April 27, 2008
six years of the jimlog
(I have no idea why the 99¢ store across the street has a second sign reading 69¢) Today marks the anniversary of this blog, begun six years ago. I had conceived it as a modest but public means of...
Posted by james at 12:02 PM | Full Post
March 14, 2008
a beautiful woman
Stanley Ann Dunham’s 1960 high school graduation picture Don't miss this beautiful article about a very beautiful woman. I cried from beginning to end.She had high expectations for her children. In Indonesia, she would wake her son at 4...
Posted by james at 12:16 PM | Full Post
March 11, 2008
spring-ish, and surrounded by a promise of summer
These crocus guys have been livening up our garden for a week or so already. Yes, the little trifoliate leaflets around them belong to our local frais de bois....
Posted by james at 7:58 PM | Full Post
February 14, 2008
but we do celebrate Valentine's Day . . .
. . . and would like everyone else to be able to do the same Justin Marshall Baby, I wanna make-out 2006 C-print This was one of the works in the artist's show in Chicago's excellent Thomas Robertello Gallery last...
Posted by james at 11:19 AM | Full Post
December 31, 2007
the last of the old year's (glorious, expiring) lillies
Flowers, like other objects of our affection - or lust - are usually sought out for their freshness and youth, and not for their spots and wrinkles. Anyone familiar with this site knows I love flowers, but I confess...
Posted by james at 1:43 PM | Full Post
December 16, 2007
traffic horse on West 27th
It was totally dark on far West 27th Street at 6:15 last night, except for the amber incandescent lights overhead, so this beast looks even more weird than it might normally....
Posted by james at 11:10 PM | Full Post
Smart on 23rd Street
The first Smart of winter. The Mercedes Smart (yes, Mercedes) will finally be available in the U.S. by the end of January. We spotted this little beauty (a cabriolet with manufacturer's plates) parked across from our building as we...
Posted by james at 8:46 PM | Full Post
December 8, 2007
ArtHaus Miami at the Miami art fairs
Bruce High Quality Foundation arthur kills again 2007 [detail of installation] Eugenio Ampudia Impression Soleil Levant 2007 video [installation view] I'm not going to be able to do regular posts while Barry and I are still in Miami for...
Posted by james at 9:29 AM | Full Post
October 13, 2007
my favorite Iraq war photo
a long way from Williamsburg I found this image searching Google while preparing my post about Ashley Gilbertson's book. It's from a photo-sharing site in an album maintained by a Marine photo journalist, Staff Sergeant Chad McMeen. This is...
Posted by james at 3:13 PM | Full Post
October 1, 2007
pink cupcake exceeds sell-by date: CLOSED
lights out The pink cupcake is dark tonight. Dead. And long may it rest, in oblivion. I was immediately sorry for what the closing of Burgers & Cupcakes might mean to its employees, but minutes after I heard the...
Posted by james at 12:48 AM | Full Post
September 22, 2007
a "7th haven" on international Park(ing) Day
hanging out in a park and free bike repair station on 7th Avenue at Charles yesterday Park(ing) Day, it's about serious greenstreets See Jim Dwyer's column for a word picture of the larger footprint of New York's part in...
Posted by james at 11:32 AM | Full Post
September 13, 2007
the Chelsea Symphony is super!
supernal music between the altar and the first pew Barry and I are big fans of the two-year-old Chelsea Symphony. It has little to do with allegiance to a home team, even if that's what got us into the...
Posted by james at 2:12 PM | Full Post
September 12, 2007
Alex the parrot
"Thinking about animals" He was probably already my favorite member of the paper's staff, but a short piece by Verlyn Klinkenborg in today's NYTimes was worth far more than the price of admission. He is writing about Alex, the...
Posted by james at 11:54 AM | Full Post
September 2, 2007
Mercedes micro delivery spotted outside bagel shop
pride-of-ownership emblem, or NYC-traffic-defense gizmo?...
Posted by james at 1:04 PM | Full Post
August 30, 2007
I love science!
A piece of amber 15 to 20 million years old, found in the Dominican Republic, contains a perfectly-preserved bee within it. The news seems to be all about the fossilized orchid pollen on the insect's back, and how it...
Posted by james at 8:52 PM | Full Post
August 25, 2007
they're totally okay with this weather
Some of our friends seem quite happy with the kind of weather that makes me pretty miserable. I snapped these happy guys on 10th Avenue in front of the Red Cat late Wednesday afternoon. It had rained lightly all...
Posted by james at 4:43 PM | Full Post
August 20, 2007
summer afternoon - summer afternoon
view through our open French doors on a cool, cloudy August afternoon...
Posted by james at 6:09 PM | Full Post
frippery
untitled (fuzz) 2007 Now it's just a website frippery, but this happy mix lining our courtyard-garden path makes me smile every time I walk through it....
Posted by james at 5:55 PM | Full Post
August 4, 2007
Duke Riley: news from the [water] front
under arrest securing the Acorn This story had legs from the start, sea legs. Barry and I were watching it on line as it grew all day yesterday, and apparently it's still going. I would say that this late...
Posted by james at 10:40 AM | Full Post
July 25, 2007
yellow Koi
This guy in the Battery Park City lotus pool is about eighteen inches long, and what you see here is the actual color....
Posted by james at 3:11 PM | Full Post
July 24, 2007
butterfly effect
These two Painted Ladies were very busy in the 28th Street flower market this afternoon. They ignored me entirely, but I can totally understand the reason for their concentration: They have only two weeks to live and to reproduce,...
Posted by james at 4:19 PM | Full Post
July 15, 2007
roof garden update
looking cool After yesterday's post, I suppose even I might have been able to predict this one. The (five-year-old) roof garden outside our apartment is a great joy, even in the winter. But it's so hard to get living...
Posted by james at 7:25 PM | Full Post
July 13, 2007
Sinbad was gay?
Kerwin Matthews, "flesh-and-blood Sinbad" Why didn't somebody tell us? Kerwin Matthews, the actor who played Sinbad in the 1958 film, "The 7th Voyage of Sinbad", died July 5 in his home in San Francisco. The NYTimes obituary says that...
Posted by james at 12:35 PM | Full Post
July 11, 2007
Harriet Quimby
I'd heard about a bit about her before, but when I arrived at page 38 of today's Newsday and saw that beautiful face turned to the camera the name Harriet Quimby somehow came to life for the first time....
Posted by james at 12:50 PM | Full Post
July 9, 2007
rare sighting of a brace of two of my favorite things
lithe youths on light bikes, turning out of Rivington Street last Saturday...
Posted by james at 11:59 PM | Full Post
July 3, 2007
"Where do Homosexuals Get All Their Energy?"
Brandon Kelley I'm not much of an advertisement for an energetic homosexual at this moment so I was curious about "Where do Homosexuals Get All Their Energy?", this piece in last week's The Onion. I read it straight through...
Posted by james at 12:55 PM | Full Post
June 27, 2007
not just about clouds
While looking at this shot on my screen I was trying to decide whether to post what would just be another Lower East Side cloud picture. Then I thought of an excuse: I would say something about how if...
Posted by james at 2:30 PM | Full Post
June 7, 2007
Bicycle Fetish Day in Williamsburg
I've always loved bikes and bikers, perhaps almost obsessively (excepting the fiends who ride on sidewalks or yelp at pedestrians), and so on a recent Saturday afternoon I was determined to investigate the 3rd Annual "Bicycle Fetish Day", an...
Posted by james at 10:18 AM | Full Post
June 1, 2007
mixing it up
Before today I don't think I'd ever seen an attempt to combine 50's Madras and 60's tie-dyed traditions as a single concept. I have no idea whether a conscious irony was involved, but this beautiful young man lit up...
Posted by james at 12:52 AM | Full Post
May 20, 2007
people in Spain
children playing in a fronton in the fishing town of Getaria, on the Basque coast I've just put dozens of images on Flickr, specifically of people we encountered during our two weeks in Spain. Most of them are complete...
Posted by james at 2:54 PM | Full Post
May 13, 2007
AVIS Preferred
nice beltline It took us at least 45 minutes to turn over the keys to our rental car here in Barcelona yesterday, but there was also this pleasant distraction at the counter immediately ahead of us. He and his...
Posted by james at 7:42 PM | Full Post
May 7, 2007
the El Escorial terrace
Today was a slow day at the El Escorial. Indeed, it was a day the palace/monastery was closed, but the huge terrace was pulsing with life during a lunch break for the students at the Real Colegio Alfonso XII....
