The Electric Egg Cream

SPOILER ALERT: MONEY WASTED

GrayFoxDown — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 01:39:35 +0000

The Spoiler Alert signs are faith-enhancing adjustments to New York City subway platforms, creating opportunities for trust in the city’s most important institution in the face of its overeager self-quantified broadcasts. Jason Eppinks

Alas, the MTA has finally gotten down to the business of “testing out” the newfangled train arrival displays for NYC‘s newfangled subway system…which, of course, will prove to be yet another waste of money in no time flat. Again, we New Yorkers just live here and have no choice but to go along with this newfangled charade: the MTA’s “overeager self-quantified broadcasts.”

Spoiler alert: The A train is making you miss ‘Wheel of Fortune’ (inquisitr.com)
Spoiler alert NYC subway signs (holykaw.alltop.com)
New York Subway Spoiler Alert Signs Help Preserve Spirit of Adventure (laughingsquid.com)

SUMMER’S HOTTEST WAVES

GrayFoxDown — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 03:21:42 +0000

It is now official: the summer of 2010 was NYC’s all-time hottest. The National Weather Service has given it historical precedence over heretofore record-breaking summers: the summer of 1966, when days averaging 77.3 degrees (Fahrenheit) repeatedly unleashed 100 degree plus temperatures that caused the deaths of nearly 1,100 people; the summer of 2006 (with a similar string of 100+ temps) that resulted in power failures in Queens that lasted for weeks.

Nevertheless, 2010’s record-breaking heat was more subtle (insidious, perhaps) than cataclysmic; averaging 77.8 degrees but without the deaths, power failures and related woes caused by other hotly ambitious summers.

For example, Sal Medina, a newsstand operator from the Bronx, measured the heat by the number of frozen water bottles that he slipped into his pants this week to stay cool (three). Tally it all up, and the sum of the last three months is a rarely interrupted stretch of hot days that forced New Yorkers to keep cool in ways both traditional and creative. NY Times

And now there’s Hurricane Earl.

Hurricanes may come and go, but, as long as Hurricane Earl is coming, many in the Rockaway area are going…surfing; an inevitable lark that occurs on the wake of many an approaching or passing hurricane. While North Carolina’s tourist areas are being evacuated, the Daily News is reporting that surfers were “salivating” on their way to Rockaway Beach to catch a wave; in fact, the beaches there are crammed with the surfboarder breed.

At 2 p.m. Wednesday, the National Weather Service estimated that New York City has just a 40% chance of seeing tropical storm-level winds, but the odds have been increasing all week as the storm track sidles westwards.

Again, New Yorkers are using both traditional and creative methods to keep (or look) cool during this hottest of summers…even if their heads are just barely above water.

Related: Big Winds, Big Seas, Big Gates

With Hurricane Earl on the Way, We Can Hitch a Ride to Rockaway Beach! (observer.com)
As Hurricane Earl bears down on East Coast, NYC surfers get ready to ride the wave (nydailynews.com)
Hurricane Earl is expected to bring relief to hottest N.J. summer on record (nj.com)
Hurricane Earl projected path predicts a near-miss with N.J. (nj.com)
Hurricane Earl heads for US coast (bbc.co.uk)

THE HEAT BEATS ON

GrayFoxDown — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 01:32:23 +0000

The heat is back and it’s expected to be around for at least another week. As August sizzles off into a complacent September, while the newspapers are packed with Back to School and Labor Day hype, the final weeks of summer may be a repeat of last July’s month-long torridness.

I’ve been dazed and confused, locked within a state of lethargy bordering on catalepsy, during these closing days of August; not at all up to the business of blogging. My wife and I were spending much of the time at the beach, receiving our fair share of sun and surf, as the heat was beating down on the town.

Bloomberg News reports: “The heat that descended on the U.S. East Coast yesterday is forecast to affect New York City all week, according to the National Weather Service, baking workers, back-to-school students and U.S. Open tennis players and fans.

High temperatures in Central Park are expected to be 11 to 15 degrees Fahrenheit (6 to 8 Celsius) above normal through the end of the work week, said Joe Pollina, a weather service meteorologist in Upton, New York.”

Indeed, summers nowadays are a far cry from the like of the rural childhood innocence of Bradbury’s DANDELION WINE, the melodramatic lyricism of Sandra Dee and Troy Donahue in A SUMMER PLACE, or the rollicking-frolicking tunefulness of Nat King Cole’s THOSE LAZY, HAZY, CRAZY DAYS Of SUMMER. Today, summer is, for the most part, overwhelmingly hot and not at all innocent or lyrical and certainly not a rollicking-frolicking tunefulness; then again, perhaps we’ve grown too old for such things. I can’t wait for autumn and ultimately winter when I could complain about the cold, not to mention the ice and the snow.

New York City Heat Wave Expected to Last Till Weekend (businessweek.com)
New York City Heat Wave Expected to Last for Entire Work Week (businessweek.com)
After a Day for Sparklers, a Day for Sprinklers (nytimes.com)
Hurricane Earl on path toward U.S. East Coast (theprovince.com)
Tropical Dose of Humidity in New York (nytimes.com)

DIGGING TO GINSBERG’S DIGS

GrayFoxDown — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 18:21:37 +0000

Poet Allen Ginsberg spent the last 22 years of his life residing in a small East Village apartment that he shared with his lifelong partner Peter Orlocsky. The two poets lived in the fourth floor walk-up at 437 East 12^th Street from 1975 to 1997; and, following the death of Ginsberg in 1997, Orlocsky continued to live there until 2009; he died last May while the apartment stood vacant. Now the modest one-bedroom apartment has been renovated and is on the rental market; for connoisseurs of Beat Generation-related ambiance, and accompanying ghostly inspiration, it’s going for $1700 a month.

In 1954, Ginsberg met Orlocsky in San Francisco when the former was an unknown poet and the latter an unknown model with little interest in becoming a poet. They fell in love and, under Ginsberg guidance, Orlocsky gave up modeling for poetry. With the publication of HOWL in 1955 (“I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked….”), Ginsberg’s long, complex and controversial career was launched. He, along with other founding members (particularly Jack Kerouac and William Burroughs) of the Beat Generation would, in their own diverse ways, go on to usher in the counterculture movement of the 1960s.

By the 1970s, Ginsberg’s worldwide fame and infamy, acclaim and disapprobation, had made him a legend in his own time and within his adopted hometown, New York City. He had lived at several locations in the city, but his longest residence was at the building on East 12^th Street. Ginsberg actually had three apartments there: one used for work; one that he would sublet to friends and students; and one, now open to renters, in which he lived.

The Ginsberg caption reads: “View out my kitchen window August 18 1984, familiar Manhattan back-yard, wet brick-walled Atlantis sea garden’s Alianthus (stinkweed Tree of Heaven) boughs waiving in rainy breeze, Stuyvesant Town’s roof two blocks north on 14th Street – I focused on the raindrops on the clothesline.” [Allen Ginsberg Estate]

Header photo: Via Left to right: Allen Ginsberg, Peter Orlovsky, Louis Cartwright, Herbert Huncke, William Burroughs, Allen & Peter’s new apartment, 437 East 12th Street, New York City, December 1975. Photographer unknown.

Ev Grieve

FOREVER-IN CONEY ISLAND

GrayFoxDown — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 22:45:29 +0000

Entrance to Loop-the-Loop Ride, Surf and 10th. Built in 1901. National Roller Coaster Day on Aug 16 commemorates the date the patent was issued in 1898. Photo © Coney Island History Project Archive

The Coney Island History Project exhibition center on Surf Avenue under the Cyclone will join in Saturday’s [August 28] celebration by sharing rare photos of roller coasters, including one of the Tornado from the Coney Island Chamber of Commerce and donated by Jack Ward. Charles Denson, History Project Director, will interview coaster enthusiasts for CIHP’s Oral History Archive. Coney Island Cyclone

Last-minute plan: Save Coney Island, one short film at a time (timeoutny.com)
uhuru design’s cyclone lounger from reclaimed Coney Island boardwalk (alternativeconsumer.com)

PLAY ON, ELECTRIC LADY

GrayFoxDown — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 03:12:44 +0000

Electric Lady celebrated its 40^th anniversary last Tuesday. Situated amid a row of downscaled Greenwich Village shops at 52 West Eight Street, this is the famed music studio founded by Jimi Hendrix in 1970. An oddity in its day because of its (very psychedelic) originality, it’s now an oddity due to its staying power. While other big name NYC studios have long since shut down (the Hit Factory, the Record Plant, Sony Music Studios, etc) the Electric Lady is alive and well and still here.

Eddie Kramer, Hendrix’s favored engineer and a force in the studio’s creation, has a simple explanation for its longevity.

