Selling Toilet Paper

Today was the opening of the “What’s the Hook” exhibit at the Kentler Gallery. The photo I submitted to the show, entitled Keeping the Toilet Paper Safe, was sold before the opening.

Kentler Gallery
Kentler Gallery: About

Project Looking Through

I enjoyed being part of Anna Carson’s Project Yellow and have decided to try another blogger project, Mark’s Project Looking Through. The object is to post a photo that gives the viewer the sensation of looking through something.

This photo was taken in Brooklyn Bridge Park, 12 acres located between the Brooklyn Bridge and the Manhattan Bridge. This narrow stretch of land is separated from the East River by a paved promenade and a short iron fence.

Click on the image to see the details. Shot through the rails of the fence, it shows the Manhattan skyline, the Brooklyn Bridge and the 32-story Verizon Building, one of the world’s first art deco skyscrapers. All you way to the left, on the far side of the river, you can glimpse the domed roof of the World Financial Center.

Look closely at the surface of the river, between the iron bars, and you’ll see two boats heading beneath the bridge — a long, dark barge and a small, bright vessel with an American flag flying from the stern.

Brooklyn Bridge Park
Brooklyn Bridge Park Development Corporation
Wikipedia: Verizon Building
Wikipedia: Brooklyn Bridge

The Upper Room

Until the 1960s, this section of Lower Manhattan was the site of struggling small businesses, busy commuter ferry docks and dilapidated shipping piers. When the World Trade Center was being built, more than one million cubic yards of earth and rocks were excavated, moved across West Street and dumped here to create 92 acres of landfill. The newly-created area became a massive business and residential development known as Battery Park City.

The most attractive features of this prosperous planned community are the small harbor and 70 foot wide Esplanade along the Hudson River. The riverfront walkway contains rows of trees, beds of shrubbery, low iron fences, benches, lampposts and several significant pieces of public art.

If you were to walk south from the World Financial Center Plaza (about mid-point along the Esplanade), you’d soon come to the Upper Room. Created by Ned Smyth in 1987, the Upper Room stands at the corner where Albany Street meets the Esplanade.

In summer, when temperatures soar, the Upper Room will be shaded by nearby trees and filled with visitors. Early spring, before the branches burst into bloom, is the perfect time to see the Middle East-inspired details of this red-hued colonnaded court built of pebbled concrete, bluestone, brass and mosaic.

View from the Esplanade

The still-bare branches of the trees

The view from Albany Street

Looking toward the Hudson River

Detail of bench

Detail of mosaic

Battery Park City
The Upper Room
Battery Park City Parks Conservancy: Parks & Playgrounds
Culture Now: Battery Park City Map

Spring is here!

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils
– William Wordsworth

The trees are still bare, the grass is still brown, but the winter is officially over and the signs of spring have appeared. These, the year’s first blossoms, appeared “all at once,” bursting out of the cold, hard earth of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.

Tree peony bud

Tree peony buds

Snowdrops

Daffodil

Daffodils

Drift of crocuses

Crocuses

Crocus

Small yellow flowers

Blossom breaking through the winter cover

Vinca

Violet

Iris

Camellia

Camellia

Camellia bud

Empty benches and bare branches

Soon, these limbs will be covered with flowers

Ducks swimming in the spring sunshine

Brooklyn Botanic Garden

Decorating the Tree at Columbus Park

I was walking along Court Street when the white aerial lift atop a bright orange bucket truck caught my eye. As I drew closer, I saw two workmen were using the vehicle to lift them as they decorated the Christmas tree at Columbus Park.

Although the sky was gray and the air was chill, the men were having a wonderful time, hanging ornaments on the bucket, the tree and themselves, swooping through the air, mugging for the camera and helping all of Downtown Brooklyn get into a holiday spirit.

The orange bucket truck

A workman secures the star at the top

The men switch positions

The second worker attaches ornaments

High in the air, posing for the camera

Open House Harlem Pt 1: Manhattanville/W. Harlem

NOTE: Thanks to a particularly robust strain of influenza, Blather from Brooklyn was knocked out of the blogosphere for more than a week and a half. Publication is resuming where it left off when the flu bug raised its ugly head.

OpenHouseNewYork Weekend is here, a time when New York celebrates architecture and design. Sites around the city throw open doors that are usually closed to the public while designers, historians and enthusiasts eagerly lead packs of the curious on walking tours and explorations.