Posted by james at 7:04 PM | Full Post
May 1, 2007
leaving for Spain
Francisco de Zurbarán Still Life with Lemons, Oranges and a Rose 1633 We're flying to Spain tomorrow for two weeks: Madrid, a motor trip north, ending in Barcelona, from which we fly back on the 16th. I was in...
Posted by james at 6:27 PM | Full Post
April 20, 2007
big, gold fish
Conversations with this big guy in the outer office of my entodontist this month almost made root canal fun. I'm sure it was all about food, but he definitely acted like he was paying some serious attention....
Posted by james at 12:48 PM | Full Post
April 19, 2007
boarder
untitled (boarder) 2007 dusk, on our Chelsea corner...
Posted by james at 12:47 PM | Full Post
March 31, 2007
ACT UP party tonight
This t-shirt was designed by the legendary activist artist collective Gran Fury 17 years ago. Today South Africa has national health care. A lot of people still think they can do something to help drag our own country into...
Posted by james at 10:47 AM | Full Post
my favorite activist
Barry, in the crowd listening to speakers across from the Stock Exchange yesterday...
Posted by james at 10:37 AM | Full Post
March 13, 2007
marquee poetry
In this image of the Waverly Theater (now the IFC Center) marquee, as seen from across the street yesterday afternoon, it's not immediately apparent that motorists, approaching from the left on this one-way street, got to see only the...
Posted by james at 2:38 AM | Full Post
February 13, 2007
John Waters's Valentine heart
I brought us home a big bunch of beautiful off-red tulips tonight. I really admire more creative responses to the ancient Valentinus challenge, but one story totally intimidates me. John Waters has lately been talking about his own special...
Posted by james at 10:21 PM | Full Post
February 6, 2007
Leah Tinari at Mixed Greens
Leah Tinari Enjoying the Hose Down 2006 acrylic on canvas 48" x 68" Leah Tinari Chug-a-Lug 2006 acrylic on canvas 40" x 40" Leah Tinari Disappearing Act 2006 acrylic on canvas 48" x 68" [detail] That's just hot. Leah...
Posted by james at 7:40 PM | Full Post
February 2, 2007
Homeless Museum at home to guests this Sunday
Filip Noterdaeme THE NEWEST™ 2006 model (plexiglass, LED screens, figurines, remote-controlled robotic system) [installation view]* The Homeless Museum (affectionately referred to as HoMu by both adoring fans and its own creators) will be welcoming visitors once again this Sunday....
Posted by james at 1:35 PM | Full Post
February 1, 2007
Boston authorities crazy about LED street art
1/31 changed everything I'm so embarassed for my friends in Boston. No, wait: Maybe our good neighbors are all actually onto something really, really big (I'm not talking about the suits and uniforms - or an impressively stupid Boston...
Posted by james at 5:53 PM | Full Post
January 23, 2007
Abbé Pierre, the excessive priest
"holy anger" Abbé Pierre died yesterday. If there is such a thing as a "saint", this man clearly deserved the title, but he will never be canonized by the Church. Too excessive.He wrote that as a young priest, he...
Posted by james at 12:01 PM | Full Post
January 17, 2007
gone yesterday
untitled (vinca) 2006 This image was taken on January 6, just ten days ago, when temperatures hovered near 70 degrees and a gentle rain was falling on our roof garden outside the breakfast room window. Last night the temperature...
Posted by james at 6:14 PM | Full Post
October 31, 2006
anti-terror jack-o'-lantern
This is my second Hallowe'en post. This one's the opposite of grumpy. So I'm thinking, the times are already scary enough; this year a goofy jack-o'-lantern may be just what the doctor ought to have ordered. [I really should...
Posted by james at 11:40 PM | Full Post
September 1, 2006
clowns commuting to Brooklyn
rushing the turnstiles happy together favorite hunky clown just ordinary commuters DIY nose jobs but hard to miss I knew pretty much what to expect. I was told a horde of clowns would be descending onto a subway platform...
Posted by james at 11:36 PM | Full Post
July 3, 2006
a table for the 'farm'
I found the table I'd been looking for! Now I may never be tempted to leave town, at least not before morning papers and iced coffee. Even the plants seem happier....
Posted by james at 8:20 PM | Full Post
June 20, 2006
our little scrub farm
it only appears restful between regular campaigns replacing casualties with new recruits Our apartment envelops this bit of the outside on its north side, but nature refuses to forgive a building for totally blocking all direct sun with its...
Posted by james at 9:25 PM | Full Post
June 16, 2006
egret seriously rambling
a truly Great Egret For some the Ramble is more for fishing than hunting expeditions, although we also observed the latter as we circled the north side of Central Park Lake with Barry's visiting uncle yesterday on an absolutely...
Posted by james at 8:58 PM | Full Post
June 4, 2006
nature, Johnson, Kelly, Bertoia
Last week while visiting the garden Philip Johnson designed in 1953 for the Museum of Modern Art I was charmed by the anthopomorphic postures of the Bertoia chairs, also just over fifty years old, which are found strewn (rather mysteriously...
Posted by james at 6:13 PM | Full Post
June 3, 2006
spring Barry
Barry talking to his wonderful mother in MoMA's Sculpture Garden last week. The beautiful bright blue Impatiens crowded into their geometric beds looked quite jealous....
Posted by james at 8:58 PM | Full Post
April 29, 2006
parrot's back
Two summers back I passed this guy's lofty perch on 8th Avenue at least ten times a week on my way to and from the Cancer Center, but last year I never saw (or heard) him once. Two days...
Posted by james at 3:20 PM | Full Post
April 27, 2006
the kindest, smartest, most beautiful man in the room
Barry We met fifteen years ago today. It was the best thing that ever happened to me....
Posted by james at 11:30 PM | Full Post
fourth anniversary of the jimlog
four yellow wild strawberry blossoms in the lawn this morning I started this blog four years ago today. It succeeded more than eight months of emails sent to friends after September 11. It never would have happened and wouldn't...
Posted by james at 3:33 PM | Full Post
April 18, 2006
yellow tulip in a sea of rose-red
Difference is always special, even on Park Avenue. No, especially on Park Avenue....
Posted by james at 9:07 AM | Full Post
April 8, 2006
tape dog
[seen on the platform of the 8th Avenue Canal Street station]...
Posted by james at 2:56 PM | Full Post
Eostre bunnies and their friends
happy shop window on Bleecker Street [I forgot to document the identity of the beautiful store, but for the story of these little critters themselves, see last year's post]...
Posted by james at 12:27 PM | Full Post
March 8, 2006
a very special daisy
untitled (double Gerbera) 2006 Not until I got the little Gerbera Daisy plant came home did I notice how special it was: One of the blossoms is a double, a gorgeous pair of Siamese twins. They seem very happy....
Posted by james at 1:25 AM | Full Post
March 5, 2006
violinist and pink youth
[seen the other, far side of the tracks last night]...
Posted by james at 12:34 PM | Full Post
February 14, 2006
bearded Valentines
(I couldn't find any bearded [German] Iris) This is a funny Valentine, but perhaps funny is as good an approach as any to a holiday whose simplicity has been as compromised by commercialism as much as this one has...
Posted by james at 2:25 PM | Full Post
February 13, 2006
still sticking with snow
These two storm details were captured during a walk across West 22nd Street late yesterday afternoon. The first image reminds me that snow isn't so fussy about spreading its largess; even man's stuff get's the full treatment. The second...
Posted by james at 6:34 PM | Full Post
February 9, 2006
there's nothing like a good cloud, or two
Welcome competition for the skyscrapers. The picture? Yeah, I know this is pretty dull stuff, even if you think a beautiful sky, or at least it's appreciation, is an exceptional thing in Manhattan. So let's just say this post...
Posted by james at 9:13 PM | Full Post
needing a thumbs up
Sticker-decorated but otherwise empty Gay City News box seen on 6th Avenue this afternoon. Anybody out there know anything about the image?...
Posted by james at 9:00 PM | Full Post
February 3, 2006
art in paraphilia
a boy and his fancy dog Ever so often something reminds us that we really don't know much about fetishes. I found this fascinating but uncredited image on a site I was directed to by an email from Slava...
Posted by james at 4:06 PM | Full Post
January 6, 2006
Jesus, just visiting
the eyes have it As I write this it's already the early hours of January 6, the Feast of the Epiphany and traditionally the absolute finish to the long holiday which celebrates the birth of the founder of the...
