Chaos & Prizes at West 14th Street

I received an e-mail from Apple announcing the grand opening of the largest Apple Store in the city. Since I recently became a first-time Apple computer owner, I thought the event would give me a great opportunity to meet lots of people who could provide tricks, tips and advice. The notice also mentioned that those attending would have a chance to win an iPod or laptop. Why not go?

The opening of the place officially known as Apple Store West 14th Street was scheduled for 6:00 pm. I arrived around 3:30 and found a couple hundred people were already waiting. Talking to the people closest to me, I realized that most of them had never used — or even seen — an Apple computer and didn’t really understand what would happen when the doors opened.

The high school girls who linked arms and cheerfully elbowed their way in front of me explained that a DJ on their favorite radio station (WQHT Hot 97 “Where Hip Hop Lives”) had announced the grand opening and promised that the first people through the doors would all receive free iPods. The kids didn’t agree on the number of free iPods the DJ had mentioned (200? 400? 600?) but they had all, they swore, heard him say that the first people on line would definitely be receiving them. Of course, Apple had never promised any such thing.

Soon, the sky got dark, snow began to fall and the mood changed. As the crowd grew, more rumors started to circulate. Apparently, another popular DJ (WWPR Power 105.1 “Hip Hop and back in the Day Joints”) had spread a rumor that the store was giving out free laptops to the first 10 people who entered. Eager to get their hands on the costly electronics, many people showed up with groups of friends and relatives; scores of shivering children wailed in the cold.

The hours passed, the store brought out some portable heaters, a guy in the crowd had a pizza delivered, and the snow stopped. Since most of those outside the store were determined to be among the first to enter, it was inevitable that pushing and shoving would ensue. What was surprising, though, was the tiny group of security guards who seemed reluctant to approach the crowd, and the complete lack of Apple Store employees out on the street with us (if they’d been there, they surely would have heard — and been able to quell — the rumors that were flying).

And then, pandemonium. A couple clad in puffy jackets squeezed through the metal police barriers within view of the kids who had cut in front of me. Screaming, pushing and hitting, the frantic girls attacked the line jumpers until police arrived and dragged the couple away for their own safety. With no security staff in sight, the crowd surged forward, then surged again. People were knocked to the ground, shoved up against the pane glass windows (thankfully, they held), and a wheelchair nearly overturned. At last, police reinforcements arrived and succeeded in controlling the tense, angry crowd.

The doors opened promptly at 6:00 and the staff allowed the linewaiters to enter in small groups. When we finally made it through the door, we were greeted by applauding staffers, handed white boxes containing t-shirts and black tubes holding posters. The tubes had black plastic caps, and hidden under each cap was a sticker revealing a prize (if any). The rumors about prizes going to the first few hundred were, of course, false; the store had less than 4,000 posters and t-shirts to distribute.

I, like most of those who’d entered, won a $10 iTunes card. The girl next to me received the same thing. Scowling at the card, she asked, “What am I gonna do with this?” She didn’t own an iPod or a computer, or even know anyone who did. I offered her $5 for the card and she happily accepted.

I heard that Whoopie Goldberg and Mary J. Blige had been in the store when the doors opened (they used a different, secure entrance), but they’d departed before I arrived. I did, however, see a movie star in the crowd and snap a picture. I was surprised to see how many stomped out (or stayed to argue with staff) as soon as they learned they weren’t getting a free iPod or laptop. And I was shocked to learn that the store does not contain a public rest room. None, not one, not even a handicapped stall.

When I left the store, I walked around the block to see how many people were still waiting to enter. Thousands, stretching around the block, stood in the Manhattan night. By that time, dozens of police officers were on the scene, keeping order and scratching their heads. They knew that most of those waiting would go home cold, tired and empty-handed.

Early arrivals — a typical happy Apple crowd

Later arrivals were lacking in merriment

A portable heater in action

Inside the store, Brooke Shields surveyed the crowd

First glimpse of the Genius Bar

The store crowded to capacity inside & out

Around the block, thousands still hoped to enter

Apple Store: W. 14th Street
O’Grady’s PowerPage: Apple Store Riots
Info Apple Store: W. 14th St. Opening (scroll down to read comments)
Info Apple Store: W. 14th Friday Evening
MacRumors: West 14th Street Store Opening

It’s beginning to look a lot like …

Every year before the trees are lit, the streetlamps are wrapped with garlands, or the wreaths are hung, these enormous Christmas balls magically appear on Sixth Avenue.

The pyramid of gleaming, red globes, placed in the center of a fountain across from Radio City Music Hall, is always one of the first signs that New York City is getting ready for Christmas.

A Conversation About Bold Imagination

I wasn’t there when it happened, but growing up I was fascinated by accounts of the amazing, astonishing, never-to-be-repeated feat. I poured over pictures, watched videos and even had (still have) a picture book about the events of August 7, 1974.

That was the day Philippe Petit stretched a wire across the gap separating the towers of the World Trade Center and walked between them, 110 stories above the ground. He captivated New Yorkers, made headlines around the world and was promptly arrested (charges were later dropped).

