Waiting in Grand Central Station

Some time ago, while on my way to New Jersey to photograph a dance performance of the Mosaic Dance Theater Company, I came upon this scene in Grand Central Station. Turns out that while the fellow was waiting for someone he was determined to have some fun in putting on this little show.
I thought it was so cool I had to drop what I was doing and pull the camera out that was buried in all my traveling gear.
What was also amusing and interesting was the reaction and non- reactions of the passerbys on their busy way. Most people just glanced and walked by without a second look. Some were actually confused for a short time wondering why some of us were watching the "line" and then they got it. It was really amazing at how long it took some to realize what this was and why it was a scene worthy of stopping and taking in even for a couple of minutes out of one's hectic schedule.
The most amusing thing was when at least two persons had stopped and stood behind him! One was a woman with an ipod in her ear caught up in her music or podcast had walked up behind him and stood there for at least 10 seconds or so perhaps thinking it was an information or ticket line. As soon as she looked ahead and realized, she was flush with embarassment and scurried off the line much like a cat that slips up after a jump and recovers with grace and dignity.
The other was a young man with a backpack looking much like a tourist. Once he realized, he stepped off the line and stood off to the side watching amused and probably amused by his own actions as well. It was a cool little moment on my way to a shoot. . .

(click on images for larger views)

the visitor

I have had the pleasure of knowing writer/poet S.David. His writings are very interesting and entertaining and I would suggest you visit his site http://www.theskalsicsoul.com/ .

Over the course of some time, he has been moved to write about at least four of my works. One of them being "the visitor". (shown above)

Visit his blog to read the writing about this piece.

http://theskaldicsoul.blogspot.com/2009/02/6157-visitor-by-s_19.html

Happy Valentines Day . . .The Red Show!

NYcreates put on a wonderful three day showing of Fine art and crafts from some of the finest talent around at the Brooklyn Historic Society of which I had the pleasure to take part in. Thanks to everyone who made it out to see me and say hello. I was especially delighted with all the warm and positive feedback about my works.

A special event that took place at The Red Show was the Red velvet cake bake-off which included some of the finest bakeries in Brooklyn, N.Y.

My vote for best looking cake went to Sweet Melissas, but in my opinion they were all winners here.

The best cake award went to LadyBird bakeries entry. Judging this magnificent bake off was

Brooklyn's Borough president, Marty Markowitz and John Strohbeen of the Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition.

A great time was had by all.

Here are some of the fantastic super delicious Red Velvet cakes!!!

Photo adventure weekend!

I'm really looking forward to this weekend. I'm finally going to get out to do some serious photography with another photog friend of mine. Seems I've been stuck in the house tied up with various things and had not been able to get out and shoot much of this winter. Winter is really my favorite season of the year, next to Autumn as far as photography and shooting outside goes. The skies are ominous and blue/grey, the sun is low in the sky creating beautiful lighting at practically anytime of the day. Locations are quiet and not crowded with people usually, and thats the way I like it. I rarely include people in my scenes. I like to express loneliness, tranquility, abandonment, isolation but in a pleasing and comforting sort of way.
Pleasantly strange. . . I've been told.

So, for a couple of days we'll be at my friend Dawn Petrliks place just over the Catskill mountains in New York State. She and her husband bought a farm up there with a good piece of land and the scenery is just stunning. She plans on using it as an artists retreat, and possibly a gallery as well. She has several buildings on the land including a cool looking old barn, which happens to be one of my favorite subjects. Dawn and I became friends as we exhibited together with the Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition (BWAC).

Dawn is a super talented artist whose works I admire very much. I have a couple of pieces or her work hanging in my studio. One titled "dreamer" is a sculpture (Shown at top) thats absolutely fantastic and is hanging on my wall next to a window. The natural lighting brings out the shapes and contours and always looks a bit different at various times of the day as the lighting changes.I've had the pleasure of knowing Dawn and getting to see some of her works in the makings at her studio in Redhook, Brooklyn. My friend Larry and I will be leaving early Sunday morning and spending a couple of days up there in the area. I'm truly excitied to be able to get to work on some new pieces. Hopefully I'll have a bunch of fresh work to show in the coming weeks.


Here are a few photos from Dawns Studio in Brooklyn. More of Dawns work can been seen on her site at DawnRobyn.

A slide show of her exhibit "the lonely death of esmin green" can be viewed at my site.

