FOR HALLOWEEN

What’s there not to like about lighthouses? Most have a majestic beauty about them and a link to 100’s of years of history. Let’s not forget that the majority have a few ghost tales attached to them as well. Some involve a past lighthouse keeper who is still carrying out their duties and some involve an accidental death but not many have the history that Execution Rocks has which makes it one of the most haunted places in America.

The Execution Rocks Lighthouse is located about a mile off the coast of New Rochelle, NY in the west end of the Long Island Sound. The name itself has a popular, yet based in folklore, story behind it. The British regime in America started to avoid public execution of the Colonials fearing it would spark the spirit of the new Americans and push them closer to a revolution. Instead they took the condemned prisoners out to the reefs at low tide and chained them to the rocks. They would them watch them drown slowly as the tide came in.

To make it even worse, it is said that the old bodies were left there so the newly condemned had the added horror of looking at old skeletons still chained to the rocks. Again this story, though horrific, has not been linked to any historical records but one of the claims of the island is that these condemned prisoners got their revenge years later during the Revolutionary War when a ship of British soldiers were sent after George Washington, the ship sunk near the rocks and no soldier survived.

Another story, maybe a little more ordinary, is that many ships on their way to Manhasset Bay where run aground on the reef and making the ships “executed” on the rocks. The lighthouse at Sands Point was not sufficient to warn ships around Execution Rocks so in 1847; Congress approved $25,000 to build a lighthouse right on the reef, it was first lit in 1850.

The lighthouse keepers lived in the base of the lighthouse until a keepers house was built in 1867. The lighthouse survived two rather minor fires in 1918 and in 1921. It went totally automatic in 1979 and in 2007 the Coast Guard offered the lighthouse to entities under the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act of 2000 and in 2009 the Historically Significant Structures organization received the deed for the lighthouse. Currently they are trying to raise funds and turn Execution Rocks into the first Long Island lighthouse to offer overnight excursions.

Another gruesome connection to the lighthouse is that of serial killer Carl Panzram. In the early 20’s, Panzram turned a .45 colt revolver stolen from a burglary into a killing spree that ended up with rocks being tied to bodies and dumped about 100 yards from the Execution Rock lighthouse. Panzram himself claimed to kill 21 people and was truly an evil and unremorseful human being. He was once quoted after killing and 12 year old boy, “….I am not sorry. My conscious doesn’t bother me. I sleep sound and have sweet dreams.”

Though the last lighthouse keeper, who retired in 1970, claims he never saw a ghost, paranormal activity claims such as apparitions, footsteps, voices and strange sounds have been reported by many who pass by the lighthouse as well as many US Coast Guard personnel who took night shifts there until the automation was finished.

~TRAVEL CHANNEL~


OMG, SCARY SCARY...RUN...

River in the Catskills by Thomas Cole

 

This idyllic setting was painted by Thomas Cole in 1843. One of the founding members of the Hudson River School, Thomas Cole was both a painter and a sculptor working within the artistic styles of romanticism and naturalism. In a time when the Hudson was viewed as an artery of progress and economic prosperity, Cole offered an alternative view of man and nature. This painting depicts man coexisting harmoniously with nature, with very little signs of industrialization or agriculture. The man in foreground is framed by the immensity of the Catskills, emphasizing their magnitude as well as their pacifying qualities. Time stands still in many of Cole's work (as well as other Hudson painters), and these paintings serve to place man within a time and space where he seems to exist without intruding on nature. Cole emotes the tranquility and balance that occurs in nature, with man respectfully enjoying this silence. The vast landscape also fulfills the question of who can enjoy this land. There is a couple people interjected within the painting showing the relation between this immense space and a sparsely populated area. I feel like Thomas Cole was almost advertising this bucolic landscape for certain people. 

Hudson River School

The Hudson River School was an art movement during the mid 19th century that was composed primarily of landscape artists.  The artists depicted the Hudson landscape as a place where humans and nature coexisted peacefully.  Thomas Cole was the founder and one of the first men to paint the Hudson River landscape.  The finest works of the Hudson River School were said to have been produced between 1855 and 1875.

