You're Beautiful, New York.

Mourning Michael on the subway

By Joel Silverstein on July 2, 2009 7:58 PM | No Comments

The same charcoal-voiced subway singer previously mentioned on this blog came onto the D train at Rockefeller last Thursday, and started up his routine.

He said he'd start, again, with Elton John.

Before he could sing, though, a younger black man stood, glaring at him from halfway down the car.

"No man! You're not gonna sing Elton. My man just died, and you gonna sing Elton? Sing Michael. Elton! Shit," he bellowed, and sat down.

After grumbling a bit, the older fellow agreed to try a Michael track, "The Lady in My Life," from Thriller.

"They'll be no darkness tonight," he started, an octave lower than Michael.

"No man, you're killing it!" cried the younger man, "This is how you do it." He stood up, and as he walked toward the elder singer, was pitch perfect in his rendition.

"Let me do my thing," the elder said.

"Do it right then!"

"I'm a baritone, man."

"I'm a baritone, a tenor and a bass... and I'm homeless too! Now get off the train!," and with that, the younger man took his seat at the other end. After some grumbling, the elder man left, sneering with his head down, at West 4th.

Bacon, et al., at the Met

By Joel Silverstein on July 2, 2009 7:39 PM | No Comments

Roxy Paine's 2009 sculpture in stainless steel, "Maelstrom", on display on the Metropolitan Museum of Art's roof deck, through October. Photo by Katrina Brooke

Francis Bacon's "Figure Study I," a 1945-6 oil on canvas hangs at the met as part of "Francis Bacon: A Centenary Retrospective," through Aug. 16.

Brooklyn Shuffle

By Joel Silverstein on June 20, 2009 4:34 PM | No Comments

A video featuring dance across the borough by life-long Brooklynite Regina Bresler

Henderson's 'Platonic Crush'

By Joel Silverstein on June 19, 2009 2:46 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Somewhere in the intersection between fashion portraiture and trompe l'oeil, 26-year-old Brooklyn based painter Kelsey Henderson carves her niche.

At Home Sweet Home/Envoy Enterprises on Chrystie St., Henderson held her first gallery show in New York last week, complete with a projection of filmmaker Melissa O'Brien's documentary, also entitled "Platonic Crush," featuring Henderson's process,

from digital photo to larger than life fashion-minded portraits. Models in the film, and subsequently a few of the paintings, wore Christian Dior garments.

Some of the earlier pieces in Henderson's "Platonic Crush" series also showed at the Red Door Gallery in Providence in 2005, during Henderson's senior year at the Rhode Island School of Design.

Black Betty's last night

By Joel Silverstein on June 18, 2009 4:31 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

On Monday, the Rev. Vince Anderson (pictured) and his Love Choir, which includes TV on the Radio drummer Jaleel Bunton and players from Brooklyn bands Moisturizer and Chin Chin, helped Williamsburg institution Black Betty, and a few hundred revelers, go out on a positive.

After learning of the bar's demise - the landlord sold the lease out from under the bar's owners after 10 years in business at Metropolitan and Havemeyer - hordes of sympathetic regulars packed the small Mediterranean eatery and venue every night of its last week. And after five years of being it's Monday night resident band, Rev. Vince and the Love Choir were there for the last moments, leaving everyone with a song, a photo, and a memory to take away.

Towards the end of his third set, at around 5 a.m., Anderson, the self described "dirty gospel" singer/songwriter, led the crowd in repeating the refrain, "This might be the last time, might be the last time, I don't know." Harmonies erupted throughout the elbow-to-elbow crowd, and Vince slowly stepped away from his keyboard, and walked into the crowd. As Bunton and the others followed, the crowd parted, and the band walked out Betty's back door onto Havemeyer St., the audience singing, "this might be the last time," now on its own. Moments later, Anderson and the Love Choir emerged from the other door, picked up their instruments, and wailed back into the song.

Later, after the set ended, patrons started clapping and call-and-response chanting, "Hey Black Betty, stay Black Betty." Bunton, who plays guitar for the Love Choir, sat down behind the drums, and a jam session ensued, Brooklyn percussionist Chauncey Yearwood singing a soulful "Stay Black Betty."

Two cops walked in the door around 6 a.m., and after some reluctance, the beat stopped at Black Betty.

More Photos and video from Black Betty's last night(s) to come!

Yo, Yo.

By Joel Silverstein on June 10, 2009 4:46 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Cellist Yo-Yo Ma and his Silk Road Ensemble gave a free outdoor concert at Lincoln Center's Damrosch Park Tuesday night.

Photo by J. Silverstein

Meatpacking gets High

By Joel Silverstein on June 10, 2009 4:17 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Originally opened in 1934 as a raised railway for freight in the Meatpacking District, the High Line re-opened this week after three years of construction. The first phase of the park includes stained glass art by artist Spencer Finch (see photo at bottom). From the High Line page:

Finch transforms the site's existing casement windows with 700 individually crafted panes of glass representing the water conditions on the Hudson River over a period of 700 minutes on a single day. To create the project, Finch photographed a floating object as it moved through the landscape of the Hudson River, beginning upriver and following it as it flowed down to New York City. The artist then carefully matched each unique image to a pane of glass.

Finch's installation is called "The River That Flows Both Ways." The title of this work comes from the original Native American word for the Hudson River, Muhheakantuck.

Photos by J. Silverstein

Faces come out in the rain

By Joel Silverstein on June 6, 2009 3:00 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Five at night and it's pouring and I stop to close my umbrella before ducking into a Duane Reade at 83rd and Broadway.

I go back to the dental hygiene aisle, where a late-teen girl is kneeling to stock a bottom shelf.

"Is it still raining," She asks.

"Pouring," I say.

"Oh, good!," she says. "There's so much to do in the rain." She looks up from the Listerine. "Do you ever feel that way?" No, I think. I shrug.

"You know, like go to the movies, or bowling," she continues. "I just feel like I can get so much done. When it's sunny, I never know what to do."

The Beatles and the tunnel

By Joel Silverstein on June 4, 2009 9:22 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

There was a pan-flute player setting up at the Lorimer L stop this morning, just before the train came. He managed to get out the first few bars of "Dust in the Wind" before the doors shut.

A few minutes later, in the tunnel that connects sixth and seventh avenues in Manhattan, the tall black guitar player with a manicured afro played the early Beatles classic, "She Loves You" with his twangy acoustic and nasal, almost robotic voice and smile. Today, he wore an orange and red dashiki.

About nine hours later, The pan-flautist from Lorimer stood at the same end of the tunnel, playing McCartney's ballad, "Yesterday," a CD track laying the bed for the melody he played with two pan-flutes into a microphone.

I wondered if he thought the Beatles played well there.

Photo booth bulletin board

By Joel Silverstein on June 3, 2009 3:26 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

A photo booth collage at Bar 4 in Park Slope.