehicle, so the gas bill was cheap. Photo slide show below.
10 Locations Worth Visiting in Provence
Avignon: Stayed here for the duration of the trip. We got an apartment with a parking garage and a balcony with a nice view of the Palace of the Popes. The town is very low-key in a great way. It’s a little bustling around the palace and bridge but never got that bad. Great restaurants and market, good record store. Close to a lot of other great things. What more do you need?
Roussillon: Gorgeous. Ochre overload. Ochre-load. The ‘Le Sentier de Ochre’ hike around rich hues. The ochre buildings in the town are beautiful. Can’t miss.
Around (but not) St. Remy de Provence: The St. Paul’s asylum, where Vincent committed himself to with Van Gogh walk, completely fascinating. Next to it is Glanum, Roman ruins from the first century BC (with Gaul/Salyen roots from 6th century BC). it was destroyed in a mudslide and apparently Van Gogh was painting olive trees there without any idea there was a buried city beneath. Also behind the asylum is the excellent vineyard/olive oil maker Domaine De Métifiot. Top shelf 00 and Rosé.
Pont du Gard / Uzès: First century roman aqueduct in VG+ condition. Kids playing in the water beneath it. A stunning hike up, over, and back. Nearby Uzès is as charming a French town as you could want. Had a fantastic 3-4 course dinner for next to nothing. Would probably be worth staying only there for a week. We returned for the market day, which was the best of the markets we visited.
Arles: Unexpectedly my favorite city of the trip. Spent two days there. Just beautiful. Adorable micro-Coliseum and other Roman goodies. Stylish old streets. Art everywhere. We were there during their annual photography fest, art photos all over town. Van Gogh painted here a lot, and they kept the square of his first post ear slash hospital garden looking more or less the same as in his paintings. There’s also an excellent sprawling art complex LUMA. Frank Gehry tower, choice exhibitions, places to hang and chill.
Swipe below (captions are basically impossible to read. Sorry.) More destinations below
Saignon 
Cassis street 
Cassis harbor 
Cassis 
Pont du Gard 
Pont du Gard 
Roussillon 
Le Sentier des Ocres, Roussillon 
Behind the Saint Paul asylum 
Puppetheads at flea market, Avignon 
Bourgeois on an infinity lake, Château La Coste 
Château La Coste 
Les Baux de Provence 
Les Baux de Provence 
Fougasse in Uzès 
Arles Arena 
Arles Arena 
View of square, Arles 
The Pont Saint-Bénézet, also known as the Pont d’Avignon 
3 old benches in Avignon 
Calanques National Park 
Calanques National Park 
Saint-Saturnin-lès-Apt 
Saignon 
Les Baux de Provence 
View from our flat in Avignon 
Les Baux de Provence 
Arles 
LUMA, Arles 
LUMA, Arles 
Château La Coste 
Avignon 
Le Sentier des Ocres, Roussillon 
Avignon from the across the Rhône river 
Uzès fountain close up 
Uzès 
Saignon rock 
Saignon 
Saint-Saturnin-lès-Apt 
Madelines de Christophe, Aix-en-Provence 
Hospital in Arles; Vibe with (swiped) souvenir Van Gogh 
Uzès Castle 
Arles 
Les Baux de Provence 
Château La Coste 
Avignon on our final night.
Aix-en-Provence: From the Cezanne paintings. Famous Madelines and excellent Corsican food. Great market (not as great as Uzès). Cool streets and squares. Overpriced LPs at the flea market.
Cassis: had to see the sea so we went to Cassis. Great location, with many of the usual downsides associated with great locations. Thought about a hike in next door in gorgeous Calanques National Park – but decided 2 hour hike to get to one beach seemed extreme — so we took a nice boat ride from Cassis to see more calanques in less time. I took a dip in the Mediterranean. Had a hot dog with French fries, both on a baguette. We also had to park up the hill and take a bus down/up.
Saignon and Saint-Saturnin-lès-Apt: 2 quiet villages of the Luberon that are not too far from each other and both are excellent destinations. Saignon is just gorgeous and the “Saignon Rock” was built by Paleolithic people and was used as an observatory. You can walk up! Photos in slide show. The town Saint Saturnin is low-key and wonderful but at the top are amazing roman castle ruins, an old damn, etc. Visiting these two towns will make for a perfect Provencal day.