Today I had the opportunity to hear the high wire artist, magician and culture outlaw tell his mesmerizing story during a program called A Conversation About Bold Imagination. The event, held at the Tribute Center, reunited Petit with Guy Tozzoli, the Port Authority executive who oversaw the creation of the towers.

During their first meeting, more than 30 years ago, Tozzoli inadvertently gave Petit the information he needed to sneak into the towers and carry out his illegal, subversive but magnificent feat. Speaking before a small, rapt audience, the men joyously recounted the visions they both brought to life at the World Trade Center, inspiring their listeners to follow their own dreams.

Oh, and Philippe Petit signed my book, The Man Who Walked Between the Towers. Yay!

Guy Tozzoli

Philippe Petit

Philippe Petit & Guy Tozzoli

PBS: Philippe Petit
Tribeca Trib: Towering Feat
New York Daily Photo: Titans
Tribute Center

Brooklyn doorbell

This startled-looking doorbell is mounted on a Van Dyke Street house in the Red Hook section of Brooklyn.

Get a Free Laundry Basket

This sign was posted in the window of the Laundry King laundromat on 4th Avenue in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.

Trick or Treat!

On Halloween, suburban children dress up and wander from house to house to gather candy and treats. But — for many reasons — that approach to trick or treating doesn’t always work so well for city kids.

In Brooklyn Heights, the tradition calls for costumed youngsters to walk through the historic commercial district on Montague Street and collect candy from the neighborhood shops and businesses. This year, I was lucky enough to catch some of the little monsters (and the workers who gleefully welcomed them) in the act.

A lion caught outside a pharmacy

A little bride on the street corner

A family maneuvers the scaffolding outside a drug store

An M&M candy standing before a rack of dresses

Supermarket worker greets a little rooster

The ice cream parlor handed out samples

A pussycat stands before a revolving door

A foil-wrapped candy kiss inside a shop

Cowboy in a drug store

A pirate and Snow White stand with antique furniture

The poor guy in the middle just wants to shop

A group inside a thrift shop

Thrift shop staff coated with stage blood

A chicken naps while trick or treating

A group crossing Montague Street

Pair of Spidermen invade a shop

A dragon & his dad in front of the grocery store

A.G.A.S.T.

It is time once again for the Annual Gowanus Artists Studio Tour (A.G.A.S.T.), a weekend when visitors are welcomed in many of the art studios in the area around the Gowanus Canal.

The Gowanus Canal is one of Brooklyn’s most notorious neighborhoods. Built to connect a marshy inland area of South Brooklyn with New York Bay, the canal was intended to serve two purposes: draining the land (thus enabling development) and serving the transportation needs of a rapidly growing industrial region. When it opened in the 1860s, the Gowanus was hailed as one of the world’s most important waterways.

Unfortunately, the factories, mills, tanneries, slaughterhouses, gas plants and coal yards that stood alongside the Canal produced great quantities of toxic materials, most of which were dumped directly into the water. There, the industrial pollutants mingled with the raw sewage and household waste discharged from the nearby worker’s homes. 

Due to a lack of sanitary methods and sound management practices, the canal rapidly became stagnant and poisonous. By the time of the outbreak of World War II, it had gained fame as one of the world’s dirtiest bodies of water, a foul, opaque pool locally referred to as “Lavender Lake.” The filthy passageway was renowned both for the stench that rose from its depths and the debris, including corpses, that often rose to the surface.

In recent decades, governmental agencies, technological developments and community activists have combined forces to improve the quality of the water. Their efforts are bearing fruit, as the waterway is widely acknowledged as “stinking a lot less.”

Many of the large commercial buildings and warehouses along the canal, no longer needed to support the much-diminished shipping industry, have been converted into residences, shops, restaurants, bars and — most notably — scores of artists’ studios. 

This weekend, more than 130 of the visual artists in 26 different Gowanus-area locations invited the public into their studios, free of charge. Visitors were able to meet with painters, sculptors, photographers, printmakers, glassblowers, videographers and others in their working environments and gain insight into their creative philosophies and processes.

Banner on Smith Street across from subway entrance

Corridor in building with many studios

Tamara Thomsen speaking with young visitors

Visitors discussing a painting

This artist keeps a photo of his grandmother in the studio

Artist and her mother greet visitors

Daniel McDonald speaking to an admirer

Wall of Curtis Wallin

Couple falling in love with a painting

Large canvas propped up in corridor

Pop gun

A.G.A.S.T.
AGAST Brooklyn
Curtis Wallin
Tamara Thomsen
Ernest Concepcion
A.J. Mascena
Annie Leist
Kathleen Collins
Kathryne Hall
Hilary Lorenz
Dave Marin
Rachel Zindler
Daniel McDonald
Joshua Dov Levy
Ilan N. Jacobsohn
Lavender Lake

Open House New York: Richmond Hill

I spent this, the final day of OpenHouseNewYork, in Richmond Hill, Queens.

