Curbed NY: All Posts by The GuttersniperLove where you live2007-11-15T15:51:09-05:00https://ny.curbed.com/authors/theguttersniper3689524/rss2007-11-15T15:51:09-05:002007-11-15T15:51:09-05:00Live from Red Hook: Return of the Guttersniper
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<p><em>From 2005 through September 2006, The Guttersniper ruled over </em><a href="http://gutter.curbed.com/"><em>The Gutter</em></a><em>, Curbed's late lamented architecture blog. Today, from the ether, his stunning return. Read on.</em></p>
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<p>Oh my friends. There is, it seems, no corner of this dim, misery-seethed metropolis where one can find true peace. There is no last place untouched. This very afternoon, as I pursued the course of exile that I have chosen and you have so successfully endured lo these sixty-one weeks, I raised myself from the comforts of the Villa van Gut--a tidy enough <em>tage</em> for this hermit (I will miss it)--combed the starfish from my beard (for I have, you should know, gone there), and ventured forth into the broken-cobble streets of my busted and beloved quarter of the city. You should know that I never left you. I merely turned my back on the world. Until it washed up, laptop-lit, smelling of last night’s fancy, at my front door. <br> </p>
<p>Usually on such a piss-streaming day as this, endless processions of which are my fate, I rise brimming with hope that the world has saved itself in my sleep. I extend my gaze through the prostheses of our times--plastic, copper, unknown magic--and I <a href="http://archnewsnow.com/">survey</a>. I give each new development its due--for I am a fair reaper, emeritus, your fair reaper--and invariably, as on each of 426 days before this, I decide again that, circling the drain, the <a href="http://www.starchitect.com/">shapers</a> of our world are undeserving of my scorn. Then it's a constitutional by the shore, scattering rats on the shelving beach, scanning for toe-jamming timbers and rusted hooks. Not long ago, it was this glorious July, I happened upon a cracked figurehead bust, weed-matted and fading gold, the dirk in my mermaiden’s teeth signaling her pirate provenance. I contemplated Poseidon’s offering, imagined well the rapine she had seen, a trade wind on the quarter, laden prey in her lee, and though I did, I will admit, calculate what my salvage might fetch at the local <a href="http://eriebasin.com/">chandler</a>, or as barter at the local <a href="http://www.redhookbaitandtackle.com/live%20bait%20photos/rhbat_livebait_s.html">tap</a>, I set her free, adrift on the sea, the snot-green, scrotum-tightening sea, as I hope one day myself to be set.</p>
<p> I came here, it can now be said, on the very <a href="http://gutter.curbed.com/archives/2006/09/15/sweet_sweet_knowledge.php">date</a> we last spoke. Inaccessible, irredeemable; this <a href="http://www.callalillie.com/archives/2006/08/why_your_baseme.html">sodden</a> village and I shared a soul. I looked for the edge and I found it. No <a href="http://www.gothamgazette.com/graphics/waterfront_feb03_ikea_red_hook.jpg">abomination</a>, no <a href="http://www.nyc.gov/html/oem/html/hazards/storms_coastalflooding.shtml">hardship</a>, no <a href="http://nymag.com/news/features/40648/">new thing</a> could destroy the bond I forged with this place. Sealed with <a href="http://www.lenells.com/features/features_bourbon.php">bourbon</a> and <a href="http://www.goodfork.com/goodforkmenu.html">onion rings</a>, it was love. But that ended today. After a turn by the wharves, a note of <a href="http://www.stevesauthentic.com/keylimepie.htm">lime</a> scenting the half-tide fug, the promise of warm brews and <a href="http://www.bakednyc.com/menu.php?sect=brownies">spiced cakes</a> brought me in from the cold. And there they were, <em>here</em>, the grinning magicians, stinking of sot-weed and smirk, <a href="http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2007/11/15/live_from_red_hook_ladies_and_gentlemen_barbara_corcoran.php">harassing</a> my neighbors, <a href="http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2007/11/15/live_from_red_hook_keep_the_b61_crappy.php">dissing</a> my jitney, and severing the chains of my attachment to this fine spot, link by link. I have been found, and, my sanctuary invaded, wrecked, I go now to a new asylum, some <a href="http://www.gerritsenmemories.com/">lost</a> grid-cross, a place where even the birds won’t know my name. Sniper out.<br>· <a href="http://gutter.curbed.com">The Gutter</a> [gutter.curbed.com]</p>
https://ny.curbed.com/2007/11/15/10584146/live-from-red-hook-return-of-the-guttersniperThe Guttersniper