Canoeing on the Gowanus Canal

by baad lamb

Back in May, on a beautiful sunny Saturday, my aimless wandering of New York's industrial fringe found me in Gowanus, at the dead end where 2nd Street meets the Gowanus Canal. The two gentlemen sitting in folding chairs off to the side were not immediately visible as I contemplated the posters displayed in the upright old dinghy. Before I could read beyond "BROOKLYN'S COOLEST SUPERFUND SITE", one of the men approached. Would I like to canoe the canal? Hell yes!

Paddling a canoe alone on the canal while trying to take pictures and video can be challenging, especially with the constant breeze wanting to spin the boat in circles anytime I put the paddle down and picked up the camera. Adding to the fun, occasional forceful discharges from invisible pipes would spew questionable liquids, creating a sudden current on what was, not long ago, largely a stationary cauldron of chemicals and waste-water (reactivating and upgrading the pumping station has begun to change that). I didn't have enough time to explore as deeply as I wanted; the area south of the Smith and 9th Street F & G trains viaduct still beckons. Can't wait to go back, but I'll bring the reluctant "why-are-you-taking-us-to-another-industrial-area?" husband, so one can navigate while the other films.



In the video above, note the car that backs up on the 3rd Street Bridge; we exchanged waves, although they are too far away in this video to see the arm come out the window; I guess they could not believe they just saw someone leisurely exploring this NYC waterway!

The Gowanus Dredgers Canoe Club sponsors public canoeing on Saturdays, from March to October, 1PM to 5PM, and Wednesday evenings, 6PM to 8PM, May to August. The canoeing is free, but your much appreciated donation will be be put to good use (you can even become a member).

Check out ten more photos after the jump...

Follies: A Review

I was a lucky SOB and scored a preview performance ticket to the current revival of Follies that is playing at the Marriot Marquis Theater on Broadway.

For those of you who don't know, Follies is one of those shows within the musical theater world that is so fraught with expectation, dogma and preconceived notions that mounting a production is not something for the faint of heart. I did not see the original and legendary production from the 70's, which many hold up as the holy grail of versions, but I saw the much reviled Roundabout revival and enjoyed it. Obviously I'm not a purist so bear that in mind.

IntenSati4Men & Coaching: A Review

I was recently invited to experience a new exercise program called IntenSati4Men & Coaching.  According to press materials, "IntenSati is a revolutionary workout fusing high-energy cardio, martial arts, yoga, strength conditioning, AND spoken affirmations (optional). Originally created by fitness guru Patricia Moreno, it is fitness at the highest efficiency and empowerment — physically challenging and spiritually mindful. Courage, confidence, willpower, enthusiasm, self-respect, and a strong healthy body are all the results of this practice."

Broadway's Next H!t Musical: A Review

On the heels of the Academy Awards, one might ask oneself "what truly makes for a memorable awards ceremony?"  The answer is quite simply: improvisation.

By improvisation I don't mean a nimble host who can navigate past an ungainly acceptance speech or an awkward award presentation.  I am referring to the kind of improvisation where you pretty much make up the whole thing on the spot.

This challenging and rare skill is on full display at Broadway's Next H!t Musical, performing at The Triad on West 72nd Street.  Broadway's Next H!t Musical has as its subtitle "New York City's Improvised Musical," but that doesn't fully encompass the marvelous shenanigans that go on here.

Autumn in New York

Our perfect Autumn stroll through Central Park this morning.

Lots more photos (and Ella and Louis!) after the jump.

One Step Ahead of Judgement Day

Halloween, 5th Avenue, photo by the Baad Lamb

Raging Grannies Mother's Day Parade

Marching up Columbus Avenue today, the Granny Peace Brigade spread the word about the true anti-war meaning of Mother's Day, and passed out leaflets with the words of its founder Julia Ward Howe in 1870: "We the women of one country will be too tender to those of another country to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs".
As delightful as the Raging Grannies and their marching band were, it is a somber message for this and any Mother's Day.