“In a word: vibe,” he said, sitting in a small lounge by the control booth for one of Electric Lady’s three recording rooms. We wanted to create an environment where Jimi could feel really happy, and feel that he could create anything.”

And I’m sure that Jimi felt extremely happy in his Electric Lady; its ambience was guaranteed to evoke his electrified impulses.

“Instead of following the usual studio model — a big, impersonal box tended by buttoned-down staff engineers — it was a psychedelic lair, with curved walls, groovy multicolored lights and sci-fi erotica murals to aid the creative flow.”

Unfortunately, Jimi was destined to enjoy his beloved studio for a very short time: the legendary guitarist died a few weeks after the Electric Lady’s opening gala on August 26, 1970. Nevertheless, he left a considerable library of tapes from sessions at the studio; the roster of fellow music legends who have worked there (such as the Rolling Stones, Stevie Wonder and Led Zeppelin) have further complemented the memory of Jimi Hendrix via the Electric Lady.

NY Times

Listen to “Voodoo Child” (the superb ELECTRIC LADYLAND album version):

A Hendrix Castle Where Musicians Still Kiss the Sky (nytimes.com)
Jimi Hendrix Legacy: AES NY Section To Host Electric Lady 40th Anniversary Salute? (psychedelichippiemusic.blogspot.com)
Report: The JIMI HENDRIX Legacy – AES NY Section Hosts Electric Lady Studios 40th Anniversary Salute (bravewords.com)
The only place Jimi Hendrix called home (telegraph.co.uk)

CRAWLING ABOUT TOWN

GrayFoxDown — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 00:08:31 +0000

In the words of the Daily News: “First came King Kong. Now bedbugs are trying to conquer the Empire State Building.”

Over the past few months, the creepy-crawly critters have been doing the Big Apple and doing it big time. Scattered and various-sized infestations of bedbugs have been found in homes and businesses across the five boroughs. Even though these infestations were small they were still alarming, especially when establishments such as Victoria’s Secret and the Time Warner Center came under assault. Now it’s the Empire State Building; however, ESB management is shrugging off the matter:

“Like so many other buildings in New York City, the Empire State Building had a small incident of bedbugs,” the building said in a statement. “The occurrence was specific to a uniform storage area in the basement of the building. The area has been treated and fully cleared.”

[Nevertheless]:

Tourists streaming into the city’s tallest building were sickened to hear it was visited by parasites.

NYC isn’t taking the problem lightly and has allocated a half-million dollars to exterminate these unwelcome visitors…that merely crawl around without spending any money here.

NY Daily News

Bedbugs found in small area in basement of Empire State Building (nydailynews.com)
Bedbugs Attack Empire State Building! [Bedbugs] (gawker.com)
Empire State Building Bedbugs Found (huffingtonpost.com)
Bedbugs found in basement of Empire State Building (boston.com)

INCIDENTALLY CONEY ISLAND

GrayFoxDown — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 21:04:31 +0000

Coney Island is one of the most photographed areas of NYC. Second only to Times Square, according to the New York Times, it has inspired “not just chapters, but also whole picture books, like Peter Granser’s “Coney Island” (2006) and Harvey Stein’s “Coney Island” (1998).” But just when you had thought that there couldn’t possibly be anything more to be said—or photographed—regarding Coney Island, along comes Andy Levin.

Beginning in the late 1970s, Levin began exploring and photographing Coney Island. The result was “F Train to Coney Island”: an unpublished portfolio containing images that most visitors to that exotic getaway have seen only out of the corners of their eyes.

The photography is black-and-white in a fantasy land where color is predominant by nature and, as a result, entrancing; this “counterintuitive” approach makes his images even more striking.

“Maybe color was too literal for what I was trying to do,” Mr. Levin said in a telephone interview [with the Times] last week. “I was looking for symbolic pictures, and color makes it more realistic.”

“I tried to stay away from the freak show thing,” Mr. Levin recalled. “Not that I didn’t appreciate what was going on with it. It just wasn’t my intent. I wanted to convey the commonality of the family experience. That’s sort of how I grew up. I think I was naturally more responsive to those elements.”

NY Times (including photo gallery…a must-see!!!)

A Photographer’s Coney Island (cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com)
Photos: Coney Island Talent Show (timeoutny.com)

JFK IS BACK

GrayFoxDown — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 20:39:05 +0000

JFK is back in Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn after a seven-year hiatus and he’s looking better than ever…a bronze bust of the 35^th president by sculptor Neil Estern, that is. Experiencing the same ill-treatment that its predecessor in that section of the plaza, a towering figure of Abraham Lincoln, endured (neglect and resulting vandalism, insufficient funding and inevitable red tape), the monument has been enhanced and restored by its creator.

[Estern] has been badgering the Parks Department to revamp the monument since admirers nearly toppled the flimsy pedestal during the first unveiling ceremony in 1965. The city didn’t scrape together the funds to install a sturdier, granite plinth until 2003. But the new platform led to another problem that was nearly as dire as the Cuban Missile Crisis: the JFK bust didn’t fit properly on the new pillar.

Not one to be daunted, the 84-year-old artist produced an even larger, rounder version of JFK from his original clay model, with finer facial details and carvings, which would fit onto the pillar. Last year, NYC came up with the $70,000 needed to return the statue to its cherished spot in the plaza.

The official rededication ceremony is set for Aug. 24.

The Brooklyn Paper

BYGONE BATHING BABES

GrayFoxDown — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 00:57:15 +0000

In the latter part of the 19th century, going to the beach at Coney Island was a big deal; even so much as getting one’s feet wet on the shoreline was a supreme endeavor. While established New Yorkers may have dressed elegantly (or profusely) in that era of staid if dubious mores and morals, sportiness was an act of defiance and casualness hinted of impoverishment. Nevertheless, beach-going (along with actually venturing into the water) started to become popular in the 1890s. The problem was how to balance propriety, especially in regard to female bathers, with fun in the sun.

A self-appointed “master” of beach-going advice, a Dr. Durant (who was enough to make male chauvinists, even of his time, look foolish), offered women a tedious handbook dealing with what to wear and how to behave at the beach:

“The bathing dress should be made of a woolen fabric,” he announced. “We particularly insist upon woolen as the material to be worn, as it retains the heat of the body, and therefore prevents a too rapid evaporation. Maroon and blue are the proper colors,” he proceeded, where there were none who dared gainsay him, “as they resist the bleaching and corrosive effects of the salt-water. The dress should consist essentially of two parts—a pair of pantaloons and a blouse…The pantaloons …should not be buttoned too tightly to the ankles, as circulation would thereby be impeded…Enter the water resolutely and briskly, until the water reaches the waist…If you can swim three strokes without going under, it is a fair start.” GOOD OLD CONEY ISLAND

For the most part, only the burgeoning hordes of newly-arrived immigrants ignored the arrogant blustering of such as Dr. Durant; either through choice or necessity, they did their own thing. Lacking the money for conventional elegance, open to “sportiness” due to their own cultural disparity, and wearing the “casual” dress of a working class which often experienced appalling difficulties, Coney Island was an oasis of enjoyment.

The beach was a place to get one’s feet wet on what was pleasurable in America, while enduring New York City’s less pleasurable tenements and workplaces. Soon the restraining “woolen fabric” and “proper colors,” etc, of bathing dresses would be dropped; bathing attire that would be as comfortably attractive to wear as the pleasure gained, along those now distant waves of change, would soon follow.

Coney Island goes back in time (thestar.com)

BEWARE! NYC SUMMERTIME AIR

GrayFoxDown — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 01:35:35 +0000

Summertime and the breathing is sleazy. A new Department of Health report (see PDF) has determined that NYC’s summer air is breathtakingly laced with those finer things in life…such as intoxicating particles of elemental carbon, nitric oxide, nitrogen dioxide and other airborne goodies. And no matter how the facts, figures, maps and charts are delineated, oriented, calculated, colored, scaled or projected, the results are the same: the air quality in this town undoubtedly sucks from June to September.

“The take-home message here is that the air quality just isn’t great anywhere in New York City. What’s surprising is just how variable the air quality is across the city,” Deputy Health Commissioner Daniel Kass said.

While dangerous levels of particulate matter (dust, pollen, and other materials) were found in the more building-/ people-congested areas of the city like Lower-, Midtown Manhattan and the Bronx, areas in the outer-boroughs (Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island) that flank major highways have even higher levels of such pollution.

Even neighborhoods regarded as “safe havens” amidst the city’s hustling-bustling reality are severely blighted with contaminated air. Ground-level ozone (formed via a reaction of oxygen and pollutants with sunlight) is more pronounced in “downwind” areas of the city like the Rockaways and southern Staten Island.

Health Commissioner Thomas Farley, in a prepared statement, said the study emphasizes the need to switch to more fuel-efficient cars, reduce overall vehicle traffic and rely more on mass transit. [In other words, the situation is apparently hopeless.]

