Ooops! My Bad

So sorry to run out without any explanation or warning, but I was moving, which left me no time to blog, but as a certain bitch track says...


That's right! I'm back and although I know you thought I was missing in action, I came here specifically tonight to tell you just one thing... You look fierce! That's right, I said fierce... and when I say fierce I don't mean Naomi Campbell fierce... Um... oh... let's say more like Glenn Campbell... Bitch you look fierce!

BROOKLYN STYLE!

Well, y'all don't actually look fierce. Then again, I've never met a great number of you so for all I know, you could look like you've been beat about the face with a sack of rocks, but whatever!


I am officially a resident of the coolest borough in New York. Brooklyn has long been my favorite of all. Manhattan is real cute, but if you want true New York character, it's found in Brooklyn. I visited quite a bit when I was growing up. My cousins lived in Flatlands before buying a Hancock Street brownstone in Bed-Stuy. Da Stuy has always been a little rough around the edges, but as you read in Becky Comes to Bed Stuy, gentrification is in full effect... do or die!


I'm not a big fan of the kind of gentrification that takes all the flava. So I moved to the place where everyone has learned to coexist and ain't going nowhere.

FLATBUSH

It's so ethnically diverse over here. You can get anything from cow foot to matzoh ball soup and everything in between. Folks over here speak a mixture of English, french, spanish, yiddish and a few other things I've never heard of. It's marvelous. My building is within walking distance of Erasmus Hall High School (Streisand's alma mater), Prospect Park and Brooklyn College. Of course the train (2/5) is very accessible. Cant' live without some public transportation.


The history of Brooklyn very interesting. I'm learning a great deal about this place the dutch settlers called Breukelen, which I'm told means "broken land." I've always tried to gather as much information that I can about the places I've lived. Two books have really helped.


Walking Brooklyn provides a mix of information about culture, history, architecture, places to eat, venues to visit, and more. There are 30 walking tours that you take at your leisure and really get to know a lot. For instance, I didn't know that, Frederick Law Olmstead and Clavert Vaux, the same guys that designed Central Park are responsible for Prospect Park. They liked Prospect more because they weren't bound to a rectangular shape and could create a more naturalistic setting. It's absolutely amazing. I can't wait for the leaves to start changing colors so I can get some great photos.

The Brooklynites has given me a great deal of information about my neighbors and helped me learn better what I've become for moving here. It contains images and commentary from the famous and common. I actually got a little late (choked up, near tears) over some of the things that folks had to say. People feel very strongly about this borough and I'm beginning to understand why. There is true beauty here... in the landscape, the architecture and the people. There's craziness too, which is why I'm still gonna carry Imogene with me at all times.


So I'm here. Most of my stuff is still in storage in Maryland, which is a whole nother post, but slowly it will get here. Meanwhile, I'm gonna register at Bed, Bath & Beyond and Target and throw a little gathering in November for my folks. Look for an Evite soon!