Week 26
July 3 & 4th, 2016
Off Broadway Play
Coney Island
Train In/Out: Fairfield, CT
Miles walked: 12 (over 2 days)
Camera: Olympus OM-D E-M1 with m.Zuiko 17mm f1.8, m.Zuiko 12-40mm PRO, m.Zuiko 75-300mm
Week 26 - Half Way There!
It's amazing to me that I'm at Week 26. Overall, the Mondays have gone by very quickly. I'm in a routine now. I no longer feel like a "fraud" heading into the city, it feels like the best job I can give myself right now. I think my photography has changed over the weeks. I've found I love editing pics and writing this blog page each week, and I get to hear from some kind people who enjoy the images - always makes my day!!
Since 4th of July fell on a Monday and my husband had some time off, we decided to do an overnight in Brooklyn. Hubby's request was that he wanted to see the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest at Coney Island. I had yet to explore Coney Island, so this was a perfect idea. And as luck would have it, a friend had a pair of tickets for an off Broadway show that we could use on July 3rd. Perfect!
The full quote reads "Nature must not win the game, but she cannot lose." I love the quote. To me it means we are constantly battling mother nature to survive, but she always gets her way. Nature is truly an unknown we cannot control.
New York Times article on the subway mosaic here: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/27/nyregion/subway-mosaic-turns-riders-into-underground-philosophers.html?_r=0
Destination #1 of the day, The Lowline. Haven't heard of it? Well that's mostly because it doesn't exactly exist yet. It's an idea in the making. A proposed underground space that would funnel light underground to grow plants and create an indoor park. They are still raising money and exploring options and issues regarding building such a space. On the weekends, they have a "lab" setup, like a prototype of what they are proposing to put underground. It's in a part of the Essex Street Market that is no longer in use (basically a warehouse space).
Shadows on the ground.
They have one spot where natural light is coming through from the roof, but mostly they are using electric lights to simulate what they want to create underground with funneled light from above. (sorry, this pic is overexposed)
Gonna need to sell a lot of pet rocks to fund this project although we heard a guy say funding is not the issue, it's more about logistics of the physical space.
Notice a ladder in the background...
For some reason I found this ladder shadow intriguing - perhaps more than the Lowline.
Leaving the Lowline, this peace of litter on the ground cracked me up.
Ah ha! So here everyone is being warned about those darn scary grates! Stay away.
Next to the Lowline is the Essex Street Market. In its day it was apparently quite the place for shopping, not as big or bustling as it once was.
Nice try subway grates, trying to entice me by putting wine corks in your dangerous spaces.
Talk about a corner office!
I'm so glad I didn't wear my milk box necklace today, that would have been awkward.
#lovewall
FYI. Our Destination #2 of the day was a fail. I'm not going to tell you where it was because I want it to be a surprise when I get to photograph it. It's a special art installation, but unbeknownst to me, it's closed in the summer months. It will be worth the wait to any 52 MM followers. I promise.
Prince Street pizza. Rave reviews online. Meh on the pizza. Did like the decor.
Camera Monster makes these cool t-shirts with images of old cameras that he takes himself. He didn't have an Olympus t-shirt or I would have bought one. He said he is working on one.
Article on Camera Monster: http://www.marketsofnewyork.com/2015/05/we-are-camera-monsters-capturing-the-beauty-of-the-camera-itself/
Feet. (sad, I know)
Yes it does. And this has been a challenging project, but one that is feeling more bold every day.
I got one picture of her. Love it!
I can very much relate to this quote.
:)
Making our way to the subway to head up to 36th & 8th Avenue to get to the theater. Nice subway tile mosaic.
The man buns are really coming out in the city lately - they may need their own blog page.
Across the street from the theater on 36th & 8th Ave. I researched but didn't find anything useful as far as what this building is / was. Fancy font on the engraved lettering.
Heading to our seats at the Abington Theater. We saw the play "STET", based on the true story about a woman who claimed to be gang raped and Rolling Stone Magazine ran a featured story in 2014 only to find out that the girl did not tell the truth. It was called "A Rape On Campus" in Rolling Stone; they retracted the article a month later.
LOVED the play! I don't go to live productions very often (not really my thing) but this one was definitely enjoyable! The stage never changed so you had to use your imagination as they used the space as an office, a dorm room, etc. And the "window"s in the back displayed video a few times which was really clever.
Here's a WIKI page about the real life magazine incident: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Rape_on_Campus
Just a lot going on.
