Noisier is Better

I wrote about how small my previous apartment was on my old blog. Thankfully, the new apartment in Brooklyn is twice as big — although if you've read about my old place, you'll deduce, as I have, that twice as big as "a shoe box" is just two shoe boxes.

So, yes, I still live in a small apartment. This means that my desk is in the same room as the TV, which can make things difficult when I'm trying to write a blog entry and my wife wants to watch Law & Order: SVU. The solution? I don a pair of headphones and turn to Simply Noise, the "best free white noise generator on the Internet." If you're looking for a white noise generator (and, really, who isn't?), I highly recommend it. Personally, I use the Brown Noise setting, which covers up background noise better and is waaay more masculine than the Pink Noise setting.

Postscript: Young parents out there may ask if I've tried using Simply Noise to help put the baby to sleep. The answer is yes, but not since she was three months old. And even then, we only tried it once or twice — it was much more convenient to use the Sleep Sheep. Consider that a recommendation.

Nets' Worth

When I lived in New Jersey, the New Jersey Nets were pretty great. They even went to the NBA Finals two years in a row (and lost both times, but still). And yet, I never attended a single home game. I still haven't, even though I'm only a Nets fan by default, having lived in the Garden State longer than in any other. The Nets suck now, but they're still my team.

But here's the thing: the Nets are moving to Brooklyn in 2013! In fact, the new Brooklyn Nets will play just down the street from my new apartment, at what is to be called the Barclays Center*.

An artist's rendering of the future home of the Brooklyn Nets. The future looks very... brown.

Which, for me, begs the question: how much are season tickets?

Because what would be greater than having season tickets to a pro sports team whose arena is virtually in your backyard? I know, it's the Nets. It's not the Yankees, or the Mets, or the Knicks. But perhaps that will mean less-expensive season tickets. So I went online, looked up current season ticket prices, and figured out that if I didn't buy any new clothes or toys for my only daughter in 2013, I might be able to afford to watch Brook Lopez and Jordan Farmar and Derrick Favors from section 20.

Also, my wife might possibly disown me.

*Really? A British bank has naming rights to a cathedral of probably the least-British professional sport?

Antic roadshow

Gothamist has some brief coverage on yesterday's Atlantic Antic, including photos of a behatted dog that I did not see! Plus, video of go-go dancers that I also did not see! Check out what I did see in my previous post.

Antics on Atlantic

Here are photos from this year's Atlantic Antic, a massive street fair on Atlantic Avenue (which happens to be the street I live on).

Did I mention the word "massive?"

Look at the drawings on the right: martini glass, cow, and... what it that? Looks like a man in a chicken suit to me.

Being sold to white people by black people.

Believe the hype.

Yes they were!

Old guys with guitars. Plus, girl drummer!

Imagine a flamenco guitarist, singing in Spanish, wearing a Ramones t-shirt and crazy shades. Or just look at the photo.

Candy apples are messy.

View from the roof of my building.

Choosing my own adventure

Hello. I used to write a blog called One Year in New York City. I wrote it because while living in Manhattan, I kept having these experiences that made me go, "You know, I really should write about what happened today." The blog was meant to last exactly one year, because I had one year left on my rental lease, and I thought I'd be moving to New Jersey when the lease expired. It was so "high concept." As it turned out, I stopped updating the blog eleven months into it, and ended up living in Manhattan for another two years. So much for high concept.

Now, at this very moment, I'm writing at my desk in my new apartment in Brooklyn. There is no impending lease expiration to motivate me; the only reason this blog is called One Year in Brooklyn is because I'm too lazy to come up with anything better. But laziness is the enemy of the New York blogger. You can't stop writing because you're tired, or because you just don't feel like it, because this city moves fast and things happen — all kinds of cool, funny, bizarre things. The best thing about keeping a New York blog was how the city opened itself up to me when I went out in search of things to write about. I learned more about Manhattan in those eleven months than I did in my entire life before then.

Brooklyn is a new place for me still; I moved in just four weeks ago. But maybe because I write this blog, it will open itself up to me as well. This is the adventure I've chosen. I hope you'll choose to come along.