Les Baux-de-Provence: rock plateau village, former brutal medieval stronghold and Bronze Age troglodyte village before that (habitation dating to 6000 BC). The town is touristy AF but worth it for the incredible views and wild old ruins
Château La Coste: Winery and art/architecture destination with incredible location/views and a somewhat suspicious array of 50+ works from seemingly every famous living (or recently deceased) sculptor. Very cool, though easy to imagine the evil billionaire owner (hotelier Paddy McKillen) checking off a list. Art…what a racket. Tons of great works but none of it beat the views. Funny that there are works famous sculptors Bob Dylan (I enjoyed his rail car) and Michael Stipe.
Perhaps Avoid in Provence
La Isla de La Sorgue: was very irritating during their overpriced market day. Not that much to see. Everyone takes the exact same Instagram photo in the one picturesque corner. The Venice of Provence? Definitely not.
Gordes: I don’t know. Shrug. Crowded parking lots. Not that interesting. Maybe we didn’t walk down the mountain far enough.
St. Remy old town: Over the top touristy. A few nice fountains, including one dedicated to native crackpot Nostradamus. However, the nearby stuff mentioned above is awesome. Spend your time there. Les Baux is great and not that far, either.
ODAD5
ODAD4 (One Drawing a Day)
Kalkmalerier: Denmark’s Hidden Medieval Comix
I first saw kalkmalerier, chalk-painted church frescoes, on Bornholm, a Danish isle in the Baltic Sea (south of Sweden and north of Poland) in 2023. The Østerlars round church had some frescoes from the 1100s and I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. They all had a comic “Sunday Funnies” sort of vibe and illustrated sometimes brutal, violent scenarios in a light, whimsical way. igh art. I soon learned that there were 600 churches across Denmark adorned with kalkmalerier and I needed to see as many as possible during our 3 weeks across the 3 peninsulas of the kingdom, which is about the size of Colorado.
The frescoes date back to the 1100s and were created through the 1600s — but they were covered up after the reformation with lime wash and were hidden until they were discovered and restored in the late 1800s. After 14th century were in more of a gothic style.
That first trip in 2023 we saw kalkmalerier across the 3 of the 4 round churches on Bornholm (Østerlars, Olsker, Nylars), then the Lygby church north of Copenhagen, then the Bellinge church near Odense on Fyn. When we went back in 2024 (my girlfriend is Danish), we visited the Aarhus Cathedral and traveled south of Copenhagen to the isle of Møn to see the most famous and possibly best examples of kalmalerier. These frescoes were created by the anonymous “Elmelunde Master” in the late 1400s/early 1500s across 3 churches on the island (Elmelunde, Keldby, Fanefjord). This guy was kind of an early Warhol, replicating work across the different places of worship, with some sick, violent variations. We will be visiting DK again this summer and will be seeking out new and wild kalkmalerier examples once again.
Swipe for photos (apologies that the captions with locations are basically impossible to read):
Elemunde Church, Møn, Denmark 
Keldby Church, Møn, Denmark 
Østerlars Church, Bornholm 
Nylars Church, Bornholm 
Keldby Church, Møn, Denmark 
Bellinge Church, near Odense, Denmark 
Bellinge Church, near Odense, Denmark 
Elemelunde Church, Møn, Denmark 
Fanefjord Church, Møn, Denmark 
Elmelunde Church, Møn, Denmark 
Lyngby Church, Lyngby, Denmark 
Østerlars Church, Bornholm 
Nylars Church, Bornholm 
Lyngby Church, Lyngby, Denmark 
Fanefjord Church, Møn, Denmark 
Elmelunde Church, Møn, Denmark 
Elmelunde Church, Møn, Denmark 
Bellinge Church, near Odense, Denmark 
Store Heddinge Church, near Stevens Klint, Højerup, Denmark 
2 images from Aarhus Cathedral, Aarhus, Denmark 
Aarhus Cathedral, Aarhus, Denmark 
Keldby Church, Møn, Denmark 
Keldby Church, Møn, Denmark 
Keldby Church, Møn, Denmark 
Vibe’s dad’s book on Kalkmalerier from mid and east Jutland
One Drawing a Day (ODAD3)
ODAD2 (One Drawing a Day)
RareMusic.com: 1997-99
I heard Al Gore talk about the “information superhighway” and I was intrigued. Not a joke. I didn’t even own a computer until I was 30, in 1996 (a Mac Quadra) but I was interested in the idea of putting my xeroxed zine CapSoul Reviews online. A year or so later, I shared an idea with my friend Dan Cook of Gimme Gimme Records (ex-NY, now LA). I thought we should take his rarest records and post them to the internet, promoting his store in the process. Was it mainly a plan to get my hands on some holy grail wax? Probably. He curated the playlists amazingly, maximizing elite record collector interest. I found a piece of code that embedded “Shockwave Audio” (which later evolved into Flash). I just needed to change the file name and it streamed the song and it was smoother and sounded better than other stuff out there (like RealAudio). I digitized some incredible vinyl. I wrote some funny blurbs. Made some primitive web graphics.
