so this is Christmas

Chelsea Market-a renovated warehouse where the shops are next to their manufacturing space, Time Warner building at Columbus Circle - changing colors of stars

my office cubicle, Rockefeller Center - Christmas tree and skating rink


Saks Fifth Avenue - snowflakes on building facade, Little Italy - street lights, the sign says "Buon Natale"

Lincoln Center - Christmas tree

Fall leaves

Northwest corner of Central Park 110th St. & CPW

85th St. at West End

Macy's Parade balloons

80th St. & Columbus
I started the month in Florence, Italy, marveling at the art and architecture masterpieces everywhere throughout the city there were so many it was hard not to trip over them.

I ended this month back in New York gazing up at Kermit the Frog's foot thinking to myself, why did I bother walking seven blocks to Central Park West, only to be diverted back three blocks to 82nd, then redirected to Columbus, redirected again to 79th St, then told I have to wait in a line that goes all the way around the block to the location I started from just to see a few balloons inflated with helium? And all the while getting my ankles clipped by strollers.

Now I think about it, it was easier to see Michelangelo's David than get a glimpse of Shrek. The wait was less than five minutes to enter the museum. Once inside there were no people with children on their shoulders standing in front of me. ..and there was the exquisite sculptural masterpiece, far more worthwhile seeing than a four story high rear end.

Union Square Farmer's Market

It's not like the vegetables are cheaper here or are they really much better in quality...

But every Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday the Union Square farmer's market is jammed with people leisurely strolling about caressing the tomatoes and touching the wheatgrass.

I'm here too watching the show. The peeler man is better than most of the street performers I've seen. I'm not sure he's trying to sell peelers as much as he's giving a Shakespearian performance with a peeler and carrots as props. A crowd is actually starting to gather...I suppose it is the one thing New Yorker's haven't seen - a man with an English accent peeling carrots.

Now that it's Fall I see apples, pears, gourds, and all sorts of mums. The market is one of the few places in the city that's colorful and earthy. There's even a stand that sells dirt. I wonder who would buy it, are there really any New Yorkers who actually have gardens?

shadow and light

I used to think of fire escapes as visual clutter to the city's architecture like metal scribbling over a building's facade. But now I'm so used to seeing them hang off of old buildings I enjoy looking at the extra layers of texture and patterned shadows thrown against the wall. They're not always pretty but are infinitely interesting.

Upper West Side -

around 85th and Amsterdam

28th St. at 6th Ave.

Imagine

I was in Junior High School when Julie the rebel punk rocker ran into art class crying hysterically and wrote over the entire chalkboard that John Lennon was dead. At the time I knew he was one of the Beattles, but not sure which one.

I came across Lennon's memorial covered with flowers today, I think they were laid there to commemorate the 9-11 event. It has been 27 years now since Lennon was assasinated, and when I remember it I think about the most beautiful and most sad song I know.

Strawberry Field - Central Park

Richard Serra at the MOMA

If you looked at a Richard Serra sculpture

like a painting it would look like this.

But nobody really sees it that way, it is so huge you could notice it from a mile away -and when you come up to it you are compelled to continue walking through. The metal slabs curve as if they are molding out the empty space, changing the light and carving out a profile against the sky.

Empire State Building

view of Empire State Building from 19th St.

I remember sophomore year in architecture school after taking classes about form, function, space and light I took a studio with a professor who said, it's not really about any of those things.

It's about an Idea, he said.

The Empire State Building was the tallest building in the world for forty-one years until it was eclipsed by the World Trade Center. But that doesn't matter because I feel everyone still believes it is the tallest. Everyone knows the building King Kong climbed, or in the movie An Affair to Remember where Deborah Kerr was supposed to meet Cary Grant.

The Empire State Building was probably the first building I photographed when I moved to New York City. Taking the train into the city from Brooklyn every morning for work, it was also the first building in Manhattan I would see before entering the city. When I looked at it I would remind myself, now that I'm here I'm going to work as hard as I can to make it happen. I see so many people working hard to make a living here...vendors on the street, cab drivers, artists, they probably thought the same thing.

I don't take photos of the Empire State Building anymore I know it's still here. But when I saw it fading into the clouds a couple days ago I took this shot. It reminds me that I'm still here.

Summer in the City

I rarely see an open parking spot on my street but in the summer when everyone in my neighborhood heads out to the Hamptons I might see up to five spots – on those days I wish I had a car just so that I could park.

Central Park - Sheep's Meadow
For people who don’t go to the beach in the summer, Central Park is the next best thing. I’m not a beach person so I think it’s better - you don’t have to clean off the sand and salt you get on yourself from swimming in the ocean. Sitting on the grass in Sheep’s Meadow I hear three different conversations around me, an airplane overhead, and leaves rustling in the wind. I’m surprised by how quiet it feels here compared to the rest of the city, there are no cars - only joggers’ shoes slapping the pavement and bicycle wheels whizzing by.

Next to the pond there’s a shirtless man with a guitar singing James Taylor hits. I thought those songs are really worn out by now, but maybe a hundred people are sitting under the trees listening to him. I sit down and let myself enjoy it too, sitting in the park on perfect summer day feels like sleeping with your eyes open. I know the guitarist wants to play his own music but the crowd doesn’t let him.

view from above and below

130 W. 30th St.

Is the view different from the top?

It almost seems like another city at this altitude, looking over a landscape dotted with old and squat watertowers perched on their launching pads and rectangular mechanical units sitting over asphalt roofs. And it feels like the last hundred years is still standing here motionless.

I prefer the view from below. 10th Ave. at 35th St.

There are only a few places you can get a wide angle view of the city, such as from the west side near 10th Ave. where the freeway cuts a swath through the city. It's a side that's worn and industrial looking but also shows the changing skyline as new buildings go up.

Looking out from the street it's always interesting - you see people jostling through the crowds and checking each other out and with all the commotion in the city there's always something to catch your eye and then something else to distract you. Walking up to the skyscrapers you think it's so much taller than you imagined, for me it's still hard not to stop and stare into the sky.

Even though the views from up high are breath-taking when I look down sometimes I feel afraid that I might fall. I'll take the view from the ground level because I would rather be looking up.

what a long strange trip its been

car at Whitney Museum

This picture makes me feel old and young at the same time.

I hate to be like an old person and say I remember it like yesterday....but if anything brings on the crushing weight of time I'm glad it's this cute little psychedelic car. It doesn't really remind me of the sixties (that was slightly before my time) but it reminds me of being young. If I could describe to anyone my youth this is the picture I'd paint - even though the real car was a chevrolet. It's a picture of the future, that it would end up somewhere else, and the trip would be exhilarating and worth making.

Notes from the Underground

Everyone who rides the New York City subway for the first time must think about the horror of falling off the platform onto the tracks. The distance is probably less than five feet but the result would be the same as falling off a mountain cliff.

1/9 subway stop on 79th St.

But after a while you don't think about it anymore, maybe once or twice when a subway pusher comes along or someone actually falls in. And rather you wish that you could ignore the sour smell of urine roasting on concrete and cramming into overcrowded cars between other people's sweaty armpits.

This is the forty minutes of my everyday that I'll probably never remember