While all is abuzz in this city with “going green,” the more abundant the smog is growing. Perhaps the only thing truly green is the profit margin on pork barrel projects, disguised as “environmentally-friendly,” in this newfangled Gilded Age of ours…that alone would account for the smog as well as for the stink.

New York Post

ROCKING-SOCKING SOFTEE

GrayFoxDown — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 20:40:30 +0000

NYC could be a tough town for, among other things, the ice cream trade. Last week on West 60^th Street and Broadway, the ice cream really turned hot when a Mister Softee vendor discovered that a competitor (a generic Softee, reportedly) had moved in on his regular spot. The real Softee vendor exited his truck and confronted his pseudo-Softee nemesis; hence, the ice cream rumble began.

Real Softee was far from soft as he began shaking the pseudo-Softee truck, while rattling off a clump of expletives, then directing a roll of racial slurs at the encroacher. That was all pseudo-Softee could stand, he could stand no more, and came out slugging.

This isn’t the first time ice cream truck vendors have lost their cool in the heat. The NYPD reportedly cracked down last month after a vendor allegedly attacked a police officer. A Mister Softee driver was also the instigator in a fight that occurred on 50th Street and 6th Avenue just 12 days ago. And it’s not just ice cream trucks who face threats, food trucks have had their share of run-ins with the police and competitors as well.

NYC The Blog

[Note] In the video, the spectators identifies one of the trucks as a Mister Softee truck, but Jim Conway, V.P. of Mister Softee, tells us, “Neither driver or truck is affiliated with Mister Softee. Both are independent ice cream vendors.” Well, whoever they are, they’re taking the ice cream vendor’s job just a little too seriously. Gothamist

And Mister Softee, with his cool ice cream and merry jingle, is so pleasantly reminiscent of childhood summer days (as in this, circa 1965, ad). Oh well…I was so blissfully ignorant of such things as turf wars and related business disputes in that distant yesteryear.

GATSBY ALL OVER…AGAIN?

GrayFoxDown — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 00:39:54 +0000

America’s current economic woes have finally reached that seasonal haunt of the idle/ self-idolized rich and famous: the Hamptons, where the ghosts of Jay Gatsby and his Daisy forever play. Despite the fact that hard times in that privileged land of devil-may-care displays would be as detectable as costume jewelry in a Tiffany’s show window, the “recession, Hamptons style” has somehow arrived nevertheless.

Reduced prices are the most insidious symptom of hard times in privileged lands; especially places like the Hamptons at the height of their season that are charging off-season prices. Something’s wrong when a lobster salad that went for $100 last summer is now $40. The hotels and inns are booked due to drastic price reductions of their own. But even though they’re saving on where they lodge and where they dine, tourists are spending far less at stores now offering discounted merchandise. And while real-estate sales are up, in most cases they’re up because prices are down.

And yet, the rich and famous still flock. Madonna moved into her house on Lily Pond Lane, and Lady Gaga might be out later this month, renting. A woman from Tampa spent $500,000 for a two-week rental and didn’t even look embarrassed talking about it on The Joy Behar Show. The earliest you can get a table at Nick & Toni’s on a Saturday night is 10:45 p.m. Revlon’s Ron Perelman gave his annual July Fourth Gala at the Creeks, where he again played drums with Jon Bon Jovi, and Lally Weymouth gave herself another sit-down birthday dinner at her Southampton estate, with guests invited three months in advance.

Where is F. Scott Fitzgerald when you need him in this day of minified fascinating rhythm and cockeyed summertime blues? He’d probably be writing about it all (all over again), but from a safe distance this time around…probably from a brownstone in Park Slope, Brooklyn, where the children of a lesser if equally absurd god reside.

Daily Intel

Teaching ‘The Great Gatsby’ With The New York Times (learning.blogs.nytimes.com)
Curbed Hamptons: Sagaponack Homeowner Wants to Add 40th Bathroom; More! (ny.curbed.com)
This Summer’s Hamptons: Hot Spots of the Season (nytimes.com)

LOWLIFE ON HIGH

GrayFoxDown — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 19:01:04 +0000

Cyber-generated folk heroes have become all the rage within the wooly-minded mania of Twitter, Facebook and related gadabout retreats. The more outrageous these “heroes” are, the more conspicuously deviant their exploits, the bigger their chances for fame and success. Steven Slater, far from being a fortunate exception, is unfortunately the rule; he’s the latest and hottest commodity in this age of warped rebelliousness in search of a distorted cause.

In the unlikely event that you were lucky enough not to have heard of Steven Slater, he’s the former JetBlue flight attendant who decided to quit with pizazz last Monday. Shortly after his plane landed at JFK airport, Slater confronted a female passenger who was removing overhead luggage before the plane came to a complete stop; a violation of airline rules.

An altercation ensued and the woman allegedly called him a “mother-fucker” (or something to that effect) which caused Slater to explode. He immediately went to the intercom, cursed out this particular passenger, and then all of the flight’s passengers, then grabbed two beers and, with a smile on his face, exited down the plane’s emergency slide and headed home. Of course, airline officials failed to get the joke and police later arrested the still smiling Slater at his house in Queens, New York.

I may be an old-fashioned fuddy-duddy but, along with JetBlue and other presumably rational individuals, I also failed (really failed) to get the joke. In my (sometimes) humble opinion, Slater isn’t a hero but (in pure, unadulterated Brooklyn-borne phraseology) an asshole. I would be willing to bet my kingdom and my horse that Slater, bored with his job and desiring to be fired, planned to incite an incident from the very beginning; an incident that would be very lucrative in the current marketplace for such incidents.

The New York Observer and Wall Street Journal and other news publications are reporting that this “toast of cyberspace” was displaying rude and boorish behavior long before his famed “last straw” moment…already the stuff (or bullshit) of legend. If Slater was smiling then, he’s smiling more than ever now as his celebrity grows and grows. But he wasn’t as beamish earlier on this famous “swan song” flight (and others, I’d venture to guess) when, according to some passengers, he bumped into people without apologizing, refused to clean up some coffee that had spilled, slammed overhead bins and refrigerator doors, and exhibited other forms of odd behavior on the 90-minute cruise from Pittsburgh to New York.

I “hope” this creep (aka “folk hero”) “enjoys” his 15 minutes of fame very quickly…another creep (aka “folk hero”) will very quickly replace him in the lofty depths of Facebook, Twitter and beyond. Stay tuned.

UPDATE (8/13/10): And now the fascinating Slater wants his job back!!!

JetBlue flight attendant Steven Slater becomes overnight folk hero (guardian.co.uk)
Steven Slater, Jet Blue flight attendant: Jackass or Folk Hero? (chicagonow.com)
JetBlue on Steven Slater: Not a Hero! (thehollywoodgossip.com)
Jet Blue Flight Attendant Steven Slater Breaks Silence, Telling Fans ‘I Need To Go Take A Bath’ (mediaite.com)

RACOONS GOING BROWNSTONE

GrayFoxDown — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 03:53:34 +0000

Remember that raccoon that broke into a Park Slope brownstone only to stumble upon death in a silverware drawer whilst trying to navigate the kitchen? Well, one woman that resides there just sent us along this video, saying, “My cousin Toby, her 2-year old daughter Cleo and I share the 3rd and 4th floor of the brownstone where the poor little guy got trapped in the silverware drawer. Thought you might be interested to know the raccoon caper continues. Last night 2 more raccoons attempted to break in and we caught them on video!” Maybe they were looking for their friend?

Gothamist

Raccoons Try To Break Into Park Slope Brownstone (huffingtonpost.com)
Raccoon trouble (magnoliavoice.com)

FOGHORN LEGHORNING COME MORNING

GrayFoxDown — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 03:42:27 +0000

Sleepy Hollow Road hasn’t been very conducive to sleep over the past few months. That restful street in the New Springville section of Staten Island has experienced a rude awakening ever since a family of a dozen chickens and two roosters moved in. Every morning at about 4 a.m. these new kids on the block like to greet the day with a feathery polyphony of cockadoodles and cockadees and various other a cappella favorites.

Naturally, the then sound asleep/ then suddenly awake residents of Sleepy Hollow Road are extremely incensed when these early morning choristers are performing. And while some find the birds delightful or at least tolerate them, others are growing quite angry. One neighbor became so enraged that he chased after a rooster with a broom in an attempt to squelch the bird’s singing career once and for all. Officers from the ASPCA responded, examined the rooster, and found him to be unharmed.

The birds apparently don’t belong to anyone and it’s uncertain how they arrived there. Some theorize that they might have been originally unwanted chicks (perhaps Easter gifts) that were abandoned at the nearby Native Plant Center in the Greenbelt. From there they escaped and wandered over to the shrubbery along Sleepy Hollow Road and made it their home.

