Tagged: Saturday

How to Join the McCarren Saturday Softball League

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As a co-commissioner of the McCarren Saturday Softball League, I get a few requests a year about teams wanting to join our league. The sad truth is that we cannot add any more teams because our permits grant us four hours of access to two fields each week. I would love to have some new “blood” in the league, but that’s impossible at the moment. As a way to tell people about our league, I wrote up a primer on joining the McCarren Saturday Softball league. I’m reproducing it here because I wrote it and want it on my website, too.


Welcome to the McCarren Saturday Softball league. I have some good news and bad news for you.

First, the good news. If you found this page because you really want to play co-ed softball in McCarren Park on Saturdays or Sundays and searched the Internet, congratulations. Your search is over.

Now for the bad news. As you might have noticed, McCarren Park is on the border of Greenpoint and Williamsburg, in the borough of Brooklyn, and in the city of New York. This last tidbit is important because if you want to do something in New York City, there’s probably a thousand other people that want to do the same thing. In theory, that’s great because it allows you participate in a variety of enriching experiences with a critical mass of really interesting people. But in practice, it sucks because there are nine-hundred ninety-nine people ahead of you in line, and you probably won’t get to do as many awesome things a city like New York has to offer. So you may as well go home, crawl to your neighborhood bar, and drink away your sorrows.

You might say, “Wait, but I do plenty of awesome things here in the city…thank you, very much.” And I’m sure you do. But I would ask you, fine sir or madame, how many of those things are either over-priced, over-crowded or both ?

Our league is unique in that we don’t run it to make a profit. We don’t charge an exorbitant fee to play. We don’t pretend to donate a tiny percentage of your fees to a charitable cause. Any money we take is used to cover our costs and, maybe, buy a few beers with what little is left over. We’re also not very crowded. We only have nine teams in our league, and every team plays each other twice. Our small size makes for a great community. Through this careful planning and management, we’ve maintained a league that has avoided the all-too-common trap of being over-priced and over-crowed.

If this sounds great to you. Here’s how to sign up.

I Have a Business, Bar, or Group of Friends and Want to Form a Team

Great. Have you ever tried to find a rent-controlled apartment in Manhattan? That’s what this league is like. We have only four hours of permit time each week on two fields. The way our games work, we can schedule only four games each week. It is ideal for an eight-team league since every teams gets to play every week, and it is workable for a nine-team league since each team gets two “bye” weeks throughout the summer. But it will not work for a ten-team league because each team would then get four “bye” weeks. If we did that, we may as well not even play.

The only way we can add a new team is if an existing team drops out. The last time a team dropped out was in 2005. I’m not saying it won’t happen, but you should know that there’s already a very long waiting list.

I Want to Join an Existing Team

Finding an affordable apartment anywhere in the city is tough. At one time or another, we all resorted to moving into an awesome place with a stranger or two. Some teams are pretty well established but could use new players. But like finding a roommate, there’s some nepotism involved. If you know people who play on a McCarren team, speak to them and find out what’s up. Buy them a beer, and regale them with stories about how great a player you are.

If you don’t know anyone, you might be able to walk on a team through an open practice in late March. That would be a great opportunity to connect orphaned players with needy teams. But that depends on whether teams need players, and that’s up to each team. Sorry to be such a downer, but I’d rather be straight with you now than have you bug me later about why you aren’t getting any playing time.

I Have a Bar, Brewery, Distillery, Coffee Shop, Business and Want to Sponsor a Team or the League

Finally! I can offer some unqualified good news. If you would like to sponsor a team or the league, we’d like to meet you. Most of our teams had sponsors last year, but that can change from year-to-year. We’d love to have your business name on our shirts and even come in a knock a few back, especially if you’re close to McCarren Park. I know summers can be lonely in a hot, sticky city such as ours, but we’re not going anywhere and would love to hang out with you. Let’s talk, why not?

Apple Fan Boy

Let's Peel Apples

Having gone on a weekend trip to Cooperstown, New York, Sarah and I visited a few local spots, such as the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum and the local Farmer’s Museum. One of the other spots we visited was the Fly Creek Cider Mill. It was the annual Cider Festival on the Saturday we were there, and as much as this makes me look like Ned Flanders, I will admit to being completely mesmerized watching a couple of volunteers peel three apples at a time in a matter of seconds.

