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
Please Don’t Stand on the Art
October 7, 2006
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Art & Photography, Brooklyn, Graffiti/Hip-Hop | 
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Posted by annulla
How About a Little Seoul Food?
October 4, 2006Some people call it Koreatown, some say K-Town. But unlike the Koreatowns in San Francisco and Los Angeles, Manhattan’s Korean enclave isn’t much of a neighborhood; in fact, it is just a single block of 32nd Street between Broadway and Fifth Avenue.
Few Koreans actually live here. There isn’t much residential space on the block or in the surrounding area. But K-Town has become the cultural center for New York’s growing Korean population.
At ground level you will find an assortment of shops, newsstands, banks and hotels, but the street is dominated by dozens of Korean restaurants and cafes. This area is busy 24/7 and if you are in the mood for an inexpensive prepacked lunch box, a stylish sweet snack, a traditional barbecue or an elegant dinner – regardless of whether you are a vegetarian, a seafood fan, a calorie counter or a lover of bloody red meat – you’ll easily find something to suit your taste and your budget.
Don’t miss the eggless scallion pancakes at Woorijip, the cold acorn noodles (yes, they’re made from acorns) at Hangawi, the freshly-baked cakes and buns at Koryodang Bakery or the green tea frozen yogurt (so addictive it is affectionately called crackberry) at Pinkberry. If the day is sunny, you might prefer to sit outside at the tables on the plaza to watch the busy social scene.
Once your craving for Seoul Food is satisfied, remember to look up. The higher floors of the buildings on this block are packed with businesses that cater to the needs of the Korean community, offering herbal medicines, spas and beauty treatments, tutoring and language lessons, employment and travel agencies, tattoo parlors, internet cafes and raucous karaoke bars.
On 32nd Street
Animated billboard with Korean subtitles
Pinkberry yogurt shop
Girls on the plaza
On the plaza
Korea Way sign
Newspaper stand
Looking in to Woorijip
Nightlife on the upper floors
13 Comments | Manhattan, Neighborhoods | Permalink
Posted by annulla
Where the “big stuff” is
October 1, 2006
Mission: To discover, interpret, and disseminate – through scientific research and education – knowledge about human cultures, the natural world, and the universe.
In 1871 The American Museum of Natural History mounted its first exhibit in the Central Park Arsenal. Within one year, the institution had outgrown its home at the Arsenal and was busily engaged in building a bigger facility.
One hundred and thirty-five years later, the Museum is still expanding, adding new halls, exhibits and laboratories. The current facilities include 45 permanent exhibition halls spread across 25 interconnected buildings all located on 18 acres across the street from Central Park.
Regardless of the latest additions, for many people the museum will always be the place where the “big stuff” is — the monumental, the outlandish, the extraordinary all lie within these stone walls.
Whether you are on your first visit or your thousandth, at some point a trip to the Museum will make you stop in your tracks, look up in awe and say, “Wow!”
The five-story tall Barosaurus at the main entrance
A 300 foot wide slice from Giant Sequoia tree
The 94 foot long blue whale
2 Comments | Manhattan, Museums & Galleries | Permalink
Posted by annulla
A Tiny Taste of the Silk Road
September 29, 2006The Silk Road is an ancient trading route that stretches over high mountains and arid deserts to connect Europe with China. Just the words Silk Road conjure up visions of fearless nomads, dauntless explorers, isolated villagers, exotic cities, extraordinary landscapes and rare treasures.
It is still possible to follow the storied course; you can fly to Rome and go East, or start in Beijing and head westward. But if a long, expensive journey isn’t possible, you can find a small sample some of the sights and sounds found along Silk Road without leaving the city.
Tonight’s journey began in a curtained niche at Khyber Pass, an Afghani restaurant on St. Mark’s Place, where diners sat on tapestry-covered cushions. While sitars, ouds and drums played, the low table was covered with fragrant, steaming platters of mantoo (steamed dumplings filled with minced beef, onions, herbs and spices, served with a yogurt and meat sauce), fesenjan (boneless pieces of chicken cooked with walnuts and pomegranate juice), boulanee kadu (turnovers filled with pumpkin and served with a creamy yogurt dip), quorma sabzee (spicy spinach, coriander, scallions, lamb and rice), a basket of dense, golden Afghani bread and cups of Turkish coffee and shir-chay (a traditional pink tea brewed with mik, sugar, cardamom and rose petals).