{read more} Staten Island Advance

TUT’S STRUTTING HIS STUFF

GrayFoxDown — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 20:06:05 +0000

King Tut is back in town after a thirty year absence and, while certainly not appearing live, will certainly be appearing majestically entombed at the Discovery Times Square Exposition.

The king’s doing the Big Apple and has come replete with his mandatory stash of legendary treasures, accouterments and various other baubles, bangles and beads to entertain and enlighten you. Ten galleries and 130 artifices are guaranteed to bring on that 18^th dynasty (circa 1330 BC) frame of mind and have all visitors walking like an Egyptian.

Included among the exhibition’s highlights are: the chariot that Tut may have crashed, causing his death (apparently Tut was no Ben-Hur); the golden coffinette and crown found on his head when the tomb was discovered in the 1920s; forgotten lore pertaining to the beliefs and funereal processes in those wild and crazy days of Egyptian pharaohs; and newly-revealed DNA studies/ forensic information about Tut’s life and death.

Tut’s last visit to NYC (along with his mandatory stash, of course) ran from November 17, 1976 through April 15, 1979 at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. An estimated eight million people (this blogger, in his pre-blogger days, among them) attended the exhibition; it was absolutely marvelous!

King Tut’s Chariot Arrives in Times Square (nytimes.com)
King Tut’s chariots were like Formula One cars (msnbc.msn.com)
King Tut’s chariot headed to Discovery exhibition (seattletimes.nwsource.com)

IN THE DUMPS SWIMMINGLY

GrayFoxDown — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 21:14:18 +0000

The Park Avenue elite no longer swim in luxurious pools or at restricted beaches lately. They’ve apparently grown tired of these aquatic locales and now do their swimming in the dumps…or in dumpsters, to be more precise.

NYC’s latest brainstorm (an F5 tornado, insofar as absurdity’s concerned) was to convert several garbage dumpsters into swimming pools and place them at 40^th and 41^st Streets on Park Avenue. For the next three Saturdays the 8’x22’, 3 ½’–4 ½’ deep, Dumpster pools will be part of the Summer Streets program. Each Dumpster could accommodate up to 10 swimmers at a time and will be open from 7a.m. to 1p.m.

“I wanted to do it on Park Avenue because it’s the ultimate contradiction. It will be wild to see people swimming on Park Avenue, near Grand Central, in bathing suits—shocking,” according to Dumpster designer/ mastermind David Belt.

The wilder/ crazier me tends to agree with Belt’s “ultimate contradiction” theorem; nevertheless, my more rational nature requires time for stories like this to sink in (especially before posting)…in the event that I may be hallucinating.

New York Post

Dumpster Pools To Be Installed In Manhattan During August (laughingsquid.com)
Swimming pools coming to Park Avenue in NYC (gadling.com)
Dumpster swimming hits the streets of NYC (mnn.com)
Need to beat the heat? Everyone into the Dumpster! (nydailynews.com)

REVELLING IN REVERE

GrayFoxDown — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 19:50:47 +0000

“The bulldozers are coming,” was the chant of the day; its theme being colonial/ revolutionary. Last week, the environmental advocacy group Times Up! got into the Spirit of ’76, à la Paul Revere, and assembled in Tompkins Square Park. Sporting echoes of ye olden times (tricorn hats, vests, flowing-sleeved shirts, etc.), they mounted their “horses” (bicycles rigged with equine-shaped, cardboard cutouts) and rode uptown.

Their objective: “The group hopes to prevent the proposed weakening of a soon-to-expire 2002 agreement made between the city and Albany, whose language would no longer explicitly safeguard the gardens against being razed for development.”

The Times Up group of about 50 pseudo-horsed bikers called their ride a “funky summer soul mobile party.” Nonetheless, police were concerned because one of the scheduled stops on their mobile party itinerary was Mayor Bloomberg’s house. Barbara Ross, a spokesperson for the group, assured the NYPD that everything would be cool: “We assured them that this is going to be a peaceful ride and we simply want to offer the mayor some homegrown vegetables from the garden so he can enjoy one of the many rewards of having community gardens in NYC.”

Everything went according to plan: cool and peaceful. However, I’m convinced that while the Times Up bikers were wheeling through town Paul Revere was doing cartwheels in his grave.

Gothamist

Channeling Paul Revere to Protect Public Gardens (nytimes.com)
Cyclists’ advocacy group to protest outside Bloomy’s house (nydailynews.com)

SEALED WITH A KISS

GrayFoxDown — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 21:51:00 +0000

An elderly harbor seal has finally found true love in the amatory waters of the New York Aquarium. Bernie, who is 23 years old and quite long-in-the-tooth, has found the seal of his dreams in three year old Coral; it was love at first sight and, for better or worse, the couple is now “shacked up” for your viewing delight.

Until Coral swam into his life, Bernie’s days of bachelorhood were dismally companionless; indeed, he hadn’t scored since the time that Internet Explorer 6 was considered hot stuff. John Dohlin, the aquarium’s director, decided it was time that Bernie took a chance not only on love but on everlasting love.

“It was our hope they [Bernie and Coral] would show interest in each other. I think Bernie was taken aback by the whole thing and wanted to find out what was this strange animal that looked something like him… he was busy checking her out.”

And like any May-December relationship, the new companionship has been attributed to Bernie’s change in attitude—he’s allegedly more active and has perked up. Or as Dohlin put it, ‘He’s the Tony Randall of harbor seals. He’s got himself a young lady and he’s really come alive.’”

Harbor seals live for about 30 years and there are hopes that Bernie will be a father before he shuffles of this mortal (or mammalian) coil.

Gothamist

Harbor seal romance at NY Aquarium cemented with a kiss (nydailynews.com)
Harbor seals’ whiskers as good at detecting fish as echolocating dolphins (eurekalert.org)

MASTER OF SIGNS

GrayFoxDown — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 04:00:06 +0000

Tony Calvano has been hanging signs since 1968. His company, Landmark Signs, builds and maintains many of the signs in Times Square, including the iconic New Year’s Eve ball. (See all videos in the Odd Jobs series.)

DELICIOUS DELIRIOUS JULY

GrayFoxDown — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 22:52:11 +0000

Every time I complain about summers in NYC, someone from a place like Arizona or Louisiana magically appears to gripe about summer weather in his/her hometown. “Man, you don’t know what HOT is until you were sautéed in the scorching sun of Phoenix,” the Arizonian tells me…“ or were marinated in the sultriness of New Orleans,” the Louisianan adds.

I appreciate these individuals’ efforts to assuage, perhaps outrival, my own heated position and disposition with their own summertime anecdotes. Nevertheless, this isn’t Arizona or Louisiana (or anywhere else in the world) but New York, and I invariably take these anecdotes with more than a grain of disinterest and continue sweating to the tune of summer in my own corner of the world. For good reason: it’s extremely hot here!

Weather experts were predicting that July 2010 would be the hottest on record in New York City (for what it’s worth, it was the hottest in Moscow). Unfortunately for history but fortunately for New Yorkers, the last two days of the month finally brought relief; this month wasn’t a record-breaker. For the first time since July 14 (Bastille Day), daytime temps are in the comfortable 80s borne on the waves of thunderstorms ignited by cool air from Canada.

A former dancer (who requested anonymity and facelessness in the above photo…but still manages to look very promising) residing in Prospect Park shared an experience that had afflicted most of us in this part of Brooklyn over the past couple of weeks:

With the stove burning and the air-conditioner too weak to reach her kitchen, “it’s got to be over 100 degrees in that room,” she explained. So after work, she throws off her pants and shirt and dives into a menu heavy on vegetables and cold soups. This has earned her some new fans, though she does not think they are focused on her red pepper and fennel salads.

While this is only a temporary reprieve from summer business as usual in the Big Apple (the torrid days/ humid nights will soon return), it’s better than nothing. Among other things, I was getting tired of barbecuing and preferred something roasted and baked via a moderately slow oven rather than a scintillantly kinetic hibachi. Despite my wife looking as attractively revealing at the barbecue on our terrace as the former dancer looks in the depths of her kitchen, such appetizing sights are dispelled when you’re on the outskirts of Dante’s Inferno.

NY Times

Too Close to Call July as New York’s Hottest Month (nytimes.com)
New York Headed For Hottest July On Record (blisstree.com)
The Cruelest Month: 5 A.M. Is the Magic Hour in a Sweltering City (nytimes.com)

IN MEMORIAM MYSTERIOUS

GrayFoxDown — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 22:31:48 +0000

Since 2005, a new and very poignant form of emblematic expression has become popular in NYC: “ghost bikes.” More than 65 funereal, white-painted bikes have appeared throughout the city in memory to children killed in traffic-related biking accidents, according to the Street Memorial Project. While each of the bikes is documented by the SMP, in memoriam to a specific child who died in a specific accident, there is one mysterious exception at 100 Street on West End Avenue.

