PhotoWedns 3/18/09 Thank You, Gowanus Lounge

A place to rest.

A "Street Couch" as coined by Robert Guskind of GowanusLounge.com

Brooklyn is a place to rest. Lounge even. That's the way I see it.
No matter how much posh, chic, glass walled, towering steel is projected on us I'll always see Brooklyn as the living room to Manhattan's rumpus room. Being raised in a brownstone on a tree lined street and traveling to Manhattan for BIG shopping, BIG movies, and other types of BIG fun will form that mentality. Some people might want an eight-foot diameter disco ball in their living room, not I. That's why I go to clubs. In Manhattan.

The blog Gowanus Lounge reminded me of that sensibility. If you don't know it's a blog whose view was the Gowanus section of Brooklyn and whose focus seemed to be all things in the world that effected Brooklyn and vice versa. The blog presented a stream of thought provoking neighborhood news, upcoming events and lighthearted features such as the "Street Couches Series" where they'd post a photo of couches that for reasons left to the imagination, furnished the curbside. I enjoyed the challenge posed by the Street Couch Series to look at more than just the literal and apply my imagination to something others might regard as worn and past it's prime. That's how I took it anyway.

Unfortunately, the founder of the blog Robert Guskind, who some have referred to as the "Brooklyn Blogfather" passed away a few weeks ago on March 4th. As I wrote in comments on other blogs I never met him but I enjoyed Gowanus Lounge and am happy that his loved ones are continuing the site.

So last week I was walking through Prospect Heights, (me old stomping grounds) I found not one but two Street Couches, one on the curb and the other footsteps away, on deck.

And suddenly I wasn't just walking down the street surrounded by the discarded past, I was part of an urban fantasy scavenger hunt. I'd found treasure! I whipped out the camera, snapped some pics and thought how simply fortunately it is that Guskind decided to share his views of Brooklyn and imagination with us.

Thank You. Rest (Lounge even) in Peace, Robert Guskind.