Mixed Emotions

In my neighborhood, there is a young Chinese girl that walks around all day with a large suitcase on wheels. Inside are perhaps a few hundred bootleg DVD's of all the latest movies that are out. She rolls her goods around to most every store in the area flashing a cold smile and in very broken English saying "DVD, you like DVD?" I see her when I'm in the laundrymat, when I'm in BurgerKing, at Dunkin Donuts and always along the street. She never approaches me as she does other people because I guess she can tell I'm not going to be a customer. It really pisses me off when I see people swarm around her ready to buy something if she has what they want. That really disappoints me. They don't seem to get the bigger picture. This is part of our problem. Stores that employ workers, perhaps relatives or children of the very people buying this stuff are forced to either lay people off or go out of business. These stores not only employ people, but also pay taxes to which help pay for our cities services such as Fire, Police, and Education. The money given to her for this cheap crap goes to supporting other illegals and i'm sure some gets sent back home to China to provide for her family there as well. As if China needs any more of our money. . .

The other day I saw a cop on a scooter arresting someone on the street,. As I got closer I saw it was the DVD girl. I initially was very happy to see this. I was also surprised in that I never would have thought that a cop would spend any time busting her. I was happy to see that they were cracking down on this even at the low level. While being handcuffed, she looked quite embarassed and nervous as she was looking around at all who was watching this. I figured this might have been the first time she was busted. As the tears began to stream from her eyes, it came upon me. I felt sad for her. As much as I did not like what she was doing, I felt that perhaps she was doing this as part of a deal to whoever brought her here. I couldn't blame her for wanting to be here.

Not much of anything will happen to her I suspect and the sad part my be that she has less fear of getting caught for anything other than having her stock of DVD's confiscated.

The real blame lies with the people that buy from her. Typically, people will buy from her and any other bootleg or blackmarket venue that can save them a few dollars. Then, when the economy is suffering and people are losing their jobs and services are being cut they blame the government and whoever happens to be in power.

I've got mixed emotions about the DVD girl. . .

My Birthday

My birthday was February 1. It came and went without any fanfare. When I was younger, I mean real young like 5,6,7 years old I couldn't wait for my birthday to come along. It meant friends over, cake, gifts and perhaps some undesireable add-ons like punishment afterwards for not behaving. . .sometimes.

Now, I dread when it approaches. It means getting another year older, period. It also seems to come along more frequently as the years get on. . .whats with that! Why could it not come along more frequently when presents and cake was to be had. . .jeeeez. Someone up there is toying with us!

Well, I have also learned that the little things in life seem much more rewarding and gratifying in my later years. . perhaps there is some balance here. I had received a phone call from my daughter early in the day, as I do on every birthday. Her birthday wish was worth more than any toy or cake I ever had or ate when I was a kid. (sometimes I played with my cake, and ate the toys. . .hence the punishement thing ) I was also very touched to receive some birthday wishes from my Facebook friends, some who I have not been in touch with for over 25 years. . .wow.

Later on after Christinas call, my son Kyle gave me a call and was excited to wish me a happy birthday. . .you would have thought it was his day. Well, that really amounted to what I considered to be a truly wonderful day. It reminded me of a photograph i took a few weeks ago and titled "the little things in life" It really is the little things in life that make everything worthwhile.

Some post inauguration thoughts.

Our new President has been inaugurated and along with the larger-than-life event it not surprisingly turned out to be we have some positive things to look forward to. Regardless of what his policies are or will be, I think the biggest factor is going to be having the support and optimism of the people behind him. The press, the entertainment industry. . he has it all on his side. Strangely enough I have a feeling if he were to go out and nuke North Korea or Iran tomorrow, much of the country would be chanting "Obama!" Movies would be made of him depicting him as a hero of our times. . . but I digress.

What I truly appreciate about the sentiment in his message for his new role as leader of this country is the "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country" as J.F.K. so brilliantly layed out many years ago. This is what we the people really need to ask ourselves and think about if we are going to have a chance at bringing ourselves up from this troubled situation.

I believe that we the people will have the most influence and ability to turn things around. Nothing the president can do can have more of an affect at turning things around than the power of the people and what we do from here on. More specifically, we the consumer will have the most influence on what happens in the years to come. It's a global market and we are falling way behind. As Consumers, we must begin to be more responsible and deliberate about our purchases and support. Our country does not produce much of anything any more because we cannot compete with the prices of countries producing goods with slave labor, such as China.
There are a couple of ways this can go. We can either break up all the Unions in this country and start paying all our workers slave labor wages and begin to compete. This would most likely result in China chaining their workers to their stations and paying them nothing but food and water to stay alive and continue producing. . . or we can start considering other things besides price when it comes to our purchases. Labor policies and quality amongst other criteria should be equally important as price. If consumers are willing to pay more for an item because they know the manufacturer treats it's workers fairly for one thing, it would begin to reflect in the labor policies of these slave labor countries.

