Green reuse of elevated railway in Manhattan
The Highline railway track is a 30 foot high, 1.45 mile long disused piece of infrastructure threading its way through 22 blocks of downtown Manhattan. Constructed in the 1930s, it’s a reminder of yesteryear investment, long disused and now in an elevated overgrown state. However, herein lay an opportunity, say the Friends of the Highline, with the vision of creating 6.7 acres of elevated public space for the city. Enlisting the help of a design team comprising of Field Operations and Diller Scofidio + Renfro, the group has put a proposal to the City of New York to redevelop these spaces, and for the people of New York to be ‘able to rise up from the streets and step into a place apart, tranquil and green’.
Tagged: New York
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Cook. Eat. Drink. Live in New York City
Hmmm, hmmm. I’m heading along to Cook Eat Drink Live in New York this weekend to indulge in a three-day modern food and wine event at The Tunnel and La Venue, at which there will be a sampling of ‘ultra-premium gourmet foods and spirits, plus appearances from some of the city’s premier chefs’. It’s going to be an event of gastronomical indulgence, so I’ll be fasting for at least, errr, three hours in anticipation.
November is shaping up to be Typographic month in New York. On November 5 there’s the official opening of Lubalin Now — the inaugural exhibition at the newly re-located Herb Lubalin Study Center at the Cooper Art Union, featuring beautiful typography from the likes of Alex Trochut, Huntergatherer and Non-Format [featured above]. Read more
Depart From Me is the latest full-length album from underground/indie-rap legend Cage, aka Chris Palko. Cage is helped along in this task with production by El-P, F. Sean (Hatebreed), the late Camu Tao and Aesop Rock. We checked in with him to get the word on the music that imspired his latest recording, and he started with Deftones song, My Own Summer [listen below]: ‘This song reminds me of what it feels like to be on all my favorite drugs that I quit doing and the sadness that comes from failed romances that will never be again. I’m referring to the drugs, not the women’.
Also by SNELL
This house has many facets that make it an intriguing example. First of all, it is a very aesthetically pleasing project with the use of light horizontal timbers and a clean pitched roof. Designed by MOS, an interesting design collective based in America, the secret to the Floating House is that it floats on a structure of steel pontoons. The house rises and falls with the changing waters and is frozen in place depending on the season. The steel pontoons were constructed first and towed to the lake outside the contractor’s factory and then the house was built atop of it. When finished it was towed to its position, anchored and enjoyed in its unique position. Finally, it forms a bridge between the land and an island. Wonderful!
Dutch uber-firm OMA, headed by Rem Koolhaas, has created this concept in Mexico City to symbolize the coming two hundred years of Mexico’s independence. There are many layers of symbolism in this building, from Mayan pyramids to which part of the building controls the park and which part controls the city, to the fact that the bulge of the building is below the centre height, and that it all happens on a relatively small footprint. Most of all, in this building there is a barely contained energy that seems near to release and it may be that this is what Torre Bicentenario represents.
The Danes are renowned for their considered and subtle design. However, in these times of change, they must feel they need something with this selection of a bridge building as the winner of a recent architectural competition in Denmark. The American architect Steven Holl designed this building with a pedestrian bridge that links two sides of the harbour in the distinctly low-rise Copenhagen. Read more
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Iraqi-American artist Wafaa Bilal spent an entire month living in a Chicago art gallery where he had rigged a webcam and remote controlled paintball gun which visitors online or at the actual gallery could use to shoot at him. The piece highlighted the danger everyday Iraqi citizens face both in terms of actual violence and the vitriol generated by the controversial and geopolitically convoluted war. The experience re-triggered the post-traumatic stress disorder that Bilal had acquired in his home country. The installation as well as his life as an activist, artist, and refugee are documented in his book, Shoot An Iraqi: Art, Life and Resistance Under the Gun.
Caught The Dust Dive the other night at Glasslands. They’re a bunch of hippies, but even I have to admit, they’re atmospheric live show – consisting of violin, gently strummed guitar, a few piano and sampler twinkles here and there, and sound samples from the found footage projected behind the band – is really powerful, like the warm rush of fond memories that hits you an instant before the mushroom cloud annihilates everything. Frontman Bryan Zimmerman even plays the musical saw, and you really can’t argue with that.
Listen to their track, Claws of Light.
I checked out the Armory Show in Manhattan a couple of weeks back and amongst the aisles of impressive contemporary art I was particularly taken by the work of Japanese artist, Mahomi Kunikata, whose vibrant and colorful paintings are full of mischievous characters and ‘joy joy’ sentimentality.
The Suit Up exhibition comprises a number of artworks from various Australian street, comic, and illustration artists, each of whom has applied their unique style to that ubiquitous — yet, rarely tapped — canvas, the playing card. The designs have been produced as giclee prints, signed and numbered by the artists, and are limited to 10 prints of each design. Real-size decks of cards have also been produced for sale. The Suit Up crew is a close-knit group of predominantly Melbourne-based artists who are passionate about Australia’s ‘low-brow’ art scene, which is more collaborative and less ego-driven than much of the the high-brow art world. The exhibition runs between February 13 and 25.
Films involving characters faced with an impossible choice never make easy viewing, an example being the Nick Cave Australian gem, The Proposition. A nightclub manager, played with understated power by Joaquin Phoenix, is the victim here, and you actually feel truly uncomfortable as his predicament unfolds. Set in the 1980s, We Own The Night shows a real nostalgia for that period — particularly in the costumes. Read more
Once upon a time there was a real connoisseur of jeans, Hidehiko Yamane, as expert and demanding as only certain Japanese ‘otaku’ can be. Read more
Shorpy is a great blog dedicated to digitally restored photos, mostly from the first half of the 20th century, but some from as early as the 1840s. Read more
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There is not a medium that UK illustrator Lizzy Stewart cannot wrap around her little finger to make the most beautiful, whimsical images. Read more
Almanac Market in Philadelphia is slightly pricey, but you definitely get what you pay for. Offering fantastic bread, cheeses, produce, and cured meats such as sopressata and pepperoni, it was a great pit stop when my band played in town, and definitely more economical and tasty than hitting a greasy spoon for road snacks.
Trip out with Sparrow Vs Sparrow’s retro illustrations, I love their aesthetic, color use and sense of humor. Read more
Alex Passapera’s dizzying pen and ink drawings are cascades of images melting into one another, often looking like contorting, mutating creatures spewing blood-like ink splatters. Read more
Good thing Kris Kuksi channelled the trauma of growing up with an alcoholic stepfather, his disdain for ‘the typical American life and pop culture’, and his fascination with the macabre into obsessive, baroque assemblages, paintings, and drawings. Read more
Wolfmother. Rock n roll. Mystical lyrics. Heavy riffs. They have a new album out, Cosmic Egg, and we have five copies to giveaway, along with their debut album. To enter, tell us your favorite Wolfmother song and the city you live in. Yo! Two fingered salute. Read more
Made from 100 percent organic cotton and eco-friendly, this super soft tee celebrates a sinister world of kaleidoscopic colours and ripples of psychedelia, of serenading Queens, of dancing flamingos, of unimaginable euphoria. It’s all the work of Sydney label, Das Monk and it’s available through the Lost At E Minor online store for just US$40. Now, there’s one hell of a Christmas present, even if we do say so ourselves!
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