brooklyn diary 1

got up and ate breakfast silently alongside couple from DC and mum & daughter team. felt like i should have made conversation with them but was pretty sleepy so failed at this. decided not to go back to bed despite sleepiness. went to the mall at atlantic ave to look for an ipod cord and some headphones in bestbuy. didn't buy any. walked towards beacon's closet in park slope. bought shoes. checked out various shops in park slope all morning, felt like it was akin to northcote via there being lots of hip looking couples with children. bought 'vintage' looking postcards. had soy latte + banana muffin in some coffee shop then decided to walk towards prospect park. felt happy cos there was some sort of market on at the grand army plaza. felt amused by grandeur of the monuments on the arch. sat in prospect park watching and wrote a letter. it was pretty sunny. kids were playing. i was amused by them. grew cold and went into the brooklyn public library, which is an equally 'impressive' building. looked up some books about jean rhys that i have considered purchasing. read introductions to a few of her books. best one was a collection of letters she wrote. decided to walk back to where i'm staying before it got dark and before i decided to buy things.

had about half an hour back at my place chatting to stacey then went to get dinner at dekalb market. thoroughly enjoyed viewing  various stores in shipping containers, but didn't actually enter  any because they were intimate looking and i was too hungry to pretend i wanted to buy handmade stuff. had some filipino chicken on rice for dinner. got excited because i noticed robicelli's cupcakes have a store there. considered getting cupcakes but instead got mini donuts. went to macy's to see if they had apple stuff because for some reason i really don't want to buy an ipod cord that is not apple (oddly enough don't feel too annoyed with myself for brand loyalty) and seriously considered buying a handbag for ~$70.

came back to b3 and skyped fraser and looked for things to do. decided to go to the brooklyn museum to their late night opening. people were dressed in 20s clothing via the current exhibition, american art of the 20s. there was a big band (not size, like the style yo) playing in a big ole hall. the brooklyn museum had a really varied collection. there was egyptian and 'near east' art. i only looked at the near east stuff (which is like persia and turkey etc) because egyptian stuff weirds me out plus i have seen a lot in my time. then i saw some feminist artwork, stuff by eva hesse and then this giant installation called 'dinner party' by judy chicago which was really impressive and i learnt about different feminist/women who were progressive before feminism was a thing. i kept thinking that my friend gordon would really like it. also that it seemed like a really good date night. i looked at some contemporary american artwork and looked down at the people dancing on the lower level. people were having fun and the band was really good, i was filled with joy. then i went to look at these recreations of early american architecture which became pretty freaky. empty old rooms, totally weird. impressive, but weird. from there i went into this exhibition called 'hide/seek' which was about the way identity and sexuality have been represented in american portraiture. there were a lot of portraits of authors and poets, like frank o'hara, allen ginsberg, gertrude stein, susan sontag and some more. they also had a bunch of those andy warhol screen test films. there were lots of brooklyn-y looking people at the museum and then interspersed with hipsters were people in 20s getup. nice juxtaposition. i grew tired after my day of walking and decided to go home. smoked a cig then got the subway home. watched 2 episodes of snl because i felt sad that it was on and i wasn't able to stream/watch it.