Ramble in the Bronx
and a Thanksgiving movie pick for the whole family!
Despite being unemployed, I’ve managed to be a very busy little friend. Last week one of my subscribers very kindly offered to buy me a coffee and the day quickly turned into an adventure from Bed-Stuy to Dekalb Market where we enjoyed dinner at Handy Nasty and ice cream at Soft Swerve. It was exactly what I needed and I’m so grateful to have this little community! I mean it when I say it - my schedule is wide open and I’d love to go on an adventure with any of you. Leave a comment, email me, slide into my DMs, send a pigeon, whatever. Wanna write a guest spot in this newsletter about one of your adventures? Let’s make it happen!
This week, I’m writing about the romp Tessa and I had in The Bronx a couple weeks ago. We took a bus to Riverdale and had ourselves a day! I also just watched Eli Roth’s Thanksgiving and, spoiler, I loved it. Read about why this might become one of my yearly rewatches.
And don’t forget - I’m sending out holiday cards + NYC polaroids through the end of the year to all of my paid subscribers! 💌 Big shoutouts to Eri and Aliyah for recently upgrading to paid - lemme send you a little treat :)
1) Choose a photo from an existing adventure, or challenge me to find something new for you! Seriously, pick any location or any landmark and I’ll go there to snap a cool pic for you.
2) Send me your address via this form to receive a fun surprise in your mailbox 📝 📬
In last week’s issue I mentioned that I found myself in The Bronx twice in one weekend and this week I’m gonna tell you about the other day. This Exploring section is less one activity to do and more just a few highlights and tips for you to employ while exploring; I hope you like it! My fabulous friend Tessa recently moved uptown and after having a baller Halloween Housewarming party, we decided to explore a new (to us) neighborhood near her: Riverdale!
We took a bus a few stops north to grab breakfast at Tibbett Diner before exploring. Tessa is a diner connoisseur and I grew up on Long Island, so we know a thing or two about diner food. Tibbett is very much your classic diner complete with a neon sign and a menu of 100+ items available at any given time. Tibbett had a good amount of Irish-forward items available, despite not looking like a very Irish restaurant at all. I opted for a classic Belgian waffle smothered in an ungodly amount of strawberry jam and syrup and balanced it out with a side of bacon so I wasn’t eating solely carbs. I always ask for my bacon slightly burnt because I can’t stand the flabby bits and Tibbett came through. Tessa went the savory route with a classic egg/hash brown/bacon plate and it was glorious. After enjoying our meal, we paid at the counter and were now ready to walk 5,000 miles (we actually walked 7.3 miles which is still a lot).
We had very little rhyme or reason to our meanderings other than we wanted to see nature on the Hudson, walk through Riverdale Park, and see some crazy ass houses. I had one cool house in mind that I wanted to visit and it actually took us slightly south to the nearby and very cool-named neighborhood of Spuyten Duyvil (one of my favorite Substack’s -
- did an issue on Spuyten Duyvil that I highly recommend). I was very excited to finally see Villa Charlotte Bronte at 2501 Palisade Ave for myself!
This co-op is comprised of 2 large buildings split into 17 separate apartments, each completely unique and fucking gorgeous. The whole complex is perched on a cliff and every apartment has some view of the Hudson River; some also have multiple levels or balconies. Skinny paths and staircases wind all around and create a little maze of a complex that the NYT called “a fantasy sand castle for the Amalfi coast designed by M. C. Escher.” This Curbed article also provides an amazing insider view of the apartments and their residents. 17 lucky families live here and none of them are me.
The Villa Charlotte Bronte was designed in 1926 by Robert W. Gardner and actually had two sister buildings nearby - Villa Rosa Bonheur (which was sadly demolished in 2020) and Villa Victoria. Villa Victoria is still standing and Tessa and I were able to sneak around the the fire escape at the back to get a nice view of the Hudson. There was a park nearby too, Spuyten Duyvil Shorefront Park. The first gate that led to Half Moon Overlook was open and the NYC Parks website mentions that there are hiking trails that lead down to the railroad tracks, but that area was totally overgrown and the gate was locked when we arrived. An adventure for another day!