This afternoon, as part of the celebration, participants were treated to a tour that included elements of West Harlem’s past and future: highlights of the now mostly-vanished industrial neighborhood known as Manhattanville and a preview of a waterfront park scheduled to open next year.

Situated between St. Nicholas Terrace and the Hudson River, Manhattanville was once a quiet waterfront village eight miles north of New York City. The 1800s brought paved streets, Robert Fulton’s ferryboat and a flock of city residents who ventured north for the green fields, fresh country air and new opportunities.

In the closing years of the 19th century, when construction of an elevated railway made it possible to travel from Wall Street to Manhattanville in less than an hour, the population tripled. The area was rapidly transformed from a community of tenant farmers and factory workers to a bustling commercial and transportation hub.

Over the years, changing fortunes plunged Manhattanville into a decline. But today, those who know where to look can glimpse the area’s past glory. Some of the luxurious buildings that rose here in the early 1900s are relatively unchanged, their facades still clad in marble and terra-cotta. In certain spots beneath the elevated tracks, the asphalt has worn away, exposing the granite Belgian blocks and bronze insignias of the long-defunct 3rd Avenue line.

As for the future, you’ll view it by crossing the West Side Highway to the spot where 125th Street ends at Marginal Street. There, along the river, is a construction project that will reclaim a long-inaccessible section of waterfront. Known as West Harlem Waterfront Park, the project is transforming a grubby, weed-filled parking lot into a lively spot for recreation.

When it opens next year, the small but carefully-designed park will contain sculptures, fountains and benches. It will feature designated spaces for fishing, kayaking, playing, performing and relaxing in the sun. Most importantly, it will fill a missing link in the greenway and bike path that will eventually stretch along the entire length of Manhattan island.

Under the elevated tracks

Plaque and unused tracks of the 3rd Avenue line

The view from Marginal Street

The fence is opened for OHNY visitors

This area will be filled with grass

Trees and grass will grow here soon

Design of the long, narrow park is based on intersecting triangles

Benches and walkway under construction

The future Water Taxi pier

The proposed fishing pier

The kayak launching area

The park will end here but the bike path will continue

openhousenewyork weekend
West Harlem Waterfront Park
Eric K. Washington
Archipelago Architecture and Landscape Architecture
Community Board 9: West Side Harlem
DMJM Harris: West Harlem Waterfront Redevelopment Program
NYLCV: Work Finally Begins on West Harlem Waterfront Park

Goodbye to the Floating Pool Lady

For most of us, it came as a wonderful surprise. On July 4, a swimming pool called the Floating Pool Lady opened on the waterfront below Brooklyn Heights. The occasion marked the first time in more than 200 years that the public has had access to this area.

For years activists have been working with officials to transform this section of the Brooklyn waterfront — long the site of abandoned piers, vacant warehouses, weed-filled parking lots and rusting storage sheds — into parkland. The pool and its adjacent 40,000 square foot sandy “beach” represent the first stage of the realization of their plans.

The brainchild of former parks department official Ann Buttenwieser, the pool was built on an old Lousiana cargo barge and moored among the piers on the East River. In addition to the handicapped-accessible pool, organizers installed an open-air shower, a snack bar, bike racks, volleyball nets, dressing rooms, porta-potties, chair and umbrella rentals and picnic tables.

Free shuttle bus service brought visitors directly to the pool from nearby subway stations. Due to its small size (maximum capacity is only 175 persons), gaining entrance to one of the tightly scheduled, carefully monitored 1 1/2 hour swim sessions was somewhat complicated.

First, potential swimmers waited for the announcement that it was time to line up to obtain wristbands for the next available swim session. The wristbands, which were distributed on a first-come, first-serve basis, served as admission tickets. They were color keyed to the day’s the scheduled sessions: on weekdays, four time slots were available; on weekends, six were scheduled.

Once wristbands were obtained, visitors waited for an announcement telling them it was time to line up for admisssion. Some people were turned away every day, and many had long waits, but they didn’t lack things to do.

Visitors could spend time lying on the beach, listening to the music, munching on food prepared at the concession stand, playing frisbee and volleyball, dancing and enjoying the astonishing views of New York Harbor.

Sadly, the Floating Lady was only a temporary feature. Its stay in Brooklyn was limited to two months (officals plan to move it to another borough next summer) and this was its final day. Fans of the pool rushed to the closing-day festivities and the chance to take one last dip, eat one last tofu dog, fly one last kite and get one last sunburn.

