’88 Riot Memorial – Sewage
Monday, July 29th, 2013
Sewage ends the annual punk concert commemoration the 1988 riot in Tompkins Square Park.
The Parade to the 4th Portal
Sunday, July 28th, 2013
The 13 Portals project continues. I was playing my guitar in Tompkins Square Park when they entered. I always have my camera with me so I recorded the event. I always seem to be about when the Portalers are on the loose. It was awkward for me videoing with my guitar on my back. I wasn’t optimally mobile trying to get good shots.
The 13 Portals riff on many world cultures and religions. This one is based on the Kamasutra statues around some Hindu temples. So far the portals have remained relatively free of tagging and vandalism, except for a small tag on the one on the Bean at 3rd and Second. But I wonder how the neighborhood will react to this relatively explicit art work. 13 Portals is a project of The Free Art society
The panel is canvas, painted elsewhere and glued to the wall.
Houston Village Farms Deli
First and 4th.
Search for Portal on the GammaBlog
Giant American Elm Cut Down
Friday, July 26th, 2013
This happened last week while I was out of town camping. On my map I had marked it as the largest diameter elm in the park, estimating its diameter as 5.5 feet. The parks gardener, Deborah Hulse, says she was told that this elm was removed because of Dutch Elm disease. The main early symptom of the disease is yellowing of the leaves in the early summer. I will have to keep a closer eye out for this now. Hollowed out Elm trees were once used as water pipes, and I’m not seeing center rot as a symptom of Dutch Elm disease which is a fungus spread by bark beetles.
Tompkins Square Park still has a large number of American Elms, they were all but wiped out elsewhere, but there were twice as many twenty years ago. The park was leveled of trees in the 1860′s for use by Union soldiers as a parade ground. I have heard that the giant elms that we have here now were planted in the 1880′s, so these trees are well over a century old and are likely succumbing to old age. I need to do a more extensive post on all the American Elms we have lost in Tompkins Square Park recently.
This is right after hurricane Irene on 8/29/11 when a large branch came down.
Here’s how it looked in April 2012 with cherry trees blossoming in the background.
Catskill Mountain Stream
Tuesday, July 23rd, 2013
Cool off for a couple of minutes beside a mountain stream.
Sexy Longhorn Beetles
Monday, July 22nd, 2013
NSFW for potty-mouth commentary on this Longhorn Beetle (genus Prionus) orgy. We were camping in the Catskills next to a stream. Identification from entomologist jhartsho on Reddit’s What’s This Bug
Bill Graham Way
Saturday, July 20th, 2013
Plush Pig on St. Mark’s
Saturday, July 20th, 2013
Hawk in Tompkins
Tuesday, July 16th, 2013
Hare Krishna Enthusiasm on 2nd Avenue
Monday, July 15th, 2013
Enthusiastic Hare Krishna devotees on 2nd Ave on Saturday evening. When I first heard them I thought they might be part of the 13 Portals event I was covering at 2nd and 3rd. But when I heard their energetic version of their famous chant, I had to try to capture it. I let YouTube do its magic stabilization trick, that’s why the GammaBlog logo is dancing around so in the beginning. I’m impressed with the quality of the stabilization, it actually made my handheld footage as I struggled to keep up with them not as jerky as it was.
