Saturday Night in Boerum Hill: Robby Bloodshed at Hank's Saloon

(Videos courtesy Robby Bloodshed) (More videos here)

Monday Afternoon in Turtle Bay: Amster Yard off East 49th Street

(Video courtesy A Random Minute)

Thursday Night in Bay Ridge: Lyndol Descant at Greenhouse Cafe

(Videos courtesy Mike Beitchman)

Tuesday Night in Bay Ridge: Badlands at Three Jolly Pigeons

(Video courtesy Mike Beitchman)

Early Monday Morning in Bay Ridge: Watching Hurricane Sandy at Shore Road Park

At 7:30 a.m., With New York City shut down, we walked a few blocks from our new Bay Ridge sublet to Shore Road Park

to see what Hurricane Sandy looked like so far.

Since New Yorkers were warned to stay out of parks, this was either daring or foolish, as attested to by branches that had fallen.

Luckily none fell on our head.

Back on the safety of Fourth Avenue, we saw this poster for the young challenger to the incumbent Republican congressman. Democrat Mark Murphy is the son of John M. (Jack) Murphy, our old congressman from the 1960s, whom we used to write frequently during our years as an annoying teenager.

Back on Third and Fourth Avenues, the 24-hour Walgreens was still open, as were most of the mom-and-pop (mostly Bangladeshi) newsstands/delis (which have replaced the candy stores/ luncheonettes of our Brooklyn youth in the 50s and 60s) and the (very Greek) Athens Market.

Yesterday afternoon, after we braved the lines for food, water and supplies at Foodtown,

it seemed like everything was shutting down: the Starbucks on Third Avenue at 92nd Street;

Century 21 on the 86th Street shopping district, where the Christmas decorations already are up;

and of course the subway system, shown by this sign that went up in mid-afternoon yesterday at the R train terminus at 95th Street station entrance.

This morning we stopped in every place that was open except the laundromat and a tailor shop because we felt we needed to buy something.

Our umbrella never got opened because of the wind, but we had on a down parka with a hood (over just a Brooklyn College T-shirt). By the end of our hour's walk, the winds had picked up a lot from when we started out; it was definitely noticeable. At some crossings, the water was already making puddles. These sandbags were trying to stop a store's basement from being flooded.

It's a pretty anxious day in New York, but at the early hour, looking out over the Narrows to Staten Island, with light traffic still moving on the Belt Parkway and the Verrazano Bridge, it seemed quite peaceful and beautiful.

Wednesday Morning in Gramercy Park: Mayor Beame's Trees

When we got off the M101 Limited bus this morning at Third and 23rd, we were struck by the spring beauty of the trees on the southwest corner. The tree on Third Avenue near the corner Starbucks has a little plaque on the ground in front of its trunk.

It reads

On Sept. 9, 1977, Abraham D. Beame, mayor of the city of New York, planted this tree, the first of 75 trees donated for the beautification of our community by the Third Ave. Merchants Assn. (TAMA)

Mayor Beame couldn't have been too happy that day, a Friday. The previous day, Thursday, had been the Democratic primary (moved from Tuesday to avoid a conflict with Rosh Hashanah) and returns showed him coming in third, behind Ed Koch and Mario Cuomo, who'd advance to the runoff.

The city was coming off the "summer of Sam" when Son of Sam was shooting people and we'd had the disastrous 1977 blackout. We were writing our short stories, publishing them in little magazines, and about to begin the fall term teaching two sections of English at Long Island University, where we began working two and a half years before. This morning, about to teach our classes at SVA, we're grateful to the Third Avenue Merchants Association and Mayor Beame for the trees that brighten our day.