Nemo

The Blizzard came and transformed the city.

Before the snow ploughs and the footprints and the salt and the dirt could arrive, I got up early to capture it.

I stepped out of my apartment—and into Narnia. Complete with lampposts.

Everywhere, everything was brimming with light. Beauty that catches in your throat. Sudden brightness—shining in the air, in the trees, in the skies, at your feet.

Every moment a new landscape. The early pink skies and the gentle light on the snow cushions on benches. The afternoon sunlight that turns trees to crystal, and a park into an enchanted forest.

Snow making everything beautiful. Covering over the ugliness, making everything look new. Almost as if the world has been made again and we are coming upon it for the first time.

Is it the world—or our eyes, that are made new?

A friend reminded me of a lovely C S Lewis quote about children and snow -

"Everyone begins as a child by liking Weather. You learn the art of disliking it as you grow up. Haven't you ever noticed it on a snowy day? The grown-ups are all going about with long faces, but look at the children—and the dogs? They know what snow's made for."   [C S Lewis, The Hideous Strength]

Children’s eyes are new. They can see what we have become blind to.

Wonder.

Snow reminds me.

I would like to live every day with the eyes of a child.

I would like to unlearn what I’ve learned.

I would like to step out of my apartment every day with new eyes to see what is always all around me, shining at my feet.

SLJ.

are you ready? actual happy manhattan henge day

yes I already told you I know but that was completely deliberate and so you'd have advance warning... and be ready to go with your picnic and folding chairs at a moment's notice.

Here's your moment's notice. And the scoop on where to stand when.

(In case you don't know what I'm on about: two days a year, the sun sets along the east-west axis of Manhattan's street grid. So it's exactly aligned with the streets. This year it's May 30 and July 12.)

Which means here it is today. Happy Manhattan Henge Day! Here are the precise times to show up to see manhattanhenge (note: arrive half an hour before the times below):

Monday May 30: 8.17pm EDT (to see half sun on the grid)

Tuesday May 31: 8.17pm EDT (to see full sun on the grid)

For best effect (so says Hayden Planetarium and she should know) go as far east in Manhattan as poss but ensure you can still look west across the avenues to New Jersey. Here are some good ones: 14th, 23rd, 34th, 42nd, 57th (and Empire State Building on 34th and Chrysler Building on 42nd give the view even more spectaculary-fabulousness)

(All this is all very well but what if it's raining as it has been for the past oh 700 years in Manhattan and you can't actually see the sun?)

Oh well. Never mind. Someone must have thought of that. Happy Manhattan Henge Day anyway!

 

happy (at last) spring

what can you say? it came.

it was worth the wait.

photo: Angel Franco
Azalea Bank of the NY Botanical Gardens
via NYT

Is Central Park on the Upper West Side?

via NYT

Since 1838, Fifth Avenue has been the central dividing line between the East and West Side of Manhattan.

Except look at this bus stop sign that says it's West and the street sign that says it's East. Apparently it depends on which side of Fifth Avenue you are on. And this sign is on the west side of Fifth Avenue so actually it's still West.

Is the West Side of 5th Avenue the West Side of Manhattan?

(I am sure it is) And in which case, technically, Central Park is on the Upper West Side.

I knew there were lots of reasons to live on the UWS versus the UES. ANd now we get to claim CP!

(BTW: yesterday was the 200th birthday of the Manhattan Street Grid! Created by John Randel. Happy Street Grid Randel Day)

See the full gallery on Posterous

Dennis Stock 1928-2010

The photographer whose photography did much to create James Dean's cult, died last week. As one of his colleague described it:

"Dennis is probably best known today for his 1955 essay on James Dean — and specifically for a single image of Dean, in Times Square, walking the ‘Street of Broken Dreams,’ his shoulders hunched, his head pulled low inside an overcoat. The essay appeared in Life and did much to help make the short-lived actor a cult figure."

James Dean in Times Square. 1955.

Audrey Hepburn during the filming of "Sabrina." NYC, 1954

More here.

nyc doorway

(photo by Paul Canetti)

New York: cool video...

New York from Cristina Valdivieso + Jon Connor on Vimeo.

Village Pillows

Rachel Cole is not only the brilliant designer I get to work with at Schwartz & Wade (How To Be A Baby, How To Get Married and Being A Pig) but also the creator of Village Pillows.

Here's what Rachel says about them:

"Village Pillows are a set of cushions that fit together to form the landscape of a little town—somewhere far away from the city. They're ideal for both play and decoration—as individual pillows or as a group. Hand screen-printed on cotton duck cloth or linen in extremely small editions, Village Pillows are well constructed and include an insert."