After Thomas Cole's death, the second generation of artists became the faces of the movement.  Some examples are Frederic Edwin Church and Sanford Robinson Gifford.  A few of the artists from the movement played a role in founding the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

can art really do it

Looking up paintings of the Hudson river I thought they where nice but didnt capture it. What I mean by “it” is the depth ,the shear size. For example when we hanging out on storm king I was blown away! The trees look just like brush strokes. if I never went there my self I would probably be singing a different tune, but just how can I capture the size of this scenery? It is so wonderful it makes painting obsolete. unless it could be a huge mural. I am not saying the painting are bad or look like shit I love them. Great contrast of colors for some of them, others are extremely detailed but for me there is a lack not in the art it self; but it cant reach in all levels of the experience. Which could it?

I was thinking for an art installation for it would be to use old shipping containers and make a all sensory experience. Like for the trees they looked just like a wall of broccoli use that. To make a similar sight to being on storm king. That’s not all ! then use some thing to make the fresh air smell and sounds of crickets. some how create an depth from the person to the wall of trees ( this case broccoli) to some how capture the vast size of sight it self don’t know if it will work but it is nice to think about.

Spectra Pipeline Public Hearing

The Spectra Pipeline has been proposed to transmit natural gas into Connecticut, New Jersey, and New York. .7 miles of pipeline are projected to go through Manhattan both on land, near Greenwich Village, and under the Hudson in sections. Citizens of New York showed their frustration about this project at the FERC public hearing.  This hearing was the last one that would be held about the issue. The meeting was expected to run from seven to ten o clock, giving all of the speakers 2 minutes each to speak. The speeches were passionate and most were grounded in legitimate facts. It was amazing to see how much effort the speakers put in to attaining information and writing persuasive speeches for this hearing. The citizens were worried about the explosion of this pipe, since this has already happened in other places where the pipeline exists. With such an explosion, drinking water would be polluted and a highly populated area would be destroyed. Some tried to appeal to the company representatives’ personal life, bringing up the effect it would have on the family’s children, while others listed facts about previous issues with the pipelines which are likely to happen here. The use of natural gas was also an issue, as some pointed out, it is not a clean burning fuel. The solution that was often recommended was to use the money for the pipeline towards renewable energy sources instead, bringing about a greater change. 

The Knickerbocker Club: Frederick Townsend Martin

Frederick Townsend Martin was a writer and prominent member of the gentlemen's Knickerbocker Club, living from 1849 to 1914. After serving as a colonel in the state National Guard, Martin became an outspoken critic of excess and wealth, instead taking an interest in the plight of the impoverished of New York City. He spent much time in missions and halfway houses in the Lower East Side, where his opposition to the ills of wealth solidified. Frederick Townsend Martin was a member of a variety of exclusive social clubs both in and out of New York, like the Metropolitan Club, the Aero Club, the Wellington Club of London, and the Traveler's Club of Paris, to name a few. Upon the death of his socialite brother Bradley Martin, Frederick received a substantial amount of money in inheritance.

Luminism

Luminism is an American style of landscape painting.
Most popular from the 1850's through the 1870's.

 Painting in this style is meant to depict calm, tranquil, reflective waters. It is an offshoot of the Hudson River School. One of the luminists, James Augustus Suydam, has interested me. He was not an artist all his life. He started off as a businessman.

 

This one, called, "Sunset in the Hudson Highlands" is currently for sale. Sadly, it is way beyond the limits of my purchasing power. However, it makes a great gift ;)

Hawthorne Fine Art, LLC
74 East 79th Street, Suite 3A-B New York, New York 10021
Phone:	212.731.0550
Email:	info@hawthornefineart.com

Hudson Bike Trip-Pics

Hudson Bike Trip-Significant Places

Places of Significance

North River Wastewater Treatment Plant: This is a large wastewater treatment plant built over the Hudson greenway along the river at approx. 125^th St. It handles a large amount of the human waste and from the West Side. The treated water, called effluent, is released into the Hudson, and the treated sludge is dewatered and turned into “bio-solids” and used as fertilizer. There was a heated controversy over the creation of the plant, as it was originally designed to be on the Hudson at approx. 72^nd St, but the predominately white, upper-middle class, community in that region rejected the idea, and the site was moved to the much poorer West Harlem.

