Okay, I admit it. I’m one of those downtowners who hardly gets above 23rd St without a toothbrush and sleeping bag and who visits Brooklyn and Queens a couple times a year. It’s something I’m not particularly proud of. (Don’t ask me the last time I was in Staten Island, let alone the Bronx.)
Even worse, perhaps, my blog reading habits mirror my real life downtown chauvinism. I tend to stick close to home, reading Eastsider blogs like Jeremiah’s and Grieve’s rather religiously. When they venture out or up, I ride along in my armchair, but for the most part I find enough in my own neighborhood to keep me entertained. I suppose the city works that way for a lot of folks, at least those who work where they live.
So to whet my appetite for things beyond walking distance, I’ve decided to try to keep up on uptown and outerborough blogging — at least monitoring a few key sites a couple times a week. Here’s a roundup of highlights from today’s reading experiment:
Obama joins the ranks of presidents with fried chicken emporia named after them. [What about the Plastic Animals via Uptown Flavor]
Looking for something to do in Long Island City, Queens, this wkend? [liQcity]
Brian Berger plugs the NYRB reissue of L.J. Davis’s 1971 from-Idaho-to-Brooklyn novel, A Meaningful Life, including details on an upcoming reading with Jonathan Lethem. [Who Walk in Brooklyn]
Interrupting several thoughtful posts on the relationship between print and digital technologies, Staten Island blogger Dan Icolari stops to notice the flowers. [Walking Is Transportation]
A podcast interview with the Bronx Borough Historian, Professor Lloyd Ultan [Bronx Bohemian]
Hello Bryan,
Greetings from the Bronx!
Thanx for the link to my podcast interview featuring Bronx Borough Historian Prof. Lloyd Ultan.
He is quite an engaging story teller.
I completely understand your habit to keeping close to 23rd St.
I lived on W. 18th St for several years, worked on 6th Ave & 18th and then on 5th Ave & 18th. My life for a long while didn’t really go above nor below that line.
So imagine how I felt to move to the Bronx! Yikes!
But a community does exist up here, and do a few active bloggers. (check my blog’s sidebar).
And it is truly a diverse borough and a very big one.
I invite you to come up for Bronx Culture Trolley.
It’s the first Wednesday of the month. And it’s an opportunity to see the Bronx Museum of the Arts, visit art galleries and hear some music in the span of an evening.
It’s a lot of fun, and I’m not a ride the trolley do the boat ride type of person. But the galleries usually time the trolley nite with openings. Just this month the trolley was recently added to roll on Saturdays.
This is also the 100th year Anniversary for the Grand Concourse Boulevard and the Bronx will be celebrating a lot this summer.
Thanx again for the link and come on up to the northern borough!
Bronx Bohemian
Thanks for the speedy response and personal invitation, BB — the trolley link gave me more ideas for things to do than I’ll possibly be able to squeeze into one evening, but I look forward to making the trek at some point. best–bw