The Q at Parkside
(for those for whom the Parkside Q is their hometrain)
News and Nonsense from the Brooklyn neighborhood of Lefferts and environs, or more specifically a neighborhood once known as Melrose Park. Sometimes called Lefferts Gardens. Or Prospect-Lefferts Gardens. Or PLG. Or North Flatbush. Or Caledonia (west of Ocean). Or West Pigtown. Across From Park Slope. Under Crown Heights. Near Drummer's Grove. The Side of the Park With the McDonalds. Jackie Robinson Town. Home of Lefferts Manor. West Wingate. Near Kings County Hospital. Or if you're coming from the airport in taxi, maybe just Flatbush is best.
8 comments:
This is too cute! The combo of the photo and the headline is priceless. Maybe you should consider launching a "photo of the day" (or week). I know there are quite a few amongst us who could contribute some pretty good material.
Ceelledee: That's 225 Parkside, by the way. I suspect at least a few thousand people pass that spot every day, so I totally get it. Must be pretty cramped up in the apartment! Or maybe it was an "overnight visitor?" Too young to be a paramour however...
One thing that made me laugh was thinking of lawns Upstate and back in Iowa that are COVERED in plastic toys. I recall reading of a town ordinance in one village in Vermont prohibiting the leaving out of plastic crap on lawns - was creating an unsightly disturbance to the desired Normal Rockwell aesthetic.
All to say that Lefferts is not the only place on earth to grapple with issues of cultural difference and community standards!
And there's the rub. The minute you tell me that it's 225 Parkside, there's an immediate connect that makes me go from a grin to a frown. I mean, up until that moment, I was just digging the art of the photograph as an abstraction and in all it's irony, sarcasm and grit. But the moment you placed it in front of 225 -- place and time became real. No longer "art" but now "life", I got a pang for the tyke and his/her trike.
Still, this is a great example of how artistic expression can poke and provoke us -- getting us to notice and think about all the little things around us that we may not have noticed in our daily travels as well as those in which we might be active cultural observers but passive agents for change. Tim, you are an observant, active artist for change. Well done!
And in line with all I've just said, I would add a nod to Elizabeth C and her "Perfectly Planned and Protected Picnic in the Park" photo as well! :-)
I saw you take this pic! I was wondering "hey I wonder if that's the q"? And here it is. Thanks for all the great local news and next time I'll say 'hi'!
Saw that last night on the way home. Pretty funny. Hope no dogs take a shine to it before the kid gets back to it.
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