The Long Island Blog
Welcome to my Long Island blog.
This blog is a mini journal that will keep you up to date on all the best things to do on Long Island as well as adventures you might have missed.
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And don't forget to tell us about YOUR adventures on Long Island. Share your good times with the rest of us and I'll post your story right here.
Stormy Weekend
That a storm hit Long Island this past weekend is news to no one. Many Long Islanders lost power (I was fortunate and did not), lost trees, and sustained property damage.
While everyone was out cleaning up the mess, what was I doing? What I always do after a storm…taking pictures.
Most of my shots are the same old boring storm pix; trees down, etc… but this one I like.
Click for larger image
It’s a dramatic image of the Great South Bay looking west in late afternoon sunshine. You can see the Robert Moses Bridge, and the water tower on Fire Island. What you can’t see is how hard the wind was blowing. I had a very difficult time opening my car door and the bay was kicked up into a spray. I love days like that.
In the Here's-something-you-don't-see-everyday department, I found a 1960's era landing craft at the East Islip marina.
The picture above and the one below were taken just minutes apart. The difference in appearance is due to the direction of the camera. Above is looking west towards the sun. Below is looking east away from the sun.
From the looks of the water in this sheltered part of the marina you'd never know the wind was howling at 30+ knots.
Click for larger image
Behind the boat is Heckscher State Park, one of Long Island's largest and most popular parks.
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Boat Burning
Attention all landlubbers!
It’s almost Halloween and that means it’s time for one of my favorite annual events: The boat burning at the Long Island Maritime Museum.
Every year on the Friday before Halloween the
museum creates a bonfire by burning a big old wooden boat.
Don’t worry, nothing historically significant or worth saving ever gets burned, only the junk.
To set the mood there will be a local group singing sea chanteys (they are very good and lot’s of fun) and vendors selling food, glow sticks and other assorted goodies.
Raffle tickets will be sold for a chance to win a small boat, handmade at the museum by volunteer craftsmen. These boats are beautiful. I buy tickets every year, but I’ve never won…
Festivities start at 7pm. The boat is burned a couple of hours later followed by the raffle.
Parking can be a real pain so get there early.
The Long Island Maritime Museum is located at the end of West Avenue in Sayville behind the West Sayville golf course.
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Art Under Glass
Newsday ran an article on Sunday highlighting the Long Island Arts Alliance. The LIAA is an organization of Long Island not-for-profit arts institutions dedicated to encouraging and enhancing community participation in the arts. (I’m all for it.)
The article goes on to describe an unusual display called “Art Under Glass” which my friend Debra Ann Kasimakis of The Artists Group is heavily involved in creating. “Art Under Glass” is unusual because the artwork actually hangs from a glass ceiling.
Debra sent me her article about the project along with bio's of herself and Artists Group co-founder, Robert Goida.
In spring of 2005, Elliott Sroka, Executive Director of Tilles Center (Long Island University, Brookville), contacted The Artists Group to see if we could assemble a group of Long Island artists interested in submitting proposals for temporary art installations into their new Atrium space. This blank canvas, which was waiting for the touch of a creative mind, attracted proposals from many varied area artists.
The “Art Under Glass” project was in full swing and the art committee of Tilles Center narrowed the field down to four. The first piece to be shown was “Bions” a work that was a part of the Hillwood Museums spring 2006 show “Archival to Contemporary: Six Decades of the Sculptures Guild”.
And now the collaboration of Tilles Center and the Artists Group is about to present the first work in a series of temporary art installations that will adorn the Atrium. Art Under Glass presents “Whirling In the Solar Nebula a Celebration of Life in the Universe” by Bayville artist Laurette Gnaegy Kovary.
“Whirling Nebula” will have its public unveiling on October 28, 2006 at the performance of The Kirov Orchestra at Tilles Center. Both the Center and The Artists Group are pleased to bring these outstanding Long Island artists to center stage at the Atrium in “Art Under Glass”.
The Artists Group was started as a result of The Art of Paleontology, a two day fund raising event for The Hicksville Gregory Museum, which featured artists, craftspeople and musicians joining together with the people of the community in an interactive celebration of all the arts.
Our founders, Debra Ann Kasimakis and Robert Goida, have over 30 years of experience in the world of art and performance.
Debra Ann Kasimakis has been a professional artist with sales of over 3000 original artworks, has donated pieces to many charitable events and is the owner of Pandagraphics Design Studios located in Hicksville, Long Island.
Her recent work has taken on a more public leaning having done three full size horses for Nassau County’s Horse of a Different Color, an apple for The Big Apple Fest in New York City, and is currently exhibiting her steel sculpture, “Helping Hand”, at Fairmeadow Park for the Town of Huntington Public Art Initiative and this winter at Briarcliffe College in Patchogue.
Robert Goida, musician turned technician, is the co-owner of Goldenreel Recording Studio, been a consultant on many audio installations, curated Art in Architecture and Nature and Nassau for the Nassau Conservancy and has been Production Manager at Tilles Center for the Performing Arts for the past 13 years. His experience in presenting major events is unrivaled on Long Island today.
