The Habitat vs. Shirley Pool Party

The ladies of The Habitat in Greenpoint Brooklyn came out to Mastic to fill the bellies with a Low Country Boil over at Carlos' pool.
Clams, corn, potatoes, shrimp, mussels and all sorts of other pieces afloat in a delicious broth. Boiled in a huge vat. Margarita machine included. Them ladies know how to do.

The Mastics is diversity.

I love this place because of its diversity. While we were enjoying a Pool Party the neighbors were doing a traditional African Wedding. The dresses were beautiful.

Smith Point Locals

Growing up there was SIB (Strong Island Boys), there was BWA (Bitches With Attitude), there was KOS (Kings of Style) and than there was SPL (Smith Point Locals). The three before were there to cause trouble, gangs of sorts, and the SPL was a group of kids, having fun, sliding on waves. If it was to be written, it was SPL with your house number, so the cops can easily find the graffiti maker.

Forge River Saturday morning

I have been meaning to get a photo of this mofo.

Hurricane Bill looking down from Peter Beards property

Here is what you missed. Sunday morning looked big and beautiful. I need to get a better zoom lens.

Return to the Sand Bar

We did it again. Emily was out from Brooklyn with friends and since Hurricane Bill was keeping us ashore we got our liquid fill at The Sand Bar. I love this place. Stuck in time, only thing is when a group of outsiders walks in the record stops and than slowly fades back into a noisy bar scene. I look at it as our introduction.

Last weekend at Smith Point and around Mastic Beach

Yes there was an absence of waves but the water was beautiful anyways. Here are some images collected at the most summer feeling weekend yet. The no-wave-weekend will not hold for long, Hurricane Bill is in the house now.

NY Times story of Kess

Read Times story about Andy Kessler.

Andy Kessler, you will be missed.

Its a sad day today. Phones been ringing, texting fingers frantic, emails of forwarded articles and blogs have been reporting. I will add.

I just saw Andy in Montauk while I was out there at Ditch Plains on Saturday. I was walking off the beach saw Andy than continued on. There was a group of mid-aged men sitting over by the Ditch Witch food truck and I overheard one dude say,

"Did you just see him, he is a legend"

Dude hit the nail on the head.

Mike DeTemple in Hamptons Magazine

From the Picaresque world.

Hampton Magazine jumping on the bandwagon.

Montauk Aug. 8

Headed to the end of the Island for Saturday since it was flat there at Smith Point.

Ditch Plains pretty much always breaks even if its an ankle bender.

Its funny watching the in-and-out going on at the shore. A peoples feet so used to sand takes some time to overcome rocks.

Bronx Zoo

So I went by the Bronx Zoo.

Bali last year

photo by Steven Landau

Lately I have been yearning to get back to Indo. Even beyond the havoc it wreaked on me last year, I want more.

There's a couple reef cuts there mixed with some reptilian styles.

My longtime friend Stephen Landau from Mastic Beach met up with me in Bali being that he now resides in Singapore. The flight over is only 2 hours. How jealous I am.

The dawn patrol

There is something about being in the water as the sun rises, before the sand becomes pocked in foot steps, earlier than any other soul, bobbing among clean humps of water that I just keep daydreaming about all day as I sit in front of this glowing monitor listening to the rotations of the fan, wishing those clock hands were moving as quickly towards the weekend.

Yeah right....we can be hopeful.

I went to planning meetings about this years ago when Ed Gerbino was helping push a skatepark into Smith Point. 250,000$ was set aside, but where did it go? Now there is a new uprising, new place and new park in the works. I won't believe it till I see it.

Read this 'bout it.

Construction of the skate park is not expected to take very long and it could be open by the fall, Mr. Romaine said. The park could also include a component for bikers, a request from a student advisory committee that officials are looking into, he said.

My hopes are that this isn't done in a shortsighted fashion. Most likely it will be a crappy park thrown together with no one who actually skateboards driving the direction.

My good friend in Philly has been working with the city of Philidelphia to construct a skatepark right next to the Art Museum in Philly. The idea is to make a park that mimics the street architecture that skateboarders yearn for.

Check Franklins Paine.

Also this park is along the same vision.

Keep me happy among the reeds and sand.

Image: Spooner Central

We're a peninsula. We are three towns mashed between two rivers and a bay to the south and further beyond we are a barrier beach with ocean slamming against that. The word Mastic scares some, disgusts others and puts question marks in place of lips among the rest. People of Shirley claim its nicer there, people of Mastic Beach are becoming a village, and well Mastic has just a great name. The letters work well together. Graphically, it works. Shirley, as a name I don't dig it, it reminds me of a nasty women wearing a 50's 1 piece bathing suit, some red sunglasses and fatty deposits where they don't belong. She has a huge rack but it's torpedo shaped. But I say Mastic/Shirley as it encompasses the tri-hamlet. Hamlet sounds quaint. The train station is named thee. People are using Smith Point now but yet rocking the same zip code 11967. Mastic has it's section Mastic Park, others claim Manor Park and when you go to the reaches north they rid themselves Mastic/Shirley all together and try to claim East Yaphank. We all come together and share the same shoreline. Smith Point is so uniquely Mastic/Mastic Beach/Shirley/Mastic Park/Manor Park, but East Yaphank you can have the middle of the island if you want it.

Times weighs in on Hamptons spilling into Montauk

Photo: NY Times

Another story about the grotesque Hamptonizing of Montauk.

That g'damn Surf Lodge is being blamed.


Read this caca.

A male friend who shares her rental house in Southampton had warned her on a recent Saturday night to wear flats to Surf Lodge, the trendy new nightspot for the Hamptons crowd. But she was not the type of woman to have packed party shoes without heels.