Located more or less in the center of the borough, in many ways Richmond Hill seems more like a suburban community than a part of the city of New York. The streets are filled with single homes, many with driveways and garages. The residents spend sunny days washing cars, mowing lawns and puttering in vegetable gardens.

There is a small business district cluttered with store-front lawyers and tax preparers, family-run candy shops and discount stores, fast food joints and Latin American restaurants. Richmond Hills also contains a handful of notable churches, a few neighborhood institutions and more than its share of boarded up buildings, including a train station abandoned by the Long Island Railroad.

The most remarkable aspect of the area, however, is the way it has been divided into two camps: the long-time residents who want to preserve its past and, far outnumbering them, the newcomers who have come here to build.

Not long ago, Richmond Hill was best known for its stock of century-old wooden Victorian  houses, many with large yards. But, unlike many areas where such buildings are protected, the residents here have never been able to rouse the city into giving the structures here protected landmark status.

As a result, the newcomers tend to treat the houses either as tear-downs (the house is demolished and a new structure built in its place) or remodels (original features are destroyed and replaced by incongruous, often gaudy elements).

Trees are ripped out and buildings extended to the very edges of their lots. Fishscale shingles are covered with vinyl siding, cedar shakes are hidden behind asbestos tiles and brick veneer. Wrought-iron gates are replaced by chrome, wooden millwork is stripped off, gilded plaster hidden behind suspended tile ceilings. Satellite dishes replace privet hedges and lawns are turned into parking lots.

A walking tour through the district is accompanied by a sad litany of vanished treasures. But the long-time residents are fighting back. They’ve organized the Richmond Hill Historical Society and are working to preserve and protect their neighborhood’s heritage.

Richmond Hill still contains architectural treasures including the remaining Victorians, the public library (an original Carnegie library), the Catholic and Episcopal churches and Jahn’s, an ice cream parlor founded in 1897 which still contains its original fountain, player piano, hanging lamps and furnishings.

While the majority of the newer residents have no interest in historic preservation, other newcomers are busily painting, plastering, re-pointing and restoring their historic homes to their former glory. Clearly, the final chapter in the battle for the character of Richmond Hill has yet to be written.

Victorian home with stained glass windows and wooden trim

Syrup dispenser in Jahn’s

Jahn’s soda fountain and amber light fixtures

Restored Victorian features several types of shingles

Sleeping balconies were used on hot summer nights

Another type of sleeping balcony

A homeowner lovingly paints his Victorian

A “Painted Lady”-style paint job

Experimenting with contrasting shades and colors

The roof lines were inspired by pagodas

Painted terra-cotta on old apartment building

Crumbling remains of a community center

Entryway to former RKO Keith’s movie theater, now a flea market

The theater’s grandeur hidden behind florescent lights

Wooden Victorian “improved” with plaster columns and circular marble staircase

When these remodelers ran out of vinyl siding, they continued in a different color

Victorian house “improved” with columns and bricked-over windows

Wooden Victorian “improved” with asbestos shingles

openhousenewyork weekend
Richmond Hill Historical Society Archive Museum
Historic Richmond Hill Walking Tour
The Richmond Hill Historical Society
Forgotten NY: Richmond Hill
richmondhillny.com
The Food Section: Jahn’s, the Best Way to Travel Back in Time
Wikipedia: Carnegie Libraries

Open House Harlem Pt 2: Hamilton Heights/Sugar Hill

The OpenHouseNewYork Weekend continued with a trip to another section of Harlem, the areas known as Hamilton Heights and Sugar Hill.

Like Manhattanville, the western boundary of Hamilton Heights is the Hudson River, the eastern end at St. Nicholas. The neighborhood’s name derives from its most notable early resident, the first Secretary of the US Treasury, Alexander Hamilton, who spent the last years of his life here at his country home.

As with Manhattanville, development here started in earnest when the railway lines were extended. A jewels of the area is the Church of the Intercession, built on one of the highest points of Manhattan. Its origins date to 1843, when sanitation problems downtown led Wall Street’s Trinity Church to stop performing burials in their yard.

To create a solution, Trinity reached beyond the city limits and purchased a large parcel of land in the tiny country hamlet of Carmansville for use as a graveyard. The land, which they dubbed Trinity Church Cemetery, became the last resting place of many notable and affluent citizens.

Within a few years, demand began for a convenient chapel, eventually leading to construction of the Gothic style cathedral that adjoins the Cemetery. Now celebrating its 160th anniversary, the Church features an altar designed by Tiffany, notable terracotta floor tiles, and an Aeolian Skinner organ.

Nearby is Audubon Terrace, which fills a block that was once part of a farm owned by naturalist John James Audubon. Created by railroad heir Archer Huntington, Audubon Terrace was intended as a modern-day acropolis, a sophisticated center of art and culture. At the dawn of the 20th century, Huntington hired the leading architects of the day, including Stanford White and Cass Gilbert. They designed the Beaux-Arts plaza and buildings that today house the Hispanic Society of America, the American Academy of Arts and Letters and Boricua College.