Dinner was followed by a short walk to Chelsea. There the Rubin Museum of Art, dedicated to the art of the Himalayas and surrounding regions, offered another step along the Silk Road: an exhibition entitled I See No Stranger: Early Sikh Art and Devotion. The show presents the history, art and culture of the Sikh religion, which was founded in northern India in the 15th century.
The museum, located in a 70,000 square-foot building that once housed a chic department store, opened less than two years ago. It includes a steel and marble staircase that spirals dramatically through the seven-story gallery tower and, surprisingly, a dimly-lit cocktail lounge on the ground floor.
Admission to the Rubin Museum of Art, normally $10, is free Friday evenings from 7:00 – 10:00 p.m. Dinner at Khyber Pass is about $20 per person. Budget tours of the Silk Road start at about $1,700, not including air fare from New York to China.
I See No Stranger
3 Comments | Art & Photography, Manhattan, Museums & Galleries | Permalink
Posted by annulla
The 32nd Annual Atlantic Antic
September 17, 2006Another September, another Sunday devoted to the best, most diverse, most lively street fair in New York City. While many festivals and fairs have become homogenized and interchangeable, the Atlantic Antic retains the unique character of the street on which it is held.
Atlanic Avenue is a broad boulevard that cuts a swath across Brooklyn, from the waterfront to the Queens border, and spans a wide variety of cultural, religious and economic groups. Despite any traditional constraints, during the Antic the peoples of dozens of regions and nations come together to have a good time.
Fairgoers easily break into dance as soul, rockabilly, hip-hop, jazz, country, middle eastern, mariachi, rock & roll, folk, salsa, jug band and gospel music fills the air from the street and from half-a-dozen stages.
The Avenue’s best taverns and restaurants set up seating areas and serve their food and drink outdoors, but experienced fairgoers head straight for the homemade goodies as the local church, mosque, temple and synagogue ladies present their specialties: bacalaitos, pastelles, empanadillas, rugelach, hammentaschen, baklava, coconut cake, blueberry cobbler, macaroni and cheese, collard greens, fried chicken, sweet potato pie, iced tea and strawberry lemonade.
From morning to night thousands of Brooklynites (both old and new) come out to stroll, sit, shop, eat, drink, mingle, explore and learn a little more about their city, their heritage and each other.
NYPD officer on Atlantic Avenue
Man chewing a piece of straw
Woman with tattooed feet and shins
Amar the belly dancer
Omar the belly dancer
Girl with Miss New York sash
DJ with a turntable
Man with a baby on his shoulders
Girl in a Yes, I Have An Attitude t-shirt
Man making balloon sculptures
Girl in cheeseburger hat
Man with a Mexican noisemaker
Boy in a white t-shirt
Singer with a red belt
Man with red bike
Woman in a straw hat
Couple in Belarussian dress
Man wearing a Jimmy Buffett t-shirt
Woman in a Belleza Latina sash
Man in a NYU Greeks t-shirt
Woman in a red cap
Kids at a Pentecostal church
Man with a bicycle
Hip-hoppers in plaid shirts
2 Comments | Brooklyn, Special Events | Permalink
Posted by annulla
The First-Ever Brooklyn Book Festival
September 16, 2006For more than two decades Manhattan hosted New York is Book Country which grew to become one of the nation’s largest, busiest and most beloved book fairs. Every autumn, starting in 1979, a long section of Fifth Avenue was closed to traffic while hundreds of thousands of readers spent the day strolling among exhibit booths, buying books, and attending panel discussions and author signings.
In 2004, New York is Book Country was moved from midtown Manhattan to Greenwich Village, the date shifted from September to October and the program expanded from one day to two. The following year the book fair disappeared entirely. Devoted readers waited for the posters and announcements that would proclaim the location and featured speakers for 2005, but they never arrived. The nonprofit organization that ran the event shut down. That, it seemed, was that. Booklovers mourned.
