HAPPENING archive of stories ......
A Dream becomes Reality: The Ant debuts at The Invisible Dog
© Mark D Phillips |
A five-year-old boy in France learns a poem that captures his imagination….
An 18-meter long ant With a hat on its head That doesn’t exist, that doesn’t exist….
And for the next 30-years as the boy grows into a man, he asks himself “Why Not?”
On January 23rd, that little boy, Xavier Roux, will debut The Ant on Bergen Street for the grand opening of The Invisible Dog, a creative arts space in Cobble Hill. The sixty-foot-long sculpture made of structural steel and nylon balloons will fill the gallery space, and the imagination of all.
The poem’s author, Robert Desnos, wrote The Ant after his arrest by the Nazis and deportation to Auschwitz. The 18-meter length was the size of a cattle car used by the Gestapo to transport their prisoners to the concentration camps….
View The Ant at The Invisible Dog in Brooklyn
The Sopranos Invade South Brooklyn
 Paulie Walnuts (Tony Sirico) and Rosalie Aprile (Sharon Angela) wait outside Christ Church in Cobble Hill, renamed Our Lady of Victory Roman Catholic Church for the episode.
The Sopranos took over the landmark church to film a wedding for the sixth season of the HBO series featuring the marriage of Mob boss Johnny "Sack" Sacramoni's daughter.
View more photos from the Sopranos in Cobble Hill
White Collar
Tim DeKay (center) and Sharif Atkins (right) play FBI agents in White Collar |
Law and Order may be gone, but there are still plenty of other TV shows and movies using the neighborhoods of Brooklyn as their sound stage.
This past week, we got a taste on our block as USA network's "White Collar" came to film a scene.
It wasn't the fact that we couldn't park on our own block that made us despise them. It was the security guards at each end of the block with orders to not allow anyone to walk down the sidewalk that really perturbed us. We live here, you don't.
So now they create this unreal sound stage in New York. Two cars come screaming down our street, tires squealing as they skid to a stop. Like that would happen on our narrow street that usually has cars parked on both curbs. The "Municipal Utility" workmen with tools behind the parked panel truck (not even ConEd?) turn out to be FBI agents who charge down the street to the bad guys' cars with guns drawn.
View more images from White Collar
or
View more info about Cobble Hill
See a giant Ant sculpture and its history
William Wegman surprises and amuses
by Mark D Phillips
I thought William Wegman was just about cutesy dogs.
Then I saw William Wegman:Funney/Strange at The
Brooklyn Museum running from March 10 through May 28, 2006.
Wegman is an experimenter who happens to use a funny looking dog as his main subject. His photographs are combinations of form and texture, shapes that capture the imagination. As Wegman says, "They are shadows and hues. They inspire me."
His work is as accomplished in all mediums. I went to the show expecting to only see dogs. Wegman's paintings and video work were every bit as captivating as his still images of dogs.
View more of William Wegman's work
Manufactured Landscapes: The Photographs of Edward Burtynsky
by Mark D Phillips
It's not very often that photographs of man's destruction of the environment can be called "beautiful." Or that one photographer will heap praise on the
works of another photographer. But, such is the case with the new exhibit, Manufactured Landscapes: The Photographs of Edward Burtynsky, at the Brooklyn Museum of art.
Travelling the world in search of devastation is usually done by the photojournalist in a quest to show news. Not so with the work of Edward Burtynsky.
His images are not a political statement nor are they meant to celebrate technology. According to Burtynsky, they are just great visuals that he wants to
share.
Several adventurous projects have taken Burtynsky on a worldwide quest to photograph extraordinary landscapes. Most recently, he traveled to the construction site of the Three Gorges Dam,
the world's largest hydroelectric engineering project, located on the Yangtze River in the People's Republic of China. The dam is of unprecedented proportions, and it has required the
relocation of millions of people. In addition to the dam itself, Burtynsky also photographed upriver sites of mass displacement, where residents destroyed their own homes at the behest
of the government, recycling many of the materials in order to rebuild on higher ground.
As a photojournalist in 1995, I travelled to Feng Jie to document a world record high wire walk above the Yangtze River in
Qutang Gorge. Feng Jie was a sprawling city stretching from the riverbanks of the Yangtze to the mountaintops of Qutang Gorge and was our base of operations for the length of our stay.
One of the oldest towns on the river and rich with history, it was cut off from the world in a way that is hard for many outsiders to understand. From Beijing,
I travelled to Feng Jie in the same manner as Mr. Burtynsky almost ten years later, by train and boat.
View more of Manufactured Landscapes of Edward Burtynsky
The Changing Face of South Brooklyn: The Gallery Players bring Broadway to Park Slope
by Mark D Phillips
Nestled in the basement of the Park Slope Family Neighborhood Center on 14th Street off 4th Avenue is a hidden South Brooklyn jewel.
The Gallery Players, Brooklyn's premiere off-off Broadway theater, is marked by a sign set by a side door of the building leading to their 99-seat space.
 "Local residents don't even know we are here," said Matt Schicker, a board member and heralded director of many of the Players' productions, including their newest, "Side Show," opening February 18, 2006.