Posted by james at 12:08 AM | Full Post
January 1, 2006
grace under light
[pink-eyed Cyclamen] I found my clunky old tripod today and I immediately teamed it up with my old Macro lens and brought the fancy new camera and a flowering plant to a south window just before the sun disappeared....
Posted by james at 5:43 PM | Full Post
scene on New Year's Day
from tops to bottoms [the elegant vintage ceiling fixture is attributed to Norman Bel Geddes, and the wonderful "Loveseat" is by Cliff Baldwin, created as a gift to Bill Bartman for Art Resources Transfer]...
Posted by james at 1:54 PM | Full Post
December 26, 2005
Miami Beach night life
for your every convenience Whew! Really glad [the holiday] is over. Maybe now we can all go back to genuinely enjoying things more or less spontaneously. I've been saving up this picture taken in Miami Beach earlier this month...
Posted by james at 8:10 PM | Full Post
November 24, 2005
Kubrick does cute
I just came across this picture of a very come-hither-ish Montgomery Clift while looking through an email from Phaidon Press. It's from a new photography book, "Stanley Kubrick: Drama and Shadows," a collection of images captured by the film...
Posted by james at 12:17 PM | Full Post
November 23, 2005
heading for Florida and the Miami art fairs
okay, I saw these three in L.A., but they'll have to do for now If you're in Miami next week for the art fairs* we may bump into each other, that is, if I can be pried out of...
Posted by james at 6:01 PM | Full Post
November 3, 2005
gotta love a boy with a little bicycle and a red scarf
especially if he's part of a "Drive Out the Bush Regime" demo marching up 8th Avenue this afternoon led by some of the youngest revolutionaries I've ever seen the youth in question looking particularly endearing stopped by a flat...
Posted by james at 12:05 AM | Full Post
October 31, 2005
crocdog sighted on Bedford Street
We ran into Larry Auerbach and his little friend yesterday afternoon in Williamsburg. The dog was very much into his costume, so any sign of affection was totally out of the question. It just never seems like the right...
Posted by james at 2:50 PM | Full Post
but flowers are not always required
More autumn enthusiasts in our courtyard garden....
Posted by james at 2:39 PM | Full Post
the flowers of October, into November
Just about the time the gardeners should be turning out the annuals and preparing our building's courtyard garden for winter, these beauties [Salvia Leucantha] show up and ask for their time in the low sun....
Posted by james at 2:23 PM | Full Post
October 12, 2005
living with Hans Poelzig
our Luft chimney We're in Berlin, where we are staying in a friend's apartment off Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz. The building was designed by Hans Poelzig in the late twenties, and the image above is that of the handsome small court within....
Posted by james at 3:53 PM | Full Post
September 20, 2005
life on the edge - of the reservoir
I was up by the Central Park reservoir (the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir) yesterday. It was one of the last days of summer and I was anxious to find some sign of color or life other than the green...
Posted by james at 2:46 PM | Full Post
September 18, 2005
do birds drink?
I was walking with Barry and some friends along 11th Avenue just above 24th Street when I spotted a birdhouse shape on the far side of a tree [by coincidence one of my most favorite trees in the entire...
Posted by james at 6:50 PM | Full Post
"Floating Island" sighted off Manhattan
It was already early Saturday evening. We were walking down through Hudson River Park with a destination in mind, but we had started to assume that we would arrive too late to see the posthumous [performance?] of Robert Smithson's...
Posted by james at 5:32 PM | Full Post
September 9, 2005
sturdy Bavarian beasts
I couldn't begin to say who's the prettiest The caption supplied with the photo reads:Bavarian herdsmen in traditional dresses drive their beasts on a road during the return of the cattle from the summer pastures in the mountains near...
Posted by james at 4:25 PM | Full Post
September 6, 2005
ArtCal now has pictures!
Robert Boyd Heaven's Little Helper (from the series Xanadu) 2005 video still (Manson Girls) News flash! ArtCal now has pictures as well as information. Well, it is all about the visual arts, so offering some images along with direction...
Posted by james at 5:06 PM | Full Post
September 5, 2005
keeping New Orleans alive, and honoring the dead their way
A 'Gay Parade' gets under way in the French Quarter of New Orleans. as a determined handful of hurricane survivors vowed to keep the spirit of New Orleans alive. The official parade was postponed because of the arrival of...
Posted by james at 7:15 PM | Full Post
September 2, 2005
saving a living archive of American social and cultural history
the author's home, before the flood I have a stack of neglected newspapers on my right as I sit here at my laptop looking at the staggering reports of human tragedy flowing in from Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. I...
Posted by james at 12:30 PM | Full Post
August 31, 2005
Marcos is gay
Subcommander Marcos Well, maybe not, but he sounds really good, and he still looks wonderful. His words, especially since they're from the mid-90's, won't be news to many out there, but I tripped over this powerful quote from Subcommander...
Posted by james at 2:03 PM | Full Post
August 27, 2005
fiores stravagantes
in the Channel Gardens, Rockefeller Center, on Thursday...
Posted by james at 5:42 PM | Full Post
miniature Manhattan wildlife II
up the wall He's back! I'd seen nothing since last July, but there were two sightings of our roof garden lizard this morning, both on the wall above the planters. Barry thinks we actually saw two separate little creatures,...
Posted by james at 11:54 AM | Full Post
August 23, 2005
Barenboim continues Said's dream
playing for peace In a project begun with the dream of his late friend Edward Said, Daniel Barenboim finally made it to Ramallah with his West-Eastern Divan Orchestra last night. Members of the orchestra, founded in 1998, come from...
Posted by james at 4:08 PM | Full Post
August 20, 2005
papal Carnival in Cologne
demonstrators dressed as a priest and a nun kiss in front of a large model dinosaur during an anti-religion demonstration in Cologne August 19, 2005 [as der Ratzinger arrived in Cologne] Sometimes it's best to let the thing speak...
Posted by james at 12:06 AM | Full Post
August 17, 2005
keeping Flosshilde afloat, so to speak
the Rhine maidens taunt Alberich [another cast, same harnesses] What a trooper! What an exciting diversion from the day job! How could you turn it down if the opportunity presented itself? And think of the stories for the grandchildren....
Posted by james at 3:51 PM | Full Post
August 15, 2005
finally, a VJ Day which liberates the queers too?
exactly 60 years later: the kiss watched 'round the world, its original models, and some contemporary enthusiasts Although there is at least one same-sex couple in the group* kissing in the image above, they didn't make it into the...
Posted by james at 4:21 PM | Full Post
August 9, 2005
something like a green shitsu, resting
Usually there's a tree of some kind in the middle of these things, but then the grasses don't grow so luxuriantly as they have in this little curb garden, seen on Waverly Place this afternoon. Yes, the usual neat...
Posted by james at 6:59 PM | Full Post
August 8, 2005
forget about "design" here - just enjoy it
[spotted in Astoria last evening, squeezed between a Cosco and Socrates Sculpture Park]...
Posted by james at 12:10 AM | Full Post
July 31, 2005
miniature Manhattan wildlife
Eastern Fence Lizard, Northern fence subspecies I think it was one of his relatives. I don't know when a modest garden of pots on a low Manhattan roof qualifies as a natural wilderness, but I'm thinking that ours must...
Posted by james at 9:44 PM | Full Post
July 29, 2005
before Billy Joels, before potato barns, before the Shinecock,
untitled (rose scallops) 2005 . . . there were these communities. I'm very fond of shellfish, and my taste in art and food, especially food preparation, includes a powerful strain of minimalism. I spotted this gorgeous cache of shellfish...
Posted by james at 7:09 PM | Full Post
July 24, 2005
displacement: having had more than enough of the headlines
brown-eyed susans in our building's court garden today...
Posted by james at 12:38 AM | Full Post
July 10, 2005
meet Bubba
Bubba waiting for us on Bedford Street in Williamsburg today I have always been interested in cars. Actually, I'm something of a car nut, in spite of my interests and principles otherwise. Yeah, I know, it's 2005 and we...
Posted by james at 11:21 PM | Full Post
July 7, 2005
always seductive, it finally is fashionable
In a NYTimes review of the restaurant Loreley published just over a year ago Julia Moskin wrote, "German food can be a hard sell. It is deeply unfashionable . . . . " I copied the quote down. Today...
