New York City September 29-30, 2009

It’s been a few years since I’ve been out walking around the city at two or three in the morning. Monday night we hit the Comedy Cellar and saw a few comedians. Dave Atell was very funny, he was the main gig. We seem to find ourselves out late here every night!

We were bumming around the lower east side and stopped in the Pink Pony for a Mocha and a Peanut Butter, Banana and Honey sandwich – it was wonderfully ironic.

We traveled to Midtown to Red Rocket Tattoo and I got inked. I choose Betty Rose at Red Rocket because she’s a Heeb, a woman and from Brooklyn. Those were important reasons for me. I wanted to start my piece here in New York City, and over the next year, or so, finish it in different places around the world (mostly Europe).

We saw, “HAIR” last night. We had front row seats at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre and the show was unreal. The cast messed with me a little bit - the performance was very “interactive”. There was full nudity and marijuana smoking (I’m not kidding) – some of the older audience members were visibly uncomfortable. I got a kick out of watching them, considering the storyline of HAIR.

Anything above 28th Street, for me, is somewhat undesirable. Times Square is a joke and disturbing to me. However, we couldn’t avoid the tourist trap today and went to the AMC Empire 25 theaters near Times Square. There were floor after floor of theaters (going up). We saw, “Inglorious Basterds” in theater 21. We really enjoyed the film. It’s a great, “what if” kind of flick.

We had dinner at Umbertos Clam House (my third time – always a winner), in the heart of Little Italy - it was super-delish! I was looking forward to taking Jeanne there (Summer had been there before). I won’t lie, we drank two bottles of fine Italian wine and consumed some unbelievably good seafood.

Tonight, we took a train to Battery Park and sat at the tip of Manhattan and stared at the Statue of Liberty. After we were finished staring at the Lady, we stopped in at the 55 Bar and listened to some live Jazz.

We’re back at the apartment now, and ready to do it again tomorrow!

The Pink Pony, Lower East Side - Ludlow Street, NYC.
Summer's Converse, Jean's shoe and these cool table bases that are in a lot of the cafes in clubs here in NYC.
The Pink Pony: Summer through the looking glass!
The Pink Pony Crew!
Quinn in excruating pain administered by Ms. Betty Rose at Red Rocket Tattoo in Midtown.

Greenwich Village (West) New York City

New York always fascinates me. The energy, the crowds; I have a "love-hate" relationship with it (mostly love). Every time I visit, I ask myself if I could live here. A lot of me says, “yes” and the rest rest of me says, “Not a chance.”

New York is "on” all of the time. It’s like an exasperating friend – the energy is palpable and exhausting. We were out until 3AM last night (Rocky Horror Picture Show). Coming back to the apartment on the train/subway, you could see the city that never sleeps in all of its glory. Do you want a Falafel at 3AM? A beer? A glass of wine? A movie? Do you want to see people dancing on the train? Playing music? What ever you want, you can get here at any time.

We’ve been hanging out with David, Caron and Issac the last few days here. It’s been a lot of fun. We’ve seen a lot; Sally Mann show, WTC chaos, Times Square, Katz’s Deli, etc. etc. My favorite has been this little neighborhood in the West Village. We have an apartment here and the flavor of the place is very nice. There’s this coffee house called “Jack’s Coffee” just 50 meters from our apartment – I love it. These are the things that interest me the most.

Jean and Quinn in Jack’s Coffee drinking Honey Macchiatos.  
Shade grown puppies!  

Jack's Coffee Shop

Honey Machiatto

Quinn and Caron - “Sally Mann, Sally Mann!”! 
 

CC Harrison Lens & Austria

We'll be leaving this week for Austria. I'm teaching a workshop in Kefermarkt. It usually takes me a few days to get ready for a workshop. I have to gather up a lot of equipment, do an inventory on chemistry, glass and aluminum, as well as get prepared personally. I'm hoping we can spend a day in Mauthausen-Gusen Concentration Camp. We'll be about 30 minutes north of it. I want to stop in and make some photographs. I'm excited about the workshop, but I'm more excited about making some work for my project.

I bought a CC Harrison 300mm f/4 lens (1861, New York City, New York) a couple of weeks ago. It's American made and I wanted to own a piece of American Wet Plate Collodion history. I also wanted to test it out before the trip to Austria. Summer said she would sit for me and play her guitar while I made plates. So that's what we did.

1861 CC Harrison Lens - New York City, New York 
5"x7" Black Glass Ambrotype - 2 seconds, wide open. 
5"x7" Alumitype - 3 seconds, wide open. 
I really like the lens. I like both of these images, too. The second image, the tighter shot, is very cool because her hair is blowing around during the three second exposure. I call it, "Painted Hair". It's wild to see time pass in an image.