Big Green Faces

More from the archives.

I took these photos on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, a bastion of hipsterdom. The big green faces are painted on a couple of old wooden doors on Ludlow Street. I have no idea who painted them, or when, or why.

Lower East Side
Wikipedia: Ludlow Street

Bill Shannon’s Window

This summer’s massive River to River Festival is in its final days. The last dance program of the season, Window, is being presented on Lower Broadway all this week at lunchtime.

Created by Bill Shannon, Windows is presented to two audiences simultaneously: pedestrians on the street and viewers observing through the windows of a nearby skyscraper.

The Step Fienz, a crew of breakdancers, accompany Shannon (also known as “the Crutchmaster”), as he performs on a skateboard and crutches, weaving in and out of traffic, flipping and spinning, startling drivers and engaging passers-by with his grace, athleticism and humor.

Those who entered the lofty viewing space  (located in an ordinary business office) were able to see live video closeups of the action below and listen to recorded music mixed with Shannon’s comments and street noise. The same music is played outside, but only on the dancers’ earpieces. 

Passers-by can’t hear the music, see the audience gathered at the office windows (unless they look up and squint), or view the cameras positioned above. As a result, most of the people on the street don’t realize they are witnessing (and participating in) a carefully-planned performance. The spontaneous interactions between the unsuspecting pedestrians and the dancers are, in and of themselves, vital parts of the show.

The crutch and skateboard, while important elements of the dance, are not simply used for dramatic effect. Shannon’s dance technique—known as the Shannon Technique—is one he invented out of necessity. Born with Legg-Calvé-Perthes disease (a rare hip deformity), the dancer and choreographer has spent most of his life on crutches.

He has traveled and performed around the world, won numerous awards for his work and choreographed Cirque de Soleil’s production, Varekai. A documentary about Shannon, entitled Crutch, is scheduled to premiere at film festivals this fall.

An audience gathers at the window

Shannon skates around traffic

He is joined by another skateboarder

He lies on the sidewalk

Maneuvering with his crutches

Pedestrians walk by

A good samaritan stops to assist

She “helps” him stand

Then wants to discuss religion

More dancers join in

The Step Fienz in action

Darting through the crowd

Another attempted conversation

Shannon aloft

The finale

The company takes a bow

Bill Shannon
MySpace: Crutch
Village Voice: ‘Crutchmaster’ Takes Dance to the Next Level
Cirque du Soleil: Bill Shannon
Time Signature Productions: The Step Fienz
DJ Excess
MySpace: DJ Excess
River to River Festival
LMCC Sitelines: Window
The New Yorker: Window

I ♥ Anderson Cooper

The graffiti about the popular newscaster was written on a construction wall near the entrance to the 66th Street-Lincoln Center subway station.

I felt a bit guilty asking the elderly man who was leaning against it to move so that I could take a photo, but he readily obliged. As he slowly moved past me, the fellow grinned, leaned over conspiratorially and whispered, “If what I’ve heard about him is true, that might have been written by a man.”

“If what I’ve heard about him is true,” I responded, “it might have been written by his mother.”

Entrance to 66th Street-Lincoln Center station

I ♥ Anderson Cooper

CNN: Anderson Cooper
Anderson Cooper 360°
Anderson Cooper 360° Blog
Wikipedia: Gloria Vanderbilt
Gloria Vanderbilt

The Dance-In Drive-In Movie

Drive-in theaters are the product of a time and place (America in the early 20th century) where land and gasoline were plentiful and cheap. Uniting two national passions — cars and movies — thousands of drive-in theaters operated across the country during the 1950s and 1960s.

Today, they are rapidly disappearing from the landscape and in New York City (which has the lowest rate of private automobile ownership and highest real estate prices in the U.S.) there are none at all.

But this week, the Tribeca Film Festival recreated the drive-in experience in Lower Manhattan. Today a large screen, loudspeakers and rows of chairs were erected in the cove behind the World Financial Center for an event called the “Tribeca Drive-In.”

Early arrivals received free popcorn, candy, drinks and seat cushions and settled in for a special screening of Planet B-Boy. The film is a new documentary about Battle Of The Year, a world-wide break-dance competition held annually in Germany.

The evening’s program began when Fab 5 Freddy, the former host of Yo! MTV Raps (who is now known as the grandfather of the New York hip-hop scene), welcomed the crowd. He explained that “B-Boy” stands for, variously, “Break-Boy,” “Beat-Boy” or “Bronx-Boy,” and is the preferred term for those who practice this form of dancing.

He went on to introduce Ken Swift, one of the original members of the fabled Rock Steady Crew, who demonstrated “classic” break-dancing moves and gave lessons to audience members. Other live performers included the Persuaders, the Beatbox Orchestra, Knucklehead Zoo, Toni Blackman and the Drifters (a team of B-Boys from Korea).

By the time the sky was dark enough for the main attraction, the crowd that had gathered at the “Drive-In” was overflowing and enraptured. Even when it began to rain, the crowd stayed in place to watch the film and, afterwards, to give director Benson Lee a standing ovation.

Fab 5 Freddy
Originally uploaded by annulla.

Ken Swift
Originally uploaded by annulla.

Knucklehead Zoo
Originally uploaded by annulla.

Persuaders
Originally uploaded by annulla.

The Persuaders
Originally uploaded by annulla.

Beat Box Orchestra
Originally uploaded by annulla.

Planet B-Boy
MySpace: Planet B-Boy
Battle of the Year
Tribeca Drive In
Fab 5 Freddy
Rock Steady Crew
Ken Swift’s Breaklife
Knucklehead Zoo
Toni Blackman
The Persuaders
Google video: Drifters (Korea) v. Pokeman (France)
Wikipedia: Drive In
Wikipedia: Yo! MTV Raps
World Financial Center

Push for Help

Armed only with a heavy, black marker, someone turned this customer assistance intercom box in the Times Square subway station into a helpful, smiling face.

