Steve Fischer's Random Blog

Category: Brooklyn

  • Famous People

    If you live in NYC, you will occasionally see famous people. It’s just the nature of the city. I’ve always said that either through bad luck or (more likely) flagrant lack of paying attention that I never see famous people.

    I said this the other day when it dawned on me that this relatively famous person’s son takes swimming lessons at the same time as my daughters, so I see him every Saturday.

    He’s quiet, always reads a book, is nice when people approach him but looks like he’d like to be left alone. So I’ve never actually talked to him.

    But I think I have to stop saying I never see famous people…

  • Missed the Wedding

    This was the scene I missed this morning, right outside my office as hundreds of Brits gathered under the Manhattan Bridge to watch the royal wedding.

    dumbo-arch-01.jpg

    Sleep was better…

  • The Wedding

    While I do actually know someone who is invited to the Royal Wedding (he actually dated the bride), strangely my invitation was apparently lost in the mail.

    But no worries, there is an outdoor public viewing under the archway  under the Manhattan Bridge about 100 feet from my office. It’s at 5:30, so I’ll definitely be there.

    Wait, 5:30 AM? Seriously? Oh, never mind…

  • Filming in Dumbo?

    There are always film shoots going on by my office in DUMBO. It’s a funky neighborhood, very warehousey (is that a word?), near the river overlooking Manhattan. It’s a natural for movies, tv and/or photo shoots. I kind of like it. Today there was a funky fashion shoot right outside my window and yesterday Law and Order was filming (didn’t see anyone famous though).

    Apparently, some folks like it less.

    From that angle, if you removed that No Parking sign, you’d be looking right at my office…

  • Popcorn

    For the record, I love popcorn. I have no sweet tooth, but I have a total salt tooth. And popcorn is top of the list.

    This is my favorite local bar (despite the fact that their web site is lame and uses comic sans font). Great beer, great food and they have and old school popcorn maker where you can help yourself. And they spice up the popcorn (obviously to get you to drink more beer) in a way that is totally delicious.

    My four year old, Victoria, likes popcorn as much as me. At the movies we are collectively dangerous. And she also think the popcorn at the Alehouse is delicious. This is both great and dangerous.

    Any time we go anywhere that causes us to pass the Alehouse, Tori will say, “I want popcorn”. Like I need my four year old to give me an excuse to drink beer. I find myself in the extremely strange position of arguing with my daughter not to go to my favorite bar.

    Of course, once in a while it is convenient to go there. “Hey, Tori, want to go for popcorn?”. Awesome.

    The crazy thing is that invariably after having beers, food and popcorn (yes, I know popcorn is food, but it’s really a whole separate category) I’m the one saying “Tori, it’s time to go”. She wants to stay, I want to go.

    Let’s recall, I love beer. Especially good beer. This place has tons of good beer. I love this place. But Tori can eat popcorn longer than I want to drink beer.

    I have the best daughter ever…

  • Old Dude on Scooter

    For kids, a scooter is the perfect vehicle for Brooklyn. Compact, highly portable, no issues with locking it up and frankly they are fun. To really move in Brooklyn you want a scooter with larger wheels like the Razor A5 (Danielle’s). The big wheels eat up the bumpy sidewalks. Of course for little kids the Mini kick three wheel scooter is by far the best (Tori’s).

    So both my girls ride their scooters and I find myself jogging along side them. Danielle has said numerous times, "Papi, you should get a scooter". My wife, however, cringes at the thought of me riding a scooter. Something about middle aged guys looking ridiculous…

    This Christmas she apparently relented, and my present from the girls was a scooter (the A5, just like Danielle). My wife, of course, refuses to be seen with me while I’m riding it, but the girls were happy.

    So today, Danielle and I went to school together on our matching scooters. Very fun. And after I dropped her off I continued to work and arrived 10 minutes earlier than usual (there’s a great hill going down into DUMBO – may not be so great going home).

    And I arrived in a slightly better mood. Scootering is fun.