Posted by james at 12:53 AM | Full Post
July 4, 2005
liberty and justice for all
reaction in the public gallery of the Cortes on June 30, as the Spanish parliament extended full rights of marriage to all citizens Some day a people crazy about waving its own flag at home and around the world...
Posted by james at 1:51 PM | Full Post
July 3, 2005
holiday on ice
untitled (Garden of Eden melons) 2005 Wishing everybody out there (except for the neo-fascist fundamentalists who would destroy it) a delightful 4th of July!...
Posted by james at 7:55 PM | Full Post
June 22, 2005
the summer solstice is also a line stealing down a wall
soft as a morning sunbeam Once a year for a few days around the summer solstice our great star sits high enough above 23rd Street for its rays to penetrate four stories (plus a few more feet) down through...
Posted by james at 8:40 PM | Full Post
June 21, 2005
"don't walk/walk" with a great shirt
Not much is ever left unembellished, or unremarked, in Williamsburg. This one is thanks to Barry's sharp eye....
Posted by james at 5:25 PM | Full Post
June 7, 2005
laundry room Speedo
special bulletin spotted this afternoon For me at least this was definitely the most provocative found item of clothing I've seen in our basement laundry room in the eighteen years I've been visiting its splendors. This midnight-blue Speedo even...
Posted by james at 11:17 PM | Full Post
June 5, 2005
Ryan Humphrey on 24th Street
Ryan on the left, Barry with the sawed-off shotgun on the right We hadn't yet left the seductive sidewalk gallery of Eric Doeringer early this afternoon when Barry and I spotted the Humphrey Industries/ open-air kiosk in front of...
Posted by james at 12:00 AM | Full Post
May 13, 2005
they just want to sing
Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin The Canary oil on canvas 19.75" x 17" I'd love them even if they didn't sing, but they do, and now we're learning how much they want to, and why they want to. Because of the beautiful...
Posted by james at 1:05 PM | Full Post
May 8, 2005
are we finally going to get real Smart?
no armor and no hairshirt The Washington Post reported three weeks ago (in an article syndicated in excerpts today in New York Newsday) that DaimlerChrysler has finally decided to let us dumb Yankees have a chance to buy the...
Posted by james at 4:54 PM | Full Post
May 1, 2005
May Day
untitled (Rote Fahnen) 2005 In the spirit of May Day, the spirit of the Left and, yes, the spirit of the flowers that bloom in the spring, tra la....
Posted by james at 11:53 AM | Full Post
April 27, 2005
sigh.
We met in a crowd of friends fourteen years ago today. It took another full year to coax him into the apartment, but Barry very quickly became my life. [image from Wigstock 2004 by me]...
Posted by james at 5:17 PM | Full Post
April 25, 2005
it's such a fecund scene
Spotted in Williamsburg on the inside of the narrow extruded steel pole supporting a parking sign....
Posted by james at 12:23 AM | Full Post
April 18, 2005
we call it the breakfast room
that's actually a candle flame; the cupboard is a faded apple green It looks onto the garden roof terrace, away from the street bustle. We eat all of our informal meals here, but otherwise it functions more like a...
Posted by james at 11:01 PM | Full Post
April 13, 2005
chapel computer
Europe's fastest supercomputer, an IBM capable of making 40 trillion calculations per second, was booted up for the first time yesterday in a chapel [italics mine] of the Polytechnical University in Barcelona, Spain A beleaguered American atheist, I was...
Posted by james at 2:19 PM | Full Post
April 11, 2005
back HERE: Trey Lyford and Geoff Sobelle
Six weeks ago I wrote about a terrific theatre piece at HERE, "All Wear Bowlers." After a brief hiatis Trey Lyford and Geoff Sobelle are back with the same show. Performances begin once again on April 22. If you...
Posted by james at 6:01 PM | Full Post
April 8, 2005
"people fall in love with these creatures"
I was feeling just slightly abashed as I sat in the waiting room of a small-animal veterinarian a few days ago. I was gently cradling Sweetpea, our little green parakeet, slumped in his small clear-plexiglas travelling case, waiting our turn...
Posted by james at 7:32 PM | Full Post
March 31, 2005
garbage flowers
I spotted this garden planted just outside the long frontage of the Museum of Modern Art on West 53rd Street today. I was on my way to the American Folk Art Museum located next door. Each "flower" bore one green...
Posted by james at 2:07 AM | Full Post
March 26, 2005
like a huge, colored Eostre egg
untitled (piebald Met Life Building and van doppel) 2005 There can only be one explanation for the exuberance of this neighborhood display tonight: The fecundity feast of Eostre [sic]. Excerpts from the Wikipedia entry for Easter:The English and German...
Posted by james at 10:11 PM | Full Post
March 25, 2005
parrot as family
Bernie, wanting still more Yesterday I made one of my regular visits to the wonderful avian shop called 33rd & Bird to pick up supplies for the third member of the family. As usual, I hung out with their...
Posted by james at 1:06 AM | Full Post
March 23, 2005
2nd Annual Drinkin' and Drawin' Championship
intense bar scene from last year's competition Dunno exactly why, but this sounds like a wonderful thing. The promoters (yeah, that sounds so big-deal), M.River and T.Whid, have their explanation:It might be interesting if an art idea conceived in...
Posted by james at 11:58 AM | Full Post
getting one's priorities straight
This graffito was found inside the boy's room in one of the large Chelsea gallery/studio buildings today....
Posted by james at 12:08 AM | Full Post
March 16, 2005
happy meals
Juan Gris Fruit Dish, Glass, and Lemon (Still Life with Newspaper) 1916 oil on canvas 28.75" x 23.5" I don't know anything about cooking, but I know what I like. No, that's not quite right. I do know something...
Posted by james at 4:08 PM | Full Post
March 1, 2005
snow tree
early this morning outside the north bedroom window. I know I've snapped a picture of this little tree and uploaded an image before, and yes, even prior to that at least a couple more times, but it's the only...
Posted by james at 6:39 PM | Full Post
now it's St. James
Until this afternoon I was under the impression that you had to be dead before being addressed as a saint - unless you're an American president of course. Whatever. But this is indeed a RARE treat....
Posted by james at 6:22 PM | Full Post
February 7, 2005
no need to wait for spring
(perpetual garden found in front of an old house on Berry St. in Williamsburg today)...
Posted by james at 12:04 AM | Full Post
February 6, 2005
Texas pick-me-up
parked outside Pierogi 2000 this afternoon:...
Posted by james at 11:48 PM | Full Post
January 8, 2005
one-stop shopping in Brooklyn
untitled (Metropolitan Avenue marketing) 2005...
Posted by james at 12:03 AM | Full Post
January 1, 2005
must be the rural part of the South Bronx
including at least one farmer and feed dealer There's a fairly happy story in Newsday this morning, reporting the relatively unaggressive approach of NYC police to last night's local Critical Mass. The monthly event promoting pollution-free transportation went off...
Posted by james at 2:52 PM | Full Post
December 31, 2004
the New Year
Until this afternoon around 3:30 I still had no image for a New Year's post. Then I spotted Allie helping the harried (actually, sometimes pretty intense, witness the cell phones), last-minute shoppers waiting in the checkout line at the...
Posted by james at 4:28 PM | Full Post
December 23, 2004
the winter happy plant
My mother grew up in a large German Catholic family on a prosperous dairy farm in Wisconsin. Tradition was important, so important that even into her children's generation the excitement of St. Nicholas Eve, December 5th, managed to give...
Posted by james at 12:45 AM | Full Post
December 20, 2004
Winter Solstice
Solstice lights Only now that my birthday has passed (even when quite old, late-December children sometimes remain pretty sensitive about their personal nativity celebratory rites) I can start to think about the pagan Saturnalia, the forest peoples' Yule or...
Posted by james at 8:32 PM | Full Post
November 25, 2004
a very small Thanksgiving story
store-bought cut celery Overheard from the loudspeakers at our neighborhood Whole Foods this afternoon, clearly audible above the sounds of colliding shopping carts being pushed by harried people with long shopping lists, [almost] all prepared for elaborate home-cooked feasts...
Posted by james at 12:06 AM | Full Post
November 14, 2004
running through Chelsea
seen on the south side of West 24th Street, Saturday at 6 pm We hit a number of Chelsea galleries this afternoon, but we were both more more relaxed, and better dressed for the weather, than this gentleman....
