There's been a lot of activity inside and outside the new Key Food supermarket on 69th Street, between Third Avenue and Ridge Boulevard.
Nothing noticeable going on in the projected parking facility across the street, but this afternoon I saw a couple of construction guys taking a look inside there.
This new supermarket will be a very welcome addition to Bay Ridge and hopefully will give a jumpstart to economic activity in the 69th Street and Third Avenue areas.
Brendan ( Pete ) Duffy, with grand-niece Keri, at New York Mets baseball game, July 2006.
Brendan ( Pete ) Duffy grew up in the country in County Monaghan, Ireland. Crossed over to New York in the mid 1950s, the old fashioned way, on the ship. Built a life for himself and his family in the Bronx and nearby.
Strong and cheerful, great with adults, a hundred times better with kids.
With his much beloved children, played the pipes with the Monaghan Pipe Band many times in the NY St. Patrick's Day Parade, and in many other events.
Now, not so good.
In late 2008, he was diagnosed with ALS, or Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Which was not a surprise. His legs had started to fail long before then. He no longer walks.
On Saturday, I'll be joining Brendan's daughter Annette and many others as we walk in the Greater NY Walk to Defeat ALS. These funds will help the ALS Association provide research for a cure - and to provide essential assistance to ALS patients.
If you care to make a contribution, please click here.
I am registered under the name " The Phantom ", so hit the button above the total calculator that says " Support The " and give what you can. It's a really good cause
Thank you. I will have photos of the march here a week from today.
I went to the Angels-Yankees game this past Thursday. It was strange entering the new ballpark, with the magnificent old Yankee Stadium still there, on Death Row, right across 161st Street.
As with the new Mets Stadium, this stadium offers a slow and expensive wait for very poor food. Do not believe the hype. My brother in law went to the " Johnny Rockets " fast food place and had to wait a long time. The staff were told in the fourth innning to say that they didn't serve french fries, which is funny as it is a fundamental part of their, ahem, " menu". After 25 minutes at the counter, I think that they discovered that they did have fries after all. The new ballpark is interesting, but it has a lot of design flaws. There were lines at the mens rooms, which may help curtail beer sales. There are many severely obstructed bleacher seats.
It's mostly good, but is it Yankee Stadium? After so many days and nights, I don't know. Is the new place real or fake, an improvement over the House That Ruth Built or a formula new stadium by HOK Sport for the suits, with a fake facade slapped on the roof?
As fog rolled in, some memories of the old 1973 and before true Yankee Stadium came to mind.
I did a little free association search on youtube yesterday, and came up with this little gem. It's as though every word and every note of this Beatles song was made with " The Wizard of Oz " in mind! The B-37 ( Third Avenue ) has served the Bay Ridge to Downtown Brooklyn communties since 1942. And before then, trolley cars ran the same route.
This important route, a lifeline for our many seniors and others, is slated for elimination unless the MTA finds a lot more money. The politicians claim to be concerned, and perhaps something will be done.
So what is the MTA spending it's money on these days? A couple of weeks ago, they built this fancy shelter at 72nd / Third. Others have been built elsewhere on Third Avenue. For a route that supposedly won't be here soon.
Either someone's bullshitting somebody, or these people cannot be trusted with money.
( The NY Times reported on the same phenomenon - new shelters being built on Cortelyou Road for bus routes about to be eliminated -on April 10)
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On the bright side, saw five construction guys clearing debris from the projected new Key Food site on 69th Street. I'd noticed a bunch of fresh permits there the weekend before. Think we'll have our much needed supermarket before too long now.
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I treated myself to a lithograph, and it ( along with something they gave me when I left the Navy base in Naples Italy ) needed to be framed. I went toPolizzi Fine Art on 7813 Third Avenue yesterday. The husband and wife team there gave me some good ideas, and I'll have my custom framed works in a week or two. These guys appear really good, and the prices were fair. Can't wait to see the final result.
