Pink Beer

The Pony Bar, 637 10th AVENUE (45 St & 10th Ave), New York
Originally uploaded by flickr4jazz

The Pony Bar, 637 10th AVENUE (45 St & 10th Ave), New York. This afternoon, they had a beer that was brewed with beets.

New Baby in the House

This little guy arrived yesterday. It's a new Nikon Nikkor 85mm f/1.4D Lens! I'm looking forward to taking some photos with it this weekend.

The Fleet is In!

A group of Navy guys were at the Blue Ruin Bar that I sometimes visit while I'm in NYC. I bought them some shots and had them take a picture with my favorite barmaid Jessica.

Dangerous Animals

While on my afternoon walk yesterday, I spotted this dangerous tiger lurking in the bush. Fortunately, the 70-200 mm Nikon lens scared him away!

Cinco de Mayo (Fifth of May)

Well, today's as good a day as any to go to a local Mexican food restaurant/bar and have a few tequila drinks along with your entree. "Cinco de Mayo" is a non-public holiday in Mexico that celebrates the Mexican Army's defeat of the French in the Battle of Puebla.

Contrary to what most Americans believe. The 5th of May is NOT Mexican Independence day. That day is celebrated in Mexico on 16 September. (16 de Septiembre: El Grito de Independencia)

John Pizzarelli at The Blue Note Jazz Club, NYC

I headed into NYC last night to see the great jazz vocalist and guitar player John Pizzarelli. I caught the 8:00 p.m. show. The performance was fantastic!

John did a number of standards from The American Songbook, each with a short lead in by John.

About once a month, I like to drive down to the High Street Grill in Mt. Holly, New Jersey. Besides their great food, they have a beer selection comprised entirely of craft beers.

Approximately every two to three months, they have some sort of "beer event." The most recent was a Home Brewers' Contest where 15 or so home brewers brought in samples of their craft for everyone to sample.

We had some great food and incredible entertainment by a local father and son who performed some traditional Irish music.

Waterfalls at Tinton Falls, New Jersey

The waterfalls at Tinton Falls, NJ. The highest waterfalls on the New Jersey Coastal Plain. Be very careful if you visit them. Should you loose your footing and go over the falls, you could fall several feet and get a bruise or two.

New Jersey Tea Party Monument

Greenwich, New Jersey Tea Party Monument. The Greenwich Tea Party was an incident that took place on December 22, 1774, early in the American Revolution, in what is now Greenwich Township, a small community in Cumberland County, New Jersey on the Cohansey River. That night, a load of tea meant to be sent overland into Philadelphia, Pennsylvania was torched by a group of 40 Patriots dressed as Native Americans. The event took place a year after the Boston Tea Party. One participant of the Greenwich Tea Party was Richard Howell, who would become the third governor of the state of New Jersey and whose granddaughter, Varina Howell, would marry Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederacy.In 1908, the Cumberland County Historical Society erected a monument to mark the event, which is located at Main Street at Market Square in Greenwich Township.

Brother Jimmy's BBQ, Penn Station, NYC

Brother Jimmy's BBQ is located just across from the southwest exit of Penn Station near the Main Post Office Building. As far a BBQ in NYC goes, it's quite good. The ribs are probably their best item. I like the corn on the cob and the mustard greens as well.

Springsteen Plot, Rumson Road Graveyard, New Jersey

Springsteen is the surname on this tombstone. The deceased's name was Daniel, the son of Joseph Springsteen.

Bruce Springsteen's (aka "The Boss") full name is "Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen." Bruce was born in Long Branch, New Jersey which is about 5 miles away. Could there be a relationship? You don't see the name "Springsteen" very often in this part of New Jersey.

Pub Life, Rumson, New Jersey

Local Rumson, NJ native and troubadour Dave McCarthy doing a great job entertaining the crowd in a local Rumson pub. According to his web site, Dave has been inflicting his peculiar form of "entertainment" on unsuspecting patrons at various and sundry watering holes, bistros and up-and-not-so upscale establishments in the greater Monmouth County area for the better (some say worse) part of four decades.

Most of the locales unfortunate enough to have featured him no longer exist. Dave vehemently denies any connection between these two facts, despite the obvious. He now mixes metaphors for a living, and is often seen traveling cognito in search of the next big thing and working on his fictitious memoir, in which he finally gets the girl.

Greetings from Asbury Park, New Jersey: Deal Lake

I was driving to work one morning and pulled over to take this shot from the overpass over Deal Lake next to Asbury Park. I didn't see it from the road, but the cloud cover was very low and made quite a reflection in the water. You can see the location I was at on flickr here.

English Speaking Union Spring Tea, Bingham Hall, Rumson, NJ

I was invited to take some photos recently in Rumson, New Jersey at the Annual ESU Spring Tea and Shakespeare Competition.

The English Speaking Union promotes scholarship and the advancement of knowledge through the effective use of English in an expanding global community.

Every year, an English teacher from Monmouth County is sponsored for a trip to England for three weeks at the Globe Theatre for an intensive Shakespeare program. The teachers across the U.S. return with their knowledge and experience to further enrich the education of their pupils in the appreciation of Shakespeare and the proper use of the English language.

As befitting a proper Tea, there was a varied assortment of fine sandwiches, cakes, and other goodies.

The facility that was used for the meeting, Bingham Hall, was quite an interesting building. It was originally a church that was built by the owner of a hotel that was once on the bank of the river across the street.

You can tell from the architecture of the front of the hall that it used to be a house of worship.

Abandoned Coast Guard ESMT Manasquan, New Jersey

While I was driving through Manasquan, NJ last week before all of the Bennies start coming down for the Summer and ruin it for those of us who actually live in Monmouth County, I came across this old U.S. Coast Guard Station.
Established in 1902, the Squan Beach Life Saving Station is located about 1000 feet from the Atlantic Ocean in Manasquan. This Duluth-style facility served to house volunteers and equipment used to save victims of shipwrecks off the Manasquan area coast. In the 1930's the station became part of the U.S. Coast Guard and served as the Manasquan Coast Guard Station until 1996 when it was decommissioned and later sold July 26, 2000, to the borough for $1.00.

The township has obtained funding from the Garden State Historic Preservation Trust to help preserve and restore this historic site.

The shore environment can be hard on a building--especially one as old as this structure. It will require quite a bit of work to restore the wood and internal structure of this building.

Canada Goose

Another damn canada goose next to the parking lot where I work. This one is sitting on a clutch of 6 eggs. The canada geese polute our New Jersey streams, lakes, and waterways with their droppings. Many of our parks and open spaces are unusable because of the droppings they leave behind.

Hell's Kitchen Fire Spewing Barmaid

I've been on the Internet for quite some time but I've never done the blogging thing. The main reason I've created this blog is to show some of the more interesting photos I've taken. While I usually post all of the pictures I take to Flickr, it doesn't give me the advanced features that blogging software provides.


I took 4 hours off of work last Friday and caught the train into NYC. I was walking around the "Hell's Kitchen" section of Manhattan and came across a bar named "Blue Ruin." (A slang term for gin.)

My barmaid, Jessica, saw my camera and said she'd give me something to take a photo of. Well, she certainly did! She poured some vodka into a glass, dipped her fingers into it, poured the rest of the vodka into her mouth and had someone light her fingers on fire. The result of this trick can be seen in the photo.

Here's a photo of the front of the bar. You have to watch out for it or you could easily miss it.

Be careful not to make Jessica the barmaid angry. She knows how to use the business end of a bottle of Maker's Mark!