Posted by james at 12:43 AM | Full Post
November 12, 2004
flu shots, Minnesota nice
"In Minnesota," this morning's NYTimes headline reads, "Flu Vaccines Go Waiting." Setting aside the question of how we got into a situation where throughout the country this year there are only a fraction of the flu shots which should...
Posted by james at 12:14 PM | Full Post
November 5, 2004
"Haroun and the Sea of Stories"
Wednesday, the stage at the New York State Theater, before the lights darkened We went to New York City Opera Wednesday night to see Charles Wuorinen's new opera based on a short novel by Salmon Rushdie, "Haroun and the...
Posted by james at 2:01 PM | Full Post
November 2, 2004
Bush is history
The skys are blue again, all over the world. But the real work is only beginning. It's not going to be easy rebuilding a nation and removing the curse which has rested so heavily on the planet [the cultists...
Posted by james at 8:09 PM | Full Post
October 17, 2004
Capogiro: head-spinning gelato
I don't know much about it. For some reason there doesn't seem to be a website (even when those are now so ubiquitous we shouldn't be surprised to find a website for the lemonade stand the neighbor's kid set up...
Posted by james at 7:48 PM | Full Post
September 4, 2004
lotus
From 15th Street and our short glimpse of Pier 57 Barry and I headed down the pedestrian path along the Hudson this afternoon until we reached this exquisite lotus in the Koi pond just above North Cove in Battery...
Posted by james at 8:45 PM | Full Post
August 18, 2004
Getty Gardens, collages
I really liked both the luxurious commingling and the tight boundaries in the various flower beds. This will be the last of the Getty Garden images, and the last, sigh, of any of Los Angeles, at least until next...
Posted by james at 3:32 PM | Full Post
August 16, 2004
Getty Gardens, rebar trellis
Robert Irwin's Central Garden at the Getty Center includes three magnificent Bougainvillea trellises assembled from concrete rebar alone. Their shapes suggest small fanciful Baobab trees, and offer just about the same amount of shade to the benches arranged at...
Posted by james at 7:46 PM | Full Post
August 15, 2004
Getty Gardens, groundcover
Luxurious miniature landscape: For a sense of scale, see a very small bee just to the left and above the center of the picture....
Posted by james at 7:27 PM | Full Post
August 14, 2004
August 13, 2004
Santiago Cucullu's Hammer
Santiago Cucullu Barricades from All D&D, Haiti, Prague that Fall, Fermin Salvochea (2003) Contact paper on wall. Even a week after returning from the West Coast I'm still finding pieces of paper reminding me of things I wanted to...
Posted by james at 7:56 PM | Full Post
August 12, 2004
August 11, 2004
"all types welcome"
Seen on West 3rd in Hollywood last week....
Posted by james at 6:25 PM | Full Post
August 10, 2004
Getty Gardens, Hibiscus
Just down the ramp at the Getty Musem where I found the Bougainvillea were these magnificent white Hibiscus, and I had barely entered the larger Central Garden area itself....
Posted by james at 1:17 PM | Full Post
August 9, 2004
Getty Gardens, Bougainvillea
More than 25 years ago a friend in Boston brought me a present she had carried all the way back from a visit to El Paso, where she had grown up. It was a peach-colored ">Bougainvillea plant, and it...
Posted by james at 9:32 PM | Full Post
August 8, 2004
Los Angeles precision landscaping
Schindler House, high, tight-foliage "hedge" bordering the entrance drive Getty Center, corner of zigzag pedestrian path through Central Garden Los Angeles doesn't disappoint a visitor from the North, and for this pilgrim its charms always begin with the flora,...
Posted by james at 1:09 PM | Full Post
August 7, 2004
Green Hummer Project
political art, cruising Savannah streets Crazy about bikes, but just can't get those Hummers out of your mind? Check out these guys and their wonderful full-size Green Hummer.This bicycle is an attempt to make large numbers of people reconsider...
Posted by james at 5:44 PM | Full Post
"Sam Shepard ghost town"
We're home! Since we only had a dial-up connection in the hotel room, I didn't try to post everything I wanted to while we were in Los Angeles. This item, and perhaps a few others to follow, will make up...
Posted by james at 3:36 PM | Full Post
August 4, 2004
I'm a tree hugger
untitled (palms in the blue) These wonderful creatures could easily turn me into an animist. These palms were waving above the high terrace of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art this afternoon. But, at least on the surface,...
Posted by james at 2:48 AM | Full Post
August 3, 2004
off with the trucker hats
The poster was spotted on West Third Street in Hollywood this evening. Thanks, guys....
Posted by james at 3:28 AM | Full Post
August 2, 2004
flowers for Charles and Ray Eames
In a combination which this northerner found unlikely (and accordingly so very spectacular), these bougainvillea and morning glories were entwined on the side of the drive to the Charles Eames house in Pacific Palisades this afternoon. [thanks to Mary...
Posted by james at 2:05 AM | Full Post
August 1, 2004
the old Chung King Road
untitled (Chung King Road) 2004 The very pedestrian Chung King Road is the site of six or eight of the most exciting galleries in Los Angeles, but it's also still part of Chinatown....
Posted by james at 3:47 AM | Full Post
July 30, 2004
Portland's Sauvie Island
We drove around Sauvie Island this afternoon, just outside the city of Portland. These two photographs are of landscapes approximately two miles from the city limits, and only twelve miles fom the very center of town. They are totally...
Posted by james at 3:37 AM | Full Post
July 29, 2004
Ben Franklin is avoiding Boston
In spite of all reported sightings to the contrary, Ben Franklin is not in Boston this week. Can't say that I blame him. This image was captured in downtown Portland yesterday. This city was founded by New Yorkers and...
Posted by james at 2:38 PM | Full Post
July 26, 2004
Portland business lunch
five businessmen enjoy lunch together this afternoon en plein air, downtown Portland A beautiful idyllic town, designed to please the biped who enjoys leisure, Portland nevertheless must be paid for. These men however don't think the business has to...
Posted by james at 9:07 PM | Full Post
busting Oregon, sorta
on the Oregon coast yesterday afternoon, just north of Otter Rock We made it to the Pacific, but when we got there everbody was gone. Actually, Barry and I are staying in Portland this week, where he's attending a...
Posted by james at 2:08 PM | Full Post
July 22, 2004
sculptural fan dance on Wooster St.
I remember now why galleries used to just close altogether in July and August. On Tuesday afternoon I wandered into the Dearraindrop show, "Riddle of the Spinx," in the large Wooster St. space of Deitch Projects [no website!]. It...
Posted by james at 11:48 PM | Full Post
July 21, 2004
Pooh's umbrella
Spotted on the way home from Williamsburg, on the uptown platform of the 14th Street IND station around midnight one rainy evening earlier this week: An attractive and serious young man, comfortably slouched on the bench, reading a copy...
Posted by james at 9:11 PM | Full Post
July 10, 2004
shiny cart and happy people
KING JOSIAH'S is surely the cleanest and most beautiful hot dog cart in the city of New York. Note the condiments. We spotted Josiah, and a few of his friends and customers, parked at the curb on the northwest...
Posted by james at 12:12 AM | Full Post
July 5, 2004
skateboards at ease
on Lafayette Street this afternoon The image is that of three skateboarders studying videos of skateboarders. They are looking at a number of monitors behind a grill protecting the display window of a skateboarder shop, Supreme, closed for the...
Posted by james at 10:09 PM | Full Post
July 3, 2004
a mice day, and penguins in the park
We went to the Central Park Zoo this afternoon. The animals were delightful, but the people (almost all of them escorted by baby people) were pretty wonderful too. Barry said that he thinks everyone should be required to go...
Posted by james at 6:01 PM | Full Post
June 29, 2004
Summer in the Long Island City
PS1 and the members of Young Architects Program, responsible for the beautiful courtyard installation, should be delighted to know that the visitor pictured above, relaxing in one of their outdoor spaces, had made the art very much his own...
Posted by james at 2:44 PM | Full Post
June 18, 2004
loving the hibiscus
I have a certain awe and respect for the hibiscus, although I've never lived with one. My fascination began long ago in Oshkosh on my Aunt Lillian's veranda and it was renewed soon after I first discovered the formal...
Posted by james at 6:20 PM | Full Post
visiting the "Playpen" at the Drawing Center
We dropped ourselves off inside the Drawing Center's "Playpen" Wednesday evening, where we bumped into some old playmates and made some new ones. We had a great time and left only after promising ourselves we'd be back another day -...
