Clarence Clemons, E Street Band Saxophonist, Dies at 69 - NYTimes.com

The Big Man in 2009 - note cool blue fedora

Clarence Clemons, E Street Band Saxophonist, Dies at 69 - NYTimes.com: "Clarence Clemons, the saxophonist in Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band, whose jovial onstage manner, soul-rooted style and brotherly relationship with Mr. Springsteen made him one of rock’s most beloved sidemen, died Saturday at a hospital in Palm Beach, Fla. He was 69."

It never rains on Jeff's summer solstice party

St. George River, Thomaston, Maine photo by Jeremy Barnard

China Puts Wind Up Elite With Recruitment of Top Skipper - NYTimes.com

China Puts Wind Up Elite With Recruitment of Top Skipper - NYTimes.com:

"BEIJING (Reuters) - China launched its first serious step towards establishing itself among the sailing super-powers on Friday with the announcement of a government-funded Volvo Ocean Race entry skippered by one of the world's leading helmsmen.

The world's most populous nation has previously failed to put its considerable potential into a sport regarded by many as elitist.

But Friday's launch of its Team Sanya entry in a swanky Beijing hotel, suggested it now had designs on changing all that to match its increasing economic might.

New Zealander Mike Sanderson, 40, is a former twice winner of the Volvo Ocean Race -- the sport's premier monohull offshore race -- and his recruitment is a major coup for the Chinese at the peak of his powers."

Live Blog: Riding the New East River Ferry, All Day - NYTimes.com

There's a new ferry running on the East River.  I would be surpised if they can break even.  But it may be a good tourist attraction - or romantic ride, or change of pace. Live Blog: Riding the New East River Ferry, All Day - NYTimes.com

Security Checks on Hudson River Anger Boaters - NYTimes.com

Two years ago a police boat approached us to order me off the bow. I was wearing a life jacket, sitting on the deck of a southbound sailboat moving at 7 knots on a lovely day in June. I feel about security checks the same way Chris Christie feels about teachers' salaries: cut them drastically. I've got company.

Security Checks on Hudson River Anger Boaters - NYTimes.com: "Ten years after the terrorist attacks downriver made security checks commonplace, a tea party of sorts is brewing on the Hudson, as boaters and marine businesses complain bitterly about being stopped too often and questioned too closely by officers wearing flak jackets and holstered pistols — many of them on the lookout for terrorists.

And as boating season begins, that vigilance has become one of those vexing flashpoints, like baggage searches and airport body scans, in the shifting definition of what is normal — post-9/11 overreaction to some, and a response to real risks to others.

A petition drive among boaters has generated hundreds of signatures and scores of angry comments.

Boat clubs are mulling strategies, and the largest boating-industry group along the river, the Hudson Valley Marine Trades Association, recently wrote the Coast Guard commander in New York to protest “an incredible increase of recreational vessel boarding.”"

The Tappan Zee Bridge

There are few Dutch names that survive around here - Spuyten Duyvil, Staten Island, Dyckman Street - and the Tappan Zee - a wide zee or bay 15 miles north of Manhattan.  They are painting the bridge - which requires sandblasting it first.  On a barge beneath the east tower is a set of generators and compressors that blast sand up and suck the residue down.  We took a ride there yesterday on the Alice a 1963 Dyercraft 29. (click on pix to enlarge)

Colbert on the Charleston - Bermuda Race

Stpehen Colbert, sailing on a Farr 65, was part of the crew that took second in the Charleston to Bermuda
Race.

Gil Scott-Heron, poet, rhymer, and inspired protest singer, dead at 62 | NJ.com

Gil Scott-Heron, poet, rhymer, and inspired protest singer, dead at 62 | NJ.com: "'The ghetto was a haven/ for the meanest creature ever known,' Gil Scott-Heron reported on 'Your Soul and Mine,' a song from his 2007 comeback album. For four decades, Heron stared that creature down. He stalked it through the alleyways and mean streets of Chicago, Jackson, Tennessee, and the Bronx, and filed unflinching dispatches as he did. He heard rumblings of insurrection and cries of discontent; he confronted poverty, addiction, government neglect and sheer, unmotivated cruelty. Then, with his poise, his outrage, and his sense of humor intact, he spun all he had seen into poetry and song."

Yard Work

Bill Cunningham - nightcaps

I like hats.  I like wearing my fedoras, like my Irish wool winter hat, like my straw hats, and like wearing caps that advertise my passions and loyalties.  And I like walking around New York.  There is no one more skilled at walking around New York with an admiring lens than the celebrity and fashion photographer for the Times - Bill Cunningham.  the editors have finally decided to let you copy the embed code for Bill's narrated photo essays.  here's a good one.