I was working at a public relations agency at the time and they had “Bacon’s” books with contacts for every editor in every newspaper and magazine in the US. I began faxing the URL to various tech and music beat writers. I dropped little postcards with the URL at Kim’s Video on St. Marks. The site was written up or mentioned in Details, the Rotterdam Dagblad, USA Today, etc – as well as popular web-based link portals like Suck.com, memepool (which now has a cryptocurrency named after it), and others. The Beastie Boys heard it, through future Grand Royal CEO Ian C Rogers. Grand Royal. RareMusic would eventually become a streaming channel on GrandRoyal.com. I was also approached by the fine people at Word magazine, which was a really cool site, to do a monthly playlist with blurbs for what they called “Junk Radio”
I ended up getting a job as a web producer at Comedy Central and I didn’t feel like coming home at night to work on yet another website. The channel was live on Grand Royal, until they went bankrupt, and that was the end of RareMusic.com. I stored the files on Iomega Zip drives lol. All gone. I do have CDs of the music we posted though. I’ve been making my way through lately, which is why it’s on my mind.
One Drawing a Day (ODAD)
Undiscovered Brooklyn in Denmark
Den Gamle By in Aarhus, Denmark is one of the best and weirdest museums I’ve ever been to. It started as a place they transported really old buildings that were being torn down, rebuilding them into an old town, brick by brick. Cool enough, but they added a concept of recreating stores and apartments from 3 random years in history into neighborhoods: 1927, 1974, and for some baffling reason 2014. Exact replicas based on actual places. The execution is outrageously good. The level of detail, down to the olfactory variety, astonishing and sometimes really hilarious. From 74: A hippie communal apartment, a gynecologist office, a book store with a porno mag rack behind beads next to the children’s section. By the way, they don’t shield the kids from anything in this country and they mostly seem to turn into sensible adults. From 2014: a lesbian family, a single woman’s apartment, a Blockbuster Video that’s closing down. Funny. Tons and tons of random replicas. Actors in the stores and around town engage with you. There are period-correct phones in the rooms and you can call the other stores apartments and have conversations with visitors. Vibe’s niece Ida fooled me good in the paint shop calling from the butcher shop, asking if we had red paint to cover the blood on the walls. Had no idea it was her. Solid fun for 4 hours.
Previously Discovered NY: Niagara Falls
Sometimes when you’re a kid you don’t recognize when you’re emotionally moved by something. You may scoff at an astonishing sight. I remember going on a camp trip to Niagara Falls in the late 70s and asking a counselor: “what’s the big deal?”
“Are you kidding? It’s incredible,” he responded. Which made me question my tween perspective. It was a moment that still periodically enters my mind to this day, so it must have been an important one.
45 years later I can now officially report that Niagara Falls is a million times better as an adult than as an ungrateful little shit. Nothing about it is underrated. Yes, the park is touristy and the surrounding area isn’t particularly gorgeous. But holy shit, those falls are going to move you. My girlfriend wept on the ‘Maid of the Mist’ boat – another fabulous must do.
