I had not walked over the Williamsburg Bridge in about nine months. Since I moved out of Bed-Stuy, I don't live anywhere near it. I live fairly far south, and I barely go to northern Brooklyn at all, so there is no reason for me to walk over it. I walk over the Manhattan and Brooklyn bridges fairly often, but they are near places I hang out, and are just generally closer to where I find myself most of the time. Yes, the Williamsburg is a cool bridge, there is no doubt about that, but I live nowhere near it. However, when a good friend of mine wanted to meet up for lunch in Williamsburg on Friday, and I didn't have to be anywhere else until later in the afternoon, I saw an opportunity for a little trip across the East River and down memory lane.
When I did live in Bed-Stuy, I walked over the bridge all of the time. I was constantly meeting Danny at Grand Central Station late in the evening, and then we'd take a nice two hour walk back to our neighborhood together, to catch up on the day. At the time, I was still in school, doing my last semester of college. I was in a summer intensive- six weeks of Shakespeare and then five weeks of Chekhov, with four to nine hours of class a day, so I had lots to talk about. This time, I walked the bridge by myself in broad daylight, and noticed all kinds of things I hadn't seen before. New grafitti, the look of the train tracks below, the signs on buildings near the bridge. Some of it probably was not there before- that is one thing I love about street art- it is always changing. Someone adds a new word to a design, paints on a rafter that was previously clear, or even covers up a previous message or symbol with their own. It's fluid, new. I like that.
Oh... and here's a gratuitous hipstery self-portrait for funsies.
Look at me. I'm obviously thinking deep thoughts about post-modern performace art, underground bands you've never heard of, and organic bok choy.
Just kidding. What was I actually thinking about? Probably about how my camera was running out of batteries. And how I wish that there were more public bathrooms in New York. Deep, deep thoughts.
New York City, New York, USA