View of the barge from the Promenade

Sign on Furman Street

Entering the front gate

Butterflies walking the perimeter

Looking towards Manhattan

Access lift for disabled swimmers

Sitting on the edge of the pool

Swimmers lounging on the upper deck

Volleyball match on the sand

Playing hopscotch on the beach

The hula hoop contest

Human flower at entrance to pool

Pool rules

Brooklyn Bridge Conservancy: The Floating Pool
NYC Parks Dept: Floating Pool Makes A Splash
The Neptune Foundation
NY Post: ‘Float’ Leaving B’klyn
Athletic Business: East River Floater

Red Hook Ballfields

It began a few decades ago but until recently, the vendors who sell food at the Red Hook Ball Fields were known only to a select and enthusiastic crowd.

Once upon a time, a group of Latin American immigrants formed a soccer league and began playing regularly on the public sports fields in Brooklyn’s Red Hook Park. Located in a swath of open space between gritty warehouses, docks and a vast public housing project, the 59-acre park featured an abundance of room to run and the isolation to make plenty of noise.

There were only two drawbacks to the location: it was a long walk from the closest subway station, and there were no shops or restaurants nearby where the players could buy refreshments. In response to the lack of available food and drink, a few of the league wives brought grills to the matches and began cooking on the spot for their hungry broods.

Soon, the women were cooking at the fields every summer weekend, selling their regional and family specialities to the enthusiastic athletes and specatators. As the league grew, and other nationalities joined the matches, the variety of dishes sold at the field also expanded. Today, the Red Hook Ball Fields offer soccer, baseball, running and the finest of South and Central American home cooking.

When artists and hipsters began to move into the empty industrial spaces of Red Hook, they also “discovered” the vendors under the tents at the Ball Fields. Word spread rapidly, and in the last two years nearly every major local magazine and newspaper has run at least one feature on what New York Magazine described as the city’s “ad hoc Latin American food court.”

In fact, there are two groups of vendors at the Red Hook Ball Fields: the much-lauded, organized cooks near the soccer fields and the less noted vendors across Columbia Street near the baseball fields. Both locations offer home made Latin American specialties, but the newcomers rarely visit the baseball field vendors; as a result, the lines are much shorter there, but there is also far less likelihood of finding a printed menu or a vendor who speaks perfect English.

Lately, the vendors at the Ball Fields have run up against the bureaucrats at the Parks Department and the Department of Health. As a result, many foodies believe that this could be the last summer that the delectable Mexican, Central American, South American and Caribbean treats will be sold under the tarps and tents at Red Hook. Activist and organizer Cesar Fuentes is doing all he can to fight City Hall, but the outcome of his efforts won’t be known for months.

So, quick, lest they disappear, come down to the ‘Hook and dig into the Columbian empanadas, Ecuadorian ceviche, Salvadoran pupusas, Mexican huaraches, Honduran tacos, Chilean tuna stew and more, along with gallons of fruit waters and mountains of succulent, freshly-cut mango, pineapple, coconut and papaya.

You’ll run out of room in your tummy before you run short of cash; most of the delicious offerings cost less than $5.00 each. While you munch away, don’t forget to watch a game or two.

The sign at the soccer fields

Munching on a quesadilla

Waiting for papusas

Cut mango, jicima, papaya, cucumber, melon

Guatemalan goodies (including stuffed potato) on the grill

Grilling ears of corn

Preparing meat tacos

Jars of aguas frescas (fruit waters)

Grilling wooden skewers of meat

Preparing corn with lime, mayonnaise, cheese & chile

Making charcoal-grilled steaks for tacos

Eating a hurrache

Soccer players

Pitcher during a baseball game

It’s My Park: Red Hook Food Vendors Video
NY Magazine: The Last Summer of the Red Hook Park Vendors?
Eater: Red Hook Vendors Have 10 Days to Address Health Dept.
The Porkchop Express: Red Hook, the Drama Continues
NY Parks Dept: Red Hook Park
NY Magazine: Tour Red Hook Ball Fields With Chef Aaron Sanchez
Time Out New York: On the Hook
NY Times: A Latin Fiesta, Near the B.Q.E.
NY Times: Stuffing Tortillas and Parkgoers, Dawn to Dusk
NY Magazine: Mmmm, the Red Hook Ball Fields
NY Times: A Potted Palm Grows in Brooklyn
The Porkchop Express: Red Hook Soccer Fields
The Porkchop Express: Red Hook Soccer Fields Map
Gothamist: Soccer, Swimming Y Salsa
Gothamist: Soccer Mamacitas
Ed Levine Eats: Chuck Schumer Makes Goat Tacos Good Politics
onNYTurf: Red Hook Soccer Fields Map (w/subway lines)
NY Sun: On the Red Hook Waterfront
Village Voice: Plotzing for Masa (Not Matzo)