Hastings-on-Hudson: In 1977 the Atlantic Richfield Corporation (ARCO) purchased an industrial site along the river previously owned by Anaconda Wire and Cable Company. ARCO did an environmental impact assessment of the site and began small remedial measures to clear the site of the old industrial buildings. The site was placed on the State Superfund list as ARCO’s tests revealed high levels of PCBs and heavy metals. ARCO has worked alongside the DEC, the Riverkeeper and the town of Hastings-on-Hudson to remediate and redesign the waterfront area. Currently it’s approx. 29 acres of concrete with a metal slurry wall in the Hudson River. Steps towards full remediation have not begun yet.

Phillipsburg Manor: Frederick Phillipse was a Dutch merchant who settled in what would become Sleepy Hollow. Through his skill in business and his marriages he came to own nearly 52,000 acres of Westchester county. His manor became a center of colonial era trade, and when the British took the island of Manhattan from the Dutch he traded allegiances so he could keep doing business. His sons sided with the British crown during the Revolution, and lost the estate. It is now a center of cultural history, alongside the Old Dutch Church in Sleepy Hollow, where fairs and other events tell of the history and legends of the small town.

Hudson Bike Trip-Creative

                Going home was the easy part.

                But then again, I suppose it always is.

                The trial is set up only in the first steps, not the last ones. Whatever happens second is staged by what came first.

                The trip, as I would come to call it, truly started with a shot of whiskey and a few cigarettes the night before. My roommate Eric and I traced the map while still mostly sober, before the heavy drunk of the city night filled our bellies and brought our bones the great sleep. We traced the map when immortality was still lightning in our veins.

                Such is youth, fleeting and magnificent.

                In the morning, before the hang over passed, I climbed out of bed. The night had become a casual college memory, and I knew there was something that I wanted to accomplish before the day ended, but I couldn’t quite remember what it was.

                Then Eric opened his door.

                “You feelin okay dude?”

                I took a moment to answer, and replied, “eh, I could be worse.”

                “You still gonna do it?”

                It? I didn’t know at first what he was talking about, but when I noticed my bike leaning against the wall, I remembered.

                “Hell yeah I’m still gonna do it, you having doubts?”

                “I’ve been up since dawn, and I feel like shit.”

                “Shit.”

                “Yeah, I know.”

                “Well dude, ima stick around for a bit more, memorize the map and stuff, I’ll wait to see if you change your mind.”

                “I’m just gonna try to sleep.”

                “Alright buddy.”

                He shut his door but I lingered a few seconds longer. By myself? I wasn’t so certain anymore if I could make it. The trip seemed manageable with a partner, someone to push me when I faltered, to mock me when it looked like I was wimping out. But by myself? I felt small, inadequate.

                But I’m from New England, and we are a stubborn and proud sort of people, and when we say we are going to do a task one way, we are damn well going to do it that way.

                So around noon, with no food yet in my belly, and only a few memorized road names, I took to the road.

                The Hudson River Greenway carried me fifteen miles up the west side of Manhattan toward the Bronx. The air was salty, and the wind was crisp, heralding the coming autumn. Bikers, runners and walkers of every sort created a human traffic jam on the narrow causeways as the West Side highway thundered beside us to the pace of the city.

                Soon I was crossing the Spuyten Duyvil Creek into the Bronx alongside the Henry Hudson Parkway. The waters down below swirled, there was no identifiable current, and I understood why it was named after the devil. It was not a place to be in the water.

                Here I turned from the protection of the trail to the chaos of Westchester County roads, riding first through Yonkers, and then continuing north. The smell of the city clung to the subsidized housing projects and the slum neighborhoods I passed through. Down below, the Hudson sat quietly, watching the city with indifference.

                It was not a place that I would stay long.

                Outside of Yonkers, where the chaos of the city began to dwindle, autumn started to fill the air. The smells of decaying leaves and the cool air beneath the trees was a welcome friend as the roads turned more country.

                I stopped for the first time in Hastings-on-Hudson. The town was small, and quaint. The type of place families go to raise their kids, or retire. I had lunch at a place called Mauds, I had a couple of pints and the chili. It was the way mama fixed it, right down to the cheese on the top. I tipped generously and explored the town a bit, trespassing onto an area by the water that was a few acres of concrete by what appeared an old abandoned factory.

                I left when the security guard began to creep about.

                I was back on the road.

                Just before Tarrytown I made a wrong turn. The road wound through small towns and brought me inland where the trees were thick and the first signs of fatigue took me. After a lucky guess and muscle I didn’t know I had, I passed over the hill and back toward the Hudson. The road brought me toward Sleepy Hollow. In the air was the scent of legend and apples, and along the main road, in an old graveyard, the Dutch festival was going on. I paused to watch families and teenagers pay their way into history for a brief moment.