With a reputation well beyond the boundaries of South Brooklyn, the Gallery Players have never had a problem filling seats. Their season consists of four plays, three musicals and the annual Black Box New Play Festival, World Premiere performances of works by tri-state area playwrights. And the fact that their alumni make leaps to Broadway hasn't hurt.
"The secret of our success is we treat every production as a professional show," said Schicker. "The Gallery Players have become a great first stop for many new drama graduates nationwide."
View more about The Gallery Players of Park Slope, Brooklyn
A Queen comes to Kings
by Mark D Phillips
Looming out of the fog was the largest ship Red Hook has seen moored to its shore.
The Queen Mary 2 arrived in the wee hours of the morning on April 15, 2006, for its inaugural stop at the new Brooklyn Cruise Terminal in Red Hook.
For the county of Kings, and particularly Red Hook, the terminal is the first step in a revitalization of the long-neglected waterfront.
The ship was a sight to behold.
View the Queen Mary 2 in 360° images and more
South Brooklyn Hidden Treasures
 People always ask, "What are those beautiful doors on
Our Lady of Lebanon Church?"
When Our Lady of Lebanon moved into the old Congregationalist Church of
the Pilgrims on Henry Street in 1944, Monsignor Mansour Stephen planned
extensive changes to the interior of the building.
The Normandie was the greatest passenger ship of its day, and suffered a
terrible end when fire ravaged the ship, causing it to capsize at the
dock on Manhattan's west side.
The Monsignor heard that the Normandie's salvaged treasures were to be auctioned,
and with the blessings of his parish, attended the event and purchased the
bronze doors and ten placques. The doors, which once were the entryway to
the majestic banquet room of the luxury liner, now grace the entry to the church in Brooklyn Heights. The ten placques
were added to the doors. The cost of the doors was $1,025 and all ten placques for $975.
Read more about Brooklyn Heights
or
view more of the doors!
Angels and Accordions headlines OpenHouseNY
For the sixth year, Angels and Accordions brought Greenwood Cemetary alive.
With its unique presentation of accordions, singing, striking visuals, and creepy graveyard scenes, Angels and Accordions is a site-specific show, with the audience taken on a mile-long walking tour, punctuated by scenes of angels around different memorials.
Greenwood Cemetary is one of the most beautiful sculpture gardens in the world. With mausoleums structured from pyramids to Greek cathedrals and statues for war dead to cherished child, the stages for angels are designed by Martha Bowers of Dance Theatre Etcetera.
Martha's visions come to life within this unique venue. Angels sing from a vine covered path, bringing "Over the Rainbow" to a chilling feeling of sorrow.
Some of the simplest can be the most striking, such as an angel frozen on the steps of a grand mausoleum or reading names from an alcove in the catacombs. View these images in our online photogallery on SouthBrooklynInternet by clicking here.
As the premier event of Open House NY, Angels and Accordions has been a free event. Will it remain a free event? Probably not. But believe us, it will be worth the admission price.
View a photo gallery from this year's Angels and Accordions on SouthBrooklynInternet
Friends of the Brooklyn Bridge launches mybrooklynbridge.com
In 2008, the Brooklyn Bridge celebrated its 125th anniversary, and this monumental occasion presented the Dumbo Improvement District the opportunity to unveil a new and improved pedestrian experience on the Brooklyn side of the Bridge.
Working with Emphas!s Design and artists Linnaea Tillett & Karin Tehve, the Dumbo Improvement District undertook this great project to provide a sense of direction and place to the one million tourists who cross over the Brooklyn Bridge each year. In the past when pedestrians reached the Brooklyn end of the Bridge, they frequently turned around and returned Manhattan when confronted with uninviting entrances, poor lighting and inadequate signage. Today, pedestrians are greeted with signage welcoming them to Brooklyn and a large map highlighting attractions within walking distance.
“This Way” serves as a grand entrance point to the fine borough of Brooklyn.
©Mark D Phillips, 2008
 The Friends of the Brooklyn Bridge was formed by the Dumbo Improvement District to bring together the resources to maintain improvements made to the world's greatest bridge. The initiatives website, mybrooklynbridge.com, will be a major resource for the bridge. Share your memories of your favorite experience on the Brooklyn Bridge. Watch an 1899 movie by Thomas Edison Studios of a train travelling over the bridge, and read the history of the construction.
Contributions to Friends of the Brooklyn Bridge will be dedicated to the supplemental maintenance of this project. With donations of $150 or more, you will receive a framed image of your choice from our collection, including historical images of the bridge from our partner, the Brooklyn Historical Society, and new images by Mark D Phillips. They make great gifts.
For more details, visit mybrooklynbridge.com
THE JAIL BATTLE
According to the NY Post's Rich Calder:
Foes of City Hall's plan to reopen and expand a Brooklyn jail scored a victory yesterday when the city agreed to temporarily halt work on the $440 million project and cap the number of overnight prisoners there.
Comptroller Bill Thompson, Councilman David Yassky and civic groups cut the court-OK'd deal just days after suing the city for "secretly" and "illegally" repopulating the Brooklyn House of Detention in family-laden Boerum Hill with 31 prisoners.
The agreement runs through Dec. 18, at which time the case is to return to court. Under the deal, the jail may accept up to 50 prisoners.
NY Post - Nov 21, 2008 |
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