Colleen Kane

Greetings from Hudson City

Long time no write! There are happenings to report and I now have the time and the functioning brains to report them. 

At the start of 2013, Tom, myself and the ding dongs moved to Jersey City. Leaving Brooklyn was not an easy decision, and I went over the reasons before in my column for Brooklyn Based. But the TL;DR of it is that Brooklyn has become obscenely unaffordable. We wanted more for the money and after two years of shlepping daily from Brooklyn to Englewood Cliffs (min. 1 hour each way), I wanted a shorter commute to work.  

What's it like moving to this comparatively obscure 'hood from the ground zero of coolness and convenience? Read about it in my latest Brooklyn Based column, which has a new name and a new focus, Life After Brooklyn. I've begun posting my photos of the area here on my new Tumblr, called Hudson City after the former name of our neighborhood, the Heights, when it was an independent city. 

The funny/not so funny thing about moving to be closer to my job is...

Sandy

 

 

We were very lucky in Downtown Brooklyn during Hurricane Sandy. All we lost was cable and Internet for a few hours. 

However, after navigating downtown Manhattan in darkness and witnessing the devastation in Rockaway, I wanted to share some of what it was like. 

Crescent City

 

 

Hey, you know what I didn't yet blog about, besides almost everything these days? My brief trip to New Orleans over Memorial Day weekend.

Part one of the Louisiana trip consisted of this project in Baton Rouge. But part two was that I needed a break. I really needed the kind of good time New Orleans allows to roll and roll again.

First, though, I have to show off my most nutrageous thrift store find in many moons.

 

I shall call this marvelous (Baton Rouge) thrift store find "LAxidermy."

I think it cost either $4 or $7. Usually I remember all my bargain prices because it adds to the enjoyment, but in this case I kind of blacked out in my haste to exchange money for this treasure. All I remember is the guys working at the store chiding me on the way to the counter: "Girrrrl, what you gonna do with them little bitty horns? That's Bambi. We got a 8-point over here!" They showed me that up front there was a mounted full-grown deer head plus a mountain goat head for sale. I explained that I was going home on a plane so it might pose a bit of a problem to bring a full-size animal head.

Incidentally, I had a moment of terror going through airport security to fly home when I remembered I had the antlers packed in my carry-on. They're going to take away my LAxidermy! It would be a tragedy worthy of  my own Lifetime Original Movie. But then it breezed through the scanner and I was like, "Oh yeah, it's Louisiana." Knitting needles on the plane? Forget it. Bonelike body part that animals use to fight and stab each other? All aboard!

Anyway, totally worth it. Whenever I need cheering up, I should just remember that I OWN THIS THING NOW.

Why Not Take All of B?

If you haven’t ventured over to Alphabet City lately (I hadn’t in a while myself), some longstanding neighborhood staples have been disappearing from Avenue B.

Gone are: the terrifying sculpture of faded wet stuffed animals and scrap wood that was the East Village’s own version of the Close Encounters mound, the 30-plus year old eatery Life Cafe (inspiration to and a setting for the play Rent), and as of the end of this month, the Lakeside Lounge (great explanation of why that place mattered here ). The only one of my old haunts left on that strip is 7B, and now that can’t be certain either.  

However, the biggest news to me was the imminent closing of the 16-year-old veggie dive Kate’s Joint, which owed $30 grand in back rent. Although I hadn’t frequented the place in years, it was a major setting of my life in New York.  

On Banks: Little Things

It's not breaking news that many American consumers are fed up with their bloated corporate banks. Online resources like Break Up With Your Mega Bank can give you the top reasons why, as well as what to do about it: namely, move your money to a smaller institution that values your patronage and treats you better.

One of my resolutions for 2012 was to switch my money from Chase to a community bank or a credit union ASAP, which I did in January. I opened an account with Alliant, a national credit union. In addition to the reasons linked above, here are a few little examples of why I dumped the big bank.

1. Chase is all like, 'Either respond to this letter or we're putting you on a bunch of mailing lists.'

In November I got a letter from Chase saying if I didn't respond via mail, fax, or online to state my preferences, I "may begin to receive offers in the mail about these products and services" (there were nine categories of products and services listed above).

Sigh. So I stated my preferences online, then got this:

 

"After five years (or sooner if you move), you'll need to contact us to renew your choices."

Don't you love it? Because in time you might decide that you do want to get loads more junk mail after all. Also, this fix is only good for five years or until you move, and then you better hope your chosen reminder system was something better than a Post-It note. At that time you have to figure out where you call or go online to re-state your preferences. You know all those tasks you need to do when you're moving? Add this to the list. Why? Because fuck you, we're Chase Bank.

Abandoned Borscht Belt 3: The Pines

Last October, I explored the abandoned site of The Pines resort in South Fallsburg, New York.

(Image via this wonderful collection of vintage resort postcards)

The Pines had 400 guest rooms, a golf course, tennis courts, a ski chalet, an ice rink, and two swimming pools. Its theater and nightclub hosted the usual Jewish Alps entertainers of the day such as Robert Goulet and Buddy Hackett. It closed in 1998 when a developer bought the property from the Ehrlich family. This article details the bankruptcy of that developer and possible future for the property.

The postcard above shows what The Pines looked like in the 1960s. As you might imagine, it doesn't look like this bright and tidy any more.

 

Abandoned Borscht Belt 2: Mohonk Mountain House and Tamarack Lodge

Earlier this month, Leah and I continued our exploration of the former Jewish Alps (part 1 is here). We spent the weekend  with a great group of hosts (who fast became new pals) in the town of Rosendale, which I found positively charming (and just now realized I'd read about before in the Times).

Leah and I began on Saturday with the still-in-business Mohonk Mountain House, which is often cited as the inspiration for The Shining. It was also seen in No Reservations, in the episode when Tony went up the Hudson. The enormous lodge's hodgepodge of structural styles made a much more dramatic impression in person than it did on the show.

 

 

 

Busy as a Brooklyn Bound B

Someone has been working by night in my neighborhood putting up words on what was until recently just an unsightly parking deck.

Today is an anniversary of an infamous day, but I've reached saturation point on that subject (and yet still keep watching the documentaries, and then having to turn the channel away to something cleansing and dopey like It's a Mad, Mad Mad Mad World).

I was reminded today that (almost) everyone alive is fortunate to be here. And when I walk to the subway in the morning, I pass at the building seen in the above right foreground, the NYC Job Center, a line of grim faces and momentarily feel lucky to be going to a job, however much I may not have wanted to deal until then. But a different reason to stop and assess appeared in my morning walk to the subway recently.

The First Cut is the Creepest: Revisiting the Childhood Trauma of the Original Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark

No single film has affected my life more than a humble made-for-TV movie from 1973 called Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark, which served as the scary movie deflowering of many impressionable young minds of Generation X. It seemed to run at least one Saturday afternoon every month of the 1980s on WPIX channel 11. Whenever it did, my older brother and I sat transfixed on the basement’s loop pile carpet (in three tones of brown), filled with dread.

Spoiler alert--but if you didn’t watch this movie as a child, it’s already spoiled.

 

I Sent More Coo-Coo Mail to Sierra Club

Perhaps you recall my ongoing correspondence with the Sierra Club. Perhaps additionally, as a probable resident of the United States, you are aware of the heat wave going on. Well! If you would like to know what happens when your hostess receives correspondence from her favorite extravagant envelope-stuffers while crazy from the heat, read on!

So, I got another mailing from the Sierra Club.