We did get to sample some of the cider at the snack bar. It was outstanding, and has inspired a number of autumn beverages.

Open House New York Weekend Begins Tomorrow

The tenth annual Open House New York weekend begins tomorrow. Sarah and I have bought tickets to several tours for both Saturday and Sunday. There will undoubtedly be a ton of photos that I will post here, but I’m looking forward to hopping around this city to see as much cool architecture as we can.

Here’s our schedule for the weekend:

We begin on Saturday with a tour of the Roosevelt House, a recently renovated townhouse in the east 60s that was home to Franklin D. and his family. That’s not the only former Roosevelt home open this weekend. There’s also Theodore Roosevelt’s birthplace since it’s open from 10:30 – 4:00 on Saturday. I tried to go with my mom when she was here last summer, but it was closed for renovations

Later that afternoon, we shuffle to the west side for a walking tour of the public spaces around Lincoln Center. The tour will highlight works by many luminaries of modern architecture, ranging from Eero Saarinen to the very active firm Diller Scofidio + Renfro.

Whiskey Thieves - Fun 1 - Mies van der Rohe chair

We have tickets for a tour of the Phillip Johnson–designed Four Season restaurant. We saw the inside of the Four Seasons back in February when we went on a [scavenger hunt of modern architecture][scavenger] sites in New York. The tour is on Saturday afternoon, which is challenging for me because that’s the same time as the Robots are playing in the third and deciding game of the McCarren Cup finals.

On Sunday, we have start with a demonstration of sound acoustics. at the Arup SoundLab in lower Manhattan.

At noon, we’re taking a tour of the last remaining segment of the old High Line that has not yet been developed as a park. The High Line at the Rail Yards is a last opportunity to see the abandoned rail line in its undeveloped state. Unfortunately, it looks like we’re due for rain on Sunday so I hope we can still see this before it becomes one of the city’s most popular parks.

After that, we’re heading to Queens for couple of tours that don’t require reservations. The first is a tour of the old TWA Flight Center at Kennedy Airport, a Eero Saarinen project that is inside of Terminal 5, currently the home of JetBlue’s hub at JFK. The terminal is exciting because it was constructed at the dawn of the jet age and shows the futuristic optimism of that era. While connecting to the AirTrain in Jamaica, we’ll make our way to the King Manor Museum in Jamaica. I first saw this when I was marking the route for the Ride to Montauk, and I’m glad that they are participating so I can finally see this place.

Chances are slim that I’ll be too busy to post updates throughout the weekend, but I’ll be posting photos to Flickr as soon as I can and then later on this website.

“After the Crash: European Film ca. 1929–30” at Yale University

Next month, Yale University is hosting a film conference devoted to European filmmaking after the financial market crash of the late 1920s.and ensuing global economic depression of the 1930s.

The conference does not appear to have a website so I am reproducing the conference announcement, which I received via email, for anyone who might be interested.


After the Crash: European Film ca. 1929-1930

September 14-15, 2012

Auditorium, Whitney Humanities Center, 53 Wall Street, New Haven, CT

All featured films screened on restored or archival 35mm prints (unless noted) with English subtitles.

In the history of Europe, 1930 was particularly marked by the impact of the Depression in the aftermath of the American stock market crash of 1929. This impact could be seen, for example, when Miguel Primo de Rivera, prime minister of Spain and head of a military dictatorship, was obliged to resign due to a financial crisis and by 1931 the king was forced to flee as republican and socialist parties won a big majority in local elections. In 1930 Germany also saw increased polarization in its political world as the communists, socialists and Nazis emerged as rivals in a struggle for power that culminated in the Nazi take-over of 1933. The Soviet Union, which was less directly affected by the Depression, saw a brutal collectivization campaign in this year and ominous show trials. The period around 1930 was also fateful for European film as sound film began to replace silent film at an accelerating pace. The conference will address the implications of this ongoing shift both in terms of its impact on filmmaking, production and distribution, and in terms of how the introduction of the talkies exacerbated the language barrier between and within European countries and became a severe problem in helping different cultures relate through film