Go back. Or just go. See it for yourselves. Stay overnight and stop in Buffalo the next day like we did. The Albright Knox museum is excellent. Get a beef on weck for the road. Do it.
Coney Island Ave Barbershop
Uncle Neil is Back with Crazy Horse
Neil Young with Ralph Molina and Billy Talbot, the heaviest living rhythm section in rock, with second guitar from Willie Nelson’s nepo-baby Micah Nelson, dba Crazy Horse, played 2 nights this week at the Forest Hills Stadium, formerly known as the Forest Hills Tennis Stadium. I saw the first night.
It was a rainy day so I packed my nice umbrella but hired goons made me throw it into a box with hundreds of other nice umbrellas. It was rainy both nights.
We stopped by to say hi to Bill Sullivan, the Stadium’s kind creative director whose beautifully illustrated graphic portraits of past star performers (Beatles) and tennis greats (BJ King) who played there adorn the walls, along with plaques with bios that attach stylishly to the steel beams that hold the place up. He also does all the concert posters for the stadium and they are available on the first level (and online) at The Kiosk. There’s still a big tennis vibe to the place. Why would they play down its history as the original home of the US Open? It’s hard to think of another venue with such a deep music and sports history.
Our seats were in the middle of the floor, probably 20-25 rows back. There was an entire row in front of us that seemed like they were a cult of some kind. They all did a rain dance/chant and the rain actually stopped for a while! I found out later they were connected to the opening act, Rev Bill, which is some kind of anti-consumerist performance group or association and/or actual cult.
Neil and Crazy Horse came out and immediately launched into ‘Cortez the Killer’ and then hit after hit. I want to say, there is not anyone living or dead who I’d prefer to hear play the electric guitar than Neil Young, especially in this maximum rock context. His playing was as gorgeously unhinged and heavy as ever. We got ‘Cinnamon Girl,’ extra-extended guitar insanity on ‘Like a Hurricane’. ‘Don’t Cry No Tears’ (I felt like he played the suspended chord in reverse for a bit, intriguing, but I may have been hearing things). ‘Everybody Knows This is Nowhere’ and I might as well be on my knees but I’m still on my feet. ‘Powderfinger’ – the song with my favorite NY riff, the one he closes the verses with. ‘Vampire Blues’ from On Da Beach. Hyper-speeded out approach during the fast part on ‘Sedan Delivery’.
He also did a 3-song acoustic set. I nearly wept quite literally during ‘Heart of Gold’. I am, indeed, getting old.
There was an issue during the big finale, ‘Hey Hey My My’ (!!) where they sound kept going out (!!). You could only hear the stage monitors, barely. It would stop right before a rippin guitar solo but it would come back. I’m not sure why but I was completely convinced that this was a gag, as Neil seems capable of that kind of prank. I probably just wanted that to be true. I’m thinking it probably wasn’t.
“What’s your favorite planet?”
Neil repeated this a number of times throughout the set. Each time he would get a pretty weak “EARTH” from the 13,000 (sold out) fans. He shared some jolly disappointment as he said that he had been practicing to get the maximum audience response. He said very little else. He mentioned Bill’s work and talked about how the Monkees played there with Jimi Hendrix opening.
The venue is all around great with some of the usual challenges of big chaotic rock events. Mainly extremely large numbers of slow moving people, etc. Pretty poor design on some of high end portajohns, which feel like coffins. They gave me anxiety. You have to step up on a ledge inside the porta-coffin.
Had some slices at Austin Street Pizza beforehand. Pretty good, a solid choice for quick pre-show grub at the Forest Hills Stadium.
How Best to Die – In Person
I decided to pre-game my birthday this year with a half-day course and guided meditation on death. It seemed appropriate and also the topic seemed next -level from the usual helpful classes on emptiness at Kadampa on 24th street. I hadn’t slept well the night before and I’m not sure I got the most out of the meditation – but my girlfriend bought the recording and I’m looking forward to giving it another go. The Buddhists know the score.
When I was asked what I’d like to on my actual birthday, I considered asking her to drive me to Staten Island for some of the city’s best pizza, but I knew I also wanted something sweet with a candle in it, so I settled on the East Village outpost of Staten Island’s Joe & Pat’s, since it was around the corner from the fabulous Danish bakery Smør.
