Keep Coney Island weird (snapshots of Mermaid Parade 2011)

A parrot balloon in the Mermaid Parade procession along the Coney Island boardwalk frames the curves of the Wonder Wheel

Like a fish needs a bicycle

Fantastically vintage

Keeping hydrated

Post-parade, spirits begin to flag

A moment of reflection

Many more photos over on the old Flickr account

Skating by

Skateboarders across the street from the Half King, as seen from the newly opened Section 2 of the High Line. (Go!)

Our shoes are made for walking

We were too indolent to make any firm plans for the day, so around noon, we simply starting wandering aimlessly, toward a few thrift stores, and then down Crescent toward Long Island City. So many strange little scenes mere minutes away! A sampling of the sites. At left, pants hanging on a line.

A sweet stenciled request

Instructions for reaching the right resident (Yell louder!)

A reminder of the dangers of drugs

Tippy toes

Red toe shoes hang from a crosswalk at 60th and Park. Art installation, or runaway ballerina?

Spring in your step

Springs, presumably from an old mattress, on 10th St. near 36th Ave. in Long Island City.

Under the surface

Three shopping carts just beneath the surface on the shore of the East River; this photo is from Rainey Park in Long Island City, at Vernon Boulevard and 34th Avenue. The park takes its name from Dr. Thomas Rainey, who helped drive the effort to build the Queensboro Bridge (his NYT obit contains this interesting tidbit: "... because of a thrashing, he ran away and wandered out West. With only the moderate education he had picked up in the local schools and with a pistol and $3.50 in  his pocket, he continued his journeyings by working his way until he had crossed West Virginia, Ohio, and Missouri.")

Through a glass darkly

Window washers in a dark passage on the High Line in Manhattan, May 11, 2011.

Absorbed

Hills Creek Lake OR 4, Matthew Brandt, 2009

Matthew Brandt's "Lakes and Reservoirs" series is made up of photographs of bodies of water that have been soaked in said water. All the prints respond in their own way; some seem washed away, but others take on new colors and specks of life.

The adventures of Tintin as art object

 

The old ball and chain was off doing some work in France, and on one of his days off, he made a jaunt to Belgium. Although I never read Tintin as a kid, Sumeet devoured the stories, and whenever we see a little street-art paean to the plucky young Belgian reporter, we are sure to whip out our cameras like the schlocky tourists we are. I suppose the Tintin love written across Brussels is a consequence of the fictional reporter being a native of Belgium?

Of course, not everyone is apparently a fan:

Animals: Outside or in?

I've recently happened upon a few mentions of Colleen Plumb's Animals Are Outside Today, which is both a book and an exhibition at Jen Bekman Gallery, which runs through April 24, 2011.

Although same might find it scattered stylistically, I really liked the breadth of images presented. Some of the shots are impressionistic; in one that looks almost like a watercolor (Albrecht and Corwin, Canyon Deer, 2000), two horses stand before a field of pastels. Others are photo-realistic, but obfuscate the focus on the animal that is the explicit subject of her work – just two mountainous humps signify the subject in Horseback, 1999.

From the artist's statement:

Contradictions define our relationships with animals. We love and admire them; we are entertained and fascinated by them ... At the same time, we eat, wear and cage them with seeming indifference, consuming them, and images of them, in countless ways.

Our connection to animals today is often developed through assimilation and appropriation; we absorb them into our lives, yet we no longer know of their origin. Most people are cut off from the steps involved in their processing or acquisition, shielded from witnessing their death or decay. This work moves within these contradictions, always questioning if the notion of the sacred, and the primal connection to Nature that animals convey and inspire, will survive alongside our evolution.

(Above: Nungesser Elephant, 2010.)