« December 2006 | Main | February 2007 »
January 29, 2007
LEXIMAP
This is a little experiment I'm conducting. Below is the LexiMap, dotted with NYC landmarks that I think are interesting. Scroll over the pointers for explanations of what the landmarks are and go ahead and contribute your own landmark via the link provided. If I find it to be accurate and consistent with this map's theme, I'll add it to the LexiMap and credit your contribution.
The LexiMap
(powered by GoogleMaps)
Posted by Lexiphane at 2:05 AM | Lexiphane | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 27, 2007
THE BIG ORANGE?
I have a friend who is an ardent Dutchophile, so this may make her happy. An Internet-based organization is mobilizing to effect the return of New York City to the Netherlands, in a revanchist move that not only reverses British seizure of New Amsterdam, but overlooks the whole War of Independence.
Dutchman and Governor of New Amsterdam as it was called, Peter Stuyvesant was forced to hand his city over to the British in 1674 when a large naval contingent sailed into the upper harbor and threatened to bombard the town. It's not that people didn't like Stuyvesant; he was certainly an improvement over previous Governor Willem Kieft, who excelled only at maintaining horrifically antagonistic relations with the neighboring communities of Native Americans. When Kieft was shipped back to the Netherlands he was lost at sea and I get the impression not too many people missed him. Stuyvesant was a more dynamic Governor, and although rather stern and didactic, the one-legged Dutchman brought some order and prosperity to the settlement. But when the populace of New Amsterdam found itself trained under British naval guns, they decided they really didn't care whose flag flew over Fort Amsterdam and Stuyvesant had to capitulate. The Brits took over, there was a war and then another war, NYC was ascendant as the greatest city in the world, and the rest is history. Or perhaps not?
The people behind Give Us Back New York have put together a slide show of changes one could expect when The Big Apple reverts to New Amsterdam. They're also eager to point out the Dutch origins of many NYC institutions:
- The Dutch settlers of New Amsterdam were called Yankees by the English, because the most common Dutch male names at the time were Jan & Kees.
- When New Yorkers are talking about the stoop in front of there house, they are actually talking about their "stoep", which is a sidewalk.
- Brooklyn comes from Breukelen.
- Staten Island is named after the "staten generaal", our old form of government (or something).
- The Bronx was named after the farm of Dutch immigrant Paul Bronk.
- Furthermore in Brooklyn and the Bronx, you find a lot of streetnames like Ten Eijck, Havemeijer en Boerum, which are Dutch names.
- Tales like Rip van Winkle and Sleepy Hollow all take place in Dutch immigrants settlements.
- Harlem is named after Amsterdam's neighbouring city Haarlem.
They forgot about the New York Knicks being short for Knickerbockers, or what the original Dutch settlers are referred to as. And perhaps our new Dutch overlords would turn Canal St. into something more aquatically oriented. That could be interesting. And don't forget about Spuyten Duyvil, the small channel separating the northern tip of Manhattan from the Bronx. That's a bastardization of the Dutch "In Spite of the Devil" and also the name of a Brooklyn bar voted the #2 Beer Bar in America. Perhaps Diedrich Knickerbocker's A History of New-York from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty will become standard required reading in city schools. I think Washington Irving would enjoy this whole project.
(Tip o' the pixel to John B. for sending me to this site months ago.)
Tagged:Posted by Lexiphane at 3:16 PM | NYC | Comments (0) | TrackBack
CAUGHT!
New York State Police arrested two men yesterday and the Dutchess County district attorney charged the pair with second degree murder for the killing of Manuel Morey. Morey was killed in the small hamlet of Fishkill, NY last week along with his wife and three sons [see UPSTATE HOMICIDE 1/20/07]. The husband and wife were both shot to death, the two older boys Manuel and Adam (13- and 10-years old) were stabbed to death, and youngest son Ryan (6-years-old) was bludgeoned to death before their home was set ablaze in order to conceal the murders. A grand jury will be convened sometime next week in order to tack on the additional charges of murder for the rest of the family.
The suspects are Mark Serrano of Fishkill and Charles Gilleo, Jr. of Hopewell Junction. They were allegedly involved with Mr. Morey as low-level area drug dealers who sold marijuana and cocaine. Apparently, Gilleo was so close to the family that the three boys he wound up allegedly murdering identified him as "Uncle Charlie."
On Friday morning, the police searched Mr. Gilleo’s trailer on Oak Drive in Hopewell Junction. The residence is less than two miles from the Moreys’ home. Neighbors said Mr. Gilleo, a roofer, has lived there for about a year and a half with his 3-year-old son, Kenny. The white trailer with light-green trim was surrounded by state police vehicles and two black vans, and throughout the morning and afternoon investigators, who had obtained a search warrant, went in and out of the trailer.Neighbors said Mr. Gilleo and Mr. Morey, known as Tony, had grown up together and had both attended John Jay Senior High School in Hopewell Junction. They were so close that Mr. Morey’s sons called Mr. Gilleo Uncle Charlie.
“Charlie’s family and Tony’s family were like family to each other,” said Jim Parsons, 41, who lives on Oak Drive. Mr. Parsons and other neighbors said Mr. Gilleo was known for having raucous parties with loud music and for driving four-wheel all-terrain vehicles on Oak Drive with Mr. Morey. They would yell and scream on their A.T.V.’s, annoying neighborhood residents. “He’d act whacked out,” a neighbor, Charlie Barger, 40, said of Mr. Gilleo. “Every weekend.”
On the assumption that they arrested the actual killers, hats off to the NY State Police who managed the investigation and arrests in just under a week's time. That's impressive.
Tagged:Posted by Lexiphane at 1:34 PM | Current Events | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 26, 2007
OLD SCHOOL--GOOD TIMES MAY BE HERE AGAIN
One of my fondest/funniest roadtrip memories comes from the mid-1990s, when I and my travelling companions ran into something that younger readers may have no familiarity with. It's called the Squeegee Man.
Driving north from DC to an upstate suburb over some winter break, we made a wrong turn and failed to bypass driving through NYC. Suddenly we were uptown and cruising through the south Bronx in a cream colored station wagon at dusk. All our paranoiac suburban white-kid nightmares were being realized. We pulled up to a red light and were going to use the opportunity to consult a map and get our bearings when a raggedy looking homeless man heaved himself across the side of our station wagon's hood. Spraying some unidentifiable liquid across the windshield, he began to vigorously scrub away with a crumbpled piece of newspaper and his forearm's sleeve. Once the windshield had been "cleaned", he presented himself at the passenger-side door asking for payment. Amid shouts of "Don't pay that f***er anything!" "Give 'em a dollar!" and "I think he's going to kill us!", the front-seat passenger finally inched down the electric window two millimieters and fed a dollar bill out of the crack like he was trying to buy a bag of Skittles out of a vending machine. I don't think I've ever laughed harder, sprawled in the backseat.
Stuff like that doesn't happen much anymore. One of Rudolph Giuliani's first initiatives when he was elected may in 1994 was to eliminate nuiscance criminal behavior like "Squeegee Men", identifying them as low-level extortionists blights on the city. He was almost completely successful; I haven't seen in a Squeegee Man in ages. Until yesterday afternoon.
I was walking down 2nd Ave. Thursday afternoon in a strolling fugue state. My iPod suddenly went on the blitz [a trip to the Apple Store showed that it was due to exposure to freezing temperatures] and I looked up to see the faces of a horrified man and woman in a Mercedes waiting for the light so they could cross the 59th St. Bridge. And there was a homeless-looking man, leaning across their hood, spraying some unidentifiable liquid, and smearing their windshield with a rag. It was a Squeegee Man!
I have been walking the streets of NYC for approximately a decade now, with my eyes open and always looking for something unusual. This is the first Squeegee Man I have seen in all that time. I was tempted to call a local news affiliate, but it was freezing and I had iPod problems to address.
