September 18, 2007

Back...

.... in Brooklyn. It was nice getting a dose of Madison, and Brooklyn is looking quite lovely today.

21 comments:

hdhouse said...

Nice blue sky in the Hamptons too. Welcome back. Just got off the phone with my son who was walking the Brooklyn Bridge because it was such a nice day and he wanted to share it.

I do however miss the midwest like you must. But you can be homesick for 2 places at once.

blake said...

The Bronx is beautiful this time of year.

Trooper York said...

Autumn in new york
Why does it seem so inviting
Autumn in new york
It spells the thrill of first-nighting

Glittering crowds and shimmering clouds
In canyons of steel
Theyre making me feel - Im home

Its autumn in new york
That brings the promise of new love
Autumn in new york
Is often mingled with pain

Dreamers with empty hands
They sigh for exotic lands

Its autumn in new york
Its good to live it again

Trooper York said...

Like the folks you meet on
Like to plant my feet on the Brooklyn Bridge
What a lovely view from
Heaven looks at you from the Brooklyn Bridge

I love to listen to the wind through her strings
The song that she sings for the town
I love to look up at the clouds in her hair
She's learned to wear like a crown

If you've been a rover
Journey's end lies over the Brooklyn Bridge
Don't let no one tell you
I've been tryin' to sell you the Brooklyn Bridge

All the folks in Manhattan are sad
'cause they look at her and wish they had
The good old Brooklyn Bridge

If you've been a rover
Journey's end lies over the Brooklyn Bridge
Don't let no one tell you
I've been tryin' to sell you the Brooklyn Bridge

You'll miss her most when you roam
`cause you'll think of her and think of home
The good old Brooklyn Bridge

(Sammy Cahn 1947)

Trooper York said...

Some they come for the dance
And some they come for the fight
Either way take your chance
In Brooklyn on a Saturday night

Yeah, that's how they happened to meet
When they met, it was right
Fell right in with the beat
In Brooklyn on a Saturday night

He had nothing much planned
She was there with a man
But when he saw her,
He couldn't ignore her
The whole thing just got out of hand

On Saturday night
It happened out in
Brooklyn on a Saturday night
Saturday night, yeah
Talkin' 'bout
Brooklyn on a Saturday night
Saturday night, yeah

Oh, she meant to be good
And oh, he tried to do right
But things got misunderstood
In Brooklyn on a Saturday night

He ended up having some words
With that punk
Who brought her there first
She came between them,
A sharp blade was seen
And she ended face down in the dirt

On Saturday night
It happened out
In Brooklyn on a Saturday night
Saturday night, yeah
Talkin' bout
Brooklyn on a Saturday night
Saturday night, yeah

Yeah, some they come for the dance
And some they come for the fight
Either way take your chance
In Brooklyn on a Saturday night

No
Oh No
Saturday night
Happened out in
Brooklyn on a Saturday night
Saturday night
Talkin' bout
Brooklyn on a Saturday night
Saturday night, yeah
Saturday night

(Neil Diamond 1968)

Trooper York said...

Poets love to sing of Paris in the Spring
They say it's something that you can't conceive
I don't know a thing of Paris in the Spring
I've never been abroad but I believe

A beautiful day in Brooklyn is more beautiful
Than a beautiful day in any other place

When the sun comes shining through
Over Flatbush Avenue
You wake with a smile on your face

The weather man doesn't have to say it's beautiful
When you open your window ev'rything's okay

If a tree that grows in Brooklyn could speak, it would say
"A beautiful day in Brooklyn is a most beautiful day"

(Irving Berlin)

Trooper York said...

Yo sometimes I sit back, reflect on the place that I live at
Unlike any place I ever been at
The home of big gats, deep dish hammer rim caps
Have a mishap, push ya wig back
Where you go to get the fresh trim at
Four on the jake got the Timb rack
Blue collars metro carding it
Thugs mobbin it, form partnership
Increase armorment, street pharmacist
Deep consequence, when you seek sleek ornaments
You get caught, rode the white horse and can't get off
Big dogs that trick off just get sent off
They shoebox stash is all they seeds gotta live off
It's real yo but still yo, it's love here
And it's felt by anybody that come here
Out of towners take the train, plane and bus here
Must be something that they really want here
One year as a resident, deeper sentiment
Shoutout "Go Brooklyn!", they representin it
Sittin on they front stoop sippin Guinesses
Usin native dialect in they sentences
From the treeline blocks to the tenaments
To the Mom & Pop local shop menaces
Travel all around the world in great distances
And ain't a place that I know that bear resemblance
That's why we it The Planet
Not a borough or a prov, it's our style that's uncalm
From ?sun? to the ? to the Lafayette Gardens
White ?coff guawinas? in they army jacket linings
Yo this goes out to my cats in Coney Isle
Friday night out in front The Himalaya goin wild
This goes out to Crown Heights and Smurv Village
The nighties, and all my ?yarda trenny? Brown's Village
Parkside tennants caught, thirties, forties, and the fifties
The cats out in Starite City gettin busy
To the Hook, to the East, to the Stuy
Bushwick and Kanarcy, Farraget, Fullgreen, and Marcy
My Flatbush posse, generals of armies
When it's time to form, just call me
And let this song be, playin loud in Long B
If you love Bucktown STRONGLY!
RAISE IT UP!

