Oh Dog, you Sleuth!

The past regained: The Henry Moore Sculpture at SUNY Purchase.

Now that Katherine has a car, there’s the option of weekend road trips. But since nobody really wants to go anywhere in particular or spend a lot of money, the idea of visiting my old college, SUNY Purchase came up. It’s actually possible to get there by public transit because it’s right off the Metro North into Westchester. I went to school here for my freshmen and sophmore year and hadn’t been back in over ten years. It was pretty strange. The first thing you see when you drive on this secluded campus are the strange mannequins picutred above. There were guys with their heads stuck in the ground all around the perimeter. This is the kind of thing that you really need to stop the car and examine. The suits were pretty nice and look like they hadn’t been messed up by all the bad weather we’ve had for the last couple of months. All of us were wondering if there was a grounds crew that came around each day and stored these or put some kind of protective plastic around them. Even stranger was that this campus was COMPLETELY ABANDONED and these sculptures were mostly the only other people around.

Windowless concert hall.

Quad with Library in the center.

So yes, actually, this is the ugliest most Eastern European/maximum security prison-looking place anyone has ever seen. And yes, the entire campus and the dorms are made of the same material. Jeremy and Katherine were shocked that I lived here for two years. I tried to explain that the place was full of interesting and super creative people and there’s was always lots of drama and fun. But looking at it now, even more run down after all this time, I thought what a great idea it was to get the hell out of there.

Nothing had changed in the ‘Fim Program’ building.

Portchester.

After examining every inch of Purchase (it’s a pretty small campus), we drove down to Portchester, which is the nearest town that is vaguely livable. You pretty much had to have a car up there because the school is on a giant piece of land that used to be a diary farm. Compound that by being in Westchester, which is beautifull but there’s no restaurants or bars or anything to do really. Portchester is kind of a dump comparatively and it was where the really cool off campus kids lived. There was still nothing to eat there so I made Jeremy and Katherine go to the one diner I remember, Pat’s Hubba Hubba, which was still pretty gross.

I know this is all yawn city and extremely self-indulgent. But then I bought these amazing fire crackers at a gas station on the way out of town. Even better are these old dixie cups Jeremy brought back from Raleigh for me. And they were autographed!

An inconspicuous cell phone tower is located amongst these trees. Can you spot it?

Tolls both ways. Thanks Robert Moses! I just finished watching that Ric Burns documentary about NY, which has a lot about Moses’ career of terror. You really see it driving north through the Bronx. I wonder if the Bronx would still be like Brooklyn (to the degree that it’s neighborhoody and nice - mostly) if he hadn’t destroyed it.

SUNDAY

Jeremy tried to drum up business by playing his guitar, which was for sale, but was too depressed.

We had a yardsale on Sunday in the afternoon. I mostly sat there reading the paper cause I was afraid to deal with anyone, which isn’t fair because I’d say most of the time people are very friendly and talkative in a good way in NY. And perhaps it was becaue of the incredibly nice weather and everyone was out strolling, but it felt like some kind Paul Auster/Sesame Street version of Brooklyn where that multicultural cross section of interesting friendly people stop by and chat. And sitting in front of my building with the breeze blowing. Jeremy kept talking about how he had to have a porch and it seemed like a really good idea.

There were some crazy people who freaked us out. There was a woman who grilled me for five minutes about a Miles Davis CD for sale for fifty cents. Then she walked away with it without paying. I guess I have incredible salesmanship powers. I guess. At least I got rid of some stuff.

No more ‘dirty’ blue duck.

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