Today New Yorkers rejoiced at the introduction of new literary fair: The first annual Brooklyn Book Festival.
Held at Borough Hall, the fair featured approximately 100 exhibitors, including two outdoor stages, a children’s pavilion and booths for bookstores, publishers and literary journals and organizations set up alongside the Greenmarket. Inside, the rotunda was dedicated to author signings while panel discussions and readings were held in the Courtroom and Community Room. Admission to all events was free on a first-come-first-served basis.
Most of the participating authors and poets have strong connections to Brooklyn, either by birth, residence or subject matter. Among those appearing at the Festival: Pete Hamill, Jonathan Ames, Colson Whitehead, Paula Fox, Jonathan Lethem, Jhumpa Lahiri, Philip Lopate, Rick Moody, Jennifer Egan, Kate Pollit, Edmund White, Gary Shteyngart, Jonathan Ames, Simcha Weinstein, Nelly Rosario, Ann Brashares, Colin Channer, Phil Levine, Nicole Krauss and Myla Goldberg.
Of course, the Brooklyn Festival was a bit different than the version that used to be held in Manhattan. There was less emphasis on bestsellers and antiquarian books and more on new and emerging talents. The crowd was smaller and more diverse, the presses and magazines represented tended to be more experimental, and everyone and everything (with the exception of a few painfully out of place, hipper-than-thou poseurs) was friendly, open and accessible.
Small presses and literary journals
Listening to readings on the steps of Borough Hall
Brooklyn-based publisher Akashic Books
Bank Street Bookstore
Authors Betsy and Ted Lewin reading in the children’s pavilion
Authors Jonathan Ames and Gary Shteyngart
Author Ben Greenman
Author Colson Whitehead
Author Rabbi Simcha Weinstein
Graphic novelist Matt Madden
Sorting through stacks of books
“Artist” Tillington Cheese & her biographer, F. Bowman Hastie III
The Target dog at the children’s pavilion
2 Comments | Books, Literature & Publications, Brooklyn, Special Events | Permalink
Posted by annulla
With Lights We Remember
September 11, 2006Candles, bulbs and beams stretching up to the heavens mark the ways we remember with lights. In 24 hours, when the lights have been melted away, turned off and burned out, still we will remember.
The Empire State Building crowned in red, white & blue
Memorial candles on the Brooklyn Promenade
Lower Manhattan from the Brooklyn Promenade
5 Comments | Brooklyn, Manhattan, WTC | Permalink
Posted by annulla
Under a Clear Blue Sky
September 11, 2006It takes nearly four hours to read all the names one by one. Four hours in the bright sunlight, under a clear blue sky, as they are said in alphabetical order. Nearly 3,000 names — from Gordon Aamoth to Igor Zukelman — recited by voices that are firm with determination, shaking with fury, breaking into sobs.
As the hours pass, the mourners make their way down the long, long ramp into the pit. They carry objects that symbolize those they lost: a photograph, a poem, a teddy bear, a sweatshirt, a mass card, a baseball pennant, a toy car.
When they reach the bottom they gravitate to two shallow pools, temporarily erected with two-by-four planks, in the footprints of the missing towers. There, even those who have no graves to visit can drop flowers into the water, write messages on the raw wooden planks, pray, cry, salute, embrace and remember.
You’re a grandfather now, Dad.
I hope you made it into heaven
Dear Aunt Margaret
For all the souls of the 78th floor
Hope you’re listening to a little James Taylor
God Bless U All
PS The Mets are winning
In 1st place
I never forgot
Rest in peace Mommy
Grandpa, you are our hero!
Golden angel
General Lee
Blue rosary
Wish you could play with us
15 Comments | Manhattan, WTC | Permalink
Posted by annulla
Planting a Hope
September 10, 2006He who plants a tree
Plants a hope.
~Lucy Larcom
On April 15, 1995, terrorists attacked the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. The structure was destroyed and 168 people killed, many of them young children.
