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Written on 2/21/2009

09/30/05: Cell Tower Installation on Roof; Trip to Coney Island  Totonos' Pizza; Stone Park Cafe for Dinner: 

This morning, I snuck up to the roof to check in on the ongoing cell phone tower installation going on. Needless to say, regardless of scientific proof one way or the other, none of us are excited about living directly below a cell phone tower array. All those calls getting beamed and amplified from right over our heads... yikes! And of course, the Landlord gets the equivalent of an extra rent per month, but all we get is living through construction. Great.

On the other hand... it was cool to see how it happens!







Is this crane on the street for us?  Yes. They're going to be doing some direct-to-roof heavy lifting today. Well, I hope they have fun, because Richard and I are off to the oldest continuously-open Pizzeria in the world... Totono's at Coney Island.





But first, a pit-stop at "Mule," the new across-the-street cafe, with Peter.



Richard and I used this opportunity to marvel at the new Stillwell Avenue Coney Island subway terminal for the B, D, F and Q trains.



The whole roof has solar panels on top!





It is the closest-looking thing in NYC to a real European train station shed. How wild that it's all the way out at Coney Island!! On the other hand, it's at the world's largest subway yard... perhaps a fitting and important location afterall!









We enjoy the decorative elements in front of the police station now built into the terminal.

There's Nathan's original location! But... we're here for Pizza, not Hot Dogs today.







They may have just finished a brand new subway terminal, but they maintained and quite restored the terra-cotta along the Surf avenue frontage. It still says "BMT lines" which refers to the Brooklyn Mass Transit company that once ran all of these subway lines from here.





The whole train shed, with it's 4 platforms, and 8 tracks, is elevated.



We walk alongside the elevated structure on our way to Totono's.

While we're enjoying our pizza, a film crew comes in and starts shooting. This makes us Smile, because a few years ago, Richard made a Sight & Sound Video class (NYU) project about this place, and I was his camera operator. So once upon a time, Richard and I looked much like these two guys here:



We found out this crew was here to get B-roll in advance of Bobby Flay's arrival. They took shots of us enjoying our pizza (awkwardly and without our permission, might I add), and we would hear weeks later that we were on TV for a few seconds. Yay.

We enjoyed the "Rail-fan" window at the front of the Q/B train. In Brooklyn, much of the line is an "open-cut," meaning that it's below ground, but uncovered. The old bridges crate mini-tunnels for each track that are fun to watch go by.





Not a busy run today.

Back at the apartment, the crane is in full...swing.





Greeeaaaat.





We attempt to not trip over the extension cord in the lobby level.



Then we happily step aside of the debris on our stairs.





And finally, we enjoy the snow-like quality of the dust that is everywhere inside for some reason.  Whoopee.

Later in the afternoon, we hear a car screetch... followed by a metallic bang. We look out the window and see the results... two cars crashed into a supply shed on the side of the building cat corner to ours. Yay Brooklyn!



This evening, the whole crew went to Stone Park Cafe for a fairly fancy Brooklyn dinner on the newly-restaurant-row 5th Avenue.






Caviar in soup is a nice touch in my book.



Osso Bucco for Richard.





A great photo of Natalie and I to finish off the month.