After marveling at the Italian villas in The Bronx that we will never live in, we made our way north to Riverdale Park. As much as I love Central Park, once you notice how manmade and manufactured it is it’s hard to feel like you’re truly in nature. What I’ve noticed, though, is that a lot of the “less popular” parks in NYC still have a very wild nature to them and Riverdale Park was one of them. It definitely helped that there wasn’t much car traffic nearby, but once we were in the park it felt like we were miles from the city. There were very few paved paths which were not great for accessibility, but did make us feel like we were truly in the woods. A few winding trails even led deeper into the forest and reminded me of the trails that I used to walk through where I grew up on Long Island. We found the remnants of what looked like a swimming pool while hiking and a cool fort!
Something you might have noticed in a lot of the photos above is that there’s no true unobstructed view of the Hudson because of the railroad tracks that run along the shore (unless you live in one of the fancy houses). If only there were a way to get onto the other side of the tracks….hehe there is. During my initial 1.5 hour subway ride up to the Great North, I read that somewhere near the Riverdale Metro North station there was a waterfront promenade. And lucky for us, Riverdale Park spit us out right near that station! We walked onto the station platform and started looking around for an exit to spit us out on the other side. A sweet old man, noticing that we looked lost, asked what we were looking for. Unfortunately, he did not know how to reach the promenade, but just at that moment we saw two people disappear off the platform behind him and immediately followed. And we found it!
We explicitly went to Riverdale to enjoy time in nature, but there’s a lot more to the little neighborhood in The Bronx! We wanted to stop by Lloyd’s Carrot Cake, but did not plan ahead and found out they’re closed on Sundays. Liebman’s Deli is also a well known (and the last) Jewish deli in the area that Anthony Bourdain loved. Folks often have one idea of what “The Bronx” is, but it’s a huge borough with so much to offer! I’m really hoping to explore more of it while I’m unemployed and have the time to make the trip. Let me know if there are any spots in The Bronx that I should check out!
Last year I really wanted to watch the Thanksgiving horror movie and I sadly missed it in theaters, so I was stoked to see it pop up on Netflix! There are so many Halloween and Christmas movies, but none of the other holidays get much love and it’s about time we got a real ass Thanksgiving horror movie (which can be a very scary holiday imo, have you met my mom?). On top of that, the movie was made by Eli Roth, who has a special place in my heart when it comes to horror movies; Cabin Fever is about as good as horror movies in cabins in the woods get. Stop reading here if you don’t want any spoilers for Thanksgiving!
At first glance this might seem like a vapid slasher flick, but it pays homage to tons of classic horror films. The literal first scene is a direct tribute to John Carpenter’s Halloween. The text overlay tells us we’re in Plymouth, Mass on Thanksgiving (rather than Haddonfield, IL on Halloween). The camera slowly creeps up towards the front door of the house and it’s clear that the camera is portraying the perspective of a character in the movie. In Halloween, we follow a mystery character and bear witness to the murder of Judith Meyers only to find out that we were following a young Michael Meyers the whole time. In Thanksgiving, the camera flips to show that we were following Sheriff Eric Newlon (Patrick Dempsey) the whole time. I immediately noticed the similarity to the opening of Halloween, but what I didn’t notice upon first watch is just how prescient this first scene would be.
The movie as a whole is very reminiscent of my beloved Scream. Thanksgiving, like Scream, is not a simple slasher movie - it’s a murder mystery movie! And that opening scene actually tells us who the killer is right away, but I didn’t know it was a clue at the time. Youtube considers the Black Friday Massacre to be the opening scene of Thanksgiving (it happens right after the one I mentioned above) and it’s amidst this chaos that we’re given more clues, though we don’t know it yet. I recommend watching this clip too because it’s just a wild scene that only Eli Roth could have dreamt up. All of the character deaths are kooky and gory AF: one guy is immediately trampled, another person cuts their neck on the broken door, and someone else gets their skull cracked open with a shopping cart. It was at this point that I started paying attention to every single fucking thing to see if I could figure out who the killer was before the reveal.
In Thanksgiving, the killer (dressed up as Pilgrim John Carver…teehee carver) teases our cast of teens by tagging them in Instagram photos of a gory holiday dinner. I think this is sort of an updated take on Ghostface’s repeated phone calls to the victims in Scream. In 2023 no one would answer the phone anymore, so to get someone’s attention you’ve gotta turn to social media. This is how the kids find out that someone is murdering people who were at the Thanksgiving Massacre the year before. It’s also vaguely “I Know What You Did Last Summer”-y in that the kids then start getting picked off one by one because they were present at the massacre and the killer found them all to be at fault for what happened.
