Washington Square Renovation Uncovers Graves

unsilentnight.com/

From artist Phil Kline: Every year since 1992 I’ve presented
Unsilent Night, an outdoor ambient music piece for an infinite number
of boomboxes. It’s like a Christmas caroling party except that we
don’t sing, but rather carry the music, each of us playing a separate
track that is a voice in the piece. In effect, we become a city-block-
long sound system. In New York, the event begins at Washington Square
Park and we walk to Tompkins Square Park.

Join us and bring a boombox, or anything that will blast a cassette,
CD, or Mp3. (Cassettes sound the coolest, but we realize cassette
players are getting scarce now.) The more tracks we play, the bigger
and more amazing the sound is. In recent years, Unsilent Nights in
New York and San Francisco have attracted crowds of over a thousand
people, with hundreds of boomboxes. It’s spectacular. If you’d like
to participate, please e-mail the contact listed for your city for
instructions. If you’d like to participate but don’t have a boombox
or a music player with speakers, you can just show up and join the
parade. Everyone is an important part of the procession. Help us make
a big (and joyful) noise. This is always a free event and all ages
are welcome.

Unsilent Night has spread around the world. Phil Kline is a unique
artist whose work employs music in many mediums and contexts, ranging
from experimental electronics, performance art and sound
installations to songs, choral, theater, and chamber music.

The western statue of the Washington Square Arch. The face was deeply pitted until the recent restoration. It looks like some sort of putty was trowelled on to fix it. Some pix from the restoration. View Large

They had the intention to take to the sidewalks from the park but the Police had other ideas.

We left Washington Square in small groups and reassembled in Union Square Park.

Where we were again surrounded by cops.

More GammaBlaBlog photos of the Jazz Funeral.

Restoration of the Washington Square Arch. It looks like they have trowled in some mortar over the erosion crags that made old George look like Dorian Grey. It’s hard to see it in this photo, shot by sticking my lens through the chain link fence, but he’s looking pretty bland. I suspect there will be finish sculpting done as the restoration of the figures behind him look much sharper.

Here’s a photo of the photo they have on a sign there, showing how badly the statue had eroded.

It’s another cool rainy day in NYC. Most participants in outdoor events this weekend must be pretty disappointed. This is one of about five animal rights advocates wandering around Washington Square park in farm animal costumes, getting their message out to the few folks that felt like being in the park today. They are from Farm Sanctuary in Watkins Glenn, NY – farmsanctuary.org