Tagged:Posted by Lexiphane at 10:45 PM | NYC | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 24, 2007
I'M FLATTERED
I've enjoyed reading James Taranto's BEST OF THE WEB TODAY feature at the Dow Jones OpinionJournal site since it debuted about six years ago. Taranto's got a great eye for picking out news articles and dissecting them, usually with a tongue-in-cheek tone. He had a lot to say today, of course, about President Bush's State of the Union Address the prior evening, and threw in his thoughts on Virginia Democrat Sen. Jim Webb's rebuttal, beginning with the Senator's metaphor:
As I look at Iraq, I recall the words of former general and soon-to-be President Dwight Eisenhower during the dark days of the Korean War, which had fallen into a bloody stalemate. "When comes the end?" asked the general who had commanded our forces in Europe during World War II. And as soon as he became president, he brought the Korean War to an end.
Actually, it's not quite accurate to say Ike brought the Korean war to an end. The Koreas signed an armistice but never a peace treaty, and thus remain technically at war, with some 30,000 U.S. troops still in South Korea to protect against the North--though the current stalemate, for the moment at least, is bloody only for the people of North Korea. The inconclusive outcome of the Korean War can easily be interpreted as a warning of the dangers of leaving threats for future generations to deal with.
Jeez that sounds kinda familiar, as if I read that someplace before . . . [see WORST--BUT MOST APT--ANALOGY EVER, 1/23/07]:
As I look at Iraq, I recall the words of former general and soon-to-be President Dwight Eisenhower during the dark days of the Korean War, which had fallen into a bloody stalemate. “When comes the end?” asked the General who had commanded our forces in Europe during World War Two. And as soon as he became President, he brought the Korean War to an end.
That's a great story Senator, but unfortunately the Korean War is technically still in progress. North Korea never signed a treaty agreement with U.N. powers, but only agreed to a cease-fire and the establishment of a demilitarized zone between the North and the South. The U.S. still requires and maintains a significant military presence in South Korea, a country that developed into a nation with a First World economy and democratic institutions while under our constant protection. North Korea, on the other hand, we left in the hands of a megalomaniacal dictator who turned his nation into a prison camp where mass starvation is a fact of life and tool for quelling political dissent. Power was assumed by his son at the time Kim Il Sung's death; a son who by most observations appears quite insane. I'm sure the North Korean people (not discounting the millions who died under Kim Il Sung and then his son) really appreciate our quick exit from an unfinished conflict.
I think I prefer the second one better. It's less succinct, but kind of more my style so to speak. One can subscribe and have BEST OF THE WEB TODAY delivered via email daily by clicking here.
Tagged:Posted by Lexiphane at 11:01 PM | Journalism | Comments (0) | TrackBack
CALLED IT
Almost 19 months ago, Gothamist published a piece about the Port Authority's consideration of adding a fourth major airport to the New York Metropolitan region. Jen's piece pointed out that traffic is projected to increase to 100mn annual passengers through Laguardia, JFK, and Newark in the next few years and the three existing airports were already nearing total capacity. But what to do?
In other words: We're not going to bid on the West Side railyards. But that is a big question: Where would they stick another airport? The article noted that the last attempt for a fourth airport was over 30 years ago, near Morristown, NJ, an area that is now very populated. A final fun factoid from the Times article: "The newest major American airport, Denver International, is 10 years old and sits on 34,000 acres, about four times the total space of all three big New York-area airports." That is pretty mindblowing.
I had a suggestion, which I posted in the article's Comments section:
Stewart International Airport in Newburg, NY is only 55 miles north of the city. Currently hosts smaller regional airlines, but does have flights to Vegas and Cancun. Also a home for cargo flights by UPS and FedEx. At around 2,200 acres it's less than half the size of JFK (4,930) but more than 3 times as large as LaGuardia (680). Total property is 8,000 acres but a lot of that has been given over to an industrial park. Given that the facility has been used for commercial and passenger air traffic for decades, it seems to have already jumped through all the regulatory hoops and NIMBY bullshit that anyone within a 100 miles of NYC is going to present if you try to park an airport in their community. Transportation infrastructure is convenient; it's at the intersection of I-84 and the NYS Thruway and I believe NJ Transit has regular commuter trains that run down the west side of the Hudson. The town of Newburg could certainly benefit from some major economic development; it's seen better days. Cab fare would certainly be a bitch, but if the Port Authority feels it's going to need another airport eventually, a major expansion of Stewart would be a good start to its search.
I thought it was a pretty reasonable idea, given that it only took me about fifteen minutes online while at work to muster the facts and present them logically. Everyone wasn't on board exactly; from another commentor:
At best Stewart could be used by northern suburbs, where people already have cars. West Shore commuter trains stopped running 50 years ago. The Bergen County and Pascack Valley lines that NJ Transit does run in NY would have to be extended 40-50 miles. Cab fare would be at least $150 one-way from the city.
Good points. Everyone needs a devil's advocate. So I had another go at it:
NJ Transit's Main Line that runs up through Bergen and into Rockland counties stops at Salisbury Mills/Cornwall. That's only about 5 miles from Stewart. The main line's terminus is Hoboken, but passengers can transfer at Seacaucus and continue to Penn Station. A regular train between Penn and Cornwall takes about 1hr 30-40min, but that's with the train making every commuter stop along the line. A dedicated airport-city run would be much shorter, especially if the transfer in Seacaucus were eliminated. Regular shuttle buses into the city could make the trip in about an hour. A five-mile spur extension off the Main Line could deliver passengers directly to the airport. It seems like a relatively small investment in improving infrastructure might be preferable to spending $10 billion (?) on building a whole new airport from scratch. The 55-mile distance is definitely a burden to be overcome, but given that almost all the land surrounding NYC is dedicated to high-end suburbs, good luck getting any of those towns to cede a few hundred or a couple thousand acres to develop a noisy polluting airport. Plus, if the purpose is to ease the burden on Newark, Laguardia and JFK, siphoning off all the travelers who live in Putnam, Rockland, northern NJ and a good deal of lower-Upstate NY seems like a good idea. Especially considering that it's the upstate counties like Dutchess that are experiencing rapid population growth.
Someone else jumped in:
This is old news, of sorts. It was reported on WNBC last week. Newburgh is one of the 2 possibilities mentioned, the other being McGwire AFB in NJ.
Well that was good to know that the Port Authority was looking in the right direction. It's a done deal now according to WNBC:
The Port Authority is planning to buy the operating lease of Stewart Airport, setting the stage for the facility to become the fourth major airport in the Tri-State area.
According to the terms of the deal, the Port Authority would pay $78.5 million to acquire the 93 years remaining on the lease currently held by the National Express Corporation. The lease expires March 31, 2099.
In 2006, 300,000 passengers passed through Stewart airport, which covers 2,400 acres of land in Newburgh, N.Y. In comparison, New York City's LaGuardia Airport is 680 acres.
Authorities believe the airport could accommodate up to 1.5 million passengers annually.
The Port Authority is making the move because it fears the region's three major airports --LaGuardia, John F. Kennedy and Newark Liberty -- will reach operating capacity in coming years, with no room to expand.
So Stewart will be the fourth regional airport for the Tri-State region. Expect a lot of growth in Orange County and surrounding areas as the plan is realized. One thing stood out about the story though. The WNBC report said that in 2006, Stewart Airport served 300,000 travellers and that authorities felt the airport could accomadate up to 1.5 million passengers annually. I don't know where they got that figure, but if Stewart is the Port Authority's choice for a fourth regional airport and they only expect it to serve 1.5 million more passengers than the 105.6 million the big three served in 2005 (Port Authority Airport Traffic Report, p.23) than they're shooting a little low. That's only a 1.4% increase in the system's overall capacity.
Someone at WNBC could have at least done some back-of-an-envelope math and seen that 1.5 million figure as pretty lame and asked a question like: "So that's 1.5 million people next week with no expansion or investment in infrastructure, right?" If Stewart is 2,400 acres as claimed by WNBC, then the next closet area airport to it in size would be Newark, which is 2027 acres. Newark served 34.0 million passengers in 2005. I know this is sort of breaking news, but just throwing out nonsensical numbers is not the same as passing on sensible information.