                Sometimes homesickness finds us at the strangest times, and I wondered about my town. The apples would be ripe now, and the pumpkins almost. I could see my friends around the bonfire, in jeans, boots and sweatshirts, drinking cheap beer and playing low on the guitar as the night deepened.

                My body felt very tired for a moment, there was still a lot of road left.

                The next few hills I would climb tested me beyond what I would have expected. And after a brief stop at a firehouse for some water and friendly faces, and after a friendly truck driver gave me a lift, I was passing through Ossining, and nearing the trail that would take me to Croton Point. The sun was falling, and the light on the water of Croton Bay brought peace to my bones.

                The gold danced and shivered on the small wave crests as the reeds on the banks whispered of where the river came from. The whir of the highway behind me faded as I stood alone with the water and the sun and everything was right in the world for one moment.

                I took my time for the last couple of miles, and as I entered the park I felt accomplished. I didn’t think about the trip, and I didn’t think about the next day, I only thought about the trees, and the grasses and how it would feel to sleep beneath the stars for the first time in weeks.

                And resting that night, life was good.

Calling all kids - www.dontfrackwithny.com

Riverkeeper is launching a Kids Care about fracking campaign and we need your help. 
Please forward this message to all the kids you know.
 
If you are a kid, we are asking you to write to Governor Cuomo and let him know why New York State shouldn’t rush the fracking process. Riverkeeper knows that you deserve the chance to have your voices heard and to demand a healthy environment with clean water to drink. Adult leaders that give industry the green light to frack for natural gas without needed protections will not pay the price of dirty water, air, and land – you will!
Please write the Governor and let him know what clean water means to you and how bad fracking can impact your water. You can include a picture or photo or anything else you think will help express what you have to say.   Riverkeeper will select some of the best letters to feature in our Don’t Frack With NY Water! Campaign, so please send a copy of the letters to us as well at:

Riverkeeper
20 Secor Rd.
Ossining, NY 10562.

You can write to Governor Cuomo at:

The Honorable Andrew M. Cuomo
Governor of New York State
NYS State Capitol Building
Albany, NY 12224

We are accepting letters until December 1, 2011.
Claim your right to a future with clean water!
Your own words are always better, but here are some hints:

Dear Governor Cuomo,
My name is______________.  I am ___ years old and live in ____.  I love water because _____.  I am concerned that bad fracking will destroy my water.  Please do not let that happen.
Yours truly,
________

Dutch Culture in NYC

Every year, in June, for the past 30 years, there is the "Annual Holland Herring Festival". It is held in the much beloved Grand Central Oyster Bar. This year, Dutch Consul General Gajus Scheltema,, opened the herring cart.

You can contact www.oysterbarny.com/ about next years event.
here are some other Dutch places in NYC you can visit:

Vandaag (www.vandaagnyc.com/about.html)

Beach 49 landfill

The other day I took a walk to the Beach 49 landfill.
The Beach 49th street landfill in Rockaway, NYC is one huge mess. It is neglected by the government. It is supposedly a "remediated" superfund site. It was opened in 1938. It rose 70 feet into the sky and occupied 178 acres of Jamaica Bay waterfront. It was the longest and oldest operating dump till its closure in 1991. When it was being cleaned 500,000 cubic yards of trash was removed. The site was capped & cleaned in 1997. Today it is a 253 acre park that can not be occupied till 2033. The cap has been compromised.  Debris is going back into the bay. Toxins have poisoned beautiful wetlands with chemical solvents  petroleum distillates, benzene, xylene, pcbs, dioxin (a principle agent used in agent orange in Vietnam). etc..It is a graveyard for boats, and yes, dead bodies.. There are hatches throughout the site that warn of "danger Explosive gas". The methane has nowhere to go. It belongs to the NYC Department of Sanitation.

photos:NK

My Beach

A small little miracle happened here on my beach, Rockaway Beach . A beautiful little bird made a home here...The Piping Plover. In 1986 the Piper was  federally designated as an endangered species..They nest around Beach 44th to Beach 57th in the summers. They can be easily stepped on. They like to get their food at the shoreline. They seem to dance with the ebb and flow. They really are a sight to see..