When I noted there was a Joe & Pat’s on First Avenue I was slightly perplexed. From my understanding Rubirosa on Mulberry Street was supposed to be the Manhattan version. I was a little suspicious at first, thinking at perhaps it was fakery along the lines of Patsy’s or Totonno’s, where the only true outlets are the original. However, an internet search confirmed it was real and that Rubirosa was opened by a son or grandson of the original family. Regardless, the cracker thin vodka sauce pizza at First Ave J&P’s slayed. I basically downed the entire large (but thin) pie, as my girlfriend Vibe was avoiding carbs that day and only nibbled. Glorious.
Smør Bakery is part of Smør, the restaurant, 2 doors down on E. 12th Street between First Ave and Avenue A. I’m not exactly sure why they need separate websites and Instagram accounts. Run by two Danes named Sebastian, the baked goods are completely outrageous. The cardamom buns are their incredible signature. They may give you cardamom burps for the rest of the day, which is very much not the worst burp situation you can experience. I ate half a birthday bun and then half of the rhubarb mint cream danish, before devouring the second halves of both immediately. They also have Danish doughnuts (Berliners) and the best Rugbrød I’ve had, which includes any I’ve had on my 3 trips to the Kingdom so far. The restaurant is also A+ with Danish hotdogs, pandekager, an array of smørrebrød, and other scandi treats.
Film Screening: Born Innocent
There’s a big, shocking reveal in the Redd Kross documentary. Something that I don’t think people generally know about. I’m not gonna spoil it but check it out when you can. It was a fun screening last night at Nighthawk Prospect Park with a Q&A with director Andrew Reich, the former executive producer on the television sitcom ‘Friends’! He did a great job of capturing the dynamic between brothers Jeff and Steven McDonald, and also communicating the macro and micro about Redd Kross, the subtle and unusual reasons they’re such a great rock n roll band. I have a deep love for Redd Kross and so many amazing memories of seeing them play during their peak with Robert Hecker on guitar in the late 80s and early 90s. I’m s fan of their “sell out” period (‘Phaseshifter’ etc ) and I feel like this was semi glossed over, only covered as part of being “out of place in the industry.” But maybe there’s not much more to communicate about how deeply and uniquely they did not give a fuck. I think back to seeing them to seeing them during this period at Maxwell’s and mentioned that someone in the industry called them “the alternative Nelson.” Amazing. Long live Redd Kross.
Coincidentally, strangely and sadly, the @reddkross IG account posted a tribute to their former manager, Joanna “Spock” Dean, who just died. I actually knew her very briefly and we hung out in 1988. Seeing her face brought a few memories flooding back briefly, including traveling downtown to CBGB to see Redd Kross but failing to get in because it was during the CMJ convention and it was filled with CMJ badge-wearing dbags, even though she had considerable pull being their former manager. I didn’t know it at the time but Spock is an LA punk scene legend. She was a member off the all-girl band Backstage Pass and apparently played a big role in developing the Paisley Underground scene. I didn’t know her for long but she was so cool and I feel lucky to have spent the time. RIP Spock!
Battling Turks on King’s Highway
During the pandemic, King’s Gourmet on King’s Highway (beneath the Q/B train station) offered me a limited but unique supply of groceries along my morning walks. Decent $8/lb coffee, a small butcher with good quality meats and pre-marinated shish kebab, bulk nuts, pre-packaged Turkish pide bread, and large tins of Valbreso cheese. More recently I’ve become aware of a new, much larger Turkish grocery on the very same block, Okka Foods, so I checked it out. My first impression was this place is sadly going to put the smaller store out of business pretty quickly, with an excellent selection of produce, a bakery department with a wide range of reasonable fresh breads, including a German sunflower bread that I am now addicted to (and cakes that look great but am afraid to try). In fact, it had everything that King’s Gourmet offers at lower prices (the Valbreso at King’s inched up to $18 or $19…but is still $15 at Okka). I started visiting several times a week. There’s a little corner with its own register when you walk in with fresh boreks, which are actually killer, and other pastries. Overall the prices are much lower than any of the shitty Brooklyn grocery stores like C-Town and MetFoods, which a higher-end selection of goods. However, the place is starting to lose me. You really need to look at the expiration dates and check the quality here (a fancy jar of peanut butter was expiring in one week, avocados incapable of ripening, etc.) All that said, hard to see how I’ll stop visiting for select items (e.g., the goddamned sunflower bread).
