This post appeared in a previous blog and is here for posterity’s sake.

the Idiotarod – Team Octopussy · see all of my photos from that day
What can you possibly say about The Idiotarod besides pure lunacy? This is the second year of the race that pits sled teams of five Human runners against each other – with shopping carts as sleds. A clear and sunny day greeted to the Idiots during the race registration while musicians serenaded the competitors. The course this year started at Old Fulton Ferry in Brooklyn, then proceeded over the Brooklyn Bridge, past two checkpoints, ending in Tompkins Square Park. The 70+ teams were encouraged to dress in costume, and many had fine livery with many supporters. The Idiotarod course isn’t closed and cleared of traffic, of course – and the cops didn’t know (or care) about the race. To add to the confusion, there were teams whose sole mission was sabotage other teams.
As the gun went off, over 70 teams raced up Old Fulton, a funnel-shaped street which rises and collapses into the Brooklyn Bridge. Thinking that standing upstream of the start in the middle of the street would allow for good photos, I positioned myself at the narrow end of the funnel. Now, everyone has seen video of the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona? Everyone secretly hopes someone will get horned – not seriously, but enough to make the trip worth it (who runs ahead of bulls?). Well imagine that scene but with 350+ competitors racing toward you, with the same amount of onlookers (sans white jacket and beret) running with the Idiots. I didn’t know if I was going to get tripped or clothes-lined by racers tied to their shopping carts. It was maddness. As the first wave passed, I had no choice but to run up hill with the Idiots. The race had begun.
The main pedestrian entrance to the bridge was instantly clogged by the saboteurs and by the fact that trying to get a shopping cart up a four foot wide stair was near impossible for many teams with extra-wide shopping carts. For those teams with wide loads, the only course of action was to go around to the main pedestrian entrance, then backtrack; their race was over within the first five minutes. Competing only for pride and perhaps liquid refreshment, these teams nonetheless continued on.
The first checkpoint was on Chambers & West Broadway in Lower Manhattan. Imagine 700 or so people, half of them in costume, milling around an intersection in Lower Manhattan. The police had no idea what was going on; motorists were agitated, pleading with the police to do something – the police just laughed and ask exactly what the motorists wanted them to do with a giant octopus on a shopping cart? Teams had to wait 20 minutes after they entered the checkpoint; at this point what had been a stream of Idiots racing together became a field of costume-donned teams strung out all around Lower Manhattan. There was no set course to the next checkpoint at Clinton & Stanton – some teams chose to go through Chinatown; while others chose to race against traffic on Broadway. Knowledge of traffic and orienteering – both pedestrian and motor – was a skill that many teams lacked. I followed two teams as they chose to brave Canal Street on a Saturday. Residents of New Jersey and Connecticut proved to be major impediments to those team’s progress.
Finally, as teams made their way in the Lower East Side toward Tompkins Square Park, their last hurdle would be faced at the corner of 7th Street and Avenue B. The Snowmen, who had so artfully blocked the Brooklyn Bridge Pedestrian Stair, were entrenched at the corner of the park. With the park in plain view, and victory in hand, the Idiots had to brave ice-balls, snow and vehicles as they made the sharp left-hand turn into the home stretch. Many a snow crystal was thrown, and blood was drawn; a sight that no Idiot would like to see. The crowd was rife with anticipation of the incoming wave of Idiots, and everyone was in high spirits.
But in the end, someone did win, but who cares? Idiots ruled the city for the day. An hour or so later, the police finally showed up at Tompkins Square, but all they found was a pile of shopping carts. The Idiots were gone. But here are my photos from the day.
For more photos, see Gothamist’s write-up, Callalillie, Rion, Bluejake, Untitled Name and all photos on Flickr with the tag Idiotarod.

This post appeared in a previous blog and is here for posterity’s sake.

Pouring one out to the recently departed Philip Johnson. Arguably one of the most influential (some would say, mediocre) architect of the 20th Century. Image from Nick (who I think photoshopped PJ’s face on the origional “le courvoisier” photo).

This post appeared in a previous blog and is here for posterity’s sake.

image from from the Box Tank
I missed this, but apparently Queens is right for gentrification:

“It seems to be the next big thing,” says Pamela Liebman, the president and chief executive of the Corcoran Group. “Queens has this gritty feel to it in parts, which makes it feel cool. When I go to speaking engagements and people ask what is the next big thing, a lot of speakers are starting to say, ‘Queens, Queens, Queens.’ ”
“there is sort of constellation, almost a critical mass, of visual art in Long Island City,” Mr. McMillan said.
“You get the artists and sculptors hanging around, opening up studios and living in that area,” he said. “That is exactly the kind of thing you want for the development and creation of a new neighborhood.”

Sounds about right: figure out which neighborhoods have large artist populations, talk up the neighborhood as the “next big thing,” allow large developments, raise rents, displace the poor and artists leaving the Upper East Side-like neighborhoods where a thriving, ethnically-diverse neighborhood was.
How to fight it? I don’t know – but I think there may be no way to fight gentrification.

This post appeared in a previous blog and is here for posterity’s sake.

photo by rayolivares
Santacon 2004 was this weekend, and while I was not able to attend, there are some great photos by rayolivares (photo above) and a gazillian images by smudge. For those not in the know, Santacon is a gathering of people dressed in Santa costumes who partake in a day-long pub crawl. NY Times covered it during the weekend:

Santa got drunk yesterday. He cursed. He smoked. He took off his clothes in public. It was Santacon, an annual gathering of nasty Santas, in which some 500 naughty Clauses marched through the city, shouting, drinking, raising gentle mayhem.
Santacon began 10 years ago in San Francisco, where 30 friends, disheartened by the happiness of Christmas, got together in their Santa suits and set out to have some fun. They crashed a dinner dance and stole people’s drinks. Went to a strip club. Drank themselves silly. Some made it home. Others slept in the streets.