It all started last week when a tiny “ghost bike,” one training wheel gone, the other bent, was chained to a streetlamp across from the Synagogue Ansche Chesed. Written on the seat of the bike was “R.I.P Jonah Shapiro, Age 9.” Other written details reveal that the boy was the victim of a hit-and-run that occurred June 3.

However, according to residents and to police records, no such accident had ever occurred at that location; neither on June 3 nor at any other time. The SMP has no knowledge of the bike’s existence nor is anyone familiar with a nine-year-old boy named Jonah Shapiro in that neighborhood. Naturally, over the past week, the bike has become quite controversial; a mystery that has made a ghost bike all the more ghostly.

West Side Spirit

New York City To Remove “Eyesore” Ghost Bikes (treehugger.com)
New York City To Remove “Eyesore” Ghost Bikes (treehugger.com)
City nixes plan to remove ‘ghost bike’ tributes (nydailynews.com)
A ghostly reminder (theage.com.au)

AN EYESORE MASTER EXITS

GrayFoxDown — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 19:56:57 +0000

Peter Saltini was a galling oddity amidst the stylish dynamics of Park Slope, Brooklyn. He either possessed an unfathomably sardonic sense of humor or was unfathomably off his rocker. And even though many of my best friends (and neighbors here in Park Slope) possess similarly unfathomable talents, there’s usually a redemptive method to their humor and madness…in Saltini’s case, redemption was replaced with damnation.

Nonetheless, Saltini could have been as wild and crazy as the wildest and craziest loon, as viciously antisocial as the betrayed Timon of Athens, if he had maintained his building at 174 Garfield Place; thus, displaying an obligatory respect for his neighbors as well as for himself. Instead, many years ago the marvelous Saltini skipped town and moved to an undisclosed location in upstate New York, allowing his house to disintegrate: an eyesore of abandonment.

For decades, Park Slopers cajoled and besieged Saltini with requests and demands to sell his once-immaculate brownstone that, year after year, was crumbling apart…to no avail. In fact, the more his building amassed dozens of building code and safety hazard violations, the more adamant he became in refusing to sell.

“Let them complain,” Saltini, an upstate resident, said in April. “I’ve been a big contribution [!] to the quality of life [!] on that block and all I get from the neighbors is grief. I’ve been here since 1969 and dealing with these people has made my skin thick.”

Then, just when hope seemed to be forever lost, not only hope but a miracle emerged: Saltini had finally given up and sold the property.

Neighbors don’t know why owner Peter Saltini gave up and sold the beleaguered building at 174 Garfield Pl. — which garnered plenty of attention from angry neighbors and councilmen due to its dozens of building code violations and safety hazards — but they don’t seem to care, now that Saltini’s realtor says that the new owner is “involved in the community” and wants to fix the place up.

But you just have to love Saltini’s claim that he’s “been a big contribution to the quality of life on that block.” If his idea of a contribution is an eyesore such as 174 Garfield Pl., this screwball would be apt to view the like of Beverly Hills as a ghetto.

It makes one wonder what Saltini is “contributing” to his upstate neighborhood.

Brooklyn Paper

Real Estate Sold: After years of complaints from the… (ny.curbed.com)
Feuds: The collapsing brownstone at 174 Garfield… (ny.curbed.com)
‘NYT’ Explores Park Slope Hell [Magical Brooklyn] (gawker.com)

SENSUAL GEOMETRY

GrayFoxDown — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 23:33:19 +0000

Titled “Chelsea Girl,” this was shot by Jamie nyc. He states: “Truth be told I liked the geometries of this the most – the stone blocks, the angles of her legs, her arm… Not my typical shot but I was digging it.” Truth be told, I don’t blame him.

THROUGH THE DAISY GIRL’S EYE

GrayFoxDown — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 22:12:10 +0000

Her name was Birgitte Olsen; and in 1964 when she was four years old, even though no one would know her name (or anything else about her for the longest time), she became famous. Olsen’s fame was the result of a 60-second political campaign advertisement that was unlike any other ever seen before or since in America. According to Olsen herself, she was “picked out of a bunch of kids, just like any other commercial” after being presented for the ad by her agent Monica Stuart of the Schuller Agency. (Stuart would later represent Linda Blair and help win her the role of Regan in THE EXORCIST)

On the night of September 7, 1964, during a telecast of “David and Bathsheba “on the NBC Monday Movie, the advertisement was aired for the first time; it was and remains one of the most controversial, arguably most shocking, ads in American history. Despite being aired only once commercially, in the 46 years since then it was viewed and analyzed millions of times on political news shows, in high schools and universities, 1960s historical documentaries, as well as having an influence on campaign advertising, down to the present time.

The ad became known as “Daisy” (sometimes “Daisy Girl” or “Peace, Little Girl”). As the ad begins, an adorable little girl in a pleasant meadow replete with ambient chirping birds (reminiscent of James Whale’s FRANKENSTEIN) is seen picking petals off a daisy. Her counting is childishly awkward/ unordered (“1,2,3,4,5,7,6,6,8,9,”), but when she reaches “nine” she seems to hesitate. A male voice suddenly bursts upon the girl’s hesitated count with a count-down. As the girl gazes up from the daisy at something in the sky, the camera zooming until her pupil envelops the screen in darkness, the countdown reaches “zero” and the darkness is replaced with a mushroom cloud from a nuclear blast.

As the firestorm rages, a voiceover from Johnson states, “These are the stakes! To make a world in which all of God’s children can live, or to go into the dark. We must either love each other, or we must die.” Another voiceover (sportscaster Chris Schenkel) then says, “Vote for President Johnson on November 3. The stakes are too high for you to stay home.” Wikipedia

The Daisy ad clinched Lyndon Johnson ‘s victory over Barry Goldwater (the ad’s implicit “voice of doom” ) in the 1964 Presidential Election.

Sid Meyers was involved in casting Olsen as the Daisy Girl. He recalls that she was a “cute little Norman Rockwell freckle-faced girl.” Meyers was also present at Highbridge Park in Washington Heights (Manhattan) where the ad was shot in just two hours one afternoon. A contract cameraman by the name of Drummond Drury shot the film; an extraordinary bit of “atomic coincidence” because Drury was also the cameraman for the “CITIZEN KANE of civil defense films”: DUCK AND COVER (1951).

Director Tony Schwartz, the ad’s mastermind, was reportedly not present at the shoot. However, he was responsible for mixing the soundtrack; the New York-accented director’s prompting of Olsen (“Count for me, sweetheart…”) and the attendant background noise in Highbridge Park is “like eavesdropping on history.” Raw tape of this footage was provided to CONELRAD.

It has often been asked by students of the Daisy ad whether Olsen’s counting out of sequence was scripted. Judging from the multiple takes on the tape and Schwartz’s own statement that he used what was on the recording to preserve credibility (“It was reality. It was the way the child talked.”[ 57 ]), the answer to this question is “no,” the counting sequence was not preordained.

I was a rambling 10-year-old in 1964 and, despite soon becoming a big fan of Gregory Peck and Susan Hayward, I doubt if I was watching DAVID AND BATHSHEBA that night; hence, I missed the Daisy ad’s original airing. Nonetheless, it was such a sensational conversation piece, I believed that I had seen it; and many people at that time, of all ages, shared the same belief. Perhaps this was my first taste of political hocus-pocus…and Johnson was a master of such trickery.

Daisy: The Complete History of an Infamous & Iconic Ad

EXTEMPORANEOUS INTERLUDES

GrayFoxDown — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 00:06:57 +0000

The “Play Me, I’m Yours” installation kicked off on June 21st and NYC Media’s cameras were in a couple of the locations to capture great, impromptu talent on display all over the city. For information on where you can find an open piano, call 311 or visit nyc.gov.

Related: Pianistic Displays

WHAT SHARKS? WHERE?

GrayFoxDown — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 23:02:53 +0000

They weren’t of the Sharktopus breed (that would have made for a super post) but they were real sharks nevertheless; albeit, comfortably deceased. It’s been (unreliably) reported that three of those bloodthirsty pranksters inexplicably washed ashore on Beach 3^rd Street in Rockaway today, but not before causing some general alarm when first spotted earlier this month. In fact, the U.S. Coast Guard issued a shark alert for the entire Northeast (especially along the Massachusetts coast) after they confirmed that several great whites were cruising through the region.

However, it’s not known what kind of sharks washed ashore in Rockaway nor if it was actually three; some are also beginning to suspect that nothing at all washed ashore there. The Gothamist, via an updated report, suggests that the whole thing stemmed from a hoax; it’s all rather vague and mysterious. Then again, the most frightening moments in Spielberg’s JAWS were when the shark didn’t actually appear but was felt to be lurking nearby.