Posted by james at 10:23 AM | Full Post
June 14, 2004
Tony Feher makes me smile
CORRECTION: I was wrong in my original posting; Tony Feher's show continues until Friday, July 2. Also, I've just added descriptions of the two works shown below which were not identified earlier I was wrong. Tony Feher's really wonderful show...
Posted by james at 8:55 PM | Full Post
June 13, 2004
of gardens and the High Line
I was in the garden most of the afternoon. No, not the wonderful wild tundra of the High Line represented above, in a picture taken Saturday afternoon, but the 12' x 16' roof which lies outside our apartment. New...
Posted by james at 11:19 PM | Full Post
June 6, 2004
way cool photo-in captures New York MTA
Grand Central Station waiting for the Lex express on board, somewhere above Union Square, er . . . actually, below transferring to the L I saw the message captioned, "Photographer's Rights Protest," and I told myself, "I'm in!" The...
Posted by james at 8:50 PM | Full Post
June 5, 2004
Reagan, more dead[ly] as president than now
Donald Moffett He Kills Me (installation detail), 1987 He's dead, but as the encomiums pile up he's not going to look dead enough. Reagan virtually spat on people with AIDS throughout his presidency. The epidemic began under his watch,...
Posted by james at 8:50 PM | Full Post
May 25, 2004
aux armes, mes enfants!
UNCLE SAM NEEDS YOU! [Barry spotted this image of Jake Gyllenhaal, which is courtesy of the ACLU and arrives via uffish and black sheep]...
Posted by james at 5:12 PM | Full Post
May 21, 2004
bearded iris
I don't know why, but I'm always pleasantly shocked at how early the Iris show up each year, and so it was when I spotted this one in our gardens this week....
Posted by james at 7:02 PM | Full Post
everybody into the sandbox!
New York, Abingdon Square, May 10th, 4 pm I love kids, not just because they're beautiful, and not just because they're guileless, but mostly because in talking to them or watching them even for a few moments you can...
Posted by james at 2:53 PM | Full Post
April 17, 2004
Spring-ing
This is a view of the magnificent ornamental plum tree on 11th Avenue, surviving in the midst of the Chelsea gallery geography, captured late this afternoon....
Posted by james at 11:57 PM | Full Post
April 14, 2004
February 13, 2004
February 7, 2004
Mexico pictures [updated]
I've edited my gallery of images from our trip to Mexico City, adding captions to each image (other than those of the hotel). I'm afraid the information on the archeological images is rather poor, but I took no notes. I...
Posted by james at 6:51 PM | Full Post
January 31, 2004
Mexico Pictures
We're in Mexico City. It's glorious! While I don't expect to be posting text while we are here [too distracted], I think I will be able to regularly put uncaptioned images in this gallery. Captions when we return, I...
Posted by james at 11:52 AM | Full Post
January 27, 2004
Mexico
Diego Rivera, detail from mural in the Palacio Nacional, Mexico City We'll both be away for about a week, on our first visit to Mexico City, so posting is likely to be interrupted. Sweet Pea will stay home in...
Posted by james at 2:50 PM | Full Post
December 24, 2003
"The Rural Life"
At rest with the flu, in a room at the top of an old farmhouse in the rural American Northeast [an excerpt from a short piece in the NYTimes]:I was raised to believe that sleep is a sovereign remedy for...
Posted by james at 6:58 PM | Full Post
November 20, 2003
toppling Bush, an out-of-town tryout
The British show Bush what they think of him In contrast to the few dozen people who were in Baghdad's Fardus Square [now called "Freedom Square"] earlier this year when Americans toppled Saddam Hussein's statue, today's event in Trafalgar...
Posted by james at 4:06 PM | Full Post
November 17, 2003
figuring it out at an early age
Mary Jo and John, calling home, somewhere near the Statue of Liberty In fact it was a totally delightful visit with my niece and her young son that so distracted both of us this weekend. [Witness the lack of...
Posted by james at 2:49 PM | Full Post
November 14, 2003
Welcome back, Jersey
the new, temporary WTC PATH terminus, still behind chain link fencing on November 13th, 2003 The path is about to be reopened. On November 23rd a PATH train will be pulling up at the site of the World Trade...
Posted by james at 12:38 AM | Full Post
November 10, 2003
more than one Rex
I'm old enough to have been able easily to maintain, like most of my contemporaries, an indifference to the Victorian aesthetic at best, and usually a strong abhorence even of the charms and beauties fashion now allows most of...
Posted by james at 7:25 PM | Full Post
November 1, 2003
boo?
Totally unscary jack-o-lantern - except that it's a self-portrait....
Posted by james at 1:27 AM | Full Post
October 14, 2003
October 12, 2003
"pixilated man"
Nineteenth-century German ceramic doll He made his own path. John Darcy Noble, noted eccentric and expert on playthings of all ages, a leading museum curator, theorist and collector and creator of toys as amusements and as art, died in...
Posted by james at 8:36 PM | Full Post
October 8, 2003
thanks, I needed this today
Stealth disco! Via the newsletter from Mark Morford today, one of the most delightful links I've seen all year. Almost makes me wish I was back at work in an office. No, not my old office, but one more like...
Posted by james at 4:59 PM | Full Post
October 4, 2003
Paris awaits liberation - ours
It's so refreshing to get a comment like the one at the bottom of this post which arrived today from "old Europe," after a couple of weeks of being inundated with the endless automatic mailgrams of littlegreenfootballs nuts:" . ....
Posted by james at 1:45 AM | Full Post
September 30, 2003
this is the America everbody loves
Boubacar Diallo came to New York three years ago, speaking only french and Fulani. Today he appears on Newsday's Profile page.Second-year student in LaGuardia Community College's computer science program; an officer in the college's Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society, he...
Posted by james at 1:15 PM | Full Post
September 20, 2003
Union Square hackey sack, and revolution
Not remarkable, probably not a statement, but interesting that these four sturdy guys were playing hackey sack in Union Square this afternoon almost in the midst of the inflammatory signs and very verbal tirades of a number of energetic...
Posted by james at 9:57 PM | Full Post
about home, being there, and getting there
Francois Our quite wonderful new friends from Bordeaux, Francois and Nicolas, left for home Wednesday night, and we missed them immediately. They are smart. They are artists. They are charming. They are interested in everything about this city and...
Posted by james at 7:07 PM | Full Post
September 12, 2003
summer in the city
Friday afternoon, surfboards on University Place...
Posted by james at 7:10 PM | Full Post
a very good day after all
Nicolas When I left the little group with Reza yesterday afternoon I wasn’t quite ready to go home while these thoughts wandered around in my head, so I walked through Battery Park and headed toward Battery Park City by...
Posted by james at 3:07 PM | Full Post
September 10, 2003
coincidentally vegan
Two nights ago we enjoyed a vegan meal - at home. Of course there was wine, a Nebbiolo D'Alba. I know, it doesn't sound like our table, but I assure friends that it was a coincidence, if not an accident....
Posted by james at 2:34 PM | Full Post
September 1, 2003
the philosopher would have been happy,
and so would John Irving, I expect. Socrates Sculpture Park was very quiet yesterday, but there were compensations....
Posted by james at 10:05 PM | Full Post
August 29, 2003
candles, fags, comb, glider, moisturizer, sand . . .
Chelsea, August 28, 6pm, SGS Hardware, 157 8th Ave., between 17th and 18th Sts. Our tiny neighborhood hardware store has always had interesting windows, but this special end-of-summer-2003 set excels. The guys tell me it's a work in progress,...
Posted by james at 12:16 AM | Full Post
August 26, 2003
wigs and stuff not stock
TABBOO! click here for more pictures On Saturday my Wigstock experience began on a sour note, and it had nothing to do with wigs. As Barry and I were about to cross Avenue A at 8th Street I spotted...
Posted by james at 12:28 AM | Full Post
August 12, 2003
for good sports and the people who love them
The 2003 Ford ITU New York City World Cup Duathlon [sic], a "dry-tri," because of the polluting effect of recent perpetual heavy rainfall in Manhattan, was staged completely within Central Park on Sunday, incidently making it easier on the spectator,...
Posted by james at 12:40 AM | Full Post
August 7, 2003
foggy, rainy night
The spooky Empire State thing rising above old Chelsea tonight...