Sugar Hill, a residential section of Hamilton Heights, was once the country’s most fashionable address for African Americans, the place where life was sweet. In these palatial brownstones and apartment buildings lived the leading lights of the Harlem Renaissance, including Duke Ellington, Billy Strayhorn (who immortalized the neighborhood in his song Take the ‘A’ Train), Langston Hughes, Ralph Ellison, Cab Calloway, Count Basie, Zora Neale Hurston and Paul Robeson.

The neighborhood was also home to prominent professionals and civil rights activists like W. E. B. Du Bois, Walter White, Roy Wilkins, Adam Clayton Powell and Thurgood Marshall, the first African-American Supreme Court justice.

When the city’s fortunes declined in the late 1960s and 1970s, this area was severely affected; as most of the well-heeled moved away, drugs and violence became widespread. Elegant brownstones were divided into cheap, poorly-maintained apartments, then vandalized. A significant number of neglected buildings were demolished or burned.

But today, Sugar Hill is on the upswing. Professionals, artists and community activists again walk these streets. Newly-created private schools and arts institutions (including the Dance Theatre of Harlem) have made this area their home.

Everywhere are signs of renewal and revitalization. Houses that were filled with squatters only a few years ago are now being restored and selling for millions of dollars. Buildings that had become rooming houses are being converted back to spacious homes and Sugar Hill is again becoming one of the most desirable neighborhoods in the city.

Audubon Terrace at 155th Street and Broadway

Sculpture on the Plaza at Audubon Terrace

Bas-relief of Don Quixote on horseback

Above the entrance to the former home of the Museum of the American Indian

Entrance to American Society of Arts & Letters

The Church of the Intercession

Detail of wall at the Church of the Intercession

Gatehouse at Trinity Church Cemetery

The Gould mausoleum in the Cemetery

Garret Storm’s mausoleum in Trinity Church Cemetery

Gravestones

Building with Mansard roof in Sugar Hill

On W. 152nd St., three houses designed to look like one

Restored buildings on St. Nicholas Avenue

Classic Sugar Hill brownstones on St. Nicholas

Row of houses on St. Nicholas Avenue

Doorway with stained glass panel

Wrought iron railings in Sugar Hill

Painted stonework highlights the construction date

openhousenewyork weekend
Hamilton Heights Homeowners Association
The Hispanic Society of America
Church of the Intercession
NY Times: Living in Sugar Hill
Harlem One Stop Tour: Hamilton Heights/Sugar Hill
Historic Districts Council: Hamilton Heights/Sugar Hill
Hamilton Heights-West Harlem Community Preservation Organization
Harlem One Stop Tour: A Walk Through Sugar Hill
Harlem One Stop Tour: Trinity Cemetery
Dance Theatre of Harlem

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

A Night at the Opera

One of the joys of living in this city is having the ability (at least once in a while) to spend a night at the opera.

This evening I visited the Metropolitan Opera, America’s largest classical music organization and one of the world’s greatest opera companies. Founded in 1880, the Met isn’t simply a venue for great voices; it is also an institution dedicated to growing the next generation of opera-lovers.

Sadly, most American schoolchildren learn little to nothing about opera, so the Met has taken on a great educational mission. The company employs many methods to make opera afforable, accessible and fun, including discount seating for students, backstage tours and simultaneous translation of lyrics displayed on small, individual screens affixed to the back of every seat.

Tonight was the season premiere of Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro). The opera is based on the second of three plays that Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais wrote about Figaro, a hilariously subversive servant in a royal palace; the first in the triology is Le Barbier de Seville (The Barber of Seville) and the last La Mère Coupable (The Guilty Mother).

The show is long, very sexy and very, very funny. But even if the show wasn’t superb (it is), the setting couldn’t be finer.

Located at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the Metropolitan Opera House is famed for the soaring arches of its white marble facade, the large, colorful murals by Marc Chagall displayed in the lobby, and an enormous gilded proscenium from which hangs the a massive sweep of golden fabric, the largest theatre curtain in the world.

The front of the Opera House

Reading Figaro posters at Lincoln Center

The fountain in front of the Opera House

Lincoln Center
The Metropolitan Opera
Metropolitan Opera: Le Nozze di Figaro
Metropolitan Opera: Synopsis of Le Nozze di Figaro
Metropolitan Opera Shop
Metropolitan Opera Guild
Metropolitan Opera Guild Education Department
Opera News
Guggenheim Collection: Marc Chagall
Britannica: Marc Chagall
A Night at the Opera

33rd Annual Atlantic Antic

Time once again for the Atlantic Antic, New York’s greatest street fair. The event stretches for a mile and a half on bustling Atlantic Avenue, attracting tens of thousands of Brooklynites who mix, mingle and munch the day away.

In fact, the food is one of the primary attractions, as the cafes, bars and restaurants that line the street bring their signature dishes (and often, their seating and entertainment) outdoors and members of religious congregations raise funds by proffering homemade specialties.

As a result of the focus on food, this year the event’s organizers created the Atlantic Antic Food Map, enabling fairgoers to quickly zero in on their favorite dishes before they sell out. There’s nothing as frustrating as queing up and waiting for a snowy hunk of homemade coconut cake (or a dish of fragrant paella or grilled sausages or peach cobbler) only to see the last bit sold to someone else.