Perhaps it is not so simple, but I do believe that we the people and we the consumer can bring about change like no other power can. Markets are most always shaped by the demands of the consumer, and we live in one big global market. Lets start purchasing responsibly.

Oh, and stop buying those bootleg dvds and toys off the street. . . .
I never did.

Iki got neutered

We took our kitten, Iki to get neutered yesterday and to have his vaccinations. He is just over 5 months old now. This is the little guy that my son found in the back yard, apparently removed from it's litter by it's mother no more than a day old.

We dropped him off in the morning and picked him up late in the afternoon. We were nervous and concerned about him the entire day. Actually, Nina and I feel like he is a son, we care about him so much. We nursed him since he was a day old and raised him, so there is a real bond here. I truly love this little bugger like a son. My own son thinks of him as a little brother. . .he is a part of the family.

When we picked him up he was sure out of it from the anesthesia. He was not his usual self, chasing the big girls ( our older cats) around and getting into mischief. Sure, it was peaceful and quiet, but not in a good way. We missed him getting his nose into everything that was going on. The ambush attacks from out of nowhere, the climbing up my back and sitting on my shoulder as I type at the computer, the stalking and pouncing upon our feet as we walk by. . .we missed the little guy even for just the afternoon that he was gone.

The vets office said he would most likely throw up after his first eating since the anesthesia and that he would not be himself for a few days after. Well, when it was time to feed him he ate well and held everything. He seems to be back to himself already and this is just one day after. He had always been strong and a survivor and he still is.

Our Iki is one great little cat and were proud to have in in the family.

A funny moment. . .

Something happened the other day that pops up in my head now and again always bringing a laugh.

I was doing my laundry one morning and after loading the machines decided to go across the street to this little luncheonette for a bite to eat. I think it's called "Georges's luncheonette or something. George is the owner and is, well, sort of hyper and nervous but very nice.

The small place was packed with all the tables seated, and it appeared they were also doing alot of delivery orders as well because George was taking orders most of the time on the forever ringing phone.

George hustled over to one of the workers, a young Mexican kid who was getting the neccessary items to put in the bags for the deliveries at the time. George began excitedly checking the contents of the bags to make sure there was nothing left out. Apparently one bag was missing a fork and knife. . .Without hesitation George yells over " Gimme da Fork and Knife"!

Now, George has a thick accent, perhaps Greek but I'm not certain. The fork and knife request sounded more like " fuk n knife". The kid was also getting nervous at the repeated instructions from nervous George and began fumbling around but unable to come up with the fork and knife quickly enough. In just a matter of seconds, George was yelling "Gimme da fuk n knife, fuk n knife, fuk n knife"!

Silence fell upon George's luncheonette as everyone looked up at George and his repeated demands for the "fuk n knife" As soon as everyone got what was actually happening and being said, the placed roared in laughter. George and the poor kid looked back at the tables and I don't think they understood what was so funny. . . .

After a short pause someone requested "Hey George, say fork and Knife again" and I think at this point George had understood what might have been so funny.

I had a smile on my face the rest of the time packing my laundry bag and heading home.

These are those little moments we all have at some time or another that really make life worthwhile, if for nothing else. . .

The Presidential Election 2008

Another election come and gone, but this was one that will define an era in history for our country.
I did not vote for Obama, however I can say that I am not disappointed that he won the election. I liked McCain better, but did not dislike Obama. After seeing the reaction last night on the streets especially amongst the black community, I feel that the very fact that a black man (half black, actually) has been elected may be what it takes to bring this country into a new era of unity and pride in itself and in the eyes of the world. As I was on the bus last night at about 10:00, there were a group of black passengers that were discussing Obamas win. It was apparent that they have never felt so connected with the political process as they did now, and the positive tones of their conversations and views were very encouraging to me. They were truly proud to be American. American flags were draped over cars, hanging down on balconies, being carried around through the streets by groups of teens and adults together. If he does well, he will be in for two terms. If he does not, he will be out after his four years. Whatever the case, the country has moved into a new era and one that seems to me to have much positive tone to it. I wish him well and will support him as my president for the next four years. I'm proud to be a part of the process and our great country.