Dumbo Books of Brooklyn

Friday, May 3, 2013

Friday Afternoon in Elmont: Visiting Family at Beth David Cemetery

This afternoon we walked all around the large Beth David Cemetery in Elmont to see the final resting places of our maternal grandparents, Ethel and Herbert Sarrett, and our paternal great-grandparents, Frieda and Jacob Ginsberg, and Hannah and Harry Cohen, plus a lot of our Ginsberg great-aunts and great-uncles in the Lenyin - Lachwer Benevolent Association plots. These old Jewish burial societies -- the Cohens are in Adath Israel of Brownsville and New York, and the Sarretts are buried with the Louis Lerner Young Men's Benevolent Association -- have big areas in a large cemetery. We've always enjoyed visiting cemeteries when nobody's being buried, and we're always grateful for the reminder we'll be dead sooner or later, though we are going to be cremated. Definitely we won't be getting the perpetual care of our forebears.

Friday, April 26, 2013

Friday Afternoon in Glen Cove: Morgan Park

After a long week, it was nice to spend an hour or so in one of our favorite spots on the North Shore of Long Island, Morgan Park, at the mouth of Hempstead Harbor and overlooking Long Island Sound.

It was built as a memorial by J.P. Morgan to his late wife.

Acquiring the lands surrounding the former steamboat landing, the estate of another millionaire, and the site of an enormous Civil War-era hotel, Morgan brought some of the most skilled landscape architects in New York to work on the design and construction of the park.

When it was completed in 1932, Morgan leased the park to the residents of Glen Cove and Locust Valley for a period of 999 years -- for one dollar.

Morgan Park is the site of the City of Glen Cove's annual Fourth of July Fireworks and the popular Morgan Park Summer Music Festival, held at the stage during July and August.

There were a handful of people around this afternoon, as well as a large flock of seagulls at the pier and a lot of workers readying the park for summer. We've always loved coming here when we've lived in Locust Valley, as we are now. It's great to walk along the beach, especially after a winter in landlocked Arizona.

Friday, April 19, 2013

Friday Night in Williamsburg: The Veda Rays, Grand Resort, Eastern Hollows, Fan-Tan and Rob Karpay at Muchmore's

Dean Keim began his comprhensive and perceptive My Social List review of tonight's show at Muchmore's:

A hot and sweaty show overtook the intimate out-of-the way Williamsburg DIY spot Muchmore’s. . . Their cheap bar and welcoming opening café opens to the adjacent dimly lit stage room lined with couches and mural art sprawled across the walls. The bill was comprised of a number of local Brooklyn bands whom often appear in extremely muted lighting together, however, none of them were formed from the same cookie cutter genres, they craft diverse sounds. Each was ready to bake your face off with amazing rock and roll.