Avoiding Fashion Week and dreaming of Eminem

The man of my dreams—Eminem. (Photo by Kevin Mazur/GETTY IMAGES)

I had this crazy dream like a week ago — two of ‘em actually. The first one was more of a realization. I woke up in the middle of the night and was like, “Damn. I’m gonna be busy next year… So I better get some traveling in!”

The other one, also random — involved Eminem, of all people. I mean, huh? I don’t even listen to or think about him. Must have heard his song somewhere — like the time I was in K-mart and heard a lovely muzak version of Richard Marx’s “Ocean’s Apart.” Had a dream that night that I was at my mom’s dinner table introducing Richard Marx as my fiancé. My mother kept looking at his mullet with a hairy eyeball and my sister leans over and says, “Richard? What’s your last name again?” and as soon as he says “Marx,” I woke up to her mocking laughter in my ears. I didn’t go to K-Mart for a long time after that.

Public art: Subway spoiler alert signs

Newmindspace and Jason Eppink collaborated in installing these “Spoiler Alert” signs around the few New York City subway stations with LED displays as a commentary on their impact on certain commuter habits and behaviors. These LED signs also threaten historical social behaviors, rendering obsolete the time-honored New York tradition of leaning over the platform edge [...]

Summer fun in the hot city

GaGa shows off to the press. That’s my girl! Photo by Nick Laham / Getty Images.

With it being summer, I thought I’d put together a little cheat sheet about what’s hot in my imagination for this summer, my summer in the city.

LADY GAGA
Let’s face it, the last two years have been years of Gaga, but there is something so personal about her music and her style that inspires me every day. From the mini short clad dancers in her new “Alejandro” music video, to her whimsical display of her middle finger at major sporting events, there’s nothing not to love. Lady Gaga’s adoration for her fans is something that everyone who is blessed enough to have fans should learn from. There isn’t a morning, day or night in these hot months that I am not rocking my “Poker Face.”

FASHION
Summer fashion isn’t always something that I go for, I have disproportionate leg muscles which can make shorts and issue, and my skin is paler than Casper’s, but I love letting some skin show and making my skinny rib statements on every hot, sticky, miserable day. Chanel has some amazing tanks from their summer collection, Garreth Pugh put out an insane pair of leather leggings for those frisky nights out grinding to the “thumpa thumpa” and J Brand has introduced “Jegging” shorts, which are basically denim inspired biker shorts that make my booty look glorious. I may prefer bundling up in fur for winter, but this summer there are a lot of hot things to try.

NYC MTA FML

An Internet meme crossed into everyday real life when New York City’s beloved (note sarcasm) transit agency MTA updated a sign at a subway station at 14th Street and Sixth Avenue to reflect some service changes. The sign for train lines, F, V, and L was changed to F, M, and L. LOL! Bloggers quickly [...]

Last Night’s Party with Conan O’Brien

I felt lucky last night to attend Conan O’Brien’s “The Legally Prohibited From Being Funny on Television Tour” at Radio City Music Hall last night. It really lived up to the hype, especially with all the surprises. Highlights included (Spoiler alert): Reggie Watts warming up the crowd with a killer set. CoCo defeating Steven Colbert [...]

Jump around: Jordan Matter’s jumping photos of dancers

It’s not a big surprise to anyone that peruses through my Flickr or knows me that I’ve been a long time fan of jumping photos as both a participant and as the photographer. My friends and I however look like complete amateurs compared to these fantastic photos taken by photographer Jordan Matter (recently covered by Em and Lo here) of dancers leaping through the air in various iconic or familiar areas of New York City, such as Parisa Khobdeh at a Yankees game. Matter explains:

Dancers Among Us is a collection of NYC dance photographs featuring members of the Paul Taylor, Mark Morris and Martha Graham Dance Companies. This is an ongoing project that began in the spring of 2009. There were no trampolines or other devices used for these images, just thousands of hours of training.

A couple more after the jump that I really liked!

Leslie Buck, designer of iconic cup dies

Leslie Buck, Holocaust survivor and the designer behind the iconic blue coffee cups, which is familiar to all New Yorkers and “Law and Order” fans, passed away recently at the age of 87. I’m sad that I learned of him only after his death. According to his New York Times obituary, after surviving Auschwitz and [...]

The Beauty of the Rockefeller Drug Laws and Planning My Redneck Roadtrip

Can’t wait to end up in Pigeon Forge — home to Dollywood! Oho — big news on Sullivan this week… the Goonies were busted BIG TIME! Tuesday night the cops swarmed in, blocked off Sullivan and Prince and went to town on the Goonies. The dealers were all up against the wall (very Law & [...]

Artistically detailed New York City skyline

Tofi Stoler shared with Boing Boing this instantly recognizable pre-9/11 skyline of Manhattan that is created entirely out of staples. I’m not completely sure if this is the most efficient use of office supplies, but it sure is one of the coolest. Speaking of New York skylines, in case you missed it, check out this [...]

