The Briny Smell of Inspiration

If you enjoy the title sequence for “Boardwalk Empire” then you’ll love this. Near Astoria Park, in viewing distance of Roosevelt Island, is a small area of waterfront near which residents show off their hot rods and nit-pick at sparkling engine parts. On the other side of the riverside railing lies the East River in the shadow of the Triborough Bridge, and, while pretty nice, no, that’s not such an awe-inspiring thing on its own. But there’s a detail that caught my attention for a full half-hour.

The beach is practically covered in half of a color wheel’s worth of trashed glass. Every soothing tint of blue and green is there, worn down to something soft and then manhandled into millions of little petals. Seriously, they’re shaped like petals.

The process is constantly on view: bottles being broken up by the tide and then smoothed down little by little.

It sounds like a wind chime.