Kinda pissed I missed this in NYC a few months back, but search ‘Cai Guo-Qiang’ on flickr and its almost as good as actually being there… sigh…
A video here.
Photos from HP.
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Archive for the 'NYC' Category
This might have been the funniest, strangest, most thankGodILiveInPhillyingest article I have ever read. I thought these guys only existed in Ricky Gervais films. Matt Levine, my hat is off to you.
Please read all the comments.
Was gonna do a review of Santogold, but this was just too much. Picked this up on BLDG BLOG the other day…
“Anybody know if people are still fishing in Manhattan basements in buildings constructed over still flowing streams? Recall a story about that in the NYT some 30-35 years ago.”
More here.
Much of all of this “fishing in basements” craziness centers around something called the Vielé Map, named for its maker Egbert Ludovicus Viele. Vielé was a civil engineer (among other things), who basically superimposed Manhattan’s street grid on its once above-ground water systems.
There have been reports over the past century or so of basements in Manhattan flooding on account of underground water systems finding their way through cracks in the foundations of buildings. One can imagine situations where maybe a forgotten waterway leads under a given residence, as many of these streams were simply built over in creating what is now New York City.
The idea of the possibility of people actually taking advantage of these underground streams by ice-fishing through the foundations of their homes is absolutely crazy. I’ve really got to add that this is basically speculation and urban legend based on stories passed down… but possible?
Actually there are places where this happens. At the Basilica Cistern in Istanbul you have a cathedral sized room underground that is lined by 9 meter high marble columns. The room can hold 80,000 cubic meters of water, which is just ridiculous if you think about it. And I think you can catch fish in it.
I am reading Michael Chabon’s Maps and Legends where he talks briefly in one of his essays (its a book of essays, his first nonfiction publication) about how until very recently, there were still dark spaces on maps to be filled in. This inevitably conjures up a depressing, its all been done/nothing new under the sun/Indiana Jones was a big lie - gut feeling. But in filling in those dark places, we have inevitably created new ones that lead inside, and underground, and, maybe, as bldg so nicely puts it, into large rooms that smell of water where six men sit around an opening in the floor “holding fishing poles in the darkness.”
Geoff, man. Keep it up.
Philly’s PEDESTRiAN turned me on to aNYthing’s new flava’. I don’t think I am as disappointed as most, but I have serious fears for the post-A-ron era of aNYthing.
It’s tough when things have to come down to this but when sales begin hitting $1 mil… well, litigation is the only way to go. So we learn that after A-Ron dropped the L-word on Sept. 11. In response the current owner, Kiernan Costello, has filed a countersuit alleging that A-Ron broke a bunch of contracts. They are asking for $5 mil. damn.
Complex mag actually went through the paperwork of the countersuit and by their explanation of its contents it sounds like it reads as a kind of who’s who of the downtown NYC streetwear scene; even going into A-Ron’s whole thing with the 205 club.
I guess if it was a cordial parting that would be one thing, but this begs so many questions; perhaps most importantly for the brand, what do the customers do? A-Ron HUSTLED to start this thing and keep it moving; how much of aNYthing is A-Ron himself? Is it something completely different now that its under new leadership? Will aNYthing hit that tipping point that brings it over into the mainstream (as in the case with BAPE right now) or will this whole thing cause the waters to recede a little? Time, friends, time.
Vid from HP.
And another HP interview here.
And that whole brand underground article from the NYT.
(Let’s just get this out of the way; pronounced ‘unique-low’.)
Took a trip up to NYC a bit ago and stopped into this place while moving up Broadway through Little Italy. The store has the stripped down basics feel of an American Apparel with the kind of cheap commercial experience of a Gap/H&M/Old Navy; big, wharehouse-y, too many people… This cheap retail feel also applies to the clothes. Lots of basics. A bunch of stuff you would see at any other store like this. And uninspired artist-created shirts downstairs. The clothing also has that poorly-made, yeah-you-and-me-both-know-you-are-only-going-to-wear-this-for-3-months, H&M feel to it, which, from a quality and environmental angle bugs me so much (kudos to American Apparel for breaking this horrible trend that seems to be infecting all of retail and probably has a lot to do with the fact they have chosen to produce overseas where quantity invariably takes presidence over quality (and the fact that US consumers are OK with spending $10 on something that won’t last them 6 months)). [Interesting aside, a recent environmental report out of Australia emphasizes this need for longer lasting consumer products. This study estimated that even if every household in Australia switched to renewable energy to power their homes and stopped driving their cars, average household energy consumption would drop only about 20% because so much of the energy we are responsible for “using” comes from the energy needed to produce the things that we buy. I know, totally meta.]
So, needless to say, I wasn’t down. Though I did pick up this cool minolta shirt. (They do collaborations with random companies to put out these retro takes on currently operating businesses, which is refreshing from a company that seems so staunchy/fake-cool.)
Business-wise, I like their cautious approach to growth. Their moment has kind of come and gone in Japan (where they are from) and now it seems they are just trying to get a foothold in some overseas markets. Their being from Japan definitly gives them a cultural cache that works with the American audience. It feels like what the Sweden-based H&M was doing a few years ago, except at a much slower pace. As far as I know they only have this one flagship store in NYC.
So, it was disappointing. Check out the place… if you are really bored in NYC.
Duke Riley’s recent exposé in the Times. He is one of the artists that took part in ‘book‘ a few years back. (The Gothamist writes about it here.) Anyway, his recent “metaphysical” attack on the Queen Mary 2 near pier 41 in Brooklyn got him and his two friends arrested.
Video: “Hi, my name is Duke Riley and what am I doing? I guess I’m doing something pretty dumb and dangerous.”
Awesome. Isn’t this what art is all about? No? Oh…
