Resisting Arrest

... so this is resisting arrest?

A Night Out With Dean and Britta at Heathers

Heather's on 13th is where we have 78 RPM Sunday's. It's a nice time listening to records, with the kids running around, Heather is a great host, and very conscientious of her neighbors. Still, since opening Heather has struggled with her neighbors who don't seem to want her no matter how quiet her patrons are. So it was with delight I read in the Style section about Dean Wareham and Britta Phillips grabbing a drink there:

The quartet walked up to Heathers, a bar on 13th Street. As they stood outside smoking Camels, the bartender — probably mindful of noise complaints — popped out to shush patrons like a wayward librarian.

In the paper there was a nice shot outside of Heather's that didn't make it on the web, but I'm happy to hear more stories of how considerate Heather is to her neighbors.

What's in a name, or an area code? 917press explained

My faithful friend, inspiration and reader Steve gave me a generous shout out, but inquires to the origin of this blog's name.

917 is an overlay area code assigned to New York City. Back in the day, all of New York City was 212. NYC always had a high concentration of phones, so when dialing, by definition on a rotary, 212 was the quickest area code to dial, as compared to 800. As numbers kept accumulating, the outer boroughs (Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens and ShaoLin) were exiled to 718 (a much longer dial, no?). Since Manhattan has so many letters, I now often refer to it as the 212. Then, as mobile phones emerged, they were given the area code 917. There is now 212, 718, 646, 347, and 917 in the Five.

As some of you know, I resisted the mobile lifestyle until 2003 when I moved to the Heights (Brooklyn that is)and gave up having a landline. In fact I used a rotary phone, and really felt the pain of 718. Nonetheless, when, in 1999, I moved up to the Heights (in this case Washington) my landline number had a 917 exchange, which always led to assumptions that this was my mobile number. No no, no no no... though I lived in Manhattan, I was denied the 212. This kind of slight would happen again in a few months when Manhattan, north of 135th Street, blacked out in July. Above 125 gets no love, and yes, I've gone through two blackouts in New York.

So anyway, I started feeling a bit disconnected from Manhattan, though present all over, well at least throughout Brooklyn and Manhattan. So later that summer, I embraced my nomadic area code when I made a chapbook of poetry published by 917press. Thus is the tale.

More on the history of area codes. And here's the mess we have now ever since they abandoned area codes having either a one or zero in the middle.

The long ride home

Whitney and I were coming home from the Puck Building, where the Wagner school has its home. As usual we were waiting for the downtown R train at spring street which has one of our favorite MTA public art pieces. Along the platform, there are several silhouettes of New Yorkers walking about, done in stainless steal, black granite and some red flagstone. The silhouettes are done with such remarkable precision that Whitney remarked how one can easily imagine what the face and clothing could or should be. So tonight, we just missed the train and decided to walk down the other end of the platform to look at the other figures. As we returned to our usual place on the platform, a W train stalled.

Another passenger was checking out the figures too, and commented to us how one can easily imagine what the face and clothing could or should be! She said she lived down the street from the artist. We then learned that the project took about a year. The artist took thousands of pictures of people, chose a large sample, which had to be vetted by the MTA for appropriateness and representative diversity. Then she cut the figures and their accoutrements with water cuts, allowing for the incredibly detailed assembly between the three elements, which are then embedded into the tiles of the station. The MTA has a site of all its public artworks, but this piece doesn’t have its site yet.

The stalled train ended up forcing a reroute of trains around the station, so we walked to Spring, mistakenly took an uptown train to West 4th, and finally got on an A train to our beloved Brooklyn. The trip was long, but totally worth it to learn more about this artwork we enjoy so much.

Hidden Rooms

Whitney and I went out to some galleries today, mostly because I wanted to see the Damien Hirst show at Gagosian.

We returned on 22nd street and saw a neon sign "The Boy From Mars" at Friedrich Petzel. Inside, besides the reception desk, there appeared to be very little besides a book case. To our great suprise, the shelf twisted away to reveal an entrance to a dark gallery where the video was shown in yet another room. We weren't as capitivated by the film as we were with the secret passage way, but they were giving copies away on oxidation protected disks. This means we have 48 hours to watch the DVD until it is no longer readable, so we can reconsider.

Then we got in trouble with some corn. Then we went home. If you want the details, ask, but let's just say I've had a lot of contact with corn this week.

Stick Up, New York!

I like urban art, graffiti and such (though not so much the scratchiti in the subway) and I'm going through a grafedia phase as you know. But I'm also fascinated by stickiti. This is a great intro and gallery of NY Stickers. And Boing Boing had a blurb too.

Some more thoughts on Toilets

So I am thinking, "what if I help people learn about toilets here at 917 Press?"

I'd want them to know about what can happen to the decommissioned. They should know about how they factor into event planning. Or special artsy toilets.

For a time, I would take visitors of NYC to some of my favorites toilets.... the unisex at Bar 89 in SoHo, where the stall doors are transparent, but turn opaque when locked; Palicinka, also in SoHo where they have that awsome gritty handsoap.

There's also listing of notable and public toilets for the city. BlueManGroup's Tubes show muses on the wonderful system that links our homes to our cities... plumbing. In conclusion, toilets are interesting objects and places, why aren't more interested since we visit one at least once a day...