But that’s not the end of the horror movie homage train! We get two more at the very end of the movie. In a nod to another great Wes Craven film, Nightmare on Elm St, Jessica has a startling dream that Sheriff Newlon is still alive and emerges from flames to kill her. Nightmare constantly asked viewers to debate whether what they were seeing onscreen was real or a dream and Thanksgiving actually adds one more layer to this nightmare. After Jessica causes an explosion that seemingly kills the sherif, we see multiple firefighters leaving the scene. However, all of their faces are covered by masks and the camera lingers on each of them in a very deliberate way. I knew this happened before in another horror movie - My Bloody Valentine 3D! This scene was perfectly shot to cast doubt on whether the sherif survived the blast and a character later says that no body was found because all that was left was ash so I’m just sayin, Thanksgiving 2?
Overall, the movie is pretty corny but I think that’s by design. The kills are fun and the mystery is actually a pretty good one. It’s a bit unfortunate that none of the characters were very memorable; they just seemed to be cannon fodder for the killer. There are red herrings galore thrown in to keep you from figuring things out though and it’s one of those movies that I think I’ll pick up more details on in rewatches. I can’t imagine it was easy making a horror movie where the killer is dressed as a fucking pilgrim, but Thanksgiving did a pretty good job. I also can’t tell if the Massachusetts accents are actually bad or if that’s genuinely what people sound like (in my head everyone from Mass sounds like Matt Damon and Ben Affleck in Good Will Hunting). I actually watched a Youtube video in which Eli Roth explains that Patrick Dempsey used his actual New England accent in the movie, which leads me to believe that I simply could not go to Massachusetts without giggling every time someone speaks.
After gushing over how beautiful Riverdale Park was (and spending time in Riverside Park earlier this week) I am so disheartened to hear about the amount of brush fires we’ve had locally. I almost went to Inwood Park on Monday and now I’ll never know what it looked like before the fire. Please follow safety guidelines if you’re in our parks (or any parks).
Councilmember Chi Osse is the absolute GOAT for sponsoring a bill to end forced rental broker fees. Often when you rent an apartment in NYC, you’re on the hook to pay a month’s rent up front in addition to a broker fee, despite the landlord being the one who hired the broker. It never made any sense and I’m so glad it’s finally going away.
It’s Holiday Market season in the city! There are a few new markets this year (Macy’s and Industry City) and I’m really hoping this means that markets will be a little less crowded since there’s more to go around 😅 The Union Square Market has always been my favorite one, but I definitely want to check out the new Macy’s market this year.
I am in dire need of clothing swapping and I’m really hoping I’ll be able to attend this one on Nov 16 at Misfit Kava Bar in Bushwick. This one’s a rare late night swap and will run from 6pm - 2am. If a daytime swap is more your speed, stop by Ft Greene Park between 1-4 on Nov 17.
Jordan Sondler will be creating Pet Portraits on Nov 17 at La Cantine in Ridgewood. Portraits are $55 each and you can either bring your pet or bring a picture of them.
SustainableBaddie and tala.barbotinkhalidy are hosting an Embroidery for Beginners Workshop on Nov 30. The workshop is a very affordable $30 and will meet in Bed-Stuy.
Christmas means it’s time for holiday window displays along 5th ave, but unfortunately Saks’ famous light show won’t be returning this year. Last year’s “Carousel of Dreams” show was actually pretty cool, so it’s definitely a bummer that it won’t be back. Instead, Saks plans to celebrate their centennial by “honoring the architectural significance of this iconic building, elegantly illuminating the facade and framing the holiday windows.”
Speaking of Christmas decor, the Rockefeller Christmas tree arrived last week and the Tree Lighting Ceremony will take place on Wednesday, December 4th. This year’s tree came from Massachusetts. And here’s something I didn’t know about the tree - when it’s taken down the lumber is donated to Habitat for Humanity and the ornaments are turned into snow globes in the Rock Center gift shop.
Do you fancy yourself a NYC journalist? One of my favorite websites, Untapped NYC, is accepting applications for the Untapped New York Urban Journalism Fellowship.
Okay, Thanksgiving sounds fun but I'm still mad at Eli Roth for the Rotten Fruit poster he never sent you!!!
Hey, thanks for the shoutout! I can't imagine living in a cooler place than the Charlotte Bronte. Minus all the annoying people like us always wanting to photograph it of course. There is definitely a very small trail loop behind the tracks that you can check out. Not sure if it's worth the climb back though.