Friday, September 14th

3:00 PM Menschen am Sonntag (People on Sunday) (Kurt Siodmak, Germany, 74 mins. Blu-ray)
Preceded by Regen (Rain) (Mannus Franken and Joris Ivens, the Netherlands, 14 mins. DVD)

5:00 PM Komsomol (Patron of Electrification) (Michael Chanan Esfir Shub, USSR, 55 mins. DVD)

6:00 PM PANEL

8:15 PM Cottage on Dartmoor (Anthony Asquith, United Kingdom, 88 mins. 35 mm)

Saturday, September 15th

9:00 AM Die Drei von der Tankstelle (Three from the Gas Station)(Wilhelm Theile, Germany, 99 mins. 35 mm)

11:00 AM PANEL

1:00 PM Prix de Beauté (The Price of Beauty)

2:45 PM L’Age d’Or (The Golden Age) (Luis Buñuel, France, 60 mins. 35 mm)

4:15 PM David Golder (Julien Duvivier, France, 88 mins. 35 mm)

6:00 PM PANEL

8:30 PM Ze soboty na nĕdeli (From Saturday to Sunday) (Gustav Machatỳ, Czechoslovakia, 69 min. 35 mm)
Preceded by Bezúčelná procházka (Aimless Walk) (Alexander Hammid, Czechoslovakia, 9 mins. 35 mm)

Marking the “Ride the Montauk”

If you’re traveling along the southern shore of Long Island and see on the asphalt a pink circle with a line, don’t worry: it is not a sign of danger or doom. Those pink circles are mark the route for cyclists riding the annual Ride to Montauk. It is simply a cue for those on two wheels to make a turn.

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In addition to riding in several bike tours around the New York area, I have volunteered to mark the routes for the New York Cycle Club’s Escape New York Century, the Transportation Alternatives’s New York City Century and Tour de Brooklyn rides, the Five Borough Bike Club’s Montauk Century, and the ride known as Glen’s Ride to Montauk. Route marking is my favorite volunteer job because you ride the course before the actual event. (This not the case with Escape New York because we mark the route by car, not bike, because of the long distances.) Also, because I volunteered, I usually get to ride the entire course, as if I paid for the ride, but I get to do it for free.

This year, I helped mark the course from Brooklyn to Babylon. If you’re riding the full 150-mile course, you’ll see our work. For those pedaling the Ride to Montauk on Saturday, June 16, you’ll also see other marks, such as the “Mn” or the “B2B”. Those marks are for the 5BBC Montauk Century and the Bike to Beach charity ride, respectively. Please don’t follow those!

I’m looking forward to riding this particular version of the Montauk ride. I’ve done the 5BBC’s ride a few times, but I’ve never been able to do Glen’s ride.

Great Seafood 20 Miles from Shore

One of the great ironies of industrialization is that some of the best seafood in Los Angeles is over 20 miles from the sea. It is in the industrial section of the Warehouse District east of downtown Los Angeles.

Fisherman's Outlet

Sarah read about Fisherman’s Outlet a few months ago, and we stopped by for breakfast on Saturday with her dad and my parents. It was absolutely delicious.

Grilled Goodness

We went on Saturday, and there was about a twenty-minute wait for our food. (I can imagine how much worse it is on a weekday around lunch time.) But the wait was worth it. My grilled swordfish belied the industrial setting: it was like eating at a fish shack at the beach/shore. Although I thoroughly enjoyed my swordfish, I wished I had opted for the halibut steak. No matter what I ordered, I would have been disappointed because there were so many delicious alternatives that I would have missed: fried or grilled, fish steak or shellfish, fries or rice, bisque or chowder.

Fisherman’s Outlet is at 529 S. Central Ave.

Obscura Day

Saturday was my first Obscura Day. This year’s lineup didn’t seem as exotic as past last year’s events around the New York area. Sarah, for instance, went to the Vanderbilt Museum on Long Island, a place that I never would have visited on my own. I didn’t go in 2011 2010 because I didn’t want to miss a softball game, but this year, I was ready to make an early-season sacrifice.

