Skip to main content

Cherry Blossom Brooklyn

So yesterday I went to the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens.  For all of you who don't know because I haven't told you yet.  I know a lot about the area from a project I did on the architecture of the Brooklyn Museum. Summation:
Until 1894 Brooklyn or (Breukelen, as it was originally name by the dutch) was its own city.  The third largest.  Before it joined with the other boroughs BK was in a race against Manhattan to prove its elitism.  This lead to the adoption of certain projects to beautify Brooklyn and a large area was reserved for public works.  For a while it was basically a crude park.  But now that area consist of The Brooklyn Museum, The Brooklyn Botanical Gardens, The Brooklyn Public Library, and Prospect Park.

(just cause I love it...here's the museum)
Anyway, back to the gardens.  The cherry blossoms are out early this year which is heavenly.  Although it kind of sucks when they don't come out just in time for the festival.  The Brooklyn cherry blossom festival is awesome...there are traditional japanese geishas with nightingale poop paint gleaming white on their faces, parading in silk kimonos and twirling their paper fans.  It's April 30th-May 1st.  There's dancing and fresh sushi and the big events take place around this traditional japanese pond with lounging turtles and giant goldfish. There's also the Cherry Blossom Princess whose selected for her awesomeness and gorgeousness and who is idolized like The Virgin Mary all day.



2008 Cherry Blossom Time-lapse at Brooklyn Botanic Garden from Brooklyn Botanic Garden on Vimeo.


Anyway...I strolled around the park with a couple friends and while we were disappointed by the fact that The Brooklyn Botanic Garden's famous willow tree had failed to bloom yet, as I was leaving I saw one of those things that remind me of why I love brooklyn.  Group of little boys playing football.  A tall mixed kid leaning down to a younger hasidic jewish kid and says, "ok I'm gonna fake to the right and you're gonna run in for the goal".  On inspection of the group at large I see two huddled teams each composed of a mixed group of Hasidic jewish, black, and mixed kids below the age of 12.  Their parents are chatting on the 'sidelines'.  Only in Brooklyn.

Anyway...if anyone gets the chance...

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dear United Healthcare Insurance

I'm sorry. I'm so so sorry I graduated and you felt you had to leave me. But I never wanted to part ways with you. I need you in (and for) my life. I've been so sick, actually ill, all week. And while I would usually turn into your united-caring arms, I find myself alone. The pain has been unbearable. I want you back. I need you back. When we first got together I had no baggage, no pre-existing conditions. But now I'm older and life has matured me and I need you more than ever. But is the cost too high? What premium am I willing to pay for your undivided-extended coverage? The truth is I'll pay anything. Just don't deny me. Can you resist this face? Lots of love, Coping with Cobra after College
1 comment
Read more

"On Losing" or "On Dating Down" or "On 'Jesus He is Not As Attractive As Her'"

I people watch. I am friends with people watchers. We watch people together. And sometimes we play games. In parks we see if people actually match their dogs. At cafes we look at couples and decide who is the loser and who is the winner. I'll define: The Loser: The person who is, for all shallow purposes, more attractive, probably smarter, and/or cooler. Also the one who has more friends. The Winner: The inferior of the pair who has somehow been blessed with money or a good heart or the psychotic break/blindness of their partner. You play this game long enough and you start to notice a trend. Girls lose so often and they lose bad. It gets so much more tragic when you move beyond the game. You begin to understand that this silly game is emblematic of life. You think of your friends who cry over losers (in this game winners). I mean guys who were, are, and will be, losers in life. And then with the slow, horrifying suspense of a nouvelle vague film you t...
2 comments
Read more

The Big 2.3.

So, my birthday is next week (on the 23rd).  And I've been known to do some strange things on that day: 20th.  Beat a Spongebob Pinata in Washington Square Park. 16th.  Walk the questionably safe Costa Rican beaches with AB and a drunk frat reject who kept dropping the N-bomb to the house of a complete stranger just because her name was Claudia too. 21st a.  Find and a mannequin on the street outside of bar in Tribeca. 21st b.  Play with the said mannequin. 21st c. Put money in a GoGo dancers g-string or corset.  Does it make it less weird if I say that I knew her?  What about the fact that I had never actually seen a Pastie before? I've also been know to do absolutely nothing.  I guess it depends on the year.  As you can see 21 was a good year.  But I didn't get shit-faced because I've had a fake ID and heels (the typical requirement for clubs in ny) since I was 15. This year I think I'll have a p...
1 comment
Read more