Richard Serra in Greenpoint

Whilst riding up Newel St. on my way to work sometime last week I saw a pretty awesome something that stopped my in my tracks. A huge elephant door was rolled up at a warehouse between Messerole and Calyer and inside were quite a few gigantic Richard Serra sculptures. I snapped a pic or two, and then a few days later they were out in the street being placed onto flatbed trucks via some crazy crane-ish contraption. Rachel stopped by and chatted with the guys and apparently the pieces have been stored there for several years and they're being rolled out to head over to the West Side for an exhibit.

It's hard to describe how awesome it was to see this art in this particular setting: the scale is so enormous and it was just right there in front of me on a Greenpoint side street. In some weird, mostly irrational way, it made me feel proud of the neighborhood for housing this amazing art for the past several years.

Ole!

Pretty much the best birthday week(end) ever thanks to the scheming of one Rachel Clift and one Mark Derby.

Congrats!

July 4th

No fireworks, but a pretty sweet view just the same. R and I pedaled down to Jacob Riis Beach in the Far Rockaways.

(Vive le Tour! Vive Cavendish!)

It's Official

Last night I dreamt I won the Tour de France. Yellow isn't really my color but it felt pretty good last night. . .

DR Pix

An amazing week in the DR. Photobucket has a nice new widget so you can now view the slideshow right here without having to click over. Cool.

Happy Holidays!

Too Bad He's Only Got Two Feet

Not that this needs to be blogged about any more, but I'm putting it here for posterity.

Zing!

Tolstoy

I did it, I finished War and Peace last night. It was highly readable until Part II of the Epilouge. Tolstoy scraps the story altogether and lays his theory of power on you pretty thick. I read Anna Karenina about two years ago so I knew what I was getting into. I was prepared for, neigh, looked forward to, his lengthy commentaries and addresses to the reader. It's what makes Tolstoy Tolstoy. His analysis and judgement of the Napoleonic Wars from 1805-1812 is particularily awesome. In a nutshell, he says both Napolean and Alexander I were dunderheads and the war happened by the force of its own impetus and not because of anyone's "genius".

I feel a little post-partum depression. . .I'll miss my time with the old guy.

I've waited a long time for this

Hillary finally endorses Obama. . .

video

Times article.

Pretty good speech, especially the bit about insuring Obama walks through the doors of the Oval Office. My vote for Hillary is Secretary of State.

A Wall Painted Animation by Blu

Supair-coelle.


MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

You'll Be Glad You Listened to This,

I guarantee it.

I was whining to Rachel this weekend about how I never listen to "This American Life" because it has a crappy time-slot. Sunday at 4pm is just not a good time for me. Listening to Ira Glass talk makes me twitch but the content of the show is undeniably amazing.

A quick stop at their website revealed that many of the shows are available to stream for free. (You can also buy downloads and cd's.) Unsure of where to begin, I went to their favorites page and listened to the first two. The "Camp" show is highly entertaining. The kids are so refreshing and full of enthusiasm, if at times way over the top. Well, maybe that's what makes them so great.

Tonight I listened to "Act V" and I was completely blown away. The show is about a group of convicted felons rehearsing and performing Shakespeare, specifically Act V of Hamlet. A group called Prison Performing Arts goes into a high-security prison in St. Louis to direct the troupe of convicts and I'm not sure what adjectives to use to describe how incredible the result is. Well, perhaps not the result (ie the performance) in and of itself but listening to these men talk about their lives and how they draw upon experience to use for their characters is unbelievably unique and powerful. When the convict who plays Laertes in an interview said "I am Laertes" I got the chills. And of course the show goes beyond the play to address the complex issues involved with the whole notion of prison. I suppose there are more productive ways you could spend an hour of your life, but I highly recommend you find the time for this show.

As a side note, the music selection is also quite good (outside of the cover of "Desparado" at the end). I was happy to hear an Ui track I hadn't heard in ages.

The New NYC Taxi Design

I've been meaning to post about this for a while now. I cannot stand the new logo on the cabs! It's all bubbly and round and what-have-you. Nothing will ever beat "NYC Taxi" stencil-painted onto the side. To me, that says "New York". This new design, I dunno, says "[mid-West suburb of your choice]". [edit: Apparently they look like cabs in Boston. Whatevs.] Bluck.




As a side note, I did not know grilled salmon was available from street vendors.

My Sink Rules

Thanks, Wendy.

Email John Kerry

. . .and tell him what a gigantic pussy he is. A Univ. of Florida student was tasered by campus police after this:

It seems Meyer held a up a copy of Greg Palast's book Armed Madhouse and asked the following question:

“[Palast] said you won the 2004 election—isn’t that amazing? There were multiple reports of disenfranchising of Black voters on the day of the election in 2004 in Florida and Ohio. … How could you concede the election on the day?”

Read more here.

It's About Time

Finally, a movie theater I'll be able to walk to from my home!

Flotsam and Jetsom

-Bought a Pro Tools rig from a friend on Monday. Mac G5, M box, external HD, powered monitors, 3 nice mics, stands, cables. Now to learn how to use it. . .

-Been walking a lot. Sunday J. and I walked from Socrates Sculpture Park (post Fiery Furnaces) back to my place. Yesterday I walked from 93rd to 53rd. Today I walked from Chambers to 59th w/ a pit stop at 12th and 3rd for lunch. Feels good to be doing something at least kind of active.

-I think I finally found a wet food Nigel will eat (knock wood).

-Band of Horses have a good new single out.

Ciao.

i <3 zelda

she's perfect for new york.

Turkey discovers what’s up from The Battery

i'm not one to gloat

in the misfortune of others, but thank god! get your ass back in there!!