One fine August morning a band of amateur urban spelunkers gathered together some makeshift floatation devices and swam out to (a part of) the site to explore.
2008-08-03
Urban Spelunk: Boat Graveyard (Episode 1)
The Witte Marine Scrap Yard, also know as the Arthur Kill Boat Yard, or colloquially the Staten Island Boat Graveyard is a region of the channel between Staten Island and New Jersey harboring the scuttled and deteriorating remains of hundreds of marine vessels from the early 1900s to the present. Destined for repurpose, salvage, or destruction, the ships sit marooned in the mud of the harbor until they are bought and refurbished, dismantled for parts and scrap, or deteriorate and sink.
One fine August morning a band of amateur urban spelunkers gathered together some makeshift floatation devices and swam out to (a part of) the site to explore.
One fine August morning a band of amateur urban spelunkers gathered together some makeshift floatation devices and swam out to (a part of) the site to explore.
2007-09-23
Urban Spelunk: The Freedom Tunnel (Episode 1)
The Freedom Tunnel is the popular name for the 2½-mile train tunnel under Riverside Park on Manhattan's West border. In the 1970s and 80s the tracks were disused and the tunnel became home to countless displaced and destitute people. Eventually entire eloborate shanty towns developed, some availed of electricity and running water siphoned off the tunnel's infrastructure. In the early 90s the inhabitants were removed by the city with the advent of the new HUD Section 8 programs, and the habitats (mostly) cleared out. Due to its hidden location, restricted access, and extraordinary lighting, the tunnel had become a veritable gallery of large-scale and elaborate graffiti art. Though the tunnel is in use again by Amtrak trains to and from Penn Station, installations continue to be added to this day.
2006-05-29
2006-05-07
The Naked Rudeboy
The Naked Cowboy is a well-known, long standing character in the pantheon of costumed street performers of Times Square in New York City. Created and played by Robert Burck, his act consists of playing guitar and singing--mostly goofy songs of his own penning--on the street dressed in his signature white cowboy hat, white cowboy boots, and white (cowboy) briefs. It is believed that he has been doing the Naked Cowboy routine since 1998, and after thousands--perhaps tens-of-thousands--of photo-ops with enchanted tourists and natives alike, having your picture taken with the Naked Cowboy is one of those uniquely and quintessentially New York Things.
I have been a fan of the Naked Cowboy since learning of his existence. He stands out from every other Times Square character in that his is a unique and original image and character, built from scratch (not derived or appropriated wholesale from mainstream commercial entertainment.) And he is in effect a champion of the fool persistent in his folly, become wise. A template, if you will, for alighting upon a simple, slightly perverse idea and sticking to it, until it becomes famous.
I thought it only fitting that I assume a character in kind for the obligatory photo with the Naked Cowboy. As a fan, at the time, of Ska, the Naked Rudeboy was dreamt up, as a tribute to the Naked Cowboy. ("Rudeboy" is a slang term for male afficionado of Ska.)
I have been a fan of the Naked Cowboy since learning of his existence. He stands out from every other Times Square character in that his is a unique and original image and character, built from scratch (not derived or appropriated wholesale from mainstream commercial entertainment.) And he is in effect a champion of the fool persistent in his folly, become wise. A template, if you will, for alighting upon a simple, slightly perverse idea and sticking to it, until it becomes famous.
I thought it only fitting that I assume a character in kind for the obligatory photo with the Naked Cowboy. As a fan, at the time, of Ska, the Naked Rudeboy was dreamt up, as a tribute to the Naked Cowboy. ("Rudeboy" is a slang term for male afficionado of Ska.)
Blaine Bubble
David Blaine is an illusionist best known for carrying out bizarre public stunts of endurance, such as spending 7 days buried in a transparent coffin, standing on an 80-foot pillar for 35 hours, and living in a 7'×7' box suspended over the Thames for 44 days. In May 2006 he spent a week submerged in water in an 8' sphere in the middle of Lincoln Center.
Thousands of people would come to see Blaine in his bubble; some for the spectacle, some to point and laugh and shout, some for inspiration.
Some for a little of all three.
Two days later...
2006-01-22
SAOM Provideth
A few weeks before its 2006 New York episode I became familiar with the Idiotarod. The event required the use--possibly abuse--of a shopping cart, which are not all that easy to obtain in New York City. Grocery stores go to substantial lengths to prevent bums (and miscreants) from making off with these rather expensive amenities. And the carts that have been plucked from their natural habitat and roaming the streets are invariably chained up or otherwise jealously guarded by their captors.
There were a few days of fantasizing complicated schemes that involved foraying out to the suburbs to raid megastore parking lots where carts of unbelievable size and vigor are known to roam free. Then one day on my usual walk from office to subway station, a cart appeared! Sitting on the sidewalk out in the open, in pristine condition, and unimmobilized, unattached, unsecured!
A week later it was the Christmas-present-disguised mobile armory of Team Full-figured Avenging Task-force of Santa Operatives.
There were a few days of fantasizing complicated schemes that involved foraying out to the suburbs to raid megastore parking lots where carts of unbelievable size and vigor are known to roam free. Then one day on my usual walk from office to subway station, a cart appeared! Sitting on the sidewalk out in the open, in pristine condition, and unimmobilized, unattached, unsecured!
A week later it was the Christmas-present-disguised mobile armory of Team Full-figured Avenging Task-force of Santa Operatives.
2004-12-11
SantaCon 2004
In the late Fall of 2004 I got wind of the annual mischief massive known as SantaCon--a mob of people dressed and acting as Santa, related, and unrelated characters, roaming the city on a day-long pub-crawl and street party, 2 weeks before Christmas. In 2004, its 8th year in New York City, Santa was about 500 strong, but by 2012 had grown to tens of thousands.
Due to its somewhat illicit nature the organizers don't publish the route nor the location of the initial meeting point, and after that the horde is just marauding all around the city. My then girf was going out of town that day and I had to see her off, so I was going to miss the kick-off, and by the time I would be available Santa could be anywhere and I wouldn't know how to find him. None of my friends at the time were interested in this madness, so I placed an ad on CL/AP for someone to be my inside man, i.e. someone who would be with Santa when I needed to find him, whom I could call for a live location report.
A young lady named Mary answered, we traded numbers, and at around 2 pm on Santa Day, using her phone reports from in the fray and directions from bewildered strangers on the street I zeroed in on and joined the Santa Con'.
This was the first of the so-called nonsense events that would later become a staple, a way of life, and comprise the many of the dangled threads.
Due to its somewhat illicit nature the organizers don't publish the route nor the location of the initial meeting point, and after that the horde is just marauding all around the city. My then girf was going out of town that day and I had to see her off, so I was going to miss the kick-off, and by the time I would be available Santa could be anywhere and I wouldn't know how to find him. None of my friends at the time were interested in this madness, so I placed an ad on CL/AP for someone to be my inside man, i.e. someone who would be with Santa when I needed to find him, whom I could call for a live location report.
A young lady named Mary answered, we traded numbers, and at around 2 pm on Santa Day, using her phone reports from in the fray and directions from bewildered strangers on the street I zeroed in on and joined the Santa Con'.
This was the first of the so-called nonsense events that would later become a staple, a way of life, and comprise the many of the dangled threads.
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