Of course, it isn’t just the food that draws the crowds; people flock to the Atlantic Antic to have fun, listen to music, shop for bargains and handicrafts, see how much the neighborhood has changed in the past year and meet their neighbors in one of the most diverse, lively and historic sections of the city.

Sign on a tree

Barbequed pig’s head

Craftsman selling jewelry

Sauce bottles

Clown

Shucking oysters

Crafters selling jewelry

Drawing dog’s portrait (yes, the dog)

Jazz orchestra on the street

Modelling wedding gowns

Dishing up homemade desserts

Rocking the stage

Old friends meet on Atlantic Ave.

Shopping in drapery booth

Rabbi welcomes visitors to portable sukkah

Belly dancer with Eddie the Sheik

Selling dragon puppets

Dancing garbage can encourages recycling

Atlantic Antic Food Map
Atlantic Antic 2007
Atlantic Antic 2006
Atlantic Antic 2005

Signs of Ramadan

Ramadan is a religious observance that takes place during the ninth month of the Islamic lunar year (this year, it begins September 13 and ends October 12). The holy month commemorates the period when the Koran was revealed to the Prophet Mohammed.

During Ramadan, Moslems around the world are obligated to pray, perform charitible acts, focus less on material concerns and spend more time in spiritual contemplation. From sunup to sundown, they must refrain from eating, drinking, smoking and intimate relations.

Throughout the month, breakfast is eaten before dawn and large meals, often featuring special foods, are consumed at night. At the end of Ramadan, Moslems celebrate Eid ul Fitr, a joyous holiday that marks the breaking of the fast.

In non-Moslem countries, the observance of Ramadan usually occurs in a low-key, unobtrusive manner. But, in New York City, if you know where to look, you will see the signs of the faithful.

Under scaffolding near Broadway, men face Mecca to pray

Sign honoring Ramadan at Brooklyn Borough Hall

Ramadan Awareness Campaign 2007
Islamicity: Ramadan Around the World
Ramadan on the Net

Downtown Doorbells

These doorbells are wired onto the exterior of a building in Tribeca.

Doorbells at 65 West Broadway

NY Magazine: Tribeca

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

Brooklyn Book Festival 2

For the second year in a row, the Brooklyn Book Festival was held in and around Borough Hall.

Authors, poets, publishers, booksellers, writer’s organizations and (most importantly) readers gathered for discussions, recitations, meetings, entertainment and inspiration. Anyone who believes that the Internet has made the printed word obsolete would have gone into shock as thousands of books were eagerly signed, sold, swapped, coveted and devoured.

The day’s festivities included book-related crafts for kids, a poetry slam, acting troupes performing excerpts from classics, literary triva games and crossword puzzles, and the Brooklyn Public Library kicking off a borough-wide “Big Read” of Harper Lee’s beloved novel To Kill a Mockingbird.

Participating authors included:
Chris Abani, The Virgin of Flames, GraceLand, Hands Washing Water
Megan Abbott, Die a Little, The Song is You, Queenpin
Harry Allen, Hip-Hop Activist and Media Assassin
Sinan Antoon, I’jaam: An Iraqi Rhapsody, The Baghdad Blues

Doreen Baingana, Tropical Fish: Stories from Entebbe
Dan Barber, Chef’s Story
Wayne Barrett, Rudy!, Grand Illusion: The Untold Story of Rudy Giuliani and 9/11
Moustafa Bayoumi, coeditor: The Edward Said Reader
Phil Bildner, Barnstormers, Playing the Field
Michael Ian Black, comedian
Shane Book, Gathering Ground, Revival, Breathing Fire 2
David Bouley, East of Paris, Chef’s Story
Libba Bray, A Great and Terrible Beauty; Rebel Angels
Gloria J. Browne-Marshall, Race, Law, and American Society
Michael Buckley, The Sisters Grimm
Marina Budhos, Ask Me No Questions, The Professor of Light

Alyssa Capucilli, Biscuit
Jim Carroll, The Basketball Diaries, Forced Entries, Fear of Dreaming: The Selected Poems
Dominic Carter, No Momma’s Boy
Stephen Carter, New England White, The Emperor of Ocean Park
Ana Castillo, Peel My Love Like an Onion, So Far from God
Rajiv Chandrasekaran, Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq’s Green Zone
Colin Channer, Waiting in Vain, Passing Through
Cassandra Clare, City of Bones
Staceyann Chin, Skyscrapers, Taxis & Tampons
Troy CLE, The Marvelous World: The Marvelous Effect (Book One)
Joseph Coulson, The Vanishing Moon, Of Song and Water

Steve Dalachinsky, The Final Nite & Other Poems
Edwidge Danticat, Breath Eyes Memory, The Dew Breaker, Brother I’m Dying
Randall DeSeve, Toy Boat