1609

Rockaway was largely inhabited by the Lenappe Native Americans.. It was sold to the Dutch and then later to the British. Henry Hudson tried to sail to the northern most river but really ended up in Jamaica Bay. Rockaway means "place of waters bright." Rockaway was much like the Hudson river. Rich in fish and wildlife.

NYCP

       Last Friday, we visited a New York Container Port located on the northwestern tip of Staten Island on Howland Hook, across the Arthur Kill from Elizabeth, NJ. The terminal occupies a 187-acre tract of upland area. The Port Authority of New York turned a brownfield site that was once operated by Proctor and Gamble (manufacturing Ivory soap), into the intermodal terminal it is today. This container port is one of five container ports in the New York/ New Jersey Area and it handles 20% of port traffic on daily basis. On any given day, 10,000 containers pass in and out of the port as imports and exports and these containers are approximately 20 feet long and 8 feet high (known as TEU or twenty-foot equivalent unit, an inexact measurement unit of cargo capacity based on the volume of the containers). According to the NYCT website, the port can handle 425,000 containers annually and can work and unload three vessels simultaneously with seven container cranes.  The port is considerably import-driven, however the three main exports coming out of the port are recycled paper, scrap metal, and automobiles and their parts. The terminal is the largest employer in Staten Island and three different unions operate within the terminal.
     
      The New York Container Port is operated by Global Container Terminals, Inc. which was established in 2007 as a fully owned subsidiary of the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, one of the largest financial institutions in Canada with over $87 billion in assets. The New York/New Jersey Port Authority has a long term lease agreement with Global Container Terminals who handle the business of the port. The port has its eyes on expansion, targeting an adjacent plot of land known as Port Ivory to provide the necessary area for expansion. However, there are obstacles to expansion such as an Environmental Impact Assessment that has declared the plan environmentally unsound and calls on the terminal to reassess its planning.
     
       There is another obstacle, the Bayonne Bridge located on Kill Van Kull (the primary route to the region's largest shipping terminals) that must be raised or replaced to accommodate the next generation of gigantic container ships. At high tide, the bottom of the bridge is at about 151 feet above water and can accommodate most ships carrying 4000 and 5000 TEU. Often times, if these ships cannot fit at the tide circumstance, they must wait in the Kill Van Kull, incurring costs with long delays. There are already 100 or more ships around the globe that can handle 8,000 TEUs that are double the size of the ships already.

      On the New York Container Terminals website, the Terminal boasts several logistical solutions that claim the effectiveness of the terminal. They are the harbor's only facility with on-site warehousing, also with on-site trucking capabilities.  The NYCT is also located near the Goethals Bridge, which allows access to four major interstate highways. In addition to the major truck routes, the NYCT also operates a competitive on-dock rail service that connects to the North American intermodal rail service. The website applauds the efficiency and quick turn-around times at the port that allow businesses to run quicker and more efficiently. These logistics allow drivers on average, to move in and out of the terminal within 20 to 30 minutes.

