New York Stories

Hines photographs of Empire State Building construction:

http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/dgkeysearchresult.cfm?parent_id=131032

Building of Empire State building

http://ci.columbia.edu/0240s/index.html

King Kong

Skyline controversy

http://www.dnainfo.com/20100823/midtown/city-council-mull-new-skyscraper-near-empire-state-building

As I mentioned in class, Ben and I took a class together few semesters back with professor John Maciuika.

One of the best resource for the class was the PBS series simply entitled New York. The videos cover the story of our beloved city form its establisment till today.

More here: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/newyork/series/index.html

–> RadioLab – Cities <–

This piece is about cities and what makes them unique. A part of it talks about the speed of people in different cities around the world; apparently all locals walk at the same pace.

As a side-note, if you do not know about RaidoLab it is the most awesome radio show on the planet, all their shows are available as podcasts on their witty website: http://www.radiolab.org/

One the last traditional arcades in the city has finally closed down. It was truly a staple of Mott Street and Chinatown. When I was younger, I went to school just up the road from this arcade and was told to never go in there by my dad. He said it was full of hooligans and kids who never did anything but play games.

As I got older, I had the chance to finally walk into the arcade and actually see what it was all about. Though it was nothing special to me, I knew it was really important to the people who were regulars there. In general, it just sad to see anything get shut down, especially after 50+ years.

I’m sure some of you feel the same way about shops that have closed down (especially Grimaldi’s recently). Let me know what you think!

Source: http://nyctheblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/chinatown-fair-last-arcade-in-chinatown.html

The “Leaning Brownstone of Brooklyn”

The discussion in class about the horizontal add-on to the building (that Professor Eversley told us about) reminded me of a piece I saw a few days ago about a few buildings in Brooklyn. There are a number of brownstones that are “leaning,” although not in a danger of collapsing. I have never noticed this and even now highly doubt I would unless consciously looking for it. This brings to mind a few reasons. New Yorkers will probably never be aware of their environments. Most of us are always in a rush, even when we are not late, a trait that must be ingrained in early childhood; and thus, always missing the oddities of this city. And second, most New Yorkers are too arrogant and self-centered in their day-to-day life to notice what does not immediately concern the self, which might be a necessity to “make it” in New York.

In addition, it also reminded me that New York is supposed to sink eventually, which is unimaginable, and a false myth as far as I am concerned. Yes, global warming is really happening and it will have horrific effects on our planet but New York, perhaps above anything else, is resilient and resourceful and cannot disappear.

Manhattan Transfers is not only about New York but it also seeps with the feel of New York. It is disconnected and at the same time uniting all the characters and stories with the feel of discontent and wanting – all integral parts of New York. It is a place that harbors millions of dreams, hopes, goals, which is what drives this city but also creates the misery Manhattan Transfers is filled with.  It is not a story about anyone character, it is a tale of a city and every element of the novel builds up a real place, New York, which overwhelms the reader with its feel, people, places,  and emotions.

For example, one nuisance of the novel that presents the real New York so well is the way the author uses language – misspells the words, exactly as a person would pronounce them – to represent the ethnic and socio-economic diversity so characteristic of New York. Although it may add to the confusion created by the nonlinear technique it adds to the honesty of this story about a city. It resembles reality and pulls the reader deeper into this reality, and then it subtly hides the fact that this is a fictional novel.

To add to that, art is supposed to reveal something about the human condition to its consumer, whether it is hopeful, cynical, pessimistic is irrelevant. And the only way to accomplish this task is to do so in a nonlinear fashion. Because life is not linear, and most will attest that no matter how much and how well one plans, it never happens exactly according to expectations. This, in turn, is what makes life what it is (a wonderful thing) – unpredictable and unstable collection of lucky mishaps and heartbreaking events. A string of fragmented episodes or experiences is life and Manhattan Transfers enables the reader to feel as if one is living in New York in the beginning of 1900’s.

Hey guys, just wanted to share something that I think is quite appropriate for our class. Here is the link for the project, “Humans of New York.”

Here is the description (taken from the website):

Humans of New York is a multi-year project to construct a photographic census of the city of New York.   The team consists of one man, who walks the streets several hours a day, looking for interesting people, and taking their photograph.  Currently, the project is in the gathering phase.  Nearly 1,400 portraits have been collected thus far.  The goal is 10,000.  Photos are uploaded as they are collected, and arranged by date.  When a substantial body of portraits has been gathered, they will be grouped by neighborhood and displayed geographically.  Upon completion, an interactive map will show every neighborhood in New York through the faces of its inhabitants.

I really think that everyone should check out this website. There’s a lot of great stories out there that we probably don’t even know exists.  I also think it’s pretty cool that they’re going to put up an interactive map after the completion of the project; though I guess it can never really be completed since there are just so many faces of New Yorkers.

It has given me a lot of inspiration for our multimedia project, because I know that for a lot of these people, I would have probably never thought of approaching them.

One of my favorite stories is about the traveling girl with her dog; the story is called “The Road Dog.” If any of you guys have time to have a look, I want to know this: what are your favorite stories?

This is just a reminder that the schedule listed on the syllabus has been changed slightly. We will have guest speaker Dan Wakin on Wednesday, March 9. Please read his article, The Heist, the Getaway and the Sawed-off Leg, before class.

Also, please note that your multimedia, One In 8 Million features will be due Monday, April 4.

In case you do not read the weekly CUNY newsletter, there is this up-coming event at the Graduate Center that is “plagiarizing”  our class:

MORE NEW YORK STORIES

What do Jonathan Rosen, Dorothy Gallagher, Jennifer Gilmore, Suketu Mehta, and David Hajdu have in common? Each suffers from an incurable love affair with the Big Apple, and each contributed to the canon of writing this city has inspired by way of the New York Times City Section, a part of the paper that once defined Sunday afternoon leisure for the denizens of the five boroughs. In More New York Stories, former City Section editor Constance Rosenblum has again culled a diverse cast of voices that brought to vivid life our metropolis through those pages in this follow-up to the publication New York Stories. Join the above writers for a reading and then a book signing to follow. Click the Online Box Office icon above to purchase tickets or call 212-868-4444. No surcharge! To join the Graduate Center’s Membership Program and receive an instant 25% discount code, visit www.gc.cuny.edu/events/membership.htm.

Date: March 9, 2011
Time: 6:30 PM – 8:00 PM
CUNY Graduate Center
Address: 365 Fifth Avenue Manhattan
Room: Elebash Recital Hall
Admission: $8, Members $6

And there is this website: www.GothamCenter.org

You can find literature, history, events and much more related to our beloved city.

I just wanted to post a video that went on the internet 2 months ago. Some of you may have seen it as it was posted on the popular site Gizmodo. It’s about this urban explorer, Andrew Wonder, who taped this adventures of sneaking into out-of-use subway stations, a city sewer, and on top of the Williamsburg Bridge

I thought it was great that he did all this. Personally, whenever I’m on the 6 train going downtown, I sort of have the urge to try and stay on once it reaches City Hall because rumor has it that there’s a lot of things to see past the the City Hall station (perhaps graffiti or some great architecture).

Here’s the Video: Undercity