A Midsummer Day’s Mess, A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Early today, while most of the city was still asleep, Brooklyn was hit by a tornado.

The storm was the most powerful to strike the borough since the National Weather Service began keeping reliable records. With wind speeds reaching 135 mph, the tornado tore through Bay Ridge and Sunset Park, downing power lines, ripping up trees, shattering windows, tearing roofs from buildings and crushing trucks and cars.

The storm dumped three inches of rain on the city in just about an hour, overwhelming the sewer system, flooding streets, tunnels and subways and disabling the subways, trains and busses.

As hundreds of thousands of people tried to go to work, a spokesman for the Transit Authority, interviewed on a local television station, said, “The entire subway system is virtually shut down. If you can stay home, do it.” Unfortunately, the people who most needed to hear that messsage were already en route. Outraged commuters were stranded, the transit authority’s Web site crashed and chaos ensued.

Fortunately, the worst of the tornado’s ferocity bypassed my neighborhood and by the end of the day, most of the city’s transportation system was running with limited service. It was definitely time for something light and entertaining.

==============

Shakespeare in the Park is a longstanding, beloved tradition in New York City. More than 50 years ago, Joseph Papp (who was subsequently accused of un-American activities), began to stage free productions of Shakespeare’s plays in at the Delacorte Theatre in Central Park.

Today, the shows are still free, but entrance to the famed open-air theater comes at a price.

Approximately 1,500 seats are available for each performance. Tickets are distributed on the day of the show on a first-come, first-served basis and limited to two per person. It is not unusual for people to camp out in the park overnight in order to obtain a pair, a feat that has been described by the New York Times as an “endurance test” requiring determination, patience and fortitude.

All tickets are for reserved seats and are non-exchangeable. If a performance is rained out, the ticketholder is simply out of luck. The well-heeled, of course, avoid the long queues by either hiring others to wait for them (the going rate is about $100) or by donating money to Shakespeare in the Park (a $150 donation earns one reserved seat).

When a friend offered me the opportunity to attend a run-through of A Midsummer Night’s Dream (the show will officially open on August 23), I headed straight for the soggy subways.

Thanks to the storm, it took me about two hours longer than usual to reach Central Park, but it was well worth the trip. Those who braved the muddy fields and branch-strewn paths were transported from the chaotic, storm-torn city and treated to a calm, clear night, a first-rate company and more than a little much-needed magic on a midsummer night.

If we shadows have offended,
Think but this, and all is mended,
That you have but slumbered here
While these visions did appear.
– A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act V, Scene 2

Daily News: Brooklyn becomes Tornado Alley!
Newsday: Tornado, storm wreaks havoc in NYC
Gothamist: Wild Wednesday Weather
NY Times: Free Theater, But the Lines? Unspeakable
NY Times: It’s Free Theater, but With a Price
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Public Theatre: Shakespeare in the Park
Public Theatre: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Central Park Conservancy: Delacorte Theater
CentralPark.com: Delacorte Theater
NYC Department of Parks & Recreation: Central Park

Lord Ganesh of the Lake

The Hong Kong Dragon Boat Races are held on Meadow Lake at Flushing Meadows Park in Corona, Queens.

The ground around the lake is swampy and slippery, full of tall reeds, grasses and deceptively deep, muddy hollows. On Saturday, as I moved closer and closer to the edge to take photographs, I cautiously kept my eyes pointed downward.

When I reached the shore, I noticed something bobbing on the surface of the water. It appeared to be the back of a picture frame. I carefully reached down, grabbed it and turned it over.

To my amazement, it was an image of the elephant-headed Hindu god, Ganesh, the god of intellect and wisdom. The picture had gotten a bit gritty, but being submerged in the lake didn’t seem to have done it any real damage.

