Bushwick

Throw the crib door wide

January 14, 2008 – 4:01 pm

Don't eat the baby, originally uploaded by Jimmy Legs.

I haven't posted much here lately, but there are lots of pictures on my Flickr site. Besides the obligatory cat photos, there's some photos of the baby shower we attended on Saturday. I feel so grown up.

The shower finally gave us a reason to go into the Kidz & Co. store that opened up on the corner of our street. When the place opened several months ago, our dim hopes for a bar or bakery or even a Conway were dashed, and we just learned to live with yet another store that we had no use for on the block.

But our friends breeding gave us shopping rites, and man, baby clothes are cheap! Especially at this south Bushwick outlet. We chose a dark-blue hoodie with a printed pattern of gold dollar signs and diamonds. It's meant for a 12-month old, but clothes like that are meant to be worn large. Even though the baby will live in Chelsea, in case she comes to Brooklyn, she'll know just what to wear.

By Jimmy Legs | Also posted in Babies, Funny to Me | Comments Off

Hit the LIIIIIIIIIIGHTS!

November 16, 2007 – 12:18 pm

At the other end of our street is The Silent Barn, a performance space that has seen its share of amazing shows. Problem is, I haven't been to hardly any. The last time I was there was New Year's Eve, which was like a year ago. Yikes! I'm not sure why we never get over there, perhaps it's because of our odd distance from it.

The place is about a mile from my house. To get there by subway, I'd have to take the J train at Halsey down to Broadway Junction and transfer to the L, and take it up to … Halsey. But you know, on the other side of Halsey. This seems prohibitively roundabout, so we've never done it.

The moere obvious way to get there is take the B26 bus straight across Halsey to our destination. We did this before and it works, but only on the way out. Considering it was past 4am when we were coming home, no bus showed. We ended up walking the whole way back, and I don't believe we saw a bus in either direction. However, I did find a discarded broomstick I needed for the poly applicators we had to refinish our floors. In retrospect, the long walk probably did much to stave off a hangover, but still: I'm Old. I Want Convenient Travel Options.

Anyway I bring this up apropos of Parts & Labor playing there with Ex-Models side project Knyfe Hyts on Saturday evening. We haven't seen them in forever, and I think they have a new drummer now, so what the hell, we'll go check it out. I recommend the band (unless hte new drummer sucks) and the venue. AND I heartily recommend patronizing the gas station down the street; they sell CornNuts.

By Jimmy Legs | Also posted in Bands, Mass Transit, Shows | Comments Off

On the street where you live

September 13, 2007 – 11:22 am

Kitten #4, originally uploaded by Jimmy Legs.

After the debacle of trying to capture kittens the other night, I have been afraid we spooked them so much that they wouldn't come back. Well, we still might have over-spooked those two kittens, but the original kitten returned last night, along with a totally new kitten (pictured above).

I haven't seen this little orange guy at all among Gladys' kittens, but unless he's a tag-along, he's just lat to the party. He ate some, then lurked in the shadows for the rest of the night.

His brother (I think) turned up and basically ate an entire can of cat food himself. Jeannie was able to even touch him briefly; he's not easily scared and usually comes right back if something makes him run off.

We gave him a catnip mouse and he grabbed it and ran outside with it. I saw it out on the areaway later in the night but this morning it was nowhere to be found.

Before I went to bed I shined a flashlight into the storage space under the stoop. I could see that Gladys had climbed back there (she's still small enough to squeeze through the gate door), I assume the kittens were with her. When we left this morning we checked and saw only the orange kitten sleeping there. This works out pretty well as we can leave food there and the bigger cats won't be able to get at it.

We're going out of town next week, which means Matt and Sylvia get to feed all these cats. It's one thing to do it yourself but you really do see how ridiculous it is when you have to train others to keep up your insane antics. But still, we gotta feed these kittens! I hate to lose a week of possible socialization time with them, but there should still be time when we get back to give 'em the My Fair Lady treatment and dole 'em out on an unsuspecting public.

By Jimmy Legs | Also posted in Cats, Feral, kittens, Strays | Comments Off

But I was jeepin' and creepin'

August 13, 2007 – 12:01 pm

Knickerbocker Ave

'Twas an exhausting weekend, in which we, you know, actually did stuff instead of lying face-down in a pool of vomit, as on most weekends. No, this weekend we were downright productive! Saturday we dragged ourselves out to the Bushwick Walking Tour. We were a little late and had not committed the map to memory, so we couldn't find the tour for a while. So we conducted our own walking tour as we plodded around in the hot sun. After consulting Jeannie's sister over the phone, we backtracked until we found the group. Now I really wish I had made it to the South Bushwick tour from last month, I bet it had a lot of info that would have been useful to somebody who lives there (me). Saturday's tour was very informative, and really underlines just how different the two poles of the neighborhood are. I'm pretty jealous of some of the stuff up around Maria Hernandez Park, like the multiple produce markets and bakeries.