FEDORA TODAY

GrayFoxDown — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 20:06:51 +0000

It’s yet another case of everything old being new again. The NY Times calls it “The Hat That Ate New York” and, over the past six years, the fedora hat of bygone days is once again a cool and chic accessory.

Ranging in price from $6.00 in Chinatown (imported from parts unknown in China) to about $50.00/ $60.00 in the city’s more stylish shops (also, if I ventured to guess, imported from parts unknown in China), the fedora is a hot item; it’s seen everywhere, especially on the heads of the town’s sporting breed.

Apparently, those classic films of the 1930s/ 1940s really caught on and many people (including women) want to recapture that suave, dressed to the nines appearance.

And to think, when I was a teenager in the late 1960s the last person I saw wearing a fedora was Walter Winchell (I’m sure you remember him).

THE FEDORA: A Fall favorite is back (runningwithheels.com)
Trend Alert: Fedora Hats (thebudgetfashionista.com)
Eater Tastings: Fedora Transfer OK’d; Mad Men Hangouts; A $69 Wiener; More! (ny.curbed.com)
Hats Off to the Fedora (ecosalon.com)

COFFEE JAUNTING CHU

GrayFoxDown — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 10:58:42 +0000

The infamous “Coffee Cop” is at it again; his recent “sensitivity training” hiatus be damned. Traffic Agent Daniel Chu, a vainglorious boor if there ever was one, is continuing an assault on both civil law and common decency with his latest outrage.

A motorist by the name of Tammy Fox was on her way to visit a cancer-stricken friend in Elmhurst Hospital in Queens, NY when a flat tire stranded her on the side of the road. Fox was busy at work attempting to fix the flat when Agent Chu noticed her. In Chu’s take on law and order, illegally parked means illegally parked, whether or not a car had broken down; he immediately “assisted” Fox by writing her a ticket.

“I said to him, ‘are you kidding me? You’re very insensitive. I’m going to visit my friend in the hospital, who had cancer, and I’m trying to fix my flat tire, and you’re standing here writing me a ticket?’” Fox said.

And why is Chu called the “Coffee Cop,” you ask? This Avenging Angel of traffic rules isn’t very concerned about such rules when it concerns himself. Chu has been observed on numerous occasions speeding, going through stop signs, using flashing lights and talking on a cell phone…on his way to get a cup of coffee!!!

In fact, Queens Councilman Daniel Halloran has personally witnessed Chu’s blatant improprieties and confronted him; out of spite, Chu issued Halloran a ticket. While Chu is guilty of enough traffic violations to lose his own driver’s license, he continues to badger countless drivers in Queens over mostly concocted or distorted violations. Two months ago, this little weasel went so far as to slap several members of a funeral procession with tickets.

“Councilman Halloran says Agent Chu’s behavior is so bad, the Civilian Complaint Review Board should be expanded to include complaints against traffic agents.”

Even though many Queens residents are demanding that Chu be fired, this too-big-for-his britches, little big man seems to enjoy a charmed life within the department. After all, not too many traffic agents are as willing and eager as Chu to sink so low to rake in so much loot for the city.

WCBS

“Chu has lost his ticket to ride” (reason.com)
Cell phone-yakking traffic cop who harassed pol demoted to foot patrol (nydailynews.com)
“If he did this to a city councilman and lied about the facts…imagine what he does to average citizens” (reason.com)
Councilman irate over light-running traffic cop (nydailynews.com)

POP-TARTS DO THE BIG APPLE

GrayFoxDown — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 22:50:44 +0000

You’ll be thrilled to learn that Pop-Tarts is going gourmet (I presume) and coming to the Big Apple. Alas, the first ever Pop-Tarts retail store will open to the public in Times Square on August 10 alongside other American institutions such as Hershey’s and M&M’s.

The store will feature interactive attractions such as a Pop-Tarts World Café and a so-called “Varietizer” where creative customers could design their own Pop-Tarts boxes packed with their favorite fruit flavors; of course, they’ll also be able to design their own Pop-Tarts t-shirts. The exact location of this culinary cynosure is still to be announced. DNA info

The Eater states: “If there’s one thing that could make Pop-Tarts better, it’s having them served to you in a restaurant. Maybe there will be toasters within the tables, shabu-shabu style.”

I say that a spoonful of nifty packaging will help make the Pop-Tarts (as well as the medicine) go down.

Emma Roberts Wishes to be in Pop Tarts Commercial (inquisitr.com)
Red Tart Cherries for Muscle Fatigue (fitnesstipsforlife.com)
The GOP, goop, and political Pop-tarts (capitolhillblue.com)

A DUKEDOM FOR HISTORY

GrayFoxDown — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 22:16:32 +0000

A recent article in New York Magazine titled “Old New York” features nine nineteenth- century properties which tap into NYC’s real estate history…as well as into its current fashion-crazed, financial cavalierness. In the world of real estate, history comes at a price (a very dear price) and nostalgia is merely a selling point for those who could afford such nostalgia. I’ve chosen two of these properties as an example of the high cost of “old world” living in present-day NYC.

Above photo: An Italianate townhouse (built in 1855) at 142 West 11^th Street in Greenwich Village exorbitantly belies its 19^th century roots for the 21^st century, befitting the Old New York connoisseur; at least, in one room of this quaintly voguish duplex. The cast-iron rose moldings, a marble fireplace and Pier mirrors came with the house, as does its front hallway with a mahogany banister that has been there since the house’s inception. Of course, the townhouse has a very modern price tag: $7.995 million; a very tidy sum for select happiest millionaires (or billionaires) who enjoy existing as combination homeowners and museum curators.

At 15 Sutton Place (built in 1899) in Sutton Square stands another remnant of olden days at today’s big-ticket prices. This building is part of an enclave by the East River (in and of itself, a waterside view in NYC would make a cardboard box an expensive dwelling) and is packed with the requisite sales incentives: period details. The neo-Georgian townhouse has not one but four original fireplace mantels, as well as decorative moldings, arched doorways, a wrought-iron gate and “more” (which usually means more of the same to a redundant degree). Nevertheless, it’s a steal (depending on who, buyer or seller, is considered as being robbed) at $11.5 million dollars.

A comment from coolbirth on this article: “If only they weren’t so excruciatingly expensive, I’m sure I could purchase a door knob or two or perhaps, even lay claim to a step on a stoop.”

Real Estate Sold: Landmark Village Townhouse Has Rich History, Rich New Owner (ny.curbed.com)
It’s Free to Look: 3 Riverview Terrace (observer.com)
Why Estate Sales in New York Aren’t for Everyone (nytimes.com)
Marble Fireplaces, Fireplace, Stone Fireplace, Antique Fireplace, Cast Iron Hob Grate, Cast Iron Insert, Fireplace Surrounds, Stone Fireplaces, Fireplace Mantels, Fireplaces (slideshare.net)

LIVE FROM THE MOON

GrayFoxDown — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 12:35:59 +0000

Apollo 11 Lunar Landing from Mark Gray on Vimeo.

July 20, 1969. From the window of the Lunar Module (Buzz Aldrin‘s side, the right side facing forward).

The descent and landing of the lunar module Eagle, with synchronized audio from the air-to-ground transmissions.

From an HD transfer of the 16mm motion picture film. The 16mm data acquisition camera footage is the only record of the Apollo 11 landing.

Apollo 11 Launch (e-clecticism.com)
Nasa decision reopens old wounds for Neil and Buzz (independent.co.uk)
The Moon: A GIANT LEAP FOR MANKIND (time.com)
Their finest hour? (news.bbc.co.uk)

DOOMED PLATYPUSARY

GrayFoxDown — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 21:55:36 +0000

There were platypuses in the Bronx Zoo in those days; three of them, to be exact. On April 25th, 1947, Cecil, Penelope and Betty Platypus were brought to the zoo by David and Sigrid Fleay and took up residence in a custom-designed platypusary (newsreel video below). However, their stay was ultimately star-crossed and rather brief; no platypuses of renown or obscurity were ever seen at the Bronx Zoo, or at any other American zoo, since then.

Betty died of cold shortly after her arrival, but Cecil and Penelope adjusted well to their new abode. Hopes were high that the émigré platypuses would settle down and raise a family; in 1957, TIME published an article recounting the domestic activities of the prototherian couple:

Penelope Platypus was one of those saucy females who like to keep a male on a string. Cecil Platypus is one of those males. They lived mid the pleasures of their own platypusary in New York’s Bronx Zoo, where each had its own little swimming pool and private burrows. Back in 1953 Penelope fooled everybody with a false pregnancy. But the zoo never gave up hope. Neither did Cecil. Last month platypus observers noted that something was up in the platypusary…Cecil began to court Penelope.

Then tragedy (the ever-present bane of man and beast) struck. One sad day in 1957, Cecil couldn’t find his beloved Penelope. Apparently she had escaped the platypusary and vanished without a trace. The lovesick (or, perhaps, sick and tired) Cecil died in 1959. America is still waiting for a platypus (and platypusary) of its own.

