Young Dancers Enjoy Midsummer Night Swing

by baad lamb
At this Saturday Night's rendition of Midsummer Night Swing, with JD McPherson providing his distinctive retro-contempo swing, an enthusiastic group of youngsters show off their collective dance moves outside the paying walls. Although the steps they were all practicing look like a Broadway chorus line routine, it's clear they are trained in classical ballet. Perhaps they're summer term students at the School of American Ballet?
Since I'm not a regular ballet attendee, maybe a few of them will defect to the contemporary dance scene, and with luck, I'll be applauding one or two of them in a few years down at the Joyce.

I'm pretty sure that is the dance instructor Adam Lee, Lindy-Hopping with a partner in between views of the kids.

A favorite NYC spot for lounging.

On a Bertoia wire mesh chair, under the regimented London Plane trees of the Barclay Grove at Lincoln Center, looking at the Henry Moore sculpture on the reflecting pool from a questionable angle, and speculating about the wear to the lawn-roof over the new restaurant.

Kronos Quartet with Gamelan Galak Tika World Premiere -Christine Southworth’s Super Collider.

by baad lamb

Kronos Quartet has always been the string quartet as enjoyable to watch as they are to listen to. Their cool clothes and hip hairstyles once seemed revolutionary, and garnered as much attention from critics as their completely original approach to contemporary classical music.

Last night's free concert at Lincoln Center Out of Doors in Damrosch Park bandshell continued their tradition of pushing musical boundaries, but their fashion-forward role was usurped by their collaborators, Gamelan Galak Tika, collectively in wine and gold colored Balinese robes and headdresses.

This world premier piece, which closed last night's show, is called "Super Collider", by Christine Southworth, who is also the general manager of Gamelan Galak Tika.

Two more vids from this piece, and more, after the jump

Midsummer Night Swing with LA 33 and DJ Turmix at Lincoln Center

The summer parade of free events has arrived. Just get yourself outside, and live music and dancing and party-crowds will be impossible to miss. Say it with me, everybody: "I Love New York City".

One of our favorite events is the Midsummer Night Swing program at Lincoln Center. If you want to be on the real dance floor and close enough to really see the band, it'll cost ya. But if  you just wanna jump and jive, salsa and meringue, tango and twist, there is plenty of extra space to show off, and the free party stretches from the Damrosch Park bandshell all the way back to the New York State Theater building.

The sound is good enough to hear the music wherever you are, but every year these events gets more popular, and Lincoln Center has continually made changes to accommodate the ever-growing crowds. If you expect to see the band up close, pay the money, because the huge sets and the dance floor obscure the stage. Otherwise, stay down in the steerage with the masses, and have a ball.

A few more photos after the jump...

The New Illumination Lawn at Lincoln Center

When Olmsted and Vaux designed Prospect Park in Brooklyn, they recognized their chance to refine or redress some of their efforts in Central Park, whose two large green gathering spaces, The Sheep Meadow and The Great Lawn, are both essentially flat. In Prospect Park, one of the best-loved features then and now, is the Long Meadow, the nearly mile long roll of grassy hills that unfold after the initial entry from Grand Army Plaza. They considered Prospect Park their superior work, as do many landscape architect critics.

Diller Scofidio + Renfro cut out a small section of this undulating Brooklyn icon, and then transported their flying green carpet of grass to the tighter, smaller, higher-built spaces of Manhattan. Here, they placed it on the head of a two story, still unnamed “destination” restaurant in Lincoln Center’s north plaza, and secured it all with a stainless steel hat pin.

Last Friday, this “Short Meadow” of green space opened for public use, finally allowing close-up inspection of what has only been intriguingly visible from a distance or in computer simulated virtual reality.

Photos, details and video after the jump.

Shiny Black and Wet after Midnight

by baad lamb
The recently revised Revson Fountain at the "center" of Lincoln Center is bigger, darker, shinier and sleeker than the original. Greater quantities of more powerful jets shoot better lit frothy streams higher into the air. After midnight, when late winter cold keeps posing couples and crowds away, boys can play with their cheap digital cameras as long as frozen fingers will function. The surrounding darkness combined with the brightly lit water jets enhances the reflection factor and fascinates those easily amused (yup, count me in).

Both videos are best viewed full screen. "Horizontal" starts slightly static, but interest increases about 35 seconds in.
Then check out "Vertical" after the jump. 

David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center - A Bonus Reborn

Posted by Baad Lamb

 

David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center; Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects

Many New Yorkers have a Love/Hate relationship with Lincoln Center. But we want to love it, and so keep coming back even though it sometimes disappoints us (as Miss Tully has done again and again).

I am counting on a metronome swing far into the love side with the opening of the new David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center.

This prime location started life as a bonus plaza, a well intentioned but seriously abused zoning program allowing higher, bulkier ugliness in one of the ugliest buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood, the Harmony Building (designed by Philip Birnbaum, and completed in 1978). The original dismal space, a T-shaped “arcade” connecting Broadway, Columbus Ave and 62^nd Street, always seemed severely neglected, and lack of use by the pedestrian public allowed it to become a haven for the neighborhood homeless. For a while a climbing wall was added and brought some youth activity, but after a few years the novelty wore off as teens and tikes together turned their attention to texting, and the operator closed. The ugly tarp over the wall to prevent unharnessed climbing added to the torn and tattered ambiance.

The bonus plaza needed help and nearby Lincoln Center, looking to consolidate ticket purchases for all of its programs in one box office, became the logical savior.

Not sure of what deals were worked out by all the involved parties, and disappointed with the way Alice Tully Hall lobby and café 65 are being managed, (which is not a bonus plaza space) I feared some sort of sneaky removal of bonus plaza status in exchange for renovation and upkeep. I am happy to report that is not the case.

Photos and more, after the jump.

Hotel Empire

By Father Tony

We thought we should see the view from the rooftop outdoor deck/lounge/pool space at the reopened Hotel Empire across from Lincoln Center. The sign above that rooftop space is huge. Each letter is eight feet high.

A brief tour in photos, after the jump.

A Queer New York Christmas Greeting

Posted by Father Tony


This is for all of you who are out of town and longing for a cheerful New York City Christmas moment. Yesterday we stopped to enjoy this group of carolers on 5th Avenue. (I've added in some other photos taken yesterday of Radio City, the Rockefeller tree, Lincoln Center, the windows at Bergdorf's, and the Plaza Hotel.) 

Barclays Capital Grove

Posted by Father Tony

You don't see this intriguing little park from Columbus Avenue when you walk by Lincoln Center. It's between Avery Fisher Hall and The New York Public Library of the Performing Arts /Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater/Vivian Beaumont Theater. The Paris evocative crushed stone is slightly elevated. The London Plane trees are regimentally clipped. The chairs are mid-century wow-wire. To one side is a Henry Moore floating on water. In front of the library is a crouching Calder. There is so much about Lincoln Center to enjoy and so much more to come as the renovations are completed. We'll be bringing it all to you (plus a tirade about the new cafe), but for now, here's a clickable picture of the Baad Lamb relaxing in the Barclays Capital Grove.