Colin Huggins-- the new "street" art

 


Colin Huggins (aka The Crazy Piano Guy) is a true street artist who tickles my fancy at least once a week on my way home. If you've never seen him in action, check these videos out. Yes, the man brings full-size pianos on the subway platform to play for his captive audience. The dude does describe himself as "crazy." But the best part about Huggins is not the quirkyness of his performances' location, but that the man can really PLAY. Check him out. He's all over the city.



 

Almost worth the fare increase and service cuts... well... not really

 


Masstransiscope is a public art project you can only see if you regularly travel the rails. In fact, it's a work that's so exclusive, you'll only be able to see it for about 15 seconds from looking out the eastern windows of the B and Q trains from the DeKalb Avenue station on your way into Manhattan. But see, I'm all about trumping exclusivity, so I'm gonna share these links with you so you can see it, dear readers. You see, the work has just been rehabbed and it's pretty dang cool for entertainment value alone. Taking the basics of still frame animation, but turning it around, so YOU have to move by IT to see the motion, artist Bill Brand created a pretty nice, though simple, piece. When I first saw it, I thought I was hallucinating from the new Q train smell-- (Is that really a rocketship launch I see out my window, or maybe I'm just lightheaded from the tobacco stench on the guy next to me)-- but in fact, I wasn't imagining things. The always forward thinking Creative Time sponsored this back in 1981. I guess some things really do get better with age.

Check out this link for more background information on the artist and to see the cars in their legendary graffito clad era. It's also a hoot to see some crazy young Bill Brand 'fro action.

All this is quite appropriate timing as well, given the fact NYC is just about ready to plunge into 1980s Public Transit Part Deux: The Deep End.

 

Too many cooks in Coney Island's kitchen

Ahh, Coney Island-- tits, robots and weiners-- As Carly would sing, it's the stuff that dreams are made of.

Just got back from tonight's rabble rousin' meeting of the minds at the Municipal Art Society's first public symposium on the ever growing uncertain fate of Coney Island. They've launched a new website, Imagine Coney, whereupon anyone, anywhere, anytime can put their two cents in on how we can begin to restore the illustrious shine of yesteryear to the boardwalk. Alas, tonight's meeting featured lots of people crammed into the beautiful Brooklyn Academy of Music Cafe hoovering free beer and cheese, talking loudly on their cell phones, kvetching with their neighbors, all while Municipal Art Society representatives were trying to give a presentation. So much for open minds, and for staying on message.

There's still lots of bad blood between the old timers and the new timers -- i.e., the elephant in the room being the one true enemy-- that of Thor Equities. Unforunately for the well-meaning Municipal Art Society, which was doing a valiant effort at bridging the gap between the polar opposites, tonight's message of revitalization and a possible bright future of foot longs, vertigo-inducing death drops, and fried clams was met with a resounding chorus of "Daay toock arr jaahbs." (Best South Park Ep. Ever) Truthfully, it's not necessarily job loss, but an influx of the "new" that is scaring the long time residents who are trying to hold on to a memory, and a good one at that. But the open forum format with people waiting in the wings to ask a question (rarely) or comment (lots of those) "I love Coney. I've lived here all my life..." came about feeling like there's just too many cooks in the kitchen. And the sad fact of the matter is, all this is after the fact. Astroland is now a thing of the past. There's simply no turning back. But there were many interesting ideas put forth-- of which, yes, were ROBOT WRESTLING (AWWWW, yeah), a giant concert pavillion to lure the next Bonnaroo, and HUMAN PAC-MAN to tide us over until a permanent solution arises.

Unfortunately, for all the great ideas, one big thing is lacking-- how on earth are they going to get funding for any of this? Truthfully, this couldn't have come at a worse time. Corporate sponsors? I think thee not.

The funniest idea tonight came from one of the presenters who wants to restore the long-forgotten Shore Theater into the world's first Sing-A-Long venue. Sounds like a fantastic idea-- if you're hard of hearing.

In the meantime, below, check out the best idea submitted yet.




Trevor, I think you've got something there.

Manhattan Chowdaaaahhh

 

Certainly one of the strangest, most incoherent, incompetent, as well as divinely humorous ad campaigns I've ever seen-- "New York, we've got you covered."

Sure, we've got you cahvaahed, all right-- with the legendary Custom House tower looming overhead, New England Aquarium and Quincy Market nearby, as well as the Boston Harbor Towers condominiums photoshopped to be five "bars" instead of their usual two.

Whoever did this ad campaign really needs to be fired. Seriously. Since when on earth would my old home's skyline be interpreted as New York?

Calling Denny Crain... come in, please!!!
Get Donnie Wahlberg and the New Kids on 'dis case, STAAAHHT.
 

The power of community outcry in city government decisions

Cheers to the unbelievable past 24 hours. Patricia Lancaster-- the eternal Miss Rubber Stamp to Shoya Boymelgreen, Robert Scarano, and every other greased-hair wannabe Michael Shvo developer in this fair city of ours-- has finally gotten her comeuppance. Today she issued her resignation in response to Mayor Bloomberg's mea culpa yesterday, recognizing that we shouldn't necessarily be proud of the recent performance by the Department of Buildings. Really? You're just realizing that NOW, Bloomie? Six years in??? Hmm. I wonder why.

Imagine, if you will, the reality of this fact-- Lancaster admitted that the planned development of 303 East 51st Street was approved "by mistake." Hmm. When most hard working Americans make a mistake, it's generally not that big a deal-- a forgotten phone message, an unpaid bill, missing a business meeting. In Lancaster's case-- let's put it this way-- a 43 story illegal building was approved for construction without question in complete violation of city zoning regulations. That's just a tiny bit of an oversight.

In Lancaster's six years of serving as the New York City Buildings Commissioner, her "watch" has warranted numerous deaths by illegal construction teams-- (yes, deaths)-- that blind eyes continued to avoid upon every new crane's erection in the city. No one really cares about an undocumented worker, right? It took a disaster of mega proportions to enact change; i.e., one falling on top of a tony Turtle Bay townhouse and a well-to-do established midtown condominium. Before that, calls to 311 were registered but not responded to numerous times for the thousands of violations across this city, as unrestrained "development" continues to change New York into Houston, Texas. Architectural, historic and artistic value be damned, let alone the legal realities.

Even though this is a tiny step, and far from a victory by any means, it gives me hope that for every action there is a reaction, and hopefully discipline. The word "no" has not been uttered in eons here in New York.

In honor of Lancaster's resignation, perhaps she should check out Michael Ingbar Gallery's hilarious named new show in Soho-- "Concrete Erections II: Only In New York." A title invoking both Cindy Adams and being d*&'ed over at the same time-- you have to love it, because what other city on earth would put up with this crap?