Gothamist

HOT BIKING DESIGNS

GrayFoxDown — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 04:03:36 +0000

Remember the feeling of freedom and excitement you had as a kid when riding a new bike? You can feel that again, with our vintage-inspired cruisers. Comfortable to ride and easy to maintain, our bikes are handmade in NYC with American steel. Commute to work, run errands or meet up with friends: once again, you can have the coolest bike on your block.

Bowery Lane Bicycles

Want respect for bicycles as transportation? Use them that way. (bjsmith.wordpress.com)
Season of Biker Chic (online.wsj.com)
People For Bikes: If I Ride (osocio.org)

EAST 93rd STREET FREEDONIA

GrayFoxDown — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 11:05:51 +0000

In the early years of the 20^th century, five brothers (along with five relatives) lived in a fourth floor apartment in a building at 179 East 93^rd Street in Manhattan; they would come to be known as Chico, Harpo, Zeppo, Gummo and Groucho: the Marx Brothers.

In 1977, realizing he didn’t have long to live and perhaps feeling rather nostalgic, Groucho visited his childhood home for a final look at the four story walk-up where he and his brothers began honing the comedic gifts that would make them stars. The apartment’s current residents were, needless to say, surprised when a visitor in the form of Groucho knocked on their door and asked if he could come in. “As the story goes, after the aging star looked around his former home, he left without saying a word.”

Even though he didn’t say anything, Groucho must have felt extremely satisfied that the apartment was nicely kept and had barely changed since the time he had lived there. However, the floor was in a rather dismal state and needed to be replaced. A short time after his visit, the floor was indeed replaced with brand new Italian tiles. Even though no one took credit for the work, it was easy to assume who was responsible: the new tiles were quickly dubbed the “Groucho Tiles.”

The block on which the apartment building stands is already called “Marx Brothers Place” by proponents who are pushing to preserve the building itself and include it within the Carnegie Hill Historical District. In 2008, after several brownstones were torn down and replaced with condos, the East 93rd Street Beautification Association began work on having the block officially landmarked. Among the supporters is Harpo’s son, Bill Marx:

“Marx Brothers Place shall at last become the historical site of monumental proportions it so justly deserves, and then nobody ever again will have to request that it should be anything but just that, and finally the good folks of both Manhattan and Freedonia can then get some sleep,” Marx said.

UPDATE (July 25, 2010)–Marx Brothers’ Childhood Home Won’t Be City Landmark:

Unfortunately, the LPC announced that they wrote a letter against making it into a landmark, and now fans and supporters are speaking out, specifically against NYC Council Member Dan Garodnick. {read more: Benjamin James Real Estate’s Blog}

Preservation Watch: There’s been some movement in the… (ny.curbed.com)

UNDERGROUND STAR WARS

GrayFoxDown — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 03:07:16 +0000

For our latest mission, we staged a reenactment of the first Princess Leia / Darth Vader scene from Star Wars on a New York City subway car. The white walls and sliding doors on the train reminded us of the rebel ship from the movie, and we thought it would be fun to see how people would react to a surprise appearance by the iconic characters. We spread out the actors along the train line, staging it so they would enter the right car at the right time. Enjoy the video first and then go behind-the-scenes with the photos and report below: Improv Everywhere

Improv Everywhere Does the Star Wars Subway Car (techeblog.com)
Star Wars Subway Car (london-underground.blogspot.com)
Improv Group’s Star Wars Scene On Subway (geekologie.com)
Star Wars in a Subway Car (wired.com)

NYC STREAMS

GrayFoxDown — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 23:04:32 +0000

Live, web-cam streams of NYC: Times Square (above), views from Empire State Building, Midtown Manhattan, etc, via EarthCam.com.

GROUND ZERO’S WOODEN SHIP

GrayFoxDown — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 21:58:49 +0000

The remains of a wood-hulled ship thought to date to the 1700s are now fully exposed at the World Trade Center site, where they were discovered on Tuesday.

NYT

Boat From 1700s Found At World Trade Centre (news.sky.com)
“18th Century Ship Found Buried at New York’s World Trade Center Site” and related posts (oldsaltblog.com)
Headline Of The Day: 18th-Century Ship Found at WTC Site (mediaite.com)
18th-Century Ship Found at Trade Center Site (cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com)

JUICE POINTS

GrayFoxDown — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 20:56:30 +0000

NYC opened its first car charging station for electric vehicles yesterday. Located at a parking facility on Ninth Avenue between 35^th and 36^th Streets (aptly named “Edison” Properties), cars needing to be electrified can go there. Since there are only 10 electric vehicles in the city at the present time, the lines at the station will undoubtedly be nonexistent.

Nevertheless, Mayor Bloomberg foresees more electric cars rolling in, and more charging stations opening up, throughout the Big Apple: at least 100 stations by September along with 40 clean-energy vehicles for city park and transportation use.

“The electric vehicle is not just a pipe dream or a scene from the Jetsons,” Bloomberg said. “It is here and it is here right now.”

WCBS

NYC opens 1st public electric car charging station (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
Bloomberg Powers Up New Electric Car Charging Program (wheels.blogs.nytimes.com)
New York Revs Up for Plug-Ins (green.blogs.nytimes.com)

GEESE DEAD-GONE

GrayFoxDown — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 20:01:24 +0000

The lake in Prospect Park is completely devoid of geese today; they’re now entombed within a “feathery mass [unmarked] grave.” Last Thursday morning, over 250 of the graceful birds were exterminated by agents from the U.S. Department of Agriculture in an effort to protect planes flying overhead. The geese were herded into a pen (a simple task because the birds were molting and couldn’t fly), boxed up, and tossed into a gas chamber.

The killings were part of a citywide plan to exterminate the birds within seven miles of airports — a policy provoked by the so-called Miracle in the Hudson, in which an airplane was forced to make an emergency landing in the Hudson River after flying through a flock of migrating geese near LaGuardia Airport.

However, many here are mourning (and are outraged by) this tragic incident; the lake in Prospect Park will never be the same…not for a long time, at least.

The Brooklyn Paper

UPDATE (July 25, 2010)–More Geese Headed to The Gas Chamber:

Following the recent euthanization of around 290 Canada geese in Prospect Park, a nine-page report shows the city’s overall goal to thin down the population by 2/3, meaning that around 170,000 geese will be sent to the gas chamber. {Read more: The Gothamist}

Canada geese euthanized in N.Y. (cbc.ca)
Officials Euthanize Nearly 400 Geese From Prospect Park (cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com)
You: Officials Euthanize Nearly 400 Geese From Prospect Park (cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com)
NYC pulls trigger on mass execution of geese (gadling.com)

CYCLONIC FAME

GrayFoxDown — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 02:39:26 +0000

Coney Island’s Cyclone would never be the most dynamic roller-coaster in the world but it was destined to be one of the most beloved, most esteemed… in short, the most legendary roller-coaster in the world. Indeed, on July 12, 1988, as most of Coney Island was crumbling into oblivion, the 61-year-old coaster was declared a landmark.

Of course, most of this was due to the fame that Coney Island itself had acquired by the time the Cyclone opened there in 1927; the countless crowds of visitors to the island, growing larger every day, lending each new ride and attraction an exponential form of publicity. Two very successful rides (also roller-coasters) in particular, the Thunderbolt (1925) and the Tornado (1926) caught the attention of Jack and Irving Rosenthal; they desired to build a roller-coaster of their own that would not only be successful but unrivaled.

The brothers purchased a small parcel of land at Surf Avenue and West 10^th Street; a very historic patch of ground at that: the world’s first roller-coaster (Thompson’s Switchback Railway) as well as the world’s first looping roller-coaster (appropriately named the Loop-The-Loop) once stood there. They commissioned engineer Vernan Keenan to design, Harry C. Baker to construct, their new ride. Due to the limited ground space the coaster would occupy, the tracks had to be exceptionally tight and steep…this set-back would give the ride its added zest.

With power supplied by the Eisenberg Brothers of Brooklyn, signs from Menheimer and Weiss of New York City, steel from the National Bridge Company, also of New York City, and lumber from Cross, Austin & Ireland, located in Long Island City, the Cyclone quickly became Coney Island’s number one attraction, a status it maintains to this day. Cyclone

The wood-framed Cyclone debuted on June 26, 1927; its initial cost was $175,000, but this was paid off during its first year of operation. Visitors had never seen nor experienced anything like it before; they gladly paid the 25-cent admission price (today the price is $8.00!) for the 100-second ride up and down its nine hills.

In 1935, the Rosenthals began an amusement park of their own, Palisades Park in New Jersey, and placed Chris Feucht in charge of the Cyclone. Feucht was no stranger to Coney Island and was certainly well-experienced when it came to rides: in 1907, he constructed a ride called the Drop-the-Dips. After performing some minor re-tracking work on the Cyclone, he diligently maintained and ran the Cyclone for the next thirty years.