I wrapped the dripping frame in a plastic bag and brought it home. It now occupies a space in my tiny Brooklyn kitchen.

However, I can’t help wondering: How did Ganesh get into the water? How long had he been there? And — was there any significance to the fact that, out of the thousands of people assembled by the shore, he washed up at my feet?

Any theories?

Wikipedia: Ganesha

A Legend Early in the Morning

Every summer two popular television programs compete for early morning audiences by broadcasting concerts live from New York City.

The National Broadcasting Company’s Today Show holds their concert series on the Plaza at Rockefeller Center. Concerts from the American Broadcasting Company’s Good Morning America program take place in Bryant Park.

Both concert series are held in midtown Manahattan, both are free and open to the public, both include a variety of performers and musical genres. Good Morning America’s offerings take place on Fridays; the Today Show’s concerts are generally held on Tuesdays or Fridays.

Recently friend asked why I, who live so close to the venues and enjoy music so much, have never attended one of these peformances. This note from Good Morning America’s Web site might explain:

Show up at Bryant Park (41st and 6th Ave) around 6:00am, or earlier, to get a good spot in line.

Nevertheless, I decided to set my alarm extra early and give a (practically) crack-of-dawn concert a try today when R&B singer, songwriter and pianist John Legend appeared on Good Morning America.

Legend, a Grammy-award winner, performed romantic ballads influenced by gospel, jazz and hip-hop. After the show, the audience received free samples provided by the program’s sponsor, Listerine mouthwash.

Wonder whether the Listerine is at all responsible for Legend’s sweet, mellow sound?

The temporary stage in Bryant Park

Rehearsing with back-up singers

Singing during the rehearsal

Joking with Diane Sawyer & Sam Champion

John Legend performing with the band

John Legend making hearts flutter

John Legend
MySpace: John Legend
Today Show Concert Series
Good Morning America
Bryant Park: Good Morning America Concert Series
Listerine

A Texas Honky-Tonk in New York City

Castle Clinton was constructed at the southern tip of Manhattan for the defense of New York City. Designed as a near-twin to Castle William on Governor’s Island, the building stopped functioning as a military base after the War of 1812. The castle was converted to an opera house, then an immigration processing center, and finally an aquarium before being named a national monument in 1946.

Today this circular red sandstone building in Battery Park serves as the ticket office for ferries going to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. And, for a few magical summer evenings each year, it is transformed into an open air concert hall. A portable stage is erected, folding chairs are opened, a refreshment stand set up and tickets (first-come, first-serve) distributed to the crowd that waits outside in the sun for hours.

Why do they stand so patiently in the middle of a heat wave? Simple. Because the space is intimate (only 600 seats are available), the price is right (free), and the acts are first-rate.

Today, as day turned to night, this former military fortress became a Texas honky-tonk when Joe Ely, Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Butch Hancock — also known as the Flatlanders — performed for those lucky enough to score tickets.

The sounds of these veteran country singer-songwriters had the New York City crowd clapping their hands, stomping their feet, and finally, up on their feet and happily dancing under the stars.

The Flatlanders on the stage

Jimmie Dale Gilmore

Butch Hancock

Joe Ely

Rob Gjersoe on bass

Joe Ely singing

Butch Hancock singing

Jimmie Dale Gilmore singing

New West Records: The Flatlanders
Jimmie Dale Gilmore
Jimmie Dale Gilmore - Welcome
Wikipedia: Jimmie Dale Gilmore
Joe Ely
Wikipedia: Joe Ely
Wikipedia: Butch Hancock
Castle Clinton National Monument

More Broadway in Bryant Park

Another sunny summer Thursday, another free lunchtime performance in the Broadway in Bryant Park series.

Once again, the concert featured excerpts from current shows and I was able to catch some of the best moments from Hairspray, Mary Poppins and Stomp. 

Hairspray

Hairspray

Hairspray

Ashley Brown & Devynn Pedell from Mary Poppins signing autographs

Ashley Brown as the title character in Mary Poppins

Jacob Levine, Ashley Brown and Devynn Pedell in Mary Poppins

Jacob Levine and Gavin Lee singing Let’s Go Fly a Kite

Singing Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious from Mary Poppins

Broom dance from Stomp

Dancing with brooms from Stomp

Cast dancing with poles from Stomp

Hairspray
Mary Poppins
Devynn Pedell
Stomp
New York 106.7 FM: Broadway in Bryant Park
Bryant Park: Broadway in Bryant Park
Bryant Park
New York City Department of Parks: Broadway in Bryant Park
Broadway.Com

Orange Fridays

The urgent color of orange — the color that has been assigned to those detained and tortured with no due process — must become the color of a gathering sentiment to end the Bush regime and reverse its program.

