Walking Off the Big Apple

🚢🚢🚢🚢🚢🚢  Parade of Ships 2018 Wednesday, May 23, 2018 10 a.m. - 1 p.m. NY Harbor to George Washington Bridge Fleet Week in late May brings members of the United States military to New York City for a little R & R, and the event almost always brings to mind the musical On the Town . The week of events coincides with the beginning of the Memorial Day weekend and the unofficial beginning of summer. Waiting for the Parade of Ships in Fort Washington Park in Washington Heights The festivities commence with the Parade of Ships entering New York Harbor. The various military vessels pass under the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, sail near the Statue of Liberty, pay their respects while passing the WTC site, and then continue up the Hudson River. The Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum at Pier 86 (W. 46th St, & 12 Ave.) serves as a focal point for Fleet Week NYC ( official site ) with performances, ship tours, and special events. The Battery downtown is a favorite place to wa

New York’s latest public art spectacle, a 45-foot inflatable nylon Seated Ballerina by artist Jeff Koons, is on display at Rockefeller Center through July 5. Co-presented by Art Production Fund and Kiehl’s Since 1851 , the sculpture is meant to raise awareness for National Missing Children’s Month and the International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children. This is the artist’s fourth partnership with the nonprofit organization. (Art Production Fund website ) Jeff Koons, Seated Ballerina , Rockefeller Center. 2017. Seated on a plush pink and silver cushion, the pony-tailed blond blue-eyed dancer in light blue tutu is depicted leaning over to adjust her left shoe. She has huge arms and hands and puffy lower legs. While she is inflated to a degree that a stern ballet master might chide her for her weight, she possesses a nonchalance that suggests she wouldn’t care. She is so casually posed that few people, at least during my visit, seemed to give her much attention. A snaps

May 12 is the birthday of Joseph Beuys (1921-1986), a highly versatile German artist who influenced many of the multimedia practices of contemporary art. He was known for his social and political activism, unconventional gallery performances, a passion for teaching, and a charismatic personality topped with a felt hat. A self-styled shaman, he frequently drew upon the inspiration of coyotes and wolves. One of the most notorious art performances in American history, I like America and America likes Me , took place in 1974 when Beuys spent three days in a room in the René Block Gallery in SoHo (409 Broadway, gallery now long gone) with a live coyote. Art critic John Russell in The New York Times recalled the spectacle for a review of a “memorial exhibition” of Beuys’ work at Ronald Feldman in 1986: “In the cage with him were some piles of straw, a heap of copies of The Wall Street Journal of the day, a battered old hat from the best hatter in London and - here was the surprise -

This post provides a few snapshots of the changing New York waterfront from the perspective of a recent ferry ride in the East River. I ventured over to E. 34th Street this week, hoping to jump on one of the new ferry boats in the NYC Ferry service. One of the new boats was out of commission that day, so I reluctantly took one of the older ferries on the East River route to Pier 11 Wall Street. (The East River Ferry, no longer in service, is now part of the expanded NYC Ferry.) If I had picked another route, say the new Rockaway trip, I could have sailed on one of the new boats. Alas. I’ll wait for a good beach day. Leaving E. 34th Street on the East River ferry route. The joined angled buildings to the left of center are the American Copper Buildings. If you’re not familiar with the East River route, the ferries typically travel between E. 34th Street and Pier 11 Wall Street with stops on the other side of the East River at Hunters Point South in Long Island City,  Greenpoi