Together these two dynamic personalities have come together to operate The Artists Group, an organization of creative Long Island individuals devoted to building the self esteem of our young people and our local communities through the use of art and creativity.
“It is our mission to bring the arts to the people.”
See our work at www.debbydoll.com
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Long Island’s Migrating Monarchs
One of the nice things about living on Long Island is it’s easy to see nature in action. The coast is easily accessible and we have a larger number of parks and nature preserves, but sometimes all you have to do is step into your own backyard.
From my yard I’ve been watching the monarch butterflies make their way south for the winter. Although we’re nearing the end of their fall migration I’m still seeing plenty of hungry monarchs feeding on my flowers.
Long Island is directly under the monarch’s flight path as they head to Mexico, Texas and parts of Florida for the winter, so if you have flowers in your yard you’re bound to see the monarchs too.
I find them all over my Montauk daisies--sometimes half a dozen at once. My son, a commercial fisherman, has been seeing “swarms of them” fly over his boat on the Great South Bay.
It’s hard to believe, but these butterflies travel thousands of miles south every fall to roost in a warmer climate for the winter. In the spring they’ll make the trip back. Simply amazing for such delicate and simple creatures.
Nature watching is one of the great pleasures of living on Long Island and as anyone who knows me will attest, something I never grow tired of.
Why don’t you try it? Bundle up, grab a cup of your favorite hot beverage, and sit quietly in a corner of your yard for a while. I promise you’ll see things you’ve never noticed before.
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Billy Joel, Crop Circles & Pumpkin Ale at the BrickHouse Brewery
I went out to the BrickHouse Brewery last night to sample some of their pumpkin ale and ended up meeting Long Island celebrity, Billy Joel.
What's on tap now at The BrickHouse Brewery
Pumpkin Ale
BrickHouse's pumpkin ale is served in a glass rimmed with sugar and pumpkin pie spices much like a margarita is served with salt. The ale is seasoned in the serving tank with more of the same.
As I brought the glass to my nose I was overwhelmed by the aroma. It smelled like a mouth full of Red Hots. Fortunately, the pumpkin ale tastes a lot better than it smells, but once I was done licking the sugar off the glass there really wasn’t much left to support the spicy fragrance.
As beer writer Donavan Hall noted in his review, this is way too much spice and little of anything else.
Crop Circle
What I really enjoyed last night was Crop Circle,
BrickHouse’s “Out of this World” amber.
Crop Circle is made from an old recipe developed by a family in Ireland and produced by BrickHouse Brewery under license.
Left: Karilyn playing in the crop circles.
Crop Circle is an excellent cold weather brew; dark and rich with a hearty mouth feel and an almost sweet, chocolate finish. This is a beer you can eat.
It reminded me a little of Blue Point’s Oatmeal Stout only thicker and not quite as burnt.
I savored every sip of the three pints I consumed.
Billy Joel
While I had my nose in my beer the ever observant Karilyn spied Billy Joel walking in to BrickHouse.
Billy Joel had just been inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame and stopped in at the BrickHouse after the ceremony was over.
Speechless, she tapped my leg frenetically as he walked by, but I didn’t look up in time and missed him. Lucky for me, he had to use the men’s room. I positioned myself strategically for an interception on his return trip.
My heart was pounding and I almost chickened out, but I got up the nerve and asked for a photo. He said it would be fine and he’d do it on his way out.
Well, on his way out my nose was in my glass again. Billy Joel actually tapped me on the shoulder to let me know he was leaving. He could have walked right by and forgot all about it, but he didn’t.
Thank you, Mr. Joel for not forgetting about me. I am a devoted fan and you made my night.
I want to thank Karilyn for taking this picture. One of us had to stand behind the camera and she made the sacrifice for me.
Karilyn, I love you!
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October Sail
My
son, Joe and I took advantage of Sunday’s beautiful weather with a quiet sail on Long
Island’s Great South Bay.
The wind was light, so we just ghosted along soaking up the late season sun on what was very likely, our last sail of the year.
That we are surrounded by salt water is one of the things I love about Long Island.
Even though winter is coming, I won’t stay away from the shore. I just can’t go for very long without hearing, seeing and smelling the sea.
An nearly empty
ferry returns from Fire
Island with Robert Moses Bridge and water tower in the distant haze.
There will be frequent visits to the boatyard and the beach. I’ll daydream my way through a cup of 7-11 coffee, recalling summers past and planning next season’s adventures.
A sure sign the sailing season is over.
All the while reminding myself how lucky I am to be alive, and how lucky I am to live on Long Island...
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All American Drive In Hamburger Stand
Take a trip back in time with a visit to the All American Drive In Hamburger stand in Massapequa.
Click title above for full review.
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Rocky, the Flying Squirrel Man
Yep, that’s what they call him. Also known as Rocky the Dancer, Long Island celebrity Rocco Abbondola has been entertaining audiences for a very long time.
Click title above for Rocky's complete bio.
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