Mets closer Francisco Rodriguez ( K-Rod ) pitches against Washington right fielder Kearns in the ninth inning last night, and gives up a ground ball single just left of second.
The new Mets stadium is gorgeous.
One complaint- the food is not nearly as good as they've been saying. I had an Italian sausage that had clearly been sitting around for a while. And customer services is surprisingly slow.
Had a short conversation with one of the staff, who used to work at Shea. He said that he much preferred Shea to the new place, which he referred to as a " theme park ". Said that Shea attracted real fans, while the new place attracted those who " don't care about the game ".
The new Shea is a nice theme park, though. Even if the food service is slow.
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Bag policy far more liberal than that of Yankee Stadium. The Yankees won't let you bring in any backpacks. The Mets will allow you to bring in normal size backpacks, but of course will search them.
Parking lot very congested. Don't drive, or if you do, don't park in the stadium lots. Subway or LIRR a much better bet.
Steely Dan has Brooklyn roots and have a proven inability to make bad songs. Here, one of my many favorites. Off to Orlando tomorrow for the big conference.
( from the great wikipedia )
Donald Fagen and Walter Becker met at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, in 1967. Fagen was passing by a cafe called The Red Balloon when he heard Becker rehearsing the electric guitar.[11] He would later recount the experience during an interview: "I hear this guy practicing, and it sounded very professional and contemporary. It sounded like, you know, like a black person, really."[11] He immediately introduced himself to Becker, and asked him "Do you want to be in a band?"[11] They quickly realized that they enjoyed similar music, and even listened to the same jazz radio stations; not long after, they began writing songs together.
The two soon began playing in local groups. One of these bands, first known as The Bad Rock Group and later as The Leather Canary, included future comedy star Chevy Chase on drums. They played covers of songs written by The Rolling Stones ("Dandelion"), Moby Grape ("Hey Grandma"), and Willie Dixon ("Spoonful") along with a handful of originals.[11] Terence Boylan, another Bard musician, remembered that Fagen immediately took to the Beatnik lifestyle while attending college: "They never came out of their room, they stayed up all night. They looked like ghosts — black turtlenecks and skin so white that it looked like yogurt. Absolutely no activity, chain-smoking Lucky Strikes and dope."[11] Fagen himself would later remember it as "probably the only time in my life that I actually had friends."[12]
After Fagen graduated in 1969, the two moved to Brooklyn and tried to peddle their tunes in the Brill Building in midtown Manhattan. Kenny Vance, a member of the pop group Jay and the Americans, who had a production office in the building, took an interest in their material that led to work on the soundtrack of the low-budget Richard Pryor film You've Got to Walk It Like You Talk It or You'll Lose That Beat in 1971. Becker later spoke bluntly of the soundtrack: "We did it for the money."[13] A series of demos made between about 1968 and 1971 are available in bootleg form.[14] This collection features approximately twenty-five tracks, and is notable for the stripped down production and decidedly lo-fi nature of these tracks (many songs are just Fagen and his piano) is contrary to many other Steely Dan works. In addition, although some of these songs ("Caves of Altamira", "Brooklyn", "Barrytown") re-recorded for Steely Dan albums, the majority of them were never officially released.
Of course, as Left and half the world will tell you , this should be the song of the week on this and on everyone's blog. I'm not a fan of these contests, but this triumph of the human spirit makes me want to change my mind. Blow it up, watch every second of it two or three times. The performance, and the story, is that good.
Until last weekend she lived a self-contained existence alone with her cat Pebbles, listing her hobbies as watching television and reading. She is a volunteer at Our Lady of Lourdes church, visiting elderly members of the congregation several times a week. It seems a far cry from being tipped at odds of 1-2 by Ladbrokes, the bookmaker, as the winner of the UK’s most popular talent show. ( from timesonline article
( Performance from " Britain's Got Talent" live talent contest in Glasgow, Scotland )