Posted by james at 11:35 PM | Full Post
August 6, 2003
Speedo help
Jessie, a smart Blogger acquaintance of ours, needs help with new swim goggles.My crappy Speedo swim goggles broke. So i taped them for this super hot goggle photo. And these less than hot goggle animations - 256-color, 16-color, 4-color....
Posted by james at 11:11 AM | Full Post
August 4, 2003
headline of the day
"J. Lo and Affleck Finally Get Some Privacy," is the headline the NYTimes uses in an illustrated business (media) section article today.The story of Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck, glamorous movie stars whose love affair blossomed on a Hollywood set,...
Posted by james at 3:32 PM | Full Post
C.H.U.N.K. women
photo by Basil Bernstat The pix keep coming in. This wonderful image of several competitors [Amy in the center] is from the C.H.U.N.K. 666 site itself. The picture gives some idea of just how hot the Chunkathalon afternoon really...
Posted by james at 12:33 AM | Full Post
August 3, 2003
ONE LESS CAR
photo from BikeSummer 2003 Zach shows his stuff at the Williamsburg Chunkathalon. Now that's commitment. I have absolutely no idea how we missed this part of the program last Saturday....
Posted by james at 1:52 AM | Full Post
July 29, 2003
Mensch-y diversity
Mitchell's Home Delivery Service drops the NYTimes and Newsday (the latter is essential because it's more human and more Lefty than its big sister) in front of our door every morning (well, almost every morning). I'm pretty fussy, so there...
Posted by james at 12:55 PM | Full Post
July 27, 2003
boys and girls and their bikes
both go down here, but in the end Amy, the white knight on the left, was topped We walked down to the Willamsburg shore yesterday afternoon and had a delirious good time as part of the 2003 Chunkathalon. By...
Posted by james at 4:50 PM | Full Post
July 20, 2003
great shapes
Sunday, back on the river. The chain link separates him from the batting machine, the strap is not a brassiere, but it sure is sexy, and bike shorts* seldom looked better. _____________________ * Sorry he's a bit blurry, but we...
Posted by james at 6:54 PM | Full Post
getting there
I ran up along the west side of Manhattan on my bright-green shamefully under-utilized two-wheeler this afternoon. Along the way I spotted a delightful variety of approaches to the concept of urban transportation. rickshawing skating kayaking running resting (sort of...
Posted by james at 1:28 AM | Full Post
July 16, 2003
joy in French North America
And we can avoid the long plane trip! Suggestion for celebrating the anniversary of the birth of the first state fully heir to the Enlightenment: Visit St.-Pierre and Miquelon next July 14, a collectivité territoriale, a part of metropolitan...
Posted by james at 11:31 AM | Full Post
July 12, 2003
New York
Weegee (Arthur Fellig), "Summer, Lower East Side" (1937) Maybe the longer you're here the more likely New York will feel like a small town, but normally that means small in physical scale. What about the dimension of time? When...
Posted by james at 9:57 PM | Full Post
July 5, 2003
date with Sam
Found this straight guy thing on Mark Allen's site. The magic is that Sam Stern's photo comic should amuse just about all tastes....
Posted by james at 9:19 PM | Full Post
summer in the city
Today at home, in Chelsea Gardens gardens....
Posted by james at 8:59 PM | Full Post
"he told me he'd removed the condom!"
I've wanted to point to MarkAllenCam.com for some time, but didn't know where to begin, or to end, a post which would do it justice. Still don't, so I'll be very brief. I first saw Mark Allen in the...
Posted by james at 8:05 PM | Full Post
July 4, 2003
bad parents?
In the wild, and I think in "conventional" households as well, Parakeets are expected to wake with the sun and retire as it gets dark. But our Sweet Pea (don't ask!) is a New York bird. We may not...
Posted by james at 8:14 PM | Full Post
July 3, 2003
hi!
The caption for this picture from this week's Paris Menswear shows on the BBC site reads: "Strike the pose: Models at the Gaspard Yurkievich show" Lots more guy stuff....
Posted by james at 1:10 PM | Full Post
July 1, 2003
Reza half-way?
Reza is in Arkansas. Barry's first, startling, half-serious reaction to the news: "I hope they don't kill him." Mr. B is from Arkansas, and having escaped only 15 years ago, he may have good reason to imagine the worst. The...
Posted by james at 12:08 AM | Full Post
June 27, 2003
waiting
Well, it was a long time between trains. Sadly, if he even knows it's there, he probably thinks it's too big....
Posted by james at 1:51 PM | Full Post
June 25, 2003
Oh, Canada!
Tuesday is Canada Day, and we're very happy about that, for Canada and for us. Yea Canada! [The image is from the fabulous short video, "Switch to Canada"]...
Posted by james at 8:07 PM | Full Post
June 19, 2003
they care enough to bomb the very best*
How are we supposed to register this acount of today's rather sensationalist domestic terrorism story?The bad news is that terrorists were plotting to blow up the Brooklyn Bridge. But the good news — at least according to Mayor Michael Bloomberg...
Posted by james at 8:39 PM | Full Post
June 13, 2003
just for the crowd
Sometimes lacrosse is more than just lacrosse. [when it's a crowded Union Square on Greenmarket day, and the uniforms are very much optional]...
Posted by james at 8:54 PM | Full Post
June 11, 2003
"he vaguely looks like Robbie Williams"
I expect Bloggy will be seeing an increase in traffic in the near future. The very hot and very sweet Glenn thanks him for help in setting up his new site:Barry recommended my server, helped me get everything running, and...
Posted by james at 5:36 PM | Full Post
June 3, 2003
"you can not see them anymore"
"A Muslim boy and a Jewish girl who lived next door to each other in Baghdad became friends." UPDATE This beautiful story originally appeared as an Op-Art item in the NYTimes, but it no longer shows up the paper's site....
Posted by james at 1:36 PM | Full Post
May 30, 2003
Reza in Arizona
Reza Baluchi has been cheered along in Arizona on his run to the World Trade Center site, although by now he may actually be in New Mexico. Dave Hyslop, who has been sending these reports and who seems to be...
Posted by james at 11:05 AM | Full Post
May 29, 2003
the smallest subway buffs
Sorry, but I seem to have gotten to the site too late to be able to link to the story with photos of these kids. But the story more than stands up by itself. I grew up crazy about cars,...
Posted by james at 11:24 PM | Full Post
May 23, 2003
the new Downtown
A wild turkey on the 28th-floor balcony of an apartment on West 70th Street? The healthy-looking female has now taken up residence in the more interesting environs of Chelsea and the Village, and we hope she's happy. Unlike most Downtowners...
Posted by james at 1:11 PM | Full Post
May 22, 2003
"I have 50 guys who will kiss me like that"
No wonder New York is such a goldmine for Hollywood! You don't have to know Brooklyn or Italians in Brooklyn, and you don't have to know about Marlon Brando, but maybe it's better if you do. Now, if only the...
Posted by james at 1:54 PM | Full Post
May 20, 2003
Spring!
The picture's about a month old, but it is still Spring. The image is that of the little Shadblow Serviceberry tree outside our back windows on the "roof terrace." The name supposedly comes from its habit of blooming at...
Posted by james at 10:31 PM | Full Post
May 15, 2003
no complaints, ever, from Reza
I can't recommend it enough. If you want to feel good, about Reza, yourself and the whole world, write to this address, rbaluchi@yahoo.com, and ask to get regular email updates on his run across the country to New York. There...
Posted by james at 3:31 PM | Full Post
Dave Debusschere
There were 147 graduating seniors in the all-boy, Austin Prep 1958 graduating class. Dave DeBusschere was class president - it had not been a contest, and even I had voted for the big sports guy. Dave was a gentleman. He...
Posted by james at 2:40 PM | Full Post
April 29, 2003
a healthier New York
New Yorkers, by and large, live longer than the average American, according to figures in the latest study of the city's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. The announcement probably surprised as many of us as it must everyone else....
Posted by james at 12:09 AM | Full Post
March 19, 2003
Tic Tac anyone?
This site is everywhere these days, but for those who have missed it so far, it's time to cast your vote. Who would make a better president, Bush or a box of Tic-Tacs? You decide. Your voting experience today will...
Posted by james at 12:05 PM | Full Post
February 18, 2003
our winter garden is wintry just now
See Barry's magical picture of the view out of our breakfast room window....
Posted by james at 12:44 AM | Full Post
February 17, 2003
joy, not havoc
I just want to make it perfectly clear, and right now: I can't speak for the rest of the Northeast, but there is no "havoc" in Manhattan. There is only a beautiful winter wonderland and zillions of people outside enjoying...