– Flyer distributed at Orange Fridays rally

Union Square Park is the site of countless protests and demonstrations. This evening I stumbled across a particularly colorful one: a coalition of anti-war, anti-administration activists holding the first rally of their “Declare it Now: Wear Orange” campaign.

Supporters of the group called The World Can’t Wait/Drive Out the Bush Regime vowed to wear orange every Friday to show opposition to Bush’s policies. They are calling for “impeachment, resignation or indictment.” The protesters plan to meet every week in Union Square at 5:00 p.m. and hope to make Orange Fridays a nationwide movement.

Please note: this political movement should not be confused with the Orange Fridays promotion sponsored by the San Francisco Giants baseball team.

Distributing flyers

Protesting with papa

Parading through the park

Veteran protester

Drumming up attention

Adjusting the microphone

Blindfolded singer

Banner on the stage

Buying badges

Selling orange t-shirts and bandanas

All oranged-up

Buying an orange shirt

“I’ve been doing this all my life,” she said.

The World Can’t Wait
San Francisco Giants: ‘Orange Fridays’

Guitar Guys Friday

Thanks to the River to River Festival, this was “Guitar Guys Friday.” Three of the buskers who usually perform in the subways as part of the Transit Authority’s Arts for Transit: Music Under New York program were invited to come above ground and play in the heart of the financial district.

They appeared under a green awning in the space formerly known as Liberty Plaza Park. Unlike most New York City parks, which are owned by the city, this square block on Lower Broadway between Liberty and Cedar Streets is owned by a private real estate company, Brookfield Properties.

The park was destroyed on September 11, 2001 and when it finally re-opened last summer (yes, the park was closed and hidden behind tall fences for nearly five years), the name had been changed to Zuccotti Park to honor John Zuccotti, the U.S. Chairman of Brookfield Properties.

The space is popular with lunchtime crowds, who munched while listening to local guitar heroes Delfin Tardio, who describes his reggae-tinged music as “electric meditation” and Heth and Jed, who call their rock-based sound “Pink Floyd meets the wall.”

Delfin Tardio playing in Zuccotti Park

Delfin Tardio

Heth & Jed in Zuccotti Park

Heth playing the guitar

Heth

Jed on his blue guitar

Jed

♦  ♦  ♦  ♦  ♦  ♦  ♦  ♦  ♦  ♦  ♦  ♦  ♦  ♦  ♦  ♦  ♦  ♦  ♦  ♦  ♦  ♦  ♦  ♦  ♦  ♦  ♦  ♦

By the way, just to give you a bit of historical perspective, here is a photo of the park on September 11, 2001. I didn’t take it; this image was shot by photojournalist Jeff Mermelstein.

Liberty Plaza Park on 9/11 by Jeff Mermelstein

Heth and Jed
MySpace: Heth & Jed
River to River Festival: Guitar Guys
MTA’s Arts for Transit “Music Under New York” program
New York Times: Jeff Mermelstein
Lower Manhattan: Zuccotti Park
Project Rebirth: Liberty Park Plaza
Cooper Robertson: Liberty Park Plaza
Brookfield Properties

Broadway in Bryant Park

Now in its sixth year, Broadway in Bryant Park is a series of Thursday lunchtime performances held in the park behind the main branch of the New York Public Library. Cast members from leading Broadway musicals usually perform two or three songs from each show.

Today the audience saw “showstopping” numbers from four hits: Monty Python’s Spamalot, The Lion King, Curtains and Xanadu. No costumes, no makeup, few props, just a stage full of some of the best singing and dancing in the world, all for free.

