Street Steam

A cauldron boils beneath New York City.

I like the steam shooting out the woman's head, to the left.  But my favorite steam incident, shown in the other photos, was in front of the St. Regis Hotel on 55th.

Sure geysers and natural vents are nice, but nothing says "Hell" like men breaking rock in the middle of hissing, wraith-like billows of scalding steam.


The curly plants, candy cane vent, and elfish doorman costume in the shot on top don't hurt either.

Welcome to the St. Regis, ma'am.  One of Lucifer's lackeys -- I mean one of our bell staff! -- will be right with you.

My Music Profile

Miles Davis' Live Evil, cover art Mati Klarwein
Here's a list of old music that I digitized (mainly from tape, believe it or not) a few years ago.

I didn't rate them, but I wouldn't have gone to the trouble of digitizing them unless I thought I'd listen to them again, so figure they all rate at least 3 of 5 stars...

Scrutiny on the Bowery

The Bowery Goes To Hell
Nothing represents gentrification of the Bowery like the New Museum.

I finally visited a few weeks ago, and just noticed that an upcoming show will let you watch drugged young women sleep, as in the photo, left.  [via C-Monster; photo Henrike Schulte]

I'll leave you to figure out how close this idea can get to creepy without crossing the line.  I'm sure that, being under the control of art professionals, no harm will come to the volunteers -- beyond the YouTube video evidence of their nightmares, blurted confessions, and other nocturnal emissions.  And if you're squeamish about being part of a formal exercise, I'm sure you can still find drugged people sleeping nearby, outside the museum, for free.  But that's not art.

When I visited the museum, right, nothing struck me so much as how hard it tries to convey that "contemporary art museum" atmosphere, like the Guggenheim, where the art can seem secondary to what it really sells: a chance to share the world weary attitude borne of having too much money on too small a planet, and skipping from one exclusive island of wealth to another, each different but basically the same.  From the ticket lines to the luxury condo view on top, to the work of Elizabeth Peyton, who specializes in paintings of jaded pretty people -- everything's tuned to exude that empty, shiny atmosphere.

So yeah, I liked the New Museum better before it got rich and moved to the Bowery.

People who tout the architecture of the building -- like those who admire the luxury condo tower Blue, nearby on the Lower East Side -- not only ignore the context, but the purpose of these buildings.  The purpose of Blue is to house very rich people; it basks in the glow of history while it helps erase it.

And the purpose of the big new New Museum?  I didn't really sense one, beyond the desire for a higher profile, though I'd guess it fits right in with Blue and the luxury condo boom, and is helping turn another unique corner of New York into just another bland island in the global archipelago of wealth.

Bari's across the street, and a standout at the museum, its stairwell

Union Square - The Beauty

I keep taking pictures of this block, even though there's nothing new about it.  I'm convinced you can't take a bad picture of it.

It wears its years well and, thanks to the individually developed vertical slices it makes in the block, is friendly to the street life lived around it.  Compare it to any of the newer block-long developments, where Arbitrary Style hulks meet the sidewalk with a single bank branch or a few chain stores.


I think the whole idea of real estate in cities needs to be blown up before we find ourselves with zero street life, scurrying between massive fortresses that repel outside life and kill the surrounding public space.

And I think the simplest way to correct the problem is to force development into narrow vertical slices like we see on this block, or at least break up ground floor commercial space, and rent the majority of it at less than market rate to non-chain businesses, say through lottery.  If the city can demand those dead "public space" plazas around huge developments, why not demand that developments meet the street in a way that does not subtract variety and kill civic life?


Sure it will never happen, but I think it's a good scheme.  And if development continues as it has, we'll find ourselves in the worst of worlds, all crammed together in an environment just as sterile as the suburbs, like rootless teens at the mall.

Top 5 Scaffolds of 2008

Above, first among the best, is the American Standard building on Bryant Park.  (I assume it's the company that makes urinals, that once caused a friend using one to remark "Moving up to the American Standard!")


Above left, veiled scaffolding on Broadway above Union Square.  Above right, scaffolding for the rich & famous at the Plaza Condotel (condo/hotel) at Central Park South.


Above left is my co-winner for 2008, the brooding scaffold on 38th off 6th Ave.  And just because the others here are black, white & elegant, above right is a Mad Max mess in pink from the Village.

Too Short

Ink on paper, 14 x 17 inches, by Allan Reinke
The following is stuff from a failed "essay" of mine, hopefully improved by the music links...

"Here's my chance / to dance my way / out of my constriction" - Bootsy Collins

I think the world would be a better place if we could all plug in to the cosmic current and "let it flow."  Every bit of the universe throbs with rhythm, layered & syncopated, from the pulse in your wrist to the lighthouse strobe of a pulsar, and all we have to do – to feel at home – is find the beat.  (I blame the hippies for giving cosmic talk like that a bad name, and what with the drugs, light shows and bare feet, there was no way they could find the beat.)

[ Bootsy's Hollywood Squares remix at YouTube* ]

"I can drink a whole Hennessy fifth / some call it a problem / I call it a gift" - Xzibit (pronounced "exhibit"), rapper

Now that we have the technology to become gods we choose instead to become Fantastic Voyeurs, snorkeling through the dyed hair and dead brain cells of D-list celebrities, watching them sin and suffer in our place.

I just hope Xzibit sounds as clever now as he did when he spit out those fearless lyrics, and isn't drinking generic vodka at the back of a supermarket parking lot, listening to his brain cells burst like bubble wrap.

I've been a big hip hop fan since the mid '80s.  Though too much of it is brain-dead pop music, or vicious just to make a buck, there's a huge amount of beauty if you know where to listen: to the life-affirming intelligence of the layered soundscapes, the playful boasting and bittersweet yearning.  And that's what I love about the music beyond its sound: the recognition that life is a struggle, a bittersweet thing that's trying to kill you just as hard as you're trying to love it.

[ Rhyme Poetic Mafia's bittersweet lament G Life at YouTube ]

"Life is the only thing worth living for" - Flipper, a sometimes glue-sniffingly-slow punk band

[ Flipper's Sex Bomb at YouTube ]

That might be the deepest one yet, and a good way to close – but here's just one more, from Too Short, a rapper who turned a sparse sound and dirty mind into gold, at least for a while:

"Life is / ... / too short..."

[ Too Short's Life is Too Short at YouTube ]

* Warner Music Group (WMG) made YouTube remove the video I used to link to here, likely cheating Bootsy out of some money, and certainly some glory, because listeners unfamiliar with this tune will never hear it and become fans.

There's a difference between outright piracy for profit and low-key sharing on the web, but corporations like WMG, Sony and Disney are only interested in protecting their profits, not the culture they've been allowed to monopolize and suck dry.