(All information on acreage and annual passenger traffic for JFK/Newark/Laguardia taken from the 2005 Port Authority Airport Traffic Report, downloadable here.
Posted by Lexiphane at 10:00 PM | Travel | Comments (0) | TrackBack
HEROISM FILTERS SOUTH
24 hours before NYC Subway hero Wesley Autrey was the toast of the State Of The Union, a similar act of heroism by a homeless man and his two friends played out less than half a mile from the Capitol where Autrey would receive his standing ovation. When 53-year-old William Slaughter, a yacht crewman, was returning home late in the evening on Monday and wearing slippery new dress shoes, he lost his footing on the dock next to his houseboat in D.C.'s Washington Channel. Encumbered by his heavy wool coat, unable to attract anyone's attention at 10:30pm, and starting to lose muscle control in the 38 degree water, Slaughter began to think he was going to drown just yards from his front door.
Just then, he could not believe his eyes: Three men were ambling along the street by the Washington Marina, separated from him by a seven-foot-high iron fence.
He yelped for them, and one, aided by the others, climbed over the fence and ran over to Slaughter, who was struggling to keep his head above water.
Floyd Lipscomb, who police said is homeless, tried to pull Slaughter out of the channel. But he did not have the strength to pull Slaughter and his heavy wool coat out of the water, Slaughter said last night from his room at George Washington University Hospital.
So Lipscomb held on tight to Slaughter's arm and told him: " 'You're not going to die tonight. I'm going to hold on to you. I got you,' " Slaughter said.
The two other men, also homeless, identified by police as Duke "Showtime" Kelley and DeLeon Butler, alerted officers that a man had fallen into the water in the 1100 block of Maine Avenue. Slaughter feared he might drown right next to where he lived, on a houseboat christened Finished Business.
Slaughter said he thinks he lost consciousness a few times while Lipscomb waited for help. But Lipscomb never let him go under, he said.
Soon the two other homeless men Kelley and Butler returned with Harbor Patrol officer Hilliard Dean, who they also boosted over the high fence to the marina. Together, Dean and Lipscomb pulled Slaughter out of the channel and an ambulance delivered him to George Washington University Hospital, where he is recovering.
Floyd Lipscomb and his two companions, "Showtime" Kelley and DeLeon Butler, are certified heroes. William Slaughter would like to thank them for saving his life, but nobody can find them. While Harbor Patrolman Hilliard Dean concetrated on getting Slaughter into the waiting ambulance, the three homeless men slipped away, back to their lives on the winter streets of our nation's capital.
Tagged:Posted by Lexiphane at 2:00 PM | Current Events | Comments (0) | TrackBack
GETTING SOMETHING OFF HIS CHEST
(Tony Cenicola for the NYTs)
One would think that New York Times food critic Frank Bruni would be treated very well when he goes out to eat. Apparently not always, however. Today's paper features a hilarious account of the imperiousness of top chefs and restaurant staffs towards guests who are allowed to dine at their restaurants.
The blessed night at last arrives, and so do you, and you’re immediately made to feel you should kneel in gratitude and supplication. Just inside the restaurant’s door, displayed like a religious icon, is the chef’s book, bearing the chef’s visage. It lets you know you’re in the presence of holiness. It lets you know you can spend another $34.95 on your way out.
You spend plenty before then. Servers muscle you toward a 47-course tasting menu, replete with shochu and grappa pairings, telling you it’s the only way to appreciate fully what “Chef” (no pesky, plebeian “the” needed) can do.
It’s crucial that you appreciate fully, so each dish comes with a disquisition on its origin and proper consumption.
Chef got the eggs from an old lady with cataracts upstate. Chef foraged for the mushrooms in a thicket near the Tappan Zee. Chef counsels a bite from the ramekin on the left, then a sip from the shot glass on the right, then a palate-clearing curtsy.
Bruni places the blame at our own feet for creating a celebrity chef culture that feeds chefs' and restaurateurs' haughty hubris. But waiters? This is my favorite line in the whole story:
At Freemans, a self-consciously scruffy redoubt on the Lower East Side, the server who denied us our cheese toasts and hot artichoke dip explained, “You’ll have a more pleasant experience that way.” Such altruism. Moved us to tears.
Thomas Keller, of Per Se in NYC and French Laundry in Napa, CA, outdoes himself when it comes to the level of his self-regard: comparing his tasting menu mini-entrees to the work housed in The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
“I’d like them to experience the entire experience, the entire Thomas Keller, the entire French Laundry,” he said. People who stop at five courses, he said, are doing the equivalent of leaving a Broadway play at intermission or walking through only half of a special exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
“Has the exhibit given them the full impact of what it was supposed to by whoever designed the exhibit?” he asked. “Probably not.”
Good point, but then again, two hours after I leave The Met I'm not dropping Old Masters in the toilet. Keller would have been better off saying it would have been like leaving a Barbra Streisand concert half-way through. People spend a stupendous amount of money to attend and feel fortunate to be there, but in the end it is merely a fleeting experience and of questionable artistic merit.
Tagged:Posted by Lexiphane at 9:34 AM | Food & Drink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 23, 2007
WORST--BUT MOST APT--ANALOGY EVER
I didn't watch the State of the Union address this evening on account of more pressing matters, like watching Veronica Mars and cleaning out my sock drawer (really!) Maybe I'll read the text of the address later. God knows I'll be inundated with all range of opinions about it in the media for the rest of the week at least. I did skim through Sen. Jim Webb's (D-VA) remarks that served as a nominal rebuttal. Of course, these things are not rebuttals, but carefully worded statements putting one's party in the best possible light while in direct opposition to everything the President has just said. Anyway, from the skimming of the rebuttal it looked pretty good until the end, when Webb made one of the worst possible historical analogies in the purpose of furthering his case.
As I look at Iraq, I recall the words of former general and soon-to-be President Dwight Eisenhower during the dark days of the Korean War, which had fallen into a bloody stalemate. “When comes the end?” asked the General who had commanded our forces in Europe during World War Two. And as soon as he became President, he brought the Korean War to an end.
That's a great story Senator, but unfortunately the Korean War is technically still in progress. North Korea never signed a treaty agreement with U.N. powers, but only agreed to a cease-fire and the establishment of a demilitarized zone between the North and the South. The U.S. still requires and maintains a significant military presence in South Korea, a country that developed into a nation with a First World economy and democratic institutions while under our constant protection. North Korea, on the other hand, we left in the hands of a megalomaniacal dictator who turned his nation into a prison camp where mass starvation is a fact of life and tool for quelling political dissent. Power was assumed by his son at the time Kim Il Sung's death; a son who by most observations appears quite insane. I'm sure the North Korean people (not discounting the millions who died under Kim Il Sung and then his son) really appreciate our quick exit from an unfinished conflict.
In 1959, Gregory Peck starred in a Korean War movie called Pork Chop Hill. It is about U.S. troops' bloody efforts to capture and hold what appears to be a rather insignificant pile of dirt and rock on the eve of the planned cease-fire as final territorial decisions were being sorted out. Towards the end of the movie, Peck's character--a lieutenant--is asked by a private what the hell they're fighting and dying for. The war is as good as over. Why won't the North Koreans just sign the damn cease-fire and stop the senseless slaughter of hundreds of U.S. and Chinese soldiers? Peck answers--and I am totally paraphrasing from memory here--that "they're waiting to see how much we want it. How many soldiers would the U.S. being willing to sacrifice, because to them the number of their dead is inconsequential." The fight over Pork Chop Hill isn't about a few acres of land, it was about the North Koreans--acting as a proxy for the Soviets and the Chinese--testing the U.S.'s military and political resolve for future purposes.