How cool are they? Don't you need them? Immediately?

More here.

happy ny marathon!

hope all those runners remembered to fall back this morning...

Interesting Marathon Factoid: 

At the 1908 Olympic Games in London, the marathon distance was changed from 25 to 26 miles to cover the ground from Windsor Castle to White City stadium, with 385 yards added on so the race could finish in front of King Edward VII's royal box. 

After 16 years of extremely heated discussion, this 26.2 mile distance was established at the 1924 Olympics in Paris as the official marathon distance. -Paul Ostapuk

Makes you proud to be British...

Norman Foster & Dr Seuss: Constraints and Inspiration

Interesting article about Norman Foster and the tiny sliver of a building he is designing in the Bowery. He has come up with an ingenius use of an elevator to do it. Foster said he had managed not to be daunted by the notion of stacking galleries with such a circumscribed footprint on top of one another; instead, Mr. Foster said, “it’s a case of the constraints finally becoming the inspiration."

The constraints that limit you can actually lead to the inspiration. Freedom isn't always about having no boundaries, it's more about being able to run free because you have them... Like sheep on a cliff... without the fence they aren't free. (Or they're free to leap off the cliff and die I suppose.) But with the fence they can be move about freely without fear... even run. Anyway all that rambling on about sheep and fences and fear to say... limits sometime make you cleverer.

Take Dr Seuss for example. The Cat In The Hat came about because his publisher challenged him to write a beginning reading book with only a limited vocabulary. It has only 223 different words. (The word cloud shows the words he used, minus "the", "and" and "I".) With a tiny pile of short words he created a classic.

Seuss found the limited vocabulary challenging and, after a period of frustration, simply chose the first two words on the word list that rhymed: "Cat" and "Hat".

Maira Kalman... Latest Pursuit of Happiness

excuse me, but how is it that the woman has a blue face on that bike--and I saw her. on my street. exactly her. and that dog? and the woman with the bag.

To see more of this genius's work go here

Robert Frank

Swiss-born Robert Frank has a show at the Met and a film at Film Forum. He is 84 and lives in Manhattan. And no one has had a greater influence on photography in the last half-century. Though he took many photos and made many films, his reputation rests almost entirely on a single book published in 1958. The book (a collection of 83 black-and-white images of American life and now on view in a show at the Met) is an intimate visual chronicle of common people in ordinary situations drawn from several trips he made through his adopted country in the mid-1950s. Frank's favorite photo in the book is this one... Canal Street - New Orleans, 1955 He said of it, "It's rare that you have that movement and the variety of people on the street." Philippe Séclier’s documentary showing at Film Forum is called: “An American Journey: Revisiting Robert Frank’s ‘The Americans’” and retraces Frank's steps using a digital camera rather than a Leica.

Red and Orange Streak

"Red and Orange Streak" (1919), Georgia O'Keeffe (1887–1986) (from the exhibition "Abstraction" at the Whitney) As Holland Cotter in the NYT said, there are two Georgia O’Keeffes. The most familiar is the who does all those cow skulls and flower paintings. I am sure it reveals me as an ignoramus, but I've never much liked them. The other O'Keeffe is the abstract painter. Her abstract works are, to me, much more interesting. But they are mostly overlooked and it's the flowers that she's known for. But the flower paintings didn't start til the 20s. Before that she'd been working on abstract drawings and, as Cotter says, they were "among the most radical creations produced in the United States at that time." Abstraction was simply the only kind of art, she said, that let her express her deepest feelings. She couldn't describe them with words. “Words and I are not good friends.” She had to paint them. Draw them. Here's another of my favorites. One of her small vertical pictures inspired by New York. "Abstraction", 1926 The show is at the Witney through Jan 17th. More here.

coney island rides

PHOTO: polaroid transfer

remembering... 8 years on

More photos of the towers before the attacks here

maira kalman: And the Pursuit of Happiness

The glorious Maira Kalman is doing a wonderful series for the times called: "And the Pursuit of Happiness" and here's her latest. I love it and her! (I am lucky enough to volunteer at school with her so I have really in actual fact even met her.)

new yorker cover by... iphone

the stroke by stroke video of The New Yorker cover being painted on an iPhone. Jorge Colombo drew the cover using Brushes, an application for iPhone, while standing for an hour outside Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum in Times Square. more here.

"Clean, Sexy Water"-- charity: water

The NYT just did an article on a friend's uber fab nyc based charity, charity: water which you can read here and add your thoughts here. this video tells all...

fireworks on the hudson

snacklish

(photo: NYT)