Against all odds, an ancient elm tree growing near the building survived the blast. After the horror and wreckage was cleared away, fragile new growth emerged from its blackened, wounded branches. Those affected by the attack called it the Survivor Tree and it quickly became seen as a symbol of hope and resilience. Seeds from the tree were carefully gathered and planted; representatives from Oklahoma City brought one of the resulting trees to New York City.
Today, speakers representing several faiths gathered near City Hall and described what the tree meant within their own traditions and beliefs. Then they — and survivors of the attacks on the Murrah Building and the World Trade Center — gently placed shovels full of earth around the young tree meant to symbolize healing and unity.
The sapling from the Survivor Tree joins five trees, already moved to this spot, that lived through the attack on the World Trade Center. These six trees, survivors all, form a living memorial grove, a small pocket of faith and hope, at the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge.
Ven. C. Chen, American Buddhist Confederation
Rev. Julie Taylor, Disaster Chaplaincy Services
Rabinder Singh, United Sikhs
Mohammad Ravzi, Council of Peoples Organization
Rabbi Craig Miller, Jewish Community Relations Council
Victoria Ramsey, Union Theological Seminary
Antonio Mondesire, Awo Ifa Olo-Obatala
The littlest tree planter
Akiva & Co. playing
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Eleven Tears
September 9, 2006Eleven silver strands of light,
Eleven facets of a gleaming heart,
Eleven tears, forever falling, on
Eleven names in a tranquil pool.
While the government is still years away from constructing even the simplest memorial to the thousands who died on September 11, 2001, American Express has commissioned and constructed a work of art to honor the 11 AMEX employees killed in the terrorist attack.
Entitled 11 Tears, it occupies a lobby corner of American Express’ corporate headquarters at the World Financial Center. The work was designed by landscape architect Ken Smith, a native of Iowa who now lives and works in lower Manhattan. It “unites sky and ground, heaven and earth” and incorporates natural elements: water, light, quartz crystal and black granite. At the center is a 600 pound tear-shaped piece of Brazilian quartz, which was carved to have 11 sides, one for each victim.
The massive crystal is set into a stainless steel ring and suspended from the ceiling by 11 thin cables. Beneath the point of the upside-down tear is an 11 sided black granite pool; each side is inscribed with the name of an employee and a few words, selected by those who knew them best, to summarize the people they were.
At random intervals, 11 drops of water fall from the ceiling into the pool, creating intersecting ripples, “symbolizing the connections among the close-knit group of colleagues and friends.” The fountain is surrounded by benches of matching black granite.
Visitors sitting there and looking through the windows find themselves gazing directly at the site where the 11 died, working as American Express travel counselors on the 94th floor of One World Trade Center.
Lisa Kearney-Griffin
Bridget Esposito
Benito Valentin
Yvonne Bonomo
Anne Talsky Ransom
Lucia Crifasi
Karen Renda
Paul T. Zois
Sigrid Wiswe
Loretta Ann Vero
Gennardy Boyarsky
Out the window is the World Trade Center
In Memoriam
Architect Ken Smith
29 Comments | Manhattan, WTC | Permalink
Posted by annulla
Saying Goodbye to Summer at America’s Playground
September 4, 2006Labor Day, the first Monday in September, is considered the unofficial last day of summer in the US. Summer holidays are over; beaches close to swimmers, kids go back to school, temperatures start to drop and days begin to grow shorter.
Coney Island, once known as America’s Playground, is no longer the nation’s preeminent amusement park; that honor has gone to sanitized, homogenized, ultra-safe-and-predictible corporate theme parks such as Disneyworld and SeaWorld. It may longer attract visitors from all over the country but this lively, accessible and inexpensive stretch along the Atlantic Ocean remains the favorite of New York’s working families.
In recent years this neigborhood has experienced a renassiance. A new baseball stadium, a revitalized New York Aquarium and a gorgeous new subway station have helped bring back the crowds. Kids flock to the hotdogs sizzling on Nathan’s grill, the rattling cars of the wooden roller coaster, the polished horses of the merry-go-round, the rolling waves, the cotton candy and stuffed animals, the seashells, scuttling crabs and polished glass. Grownups lose their pocket change to games of chance, suck down freshly-brewed beer and freshly-caught clams and spend a few bucks to savor the burlesque shows and sideshow freaks.