This post appeared in a previous blog and is here for posterity’s sake.

MoMA Art Discussion · by plemeljr
Photos from MoMA. More photos here.

This post appeared in a previous blog and is here for posterity’s sake.

I was sad to hear that Pale Male, the red tailed hawk who had made his nest on Fifth Avenue, had his nest destroyed opon order from his co-op board. I heard of tough co-op boards, but this is heartless. Pale Male lived atop 924 Fifth Avenue (at East 74th Street) for 11 years and had his own PBS Documentary (which is very good):

The story of Pale Male and his offspring has been well documented. Marie Winn, whose 1998 book on the subject, “Red-Tails in Love,” was the basis of a PBS documentary called “Pale Male,” said yesterday that the nest had been removed once before, in 1993, the year it was built.
She said the nest was built amid metal spikes that were placed on the 12th-floor cornice to discourage pigeons from roosting, and that the spikes had the unintended effect of providing a strong structure to brace a hawks’ nest against the wind. After it was destroyed in 1993, Pale Male rebuilt, Ms. Winn said.
That experience, she said, might provide evidence that Pale Male will again rebuild.
But another of the bird’s most ardent observers and proponents, Lincoln Karim, an engineer who has observed the nest for years with a telescope from Central Park, said he had seen workers take away the spikes yesterday.

Pale Male was a fixture in New York City, and I hope he can rebuild his nest. Check out the Pale Male website for more information. Much like other parts and people of the city, the removal of Pale Male is indicative of forces who wish to over-sanitize New York.
More On the Removal:
Hiding In Plain Sight
As The Hawk Flies: Bird Lovers Vs. 927 Fifth Avenue
Newly Homeless Above 5th Ave., Hawks Have Little to Build On

This post appeared in a previous blog and is here for posterity’s sake.

update – 20 March 2005
MTA fails to pass subway photo ban
Well, it looks like the MTA has trotted the proposed photography ban out again (here’s a recap) – just in time for the holidays.
The proposed rule amendment was killed six months ago in a blaze of negative press, but it surfaced again in the state register. The comment period began on 24 NOV 2004 and runs for 45 days. The text of the proposed amendment change:

1050.9.c. No photograph, film or video recording shall be made or taken on or in any conveyance or facility by any person, except members of the press holding valid press identification cards issued by the New York City Police Department or by others duly authorized in writing to engage in such activity by the authority. All photographic activity must be conducted in accordance with the provisions of this Part.
1040.4.f. No photograph, film or video recording shall be made or taken on or in any conveyance or facility by any person, except members of the press holding valid press identification cards issued by the New York City Police Department or by others duly authorized in writing to engage in such activity by SIRTOA or the authority. All photographic activity must be conducted in accordance with the provisions of this Part.

Address/contact info where you can send your polite objections is at:

David Goldenberg
New York City Transit Authority
130 Livingston Street
Room 1207
Brooklyn NY 11201
718-694-5454

I don’t think I’m alone in thinking this is bad for all the reasons which were discussed LAST time the MTA brought it up. How can this really increase security? Is this photo a breach of security? Do tourists get a free pass? What is the penalty for taking photos? This proposed rule change would even make Grand Central Station’s Grand Hall off limits (it is a “conveyance” and a “facility”) as well as any station or train yards in full public view or anything that the police don’t want you to take a picture of. This amendment is the opposite of a “bright line rule” and infringes on our First Amendment rights.

This post appeared in a previous blog and is here for posterity’s sake.

Admiring Warhol · by LarimdaME
All photos tagged with momaopening.
So I am pretty embarrassed that this post is the number 2 result in google for “MoMA Opening” and all I have is this link to Flickr’s photostream. I haven’t been inside the new MoMA, but plan on going there this weekend so that I can transform this post into a full review.
For now, here are some photos from Jake Dobkin of Bluejake fame – 1 & 2.
UPDATE
OK so I went, and I will have a longer write up. For now, check out some of my photos.

This post appeared in a previous blog and is here for posterity’s sake.

So I have updated the election 2004 candidate voting guide for zip code 11222, greenpoint brooklyn, ny with more information thanks to Patrick. It seems that the google search for brooklyn voting guide comes up second only to an about.com site which is totally useless but persists in the #1 site only because the amount of linkage inside the about.com crapspace.
I also want to note how crappy the Board of Elections in New York City website is. There is no candidate list outside of a crappily formatted .pdf which you have to almost guess which districts you are in and which races you can vote for. Why is it so hard to design usable interfaces when dealing with elections? Just look at the butterfly ballot or computer voting machines or the NYC BoE website; all are examples of bad design that can literally change the world. I am sure most of the bad design decisions are not of malicious nature; but not correcting the problem is. Each Board of Elections needs to have volunteers trained in design to assit when designing anything relating to an user interface: from ballots to fliers to websites. Why a country which gobbles up “designed” items such as the iMac, Volkswagon Beetle, and IKEA doesn’t storm the gates when it comes to bad design when it actually matters, is beyond me.

This post appeared in a previous blog and is here for posterity’s sake.

Happy Birthday you great smelly people mover! PLease don’t blow your budget on the Centennial Celebration, so you won’t raise your fares! Please?