Get Over Yourself and Enjoy the Lemon Twigs
I’ve had an aversion to what might be described as overtly-retro dress up rock since the garage-rock revival of the 1980s. Back then it always had a bit of a Star Trek Convention vibe to it, even if I liked the music. I did like some of the bands but those Beatle Boots and 60s style hats were a turnoff. Often, a phoney or jive vibe infiltrated the band’s stage presence. I did, however, like the dress up components of the scene when it came to the girls who showed up in 60s miniskirts. My aversion stayed with me after this style of music became legitimately popular via bands like the White Stripes and the Black Keys. I just couldn’t get over it. At that point, garage rock was all over TV car commercials, and I was profoundly disinterested.
The Lemon Twigs feel different for some reason, although I was immediately skeptical for the same reasons when I first saw/heard them. While there may be nothing remotely original about their style, the execution of their compositions is impeccable and the brotherly close harmonies are wonderful. It’s pure rock candy in the best way. They also veer into catchy pop ideas that comes across in shameless in a really adorable. I feel like they’re really going for a HIT RECORD and I feel real respect for their approach. I hope they succeed and I feel like they have a great shot at it.
They totally pulled it off live. Great playing and singing. It was a totally fun time. TV was sold out and crowded but I didn’t have any interactions with jerks and didn’t get too claustrophobic. The opener, SUO, a power trio, were also excellent. I want to hear more. Bass was handled by the charming Josephine from the Josephine Network. I feel like she’s in half the bands in north Brooklyn these days. And I’m happy that there’s some semblance of a scene these days that doesn’t repel me.
Pork with a Side of Fascism
I only recently learned there was a Brooklyn outpost of Faicco’s, the pork store with the amazing gigantic Italian sandwiches that I know from Bleeker Street. Perhaps it’s the original store? The Brooklyn Faicco’s does not have sandwiches but they do have a range of fine products, including pork braciola, lard bread, fresh mozz, rice balls and San Daniele prosciutto for $6 less per pound than you’d pay Whole Foods or Wegman’s. And the folks who work there couldn’t be nicer or more helpful. Not sure how to cook that braciola? “I’ll run and ask the guys in the back!” You’re always going to walk out happy.
Separately, the last time I was there, there was a picture of Reagan with the quote, “If we lose freedom here, there is no place to escape to. This is the last stand left on earth.” My girlfriend, who is from a country that one could objectively say is freer than the US (Denmark) found this HILARIOUS and I found it strangely endearing, even though I believe Reagan was a real monster. Sadly this picture is gone and has been replaced with a picture of an oddly fit Trump hoisting an American flag with Nancy Pelosi’s corpse and “RINOs” nipping at his feet. Behind the counter there is a picture of Cowboy Don. I guess the unfortunate truth is that Faicco’s is ALL IN on American fascism and obviously doesn’t care about losing our freedoms here in the USA after all. But I guess it’s not uncommon for Italians to love a good fascist, historically speaking at least.
The real question is, will I be back? Probably.
Weak Stream? Banksy in NYC 2013
I thought the tag above the dogs leg read “My second tat was a Bansy” (sic)
I’m a fan of street artist Banksy, so I was happy when I heard he was doing a new show on the streets of NYC called Better Out Than In. I’m not sure what to make of his latest public swindle but it’s fun to see it unfold. At first, the work seems sub-par, maybe on purpose. Who knows with this guy? People are talking and it’s cute to see a Banksy buzz sweep the city. One thing about Banksy is that lovers and haters seem to argue the same points about him. He’s a cheat and a troublemaker. The New York Times take him pretty seriously. I personally think a lot of his stuff is memorable. And of course, Exit Through the Gift Shop is a classic motion picture.
The audio companions to the work in this series are hilarious. If anything, you should check those out.