As Coney Island declined so did its rides. In 1969 the Cyclone was shut down and stood that way until 1971 when New York City acquired the ride for one million dollars. However, its deteriorating condition dissuaded many from taking a ride on the legendary yet unreliable-looking coaster. By 1972, the nearby New York Aquarium wanted to expand and the Cyclone was a mere inch from the wrecking ball before the “Save the Cyclone” campaign came to the rescue. Dewey and Jerome Albert, owners of Astroland amusement park assumed the Cyclone’s $57,000 per year lease, refurbished the coaster, and reopened it on July 3, 1975.

“Since that time, Astroland Park has invested millions of dollars in the upkeep of the Cyclone — today, it probably runs better than it did on the day it opened, and has the highest safety standards in the outdoor amusement industry.”

CYCLONE ROLLER COASTER FACTS :

OPERATION BEGAN: June 26, 1927 (Operated by Astroland Park since July 3, 1975)
DESIGNED BY: Vernan Keenan

BUILT BY: Harry C. Baker

FIRST OWNERS/OPERATORS: Jack & Irving Rosenthal

INITIAL INVESTMENT: $175,000

TYPE OF RIDE: Compact wood twister

GROUND DIMENSIONS: 75 feet by 500 feet

HEIGHT: 85 feet

LENGTH OF FIRST DROP: 85 feet at a 60 degree angle

TRACK LENGTH: 2,640 feet

NUMBER OF 180 DEGREE TURNS: 6

NUMBER OF DROPS: 12

CHANGES OF DIRECTION: 16

NUMBER OF TRACK CROSSOVERS: 18

NUMBER OF ELEVATION CHANGES: 27

SPEED: 60 Miles Per Hour

RIDE TIME: One Minute, Fifty Seconds

TRAINS: 3 Trains, 3 Cars per train

CAPACITY: 24 Passengers per Cycle

Cyclone Roller Coaster History

Cyclones No More [Sad Things] (gawker.com)
New amusement park in Coney Island, Brooklyn, US (dailycaller.com)
Coney Island goes back in time (thestar.com)
Coney Island Cyclone Opens for 2010 (faircarnivals.com)

BQE BAR-B-Q

GrayFoxDown — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 22:18:34 +0000

fire on the bqe from Jenn W on Vimeo.

driving on the bqe [Brooklyn-Queens Expressway], there’s a car fire, and people parked in front of it for some reason, and then the po po [the police] showed up.

DREAM-DRIVING TIMES SQUARE

GrayFoxDown — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 20:11:02 +0000

Driving Through Time Square NYC from Norris Films on Vimeo.

Hypnotic, dream-like drive through Times Square. The gorgeous music is “Comptine d’un autre ete” (rhyme of another summer) from Yann Tiersen‘s film score to AMELIE.

BREEZILY REGAL

GrayFoxDown — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 18:57:05 +0000

Queen Elizabeth II’s visit yesterday was (unlike her visits in 1957 and 1976) brief and to the point; moreover, despite the oppressive heat but in respect to royalty, the Queen maintained a sweat-free countenance.

After arriving here from Canada, the Queen addressed the UN’s General Assembly. Later, after being greeted by NY Governor David Paterson and Mayor Michael Bloomberg, she and Prince Philip laid a wreath at Ground Zero. Then it was on to the British Memorial Garden at Hanover Square which the Queen officially opened, even though it was opened (perhaps unofficially) two years ago.

Her Majesty swept into town in the baking hours of the early afternoon and was gone by early evening, a tantalizingly concise blip of a royal visit. It was not even queen for a day, but five active hours of her presence nonetheless managed to infuse a drowsy, blisteringly hot summer afternoon with a jolt of magic.

There was some uncertainty bordering on frustration borne of security, from people looking to catch a glimpse of the Queen, as to when she would arrive at certain stops on her itinerary. A harried pedestrian traffic guard’s response: “I heard 2:30 and 5:30. Sorry, buddy, Scotland Yard has been out of touch.”

NY Times

DAMN IT’S HOT

GrayFoxDown — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 20:30:25 +0000

Temperatures soared past the 100 degree mark Tuesday along much of the East Coast, as air conditioners strained to cool the sweating masses and the unlucky sought out cooling centers — or anywhere else they could beat the heat.

If you’re an iguana, NYC is currently the place for you. For the rest of us, this heat wave is absolutely incredible and simply unbearable. The past week was an ordeal of record-breaking (or near record-breaking) temperatures, without a drop of rain or driblet of relief in the forecast; it will continue like this for at least another two or three days.

In the East, warm air is “sitting over the top of us, and it’s not really going to budge much for the next day or two,” said Brian Korty, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Camp Springs, Md. After that, he said, a system coming in off the Atlantic Ocean would bring in cooler temperatures.

We only hope that the electricity holds out, powering our summertime life-support systems (viz. air conditioners, fans, etc.)…if the power goes, we may have to resign ourselves to a soggy dissipation.

WCBS.TV

Video

Heat blankets U.S. as millions return to work (msnbc.msn.com)
Heat wave wilts US northeast (alternet.org)
Think it’s hot today? Just wait… (boston.com)
Heat Blankets Mid-Atlantic Region (online.wsj.com)
New York, Northeast Broiling Under Dangerous Heat (businessweek.com)

PRICKLY PLIGHT

GrayFoxDown — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 18:11:22 +0000

Save the Bronx Zoo: Laid-off Porcupine Searches for Work @ Yahoo! Video

The fascinating adventure of the Bronx Zoo’s laid-off (and unnamed) porcupine continues. Our prickly friend goes so far as to take his case to the streets for your entertainment. Never let it be said that unemployed porcupines don’t possess a sense of humor (or a talent for pathos) in these morbidly interesting times.

Related Post: The NYC (USS) Noah’s Ark (where it all began, including Video.)

ROYAL OPENING

GrayFoxDown — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 21:44:34 +0000

The British Garden at Hanover Square, New York City, will be formally opened by Her Majesty the Queen on Tuesday, July 6, 2010.

Aberdeen Asset Management has donated a Braemar stone and plinth to the British Garden at Hanover Square. The garden will be formally opened by Her Majesty the Queen on Tuesday, July 6, 2010.

Photography by Christopher Gabello (Associated Press) Yahoo! News

Braemar Stone Gifted to the British Garden at Hanover Square in New York by Aberdeen Asset Management (eon.businesswire.com)
Britain’s queen making first visit to Ground Zero (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
“Her Majesty The Queen’s 2001 Jaguar Daimler Majestic V8 LWB. 14,000 miles” and related posts (attuworld.com)
Queen to address UN for first time in more than 50 years (telegraph.co.uk)

LIGHTING UP THE SKY

GrayFoxDown — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 19:22:45 +0000

Macy’s Fourth of July Spectacular electrified the skies over NYC last night with booming blooms of reds, whites and blues. Hundreds of thousands of spectators were enthralled by the “patriotic canvass” erupting 1,000 feet over the Hudson River which included fiery spirals, glittering starbursts and even combustive smiley faces.

The 40,000 fireworks launched from six barges between 24^th and 50^th Sts. Capped a day of sunbathing, barbecues and readings of the Declaration of Independence.

Thermometers hit a high of 96[°F] in Central Park but the sweltering heat did little to spoil America’s 234^th birthday bash.

As for me and my wife, we were holed up in our air conditioned domain watching James Cagney in YANKEE DOODLE DANDY at the time.

Daily News

Fireworks Light Up New York City (PHOTOS) (huffingtonpost.com)
America’s greatest Fourth of July celebrations (msnbc.msn.com)

HOT DOGGING

GrayFoxDown — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 20:51:46 +0000

Professional eating-machine Joey Chestnut has, for the fourth year in a row, won the annual Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest at Coney Island today. Chestnut devoured 54 dogs in 10 minutes to the appreciative delight of crowds of spectators and connoisseurs of the bizarre.

Among the spectators was former six-time champion Takeru Kobayashi who hasn’t signed a contract with Major League Eating (whatever that is)and was barred from competing in the event. That didn’t stop Kobayashi from crashing the proceedings when he took to the stage shortly after today’s competition had ended. Kobayashi was promptly arrested, clutching to police barricades as he was led away.

Alas, “the thrill of victory, the agony of defeat,” in humanity’s quest for a place (no matter how trivial) in the sun.

Joey Chestnut Wins Fourth Hot Dog Eating Contest, Kobayashi Arrested [Sports] (gawker.com)
Joey Chestnut Wins Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest, Ex-Champ Takeru Kobayashi Arrested (VIDEO) (blippitt.com)
Joey Chestnut Wins Again! (dlisted.com)

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