Little Nuggets

These are my two favorite nuggets that I babysit in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn. Will and Claire. Love them.

London

Every day I am the helpless tug boat in the roaring harbor, bouyant, but just barely. I will admit that every day it gets easier. Unfortunately, because it gets easier, the memories start to fade away. Where do they go? Wolves. Carelessly tossed to the wolves, grey with red beady eyes, gnawing at the fleshy remembrances. To the bone, the marrow, pouring out onto the wooded floor thick with leaves and dirt from a rainstorm. The pack chewing, chewing, chewing until tiny twigs start to infiltrate the tasty meat, until they're gone.

Bronx Secret Garden

Who lives there and what does it look like from the inside?

"Bronx Secret Garden" is what my roommate called this picture when I uploaded it (on facebook) and I think it perfectly says everything I wanted this picture to say and more. Not only am I in love with the delicate intertwining of the plants on the fence, but I am just so curious as to who lives in this building.

The fire escape is such a lovely green and it makes me think that this fire escape is more special than all the others. I can only imagine that the red door leads to a small, smelly (in a good way) place where people are laughing and talking, and there are things hanging on the wall. Perhaps though, its just a door leading to a basement, but does someone live there? Who? I have all these questions about this building that I photographed while in an ally down Arthur Avenue, and I don't think anyone can answer them! How great is it to be mystified by something in your own neighborhood!

Lately I've been probably over-using the saturation content of my pictures. Maybe this is a small cry for Spring to finally SPRING, or maybe I'm just tired of drab colors. I want the hot green of the grass and the vivid blue of the sky and the earthy tones of the branches to be real and not digitally enhanced, whether on the computer or in my imagination. Will that ever happen?

I feel like a curious kid looking at this house.

Stick Ball Lives on in The Bronx

By Kate McGee

Kate is a Fordham Senior and fellow blogger. You can check out her blog, NewsandBrews, here.

Last summer, I traveled to Stickball Boulevard in the Bronx, a street
renamed to represent the one street where each Sunday during the
summer, young and old men—and one woman—gather to play stickball. It’s called the Emperor Stickball League. The league consists of nine different teams, made of men who used to play stickball on the streets of the Bronx when they were younger, and have passed on the tradition to their children and grandchildren.

I traveled to the street to interview members of the league for a show for WFUV radio, and met some really great people who have really interesting stories to tell. The play pictured here is a high school junior who was brought to Stickball boulevard by his uncle and plays on the family team. His uncle said he brought his nephew to the league to keep him from getting in trouble.

The crowds are large and full of family members who come out to support their family’s teams. The day I went—at the end of August—they teams were playing for seed for the playoffs that were going to occur in the Dominican Republican on Labor Day Weekend.

El Desfile de Eddie

By Catherine Colford

Besides being my roommate, Catherine is one of my best friends and a fellow blogger. You can check out her blog, BronxBliss, here.

Green grass and majestic buildings are not exactly what comes to mind when most people think of the Bronx. Lucky for Fordham students, our Bronx includes both (plus yummy Italian food, bodegas and BX12 buses). To me this picture is bliss, relaxation and beauty. You might think I'm exaggerating but seriously, there's no place I'd rather be than plopped down on that grass right there! I took this picture on my Blackberry last fall, before I went abroad for the spring semester. After experiencing countless breathtaking and beautiful places across Europe, I still could not have been happier to return to our beloved Eddie's. Don't get me wrong, the Eiffel Tower, Roman ruins and Venetian canals are all beautiful, but you always leave a place like that pretty jealous that you're just a tourist and those places don't "belong" to you. Eddie's, on the other hand, belongs to us.

Eddie's is the hub of the entire Fordham community. We meet our classmates there during freshmen orientation and graduate on the same lawn, and in between those two momentous occasions we pass endless days there together. I remember visiting on a perfect spring day in April as a senior in high school and making my final decision to attend Fordham while sitting on one of the benches surrounding Eddie's with my parents. I’m sure my admiration for the lounging “cool” college kids and hidden beer cans had something to do with it. The best part though, is that Eddie’s set my expectations for Fordham and it did not disappoint! A year later I was one of those “cool” college kids trying to hide a beer on Eddie’s on a sunny Friday afternoon.

Cherry Waves

Yesterday was the best day, weatherwise, that we've had in awhile. So sunny and so bright! Me and my boyfriend took our pooch, Mikko, outside behind our apartment for a game of catch.

The windows looking outside onto our backyard belong to my good friends, and when they heard us laughing and talking they popped their heads outside their respective windows to say hi. I felt like I was on the set of a play, perhaps By, By Birdie. They soon came outside with their little pooch, Izzy, and we had a pooch party. It was so much fun talking and watching our dogs play and drinking coffee. I brought my camera outside because I just couldn't take all the visuals! I ended up snapping about 200 photos of the sun hitting random objects. I am practically obsessed with the above photo because of the sun rays. I just can't handle it sometimes!

Nothing is better than warm weather in the Bronx. All the people that have been cooped up for so many months emerge from their apartments blasting the latest rap music. Just by being outside I feel I am updated on the latest hits and the newest artists. One guy who lives in the basement of our apartment near out backyard was playing some dope jams for us as we were sitting outside. Between the blasting rap music, the bright sun, my pitbull pooch, and the chain-link fences around us, I just thought to myself, typical Bronx life. As graduation nears and the black hole that is my future encroaches, I am becoming more and more nostalgic for the Bronx.

Oh well.

El Barrio

So as per requested from our last class session I captured, what I think, is the classic Bronx scene.

Now I don't know if this is indicative of my photography skills, or if my phone just has a wonderful camera, but if you couldn't tell already I'm guilty of using my phone instead of my snazzy Canon 35mm Silver digital camera. My phone is a free upgrade Blackberry Curve that's outdated, and my camera was an 800 dollar Christmas present. Don't tell my parents.

Anyway, the Bronx did this thing again today where it seemed enveloped in the weirdest light; the sky had the darkest purple hue while the sun was still strong enough to poke its head out at different moments, creating viole(n)t shadows. If you don't know what I'm talking about, refer to my With Teeth post in which I described the Bronx as post-apocolyptic. Today I really felt like it was the year 3010 and perhaps Mars was encroaching upon our atmosphere, mixing red with our bluest sky.

I see this scene everyday on my way to Brooklyn, its located near the Burnside stop on the 4. What impresses me the most about this picture is the graffiti at the top of the building! Who put it up there and how did they get up there? I have no idea!

P.S. El Barrio means neighborhood.