Gothamist named this (Spot by Donald Lipski) “NYC’s Greatest Sculpture” before it was fully installed. Later, I noticed they hadn’t updated this 2016 post about NYC’s Best Public Art Pieces. (I posted a photo taken with my camera’s wide angle lens on Instagram. This is with the normal lens.)
Category: General Pop Culture
Losers Lounge, Blondie Vs Pretenders, Mar 5, Joe’s Pub
What?! Two posts in two days? I just had to get all these photos up.
As I said in the previous, Losers Lounge is a great thing to do in New York City. Plenty of live video was shot. Catch them next week doing Joni Mitchell if you’re in the city!
Losers Lounge, Valentine’s Dance Party, Lincoln Center
What’s wrong with me? These photos are from February 13 and it took til now to put them up. If I’m going to be any kind of serious journalistic photographer, I have to get my stuff up faster. I also have photos of Losers Lounge from the Blondie Vs Pretenders show they did at Joe’s Pub, Thursday, March 5. I will get those up in the next day or two.
I’ve been going to Losers Lounge since the Fez shows in the early 1990s. Huffington Post did a full writeup on them last year so I won’t go into too much detail. Leader Joe McGinty does a live karaoke in Brooklyn and I’ve belted out a couple songs badly. I’ve seen them do Roxy Music, Neil Diamond, Heart, XTC, Beach Boys, Abba, BeeGees, Jackson 5, Elvis Costello, and probably a half dozen others. A few of the guest singers are friends of mine. Go see them if you get a chance! You will have a blast! They’re doing Joni Mitchell next week at Joe’s Pub.
This party at Lincoln Center has become a yearly thing around Valentine’s Day and it’s all 70s and 80s disco/funk. You can search for them on Youtube for full performances.
Two from Jacksonville
Bam kids, like the post says: #jacksonville #art #staugustine
Yankee Stadium and Snow
Now is the winter of our sports enthusiasm. We hate basketball because it’s ruled by tall people and the scores are too high. (Think about it.) Football is over and we only like it when the local team wins, and half the time it’s a field goal in the last two minutes. Congratulations to the New York Giants. We like volleyball somewhat but no network TV will deign to cover that even though it’s the number two sport in Brazil.
Here at mchuge.net, we like baseball. Baseball has no time limit. It has lots of rules but time is hardly ever called for foul play and there are no foul shots. It’s played practically every day. Greatness is earned over long stretches of time. Blah blah.
On that note, here are some shots of Yankee Stadium in the snow. I don’t claim to be a Yankee snob although they are my team. If you beat them, more power to you. These photos are offered so we may all look forward to baseball in April.
PS: I can’t believe Roger Waters sold out two nights of performing The Wall here. That’s like the blocked leading the blockers.
Philadelphia Observations
I learned about Philadelphia in elementary school. It was the birthplace of America, where the Declaration of Independence and Constitution were drawn up, homeplace of Benjamin Franklin and Betsy Ross among others. Philadelphia is the sixth largest city in the U.S., and is without a doubt, my favorite east coast city next to New York. It has a very large Wikipedia entry which is my way of admitting I don’t know Philadelphia very well. Continue reading “Philadelphia Observations”
Eurotrash Cometh
I had the pleasure of DJing for a lot of Germans and some other Europeans on Thanksgiving night. This is nothing new but I am a bit jealous of the Eurotrash because the ones I talked to have really crappy jobs, yet they have healthcare and can afford to travel through their whole four-week vacation and then some. They see the United States as a failing imperial power ceding by default to China whereas Europe decided a long time ago that building useful things is a lot better than building war. Their taste in music corresponds.
Roof Lawn at Lincoln Center
I actually wrote a letter to Lincoln Center in the 1980s saying they should make it more of a hang-out and add more low-brow entertainment further advising them that it would pay off in the long run. Since then, they’ve expanded the whole “Out-of-doors” program and rebuilt the plaza to include this amazing roof lawn on the north side. Ta-da.
Twin Guns
I saw Twin Guns last week at Don Pedro. Grainy rock n roll black and white!
I hope you had a good Independence Day. I saw the fireworks with Mormon Tabernacle Choir accompaniment. I hope some day we’ll watch them with Abyssinian Baptist Church Choir accompaniment.
High Line at Night
I finally went to the completed High Line which I saw way before the renovation thanks to OHNY. It’s probably the most unique/odd renovated space in any urban environment. In this case, WFMU was broadcasting a live show. I’ll be back. My old cheap camera seems incapable of taking sharp night shots anymore–maybe because I dropped it so many times.
TV Noir, Culture, and the Internet
True TV noir started with The X-Files. Twilight Zone was black and white and nobody picked up the ball when it stopped. Anyway, before Molly proposed her question and got some answers, I was thinking about the evolution of the internet while The X-Files traversed the 90s. I’m sure others have written about this but I’m just getting around to it sheepishly. In rewatching early episodes, I am also in awe of the amazing cinematography.
Jersey Shore Diorama
This little gem is just off the waiting room for New Jersey Transit trains at Penn Station. I never would have discovered if I hadn’t had to meet my parents in Newark last week to pick up Fyyffer, my car. Usually, I would drive to the Jersey Shore which — until the eponymous TV show came out — I liked a lot better than the Hamptons. Now I have to get out my rubbing stones and reevaluate.