It is hard to say goodbye to the pleasures of summer, but if it has to be done, a day on the beach and boardwalk at Coney Island is the perfect way to end the season.
The Wonder Wheel
Trying to win a stuffed animal
After riding Top Spin
The Cyclone
Shoot the Freak
Barker at Freak Show
Shoot Em Win!
Mermaid mural (behind a fence)
Gyro Corner
Gregory & Paul’s
Finding seashells
Burying Daddy in the sand
A sand castle
Tomorrow the clam will go to school
The last salty smooch of the season
1 Comment | Brooklyn, Neighborhoods | Permalink
Posted by annulla
Running Amok! Playing Amok! Clowning Amok!
September 4, 2006Singing, dancing and playing, a group of musicians stood on the boardwalk enticing passersby to a live free show. The band, part of Circus Amok, led the crowd down Brooklyn’s West 10th Street to watch Citizenship: An Immigrant Rights Fantasia in 10 Short Acts.
Mixing acrobatics, juggling, twirling, clowning, jumping, dancing and general silliness with political messages, Cicus Amok has performed in New York City’s streets and parks since 1989.
The current one-ring show, emceed by a glamorous bearded lady named Jennifer Miller, includes a man escaping from a wire coat hanger, clowns tumbling out of a firetruck to save a baby from a burning building, enormous puppets representing the heads of Latin American states, construction workers riding synchronized pogo stick “jackhammers”, a quartet of spinning tea cups, George Bush and a trio of dancing goats.
Click the arrow above to view a video of Circus Amok
The band attracts passersby
The Ferocious Fernando number
Heroic Heads of State
The fire truck arrives
Help, my house is on fire!
Escaping from blue & yellow hanger
Bush’s Nightmare
Pas d’ Goats
Performer pile up
Master of ceremonies Jennifer Miller
Leave a Comment » | Art & Photography, Brooklyn, Dance, Music, Special Events | Permalink
Posted by annulla
The Gardens of Carroll
September 1, 2006Most of the brownstone row houses in Carroll Gardens were built in the late 1800s, shortly after the American Civil War. The oldest homes in this section of Brooklyn have large, deep front yards, allowing their residents to enjoy an aspect of outdoor living rare for New Yorkers — the ability to create distinctive stoopside gardens, many of them featuring statuary, arbors, grottoes, plaques and fountains.
St. Maria Addolorata at Court & 4th Place
St. Joseph on 1st Place
The grass withers and the flower fades
Fountain and pots of hostas
St. Lucy in memory of Tuddy Balsamo
Back gate to Mazzone Hardware on Court St.
Garden diva hard at work
My secret garden: Don’t tell nobody!
Geese and ADT Security sign
Statue, hostas and coleus
With red rosary beads on 1st Place
1 Comment | Brooklyn, Neighborhoods, Religion | Permalink
Posted by annulla
They Call it Little India
August 31, 2006The air is heady with the fragrance of cardamom, cumin, roses and incense. The markets are crowded with women clad in flowing saris and men wearing caftans and intricately-wound turbans. Shop windows display glittering gold jewelry, statues of Krishna and lacquered sitars. Sidewalk vendors proffer bunches of fresh herbs, sticky sweets and copies of the Koran.
This is Jackson Heights, also known as Little India. It has been said that this section of Queens is not really like Bombay (or even Mumbai) because there are no cows wandering the streets. But Little India certainly isn’t like anyplace else in the United States.
This is the place to go for books, newspapers, CDs and videos in Urdu, Hindi, Tamil and Gujarati. Catch the latest releases from Bollywood at the Eagle Cinema. Bang on a tabla, have a salwar kameez made to measure, fill your arms with colorful glass bangles, get a mehndi tattoo, drop a coin in a beggar’s cup, have your eyebrows threaded or your handlebar moustache groomed.
The grocery stores and pushcarts overflow with the spices, herbs, fruits and vegetables of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Intrigued by curry leaves, purple yams and ridge gourds but unsure what to do with them? Just ask (you’ll be inundated with “secret” family recipes) or leave the food in the hands of the professionals and fill yourself — cheaply and deliciously — at the local sweets shops and restaurants.