bayonne bridge

4000 TEU container ship

crane for container ships

NYCT rail service 

historic palisades

1938 CCC erosion control work

1933 construction on Henry Hudson Drive

1933 construction on Henry Hudson Drive

1914 construction of Forest View area

1939 Henry Hudson Drive erosion control project

1931 construction of George Washington Bridge

1931 George Washington Bridge construction

1920 Hazard's bathing and boat house, originally constructed in 1916

1936 WPA crew installing embankment

all images courtesy of: http://www.njpalisades.org/album4.htm

to my son hardy

dear hardy,

           My lad i have to say that this day the 6th of October in the year of seventeen thousand seven hundred and seventy seven of our lord served to be a magnificent day for great Britain. i wish you where there but i understand your mother wishes you to continue you studies at The University of Aberdeen but boy what a world you are missing.
          In this new world the savage Yankees sought to trap us in a narrow part of our Hudson river. to execute what the Greeks did in the battle of Thermopylae. THEY ARE FOOLS why not make a wooden horse or better yet a wooden ass like the Greeks and sail it up the river. these Americans are just rubbish. they sought to hold our royal navy at bay with a chain that would be followed up with a battery of cannon fire coming from fort Montgomery and fort Clinton. This is how they hoped to stop our numbers, laughable! they knew we had better discipline, weapons and a sound Strategy the Yankees thought this old story book strategy would be enough to stop the whole of great britans power od how they where wrong.
soon after the first volley of cannon our lieutenant col. Mungo Campbell  took pity on the yanks and called a truce and proclaimed or rather requested that the "patriots" to surrender and no further harm would come to them. the bloody savage idiots thought they where funny by replying if the British surrender that we would be promised good treatment. this understandably made Lt. Col. Campbell very furious and a another cannon volley ensued.
   Very soon after Campbell him self led us in to a land battle. i past by him and his face was red, i have never seen a man so filled with anger, passion and honor for his country.i hope you become like him when you are older perhaps. he lived his life a true Englishmen and died like one too, fighting and dying for his king. god bless great Britain.
    this battle lasted in till dark, again the American found a way to make this easier for us! by not completing there bloody fort! how can you have a sound battlement with it only half way done. These yanks are by far the most idiotic people i have come to see in my life. With our bayonets bloody uniforms covered  in human bile our bayonets bloody we pushed the idiots off the fort.
   it was simple the Americans where over whelmed by great Britain sheer numbers with British, American loyalist and Hessian soldiers the Americans never stood a chance. once we had captured  the forts we burned what was left and tore down what we could not burn. the Americans who where smart surrendered and where sent to the sugar house prisons in new york.
that is my tale of war for you my son i have seen many things i hope to share them with you. maybe one day you will write a book about it. who knows .

with much love your father
god save the king

STORM KING

Storm King mountain has had a few names before this quite epic one was settled on. Henry Hudson called it Klinkesberg, due to it's wrinkled ridges. Dutch colonists gave it the name Boterberg, as the curved mound resembled a lump of butter. But 19th century writer, Nathaniel Parker Willis gave it the name that stuck. He says, "the tallest mountain is looked upon as the sure foreteller of a storm...He seems the monarch, and this seems his stately ordering of a change in weather."

In the mid 60's Storm King was the focal point of a monumental environmental battle. The Scenic Hudson Preservation Coalition fought to save Storm King, as Con Edison proposed to build a pumped-storage hydroelectric plant that would cut through the mountain. After a 17-year battle, Scenic Hudson gathered support from 20,000 people world wide and forced Con Ed to abandon their plans. The judge agreed this project would effect aesthetic properties of the land -- a surprising ruling at that time. This case marks the first time environmental law was seen as a new legal specialty, and is a cornerstone of environmental battles. It's good that Nathaniel Parker Willis's name for the mountain stuck. Perhaps today it is not seen as the ruler over the changing weather, but over the change in social climate.

Creation of the Palisades

jschumacher.typepad.com

Originally referred to as the Weehawken (rocks that look like rows of trees) by the Lenape, the cliffs that run along northeastern New Jersey and southern New York: the lower part of the Hudson River, have become known as the Palisades (fence of stakes). The cliffs are approximately 20 miles long and range from 300-540 feet high. They consist of marine originated items such as grains, fragments of fossils, and precipitates all made of calcium carbonate. These marine items were deposited in the ocean millions of years ago and were eventually lifted up to their position far above sea level. The Palisades were formed in the late early Jurassic Period around 186 million years ago during a plate shift where one plate went below the other pushing them up to 20,000 feet above sea level. In certain areas the mountains seems to stop but pick up again. These “tear faults” formed due to the subsidiary thrust faults that occurred after the initial occurrence. There is still evidence of the original landscape, changed by glaciers that moved through the lower Hudson River Valley, shown in the current path of the Hudson River. Long after their formation, in the middle of the 19^th century, the Palisades were used for building materials, concrete aggregate and firewood. However in 1900 the New Jersey Federation of Women’s Clubs and the Palisades Interstate Park Commission formed and managed the land. In the 1930’s the Civilian Conservation Corp (CCC) and Works Progress Administration (WPA) built park trails which remain and are used today.  

 Battle of Fort Montgomery

[An ode]

They came, they came,

in ships of old,

the Royal British fleet.

They rolled like waves, ships built not stol’d,

grim strangers to defeat,

And flags were raised, red-blue and bold,

yes death so indiscreet.

Our boys at home, we sat and shook,

not nervous but engaged.

The eyes of wives in windows there,

but look! they seem quite aged.

So the poet thunk like stew to cook,

he used hard words like ‘caged’,

and the scholar played a queen to rook,

upon his tiny stage.

Yes so it was while Brits advanced,

up, up, our mighty creek.