Lewis Cleale & Marin Mazzie from Monty Python’s Spamalot

Lewis Cleale & Marin Mazzie sing The Song That Goes Like This from Monty Python’s Spamalot

Cornelius Jones Jr. from The Lion King

Sophia N. Stephens & Cornelius Jones Jr. sing Can You Feel The Love Tonight from The Lion King

Michael McCormick sings What Kind of Man? from Curtains

Debra Monk sings It’s a Business from Curtains

Kerry Butler & Curtis Holbrook from Xanadu

Jackie Hoffman and Mary Testa sing Witchy Woman from Xanadu

The audience in Bryant Park

New York 106.7 FM: Broadway in Bryant Park
Bryant Park: Broadway in Bryant Park
Monty Python’s Spamalot
The Lion King
Curtains
Xanadu
Bryant Park
Broadway.Com

The Doc Pomus Project

Celebrate Brooklyn is a summer performing arts festival held at the Bandshell in Prospect Park. Tonight the festival featured Hal Willner’s Doc Pomus Project, a tribute to the words and music of the late songwriter.

Doc Pomus was the pen name of Brooklyn native Jerome Felder, who created some of the greatest sounds of the 1950s and 1960s. His songs have been recorded by many stars including Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Led Zeppelin, Jerry Garcia and Ray Charles.

While his name isn’t a household word, Pomus is a legend in the music industry. The evening was organized by music producer Hal Willner and featured Ben E. King, Laurie Anderson, Sharon Jones, Lou Reed, Eric Mingus, Shannon McNally, Jenni Muldaur, Howard Tate, Joel Dorn, Peter Guralnick and more of Pomus’s friends and associates.

The singers relished the chance to present their favorite Pomus numbers: There Must Be a Better World Somewhere was sung by Lou Reed, Hushabye by Shannon McNally, Teenager in Love by Jenni Muldaur, Turn Me Loose by Sharon Jones, Lonely Avenue by Howard Tate, Viva Las Vegas by Joseph Arthur and This Magic Moment by Ben E. King.

In addition to the music, the Project included moments of humor, sweetness and pathos. Pomus contracted polio as a child and afterward depended upon leg braces and crutches. Laurie Anderson read his moving account of the girls who rejected him as a teenaged “cripple” and how the effects of the disease tormented him for the rest of his life.

Despite his personal pain, Doc Pomus was responsible for some of the best and most influential pop songs ever written. His honors include the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and the Rhythm and Blues Foundation’s Pioneer Award.

Hal Willner

Lou Reed

Sharon Jones

Peter Guralnick

Shannon McNally

Ben E. King

Joseph Arthur

Laurie Anderson

Howard Tate

Joel Dorn

Duet

Kenny Wollesen

Jenni Muldaur

Eric Mingus

Robin Holcomb

Ben E. King & Jenni Muldaur

The Finale: Viva Las Vegas

Celebrate Brooklyn
Celebrate Brooklyn Schedule
Doc Pomus
Songwriters Hall of Fame: Doc Pomus
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: Doc Pomus
Rhythm & Blues Foundation: Pioneer Award Honorees
Wikipedia: Hal Wilner
Lou Reed
Laurie Anderson
Shannon McNally
Jenni Muldaur
DapTone Records: Sharon Jones
Howard Tate
Eric Mingus
Robin Holcomb
Joseph Arthur
The Ben E. King Stand By Me Foundation
Mocean Worker
Joel Dorn
Wikipedia: Peter Guralnick
Raoul Felder (brother)

The Arab American Heritage Festival

They began arriving in large numbers during the nineteenth century and today about 200,000 Arab Americans call New York City home. Despite the numbers, however, this community is largely unknown to outsiders.

The reason? Perhaps it is because these immigrants come from so many different nations in the Middle East and North Africa. It may be because they’ve never created a distinct neighborhood that caters to tourists, the Arab equivalent of a Little Italy or Chinatown. It might even be due to the fact that they don’t share a single faith.

Whatever the cause, in recent years they have been actively working to help New Yorkers know more about their Arab American neighbors.

Their efforts have led to the establishment of Arab American Heritage Week, which kicked off today with the third annual Arab American Heritage Festival in Prospect Park.

Hundreds came to Brooklyn’s largest park for traditional Arabic food, music, dance and caligraphy as well as the chance to be painted with henna, sip thick coffee, smoke a water pipe and experience more of the city’s diversity.

