the REAL Gangs of New York
Tuesday, February 22nd, 2011
click to embiggen
I think I’d roll with the Bowery Boys, whose “activities” including volunteer firefighting and supporting nativist causes! When not brawling with the Dead Rabbits that is.
Tuesday, February 22nd, 2011
click to embiggen
I think I’d roll with the Bowery Boys, whose “activities” including volunteer firefighting and supporting nativist causes! When not brawling with the Dead Rabbits that is.
Monday, February 21st, 2011
There’s a magical water fountain in Central Park dispensing snowflakes instead of drinking water!
Also, I hope you don’t mind but I turned it on overnight.
Tuesday, February 1st, 2011
In between a couple meetings yesterday in Sunnyside and Woodside, I took some time to stroll through those neighborhoods, as well as skirt along Sunnyside Gardens, and stroll through Blissville – yes, there is a neighborhood called Blissville in New York City! Not to be boxed into the area only around the first four stops on the 7 train in Queens, I still consider all of these neighborhoods part of the “greater LIC” – I won’t go into why that makes sense to me now, but it’s all part of an ongoing series, and will be detailed someday. For now, enjoy the vantages, the juxtaposition of commercial and residential, and a peek at some of the best-kept secrets in all of NYC:
Okay maybe not the “best” kept secret, this is a Queens prison. A “correctional facility” as they say. I don’t think I ever noticed this building before, even though it’s the only thing at the intersection – it is kind of designed to not-be-noticed after all.
backyards, deli counters, and never-changed-since-the-1990s era comic book stores are abundant in these areas:
lovely stained glass art at the subway stations along the 7:
when you get off those trains, you’re afforded with some wonderful sweeping skies, and magnificent views of Queens and beyond, including but not limited to top of the Chrysler Building, parts of Times Square, you can see the Queensboro Bridge almost head-on here, and even Big Allis off to the right:
This epitomizes LIC to me, a very quaint residential domicile just blocks away from a heavily commercial, industrial district:
Personally I love these architectural juxtapositions. Maybe it’s because I grew up in a post-industrial city, in a home but I yearned for industry, or maybe because to me it just makes sense to have work and life in the same district.
And of course cutie houses, faux alleys, shopping by the pound, and more hidden streets that never get walked on:
Category journeys, local | Tags: Tags: Long Island City, NYC, walking tours,
Monday, January 31st, 2011
Film by Andrew Wonder starring Steve Duncan from Undercity, this is a luscious video with some wonderful perspectives and spaces in this giant city that go largely un-noticed or un-accessed. Seek to 3:07 for the defunct “secret” City Hall subway station, complete with NYPD station booth (which ironically – see TMNT fan-film of the day – served as the inspiration to the living quarters the Turtles reside in their second movie); and 24:30 for some climbing atop the Williamsburg Bridge:
Monday, January 31st, 2011
I’ve always said that cultures of peoples in cold climates – preferably ones with all four seasons – produce the best art. Something about the notion of change, or in the case of the recent (and recurring) snowstorms in NYC it’s about seeing something (or someplace, like a busy Broadway intersection brought to a halt) you’ll likely never see again, and videographer Jamie Stuart captures the sentiment beautifully in this short film:
Thursday, January 27th, 2011
this says it all:
Thank You Snowmaggedon!
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