A gun to gun and plan to plans,

of wartime did it reek.

So we stood right there, on rocks and sand,

and under Bear’s low peak,

and readied our cannon upon that land,

with scalps in mind to seek.

Six cannons, yes, deuce pounds and thirty,

to cut broad galleon’s flank,

a chain that spanned our Hudson fertile,

they’d halt and walk the plank.

And sink and sink with buckled knee,

yes sink until they sank.

There was George Clinton, that man to lead,

plus his brother James,

and others, sure, just left to bleed,

but none to sing their names.  

And so they led, they led indeed,

our troops of thirty score,

and tall they sat upon those steeds,

singing “More, my men, more, more!”

“Fire! Shoot! Shoot to kill!

Show those boys your teeth!

Make a stand for old Peekskill:

like heaven but underneath.

“Yes let him come, Sir Henry Clinton,

The man who’s name’s half mine.

So let him bite the cosmic dust,

And sleep amongst the pine!”

And came he did, October six,

Seventeen seven and seven.

Loyalists, Hessians, we took our picks,

for freedom, yes, for severance.

We gave those swine some forty licks,

with pride but coming penance.  

See as we shot from stern to bow,

with big black balls that bust,

those Reds they trot like steed and cow,

upon us snuck like rust. 

rudy's new job

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/05/giuliani-to-promote-indian-points-safety/?ref=nyregion

Thank You Dutch West India Company

In this weeks reading, Dunwell explains the origins of the Dutch West India Company which was established in 1623 to " build the fortunes of colonial settlers and corporate investors." As a major trading outpost centered around the fur trade, Manhattan began it's life as a global hub for commerce. This spirit of entrepreneurship which began as privateering has exploded into the corporate New York City we all know today: Wall Street.
Something that is getting a lot of attention today is Occupy Wall Street. Around campus and in classes I have overheard and taken part in discussions on the topic and I constantly find myself asking, "How did this all get started? What is the origin of this movement?" Corporate greed, deregulation, an irresponsible population? There are possibly thousands of answers. Though hundreds of years have passed the spirit of Dutch commerce still remains not only in Wall Street but in greater New York. It was the foundation of this settlement in colonial times and still remains today.

new netherlands documentary

http://www.thirteen.org/dutchny/video/video-dutch-new-york/34/

New Amsterdam

The Dutch legacy in New York is not readily legible in cuisine or certain architecture that has existed through time. Little evidence of the thriving cultural and physical presence of the Dutch is able to be seen, however if you know where to look, their historic presence is everywhere. The ways in which the Dutch viewed their colonization as well as the way they treated the island of Manhattan has a lot to do with how the city has developed today. From 1625 until 1674, the Dutch West India Company, established New Amsterdam as a colony solely to ease the trade route between North America and Europe. This for-profit idea of a colony led to a different form of development and character that the other colonies established for religious or political reasons didn't embody. Although they primarily contributed a legacy of trade, the Dutch also gave Manhattan a "spirit of tolerance", allowing trading partners (whoever they wanted to trade with) to live on the settlement, along with many different people of different religions. The tolerance of the Dutch in Manhattan was partly due to their tolerance of religion in Netherlands where one's religion was not important to being Dutch. Although the Dutch culture and social impacts are not prevalent in the physical space of the city, their intellectual mindset for trade has allowed New York's port's to grow into the dominating force they are today. 

statue of henry hudson in the BX

Archaeological dig in Brooklyn

An archaeological dig began in 1999, in Brooklyn to uncover the remains of the Dutch Lott House. Due to asbestos within the house, excavations could only be made outside until the asbestos was removed. There are different eras associated with the house since more was added on from the original building. A garbage pit revealed a deposit of clam, oyster and conch shells with a coin from 1817 below it, showing that the deposit was made sometime after 1817. Many artifacts from the 1840s and 1860s were found in the trench such as bottles of opium, porcelain dolls, and ironstone which revealing the time period it was used during. It was believed that the house held African American slaves as well. Initially a plate was found marked with an X on the bottom, a typical characteristic of items owned by slaves to identify them. Once the crew moved inside the house they found a trap door that led to a small room without windows, which housed one of the Lotts’ slaves and was eventually used as part of the Underground Railroad. The evidence collected in addition to prior knowledge and pictures about the house, revealed that in the 1720s this home belonged to a Dutch family, and stayed in the family for the next 300 years during which it was transformed multiple times.

