Top 10s for 2008: Karin Ström
Top ten things to do a Sunday in Greenpoint this autumn:
01. Have breakfast on the stoop while reading The New York Times. Lovely way to start getting to know your neighbours better. Especially old people like to talk to you as they pass by.
02. Walk down to Brooklyn Label on Franklin for brunch. Sometimes you have to wait for up to 45 minutes, but it's worth it! And you can walk down to the riverside and admire the Manhattan skyline when you've put down your name on the list. Always order the burger.
03. Take the B61 down to Red Hook. Alleviate homesickness by stocking up on Swedish candy at IKEA. Go windowshopping for kitchy postwar antiques at Atlantis. Have an immaculate margarita at Alma's terrace overlooking downtown's scrapers.
04. Walk down to the Gutter Bar, have a Brooklyn Lager and bowl a few rounds. Forget about the points and focus on how nice the rented shoes look.
05. Take a walk to Calvary Cemetery in Queens and look at all the white graveyard scupltures. It's one of the oldest and largest cemeteries in the US and many mobsters are buried here. Eerie but beautiful.
06. Make a giant lasagna.
07. Take the bikes down to Fort Greene. Watch the kids play in the park, have a coffee at Bittersweet, check out the flea market at Lafayette, walk to BAM and see if the cinema is showing any nice old classic.
08. Go down to McCarren park and stock up on vegetables at Farmer's Market. Go down to the track, look at the joggers and take pleasure in the fact that you're not running. Buy coffee at Urban Rustic and sit down on a bench.
09. Take the subway to Times Square, get tickets to a movie and eat at Texas BBQ. The portions are enormous even by American standards and the prices are a steal. And the cornbread!
10. Stay in all day and watch downloaded TV-series and YouTubed talk shows and eat pizza in bed.
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Karin Ström has been spending her autumn in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, where she has started to produce her second album in her portable home studio - laptop, MIDI keyboard and microphone. Sundays she has made sure to have off, however.
www.karinstrom.se
www.myspace.com/datadamen