They got the message. Soviet and Communist Chinese continued to bankroll and supply anti-Western movements throughout that region of the world for the next half a century, eventually giving us the Cambodian genocide and the Vietnam War, whose death toll of American servicemen was so great that the Korean conflict became known as the Forgotten War. It was not forgotten by the Communists. 50 years later North Korea has progressed only in that they posess the ballistic missile technology to hit the continental U.S. and are on the verge of becoming a nuclear power. It also showed that the U.S. would back down from conducting a thorough war by not striking significantly along the Chinese border with North Korea--it was Chinese troops that were dying on the 38th parallel in Korea--out of political nicety. Yes, Eisenhower stopped the fighting in Korea. But he set the stage for the necessity of decades of constant military involvement around the world throughout the Cold War.
Draw your own parallels to our current situation. But how do you think voters would feel about a ceasefire and negotiated partition of Iraq along religious lines if they knew that it would mean U.S. troops remaining in that country for the next fifty years? Because that is exactly what Eisenhower delivered when he fulfilled his campaign promise. There is no cut and run without victory. There is just cut and stay. And stay. And stay.
Tagged:Posted by Lexiphane at 10:26 PM | Politics & Policy , War | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 22, 2007
LOOKING BACK AT THE BROOKLYN ICE BRIDGE
Exactly 140 years ago today, before the design for the Brooklyn Bridge had yet been put to paper by John A. Roebling, 16 years before those plans were completed by his son Washington Roebling and his son's wife Emily, and 31 years before Brooklyn ended its existence as an independent city and joined a Greater New York, residents of Manhattan and Brooklyn braved the cold weather to walk across the East River, supported by the rare occurence of an ice bridge between Brooklyn and Manhattan. It was only the third time in recorded history that the feat had been possible and thousands took advantage. It was a fleeting possibility. By morning's end, the ice bridge connecting the sliver of an island named Manhattan to the much larger Long Island to its east was gone, and while many got their feet wet towards the end, no one was killed or seriously injured. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, with its offices located just a few yards from the Fulton Ferry Landing, seemed to take pleasure in describing the scene to its readers. Excluding all [sic]s and exactly as it was printed, below is the paper's complete coverage from January 23, 1867. Links and illustrative notes will be added for comprehension:
THE EAST RIVERDelays and Dangers of Ferrying--Jack Frost Bridges the River--Thousands of Persons Cross--Two Ladies Among Them--An Open Sea from Fulton to Catharine. Ferries--Boats Running Reuglary as the People Cross--A Sudden Breaking Up--Damage by the Ice Floe--Former Freezing of the River.
This morning the rare spectacle of persons crossing the East River on the ice was witnessed. As the news spread that such a feat was possible, thousands left their business to gratify their love of adventure by a run across the newly constructed bridge, and for about two hours, a tortuous black line upon the ice marked the spot.
During last night the ice which yesterday moved up the river, causing so much delay, came down with the turning of the tide, and the same difficulties in ferry navigation was experienced. Boats, however, did not attempt to cross except at long intervals. The cold of the night exceeding that of the day, made it more difficult and darkness still further increased the dangers of the undertaking. Finding it impossible to make the New York slip at Fulton Ferry, the pilots were glad to put in at the Catharine slip on the New York side, on the principle of any port in a storm. The milkmen, market farmers and newspaper men were not particular, so that they got across somewhere near on time.
Meantime the boat, struggling out of Fulton ferry, in the New York slip, found itself imprisoned, and the chilly dawn brough the discovery that the America was frozen in as effectually as was ever Dr. Kane in the Arctic ocean--differing only in degreses. This was too bad, and things did not improve at that point until fully 10 o'clock. As the light became strong, an experienced Fulton Market dealer made a bet that he
COULD CROSS THE ICE
and won easily. He left Beekman street
[a block north of Fulton], N.Y., closely followed by two others to rescue him in case of accident. The trio proceeded a little down stream and leaving Fulton ferry to the eastward, struck the Brooklyn Shore at Forrest's stores [as far as I could tell, this was somewhere along Furman St., at the base of the Brooklyn Heights], a couple of blocks in distance below the City Flour Mills. Of course, the example was contagious, and every one who could, dared or wished, started and make the trip across to New York on foot and for nothing. This desired consummation was of course of short duration, but it gave a foretaste of what may be experienced when the East River bridge is completed. Then Brooklyn will be able to cross in spite of wind and weather, while rents, from superior a niceties over here, will go up to prices of which the present are as nothing.
[I personally love that even 140 years ago, no newspaper story about even the most amazing natural phenomena is complete without mentioning the effect on real estate prices some development might have on a particular neighborhood. Some things will always remain constant in NYC. And like any good New Yorker, the first man to cross did so on a bet with some of his co-workers.]
As long as the ice remained bridged and fastened, an open sea was left from a little below Fulton Ferry, Brooklyn side, to Greenpoint, thus making the ferries between these points as available as in a summers' day. The great majority of those who must go to New York were thus ferried over without any detention. A large number of those who always prefer to walk when they can, those who like to perform a novel feat and those who were curious to see how it felt to be in the middle of the river, rushed down to DeForrest's stores, through an arched way and upon the ice. In this manner probably not less than
FIVE THOUSAND PERSONS CROSSED
A policeman lifted them on shore at the foot of Beekman street, and away they went. One person with more lungs and vanity than the majority, ran across six times, that he might brag over his performance hereafter. All this time a couple of tugs laid off in the clear, just above the line of the ice bridge, or from Fulton to Peck Slip ferry; the tide was running upstream rapidly, and the sun began to warm up the atmosphere considerably. The boatmen expected, perhaps hoped, that some adventurous individuals would be set afloat on cakes of ice, in order that they might rescue them for a consideration.
The people were becoming emboldened each moment while the ice support was growing less trustworthy. At last two ladies were seen to venture in company with one gentleman. He at least was passably safe, as "tilters" are said to act successfully as life-preservers in an emergency. They reached the other shore in safety, were handed up, and can now feel reasonably vain of being the only two ladies who have walked over the river in eleven years. Two compositors in the EAGLE office cut their "sticks" for the river and took a double quick to the other side, where, after disbursing 30 cents in honor of their exploit, they took a triumphal walk in return, satisfied that they had done "a big thing on ice." Hundreds on both sides of the river crossed just for the fun of the thing.
THE BRIDGE BREAKS UP
At a few minutes past ten o'clock the force of the current had so weakend the ice in the centre of the river that it began to show signs of giving way. Recently jammed in togther and each cake depending for the permanency of its position upon all others, a breaking up became a serious thing to those who are upon the treacherous surface. All at once the ice began to move, a long cake broke off lengthwise of the track along which persons were travelling. This caused a scattering, all persons being in a hurry to reach either shore. The long line, broken in the middle, bent back upon itself and made the ice still more uncertain by the force of their falling feet. Three persons came to the Brooklyn shore, pretty well wet and frightened, they had gone in,--one of them to the waist. A boy scrambling on shore near Forrest's Dock was thrown back by a rising cake of ice and nearly submerged. All four escaped, however, and they are among the persons who will not hurriedly repeat their hazardous experiment.
Very soon the whole ice which had formed this bridge reaching from South to Fulton Ferry, began to move with great force up the river. The damage to shipping has not thus far been very considerable; the most mentionable being that caused by a brig lying by the City Flour Mills, just west of Fulton Ferry. This vessel was driven from its fastenings by the ice, its bowsprit was forced into an elevator and broken off, nearly upsetting it and in the rebound striking the stern of one of the Knickerbocker Ice Company's bridges, staving it in.
THE MOVING ICE
From ten o'clock until half past eleven this morning, the whole ice moved upstream, impeding the travel by ferry boats as before, but still no great delay resulted. At noon time, and just previous to this, while the ice was still, a number of chaps full of risk, struck out from New York for Brooklyn. They got across, and were followed by a large crowd. The ice soon began to move downstream and carried with it about thirty persons upon one cake, down towards Governor's Island. They were all rescued by tug and charged generously for the service ordered.
