philly

The party info:

It should be a good time. Free food, free drinks, music, car art… Good times.

I just read a depressing article in the NY Times on how the building currently covered with amazing international graffiti at 11 Spring St in Manhattan is being converted into condos. The article started:

It was as if someone had told devotees of Picasso's "Demoiselles d'Avignon" or Matisse's "Dance” that the Museum of Modern Art had changed hands and would soon be shut down for residential "redevelopment, with all the art inside to vanish as part of the deal.

That's about how I felt when I read the tagline underneath the article title on the front page of the NYT site.

It's a landmark which has been a canvas for some time. I used to walk by it all the time when I worked in NYC. It was close enough to walk by when I needed to get some air when I worked in SoHo on Spring & Broadway. It was worth a quick stop to take a look at what was new before meeting my friends for a night out of drinking or a quick stop at the end of the night after getting a slice of pizza at Ben's. The last time I walked by the wall and gave it a good once over was back in June of 2005 and I have a flickr set documenting parts of the wall. I love this wall. I'm very sad to see it go. But it won't go without a bang.

The owners of the building have let a large group of streetartists converge on the building's interior 30k square feet and have at it. The end result is going to be a ridiculous installation of tons of graffiti. From the article:

Now, after nearly two months of work by 45 artists, the show is almost ready. The building's doors will be unlocked tomorrow for an open house that will continue through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day. On Monday work will begin that will eventually seal most of the interior artwork behind pipes, wires and drywall.

"In a way the art is all going to disappear, but it's also going to be sealed up in this incredible time capsule," said Mr. Schiller, walking through the building Tuesday afternoon as more than a dozen artists continued to work on their pieces in a haze of aerosol fumes and sawdust.

I think I'm going to take a daytrip up to NYC on Saturday to take one last look and walk through the place for the first and last time.

More info via Gothamist.

Photo taken by one of my favorite photogs Joseph Holmes. The photo can be found in his flickr stream here and in a nice big size here.

Thursday night from 7p – 9p (a little later if I'm lucky) will be R. Bradley Maule's party / showcase up in No. Libs for the launch of his 2007 wall calendar. There will be some ignorantly good shots on display as well around the space. I ran into Brad this weekend over at Photo Lounge (apparently where all us cool kids hang out) where he was picking up a huge 20" x 30" print of the Keith Haring mural down on 22nd & Federal Sts. It was jaw droppingly good. It'll be on display at the show.

The show will be at Conspiracy Showroom [910 N 2nd St] and there will be booze!

I have a work event earlier on in the evening, but I'm gonna try to make it out to No. Libs for the show. If you can't make it, but are a fan of his [fucking awesome] photography, shoot him an email and tell him to hold a calendar for you or something [and they're for sale, not free, you freeloaders]. Or buy that gigantic 20" x 30" print or something.

Brad's the shiznit.

Above is a music video by Surgeon (formerly known as Bumrunner). The song is Walking Fire. I dig it. I've seen them (well, Bumrunner) live two or three times now, they put on a good show. The vocals on the recorded video don't do Sean justice, he really rocks out live.

This is the first time I've heard any of their music with their new identity and their new rhythm guitarist. The video is fun and was directed by Brian Cronin at The Fire.

And speaking of live music, my company, PhillyCarShare, is putting on a battle of the bands called Philly Sound Clash. If you're in a band, group, are a singer/songwriter, whatever, go check it out. If you have friends who do music, tell them to check it out. Should be cool.

That is a photo 60 some odd years in the making. My mom finally learned how to ride a bike two weekends ago and she sent along photographic proof of the fact. I learned to ride a bike on a nasty bike, I was about 7 or so. It was one of those bikes whose wheels were filled with concrete. I think we bought it at a sports swap meet or something. Bumps on that thing were hell, I still remember. My dad tried to teach me and my mom at once. I picked it up quickly, my mom still couldn't get the hang of it.

She tried again and again over the years and out of the blue, to me, she decided she was really gonna do it this time. My aunt told her that she'd give a shot at teaching her. My mom told me this over Thanksgiving break. She went out to try that Friday. No dice. I think they gave it another try that Saturday, no dice again. But the next weekend, I guess it finally clicked and off she went on two wheels.

She hasn't gotten down the whole starting thing just yet. She needs someone to push her along for a bit before she can support herself by pedaling. Slowly but surely she'll get it though. She hopes to ride up and down the Bronx River Parkway on Sundays sometime soon. A lifelong dream come true :)

I barely got to know her through some emails and a few words here and there in person at various events in the last two years. And now she's gone.

I saw her last somewhere around 8 months ago at the Metropolitan Bakery just south of Rittenhouse Square. I wasn't sure it was her and she wasn't sure it was me. We didn't say hi to each other, but after a post on the bread I had bought there that day, she knew it was me and shot off an email. I wish I had said hello.

It's almost Christmas, but this is the first chance I've really gotten to go through my Thanksgiving pics. Lady came up to NY with me for Thanksgiving. There was really nothing I could tell her to fully prepare her for what she was to witness. Drunken relatives, dancing, karaoke, Korean food galore piled on top of plates next to turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce and gravy; all eaten with chopsticks. Did I mention the drunkenness?

Above is one of my uncles doing "The Move" he always does at every family function where there is music of any sort. Arms pumping up and down towards the ground. Eyes closed. Body weight shifting as if he was doing the Twist. It's weird to look at, I always laugh when he breaks it out.

Some more family shots from the evening. Sorry, no shots of th food. I was too busy stuffing my face to get a shot of it before it was all gone.

An incredible set of photos of the historic Divine Lorraine up on Laura Kicey's flickr stream in this set.

Laura's got talent.

I wish I had the time to get over there before they start gutting the place.