nyc

July 17, 2001

7/15/01

Implosion of the Brooklyn Union Gas Tanks

I am convinced my neighborhood is going to be one of the most documented industrial wastelands in this country. I guess that’s what the advent of affordable technology and a high density of creative types will do for you.

The day before these tanks were to be blown up I suddenly found myself possessed to get on my bicycle to get one last look,and take a few snaps. Unknowingly, I was to be joined by a whole flock of people doing the same thing including a documentary film crew. You can’t count out human curiosity.

The tanks I am disappointed to see go. With their checkerboard loudness they have served as the one landmark in the neighborhood recognizable from a distance,a point towards home. Now the landscape will all fade into the rest of Brooklyn and be just another blur from the highway.

By the time I touched down at the actual site of the tanks (which is truly industrial) about 5pm in the evening, the Police crews were rounding themselves up and getting ready to evacuate the area. Stacks of barricades made the business seem official.

The documentary film crew, making a blotter about the tanks, (working title: Implode!) were giving interviews to a handful of media types and selling T-shirts to fund/commemorate their project.

Tomorrow when I step out the door and walk a few blocks North to the park, I am sure it will be odd that gaping hole, giving way to a little more skyline and a little less comfort.

The tanks are scheduled to be blow up at 7:AM Sunday, July 15 2001. RIP.

July 15, 2001

Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel and Saint Paulinus of Nola

Williamsburg, Brooklyn July 2001

These photos are representative of the almost 3 hour process that finds 100+ men parading the statue to St. Paulinus through the crowd filled,sausage eating and cheering throngs of Brooklyn’s Italian American section of Williamsburg.

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go here for the Official Giglio Feast Page!

If you are in the NYC area this mid July, you still have a chance to see some of the fun- other
Our Lady of Mount Carmel Roman Catholic Parish sponsored events include:
Tuesday July 10th 8pm Caribe Night- Steel Band
Friday July 13th 8pm Live entertainment- Italian Night
Saturday July 14th 6pm Children’s Giglio
**Sunday July 15th 2pm Dancing of the Giglio 8pm Live entertainment- Latin Night: Bobby Rodriguez y Su Orquestra. Midnight Mass in honor of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel.
(12:01am July 16th morning)

and you might want to ask for Monday off:
Monday July 16th
Feast Day of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel 10am Festive Mass in honor of Our Lady of Mt Carmel
11am Procession with statue 11:15am Mass in Italian with Choir
12:15pm Mass in English with Cantor 4pm Procession with statue
6pm Polish Mass 7:30pm Creole Mass 8pm
8:30pm Spanish Mass 9:30pm Closing Ceremonies of the Feast 10pm Drawing of the Raffles on Church Steps

June 24, 2001

6/24/01, Sunday night, 7:30PM

Heaven on earth is:

Sushi, WKCR’s Garam Masala show, and a nice bottle of wine to share.

Julie Heffernan at P.P.O.W. gallery

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At the other end of the aesthetic spectrum from Mr. McCarthy, is the extraordinary painter Julie Heffernan. We found ourselves a few blocks down the way from the New Museum at a Soho’s,P.P.O.W. gallery.

Until a couple days ago,I was not even aware there was not only one, but two shows of her painting in NYC this month. As usual it is always a treat to see her work. In my humble opinion, she is the most talented painter on New York’s horizon. This new work retains its wonderful organic focus,continuing to combine those elaborate Velazquez suggestive self portraits with nature(and landscapes). This time around though she has snuck in bright pigments(lots of pinks hues)and additionally found a way to return to those strange allegorical “paintings-within-a-painting” that I first witnessed at the beginning of last decade. I almost missed this show (it all comes down in a couple of weeks) which I would have really kicked myself over later.

I feel very fortunate that I had the good luck to stumble upon her work eight years ago,for it has been fascinating to see how she has evolved. Her technique alone is phenomenal, I don’t know who as a contemporary, in this country anyway, would be considered comparable. As usual I find it really surprising she has not had more critical attention, although I suppose her quiet subject matter (oriented in the manner of seventeenth century still life painting) doesn’t qualify as hype provoking. All the better for viewers.

At any rate I could go on and on about the pleasure her work brings. A second exhibit of her painting can be found uptown at Littlejohn Contemporary Gallery, which I am hoping to grace with in the next week. At P.P.O.W. I purchased a catalogue of this new work for a reasonable $10.00.