RETROSPECTIVE
This is the third time of late years that the East River has been similarly bridged. It never happens except when a thaw or warming causes the North River [the waterway between NY and NJ from Manhattan's Battery to approximately 30th St.] to send down fields of heavy ice, followed by a southwest wind which blows these heavy cakes into the East River where they oscillate from Governor's to Blackwell's Island [now Roosevelt Island] and block up navigation. A cold spell succeeding this makes the ice sufficiently firm to bear up the weight of those who choose to cross.
While it probably won't occur this unseasonably warm winter, I wonder how New Yorkers would react to an ice bridge between Brooklyn and Manhattan now. Were New Yorkers of 140 years ago from a heartier stock, willing to risk a trip on a broken-off ice cake to Governors Island before rescue? And who wouldn't have loved to hear that haggling go on from ice flow to tug as New Yorkers bargained for their rescue? While the life of a New Yorker of the 1860s could certainly be grim for many, it's nice to hear the voices of that age describe a morning of urban excitement and adventure as both Brooklyn and Manhattan's citizens ditched work or school and walked across the East River because--for once--they could.
[accounts of earlier ice bridges from The Brooklyn Daily Eagle follow after the jump]
Tagged:In 1852--fifteen years and three days ago--the river was firmly bridged by the ice, as shown by the following:
The Weather--The River--Dangerous Adventure
[From the Brooklyn Daily Eagle of Tuesday, January 20th, 1852.]
The cold which has been remarkably great for the last few days, became so intense last night that the East River became thoroughly bridged and sheeted over, and this morning the ferryboats were so completely wedged in their places at the docks, that no passage could be make during the morning. The people began to cross the ice and a continuous stream of passengers ventured to walk the waters, the ice becoming strong enough to sustain them. About eleven o'clock the East River presented quite an animated scene of people passing and boys skating, &c., when the tide continuing to rise broke the ice from its moorings and sent it adrift. Those on the ice were not aware of their perilous position for a considerable time, though shouted to by persons from the shore, until coming to land found their approach cut off. Their condition became alarming, the ice breaking in pieces and floating hither and thither with the tide. Ropes were lowered from vessels in the river, and a great number of ladies taken on board and safely landed. Chivalrous individuals on shore began to fit out some small Sir John Franklin expedition to recue those perched upon the icebergs. The master of the brig Oxford very generously sent out the boat belonging to his vessel, and recued about seventy persons. Mr. Wm. C. Hall, a ship carpenter residing at No. 215 Water street, (how appropriate!), New York, signalised himselfy by his efforts in getting people to land. Two boys, in rashly endeavoring to come ashore, fell into the water and norrowly escaped drowning. One of them caught hold of a rope to which he held for upwards of fifteen minutes, until he was finally brought safe to terra firma. The other was saved by the presence of mind of a boy standing near him, who lay down on the ice and stretched out his feet, which the boy in the water caught hold of, and thus preserved his life.
Several large platforms of ice covered with people, were drifted down to Governor's Island, which the persons succeeded in gaining the land. Many incidents occurrred during the excitement which we have not space to enumerate. The boats, shortly after 11 o'clock, A.M., began to disentangle themselves and force a passage through the ice. They are progressing slowly, and have the utmost difficulty in landing their passengers. If the frost had continued and the tide kept quiet, the ferry question would have been amicably settled, and the public accomadated with as cheap ferries as could be desired. The East river has not been so firmly frozen with the memory of the "oldest inhabitant," who has no recollection of such a season as the present.
THE NEXT FREEZING
was not so strong as in 1852 and occurred in 1836. This last is the time when Rev. Henry Ward Beecher and two ladies crossed, just as the ice was breaking up, and came very near being drowned.
Crossing the East River on the Ice
[From the Brooklyn Daily Eagle of Monday, February 11th, 1836]
The East River was completely bridged over on Saturday night by an intense floe of ice sufficient solidity to admit a passage across on to it. Alfred Hodges, John Cose and another, taking advantage of the circumstance, lowered a life boat into the slip on this side, and undertook the journey, dragging the boat with them for use in case of necessity. They found the ice compact enough to bear heavy teams, and experienced no difficulty in passing to the other side of Jordan. They landed at Burling Slip, and taking a drink to keep out the cold, returned in the same manner and by the same route they came, highly elated with their success.
Today, January 23, 1867 makes the third and, it is to be hoped, the last freezing over of the East River, until it is substantially bridged.
And so it was.
Enough can't be said about The Brooklyn Public Library's work to digitize and then make available online every issue of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle from 1841-1902. It's a lot of fun to read about the then-current events of Brooklyn in its approximately last half-century of municipal independance.
Posted by Lexiphane at 10:06 PM | NYC | Comments (0) | TrackBack
JELLO-WRESTLING IS SO 2006
Sometimes you have to go to the outsiders to see what you've been missing in your own town; and it can pay off. The Washington Post today reports on the advent of competitive female pillow fighting in Brooklyn:
Stacy Reardon, or Champain, as she's known in the ring, is keeping the particulars a secret. Whatever pillow punishment she has in mind will be a surprise to Ms. Clocker, not to mention the roughly 170 fans now seated in rows around a square mat in the middle of a performance space/bar in Brooklyn called Galapagos.
They have come for the first out-of-town appearance of Toronto's PFL, a year-old league that answers this crucial question: Will people pay to watch Canadian women clobber each other with pillows?
The answer: Duh. Demand for the $20 tickets was so high that a second night at Galapagos was added and quickly sold out. But anyone who comes for a giggly face-off between two chicks in undies -- the age-old slumber party fantasy -- is in for an unhappy shock. "Real women. Real fights" is the league's motto, and this is no joke. When the fight starts, nearly anything goes -- leg drops, arm bars, chokeholds and punching -- as long as a pillow is the point of contact. Just don't gouge, scratch or pull hair, and no fair hiding bricks or any foreign objects in the pillowcase.
So the Pillow Fight League essentially 'Fight Club' for women. Unfortunately, the PFL has moved on from Brooklyn and will be taping a pilot show in Toronto sometime in February. Tryouts in March for distaff residents of Austin, TX!
Tagged:Posted by Lexiphane at 3:28 PM | NYC | Comments (0) | TrackBack
EXTENDED-LIFE SENTENCE
Good news for those doing time behind bars (or bad news depending on how little prisoners are enjoying themselves):
The nation's state prison officials reported that 12,129 inmates died while in custody from 2001 through 2004, the Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) announced today. The deaths over this four-year period constituted an annual mortality rate of 250 deaths per 100,000 inmates, which was 19 percent lower than the adult mortality rate in the U.S. general population.
So the overall death rate for people in prison is lower than for people on the outside--and that includes death by homicide, so even including the possibility of getting shivved in the yard, prisoners die at a lower rate. One reason could be that prisoners may receive much better medical attention as a population:
The BJS report included the first national statistics on the medical treatments provided in state prisons for fatal medical conditions. Correctional authorities reported that 94 percent of inmates who died from an illness were evaluated by a medical professional for that illness. Nearly all (93 percent) of illness fatalities were provided medications for the fatal illness. Diagnostic tests, such as x-rays, MRI exams and blood tests, were performed on 89 percent of these inmates.
Pretty good, although in the end we are talking about dying in prison, so I guess inmates have to take the news with a grain of salt. A full PDF file of the report is available here.
Tagged:Posted by Lexiphane at 2:57 PM | Current Events | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 21, 2007
COME ON FEEL THE NOISE
The New York Times has an extended take on what could be one of the most frustrating business/resident contretemps that can occur in an urban area: noisy bar vs. adjacent tenant. There is almost no resolution that can simultaneously satisfy both parties when a neighbor is bothered by loud music until 4 a.m.
But Heathers is no quiet museum. It is a bar, and it is a bar that plays music, unapologetically, and can accommodate 60 or so chattering patrons.
