Safety First!

Roar! Recently NeighborhoodScout.com put out a list of the safest neighborhoods in NYC based on FBI data gathered from local law enforcement agencies. It turns out the two safest neighborhoods in NYC are right here in Brooklyn! My own neighborhood of Bushwick didn't rank very high so I decided to pay a visit to the two safest neighborhoods and even the playing field!

I rode over to Prospect Park then cut over to 5th Ave and rode all the way down to Bay Ridge which was ranked as the second safest neighborhood in NYC!

Oh no, looks like someone might be jay-stomping over in Bay Ridge! This will take them down a peg or two! Roar!

Roar? And what's this? It looks like someone might have put up some graffiti! Maybe Bay Ridge really isn't as nice as it seems?! I wonder what the safest neighborhood will be like?

On my way over to NYC's safest neighborhood I passed this crazy house full of all sorts of kitschy memorabilia! This place looks like it belongs in Gerritsen Beach! Roar!

I rode up Bedford ave into Midwood, the safest neighborhood in the city, and threw a sticker up on this street pole! Oh yeah, I can practically see the property values falling! Roar!

This looks like the perfect place to park my bike! Roar! 

Good thing it doesn't say no roaring! ROAR! 

Here I am just hanging around by the school! Roar!

I guess Midwood isn't as safe as it might seem! Looks like this fellow has been going around scamming people all throughout the neighborhood! What a jerk! Roar!

I guess one of the reasons Midwood is so safe is that it is a purely residential neighborhood with several different neighborhood watch groups. First is the Nottingham Block Watchers who, like their name suggests, are all about giving back to the rich community members of Midwood! Then there is a local Jewish Shomrim that also patrols the area. With all this security Midwood is pretty much locked down! I better be careful! Roar!

Roar... Maybe all of this wasn't such a good idea after all...

Snuggle Harbor

Roar! Today was such a lovely day I decided I should take Giraffe to the Snug Harbor Cultural Center out on Staten Island. Snug Harbor was originally founded as a retirement home for sailors and was later home to the Governor of Staten Island. Now it's an amazing historical site with a bunch of super sweet gardens!

After taking the ferry over Giraffe and I went for a brief ride up Richmond Terrace where we arrived at the entrance to Snug Harbor. Once inside the first place we stopped was this awesome duck pond! There was even a goose! Maybe we could all play a game together? Quack, Quack, ROAR!

Next, Giraffe and I went over to the old Governor's Mansion. This is a pretty sweet looking house but it could probably benefit from a little work. Then this place would be even cooler than Gracie Mansion! Roar!

Behind the Governors Mansion is a sweet rose garden! I decided to take a moment and stop and smell the roses! Roar!

Up the road a bit there was this beautiful enclosed path that cut across the property. Wow, tis place looks so romantic! R-roar!

Snug Harbor also has it's very own hedge maze! Talk about awesome! Giraffe and I thought about going inside but we didn't want to get lost! That would have been so scary!

They also have this beautiful Tuscan garden! Maybe later Giraffe and I should go get a nice Italian pizza! Roar!

From the Tuscan garden Giraffe and I headed down the healing path past these awesome stone fountains! Too bad the water had been turned off for the season.

Snug Harbor also has one of the two Classical Chinese gardens in the United States! Bao Bao would love this place! Here Giraffe and I are in front of the moon viewing pavillion. I sure wish I thought to come here back during the moon festival!

Next we headed down to the pond and snuggle under a willow tree.  So cute!

Next Giraffe and I had some fun doing some live-action role playing in the reeds! "Roar! I'm coming to get you!" "Oh no! Eeee!"

Roar? Where did Giraffe go? I guess I better go look in these tall reeds and see if I can find her! Hold on I'll be right back...

When Giraffe and I were leaving Snug Harbor we passed by the front of the Children's Museum. They used to have this awesome sculpture of a praying mantis out front but it was recently damaged when that tornado came through New York City back in September! I sure hope they fix this guy soon because he is pretty awesome! Roar!

Roaring it up IN THE HEIGHTS!

Roar! Tonight Giraffe and I had tickets to go see the hit Broadway Musical "In the Heights!" Giraffe really likes musicals, I think they're... ok. She was really excited to see "In the Heights" so I suggested we head up the neighborhood it's set in to get some context for the show. So Giraffe and I followed Duke Elington's advice and took the A train to the "top of the world" to see what was happening in Washington Heights!

