Tag Archives: brooklyn

Nuance, Nostalgia, New Chapter

Shorter blog post: I left Brooklyn because I couldn’t afford it. I was afraid that I would be a bag lady. That fear and high likelihood it could happen was stressing me the fuck out.

Longer Blog Post:
I don’t navel-gaze. It may be good for self reflection or my core but I probably have lint in my belly button so that’s kinda gross.

People are so not naive to think that the world is black and white, but they act that as if it were because nuance fucks them up.
Similarly, I can’t decide if I more left-brained or right-brained. The lack of nuance seems to have made my career all topsy turvy.
I have been writing creatively since I was a kid. I wrote poems and stories since I was about ten years old. However, I was also good at math and science. I like baking. I like physics. I tend to recite one of Newton’s laws as it applies to everyday life. A body in motion will remain in motion…

I have been in constant motion living here in New York for over a decade. It’s been fun and inspiring. It has been heartbreaking and frustrating. Being always on the precipice of an arbitrary measure of success has kept my stomach in knots.

Although I took psychology in college, I didn’t fully understand cognitive dissonance until I read “The Souls Of Black Folks” by DuBois while living here in New York. My goal became to manage the dissonance. I also read Florence Scovel Shinn’s “The Game Of Life and How To Play It ” and I took to repeating the affirmation, “I have elegant and perfect timing. I am at exactly the right place at exactly the right time.” Sometimes that helped me to be patient and present.

I am going to get all “LCD Soundsystem” for a moment and say I was there for Deep Dish Cabaret in a dance studio,Gothamist happy hours at The Magician and Jinx Debates at Nolita Bar. I miss WYSIWYG, Chicks and Giggles and Tainted Lady Lounge. The good old days were not always great, but had perfect timing.

One of the tag lines of my old blog was this: “Nichelle hopes for Oprah-like scratch but she is already wealthy with an abundance of friends.” I will miss my awe-inspiring friends when I leave even more than I will miss Brooklyn. Brooklyn is full of artisans, divas, evangelists, ninjas and rockstars. I am pretty sure Brooklyn is the ONLY place on the earth where a stranger would come up to me to gush that I am “twitter famous”.

I am moving to Atlanta. Am I writing a new chapter or conducting an experiment? I don’t know. I hope to carve out a niche of prosperity and creativity.

Conversations At A Brooklyn Party

My first stop on Saturday evening was to an art gallery show on the Lower East Side featuring work by the mother of a friend. While there, I was talking to sisters from Canada and I told them about my trip last summer to Montreal. I don’t speak French, but while in Montreal I threw out a few French phrases when talking. Well, my few words of French was like a cock tease to the Quebecois as they mistook me for being fluent in their language. I quickly learned that it was best to speak English.

Later, I went with two friends to a house party in Williamsburg. It was kinda like a salon with a BYOB situation. The smell of marijuana wafted through the room. There was a French girl with a bob singing songs with an electric guitar. The singer was good. She wore electric blue leggings, a Doc Martens and big wool coat. In another room, there was a pair of red velvet sofas where a group of people were gathered. My friend Mike said hi to this girl. She wore a big hat and wide legged pants. At first, she did not respond. He thought she might be French or something. He greeted her again in French, but she didn’t respond. She just looked at us with her hand near her mouth. Finally, she starts talking to us. I asked what she did for a living. She told me that she doesn’t have a job. She wants to writes movies and her parents don’t give her money but she has friends who have that do. I joked that this party felt like a scene from ‘Girls’ and I would be photoshopped out of it. [Cause I’m Black]. The Girl asked us if we had a coke connection. If I had on pearls, I would have clutched them. It wasn’t because she ask about cocaine, but surprised because she came across a little rude. She’s twenty four. In my day, people butter you up before asking favors from strangers. BTW, I don’t have a connection to illegal substances. So the conversation trailed off, and my friends and I decided to leave. As we left, I overhear her hitting up a guy about whiskey.

Today I am watching “Tiny Furniture”, the film Lena Dunham wrote and directed. So much of it seems familiar to me. It is set in New York, cupcakes are “googled”, there’s a chef and Bushwick is mentioned. But many parts of it feels foreign like French. It is not the New York life that I live. Since this city has about 8 million stories, mine is just one of many.

Hot Grease With Nicole Taylor

peppers at Roberta's garden

Today I had the pleasure of being on Nicole Taylor’s show on Heritage Radio Network, “Hot Grease“. We talked and laughed about the latest news in food and hot food topics. The radio studio is in a recycled shipping container in the back of Roberta’s Pizza in Bushwick. There’s a garden and I took a picture of the peppers growing in the backyard.

After the show I ordered the Speckenwolf pizza. I love Speck. It is the bacon of fancypants.

BTW, Nicole and I will be down in Atlanta in December for Lavish. I will be moderating a panel on food trends.

Red Hook Mercado

Red Hook Mercado

<pPapusa At Red Hook Mercado

I have been hearing about the Red Hook Ball Fields vendors for years, but I actually never tasted the deliciousness until Saturday. I made the trek down to Red Hook Mercado, a new food and other stuff market in Red Hook. It is on Van Brunt Street and close to other Red Hook landmarks including Hope and Anchor and Baked. The Boy and I ate tacos, papusas from Soler and chalupas. Plus we ate Robicellis‘ cupcakes (Tres Leches and Bea Arthur) for dessert. Muy Bueno!

Niche List: Veggie Prom, Jewelry Making, Franklin St and More

Carousel in DUMBO
The Jane Carousel in DUMBO.

May 14. Veggie Prom at Littlefield.

May 15. Vintage-inspired Jewelry making at The Brooklyn Museum with Kae Burke. 2-4PM $15 materials fee.

May 15. Brooklyn Based is celebrating their third anniversary with Total Franklin Street Immersion. Hopefully the G train is running.

May 15. $20 vintage dress sale at ReDress in Boerum Hill. Also, read The Gloss’s post by Lilit Marcus on wearing vintage.

May 15-16. New flea market, Red Hook Mercado opens this weekend. Tacos and cupcakes, oh my.

Read: Jami Attenberg’s new book, The Melting Season. There’s a Prince impersonator in the book. Need I say more?!

Niche List: May 7 Ice Cream, Design And Music

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Picture taken at P0rno Bingo at Pieces on Thursday. Slowest Bingo ever.

Haagen Dazs Five is the best thing ever. It is their new line of ice cream with only five ingredients, milk, sugar, egg, cream, and the fruit/flavor of the ice cream. I just tasted the lemon and I love it. I can’t wait to try the ginger.

FRIDAYS IN MAY. Erin and Her Cello is doing a Friday residency for the month of May at Rockwood Music Hall starting tonight. Tonight’s show is at 8PM; the following Fridays the shows will be at 7PM. Free.

MAY 8-9. Brooklyn Designs at St. Ann’s Warehouse $15. I fully expect to see Ted Allen or Marty Markowitz there.

MAY 13. La Res will be playing at Don Hill’s (511 Greenwich Street) at 8:30PM.