Ms. Millstone notes that she has taken steps to avoid disturbing local residents. Besides the multiple layers of soundproofing, for example, she has placed about the bar a variety of neat little placards telling patrons to be respectful of the neighbors and not to congregate outside the premises. Also, Heathers employees monitor patrons on the sidewalk to keep them from disturbing the neighbors.
Nevertheless, Ms. Millstone said, she has been forced into battle mode by the local community board and an active minority of residents.
“They want to shut me down,” she said. “I’m a casualty of the blanket opposition to new establishments. It doesn’t matter what you do. First they tried to get my commercial status revoked. I had to hire a zoning lawyer, which cost me $10,000 and left me broke. Now they’d like to take away my liquor license.”
Irritable neighbors can become severe pests for a bar owner and with the power of the municipal government behind them, can wind up costing a small business owner everything he or she owns as well as years of hard work. This can occur no matter how assiduously a bar owner works to avoid friction. Last year I had a conversation with a bar owner on 5th Ave. in Brooklyn. Despite operating a rather low-key establishment, he began receiving complaints from a new tenant almost immediately after she moved in and later started threatening to call the police. This was after the owner of the building attempted to belabor the fact that she was moving into an apartment above a bar and stressed that noise could be a concern. He even insisted that she visit the apartment after 10 p.m. to get a true sense of what the noise level would be like. His best efforts went unheeded though.
From a tenant's perspective, noise from a bar can be maddening. For a person working an 8am-5pm job, music that starts to elevate around 10 p.m. and remains loud until 4 a.m. 6-7 nights a week can be an exquisite torture. For one thing, no amount of soundproofing will solve the problem. Even if the noise is reduced to a very reasonable 50-60 decibels of ambient noise in your apartment, that is like having a group of people having an incessant conversation in hushed tones in the corner of your bedroom while you are trying to fall asleep. It may be within legal limits, but it is still a problem. And then there's the vibration. This is something that won't show up on a noise-meter, but the bass from a bar's music system will make your floor vibrate, enough so that you will feel it in your backside while sitting in a chair watching tv. If that sounds like something that might bother you, it most certainly will.
So what to do? I have advice for both parties. If one is a prospective tenant lookng to rent an apartment directly above a bar, my #1 piece of advice is don't do it. Look elsewhere. If the music doesn't get you it will be the occasional screaming match out on the sidewalk or people just getting carried away late at night. If you're a woman, do you really want to come home late at night to always have at least one or two inebriated guys standing right outside the door to your building? Let's say that you already live in an apartment and the business downstairs turns from a hat store into a bar called The Hat Store. Get in touch with the owner of the bar as soon as possible. Steps to ameliorate sound, like installing insulating panels or deciding on where to place speakers, are best taken while the space is being renovated. Build some rapport with the owner early, and any complaints should be received better down the road. Like I mentioned before, however, the sound will not go away. If you find it completely intolerable, go ahead and move. Forcing a bar owner to imperil a business he or she probably just sank more than $1 million into is going to be a Sisyphean task and I believe neighbors have been murdered for less. If you really want to stay and hope the bar eventually goes under--and take heart, most do--invest in one of those ambient noise makers. Crashing waves or a burbling brook can effectively minimize the disruption of incessant music. It will be never-ending noise, but it will be your repetitive controllable noise. And remember, repeated calls to 311 to complain about noise violations are not just hurting a profiteering bar owner or deep-pocketed investor. Repeated calls can result in week-long shutdowns of an establishment. For the bartenders, waitresses, and barbacks who work at a bar, a 25% reduction in monthly wages often means the difference between paying their own rent or not. For this reason, a polite call down to the bar may have you talking to the person most receptive to your plight.
Prospective bar owners: I would suggest the best course of action is finding a property where the apartment or apartments directly above your bar are vacant or make a deal to get them vacant. As a new bar owner, you will be spending approximately 20 hours a day keeping an eye on your business. Furnish the apartment; put in some desks and a safe for your cash on hand, along with a comfortable couch. Use it as an office as well as a place to crash when the hours start to get to you. If you have no use for an upstairs office but can or do control the apartment upstairs, rent it out to a young person who preferably is a struggling artist or actor. He or she will probably be working in the hospitality industry as well and keep less-regular hours. They'll also be generally low on the income totem pole, so offer them a not-insignificant break on the rent with the clear understanding that complaints about the noise will not be tolerated. This can work if the bar doesn't control the apartment either. Ask the landlord if you can subsidize whoever is renting the apartment in exchange for a pliable neighbor with a tolerance for bar noise. People will put up with almost anything for a cheap apartment in NYC and if your bar is doing well, a few hundred dollars a month will seem like a small price to pay to hedge your investment. If your bar isn't doing well, you might want to think about selling it quickly to someone else and recouping some of your investment.
So that's my advice as someone who's slept in apartments above bars many many nights and listened to owners complain about impossible-to-please neighbors when their livelihood and life savings are on the line. It's a problem best avoided by keeping the two parties far apart in the first place, but sometimes a tolerable compromise can be worked out.
Tagged:Posted by Lexiphane at 1:04 PM | NYC | Comments (0) | TrackBack
OUR ACHILLES HEEL?
China recently destroyed one of its own satellites with a ballistic missile in what must have been meant as a public demonstration that warfare of the future will include outerspace as a significant field of battle.
China successfully carried out its first test of an antisatellite weapon last week, signaling its resolve to play a major role in military space activities and bringing expressions of concern from Washington and other capitals, the Bush administration said yesterday.
Only two nations — the Soviet Union and the United States — have previously destroyed spacecraft in antisatellite tests, most recently the United States in the mid-1980s.
Arms control experts called the test, in which the weapon destroyed an aging Chinese weather satellite, a troubling development that could foreshadow an antisatellite arms race. Alternatively, however, some experts speculated that it could precede a diplomatic effort by China to prod the Bush administration into negotiations on a weapons ban.
“This is the first real escalation in the weaponization of space that we’ve seen in 20 years,” said Jonathan McDowell, a Harvard astronomer who tracks rocket launchings and space activity. “It ends a long period of restraint.”
That last paragraph is one of the most dubious assertions I've read in print for some time. Contrary to any notions of "restraint", the United States has been at the forefront of weaponizing space for the past three decades, and I'm not talking about any barely functioning missile defense system. Satellites have become the most significant military force multiplier since the invention of the aircraft. There is little aspect of the U.S. armed forces that is not dependant on space-based data transfer. From supply chain management, to intelligence gathering and weapons delivery, the 21st century U.S. military depends on satellites to keep its troops fed and drop bombs directly on the heads of specific individuals in a crowded urban environment.
And warfare is about more than dropping bombs. An army is only as strong as the economy behind it. Like the Allies' plan of bringing Germany to its knees during WWII by crippling its industrial base--destroying oil refineries and ball bearing factories--any opponent of the U.S. would have to see that disrupting its satellite-based information technology dependent economy would be massively damaging to its war-waging abilities.
Obviously, I don't want to overstate my case, but this small article in The New York Times may one day appear as portentious to the leveling of worldwide military power as the Soviets testing their first atom bomb.
Tagged:Posted by Lexiphane at 12:24 AM | Science & Technology , War | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 20, 2007
PERISHING PARISHES
The Catholic Church released its list of churches it intends to shutter or fold into separate parishes as changing demographics, dwindling attendance at services, and a constant demand for more condos and CVS Drug Stores conspired to make the houses of worship superfluous in the grand scheme of things.
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York yesterday issued a final list of 21 parishes that will close, ending a wrenching period of uncertainty for thousands of parishioners, some of whom had waited for several years to learn the fate of their church.
The tally was considerably fewer than the 31 parishes that were on an initial list, released last March, of those recommended for closings.