Posted by james at 7:49 PM | Full Post
January 30, 2003
third world passes us by, on a subway train
New York can't do it, and probably no other American city could either. New Delhi, a city with a dense population of some 14 million, has completed the first five miles (ultimately to extend over 62 miles) of a new,...
Posted by james at 4:14 PM | Full Post
January 10, 2003
in touch with his inner Hitler
Noah Taylor, the actor who portrays Adolf Hitler in "Max" explains his approach to an intimidating assignment in a tiny item of the NYTimes today, "Seeking the Dictator Within."Speaking of obstacles, there were some lines that must have presented a...
Posted by james at 1:34 PM | Full Post
December 5, 2002
supper, St. Nicholas' Eve
As a born-again atheist, it's the only way I can bring myself to relate in any way to the Xmas madness. It has something to do with a connection to my ethnic heritage. After tonight, the only feast I will...
Posted by james at 11:44 PM | Full Post
November 27, 2002
Sam Waterston
He was checking out the chantrelle in the Whole Foods Market at the end of our block today, and I was too respectful of his privacy to indicate that I recognized him. But I didn't give a damn about his...
Posted by james at 1:48 AM | Full Post
November 18, 2002
holding out for more
There's at least a little bit of Andrés in most of the people who will take the time to read his story, and so it will really mean a lot to most. Still, I sure wish I had more of...
Posted by james at 11:07 AM | Full Post
November 14, 2002
the terror of pornography and sex
As if we didn't already have plenty to worry about when flying!Three men [sailors returning to their homes in the central Pacific nation of Kiribati] carrying strange-looking documents who took turns locking themselves in the toilets before take-off on a...
Posted by james at 7:40 PM | Full Post
November 2, 2002
the bird
No name yet. This little guy (gal?) essentially flew into our apartment this afternoon. I was in the kitchen when I heard a soft thump at the window of the breakfast room. I looked up and saw a bright little...
Posted by james at 12:35 AM | Full Post
November 1, 2002
"Can I carry it on the subway?"
I've always called it my magic carpet, for the, to me, obvious reasons of its magical appearances (usually) and ease of operation (also only usually), but for many New Yorkers it's a truck as well. It's the subway!While other Americans...
Posted by james at 12:16 PM | Full Post
October 31, 2002
happy Hallowe'en
Not a very scary jack o' lantern, just goofy happy, sitting outside our windows and now in the ether as well....
Posted by james at 8:06 PM | Full Post
September 4, 2002
gay racketeers just wanna have fun
We love Paul Rudnick! This week in The New Yorker he writes a helpful memo to the FBI which should assist them in an investigation of the putative Gay Mafia.RE: The F.B.I.'s racketeering division recently infiltrated the nation's alleged...
Posted by james at 12:46 PM | Full Post
September 3, 2002
He asked, "Is it O.K. if I smile?"
Sorry. Yeah, it's sentimental I guess, but it's really ok, because they're tough, these guys, and at least one gal, who looks like she could handle anything--and probably has had to. It's a wonderful piece [with a slideshow]. Don't miss...
Posted by james at 12:58 PM | Full Post
September 2, 2002
bloggering on the town
We joined our handsome blog-fellows at The Abbey last night, but we missed the women this time! The Driggs Street boite is way cool, but if we have a community as bloggers it's all about the fact that we talk...
Posted by james at 8:55 PM | Full Post
August 29, 2002
tit for tat
[This is not going to be the biggest issue any of us have to deal with today, but, what the heck, we can't do important stuff all the time.] I did not know until this morning that this was the...
Posted by james at 2:35 PM | Full Post
the man has no shame, thank you
He was arrested at 81 for soliciting sex from a professional (actually a police officer in professional disguise), and not for the first time, and he's neither ashamed nor hesitant about talking about it. He answers the reporter's question, no,...
Posted by james at 12:11 PM | Full Post
August 24, 2002
good people and their haven
It's a chink in my atheistic armor, but I'll admit I have a soft spot for both the people and the institutions of the world's most human and progressive religious communities. The folks connected to St. Paul's Chapel in downtown...
Posted by james at 7:54 PM | Full Post
August 21, 2002
the pigeons they are us
New Yorkers, both queer and straight. This revelation will surely change how we look upon our little neighbors in the future.Oh, you didn't know that half of pigeons live in single-sex marriages? Neither did they, actually. But according to Linda...
Posted by james at 1:17 PM | Full Post
August 16, 2002
a great man
--and studly as well! Jonathan Rosen actually does the kind of activism that the rest of us must do no less than support fully, if we can't expect to equal his own dedication and energy."We live among so much poverty...
Posted by james at 12:53 PM | Full Post
August 6, 2002
the anti-Chelsea
--anti the new Chelsea. Our block of 23rd Street still has some of the most interesting shops and venues to be found in the City, although the latest developments here are almost surely harbingers of what is to come in...
Posted by james at 5:09 PM | Full Post
August 5, 2002
straightening out the English
[This post of a letter in today's NYTimes is for Otto, wherever you are.] To the Editor: In "Forget Ideas, Mr. Author. What Kind of Pen Do You Use?" (Writers on Writing, July 29), Stephen Fry said he did not...
Posted by james at 2:41 PM | Full Post
the bogeyman actually lives outside the City
Even I don't have these problems with "country!" I mean, I have done some camping in my time, and I would never think I could "get away" from New York "an hour north of the city." Obviously that was the...
Posted by james at 12:03 AM | Full Post
August 2, 2002
a tree and its friends
The picture of the shadblow in the roof garden, taken yesterday, is already dated, since today I planted the entire "field" within the whiskey barrel, filling it with two kinds of ferns, epimedium, spearmint and bleeding heart. A cool...
Posted by james at 4:08 PM | Full Post
July 30, 2002
really natural gardening
I came across this amazing site yesterday, but I doubt that we will have much call for the products it offers.No matter what critter is eating up your garden or invading your yard, we have the proven, all-natural solution: 100%...
Posted by james at 1:35 PM | Full Post
July 29, 2002
a garden! a garden!
Our tree arrives wednesday, and I feel like an expectant father! I'm sure what follows then will be like a new career. I've been without a garden since leaving the little 1760 house in Providence. While New York certainly has...
Posted by james at 4:41 PM | Full Post
July 28, 2002
the call of the wild
Ok, what's this one spunky cicada doing outside our windows on 23rd Street at one o'clock in the morning? We're astonished we can hear him well above the ambient sounds of all kind of traffic late on a saturday night,...
Posted by james at 1:05 AM | Full Post
July 24, 2002
on losing God, our sponsor
With the elimination of the phrase, "under God," from the Pledge of Allegiance, and the brand recognition that went with it, does the country risk losing its marketing powers?The U.S. Justice Department, assigned the difficult task of finding a replacement,...
Posted by james at 1:10 PM | Full Post
New York, a great place for hiding out!
(at least for a few million years) Researchers have announced the discovery of an entirely new genus and species in the Ramble in Central Park. "We didn't know what was out there," Ms. Johnson said. "We wanted to see who's...
Posted by james at 12:04 PM | Full Post
July 22, 2002
in this together
Pete Hamill's account of saturday's town meeting (see the log below) ends with a New York story worthy of standing alone.Then came news of the Con Ed power failure. My subway lines were closed, and I jumped into a taxi....
Posted by james at 8:18 PM | Full Post
We the people
[I admit that I missed it because I had assumed it was just window dressing, a set-up, designed by the money and power people. At best, I believed that the crowds would mean it would be an exercise in frustration,...
Posted by james at 3:08 PM | Full Post
July 21, 2002
living in New York, even in memory
Kate Mayne, a wonderful friend of ours, although not an American, lived here for a couple of years prior to moving to Antwerp a few years ago. She wrote a response to my posting, "wanna make it in New York?"...
Posted by james at 12:39 AM | Full Post
July 20, 2002
can you run that name by me again
In the category of, "there will always be an England," or, "is the Times running fiction in the obituary section now?"Setting off down the Thames in a bright red boat on Sept. 2, 1979, from the east London borough of...
Posted by james at 12:28 AM | Full Post
July 18, 2002
Simply ineffable
My own belief is that there is hardly anyone whose sexual life, if it were broadcast, would not fill the world at large with surprise and horror. W. Somerset Maugham [Thanks to Louise]...
Posted by james at 7:06 PM | Full Post