Archaeology.org

Dutch New York. Kind of.

One aspect of Dutch New York is that this history goes unrecognized. When you search "Dutch New York" in Google, the first thing that comes up is this:

http://thedutchnyc.com/about/

It's the website for a hip, upscale soho restaurant that has virtually nothing to do with Dutch history of New York. In fact, taking a look at the FAQ page, they ask, "what does the Dutch mean?" and they answer, "Nothing really. It's just an American joint that serves food, wine and spirits." If anything, this is a testament to how our Dutch history is lost today, and how many New Yorkers are blind to it. The only remnant of anything Dutch about this restaurant is the oyster selection, which I'm sure many of its patrons overlook. Today, Dutch New York might not mean anything to a lot of its residents.

Here's a home-made commercial for the Dutch, somewhat inspired by the one on the "about" page:

http://www.sendspace.com/file/pgd4tl

Hail, "Old Grape and Guts"
Sea Captain Stephen Hopkins
You sank as you swam

Dutch Food. Without the Horse Meat.

Finding authentic, traditional dutch cuisine in New York City isn't as easy as it seems.  Finding it at an affordable price seems even more difficult.  When doing some research, I came upon this article about Dutch food in the city and a restaurant whose owner claims is the first place to serve Dutch food since Stuyvesant's time.  The article mentions a type of meatball made of horse meat called "Bitterballen" that was supposedly served in Dutch colonies.  Dutch cuisine is a hybrid between German and Belgian foods, Indonesian spices and a touch of Baltic seafood, causing the menu at this restaurant "NL" to be "a little schizophrenic".  The article talks a bit about the food that's served here.  Although there is no Bitterballen in the menu,  it all sounds really interesting and I'd love to go check it out.  It's on the pricier side so maybe the next time my parent's are in town.

Here's the link to the article!
http://nymag.com/nymetro/food/reviews/restaurant/4512/

EAT in Greenpoint

The Slow Food movement is centered around ensuring the quality, authenticity, and sustainability of the food on the modern dinner table. The organization offers food and beverage producers who meet the stringent requirements for clean, ethical, and fair agricultural and business practices an award called the "snail of approval." The New York City chapter has an extensive directory of all businesses holding such distinction, which I've been going through and finding restaurants to go to. One of which is the restaurant called EAT, in Greenpoint. It's a small place on Meserole Ave which is wholeheartedly committed to selling only sustainable, local produce, preparing food for a menu that changes daily depending on what they have in the kitchen. EAT has a great relationship with Rooftop Farms, the massive agricultural project on the roof of a warehouse in Greenpoint. The restaurant's furnishings are made by the brother of the guy who owns the place, it's got a wonderfully homey feel. I think this sort of restaurant can become too hip for it's own good, but EAT seems to have its head on straight and offers a small but delicious choice of food at a fair price.

Dutch New York-Peter Stuyvesant

This guy is an important figure in the history of New York, and his last name adorns many streets and businesses, so a short biography seems in order. He was the last Director-General of New Netherland, holding office for nearly 20 years until the territory was lost to the English in 1664. He had a wooden prosthetic in place of a right leg due to wounds sustained in attacking Spanish territories in the Caribbean. He seems to have been a stubborn and impassioned man, exercising his power to redraw the borders of the Dutch colony as he pleased. He was known to have persecuted Quakers and restricted some liberties of Jews entering the colony, leading some contemporary historians to think these injustices may have helped influence the addition of the religious freedom clause in the Constitution. 

Newtown Creek canoe trip

This past friday I went canoeing up and down the Newtown Creek with rob, hardy, and a few people from the Long Island Boating club. Having read so much about the waterway but only rarely getting a glimpse, it was a fabulous means of interaction with this federal superfund site. We were on the water by 10, and paddled all the way to the end of the creek near the Morgan Ave L train stop. We paddled into a strong headwind going up, so it took just over 2 hours to complete about 1.5 miles. On the way back it took no more than 45 minutes. The water was very murky and turbid, complete with various types of garbage. I appreciated the opportunity to go on this trip because the Newtown Creek is almost inaccessible by land because the shoreline has been so heavily developed and industrialized. This site of massive waste dumping isn't supposed to be easily visible to the average citizen, being on the canoe allowed firsthand experience of an important New York waterway.