Every Painting in the MoMA on 10 April 2010

One of my favorite art bloggers Hyde or Die shared this ambitious YouTube video titled “Every Painting in the MoMA on 10 April 2010,” which incidentally was the same day I too dropped by my favorite museum in New York City, primarily to view their new Henri Cartier-Bresson exhibit (one word review: captivating!). Set to [...]

Epic 2010 Armory Show photo recap

Last week fellow SUNfiltered blogger Perrin Drumm did a nice write up on The Armory Show, “one of the most important fine art fairs in the world” which ended this past Sunday. I went with a friend over the weekend and while roaming through the various galleries booths and enjoying my (nine dollar!) Coors Light, I took photos of the pieces that caught our eyes. A lot of today’s contemporary art simultaneously frustrates and stimulates me, because some seem so heavy handed and derivative, especially trompe l’oeil sculptures and Jenny Holzer-esque pieces, and yet it is these that I’m most drawn towards and excited by. This annual art fair is where these contradicting emotions most manifest (See last year’s photo recap here – Part 1 and 2).

View (Warning: A LOT) more photos after the jump (I’d like to caveat that pictures don’t do justice for most of the art there).

Altered NYC street signs

A mysterious (well, aren’t they all?) street artist named TrustoCorp recently culture jammed the street signs of Manhattan and Brooklyn with some awesomely hilarious and topical replacement signs. [Via]

Views out the window

Italian artist Matteo Pericoli convinced 63 notable and prominent New Yorkers including Stephen Colbert, Mikhail Baryshnikov, and Junot Diaz (seen above) to permit him to illustrate the window views from their homes or offices for his new book “The City Out My Window.” Am I the only one that thinks only Baryshnikov could get away [...]

Last brownstone standing

When I saw this remarkable LIFE photo of a defiant brownstone apartment building, I stopped cold in my scrolling mouse tracks. The photo, which reminded me of this year’s hit Pixar film UP, should be displayed next to the word “gentrification.” Its caption read “Construction in NYC: land being cleared for 20 story building in [...]

Paper cutout of NYC

An impressive meticulously detailed large map measuring 6 feet x 8 feet of New York City cut out of paper by hand. It’s separated into four panels each representing the main boroughs (Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Queens), except for the Rodney Dangerfield of the boroughs: sorry, Staten Island. Along with a Paris version, this unique [...]

Flash mob musical troupe break out in NYC

Note the police officer who attempts to break up the faux flight until the singing begins!

Break Out In Song is an ambitious public arts project that pushes the boundaries of live theater as it dazzles unsuspecting audiences with free, spontaneous and fully staged Broadway musical numbers. The idea came to producer Ryan Mackey as he would listen to show tunes on his iPod, wishing that he could start singing and dancing. After seeing the viral video of about 200 dancers perform a song from THE SOUND OF MUSIC in a train station in Antwerp, Belgium, he decided he wanted to do something similar in New York.

Everyone forever now

“Everyone Forever Now” is an “episodic motion-based media project” that “is an examination of the collective wisdom and expression of human actions.” Creators Will Hoffman & Daniel Mercadante attempt to document and capture the mundane experiences of everyday like suntanning to the provocative such as shooting a gun. I particularly enjoyed their effort to document [...]

Bobby McFerrin demonstrates the power of the pentatonic scale

The World Science Festival has just begun to release some clips from this year’s festival which was held in June 2009. One of the most notable is from “Notes & Neurons: In Search of the Common Chorus” where Bobby McFerrin demonstrates the power of the pentatonic scale, using audience participation. World Science Festival 2009: Bobby [...]

Science and the city

Brian Greene, festival co-founder and theoretical physics professor at Columbia University, with the respected Dr. Bunson Honeydew

From June 10-14, New York City will host the second annual World Science Festival, a series of programs and lectures that highlight the big questions in science and how they influenced the big questions in other fields, like philosophy, ethics, and the arts. The festival’s primary mission is “to cultivate and sustain a general public informed by the content of science, inspired by its wonder, convinced of its value, and prepared to engage with its implications for the future,” a reminder that that science part of all of our lives, from the philosophical to the practical, and is worth knowing about.

Times Square Beach

A kinder and gentler traffic in Times Square.

Finally catching up to many European cities who have made their city centers “pedestrian only” for years, New York City’s mayor, Michael Bloomberg has closed Broadway to vehicular traffic between 47th and 42nd Streets straight through the middle of Times Square in New York City. Bloomberg says that clearing both Times Square and Herald Square (from 35th to 33rd Streets on Broadway) of motorized vehicles will lower the number of pedestrian accidents and cut down on pollution.

Pet garbage

Once again proving the adage that one man’s trash is another man’s treasure, Justin Gignac collects New York City garbage and carefully packages it in plastic cubes, which are then signed, dated, numbered, sealed and of course, available for purchase. [Via]