Flat Stanley in Manhattan
Wednesday, February 25th, 2009
Flat Stanley, who is a friend of my adorable niece, came to stay with me for a week. On Monday I took Stanley to Midtown.
Stanley said: “I know this place.” (more…)
Election Night in Times Square
Wednesday, November 5th, 2008
Election Night on Times Square from GammaBlog on Vimeo.
November 4th, 2008. In the area around the Army recruiting station, ABC has several large video screens and their news center. A large crowd of what was probably 99% Obama supporters spontaneously gathered to watch the election results together. I included three clips from Obama’s victory speech, dubbed over the video.
Times Square is the traditional place for New Yorkers to gather for the observance and marking of big events. I knew there would be the large video displays of the election results, that it would be bright enough there for my camera to shoot video. Around 9:30 when I could see that the results would tip soon, I took the F train to Times Square.
For the most part the crowd could not hear what was being said on the screens. I was able to hear the speeches with my trusty battery powered portable transistor radio, way out-of-sync with the various video feeds displayed around me. I’m surprised no one in that large crowd thought to bring a boombox. It was interesting being there, but there was little cohesion to the crowd. Video was flashing 360 degrees. Animated Budweiser ads displayed over the NBC feed all night. The ABC camera crane swooped over our heads, generating random screams and waves at the camera at intervals. I’m glad I was there to witness history, and get this video, but it would have been good to hear the speeches along with a crowd actually listening to the words. ABC had a sound system that boomed out over the street, but it must have been highly directional. It was only a muffled background cadence when I was a half-block away.
Irene Roxanne has posted this truly joyous video she shot from her bike of the spontaneous crowd in Union Square. The downtown crowd showed much more energy than the media driven and police cordoned crowd midtown.
Abu Dhabi Doo Tower
Sunday, July 13th, 2008
Abu Dhabi firm buys stake in Chrysler building – German fund sells 75% of the famed New York skyscraper to the Abu Dhabi Investment Council.
ROBOHAMLET
Sunday, April 20th, 2008ROBOHAMLET is a play about the extinction of the human race at the claws of their own creations, the Crylons, genetically modified crabs created to make a caviar substitute, whose incredible fecundity has overwhelmed their human creators. The last humans make a brave stand, and the only weapon that can stand between them an annihilation of humanity is the Robot, who carries the burden of human culture, recites Shakespeare, and feels ambivalent.
ROBOHAMLET is written by Pat Harper, who was House Manager of Theater for the New City from 1999 until 2006, and is not only a barbed commentary on humanity in general but also on off-off Broadway theater and its denizens.
Tibet Protest
Monday, April 14th, 2008
Tibetans protesting human rights abuses in China, walking and chanting on 42nd Street, heading towards the UN. Latest news on the Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy
Fallen Crane – 51st Street
Sunday, March 16th, 2008
This is about as close a shot as I could get from the police perimeter around the accident.
Throat Burns
Thursday, February 28th, 2008
“Throat burns from a coffee coated heart – Elbowtoe” Another enigmatic scrawl from Elbowtoe.
Bryant Park
Friday, June 1st, 2007
Dance Parade
Saturday, May 19th, 2007
Since 1926 New York City has had cabaret laws that make it illegal to dance in bars and restaurants without a dance license. There are less than 150 venues with this license in the five boroughs.
danceparade.org
Fusion of Youth
Zuit Suiter
Collage from video.
Dance Parade Protests NYC Cabaret Laws
The protesters want the city to repeal the ban, which the state Supreme Court’s Appellate Division upheld in February in a ruling against the Gotham West Coast Swing Club and several other plaintiffs.
New York’s restrictive dance laws have been on the books since 1926, at the height of the Jazz Age, when they were passed in part to stop interracial public dancing while enforcing a Prohibition-era definition of “public lewdness.”
To this day in New York’s five boroughs, it is illegal to get up and move your body to a rhythm in any locale where three or more people congregate and food or drink is served _ unless the business obtains a dance license. – AP
Monica Morales
Monday, April 16th, 2007
Monica Morales of News Channel 4, WNBC is on her toes. She caught me taking her picture from way across the avenue. At least I think that’s who this is.
www.wnbc.com/meetthenewsteam/5518456/detail.html
