Saturday, January 17, 2009

#17











#17, Willow Place, Brooklyn Heights


And speaking of quiet detours, Brooklyn Heights is full of such places. You never notice how ever-present traffic is until you step away from it and wander down a quiet, tree-lined block like this one on Willow Place, where this sunburst 17 was patiently waiting. Even in a place as full of infinite variety as New York, it's all too easy to get trapped in daily routines. After a time, you enter a kind of cul-de-sac of the mind. You get comfortable. Stuck in your ways. The way people stubbornly stick to the main arteries while driving, cycling, and walking -- what an Irish friend of mine referred to as "grid mentality," perhaps native to New Yorkers and American city-dwellers everywhere -- is so ingrained in us. It's almost as if a one-block place was a road to nowhere. I try to amble down them as often as possible.

6 comments:

Jackie said...

I've done some theater on Willow Place with the Heights Players. I may audition for a show there this spring, actually. It's such a beautiful little street-- it put me in a good frame of mind just walking towards the theater each evening. I don't remember that 17! Though now, of course, I'll have to look.

Pete Mandik said...

I love this one! And I'm enjoying this blog in general. Cheers!

Therese Cox said...

Thanks, Pete. Glad you're digging it. That is one cool profile picture. You fit in quite casually between the 2-headed ape and the bright red #2.

Jackie, I'll have to look for that theatre on Willow Place. I can't for the life of me picture it. I do know what you mean about the good frame of mind that street inspires. . .

Pete Mandik said...

All coolness credit for that pic goes to Ray, the photographer.

Therese Cox said...

Ha! I had a hunch.

Julie said...

You have much more variety than here in Sydney. Although I guess you rove all over.