Ten parishes in the archdiocese will close completely — the parishioners will be forced to go elsewhere. Some among the other 11 will get a smaller chapel built for them, perhaps within another building, that is under the jurisdiction of another parish, or they will be able to keep their building and become missions attached to other parishes. But they will lose their pastor and many of the services that come with being a full-fledged parish, a bitter outcome for many.
I was disappointed to see that one of the church's slated for closing is St. Vincent de Paul, located on 23rd St. between 6th and 7th Aves. I wrote a piece about it late last year [see CHELSEA CLASSIC, 12/31/06], singling the building out as a gorgeous example of neoclassical architecture that was otherwise in need of a good exterior cleaning. A full-sized picture can be seen here. Its clergy took the news with some equanimity:
Across town at St. Vincent de Paul, which features a French-language Mass that draws French speakers from across the city, the Rev. Gerald Murray said he understood the archdiocese’s decision but expressed worries about reports that the Chelsea church, with its vaulted ceiling and images of angels, will be torn down.
“It’s sad to be losing this beautiful building,” he said. “I understand the cardinal’s reasons and I think it’s a reasonable decision.”
Looks like I better head over and get some pictures of the interior while it's still standing.
Tagged:Posted by Lexiphane at 6:21 PM | Architecture , NYC , Religion | Comments (0) | TrackBack
UPSTATE HOMICIDE
(photo by Bill Johnson/ Hackensack Fire Dept.)
Dutchess County's medical examiner revealed today that the five bodies discovered by firefighters responding to a house fire early Friday morning were all shot and or stabbed, making the incident the worst multiple homicide the small town of Fishkill has seen in its longer-than-200 year history.
It was unclear Friday night how the family had been killed, or where the bodies were found in the house. A Fishkill police official at the scene said there had been reports of gunfire before the fire broke out, but he would not elaborate. “It’s definitely being investigated as a homicide,” said the official, who would not give his name.
Maj. William Carey of the state police told The Associated Press that the fire was set “to cover the killing” of the family. “We’re just starting the investigation at this point,” Major Carey said.
Other officials said the youngest child had been bludgeoned and the middle child stabbed.
The state police identified the victims Friday night as Manuel Morey, 33, known as Tony; his wife, Tina, 30; and their three sons: Manuel, 13, also known as Tony; Ryan, 6; and Adam, 10.
The New York Times account basically goes the distance in describing the family as white trash without actually employing the term, which is real nice considering they were all just murdered:
Neighbors said the Moreys moved into a rented rundown Cape-style home on Route 82, a busy two-lane highway, a year ago. Most neighbors said they knew the family members mostly for their raucous summer barbecues and their fondness for riding noisy all-terrain vehicles late at night. The house has a dirt yard, and a woodsy plot in back abuts a 20-foot-wide stream.
Neighbors described the Morey sons as rough-and-tumble kids who liked to help their father fix their all-terrain vehicles, and played in the woods in the back of the house. Manuel was in the seventh grade. The other sons attended elementary school. Neighbors said the elder Manuel and Tina Morey grew up in the area. One neighbor, Cheryl Bianchini, said Mr. Morey irritated the neighbors by riding his A.T.V. “up and down the block at all hours of the night.”
“It was really loud and annoying, and the police were called on him a few times, but he kept doing it,” she said. A police sergeant said he could not verify that claim on Friday.
“The family had problems, troubles,” said Ms. Bianchini, whose daughter Alyssa attended Brinckerhoff Elementary School with Adam.
So much for not speaking ill of the dead. Even their landlord couldn't resist a few parting jabs about the lack of care for his lawn and his propensity to entertain:
“He tore up that lawn with his A.T.V.,” Mr. Skaarva said. In the summer, he installed a wooden stockade fence and began having raucous barbecues every weekend, he said.
“They would pull all the furniture outside,” he said. “There was a lot of drinking. We couldn’t believe how many empty cases of beer they’d put out in the garbage every week.”
Hey buddy, seriously, shut the hell up would you? A family including three children are butchered and burned and this is what you have to say to reporters? "That guy ruined my lawn!"
The WNBC story is a little more sympathetic, both to the family and the surrounding community. Video of that channel's report can be seen here. Currently, police investigators are proceeding with the assumption that the quintuple homicide was motivated by money, drugs, or both. In the meantime, there's an extremely cold-blooded person on the loose in town.
Tagged:Posted by Lexiphane at 3:22 PM | Current Events | Comments (0) | TrackBack
A GRACIOUS GESTURE
The other week I was interested in a gallery show about a preeminent urban photographer, Philip Trager. The photographer is well reputed for his work with large format cameras and pictures of NYC, although that's not nearly his entire range. So I wrote a piece in anticipation and then wrote another after I'd actually visited the gallery.
A couple of weeks after that last post, I will admit that I was shocked/flattered/gratified when Mr. Trager [or his assistant?] sent me an email expressing his thanks for my interest in his show and the fact that I enjoyed myself viewing his prints. Yesterday, I received his latest book, titled simply Philip Trager
Objectively speaking, the book is gorgeous: photographs from Connecticut to Italy, with not a few pages of NYC architecture that could leave one reeling. If one is a fan of photography or architecture, I would have to recommend this volume as essential. If one is a phillistine rube with a big empty spot on your coffee table, go ahead and get it; trust me.
Tagged:Posted by Lexiphane at 1:15 AM | Art , Books , Lexiphotos , NYC | Comments (0) | TrackBack
SLEEPWALKERS
Weather can be a friend and a foe for an outdoor art installation and its visitors. Seasonable January temperatures and a spitting drizzle go a long way to deterring crowds from forming around a public exhibit. At the same time, it may necessitate some childish strongarming* to get a woman to agree to stand in an alley watching a silent movie with you on a weeknight.
This particular visitor was lucky enough to come prepared with a hat, scarf, and gloves while waiting for his friend--delayed momentarily by anti-foie gras protestors outside the museum's restaurant entrance. The view from 53rd St. is underwhelming. One is backed up against the museum store across the street, so the upward angle to watch the films is pretty acute. Also, I believe that particular screen is being projected on from the inside of the museum. How that will make a difference follows in the next paragraph.
Around the corner from 53rd St. is a rather odd-looking vacant lot. It's bigger than an alley, but smaller than a skyscraper footprint. Given the location, the museum could probably have shoehorned about $90 million worth of condos into the space. Nonetheless, viewers huddled under an awning to watch films of Tilda Swinton and Cat Power. Turning onto 54th St., one immediately is confronted across the street with the awning of the restaurant Il Gattopardo, which is strange because I just started reading that book. But I digress. 54th St. is where the whole Doug Aitken "Sleepwalkers" exhibition comes together. In the Rockefeller Sculpture Garden, multiple projectors throw Aitken's work onto three different walls simultaneously and the parallel action of the movies is synchronized with each other. The effect was more interesting in the alley view, when one could watch two projections simultaneously out of the corner of one's eyes, but the sculpture garden stole the show hands down. It could very well have been the result of the weather. With steam columns pouring out of open manhole covers and from the tops of buildings into a cold drizzly atmosphere, Manhattan looked like a movie set. Images spun by huge projectors and thrown from kilowatt bulbs materialized in the atmospheric ether inside the sculpture garden. The facade of MoMA wasn't the only canvas for Aitken's work. For an evening, the weather managed to co-opt the entire space with rays of flickering light. It was pretty goddamn cool.
Proceeding down 5th Ave. following our visit, it was remarked that NYC that evening--especially St. Patrick's Cathedral--was looking like Gotham City and ready for its closeup. A side trip into Brooks Bros. was necessary and I can advise that almost everything on the floor of that repository of "old school" is 50% off. So, if you want a $200 pair of gloves on the not-so-cheap, they'll only cost you a Franklin.
*"I know you said you didn't want to go if it's raining, but it is raining, but not really, so basically whether you come or not is based on how much of a baby you are when it comes to getting your hair wet."