His art sometimes seems to explicitly ask to be defaced. Or maybe his crew are doing it themselves? The first piece on Allen Street in Chinatown was almost instantly erased and then semi-restored by somebody. The second one (a bad NYC accent joke) seemed really terrible and also lasted about a day. Cheers to the next several weeks.
People snapping pics of the latest Banksy on 24th Street near 6th Ave
Stuck in a J-Hole, The Kosher Bagel Hole
The Kosher Bagel Hole of Midwood seems undervalued/undervisited by non-ultra Orthodox Jews, even though (or maybe just because) it is across the street from da deified Di Fara’s Pizza on Avenue J. The lines at the Kosher B. Hole can be long too but they generally move faster, since Dom across the street has been making every pie by hand for fifty years. The bagels are as good as the best in the city.
Wait in line with exotic Semitic characters in the wilds of Midwood. If you get there at the right time of the morning, you may get the most perfect hot bagel in history, even if the whole bag is rarely like that. You just need a few. Crispy on the outside and piping hot on the inside. You know what I’m talking about. The rest of them will be good too.
Whatever you do not eat that morning, SLICE AND FREEZE IMMEDIATELY.
Lines out the door before Passover and an 8 day closure. Check the Jewish calendar for holidays.
Pretty sure these places are not related to the “Bagel Hole” in Park Slope.
Kosher Bagel Hole
1423 Avenue J
Brooklyn
Kosher Bagel Hole
1431 Coney Island Avenue
Brooklyn
Trains: Q to Avenue J
Le Crepe Et La Vie (Pancake Life)
There are a growing number of businesses in Ditmas Park that sell multiple dissimilar things . There’s a bar/flowershop and now a new combination bar/guitar shop. Against all odds, the flowershop bar works great but the idea of drinking in a music store is a horrifying thought. Most of my memories of guitar shops include assholes playing Alex LIfeson riffs and the like — but I guess I could see myself stopping in to buy strings or picks. The latest dual-offering in Flatbush is Le Crepe Et La Vie, a combination creperie and thrift store. Nothing precious or conceptual here, just an older guy who appears to be Greek with his wife running a small thrift store in the back.
I went there with my daughters a few days after they opened and the owner, Konstantino, let them try their hand at making crepes. Although I promised him I wouldn’t tell anyone about it, the pictures are below. Now he’s too damn busy to offer up such things. We were just lucky — and because of his warmth and delicious fucking crepes I’ve been back several times since.
Konstantino is hilarious and always complains about how busy he is, with a proud smirk on his face. I asked him, “You didn’t want to succeed?” I get the feeling he thought he was opening a business as a hobby as he nears retirement age — but now he’s completely overwhelmed because this hood really needed a place like this.
Boardwalk Empire is 3 Episodes into Season 4, Producers Still Don’t Know How It Ends
The Flatbush home of Eli Thompson’s TV family.
They’re definitely not finished, anyway. They keep coming back to E. 18th St between Ditmas and Dorchester Aves to shoot more scenes, bringing their cute little 1920s cars out on the street. They’re back today and tomorrow if you want to stop by and stalk Steve Buscemi while he sends text messages. No cars this time — just inside shots of the house. From watching the show I’ve identified the house they shoot in (above) as that of Nucky Thompson’s brother Eli (played by Shea Whigham). Man, the owners of these beautiful old Victorian Homes must be thrilled to have ongoing income from the show biz and advertising industries. It must be nice to have HBO pay for your new roof.
So far this season I’ve been enjoying Jeffrey Wright as the black PhD show biz impresario and heroin kingpin — but Richard Harrow needs to die a little bit quicker.
Horribly Defaced “Masstransiscope” Restored Again
In late 2012, I stopped looking at the amazing moving mural behind the grates in the Dekalb Tunnel because it had been horribly vandalized/tagged. It was the last cool thing you’d see before the Q train crossed over the Manhattan Bridge into Disneyland and your day filled with buzzwords, acronyms, dumb branded websites, advertising, and even worse bullshit that all of that. This live animation by artist Bill Brand never got old but after it happened I mostly opted to stand on the south side of the train, with the view the Brooklyn Bridge and Statue of Liberty. Nothing to sneeze at either. I’m not sure when the mural was fixed because it was too depressing to look at after the damage was done. Apparently it was restored in 2008 too, probably for the same reasons.