I want to see the woman who is willing to try this thing. OMG, that looks like a great way to cook off a section of your hair, or have to cut it off because you can't get it untangled.
Good morning, Brooklyn Park Slope doggies! Do you live in this store? Because it's 4th of July morning and you are barking your heads off at us from this closed store.
We're making our way to the subway, a bit of a hike because the F train subway station was not open this weekend due to construction so we had to hike over to a different station.
We now know why they call it Park SLOPE. I swear everything was up hill, both ways.
And here I was thinking, wow, it could be crowded getting on the subway...everyone in Brooklyn must headed to Coney Island on this festive 4th of July day. Ummm...
Shot from the subway window, this is a small part of this cemetery. It was HUGE. It spanned both sides of the subway tracks for a long ways. Even my husband looked over at me as we went by with big eyes. I have never seen such a large (and really cramped) cemetery. Interesting.
Destination of the day! The Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest. And it was the 100th anniversary of Nathan's.
Security check at 9:30am where this kid was showing the guy his bag while holding the dozen empty beer cans in the other bag. I suppose it's always 5 o'clock somewhere!
When in Rome...
Opting not to stand in the blazing sun for 3 hours to get a closer spot to watch the contest, we decided to explore the Coney Island boardwalk for a while before the contest began.
Ran into 4 of the official judges. I asked them how they got to be judges at such a presitigious event. The second guy in on the left said "My Dad knows a guy." Of course.
Neck exercises I will never, ever try.
Kid on a bike. xo
Shout out to Burger King who flew this banner over Coney Island advertising their grilled hot dogs the entire time the contest was going on.
Anyone else want to take a guess when these bathroom buildings were designed? (and is anyone else suddenly thinking about the Partridge Family?)
Back at the contest to see the women's competition, I put on my zoom lens (which was actually too zoomy! darn). This is the emcee of the contest, he was hilarious; he really made the contest a lot of fun.
This is a major crop on the top image so it's a little blurry/grainy, but these are the actual hot dogs the women contestants consumed during the contest! They eat the hot dogs and the buns, and gulp down water.
Security on the roof. Kind of hard to take this cop seriously right now.
Sorry, no great shots of the actual women's contest, we didn't have much of a view.
The M & M expresses how I was feeling after watching a woman eat 30+ hot dogs in 10 minutes.
Just a few people were at the beach. ;)
One of my favorite pics of the day. She made me chuckle, I took this from the pier looking down. She was taking multiple selfies with her iPad.
I just felt like 52MM needed a pink donut t-shirt picture.
Another favorite image of the day.
Another favorite! It certainly documents what was going on in July 2016!
From the movie Big?
Time for the Men's hot dog eating contest. We had to go to a different place to watch versus the women's competition. Basically, we were in an ocean of people. This is NOT my thing. At all. And there was always a stream of people pushing their way through the crowd. Hot, sticky, uncomfortable...but hey, it's not every day you get to watch a guy eat 70 hot dogs (yup, Joey Chestnut ate 70 hot dogs, a new record for the Coney Island contest).
Here's a cropped image of Joey Chestnut on a TV screen shoving hot dogs down his throat. He seems to cover his mouth with his hand so we don't get a see-food view. Thanks, Joey. And congrats.
Heading out of the contest in the ocean of people.
Cool bike. But if you look closely, there are "furry tails" hanging from the handlebars!
Welcome to Interesting Things...
Also welcome to Interesting Things... And I didn't see how this one ended, but from here it looks like he's going to take out that street vendor. I'm sure it ended less messy than it looks.
I took one pic, this is it. I noticed she was one of the most tattoed people I've ever seen which is why I grabbed a shot. I did not, however, notice the awkwardness of this photo. Apologies, but that's classic Street Photography, you get what you get! (this time a bit too much)
I just love Corgis. And I like a lot about this pic, the owner's messy hair, the littleness of the dog against the railing. Cute pic.
The First 52 Magic Monday TWINNING Pictures of the Day!
(all shot on July 3rd/4th)
Honey, what should we wear today while we're out shopping in SoHo? And should we walk in stride?
Us, too?
Adult twins! I love adult twins that still look so much alike as they age.
"Like, what do you want to wear in the city today?"
So that's a wrap on 26 of 52 weeks. I thank anyone and everyone who has ever looked through a page of my journey. It may seem like this is just a fun, easy thing, but this is really me getting out of my comfort zone in SO MANY WAYS. You are all a part of this journey, whether I hear from you or not.
Hugs and thank you.
Until the next Magic Monday!
xo,
~MC
{rsform 29}
