Thursday 10.13.2011 | 8:23 PM EST

Weather Report: Drizzly + Gold

iPhone 4G + CameraBag | © maunet.com

“Gold Day” | Sparklehorse | It’s A Wonderful Life | 2001

It’s a drizzly fall night, all light and shining glamour.

Tuesday 10.11.2011 | 2:23 PM EST

Weather Report: Indian Summer

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“Indian Summer” | Luna | Slider EP | 1993

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Fall has been poking it’s crispy little nose into our Brooklyn neighborhoods as of late. The sidewalks are littered not with refuse, but with the brightly colored crunch of leaves fallen from the few precious trees that line our city streets.

Autumn’s thinner air breeds nostalgia, evoking both anticipation and regret. Anticipation of the fiery foliage beginning to punctuate our concrete landscape, the cool air clearing our summer-clogged lungs, the annual debut of stylish overcoats and scarves.

Yet regret abounds as we sadly say goodbye to the warm lazy days of summer, when the streets are less crowded, and the breezy evenings make a stroll to the frozen yogurt stand a pleasure like no other. Soon, the long dark days of winter will nip at autumn’s heels, gripping us cruelly in their cold, wet fists.

But yesterday we were given one last warm reprieve as summer decided to pop in for a last hurrah. The high bright sun marched the mercury well above 85 degrees, glistening our brows, dampening the shirts on our backs. It was a glorious day for strolling around Storm King, its natural grounds spotted with sculptural art as majestic as the trees, lawns and streams that inhabit it, the landscape an amalgam of man and nature missed so dearly in the concrete deluge that is our home.

So long summer, thanks for shining down upon us one last time…

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all images © maunet.com using the Nikon D300s or iPhone 4G + onboard apps

Wednesday 10.05.2011 | 9:53 PM EST

So Long, Steve

“My model for business is The Beatles.”

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“Revolution” | The Beatles | Past Masters Vol. 2 | 1968

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“It’s not the consumer’s job to know what they want.”

“Simple can be harder than complex…”

“The problem with Microsoft is they just have no taste. They have absolutely no taste and I don’t mean that in a small way, I mean that in a big way… I am saddened, not by Microsoft’s success. I have no problem with their success, they’ve earned their success. For the most part. I have a problem with the fact that they just make really third-rate products.”

Wednesday 09.28.2011 | 10:23 PM EST

Elegy for Jesse: The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

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“Song For Jesse” | Nick Cave & Warren Ellis | Official Soundtrack | 2007

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Earlier lamented, it’s been a while since I finished a book. Started half a dozen, each eventually laying fallow on shelves and tables, ponds briefly tested by tentative toes. Steinbeck, Murakami, McInerny, Ellis, Capote – in the previous year, these authors had ruined my interest in other stories, imposed a restlessness with narrative that lasted up till now.

During the heavy rains that plagued Brooklyn’s summer months, my window sill, serving as one of many shelves around the apartment, sprung a leak, soaking through my volume of Jesse James. I proclaimed it a wash, nearly tossing it for trash, then reconsidered. Over a few days I fanned its damp brown pages until its limp leaves once again regained a now warped rigidity. Pre-soak, I’d chipped away at less than a fourth of its weight, but my volume’s early pages were inked with annotations and underlines that convinced me this was the right book, at the right time. Upon finally drying, my copy took on the tactile quality of a weathered keepsake, dilapidated but still very much intact. It was light yet substantial in my hands, it’s spine pliable, it’s curled edges making them easier to turn. I found my place and began again…

Robert Hansen’s book is a keenly imagined, historically accurate account of the assassination of celebrity outlaw Jesse Woodson James, known across the American west and beyond as a man both notorious and revered; ruthless yet genial. A man of almost preternatural energy and cunning that captured the imagination of scores of his contemporaries. It’s unnecessary to recapitulate the story of his legend and downfall here. What’s remarkable about this book is the language – a narrative of tattered, stately, old-fashioned language made musical with solemnity and lyricism. I’ve never looked up so many words in my life. Beguiling words: furbelow, stentorian, bungey, perfidy, bivouac. Words lending anachronistic spice to sentences so finely crafted you actually, really do go back and read them again. And again. This book reminded me of why I read books in the first place.

I was apprised of the novel by the movie of the same name, a faithful adaptation that boasted finely nuanced acting, a superb script and the always stunning cinematography of Roger Deakins, who that year was nominated twice as Best Cinematographer, once for Jesse James and again for No Country For Old Men. (Old Men won). But thankfully, the film is not just an exercise in style and visual beauty – the script wisely inserts verbatim snatches of language into its narrative and invents new scenes and dialogue so true to the tone and language of the book, you’d think the author himself had scripted it.

“His thoughts glanced away from ensnarements like minnows… His nose…not long or preponderant, no proboscis, but upturned a little and puttied, a puckish, low-born nose, the ruin, he thought, of his otherwise gallantly handsome countenance…[He] let his fancies run like red-eyed ferrets, letting the experienced air educate his senses. … He also had a condition that was referred to as “granulated eyelids” and it caused him to blink more than usual as if he found creation slightly more than he could accept.”

Need I say more? Go pick up a copy. It and the hauntingly beautiful soundtrack by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis. The two fit together like a bullet in a chamber.

Thursday 07.14.2011 | 8:23 PM EST

Weather Report: Acela Sunset

iPhone 4G + CameraBag

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“Love Like a Sunset, Pt. II” | Phoenix | Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix | 2010

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Somewhere between Boston and New York City on the 5:20 Acela Express.
Fuck the airlines, with their security lines and lousy batting record. Love traveling by train, especially at sunset…

Posted in real time via Amtrak free wireless. That’s service…

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Saturday 07.09.2011 | 4:23 PM EST

Southern Sun: Positively Devoted to the Beach

iPhone 4G + CameraPlus

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“Summertime” | Janis Joplin | 1968

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Ms. Wilson is wearing a floppy chapeau from Prince Street Street Hat Vendor; New York black bikini by Targét; busted shades by Provenance Unknown; attitude by Pink Greyhound and Southern Inflection. Oh my stars and garters!

Wednesday 07.06.2011 | 12:23 PM EST

Weather Report: Cotton Ball Clouds

iPhone 4G + CameraPlus

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“Sunshine And Clouds And Everything Proud” | Clap Your Hands, Say Yeah! | 2005

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Ok, so this post is a bit, um, posthumous, but worth it nonetheless. Brooklyn has been positively blessed with several weeks straight of sunny days and breezy nights perfect for sipping bourbon at your favorite outdoor neighborhood bar. On the way to such a few days ago, we happened to look up to witness this beautiful cloud fluff stretching across the sky like some divine carpet that really tied the evening together. “Sunshine and clouds and everything proud” indeed.

Happy Summer!