Who knew? It’s back! Take the Q or the B train from Brooklyn into Manhattan and check it out. Look to the right side of the train after it leaves the Dekalb station.
The Best Frozen Dumplings in Bulk
There are several places in NYC to get amazing, real deal pork/leek dumplings in frozen form, usually $10 for 50. It’s great to have them around for a quick snack, side dish, or a meal in a pinch. Kei Feng Fu in Sunset Park’s Chinatown is comparable to Manhattan revered Prosperity Dumpling. My kids rated these, slightly smaller potstickers higher than Prosperity, in an unintentional, side-by-side taste test (I was running out of one or the other).
The best dumplings might be from Lam Zhou (144 E. Broadway in Manhattan), though I’ve never purchased the frozen variety. If you’re in Queens, try Lao Bei Fang Dumpling House in Elmhurst, though the last time I was there they seemed a little too doughy.
You really can’t lose with any of these places — but Kei Feng Fu wins Brooklyn for me, so far.
How To Prepare Your Frozen Dumplings
- Fry dumplings in a little oil for 2 minutes
- Add a cup of water and cover
- Cook for 10 minutes* or until water is gone and the dumplings start to sizzle in the pan. If water is gone too soon you might want to add more. You don’t want the raw pork to cook for less than 10
* 2024 note: a comment in 2018 said “My Lord, please do not cook them for 10min. Adjust to 2 tablespoons of water, it shouldn’t take more than 5min for the water to boil off. Leave in pan until you smell toastyness (like toast Browning). Source: am Chinese, have been cooking dumplings for 10+years.”
Kei Feng Fu
4801 8th Avenue
Brooklyn
Note: The place is on 48th street, not on 8th avenue. It’s the first building around the corner. Look for the graffiti tags that they obviously have no interest in painting over. This is a real dive.
Train: D to Ft. Hamilton
Drunken But Influential Hard-Rocking Aussie Farmers Play NY, Featured in New Documentary
Cosmic Psychos with M.O.T.O.
Cake Shop, NYC, Saturday, September 21, 2013
I remember the name of the band the Cosmic Psychos from back in the early 90s but I didn’t know anything about them until recently. They are notable for being an relatively obscure Australian band that somehow got under the skin of the Seattle scene during the formative years of Grunge. Not too many other people knew about them. Now they’re celebrating 30 years if existence and are the subject of a new documentary called Blokes You Can Trust. The band comes from a long line of dumb and repetitive but loveable heavy Australian rock and roll music. The Saints, Radio Birdman, The Hard Ons, hell even AC/DC fits the bill. When it comes to the Cosmic Psychos, when the wah-wah pedal kicks in, I learned last night that they deliver powerfully inside the electric church.
This one’s for the cunt who took my farm – Ross Knight
I hate to give Eddie Vedder credit for anything because it’s hard to trust anyone who sits on surfboards playing ukuleles — but his comments about how great the Cosmic Psychos are live in the trailer for the documentary (below) are accurate. It appears that Mudhoney and Butch Vig bolster the film’s credibility on this matter. Kurt was a fan, of course. When they got onstage one floor beneath the baked goods at Cake Shop on Ludlow Street, their heavy machinery-operating style bent me over and plowed me. True, the guitarist looked like he was inches from death. He stumbled and almost knocked into me twice before they went on. It looked like his beer baby bump was about due and he wore a wifebeater. He had a dirty, orange John Boehneresque alcoholic glow. I imagine the Replacements’ Bobby Stinson might look like this now, had he lived. But the bloke channeled Ron Ashton in the best possible way and completely shredded the lid off during the entire event. Ross Knight, hunched over and driving the attack via his rural-yet-industrial, fuzzed-out bass and Lemmy-influenced vocal stylings. This is an interesting cat and there is a good Q&A with him via Austin Chronicle.
Leading contender for best rock show of the year 2013.
Check out the trailer for the new documentary
Separate post on opening act M.O.T.O. to follow, maybe.
Undiscovered Brooklyn 