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The one event that caught my attention was Thirteen Steps Around Dutch Kills, a walking tour of Newtown Creek. It was led by a true expert of the area, so I was excited to take the tour. It was an eye-opening perspective. It’s not like I haven’t been around the industrial zones of Long Island City and Greenpoint. I have either biked or driven past those spots over the last several years. It’s just that one tends to overlook the industrial blight around Newtown Creek. Perhaps the best part was finally taking the ironically named Nature Walk path around Whale Creek, behind the new sanitation plant.

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In the evening, I sacrificed yet another softball game for a tour of nineteenth-century drinking establishments. It was basically a tour of watering holes in Lower Manhattan that have been around for a long time, such as Fraunces Tavern, Delmonico’s, and the Paris Café. Despite having lived in New York for over a decade, I had never been in these spots since I never went below Chambers Street unless someone was in town or I had to report for jury duty. I felt a little under-prepared as there were people there in costume. I really appreciated that because it made the experience a little more authentic.

Scavenger Hunt of Modern Architecture in NYC

Whiskey Thieves -  Midtown 15 - Hoffman Auto (Mercedes of Manhattan)

New York has more than a fair share of famous buildings, and on Saturday, Open House New York and DoCoMoMo New York staged a scavenger hunt of Modern Architecture. Contestants were given about forty clues to find buildings, rooms, and sculptures around New York, mostly in Manhattan, and collect points for each one.

Sarah had signed us up, under the name The Whiskey Thieves, and we started our hunt at Room and Board, a modern furniture store in SoHo at 11:00 AM, and we had until 5:00 PM to find as many buildings as we could. To ensure we found the buildings, we took photos of ourselves, wearing a bright orange-and-black button, in front of the building, such as the photo in this post.

Whiskey Thieves -  Midtown 2 - Lever House

Although each of us had lived here for over ten years, we saw a good number of buildings for the first time. For example, I’ve probably biked past the corner of Park Ave and 59th St dozens of times, but I never knew that at the south-west corner, at 500 Park Avenue, was the former Pepsi Co. headquarters. A good number of the buildings were clustered around Park Avenue in the 50s, including the Seagrams Building, Lever House, and the Mercedes-Benz of Manhattan showroom (formerly the Hoffman Motors showroom).

Aside from finding buildings, we could earn points by taking photos of other assorted items, such as holding one of those Great Architects Lego models, one of us sporting Le Corbusier–style eyeglasses, or a copy of Le Corbusier’s Towards A New Architecture. We found a pair of glasses at Studio Optix in Rockefeller Center (thanks for letting us try them on), and at the Lego Store we found built-but-encased model of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Robie House. We couldn’t find a printed copy of the Le Corbusier’s book so we settled for an iBook on my iPad.

We had to upload our photos to the Modern Architecture Scavenger Hunt Flickr pool by 2:00 PM today. You can see the results on my own Flickr set, and, of course, in my photo gallery.

Sarah and I are hoping we can do a scavenger hunt like this again. Will they do an Art Deco version in the future?

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Our First Mileage Run

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Perhaps it is a bad sign that Sarah and I didn’t get to ride our bikes to Montauk this year, but we are taking our first mileage run this weekend. We will be going to Seattle, by way of Los Angeles, leaving at 7:00 AM on Saturday morning and landing at JFK just 24 hours later.

I upgraded our seats to business class on the westbound JFK-LAX segment so we will have a very comfortable place to sleep and a little breakfast once airborne. Unfortunately, we won’t have the sundae bar, which is one of my favorite parts of flying United’s JFK-LAX/SFO business class service, but we will have an almost lie-flat bed. We have a long layover in Los Angeles on the outbound portion and will be having breakfast with my dad at Pann’s Restaurant near LAX. On the turnaround in Seattle, which begins about three hours after we land in Seattle, we will be having dinner with Sarah’s friend Grace at Thirteen Coins, what Sarah calls an old man restaurant near the Seattle Airport.

Sandwich at Thirteen Coins

The inbound portion of the run will be pretty streamlined with no long connections so there won’t be much time for any more visiting. At best, we will have time to hang out at the club, get a nightcap, board our flight, and get some sleep after a long day and almost 6,900 butt-in-seat miles.