    Even if I do look goofy…

  • I Lost a Picasso

    Today I hit one of those development stopping points where the next chunk you start will take a while. I needed to head home in about 30 minutes so it didn’t make sense to start the next thing. I figured I’d just get home a little early.

    About a block from my office there’s this tiny bar. I’ve checked it out a couple times before. It’s nothing special. Tiny, only a few beers on tap, but at least they are decent. And during happy hour draft beers are $3.

    So with an extra 30 minutes I figured why not.

    So I’m drinking a Blue Point Winter Ale (not bad) and checking out my RSS subscriptions via Google Reader on my phone. I’m sitting right next to two guys who clearly know the bartender and are chatting away. I’m trying not to eavesdrop.

    Then this other guy goes behind the bar and makes himself a drink. He’s not serving anyone, he just seems like the owner. He knows these two guys and after pouring himself something strong they start chatting.

    Again, trying not to eavesdrop.

    But it’s a tiny place and they are right next to me. And let’s recall that this is in DUMBO, a fairly artsy, eclectic neighborhood in Brooklyn.

    The owner says to the two guys,

    I had a really bad day. I lost a Picasso.

    At this point, trying not to eavesdrop is out the window. Surely I misheard him. He lost an espresso, or a pistachio, or a panini.

    But no. After not eavesdropping some more, this guy must be somehow affiliated with MOMA (the Museum of Modern Art). Some Picasso was being transported from Queens to Manhattan. It didn’t get there. He spent the whole day trying to track it down. He still hasn’t found it.

    This boggles my mind on many levels.

    First of all, where else do you randomly walk into a bar and hear the phrase, "I lost a Picasso"?

    Second, I’ve had bad days at work before. I’ve had really bad days at work. But I’ve never lost a priceless work of art. Software defects suddenly don’t look so bad.

    And finally, I really hope he finds it…

  • Snow Day

    We got slammed with snow and high winds in Brooklyn Sunday night. This was supposed to be a nice quiet week at work where I’d get a lot done. But the subways weren’t running consistently this morning and our nanny had no good way to get to us, so it turned into a snow day.

    So we bundled up and went outside. This is what it looked like outside our place (on Atlantic Avenue, a major street) at about 10:00 am.

    IMAG0277 

    Danielle has a good friend who lives two blocks away. They have a traditional stoop and they are in Florida. So Danielle wanted to try sliding down their steps. So we walked to their place.

    It was easier walking in the street. Cars were not an issue.

    IMAG0279

    As you can see, the cars were a bit buried (that’s the driver side mirror above Danielle’s head).

    IMAG0281

    And sliding down the stoop at her friend’s house was good fun.

    IMAG0288

    IMAG0289

    While we were playing, people were trying to dig out the cars. The car in the background had apparently been stuck there since about 7am.

    IMAG0294

    But that just meant that you could play with a snow fort in the street.

    IMAG0295

    A great snow day in Brooklyn. Back to work tomorrow…

  • Working in Dumbo

    One of the interesting things about working in Dumbo (note: if you check out the Wikipedia entry, look for the picture of the "pocket park", my office building is the one behind it) is that there is so much filming going on.

    Walking to work and seeing the big film trucks and areas blocked off and the catering trucks for the crew is a fairly regular occurrence. The neighborhood just has a funky warehouse feel that works in movies and TV shows.

    Sometimes it’s just a fashion shoot. These are less of a production. You usually see one drop dead gorgeous woman in clothes that make no sense for the neighborhood being followed around by a motley group of photographers. Seeing a model try to navigate the cobblestone streets in 6 inch heels is quite amusing.

    And so it was today. It’s 30 degrees and windy. So of course there was a beautiful woman in purple spandex exercise shorts pretending to run while guys on ladders take photographs.

    An amusing way to start my day…

  • Double Dutch

    image

    Danielle’s school has an after school double dutch class. Here’s Danielle on the roof of her school doing double dutch for the first time.