Daniel Ehrenhaft, The Wessex Papers Volumes 1-3, 10 Things to Do Before I Die

Mike Farrell, Just Call Me Mike: A Journey to Actor and Activist
Jeffrey Feldman, Framing the Debate: Famous Presidential Speeches and How Progressives Can Use Them
Joshua Ferris, Then We Came to the End: A Novel
Laura Flanders, Blue Grit: True Democrats Take Back Politics from the Politicians
Paula Fox, The Slave Dancer, One-Eyed Cat

Mary Gaitskill, Veronica, Two Girls Fat and Thin, Bad Behavior
Laurie Garrett, Betrayal of Trust: The Collapse of Global Public Health
Amitav Ghosh, The Glass Palace, The Hungry Tide
Myla Goldberg, Bee Season, Wickett’s Remedy, Time’s Magpie
Wayne Greenhaw, King of Country, Ghosts on the Road, The Thunder of Angels
Ben Greenman, A Circle is a Balloon and Compass Both, Superbad, Superworse
Eliza Griswold, Wideawake Field: Poems

Kimiko Hahn, The Narrow Road to the Interior: Poems, The Artist’s Daughter: Poems
Ayun Halliday, The Big Rumpus, No Touch Monkey!, Job Hopper, Dirty Sugar Cookies
Pete Hamill, The Gift, Downtown: My Manhattan, Why Sinatra Matters
Dorothy Hamilton, Chef’s Story
Jonathan Hayes, Hard Death, Precious Blood
Tad Hills, Duck and Goose, Duck Duck Goose, Waking up Wendell
Steve Hindy, Beer School: Bottling Success at the Brooklyn Brewery
Jeff Hobbs, The Tourists: A Novel
A.M. Homes, The Mistress’s Daughter, This Book Will Save Your Life
Charles Hynes, Triple Homicide

Uzodinma Iweala, Beasts of No Nation

Simon Jacobson, Toward a Meaningful Life
Joyce Johnson, Minor Characters, Missing Men, Door Wide Open

Chuck Klosterman, Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs: Low Culture Manifesto
Seth Kushner, The Brooklynites

Anthony LaSala, The Brooklynites
John Leland, Hip, Why Kerouac Matters
Jonathan Lethem, The Fortress of Solitude, Motherless Brooklyn, You Don’t Love Me Yet
Gail Carson Levine, Ella Enchanted, The Fairest, Magic Lessons
Tao Lin, Eeeee Eee Eeee, Bed
Phillip Lopate, Getting Personal, Waterfront, Totally Tenderly Tragically
Errol Louis, Grameen’s Lessons. (Grameen Bank): An Article from: Dollars & Sense

Kam Mak, My Chinatown, The Moon of the Monarch Butterflies
Melissa Marr, Wicked Lovely
Bernice McFadden, Nowhere is a Place, Camilla’s Roses, Loving Donovan, Sugar
Joe Meno, Hairstyles of the Damned, Boy Detective Fails, Tender as Hellfire
Susanna Moore, My Old Sweetheart, In the Cut, The Big Girls

Mohammed Naseehu Ali, The Prophet of Zongo Street
Gloria Naylor, 1996, Mama Day, The Women of Brewster Place
Sharyn November, Firebirds, Firebirds Rising

David Ottaway, Afrocommunism, Chained Together

George Packer, The Assassin’s Gate: America in Iraq, The Village of Waiting
Antonio Pagliarulo, A Different Kind of Heat, The Celebutantes: On the Avenue
Gregory Pardlo, Totem
Christian Parenti, The Freedom: Shadows and Hallucinations in Occupied Iraq
Matt de la Peña, Ball Don’t Lie
Neal Pollack, Alternadad, Beneath the Axis of Evil
Katha Pollitt, Reasonable Creatures, Virginity or Death!
Francine Prose, Blue Angel, A Changed Man, Reading Like a Writer

Sharon Robinson, Safe at Home, Jackie’s Nine, Promises to Keep
Anthony Romero, In Defense of Our America: The Fight for Civil Liberties in the Age of Terror

George Saunders, In Persuasion Nation, CivilWarLand in Bad Decline
Jon Scieszka, The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales, Cowboy and Octopus
Ken Siegelman, City Souls, Through Global Currents, Urbania
Danny Simmons, I Dreamed My People Were Calling But I Couldn’t Find My Way Home
Joseph “Reverend Run” Simmons, Words of Wisdom: Daily Affirmations of Faith
Justine Simmons, God Can You Hear Me?
Amy Sohn, Run Catch Kiss, My Old Man
Martha Southgate, Another Way to Dance, The Fall of Rome, Third Girl from the Left
Elizabeth Strout, Amy and Isabelle, Abide with Me
Robert Sullivan, Cross Country: Fifteen Years and 90,000 Miles…, Rats

Mari Takabayashi, I Live in Brooklyn
Michael Thomas, Man Gone Down
Lynne Tillman, American Genius: A Comedy, This is Not It
David Dante Troutt, The Monkey Suit, The Importance of Being Dangerous, After the Storm

Eisa Nefertari Ulen, Crystelle Morning
Anya Ulinich, Petropolis

Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez, Dirty Girls Social Club, Playing with Boys, Make Him Look Good
Ivan Velez Jr., Blood Syndicate, A Man Called Holocaust, Static