Push for help
Originally uploaded by annulla.

Yes, Spelling Counts

It isn’t just something your teachers said; in Brooklyn, even vandals know that correct spelling and punctuation are important.

These notes appeared inside the Flushing Avenue IND subway station on a poster for Cedric the Entertainer’s new movie, Code Name: The Cleaner.

Thoe’s are real

“Those” - You can’t spell

Code Name: The Cleaner
NYC Subway: IND Crosstown, Flushing Avenue
Station Reporter: G Train

The Independent and Small Press Book Fair

This weekend the Small Press Center, a non-profit educational organization for independent publishers, sponsored its 19th annual Independent and Small Press Book Fair.

A program of the General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen of the City of New York, the Small Press Center serves those “driven primarily by a desire to publish what interests them, what they believe in” regardless of whether or not large publishing houses consider it commercially feasible.

The Small Press Center is housed in a landmark Victorian structure at 20 West 44th Street in Manhattan. Built in 1893, it was designed by architects Hugh Lamb and Charles Alonzo Rich to house the Berkley School (at the time, a private school for boys). The General Society moved here in 1899 and designated its central space, a three-story, skylight-topped expanse, as the main reading room for their members’ library.

The library was the site of the Book Fair, with most of the 100 or so publishers in attendance exhibiting their wares in the main reading room or on the surrounding balconies. In addition to the books, the Book Fair included readings, talks and panel discussions with authors, editors, illustrators and publishers.

Author Emily Jenkins

Illustrator Tomek Bogacki

Poet/TV personality Ira Joe Fisher

Literary anti-hero Amiri Baraka

Author Colin Channer

Graffiti artist Savager

Graffiti artist Erni

Graffiti artist Smith

Graffiti artist Lady Pink

Small Press Center
Book Fair Schedule of Events
Emily Jenkins
Tomek Bogacki
Colin Channer
Amiri Baraka
Savager
Erni
Smith and Lady Pink
General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen
The General Society Library
Lamb and Rich Architecture

No Sleep Till Brooklyn

The powerHouse Arena, an enormous new party space on Brooklyn’s Main Street, is owned and operated by avant-garde art publisher powerHouse Books. This weekend the Arena hosted its first event, No Sleep ’til Brooklyn: A Hip Hop Retrospective — a celebration of 30 years of hip hop culture.

Named for the Beastie Boys’ 1986 hit and held in conjuction with VH1’s 2006 Hip Hop Honors, No Sleep ’til Brooklyn is a look at hip hop from its underground beginnings in the South Bronx to its ubiquitous presence today. Works by featured artists include photos, paintings, drawings, films, video, books, sneakers and, of course, music.

Visitors filled the space to look at the works on display, sample the products from Brooklyn Brewery, hear music by DJ Synapse and hear from some of the pioneers of the art gallery graffiti scene: Lee Quinones, Diego Cortez and Patti Astor.

Graffiti-style list of credits

Life size images cover the front windows

Photos taped to the pillars  

Looking up at photos

Visitors leaving their marks on the wall  

Viewing framed works in the corner  

Eliza from Pinkeye

Sitting on the steps  

Diego Cortez, Lee Quinones & Patti Astor

Jane Dixon & Patti Astor

powerHouse Books

powerHouse Arena

No Sleep ’til Brooklyn: A Hip Hop Retrospective

No Sleep ’til Brooklyn Launch

@149st: Patti Astor

@149st: Fun Gallery

Diego Cortez

Lost Object: Diego Cortez

@149st: Lee Quinones

Pink Eye Personalizations

DJ Synapse

Licensed to Ill

Wild Style

Brooklyn Brewery

VH1 Hip Hop Honors

Please Don’t Stand on the Art

Stencilled street art found on a sidewalk and standpipe near the corner of Flushing and Grand Avenues, directly across from the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

Purple and orange scream

Red and yellow stare

Juke five  

Gray and blue shapes

A Fence Full of Flowers

Strolling through Dumbo one Sunday, I came across a wooden construction barrier painted with white flowers and took a few pictures. About a month later the New York Times published an article telling the story of this fence, the construction workers laboring behind it and Pasqualina Azzarello, the artist who made transformed bare boards into a garden down under the Manhattan bridge overpass.

At the corner of York and Jay Streets  

What does humility require? 

Storage box 

Thank you 

Acera cerrada use el otro lado 

Th-an-ky-ou 

New York Times

Pasqualina Azzarello’s Little Red Studio

New York Professional Outreach Program: Pasqualina Azzarello

Art: The Weapon of Intelligence

Don’t dare call the paintings on this Brooklyn truck graffiti; they are, in every meaning of the word, art.

Art: The weapon of intelligence! 

He stay gettin bizy 

Way up in ya 

Maman 

The black leprakhan 

He has a good Russian wife 

Vel Crew * Ganoz 

72 Brighton Ct - Bklyn, NY 11235 

Mysteries of Manhattan: A New York City Alphabet

In downtown Manhattan, someone carefully painted an alphabet on the wooden fence surrounding a construction site at the corner of Warren and Church Streets. There is no visible indication of why, when or by whom this alphabet was created.

Apple � Boy 

Cat � Dog 

Egg � Fun 

Good � Hello 

Ink � Jam 

Krishna � Like 

Mom � No 

Ontology � Pencil 

Quark � Robot  

Silly � Tungsten 

Ulterior Motive � Vague 

Wet � X-Ray

Yes � Zen