Girls In The Windows
Photographed by Ormond Gigli on East 58th Street in Manhattan in 1960, just prior to the building’s demolition in order to make room for a high rise.
Prime “Breakfast At Tiffany’s” era.
Neighborhoods
Manhattan
Rhapsody In Blue
I remember hearing this as a kid, and thinking that it didn’t sound like any music I’d ever heard before. It still doesn’t.
But each time I listen, my spirits rise, and that is a good thing in these perilous times - especially on a commemorative day like this one.
Central Park
When you’re in Manhattan, moving around over and under the grid on your way to and from work, or on vacation, you’re aware of Central Park, but not really of its scope until you see photos like this one. And I doubt that anything of this scale could be accomplished in a city again.
Robert Moses disrupted and damaged the lives of thousands of people in the implementation of his various highway plans in and around the city and has rightly been held accountable, but he did protect and expanded the recreational opportunities available within this incredible space.
New York, 1964.
Tina Mazzini Zuccoli, photographer.
New York City. Untitled (woman standing by 23rd Street IRT station, from the series “Chelsea Document”), 1939
Greenwich Village, 1964
In many ways, the years 1960-1964 were a extension of the 1950s. Most photos and videos (and movies) of Manhattan show men and women in traditional suits and dresses, in the styles of the Fifties.
But Greenwich Village has always been an enclave within Manhattan where non-conformity reigned. While the people in this photo appear to us to be “dressed up” compared with people on the street today, the style is a lot more relaxed. It’s just a wonderful little time capsule, just before the culture and styles changed so radically in the late 1960s.
Macy's Clock
In the rain.
Manhattan In The Fall
I love the city through all its seasons, but most of all when the leaves change their colors.
Loft Living In Lower Manhattan, Before Gentrification
You may never have heard of James Wolcott, but the boy sure can write. Especially about New York in the CBGB days of the 1970s. It's a good analog to HBO's "Vinyl".
"Loft living then wasn’t the luxury alternative that it later became with the rise of SoHo and gentrification with a vengeance in Tribeca and beyond, as lofts became synonymous with airy storage units of flooding sunlight, gleaming bowling-alley hardwood floors, and quirkily amusing, slayingly chic art pieces chosen and arranged just so as tribal taste trophies, a photo layout of a setup perfect to raise a super-race of test-tube babies. Loft living in the mid-seventies was still in its pioneer post-factory, rat-haven phase, the elevators lowering and lifting like a large, groaning apprehension (as if operated by Marley’s chain-hanging ghost from A Christmas Carol), the thick-piped plumbing still in its early Soviet phase, these industrial garrets too hot in summer, too cold in winter, but spacious enough to carry a bowling-alley echo.”
Excerpt From: James Wolcott's “Lucking Out.” Doubleday, 2011-10-25. iBooks.
This material may be protected by copyright.
Check out this book on the iBooks Store: https://itun.es/us/XA4lz.l
I'm In A New York State Of Mind
I usually am anyway, but after last night's Republican debate, even more so.
Wombs For Rent
Here's an update to a Freeway post about women lining up to sell their eggs:
In a recent Wall Street Journal, Thomas Frank responds to New York Times reporter Alex Kuczynski’s personal account of hiring a surrogate mother.
Actually, “responds to” is probably not the right phrase -- it’s more like “rips apart.”
Thomas Frank writes:
"Surrogate motherhood has been the subject of much philosophical and political dispute over the years.
"To summarize briefly, it is a class-and-gender minefield. When money is exchanged for pregnancy, some believe, surrogacy comes close to organ-selling, or even baby-selling.
"It threatens to commodify not only babies, but women as well, putting their biological functions up for sale like so many Jimmy Choos.
"If surrogacy ever becomes a widely practiced market transaction, it will probably make pregnancy into just another dirty task for the working class, with wages driven down and wealthy couples hiring the work out because it's such a hassle to be pregnant."
In a recent Wall Street Journal, Thomas Frank responds to New York Times reporter Alex Kuczynski’s personal account of hiring a surrogate mother.
Actually, “responds to” is probably not the right phrase -- it’s more like “rips apart.”
Thomas Frank writes:
"Surrogate motherhood has been the subject of much philosophical and political dispute over the years.
"To summarize briefly, it is a class-and-gender minefield. When money is exchanged for pregnancy, some believe, surrogacy comes close to organ-selling, or even baby-selling.
"It threatens to commodify not only babies, but women as well, putting their biological functions up for sale like so many Jimmy Choos.
"If surrogacy ever becomes a widely practiced market transaction, it will probably make pregnancy into just another dirty task for the working class, with wages driven down and wealthy couples hiring the work out because it's such a hassle to be pregnant."
I Want That!
Even though Lionel is way out of touch with what kids want for Christmas these days, it seems to have gotten its groove back for a lot of big kids.
Four cars for $699 is an awful lot of money but if I was into model railroading and had some extra coin to burn, this New York City subway set is something I would absolutely have to have!