Fresh Pan, Kulfi
Outside a toy shop
Bejeweled necklace
Gold bracelet
Gilded statues of Hindu gods
India Sari Palace
Selling saris
Silk on display
Bolts of silk in a sari shop
Stacks of glass bangles
Vegetables piled on a pushcart
Grocers with cases of mangos
Okra and karela (bitter melon)
Methi and palak
Tiny eggplant
Cloth bags of rice
Delhi Palace Sweets
Sweets with cherries
Pistachio burfi with silver foil
The Eagle Cinema
2 Comments | Neighborhoods, Queens | Permalink
Posted by annulla
A Fence Full of Flowers
August 27, 2006Strolling 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
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Atlantic Yards Ruckus
August 23, 2006In the decade or so since big developers “discovered” Brooklyn, sections of our community have changed radically. Right now, one company’s building plans are generating the biggest political ruckus seen here in decades.
Forest City Ratner Companies wants to erect Atlantic Yards, a 22 acre complex including offices, apartments and a professional basketball arena. If constructed, the $4.2 billion Frank Gehry-designed project will add 16 highrises and 7,000 units of housing to what is now an area of lowrises and brownstones.
It is a massive project mired in massive controversy. Tonight a public hearing on Altantic Yards was held at the New York City College of Technology in Downtown Brooklyn. Thousands of supporters and protesters arrived, trying to crowd into a room that held only 880 people. At one point, someone in the audience cried out that everyone was talking and no one was listening to each other. The speaker at the dais responded, “Welcome to New York City politics.”
Member of the carpenter’s union waits outside
The auditorium was packed
Standing room only
Document inspection
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Posted by annulla
Borough Park: Part Deux
August 22, 2006Borough Park is a neighborhood largely shaped and defined by its large population of Hassidic Jews. Last spring I visited on a Friday afternoon when the area’s businesses shut down to prepare for Shabbos, the Jewish Sabbath (see Erev Shabbos in Borough Park).
In sharp contrast to the stillness and quiet found here at Shabbos, during the business week Borough Park is bustling. The busiest street, 13th Avenue, is lined with hundreds of mom-and-pop shops and restaurants. It doesn’t take many mothers pushing strollers to fill the aisles of these small stores, so on a sunny day most of the shopkeepers move racks, tables and boxes of merchandise outdoors. Their sidewalk displays serve to both promote the business and make more room inside. Everything from earrings to suitcases to toys can be purchased curb-side, giving the district the air of a gigantic stoop sale.
The prices aren’t far above those of a stoop sale, either. While some stores cater to the needs the religious community, dozens of places offer deep discounts on designer and name-brand goods, particularly women and children’s shoes and clothing. Buy a few items and be prepared to be offered a discount — or just ask for one. In addition to shopping, Borough Park is a great place to practice your bargaining skills.
Kosher pizza guys
Strolling near 48th Street
Three mommies on 13th Avenue
Yakub’s Shoe Repair
S&W Ladies Wear
At the corner of 13th Avenue and 44th Street
Stationery – Cigars
Klein’s real kosher ice cream truck
Newsstand on 13th Avenue
Rack of dresses displayed on sidewalk
Towels for sale
Old man on 39th Street
Mother and daughter running errands
Sign in window of butcher store
Join us for dinner. Gas is on us.
Leave a Comment » | Brooklyn, Neighborhoods, Religion | Permalink
Posted by annulla
Garden of Delights, Part Two: Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park
August 13, 2006More from the Garden of Delights show, these sculptures are in Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park. George Spencer’s Gumball Machine actually works; insert two quarters, turn the lever and you’ll receive a plastic dome containing a tiny clay building. Hurry over to the park and you, too, can own an authentic Brooklyn brownstone for only 50¢.
