very simple

april appears to have largely been about meals. But I have also been inspired to finally start a project that I had been thinking about for a while. I want to photograph every subway station in the new york city subway system. It requires some planning in order to not end up repeating myself over and over again, and also switching to an unlimited metrocard. I’ve been organizing myself, putting together a comprehensive list of all of the stations in the system (which there doesn’t seem to be a good one available anywhere?!) and the trains that run through them, and once I start I’m going to try to be methodological and target small sections at a time so that I’m not biting off more than I can chew – I figure If I pick a section of a line to tackle on any particular day when i’ve got no other plans, that’s probably the most sensible way to do it. I like the idea of this project in particular because it’s something that I can choose to do on a day here or there when I’ve got no other plans, and I can put it down and pick it up again depending on how busy I am with other things. But I’m determined to start.

I’ve been a bit down lately about my status as a second class citizen since the recent Supreme Court decisions, and have been thinking about tangible things I can do to at least make myself feel like I’m doing something, even if it amounts to spitting in the wind.

In the meantime though, my family is celebrating a very rain-sodden July 4th in the Berkshires and our barbecue got waylaid by the incessant rain. So…flag, and and barbecue trimmings being cooked in the kitchen.

Our town in the Berkshires is one of the smallest and, as a consequence, our memorial day parade is quite small. There’s the veterans (including my dad), the village improvement society, the boy scouts and the 4H club. Plus lots of random townspeople. The 4H club is the only one that has its act together enough to have a float. Everyone’s welcome to march, but I feel I’m doing my part by actually watching the thing. Which lasts approximately 20 minutes, including speeches.

My friend Scott, from up in the Berkshires, has run a local favorite establishment for many, many years. Recently though, he closed caffe Pomo d’Oro in west Stockbridge in order to buy, restore and reopen the Monterey General Store. MGS is the oldest general store in the United States and, except for the months it was closed between when it shut down and when Scott bought it with the intent of reopening it, was open continuously for over 200 years.

…and bonus. Scott’s words when he saw me in the doorway of the kitchen with my camera were something along the lines of “I better not end up on that blog of yours!”

Came up to the Berkshires on Friday, and my stepmom and I immediately headed out to the Memorial Day sample sales. Which are always in tents, and which it always seems to be raining for.

We headed up to pine cone hill in Pittsfield (after an accidental detour to their old location in Lenox), which is now located in this fabulous old factory.

I took a boatload of pictures when I was up in the Berkshires for the last week of August, and I am slowly (very slowly) working my way through the various subjects.

Unlike Great Barrington, which seems to have been designed to maximize useful quaintness, Pittsfield was a true company town. There was a massive GE plant here for years, and it employed pretty much everyone. Pittsfield was the city that developed to accommodate it. And then it slid into despair, living up to its unfortunate name.

In the past few years though, it’s seen a bit of revitalization – a real push to make it a place people will want to visit. I’m not sure it’s there yet, but it’s certainly in a better place than it was ten to fifteen years ago.

as always, click through for the full image.

Last night of my week in the Berkshires, we’re spending the evening on Lake Buell with a friend who has a house right on the lake. Here, belle is bidding adieu to the summer.

I start my next work engagement next week, so I thought I’d take a full week up in the Berkshires, something I rarely get to do for that amount of time. Of course, I got up here on Sunday and my entire family had to head back to NYC on Monday for a few days, so I’ve been on my own. This is even more rare than my spending an entire week up here.

Last night I took myself to dinner in Great Barrington, where i promptly ran into one of my oldest friends up here, so he and I ended up eating together. I love when that happens. On my way out, this guy was playing some lovely music. Shot in extremely low light at a high ISO, so the quality’s not great, but still wanted to share.

Just putting up a few additional pics from my most recent weekend in the berkshires. The trees weren’t blooming much yet, but it was still quite lovely taking a walk around Ashley Falls.

For years, I’ve been going up to the Berkshires, and one of my favorite towns is Great Barrington. It’s a combination of quirky-cute and quite practical (unlike, say, Stockbridge, which has quirky cute down pat but after 20 minutes of wandering around, you realize that you can only buy country kitsch, or Pittsfield, which, in its development as an industrial company town has plenty of practicality but just looks ragged). And then I realized that I had never taken my camera over to Railroad Street to take pictures. So here you go.