we were just pretending
~ Miranda July
In 1916, painter John Sloan, dadaist Marcel Duchamp and three of their friends broke into the interior staircase of the arch. They climbed to the top, cooked food, lit Japanese lanterns, fired cap pistols, launched balloons and declared it the independent republic of New Bohemia.
That sounds like the most fun ever.
THE Earth Room is a big roomful of dirt. Dirt as in dirt farming. Good dirt, as black as the Mississippi Delta. It looks like a rich plowed field that has somehow flung itself onto the second floor of an industrial building in SoHo.
About two feet deep, this earth covers 3,600 square feet, and it’s a work of art by Walter De Maria. The little brass plaque on the door downstairs reads, “The New York Earth Room, Dia Center for the Arts.” Just ring the bell and walk up.
“I leave any and all readers with one message, a simple request. If, in any way, this account of mine has moved you, has piqued your curiosity, or has stirred your heart, visit New York City. See the amazing metropolis it’s been reborn as. But as you walk the streets, pause once in a while, squint your eyes, try to see past the steel and glass to the city it once was, the city I describe in this book. And once you have fixed it in your mind, don’t ever let it go. It belongs to all of you, too.”
- Matty Roth, Wartime: The DMZ and the Second Civil War (in Brian Wood’s DMZ: The Five Nations of New York)
Just finished this series, which is fantastic—as political commentary, as journalistic fiction, and as an unforgettable portrait of New York City.
This is a great listen for anyone who’s interested in urban planning and the growth of neighborhoods.
Thanks for the memories, Fung Wah. We had some times together over the years, you and I.
Detailed Floor Plan Drawings of Popular TV and Film Homes
Conclusion: people living in “New York” on TV have an absurd amount of space.
And what is that you smell?
Oh, that! Well, you see, he shares impartially with his neighbors a piece of public property in the vicinity; it belongs to all of them in common, and it gives to South Brooklyn its own distinctive atmosphere. It is the old Gowanus Canal, and that aroma you speak of is nothing but the huge symphonic stink of it, cunningly compacted of unnumbered separate putrefactions. It is interesting sometimes to try to count them. There is in it not only the noisome stenches of a stagnant sewer, but also the smells of melted glue, burned rubber, and smoldering rages, the odors of a boneyard horse, long dead, the incence of putrefying offal, the fragrance of deceased, decaying cats, old tomatoes, rotten cabbage, and prehistoric eggs.
And how does he stand it?
Well, one gets used to it. One can get used to anything, just as all these people do. They never think of the smell, they never speak of it, they’d probably miss it if they moved away.
BROOKLYN—After being offered her dream job as an editorial assistant at a high-powered, nationally syndicated magazine last week, area film character Eleanor “Eddie” Edison moved into a beautiful brownstone home in the heart of Brooklyn, sources confirmed. “This place is perfect!” said the attractive, if naively hopeful, protagonist, who graduated with a degree in English/Creative Writing from a well-known northeastern university and now lives in a 5,000-square-foot waterfront property overlooking lower Manhattan.
