New York City
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This Tuesday, the students from my History of Film class from Fordham University, Lincoln Center visited the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, Queens. I haven’t been there since the museum underwent a major renovation about two years ago. I was concerned that many of the best parts of the museum were gone, but that concern was for naught. They were all there. Since I have an obsession with old electronics, especially those preserved and presented at museums, I had a blast shooting photos of all these objects.
The tour also complemented a great deal of material that we covered throughout the semester, especially in the beginning. We saw the usual pre-cinema toys and devices, such as the magic lantern, the thaumatrope, and the zoetrope. There were of course more contemporary objects that we cover in recent classes, such as a Vitaphone disk and projector, Technicolor camera.
I’d judge the class trip as a success. A couple of students seemed enthusiastic about seeing in person a lot of the objets that I’ve described in painstaking detail. One student in particular wrote an email to thank me for arranging the trip. And one student, who I judged to be a regular at the museum, was very enthusiastic about the screenings there.
Sarah, who occasionally takes the East River Ferry, sent me this photo to show that the relatively new service is already haunted. Yikes!
Happy Halloween, everyone.
This is the earliest I have seen had snowfall in New York City, and possibly only the fourth time since the Civil War when it has snowed before Halloween. That’s pretty significant because only two years ago, it was Halloween, on a Saturday, and it was warm.
Not this year, it turns out.
It was nice to see that our favorite local watering hole was open yesterday while we anticipated the arrival of Hurricane Tropical Storm Irene. Thanks to Leo and the rest of the crew for staying open and keeping us entertained last night.
With my mom visiting this week, I joined her on a tour of museums that I had never visited despite having lived in New York for ten years. We had tried to go to the Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace Historic Site, but when we arrived, we found that the museum is closed “until further notice.” (I later learned that they are waiting to repair the fire escape.)
Since the Teddy Roosevelt birthplace was closed, we headed uptown to 163rd St and Amsterdam Ave to the Morris-Jumel Mansion, another museum I had never visited. The mansion was actually kind of small, due to the fact that it was a mere summer retreat for the Jumels, but my mom has an almost unhealthy curiosity of old places and the now-dead persons that have inhabited or walked through them. I took a few photos of these haunted spaces.
The mansion is one of the many “George Washington Slept Here” places that one finds up and down the Atlantic coast, and indeed we saw the room where the Commander-in-Chief had not only slept but also commanded troops. There was even a great contemporary mixed media art piece, by Felipe Galindo, that imagined George Washington as launching a revolution, not unlike how the Arab ones were launched earlier this year. (Or were they? Discuss.)
If you had never been here, it’s worth the trek uptown. There is not very much to do once you get there, but seeing the oldest surviving house in New York, it’s a good site off the beaten track.
Despite begin able to fly for almost free, my mom has been hesitant to travel all the way from Los Angeles to visit. It’s understandable. Between having to work, babysitting Alex, and resting on the days in between, flying cross-country does not seem all that appealing.
Last night, mom finally arrived, and I couldn’t drive fast enough to pick her up. Unfortunately, I have to work today so she’ll be on her own in the big city today until this afternoon. But it’s not like there’s not anything to do here, and the late August weather has arrived with crisp warm days and little humidity. Is there a better time of the year?
Now if I can only get my dad to visit, too!
On Tuesday, September 6, the Museum of the City of New York will be hosting a panel discussion on the history and the future of newspapers and journalism in New York City. The panel will feature Alan Brinkley, author of The Publisher: Henry Luce and His American Century, (Alfred A. Knopf, 2010), and David Nasaw, author of The Chief: The Life of William Randolph Hearst, (Mariner Books, 2001).
Having learned a lot about the journalism at the turn of the nineteenth to the twentieth century while teaching the Introduction to Media Industries class over the last years, I developed an affection for the time and the way these papers competed in a very tough environment. (Take a guess how many newspapers were published more than once daily in New York City in 1911. It’s probably more than publish in New York State today.)
That reminds me. I need to finish reading that tome on Joseph Pulitzer I bought in the spring.
(Via Museum of the City of New York.)
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The other day outside of the IFC Center on Sixth Avenue, I found that my iPhone had automatically connected to the attwifi network, which makes sense since I was within a sight line of a McDonald’s. But it was a weak signal, so when I tried to turn off the WiFi radio, I saw these “open” WiFi networks with familiar names, such as Amazon, Google, Groupon, and Hotels.com.
Now, I know the downtown area is pretty well-connected with technology companies, but I doubt that these open networks are actually run by the companies in question. I am guessing is that these open networks are there to sniff unsuspecting users’ personal data, such as passwords and account numbers.
I wonder if anyone has noticed these networks around other parts of New York, and whether anyone has been brave enough to connect to them.
With the weather reaching 100° last week, people complained and pined for winter. That attitude has always made me laugh a bit because I remember these same people fondly anticipating warmer weather, even a summer heat wave. Well, here it is!
As an outdoor guy, I have a strong preference for the summer since we can’t really play softball or go for a long bike ride when there’s a foot of snow on the ground, now can we?
Yesterday was Bastille Day, and since I get a little more sensitive about it as the years go by, I tried to keep as hush-hush as possible. But, of course, as it tends to do, Facebook let the cat out of the bag and ratted out to my friends about Bastille Day. My dear friends posted nearly 100 messages with nice Bastille Day messages. Awww…. shucks!
Fortunately, Pilar’s boyfriend Bill had an art show at the art auction house where he works, and it was a very big party. He had three very large drawings, which we all saw and posed with for pictures, but it was the selection of complimentary summer cocktails that made another passing year a little easier to digest.
This was exactly the kind of Bastille Day I wanted. I got to drink for (almost) free, I got to spend it with some friends, and I wasn’t the center of attention.
Congrats to Bill, and cheers to everyone who wished me a happy Bastille Day.
