Snow storm #3...or 4?

Who remembers by now? A few snapshots before the next one hits. All this will seem quaint in August….

Gawd, I love New York

Where else can you go to a museum, then upon exiting, a few doors down pass a mission, complete with two people asking for money- “I only need 80 cents…can you spare a dollar chief”, then past a dozen shuttered restaurant supply places, then cross a street and come upona gallery opening, walk right in, get a strong vodka & cranberry for free- tip the bartender of course- view some art, take in a scene, find yourself looking into a barbershop (is it a haircut if no one is there to watch it?), talk to a producer of childrens' television, exit, slightly buzzed, then pass a dozen lighting places- all dark of course, notice several windowsmade up of fish tanks, or rows upon rows of smoked chickens, of redpieces of roast pork, mystery meats all hanging from hooks, buy adinner’s worth of incredible seafood noodle soup with a curry broth for $7, pass a prison, then another mission, then cross one of the most famous streets in the world, look up & see a Gothic skyscraper, see a Dan Flavin neon sculpture, pass a $25 million home, then nearly step on a rat the size of a cat, see the Ghostbusters firehouse, then the building where JFK Jr. used to live, pass Harvey Keitel, then a cement mixer next to a Mercedes next to a backhoe, then see two lovers sharing a kiss where a homeless guy used to live, then finally climb my steps, slightly frozen, to reflect upon life in NY, my journey, and of course, enjoy my dinner, while watching The Office.

Show me the show

To mark the closing of the X Initiative gallery in Chelsea, they opened the doors for 24 hours and invited anybody- which of course includes yours truly- to exhibit pretty much anything you could drag over there.

I made a print of an image from my nightlife series, and placed in an "appropriate" location.

All around were installations of paintings, drawings, photography, sculptures, videos, sound recordings, conceptual pieces, interactive pieces, happenings, and the occasional small child or dog. These were hung, taped, nailed, screwed, glued, wired, push pinned, constructed, placed, poured, painted, drawn, silk screened, printed, and otherwise attached or put all around two floors of the gigantic X Initiative building….I only wish there were more galleries/shows like this where there were no rules, no curation, no limits, no arbiters of good or bad taste, just every kind of “art”- and lots of it!

Snow job

The good news, I got a last minute call to do a job before the end of the year. The bad news, it was literally on New Year’s Eve day (if that is it’s official name), and I had to try to drive out of the city in the blizzard. As I have a Volvo, and spent 4 winters upstate, I was not worried, but apparently I should have been. Trying to get out of Manhattan via the Williamsburg Bridge was not happening, so after an hour on Delancy, I took some empty back streets to the Brooklyn Bridge, which was open.

Once I got out of the city, the roads were passable, and I was able to make I to my shoot on Long Island only slightly late. I can’t show the images until after they have run, but look at the March 2010 issue of Consumer Reports to see what I did.

California Dreamin'

Just got back from a week out in San Francisco. While I was out there, I had a bunch of appointments at some ad agencies- I met with: Debbie Mobley at Venables, Bell & Partners, Suzee Barrabee at Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, Jen Hall at Anderson DDB, Kelly Steblay at BBDO West, Kevin Stokes at Kane and Finkel Healthcare, as well as some folks at some top notch design firms: Robin Raj, Steve Fong, Kristin and the gang at Citizen Group and Jon Schleuning, Gloria Hiek, An Luc and Rob Duncan over at Studio Hinrichs. Thank you to everyone for sharing your time with me.

Ate some great lunches at Henry’s Hunan, referred by my buddy, super DP Andy Lilien. He recommended Marty's Special- a dish made with chicken, bamboo shoots, onions carrots, bell peppers, house made smoked ham, all mixed with a hot red peppers- smoky, salty, delicious, but not for the faint of heart. Another signature dish is Diana's Special Meat Pie, described as “Deep-fried flour cakes filled with meat sauce, Parmesan cheese, vegetables, onions and condiments (with or without hot sauce)”- like China meets Mexico in SF. Not sure why good Hunan is so hard to find here in NY, where Szechwan seems to have taken hold as the premier spicy Chinese cuisine.

I also spent some time wandering through SF’s Chinatown, taking
pictures, and had a sort of déjà vu moment when I realized I had walked the same area shooting some pictures almost 20 years earlier. What was interesting to me, upon reflection, was not just how much things had or hadn’t changed, but how much I had changed. Instead of looking at the scene, and shooting it from a distance, I now go right into the scene, and shot using a wider lens, making myself a part of the action. The other thing is back then it was a manual focus Nikon F3, shooting Kodachrome 64, and of course I couldn’t see what I had shot for days until I sent the film out to Fair Lawn NJ.

20 years later, I can take the slide pages out, hold them up to a light source and see images with no problems of outdated software, unread- able media, mismatched color profiles, improper monitor calibration, bad data... but for better or for worse, there is no going back.

Where Have All The Good Times Gone?

Who would have guessed that the best thing I saw today was a 103 year old silent film called The Alcoholic (or Drunken) Mattress by Alice Guy-Blaché, or the first adult non-business book I have read in years, would turn out to be the wonderful Here Is New York, written by E. B. White 60 years ago.

Ray, Ray, Ray

Saw The great Ray Davies, founder of the seminar rock group The Kinks, perform last night. The first set was just Ray and another guitarist, then a full band performing a dozen or so Kinks classics, as well as a few of Davies recent songs. After an intermission, Ray returned with the band, and a full 30 odd member choir to rock/sing/perform some of the Kinks Klassic Kuts, but also rework some lesser known jewels, a few cuts from Arthur, a six song suite from The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society: Village Green, Picture Book, Big Sky, Do You Remember Walter?, Johnny Thunder, and The Village Green Preservation Society, an a cappella See My Friends, closing out with some amazing renditions of Celluloid Heroes, Waterloo Sunset, Days, All Day and All Of the Night, followed by an encore of Low Budget.

It was an amazing night- it incredibly moving to hear one of the most enduring rock performers of the last 50 years perform live tearing through some of rock and roll’s most influential & brilliant songs like You Really Got Me, Celluloid Heroes, All Day and All Of the Night and Days.

As for reworking some of rock iconic songs using a choir, you may hate it, you may love it, but you have to give credit to Davies that at 66, he is still experimenting, still breaking new barriers in music- oh, and rocking like a kid a third of his age!