More photos after the jump...

The GLBT EXPO, an Upside-down Pride Parade

by baad lamb

A fun and informative diversion this past weekend was had by anyone stopping by the GLBT EXPO at the Jacob Javits Convention Center on Sunday afternoon.

There were only 2 hours left before closing by the time I arrived, but there were still plenty of people roaming the aisles (including, it seems, QNY's own Darling!, who filed his report here. Hi, Darling!).

The expo is at its core a marketing event; a forum for companies who want to sell products and services to the GLBT community, or for organizations, community groups, sports teams, non-profits and social services to raise their profiles or reach out directly to a queer or queer-positive demographic.

Lots more, and video, after the jump....

Micro Museum

Posted By baad lamb

Spin and swing the dangling camera-ball, walk up and down the red carpeted gauntlet of creepy-clowns, while they randomly light-up or taunt you with laughter. The TV on the floor displays your swirling video feed, an unrelated yet somehow oddly appropriate video installation adds to the mix. The trippy-quotient is multiplied by 10 as the random, owner-supplied soundtrack lands on Pink Floyd's melancholy lament "Wish You Were Here".

It's A Delivery Boy's Holiday!

By Father Tony

I Love New York

By Baad Lamb



I love New York.

Everyone who knows me knows that.

I love New York and I never hesitate to say so. Even when The City is maddening, disappointing, difficult, selfish or unreasonably demanding, it remains easy to declare how much I love it. I love it despite its crazy contradictions, perhaps even because of them. Examples? A list of things I profess to dislike is nearly identical to a list of what makes New York New York. I find shopping for almost anything distasteful. I loathe crass commercialism and relentless consumerism, loud talkers in cramped spaces, waiting in unmoving lines, rude people, traffic jams, obscene wealth, political corruption, haphazard development, and lowest common denominator pop culture.

See what I mean? You would think I’d have ended up in a cabin in Montana, not a tiny studio apartment in one of the wealthiest zip codes in the city. But then, I love the cyclical layer upon layer of blink-and-you’ll-miss-it development and destruction, the architecture and art, the triple parked social schedules, and the fractal-like splintering of groups into sub-groups into ever smaller sub-groups, with every participant constantly on the move, uptown, downtown, across town, underground, performing for the judges, expecting to “win their category” in the absolutely unmatched continuous diversity parade that is every day in New York.

Two thoughts:

It is often stated that you can’t appreciate beauty without knowing what ugly is.

Elevating annoyance to the superlative transforms it into fascination.

In New York, the stimulation is constant. Beauty and filth, color and chaos, serenity and sensationalism, insight and impact, dark corners and bright lights. Attention must be paid, demands the urban landscape, in Helvetica Extra Bold and underlined.

I love the electricity buzzing through the sidewalks, the buildings shedding their skin, falling down, and sprouting up like weeds, sometimes even exploding, all quite literally.

You could easily spend a lifetime - maybe two, attempting to categorize, quantify, critique, or just contain what New York presents, and to many it would be more than enough.

But then there are the details - the cracks and crevasses, the blotches and blobs, pipes, conduits, rust and remnants that decorate the city. An architectural patina of man-made and organic entropy catching the eye of the contrary (those looking down when everyone else is pointing up), or the explorer on the fringe, hoping to find, in that totally forgotten back alley, architectural ruin or industrial wasteland, a decaying mechanical device of unrecognizable purpose or a concrete Ozymandias, silently guarding the secrets of one or many generations of laborers and immigrants, those who began the palimpsest we call New York.

Then, since this is New York, I look up and see a crowd surrounding me, digital cameras ready, looking for exactly the same thing.

Guess I found my sub-group (or they found me).

Here, for your enjoyment, is an iMovie/Garage Band video I made from some of those pictures. (This is my first attempt at original music.) There are some architectural details large enough to be recognizable, but mostly an obvious obsession with rusty metal, storm drains and other industrial design remnants. See anything you recognize?