[Actual voicemail left to instigate art participation]
Tagged:Posted by Lexiphane at 12:26 AM | Architecture , Art , NYC | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 19, 2007
ASK FOR TABLE #3
It is the weekend and rather late on a Friday evening. For many, clearer heads and hungry stomachs will begin to bend one's will towards brunch in a few hours. A recent email reminded me of a hard-to-lose proposition if you're on the Upper East Side. My friend Kerry is behind the bar of the establishment on the southeast corner of 84th St. and 2nd Ave. Saturdays and Sundays from 11am-7pm. I haven't eaten there in some time, but I always found the food to be fine and the service irreproachable.
The latter point may have been because I was usually in the company of the aforementioned Kerry, who's lived above the restaurant for decades. In a city of transient citizens, Kerry has sunk deep roots into 2nd Avenue and remains a touchstone personality for many who arrive, stay, depart, and then return. Sitting at the corner open-window table with Kerry on a warm spring day was something to behold: as a parade of women would stop to chat with a man who seemed to know everyone. I got to know a number of great guys as well.
Kerry is an online jack of all trades who recently redesigned his entire site, which is an impressive online presence. He's got a gallery, a blog, a podcast, and a host of other stuff that indicates that he's keeping himself extremely busy.
And somehow, Kerry has the ability to convince ridiculously good looking women to loosen their clothes and be photographed for artistic purposes. Kerry, we need to get together again soon.
Tagged:Posted by Lexiphane at 10:42 PM | NYC | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 18, 2007
END OF THE LINE
When the 300-foot-long machines designed to bore through Manhattan bedrock in order to build a new 2nd Ave. Subway, an LIRR connection at Grand Central, and the extension of the 7 Line are done, contractors may very well just decide to leave them underground. So says The New York Sun today:
The 300-foot-long tunnel boring machines that will dig the tunnels for the Second Avenue subway, the extension of the no. 7 line, and the Long Island Rail Road connection beneath Grand Central Terminal could be one-hit wonders: They may be abandoned underground when their drilling work is completed.
Abandoning the machines, which cost between $15 million and $20 million apiece, may prove more efficient and cost-effective for project contractors than hauling them out through the holes they carve through soil and rock. If left underground, the machines would be turned away from the tunnels and then retired.
Officials in cities where similar tunnel-boring machines were used to improve infrastructure claim to have no idea whether the giant drills were buried underground, removed, or are simply waiting to rise up in an apocalyptic move to seize control of the earth and harvest its human livestock. I think this says a lot about the curiosity and oversight one can expect from city officials in D.C. and San Francisco.
Tagged:Posted by Lexiphane at 1:13 AM | NYC | Comments (1) | TrackBack
January 17, 2007
BLOOD FROM A STONE
This has got to be one of the more quixotic lawsuits filed in NYC history: a tony Upper East Side art dealer is suing––for $1 million––the quartet of bums who while away their days getting loaded in front of his gallery.
A high-end antique dealer on the Upper East Side is suing four unnamed homeless people for $1 million on the grounds that they've driven away customers by loitering on the sidewalk in "old, warn, and unsanitary clothing and cardboard boxes and old blankets which they convert into sleeping accommodations."
For more than two years, the papers allege, the homeless have spent "significant amounts of time" obstructing Karl Kemp's storefront window display, "consuming alcoholic beverages from open bottles, performing various bodily functions such as urinating or spitting on the sidewalk, and…verbally harassing or intimidating … prospective customers."
According to the article in The New York Sun, inquiries at Karl Kemp & Associates were referred to its attorney, who did not return the call. The attorneys for the four unnamed homeless men could not be reached either. Or imagined. So no word on whether perhaps an early settlement of 8 million or so aluminum cans could be agreed upon.
Tagged:Posted by Lexiphane at 10:53 AM | NYC | Comments (0) | TrackBack
THE CITY THAT NEVER SLEEPS
For the next 28 evenings, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in midtown Manhattan has offered itself up as a canvas to visual artist Doug Aitken in collaboration with the public arts group Creative Time.
The Museum of Modern Art and Creative Time, the New York–based public art organization, have jointly commissioned Doug Aitken to create the artist's first large-scale public artwork in the United States. The project is also the first to bring art to MoMA's exterior walls. Eight continuous sequences of film scenes will be projected onto six facades, including those on West Fifty-third and Fifty-fourth streets and those overlooking The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden. Inspired by the densely built environment of New York's midtown, the artist will create a cinematic art experience that directly integrates with the architectural fabric of the city while simultaneously enhancing and challenging viewers' perceptions of public space. The project, filmed in New York City, will be shown daily from 5:00 p.m. until 10:00 p.m., and is intended to be visible from many public vantage points adjacent to the Museum.
The installation will show the stories of five different NYC characters' lives as they venture out into the night and features Ryan Donowho, Seu Jorge, Cat Power, Tilda Swinton, and Donald Sutherland. I am not familiar with any of Aitken's previous work, but this New York Magazine article makes him sound like someone I'd like to hang out with:
Aitken loves to scout for exotic new locations. To shoot one of Donowho’s scenes, Aitken and his crew broke into the abandoned nineteenth-century vault of the Atlantic Avenue tunnel, dropping in through a manhole, crawling across an endless dirt passage, then lowering themselves down a broken ladder into utter blackness. “It was like falling into a new world,” he says. Similarly, he used the heliport atop the MetLife Building, which has been closed off since a deadly crash in 1977, as well as a postal sorting center in Queens and an ice rink in Staten Island. Perhaps the most exciting discovery was the bowels of several giant signs in Times Square, including a Coke ad and the nasdaq scroll. “You’re climbing on massive catwalks and scaffolding surrounded by banks and banks of circuitry and flashing red and green lights,” he says. “It’s almost like 2001: A Space Odyssey in there.”
Visit the installation's web site with a Flash presentation here. "Sleepwalkers" will be shown from the present through February 12th. MoMA is fronted on 53rd St., which is probably the best place to start seeing the piece: in front of the museum, walking West and turning North through the open space between 53rd and 54th, then making a right to head East down 54th St., making a short jog in and around the Rockefeller Sculpture Garden, and then heading off towards 5th Ave. to discuss with your companion what you just watched. More complete viewing instructions are downloadable here.
For those who simply can't wait, here's the 60 second trailer embedded from YouTube:
Posted by Lexiphane at 3:13 AM | Art , NYC | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 16, 2007
YOUR TWO CENTS (AND NAME) HERE
While I'm sure many of you are content to read Lexiphane.com passively, I bet there at least a few visitors who come across a piece of news, article, different site, or some item of interest and thinks to themself "I wonder what Lexiphane would make of this? I wonder if he's even seen it? How can I bring this to his attention?" Or maybe you'd just like to offer a little extra content to readers of this site by pointing out something on the Internet yourself. Now you can!
Del.icio.us is a bookmarking site where one can save the location of a site with the touch of a browser button. Your selections are saved in perpetuity to go back and reference at your leisure. With a little cutting and pasting (it was very technical), I recently managed to add an RSS feed to Lexiphane.com's del.icio.us page. Do you see it over there in the right sidebar, just below the flickr photos? (If not, try looking on the homepage). Readers can now add their own bookmarks to the pages of Lexiphane.com in that very space.
The process is fairly simple. If one is not already registered with del.icio.us, register with the service here. It should take all of two minutes and will leave you with a 'post to del.icio.us' bookmark and 'my del.icio.us' bookmark in your browser's toolbar. Now when one is browsing around the Internet and you find something that looks like Lexiphane.com and/or its readers would be interested in, just hit that 'post to del.icio.us' button. Add your two cents as to what you have to say about the site and enter for:lexiphane in the tags field. It's that easy.
Fair warning: this new feature is not completely automated, so your link may take a few hours to appear on the site. It is also moderated by yours truly. Links deemed to be excessively pornographic, obscene, embarrassing, or inappropriate will not be greenlit. Frivolity, on the other hand, is welcomed.
Tagged:Posted by Lexiphane at 7:20 PM | Lexiphane | Comments (0) | TrackBack