Pieces of Brooklyn

The great Key to the City adventure continues.  Rather than have another marathon adventure, we opted to break the Brooklyn locations up among several days.

The very next day after our Bronx adventure, Lynn and I jumped on the subway for the quick trip over to the Brooklyn Museum.  Neither of us had been here before, so we didn't know what to expect, but it was a really good experience.  Our favorite exhibits were the full-scale replicas of actual colonial houses, built within the museum halls.  It was really cool to walk around these houses as if you were actually inside.  We eventually found our way to the top floor, where our key opened a secret door in the wall between two portraits.  Inside was a secret exhibit, just for us: a small collection of tiny Fabergé sculptures.  I didn't know that the House of Fabergé made things other than the famous eggs, but there were some great little sculptures here.  Tiny animals make of precious stones with diamond eyes, a miniature jewel-encrusted clock, and a life-size dandelion gone to seed, made of asbestos filaments.  It was a cool surprise, behind a secret door.

The following day, we ventured out again.  After work, we headed down to the Gowanus Canal, a highly-polluted body of water a short walk from our neighborhood.  This formerly industrial area is now dotted with artist studios, galleries, workshops, and performance spaces.  Right along the canal are the offices of Cabinet Magazine, a quarterly art and culture publication.  Our key unlocked a small box in the dark alleyway beside Cabinet.  Upon opening, the empty box played an old recording of "I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles," a Tin Pan Alley hit song from 1919.  A note in the box said, "For the full experience call 718-XXX-XXXX between the hours of 10am and 6pm."  We'd arrived well after 6pm, but I later looked up what other keyholders had said about the location.  There used to be a bubble machine above the box that would start blowing bubbles when the box was opened.  It broke some time ago, so the folks at Cabinet decided to put their phone number in the box.  If we had arrived in time, and called the number, someone would have come running out into the alleyway to blow bubbles for us.

A week went by, with us traveling and some thunderstorms passing through, and the following Tuesday we once again set off after work.  This time, our destination was right along the way home, up in DUMBO.  We climbed a stairway off the street up to the entrance of Gleason's Boxing Gym.  The place was alive with the sound of solid impacts, and the distinct smell of hard work and sweat.  Gleason's is the oldest continually operating boxing gym in the country, and champions of all classes have trained there.  Cassius Clay, Mike Tyson, and a host of other boxing legends have trained here, and their pictures cover an entire wall in the back of the main room.  Individual lockers are scattered throughout along the walls, and one of them could be opened with our key.  Inside were boxing gloves, jump ropes, tape, and everything we'd need to get started ourselves.  We tried the gloves, but long days of work convinced both of us not to stay long.  On our way out, we were completely surprised to be approached by one of our new neighbors, himself training hard after a long day at work.  What a pleasant surprise.

There's one more location in Brooklyn, way down in Coney Island.  It has more difficult hours to work with, so we're not sure when we'll make it down there.  Tomorrow, the adventure continues in Manhattan, where we still have many more secrets to unlock.


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