Back in the Old Cheesecake Lines

Roar! National Cheesecake Day was today and Junior's Restaurant in Downtown Brooklyn was giving out 60 cent slices of cheesecake so I rode on over to get me some delicious cheesecake at a bargain price!

Woah! Just look at this line! I guess in today's tough economic times cheescake is a real luxury! It reminds me of the stories my great granddaddy P. Rex used to tell me about having to wait on the cheescake lines back during the great depression.

Roar! Old P. Rex sure loved his cheescake! He said he used to wait in line for hours every day just to get a slice! I can't wait to get my own!

After waiting in line for over 2 hours I finally got my slice of cheesecake! It was pretty darn delicious but I don't know if I'd wait in line that long again just for a cheap slice. In order for me to wait in line that long for anything the deal would have to be pretty amazing. Roar!

Mother India Zero!

Roar! Last night I went over to the Prospect Park Bandshell to see a sweet remix of the Bollywood classic Mother India! The show was free and I had a lot of fun at the park.

Here I am in front of the bandshell waiting for the show to start. It was a nice ride down to the park on my bike but I sure am thirsty! I wonder if they have anything around here for me to drink!

Roar! Luckily for me they were giving away free Vitamin Water! The lady at the sample table was really nice and was so surprised to meet a dinosaur that liked Viatmin Water. She thought all we liked was meat!

The Vitamin Water lady even gave me this sweet VIP ticket to get into the friends only section of the bandshell. All I had to do was write about Vitamin Water in my blog! No problem!

The opening band was a fusion group called Falu. They were pretty entertaining but I think they had a few too many instruments. Roar!

The remix of Mother India was super cool! The artist who remixed the movie and wrote the score for it was called DJ Tigerstyle! He did such a great job. The movie is the story of a mother living in a village with her sons and all the terrible things that happen to them. It's a classic Bollywood movie!

It was a really great night at the bandshell. I love when they do these free concerts at the park. Roar! In fact I just love summer!

T-Rex Goes to Court and Back to School Special!

Roar! One bourough I definitely haven't spent enough time in is the Bronx! I've only been here a couple of times before, once to visit the northernmost point in New York City and then again on my recent summer solstice adventure. In order to rectify this I decided to head up there to check out a few more of the Key to the City locations. Luckily for me two of them were close enough together that I could do them both in one day!

Here I am in front of the Bronx County Courthouse. I bet there are tons of important judicial decisions made here everyday! Maybe even some right now! Truthfully I don't know much about this stuff, it was a roar for a roar back in my day! Let's go inside and see!

The inside of the courthouse is like one big maze around a center room. The center conference room was super cool looking but unfortunately they wouldn't let any one inside. I guess that's where they keep the laws. Roar...

My key opened this suggestion box downstairs by the Department of Marriage. To get there I had to go down a very specific staircase and through a labyrinth of identical corridors. I even saw a minotaur, but he was just there for small claims court.

There was a ton of different notes in the box! Not many of them were suggestions though. There was even this sweet temporary tattoo and another sudoku! Someone up here in the Bronx sure loves sudoku! Roar!

Next I decided to head up to Public School 73. On my way up there I passed a couple of pieces of interesting street art.

Here I am in front of the McMural at the McDonalds over by the new Yankee stadium. I'm not really sure if I'm loving it. 

Wow! The folks at Micky D's up here sure are strict about their outside food policy! Roar!

On my way up to the school I passed this sweet mural too! Look at the cool parrot! I love birds!

Here I am in front of the display case at Public School 73! PS 73 is located in District 9 of the Bronx which is one of the poorest areas in the city. Maybe someone will make a movie about it someday! As for the display case, there sure are a bunch of cool looking things in it! Let's open it up and see what they are!

There was even this sweet envelope with notes from all of the students. Too bad it was empty, I would have really liked to hear what all the kids had to say! Roar...

I left this sweet motivational poster inside the display case for the kids. I sure hope they like it!

Wow! I had a lot of fun exploring the Bronx today! I can't wait to come back up here to do the rest of the Key to City locations. Roar!

Visiting the Ca-T-dral of St. John the Divine

Roar! This afternoon I found myself up in the Upper West Side so I decided to stop by and visit the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, another of the Key to the City Locations. The cathedral is such a neat place and is the seat of the Bishop for the Epicopal Diocese of New York. 

They have this really amazing sculpture of Good overcoming Evil in the garden next to the cathedral. I hesitate to to say it but this sculpture is pretty... epic.

