NEW YORK NEW YORK – Well . . . here we are another year past 9/11. I was sitting at my desk in midtown in a corner office with a southwest view that included the Chrysler Building, the Empire State Building and the World Trade Center towers. I turned and saw: smoke pouring out of one of the towers, the second plane hit, and both towers collapse. Our son, Alexander, was working downtown and was one of the people how sought refuge in a building lobby as the streets were engulfed in asbestos-laced dust. It was hours before we made contact with him.
Traffic is a total snarl today. I stayed in midtown near my office photographing a new installation at Lever House with my Leica Monochrom and Luxxochron. Actually, this isn’t a completed installation, just the construction of some new walls to display a new installation, but who would know.
NEW YORK NEW YORK – Can you tell that I’m distracted from photography. Hanging on by my fingernails here in photo-a-day land. I caught this odd sign with my iPhone.
NEW YORK NEW YORK – This is officially a recovery day from the tooth crisis. Walking down Lexington Avenue I tripped on a bit of construction on the sidewalk and fell flat on my face. Still unsteady from having the tooth from hell dug out of my jaw. My Leica M ended up with a minor ding but there appears to be no damage. This is the first day out in several days. Inspiration is thin on the ground but at leas here’s picture of the Frick Museum, three frames stitched with my Leica Monochrom. I’m hopeful that we’ll begin to see some ok photographs. This is not much of an image but at least I’m out of the house shooting.
HUMLEBÆK DENMARK – We went to Louisiana today (the modern art museum, not the state). I find this place irresistible. It’s sited on a commanding hill overlooking the Øresund Sound, which separate Denmark and Sweden. There was an exhibit of Yoko Ono’s work that I ignored, preferring to be outside on a perfect day. This is a mini gallery of work from the day (the first in an office in Copenhagen, the balance at Louisiana), all taken with my Leica Monochrom and 50mm Summicron lens. I’ve edited this overly long post to include some iPhone images from our dinner at Noma, ranked this year as the second best restaurant in the world (I’ll post reactions to it in due course).
More PeoplesLouisianaLouisianaLouisianaLouisianaLouisianaLouisianaLunch companionsNomaNoma
NEW YORK NEW YORK – In our local Staples I noticed a nice piece of decoration: a large “sculpture” of correction fluid with “oops” written in the middle of it. Make a bronx cheer noise if you remember what correction fluid is. Hmmm. Awfully quiet here. This thing must have been make in the 70s or 80s. Apart from the now obscure iconography this is actually very interesting – it could be mistaken for a Warhol if it were hanging in MOMA rather than in a Staples on 86th Street. Here it is, taken with my baby Sony RX100 II (my go-to go-everywhere camera of the moment).
So there’s this joke website called Gizoogle that translates any website from standard English into Hip-Hop (the link to this is courtesy of Salman Rushdie). Here’s what it did to the foregoing paragraph:
NEW YORK NEW YORK – In our local Staplez I noticed a sick piece of decoration: a big-ass “sculpture” of erection fluid wit “oops” freestyled up in tha middle of dat shit. Make a funky-ass bronx cheer noise if you remember what tha fuck erection fluid is yo. Hmmm fo’ realz. Awfully on tha down-low here, so peek-a-boo, clear tha way, I be comin’ thru fo’sho. This thang must done been make up in tha 70s or 80s fo’ realz. Apart from tha now obscure iconography dis is straight-up straight-up bangin-ass – it could be mistaken fo’ a Warhol if it was hangin up in MOMA rather than up in a Staplez on 86th Street yo. Here it is, taken wit mah baby Sony RX100 Pt II (my go-to go-everywhere camera of tha moment).
From now on I’m using this thing as a co-author to liven this site up.
Oops.
On this day last year: Riverside Park South. I used to think that I liked Riverside Park South and the Trump buildings that face it. But . . . I glanced casually at this image when I prepared this post and thought it was in Boston. This is an absolutely generic urban development that could be in any city in the world. Of course the park is preferable to the wasteland that formerly inhabited the space. Here it is (this was taken with the high end medium format rig that I was shooting at this time last year – subsequently replaced with my medium format Leica).
MILAN – Our last day here. I had a shopping day with Maria and this evening we saw Un Ballo in Maschera at La Scala with Marcelo Álvarez singing Riccardo and his wife, Sondra Radvanovsky, singing Amelia. It was a fabulous evening. Alvarez is a star and Radvanovsky is a superstar; the La Scala crowd was cool to Alvarez and accepting of Radvanovsky (who’s an American who grew up in the Midwest) but booed the young conductor, who according to our host was not up to La Scalla level work. This is one tough crowd. Here’s Maria in our box.
VENICE – Day two at the Biannale. I did’t even consider breakfast at the Gritti so I foraged for a cafe near the Arsinale for some coffee and a pastry. For the Biannale the Arsinale has been divided into large museum-like rooms. Really interesting. So I spent the morning and early afternoon at the Arsenale, walked to the rail station (all of the way across Venice but actually not very far with Google maps guiding me in a straight line through the maze of winding streets and canals) and took the train back to Milan in time for a dinner party given by some friends. Some obligatory shots of Venice and then the Arsenale, all with my Leica Monochrom and 50mm Asph. lens.
Venice
Tourists were lined up 10 deep to photograph the Bridge of Sighs every time I passed it. This goes in my icons collection.
The Doge’s Palace and the Bridge of SighsThe ArsenaleObsessive ComplusiveR CrumbJunk collectionReally obsessiveInteresting
