Wow. It has been nearly a month with no Time Machine updates. Golly, I sure suck. Ah, well. My brother, Drew, came up for a visit this weekend. It was great fun to have him here. He even was good enough, car owner that he is, to bring us a couple of bags of pea-stones for our back yard. Pea-stones (and, really, any home improvement staple) are difficult for us to get here. We have no car and there aren't any local home centers. We could (so I hear) take the train way the hell out to one of the home centers deep in Brooklyn, or up in Queens, or out in Jersey, and then lug our stuff back but it would take, literally, a day. It isn't worth it. We could rent a car and drive to Jersey, but then you've spent a hundred bucks before you've even left home, and that makes those $5 bags of pea-stones quite a bit more expensive. While Drew was here we went to Coney Island, to the Siren Festival. Tons of fun, but there weren't any bands this year that I was all that interested in. But Coney Island is always a delight, and the Cyclone is worth the trip even all by itself. The photo strips shown here are from Coney Island. That is Drew and me on the left, and that is Erin and Lucky Bob and me on the right (I won Lucky Bob for Erin by shooting a plastic clown in the mouth until a balloon on top of its head popped. Don't ever say I am not a man of refined talent.) Also this weekend was the Giglio. Unfortunately for Drew he had to hit the road just before, so he missed it. The Giglio is a local Catholic feast where the people of Our Lady of Mt Carmel, in Northside Williamsburg, Brooklyn, construct a 70 foot tower, complete with a platform for a master of ceremonies and a 14 piece brass band and a statue of St Paulinus on the tippity top, and 120 guys pick up the whole shebang and move it through the jam-packed streets. It is so good. You haven't lived 'til you have seen a 70 foot tower playing "New York, New York" moving through the streets of Brooklyn. Erin says that the Giglio is her favorite New York event, and I am inclined to agree. And don't get me started about the zeppole. I am, again, kicking myself for not bringing my Polaroid to the festival OR to Coney. Ah, well. I did bring my cameraphone to both. Pictures below, but neither one does any justice to either event. Click the little one to get a big one.