Lauren Weinstein, Inside Vineyland, Girl Stories
Colson Whitehead, The Intuitionist, John Henry Days, Apex Hides the Hurt
Eric Wight, My Dead Girlfriend
Mo Willems, Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus
Patricia Williams, Open House, Alchemy of Race and Rights
Tia Williams, It Chicks, Accidental Diva
Brian Wood, Channel Zero, Demo, DMZ
Jacqueline Woodson, Feathers, Hush, Locomotion
C.D. Wright, One Big Self: An Investigation, Cooling Time: An American Poetry Vigil

Actors reciting Walt Whitman’s poetry

The crowd scrambles for tickets to author events

Onstage for discussion of Jack Kerouac

The Brooklyn Public Library brought their bus

Brooklyn Book Festival
Brooklyn Public Library
National Endowment for the Arts: The Big Read

A Trip at the Whitney Museum

All summer long, I heard about the Summer of Love exhibit at the Whitney Museum.

Four decades after hippies gathered at a “Human-Be-In” in Golden Gate Park, the Grateful Dead released their first album and LSD was outlawed in the US, the Whitney Museum of American Art revisited this period of psychedellia, flower power and civil unrest, examined the creative and cultural explosion that took place in San Francisco, New York and London, and put it all into an historic context.

All summer long, I met former hippies and wannabees who assured me that the exhibit was “far-out, man,” and an authentic representation of their drug-soaked youth (at least, as far as they could remember).

And all summer long, I thought I’d eventually get around to making a trip to the Madison Avenue and seeing the show. Then, suddenly, I realized that this was the closing weekend.

I ran to the Whitney and spent the evening in psychedellic bliss, gazing at the intricately-drawn concert posters, watching the light shows, viewing “mind-blowing” experimental films, wearing goggles intended to create distorted visions, crawling through brightly-colored, sculpted environments, blinking at the strobe lights and spinning metal circles and listening to Janis Joplin and the Grateful Dead.

Listening? Yes, this is the first major museum show I’ve seen where the audiotour included a complete soundtrack, with songs tied to most of the major works. For example, stand in front of the case full of underground magazines, push the number posted on the wall and you’d listen to Bob Dylan singing Take me on a trip upon your magic swirlin’ ship / My senses have been stripped, my hands can’t feel to grip / My toes too numb to step / Wait only for my boot heels to be wanderin‘.

The program’s musical selections included:

* The 13th Floor Elevators – You’re Gonna Miss Me
* The Beatles – All You Need Is Love
* The Beatles – Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds
* The Beatles – Revolution No. 9
* Big Brother &Amp; The Holding Company: Piece Of My Heart
* Eric Burdon – San Franciscan Nights
* Butterfield Blues Band – East-West
* The Byrds – So You Want To Be A Rock ‘n’ Roll Star
* The Charlatans – Baby Won’t You Tell Me
* Chicago – Someday
* Country Joe & the Fish – Acid Commercial
* Country Joe & the Fish – Bass Strings
* Cream – Crossroads
* Crosby, Stills, Nash And Young – Ohio
* The Doors – Break On Through
* Bob Dylan – Mr. Tamourine Man
* Fleur Des Lys – Circles
* The Fugs – Kill For Peace
* Allen Ginsberg – Tonight Let’s All Make Love In London
* Grateful Dead – I Know You Rider
* Great Society – Somebody To Love
* Hapshash And The Coloured Coat – H-O-P-P Why
* Jimi Hendrix – Are You Experienced (Live)
* Jimi Hendrix – Foxy Lady
* Iron Butterfly – In A Gadda Da Vida
* Jefferson Airplane – White Rabbit
* Jefferson Airplane – Won’t You Try Saturday Afternoon
* Janis Joplin – Mercedes Benz
* Janis Joplin – Raise Your Hand
* Moby Grape – Dark Magic
* David Peel – I Like Marijuana
* Pink Floyd – Interstellar Overdrive
* Purple Gang – Granny Takes A Trip
* Quicksilver Messenger Service – Mona
* The Rolling Stones – Street Fighting Man
* The Rolling Stones – Wild Horses
* Santana – Samba Pa Ti
* Santana – Soul Sacrifice
* The Velvet Underground – Venus In Furs
* The Velvet Underground – What Goes On
* Frank Zappa & Mothers Of Invention – Willie The Pimp

I descended to the Museum’s lower level to catch a glimpse of one psychedellic masterpiece that didn’t fit into the main galleries: Janis Joplin’s painted Porsche, exhibited on the museum’s patio. As I passed through the gift shop to reach it, I happened upon workers busily setting up seats for a one-time-only performance of Hotel Cassiopeia: The Backstory.

Part of the museum’s “Whitney Live” series, the show, hosted by Anne Bogart and playwright Charles Mee, was based upon the life of artist Joseph Cornell. It included an excerpt from the play Hotel Cassiopeia and presentations by filmmaker Jeanne Liotta and Cornell’s former assistant, sculptor Harry Roseman.