Here I am inside the cathedral. It's really somber and beautiful inside. I love all the stained glass! Now let's go see what my key opens!

My key opens this gate to the Baptismal Area. Hmm... let's go take a look inside.

Roar! There isn't any water in there! I guess there aren't any baptisms being performed today. This is a neat little area but I was disappointed to find that anyone could walk into the area by just going around through another room. Oh well, I guess every key location can't be completely exclusive!

I'm back outside the cathedral. It's such a beautiful building and a wonderful addition to the architecture of this area! Be sure to visit if you ever find yourself up here!

Independence Day Adventure

Roar! Today, America celebrates its Independence Day! There were so many options for different things I could do! I was going to go to Coney Island again and check out the hot dog eating contest, but Major League Eating told me it wasn't fair for a dinosaur to enter, so instead I decided to pay a visit to America itself. Turns out it's right over the border in Queens.

Turn's out Maspeth, Queens is America! At least that's what this extreme mural tells me!

Maspeth is also home to Mt. Olivet Cemetery, one of the earliest cemeteries in the city. It sits on the highest point in the town and offers great views of the Manhattan skyline. Roar! Across from the cemetery, the old Queens County Hotel now serves as a flower shop.

Apparently heroes are also really big here in Maspeth! They even raise their kids to be them! Roar!

Maspeth is such a quaint American town. The McDonalds is even in keeping with the village's rustic aesthetic. But do they serve heros? Roar!

The old LIRR line used to split here. Though the tracks have long since been pulled up, this sign is still a reminder of when the railroad used to stop here. There also used to be a trolley line in addition to the LIRR. Now Maspeth only has a couple of bus lines that run through it and is one of the harder to access neighborhoods in the city.

Roar! It's BINGO time! I can't think of a more American pastime than BINGO! Now I know where to come when I get a hankerin' to play! Too bad they were closed for America's Independence Day, otherwise I would have been throwing down chips left and right!

It was really fun exploring Maspeth today! Afterwards I went home and grilled up on the roof with some friends! Happy 4th of July everyone! Roar!

From Warhol to Whitman

Roar! Today was a pretty cool day! I went over to the Brooklyn Museum to check out the Key to the City location there, and I went over to the new Brooklyn Bridge Park to celebrate Walt Whitman's birthday! First, I went over to the Brooklyn Museum where my key opened a mysterious door in the the American Wing.

Here I am in front of the mysterious door! It's right next to a portrait of the sensible, T-Rex lovin' gentleman, George Washington! What a great place for a secret!

Here I am opening the door. I can't wait to see what's inside!

Woah! Look at how cute all those animals are! It turns out the door housed a secret exhibit of rare Fabergé carved animals. Fabergé is well know for their eggs, so it's cool to see what happens when they finally hatch! Roar!

After checking out the Key to the City location I decided to explore a bit more of the Brooklyn Museum before heading over to celebrate Walt Whitman's birthday. 

This is a great, powerful painting of Niagra Falls. There was a great quote on the wall next to the painting by a third grader who felt this painting was one of the most beautiful things they had ever seen. It's so nice to know that great art can still be so inspiring to today's youth! Roar! 

The museum also had this great exhibit featuring the later works of Andy Warhol. It was so exciting to see some of the rarer works of one of my favorite artists. Here I am in front of a painting he did of the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. Seeing a volcanic eruption always makes me so emotional... roar...

Here I am looking at one of Warhol's paintings of the Last Supper. It's so neat to see how he incorporated advertising elements and various products along with the religious themes. I wonder what he was going for with all of that? Roar!

This is one of my favorite Warhol pieces! It's a silk screened image of Christ repeated 192 times. It's a pretty imposing image and really speaks volumes of Warhol's deep religious convictions. Roar!

There were lots of other great Warhol pieces on display including some of his collaborations with Basquiat and some of his urine paintings. It's a really great collection of his work and I definitely recommend checking it out!

After leaving the museum I went over to the new Brooklyn Bridge Park to partake in some serious Walt Whitman birthday partying! 

There were a ton of different performances and poetry readings. All the different bands played songs they'd written for the occasion inspired by Walt Whitman's poetry. There was even root beer flavored ice cream! Here I am watching a performance by Prince Rama of Ayodhya, one of my favorite local bands. They did such a great job! It was really cool to see them play as the sun went down. What a perfect end to a summer's day! Roar!