Brooklyn my habitat, the place where it happen at
Live sway and the sharp balance of the battle axe
Irons is brandished at, thugs draw they hammer back
It's where you find the news tool crew cameras at
It's where my fam is at, summertime jame is at
They play Big and get you open like a sandal back
Hotter than candle wax, hustlin you can't relax
The crack babies tryin to find where they mama's at
It's off the handle black, wit big police scandals that
Turn into actions screenplays sold to Miramax
The type of place where they check your appearance at
And cats who know where all the hot 'lo gear is at
The stompin grounds, where you find a pound, smoke is that
Be blazin charm that have your wave cap floatin back
The doorstep where the disposessed posted at
Dope fiends out at Franklin Ave sellin zovarax
You big ballin better keep your money folded back
Cuz once the young guns notice that it's over, black
Brooklyn keep on takin it, worldwide we known for that
Flossy cats get it snatched like the local tax
The place I sharpen up my baritone vocals at
Where one of the greatest MC's was a local cat

[Mos Def]

Trooper York said...

I'm just sayn'

ricpic said...

When duh Bums left Brooklyn
Duh place took a hit
And it's nevuh been duh same again.

Remember Brooklyn then:
Now without your love
Torn asunder: just a loyal friend.

titus20 said...

welcome back. the weather is perfect. enjoy.

Go Yankees!

AllenS said...

There once was a blogger named Ann

Who moved from a place called Madisan

She went to New York

To teach law to some jerks

And now she comes home for Madison perks.

Then! What the hell, she goes back there. WTF?

Trooper York said...

A race of angels
Bound with one another
A dish of dollars
Laid out for all to see
A tower room at Eden Rock
His golf at noon for free
Brooklyn owes the charmer
Under me

His lady's aching
To bring a body down
She daily preaches
On where she wants to be
An evening with a movie queen
A face we all have seen
Brooklyn owes the charmer
Under me

A case of aces
Done up loose for dealing
A piece of island cooling in the sea
The whole of time we gain or lose
And power enough to choose
Brooklyn owes the charmer
Under me

(Steely Dan)

Trooper York said...

When the sun crashes into your world
Look around and you try and find your girl
And you're daring, too sick of what you see
Out of town is the only place to be

When your life starts to run out of juice
Feel like dyin' and you just want to get loose
Prayin' moves don't make much sense to you
Seeing red before your feeling is blue

Last exit Brooklyn....last exit Brooklyn

Going back, getting out of this town
Stretch it lean and mean, it turns you around
Take your dreams and stretch them out on the street
Take your turn to get back on your feet

Feel the wheels singin' over the ridge
Feel the song like "Oakland" take you
All the time you knew you had the itch
All the girls were glad to see you

Last exit Brooklyn....last exit Brooklyn

Girl in ol' "V" won't pray
Don't give you a hard time
All the girls from Brooklyn say
Last exit Brooklyn....last exit Brooklyn

Do you remember the day you left the block
Your mama said you would live to regret it
Coming home, coming stoned, come in hope, coming ready
Are you holding steady

Last exit Brooklyn....last exit Brooklyn....last exit Brooklyn

(Nazareth)

Trooper York said...

Girl is on a white sheet
She's tripped in a trance,
While her friends go out and dance
She's alone don't ask me why
This kid from Brooklyn cries

Boy struts on the main street
He's dressed for affect
But his eye's reveal he's really red
He's all alone don't ask me why
This kid from Brooklyn cries

And their both just a mile apart
Just streets away from a kindred heart
But they might as well
Be an ocean between them
There might as well
Be an ocean between them

You and me just can't relate
We got love given on a plate
Is it love or is it fate
Were not alone

Same girl in the sunshine
Such a perfect shape
And he can't talk, he just passed again
She walks alone don't ask me why
This kid from Brooklyn cries

Same boy doing cell time
Hanging his head, Pickup didn't go quiet as planned
He feels alone don't ask me why
This kid from Brooklyn cries

And their both just a mile apart
Just streets away from a kindred heart
But they might as well
Be an ocean between them
Yes there might as well
Be an ocean between them

(Pete Townshend)

Maxine Weiss said...

Interpretation: She's more miserable now, than before she went running back.

Not exactly the way to make a clean break.

Trooper York said...

A world of its own,
The streets where we played,
The friends on every corner were the best we ever made.
The backyards, and the school yards
And the trees that watched us grow,
The days of love when dinner time was all you had to know.
Whenever I think of yesterday,
I close my eyes and see,
That place Just Over The Brooklyn Bridge
That will always be home to me.
It'll always be home to me.

(M. Hamlisch, Marilyn & Alan Bergman)

Trooper York said...

The scroll unfurls
We hear the voice of Marty Markowitz
Now he's not frontin'
The Funky Bunch
He's Borough President
From the L to the J to the F to the G
Now who knows what that spells?

Let's Celebrate Brooklyn now
Even the Gowanus Canal
Even the Gowanus Canal
Even the Gowanus Canal

(They Might Be Giants from Brooklyn, New York.)

Trooper York said...

Well I hate to leave you, hate to put you down
But that way you love darling,
oh I'm Brooklyn bound
I ain't got no money, no house on that hill

Well I'm leavin' you babe,
and say fare you well
Well I'm goin' out east darlin',
hope you burn in hell

(The Black Keys)
(By the way this one is especially for you Maxine, Love Trooper)

Simon said...

Ann, what is UW doing to cover your classes while you're in Brooklyn this year? Do other lecturers pick up the slack, or do they bring in someone else to teach for the year?

Ann Althouse said...

Simon, it's complex how courses are covered. For example, in the fall I teach "Religion and the Constitution," which is one of the Conlaw2 courses. There are always various Conlaw2 courses, and this fall there's no "Religion and the Constitution" -- so what is really covering my course? Not clear. As to Civpro2, there are always various courses. In the Spring, they'll need someone for Conlaw1, and there are many people who cover that, and Fedjur, which only I teach. They will probably have an adjunct for Fedjur, but I don't know.

Ann Althouse said...

Thanks for all the poetry, everyone!