I joined the audience for what proved to be the perfect end to the evening: as part of a small, curious company tucked away below Manhattan’s busy streets and engrossed in an hour of art, film, music, magic and love.

Summer of Love brochure

Men in dark gallery watching light show

Janis Joplin’s Porsche (rear view)

Janis Joplin’s Porsche (front view)

Whitney Museum
Whitney Museum: Summer of Love
Timothy Leary
Poets: Allen Ginsberg
Charles Mee
Brooklyn Academy of Music: Hotel Cassiopeia
Joseph Cornell
Jeanne Liotta
Vassar: Harry Roseman

Six Years On

This is the sixth anniversary of the destruction of the World Trade Center.

In previous years, the city held a memorial service at the site of the vanished complex. But now, due to the construction equipment and activity at the original location, the ceremony was moved across the street to tiny Zuccotti Park.

It was a day of firsts: The first time the service wasn’t held at the site of the Twin Towers. The first time the anniversary fell on a Tuesday (the day of the attacks). The first time the sky wasn’t a clear, brilliant blue. The first time grieving family members and survivors didn’t have access to the spots where the buildings had stood.

During the ceremony, while a flute and guitar softly played, first responders who had worked during the rescue and recovery efforts stood in the rain and read the nearly 3,000 victims’ names. They paused only for four moments of silence marking the times the hijacked airplanes hit the buildings and the times the towers fell.

Those in attendance were able to cross the street and descend a long ramp to the bedrock that had supported the foundations of the World Trade Center. There a single, shallow wooden pool had been erected to represent the footprints of the Twin Towers. That was where they left pictures, placed birthday gifts and anniversary cards, and wrote messages for and about those they’d lost.

Once the dignitaries departed, the marksmen left the rooftops of the surrounding buildings, the reporters and photographers went on to the next story and the chairs were folded up and taken away, the day’s on-and-off drizzle turned into a torrent of rain.

Down at the site, deep below ground level, the downpour overflowed the small wooden pool, blurred the penned notes and photos along its rim, and shattered the thousands of roses that floated on its surface. 

Note: More photos from the memorial service are posted here.

Invitation

Girl at service with photo in her arms & on her shirt

Tattoo of Uncle Mike

NYPD officer with thousand-yard stare

Therapy dogs with girls

TV in Port Authority trailer showing live broadcast

Flowers in fence surrounding site

Pool with replicas of tower footprints

Thank you for being my friend

“We lost both,” she said.

We miss u Uncle Harry

We love and miss you

Save us a space on your shimmering star

Matthew Diaz

I ♥ you!

FDNY photo in the pool

Dad, keep holding the door

Happy 29th birthday

Volunteer distributing roses

Police officer writing on reflecting pool

I love you so much daddy

God bless

Teddy bear with roses

Family coming back up the ramp

NYC Dept of Parks: Remembering Those Lost On 9/11
ABC: Video of a somber day
NY Post: Heaven’s Tears Flow
AM New York: Somber, emotional ceremony
NY Times: Bloomberg Tries to Move the City Beyond 9/11 Grief
NY Times: 90th Floor Frozen, Even as Ground Zero Changes
NY TImes: Near Ground Zero, Much Is Changed
NY Times: How Much Tribute Is Enough?

Ludfest

Ludfest?

To understand the rationale behind Ludfest (the Ludlow Street Festival), you should know that New York City is divided into 123 different Police Precincts. The tiny Seventh Precinct, second smallest in the city, is located on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.

Long a home to poor immigrants, bargain shops and, more recently, hipsters, foodies and trust fund babies, the area is served by the Seventh Precinct Community Council. The group sponsors a variety of activities and events including today’s fundraiser/block party.

The day-long Ludfest, held on the busy block of Ludlow Street between Stanton and Rivington, featured vendors, community and political organizations, a DJ and several up-and-coming local bands. All proceeds will be used for local youth programs including Christmas and Chanukah toy give-aways.

Smoking in front of Pianos

Slices for sale outside Isabella’s

Isabella’s $1 calzone

Outside the Living Room

Crowd in front of Some Odd Rubies

The DJ

Near the stage

Local cop on the beat

A Place to Bury Strangers

Case for A Place to Bury Strangers

MySpace: Ludfest
NYC Police Precincts
New York Magazine: How Low Can You Go?
MySpace: A Place To Bury Strangers
Secret Machines
Dub Trio
Other Passengers
The Sugar Report
Emok
Isabella’s Oven
Pianos
The Living Room
Some Odd Rubies
Cake Shop

Baby rabbit’s for sell

This sign (click on the photo to read it) was taped to a post in front of Brooklyn Borough Hall. It says:

Baby rabbit’s for sell. They are cute and fun so if you would like one come to Court St. The price is 30 per rabbit

No indication of who is selling the rabbits, when they will be available, where on Court Street they can be found, and whether the price is $30 or 30¢ each.

However, there’s no doubt that rabbits can be cute and fun — and tasty, too.

Itty Bitty Bunny
Rabbit Habit