Nielson Amon & Ruby Levesque: Shark Tooth Auxesis
George Spencer: Gumball Machine (view 1)
George Spencer:Gumball Machine (view 2)
Kevin Barrett: Slingshot
Karen McCoy: Sensory Station
Cynthia Karasek: Cedars
Matt Johnson: Gluttony
Matt Johnson: Greed
Richard Brachman: Power Totem
Stephanie Bloom: Before And After
Antoinette Schultze: Earth Shine
Antoinette Schultze: Earth Shine (close-up)
William Zingaro: Landscape #12
Bill Berry: Too 2 (view 1)
Bill Berry: Too 2 (view 2)
Steve Dolbin: False Oracle
Ursula Clark: Stick Dome
Ursula Clark: Stick Dome (close-up 1)
Ursula Clark: Stick Dome (close-up 2)
Lori Nozick: Genesis
Bernard Klevickas: Waveforms
Charon Luebbers: Bird Flew (view 1)
Charon Luebbers: Bird Flew (view 2)
Charon Luebbers: Bird Flew (view 3)
Julia Ousley: Skyline
Michael Poast: Sound Structure
Miggy Buck: David
4 Comments | Art & Photography, Brooklyn | Permalink
Posted by annulla
Garden of Delights, Part One: Brooklyn Bridge Park
August 13, 2006Garden of Delights is the 24th annual outdoor sculpture show organized by the Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition. About 25 artists from around the country contributed work that will remain on display in two adjoining public parks until October 13. These sculptures are in Brooklyn Bridge Park.
The instructions on the back of Rodger Stevens’ Public Sculpture and You say:
1) Lift a door
2) Put your face in there
3) Get your friend to take a picture
4) Come back anytime
Doug Makemson: Royal Heron
Naomi Teppich: Terra Stela
Alexandra Limpert: Untitled (View 1)
Alexandra Limpert: Untitled (View 2)
Jack Howard-Potter: Fat Lady
Rodger Stevens: Public Sculpture and You (back)
Rodger Stevens: Public Sculpture and You (front)
Allan Cyprys: Skyscraper the Father
Thea Lanzisero: Starlight (view 1)
Thea Lanzisero: Starlight (view 2)
Courtney Kessel: Il Nido
Tyrome Tripoli: Travels With the Kitchen Sink
5 Comments | Art & Photography, Brooklyn | Permalink
Posted by annulla
Middle Age Crazy
August 12, 2006High atop a hill at the northern tip of Manhattan Island stands the Cloisters, the branch of the Metropolitan Museum devoted to the art of the middle ages. Constructed in the early 20th century, the fortress-like building was inspired by medieval structures. The setting, structure and core of the collection were gifts from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller, Jr. to the people of New York.
This building incorporates chapels, halls, rooms and architectural elements from Europe. The ancient stone portals, windows, columns and fountains allow many of the items on display to be shown in settings similar to their original situations. Visitors don’t simply view a wooden crucifix hanging against a white gallery wall; they see it displayed in a stone chapel, illuminated by sunbeams streaming through stained glass windows.
The museum also features three enclosed gardens, including an herb garden containing more than 250 species that were grown during the Middle Ages. The plants, grown in beds and large pots, are grouped by their intended use: household, medicinal, aromatic, kitchen and seasoning, salads and vegetables, plants used by artists, magic plants, those associated with love and marriage.
The most famous work in the Cloisters is the Unicorn Tapestries, a series of Belgian textiles portraying a party of nobles hunting and capturing the mythical creature. The collection also includes stained-glass windows, metalwork, sculpture, painting, liturgical miniatures, enamels, jewelry and of course, cloisters.
Main entrance
Lion wall fountain
Doorway to a courtyard
Butterfly in herb garden
Dragon fresco
Lion fresco
Carved ivory
Miniature ivory carving
Cross shadow
Red columns
The Unicorn is Found
The Unicorn Leaps Out of the Stream
The Unicorn at Bay
The Start of the Hunt
The Unicorn in Captivity
Window in gothic hall
Swabian stained glass panel of groom
Swabian stained glass panel of bride
A seat in the shade
Bonnefort Cloister on lower level
Espaliered pear tree
Exterior at closing time
6 Comments | Art & Photography, History, Manhattan, Museums & Galleries | Permalink
Posted by annulla
Blather From Brooklyn 