T-shirt for sale

Folk dancers

Poster recruiting teenagers for research study

At the Tagine Dining Gallery tent

A mom waiting at the bouncy castle

Singer on stage

The stage

Henna tattoo on hand

Smoking the nargile (hookah)

Henna tattoo on upper arm

Arabic Calilgraphy

The diverse crowd

At a food tent

With the WellCare bear

Henna tattoo on lower back

Women sitting on the grass

Little girl with Palestinian flag painted on her face

Alwan for the Arts
Arab-American Heritage Week
Arab-American Family Support Center
Arab American Association Of New York
Tagine Dining Gallery
Alwan: Arab Americans
Gotham Gazette: History Of Arabs New York
A Community of Many Worlds: Arab Americans in New York City

Hare in the Square

Dexterously the Drummer was right handed,
there are examples in bronze from that mould
in other locations.

The left handedness of this Drummer
speaks to the other side of the brain,
from the past to the future;
another tune in composure.

Broadway!!
A seed of hope after the conviction.
I would subtitle this piece
‘I don’t want to set the world on fire.’

– Barry Flanagan

I’m certainly not the first to note the temporary exhibition of Barry Flanagan’s Large Left Handed Drummer, but I may be the last New Yorker to write about it.

Flanagan, a Welsh-born, Dublin-based sculptor, has been producing monumental hares since the early 1980’s. This 16’ tall bronze statue of a dancing rabbit playing a drum is on a busy traffic island near Union Square Park.

It has been displayed since February and, sadly, it is scheduled to be removed this week. Hope you had a chance to visit the Large Left Handed Drummer while it was here.

Barry Flanagan’s bronze sculpture

Large Left Handed Drummer

The hare surrounded by cabs

The Hare In Union Square
Barry Flanagan’s Hares on O’Connell Street
Circa Art Magazine: Barry Flanagan’s Hares hit Dublin
Irish Museum of Modern Art: Barry Flanagan
Waddington Galleries: Barry Flanagan
Hugh Lane Gallery: Barry Flanagan
Union Square Partnership

Le Déjeuner sur l’Herbe

A luncheon on the grass isn’t what it used to be.

Legend has it that in the mid-1800s, while watching bathers in the Seine, Edouard Manet was reminded of a painting he’d seen in the Louvre, Giorgione’s Concert Champêtre (Pastoral Symphony). He was inspired to reinterpret Giorgione’s work, which showed nude females serving clothed men a luncheon under the trees, and to give it a contemporary twist.

At the time, there was only one way young artist could achieve success: by participating in official, government-sanctioned exhibitions at the Académie des beaux-arts. At these shows, known as the Salons de Paris, conservative juries favored classical painting styles depicting biblical and mythological themes.

In 1863, when Manet submitted Le Déjeuner sur l’Herbe (Luncheon on the Grass) – the painting Giorgione’s work had inspired — to the Salon’s selection committee, they refused to include it in the show. In fact, that year the committee turned away nearly every work that employed modern subjects or techniques.

The rejected artists’ protests and their claims of bias resulted in French Emperor Napoleon III deciding to allow their works — including Le Déjeuner sur l’Herbe — to be shown in a separate exhibition called the Salon des Refusés.

When the Salon opened, Manet’s painting caused a public outcry. The critics were not offended by the nudity, but by the fact that the nudes had no supernatural or religious connotations; rather, they were shown as real people, modern, recognizable Parisians enjoying what appeared to be a bawdy, drunken picnic on the grass.

Of course, then as now, notoriety has its rewards. The rejection, outrage and resulting scandal not only helped cement Manet’s reputation and make him a hero to the avant-garde, it also brought together the group of young painters who created the Impressionist movement. 

Today I saw a group in Central Park enjoying a birthday luncheon on the grass. Unlike the women Manet’s painting, all of these New Yorkers remained fully dressed. But, just as their Parisian antecedents did, they lounged in the sunlight, nibbled on sweet treats and raised their goblets.

And, they had one thing that surely would have inspired jealousy among Giorgione and Manet’s models: a large, deluxe, insulated fiberglass cooler. After all, on a sunny afternoon, the only thing better than a luncheon on the grass is a luncheon that includes a properly chilled wine.

Fête Champêtre by Giorgione
Originally uploaded by annulla.

Le Djeuner sur l’Herbe by Monet
Originally uploaded by annulla.

Luncheon on the Grass in Central Park
Originally uploaded by annulla.

Picnics in Paintings
Artcyclopedia: Forbidden Visions
National Gallery of Australia: History of the Paris Salons
Musée du Louvre
Rossetti Archive: Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s For a Venetian Pastoral
Musee d’Orsay: Le déjeuner sur l’herbe
The Web Museum: Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe
Wikipedia: The Luncheon on the Grass