Right when we got off the train Giraffe and I were greeted by a ton of awesome looking Spanish restaurants! We were both feeling pretty hungry so we stopped at this great looking place to eat. I got pernil and Giraffe got beans and rice!

After lunch we headed over to Jumel Terrace to see the Morris-Jumel Mansion. Here are Giraffe and I on the terrace. It sure looks nice!

Roar! Here I am smiling for the camera!

Here we are in front of the Morris-Jumel Mansion. This is Manhattan's oldest house, it was built in 1765 and was headquarters to that t-rex lovin' gentleman, general George Washington! He lived here until 1776 when he was forced to flee New York after Continental Army was defeated in the Battle of Brooklyn.

After leaving the Morris Jumel Mansion Giraffe and I headed over to the corner of 160th street and Edgecombe to visit the apartment building where the famous African-American singer and actor Paul Robeson lived. Robeson was an amazing baritone and recorded a ton of great folk songs with Lawrence Brown back in the 1920's. He is one our favorite singers and it was cool to see where he lived!

After checking out Paul Robeson's house Giraffe and I went over to the Church of the Intercession on 155th street to visit the graveyard and see where someone very special to both of us was buried.

Here Giraffe and I are in the cemetery of the Church of the Intercession where we came to visit the grave site of John James Audubon! After famously studying the birds of North America he moved his family to an estate up here in Washington Heights where he lived until his death in 1851. The Church of the intercession where he is buried also has a funny story behind it. Originally founded in 1846, the Church of the Intercession was where all the rich Manhattanites were to buried rather than at the new cemetery belt establish between the border of Brooklyn and Queens. This way they would never have to leave the island ever again! Roar!

After paying our respects to Audubon, Giraffe and I decided it would be fun to check out the Spanish Heritage museum over on Broadway. Here I am outside the museum in front of a sculpture of El Cid that was in front of another monument about Spain's arrival in the new world. Talk about strange!

Here Giraffe is in front of Bastida's The Provinces of Spain while I am in the hall that contains the world's second largest collection of paintings by Goya and El Greco. They only have about a half dozen paintings by each artist but that is still more than twice as much than any other museum outside of the Museo del Prado in Madrid!

 They also had a lot of nifty pottery including this awesome dragon plate! Roar!

After a fun afternoon, Giraffe and I headed back downtown to Times Square to see the Tony award winning musical all about the cultural heritage of Washington Heights! Here I am outside the theater right before the show.

Right across the street they were opening a new musical all about Scientology. Wow, they sure will make a musical about anything these days! Roar!

We had seats way up in the back that gave us a great view of everything on stage! Shh! Quiet, the show is starting! roar.

Wait a second... This is nothing like Washington Heights! There certainly wasn't any hip-hop dancing in streets while Giraffe and I were there! It just goes to show that mainstream musical theater is only capable of offering superficial story lines that barely pass for reality. At least Giraffe liked it! Roar!

At the ISCP Open Studios!

Roar! This past weekend was when the International Studio & Curatorial Program held its semi-annual open studios. This is a really cool event where any one from the public can go and see what all the artists who work over at ISCP have been up to! There was a ton of great art and it was great to be able to meet all the artist first claw and talk to them about their work. Here are some of my favorites:

This is a fantastic series by Maryam Najd where she mixed paint according the percentage of colors in a nation' s flag and then painted these new, monochromatic flags!

Taipei 101 is a skyscraper that looks like an unstable stack of Chinese food take-out boxes and this cool, wind up Taipei 101 built by Chao-tsai Chiu captures it perfectly! Roar!

I also really like this painting by artist Peter Gregorio. It's called Post-Human which is the opposite of what I am! Roar!

This was probably the most amazing thing I saw at Open Studios! It's a documentary by Dutch filmmaker Renzo Martens called "Episode III Enjoy Poverty." It is a critical and somewhat painful look at the post-conflict situation in the Congo and how many organizations are able to profit from the poverty they help to fight. Renzo heads to the Congo himself and attempts to teach the people there how to profit from their own poverty. He fails miserably! For me this is the defining image from the film, a barge floating down the Congo river, bearing a glowing, neon sign that reads "ENJOY POVERTY."

After watching that long movie I was ready for some serious snacks! Luckily there was a ton of great looking food at the ISCP!

Ugg... and some not so great looking food... roar...

After seeing those not so great looking breads I needed to head up to the roof to get some air! The ISCP has a pretty sweet roof but unfortunately it was closed for the season!

There was this mysterious door though. I wonder what could be on the other side...

OH MAN! It's a tug boat on fire! I really hate it when art gets crazy on me. Roar!