There was one weird moment when a young white woman crossed our path and seemed incredulous that people would want to tour Bushwick. She walked up to us and said something like, "What are you up to? I've never seen you around here before." I honestly thought she was a shill planted by the organizers to foment a conversation about the necessity of learning about one's environment, etc., but the longer she went on the more I believed her. She expressed disbelief that there was anything worth seeing around the area, then complained at the lack of amenities like coffee shops and the like (why is everybody so obsessed with coffee shops?) It was pointed out that she lived not three blocks from several cafes and restaurants and yes, a coffee shop; she was unaware of any of this. She also declared the M train was the worst train in the system, which I find at least slightly dubious.

If she was for real, I guess that's the type of newcomer that long-term residents find especially disconcerting; they come here for relatively cheap rent even though they're still probably paying lots more than their older neighbors, and they don't really have any conception of the neighborhood, nor see any need to. All that matters is how long it takes to get to Manhattan. Maybe I'm wrong about this woman, but it sure makes me understand the worry that longtime residents will be steamrolled in the mad rush to cater to people who can afford not to give a damn.

In other news, we have officially found adoptive humans for the rest of the kittens! Two couples will be relocating the boys to new digs next week. The ginger cats will remain together, moving up to East Williamsburg, while the Instigator will have the humans all to himself over in Prospect Heights. I think they'll all be happy with their new homes, and I'm really happy at least two of the cats get to grow up together. Most cats really are social animals, even if they don't want to admit it, and they like having other cats around. Of course, try explaining that to Decatur when Jefe is chasing her up and down the basement stairs.

Bighead takes 5

By Jimmy Legs | Also posted in Cats, Gentrification, kittens | Comments Off

Great balls of fire

August 3, 2007 – 2:58 pm

Why did you do this to me, originally uploaded by Jimmy Legs.

It's a curse of some cats, that they look sweet and happy even when they are clearly miserable. Jefe's a gelding now, and they talked me into the damn collar thing. I thought about skipping it, but he immediately started licking, um, the incision area when we got home.

Yes, that's right: we made it to the ASPCA Mobile Spay Unit! I got up extra early this morning, even though my name was supposedly on a waiting list. I got over to Saratoga Park just after 7AM. The spaymobile was nowhere in sight; nor were any people with pets (aside from dogwalkers). The site clearly states you should arrive before 7 to make sure everything goes smoothly, so I immediately thought it wasn't coming. I stood around like a doofus (and I'm even more out of place there than in my part of the neighborhood, if that's possible).

Finally at 7:30, the truck showed up and parked alongside the park. We then did a whole lot of waiting around, during which time a woman got angry because she had been on the list but didn't get a form to fill out, and a little girl's tooth was loose and was plucked out, causing her to scream like she herself was being spayed. Fun times!

At least the park is relatively nice, and the shade of the sycamores made the wait in the already-awful heat tolerable. At 9AM I got to take Jefe into the truck, where he was placed into a cage next to a darling little kitten whose cage was marked "FERAL," she was hissing at everything.

If you're not on assistance, they ask for a $25 donation, small change when you consider it can cost more than 10 times that if you pay 'retail' at some vets. Additionally they were offering free rabies vaccines, and vaccines for the main cat ailments. With the purchase of the e-collar, the grand total was $30! What a deal. Except for all the waiting around and such, but one could argue you'd have to do the same waiting at a regular vet.

I picked him up around 2:30, he was reportedly an angel for the duration (the doc had trouble listening for his heartbeat because he was purring too loudly). He's still woozy, but this really came out when I put the collar on. He's now under the coffee table trying to pull his own head off, lolling around like a drunk. I can't believe I'm supposed to keep the collar on for 7 to 10 days!

Also, there's all this stuff I'm supposed to do I don't remember doing for any other cats I've had fixed, like replacing cat litter with shredded paper. I understand it's to avoid infection, but I've got 4 litterboxes (and I plan on getting another tomorrow), there is no way I'm shredding that much paper! I do have some of that World's Best Cat Litter, which is mostly dust-free, I might try that on him.

Next up will be Lucy! I dunno when the spaymobile will be back in the neighborhood, but I'll probably just take her to the vet's. I'm not sure I'll be able to get away with being out of the office twice in one week just to get a cat snipped.

By Jimmy Legs | Also posted in Cats, Pets, Strays | Comments Off