"it's about to get real old new york in here"

for two years the boss has been predicting the return to the new york of the 70's, the new york of everyone's fears. the gritty, graffitti-covered subway car new york. the pickpocket, everyone down on their luck new york. the romantic, crumbling new york. not the new development new york.
yesterday it felt that way to me as i walked to meet jade at his studio. glancing down a side street, my eye was caught by a flame. and there, just as i had walked into a movie set (which, by the way, is a common occurance in new york and especially brooklyn) men stood huddled around a garbage can, fire leaping upward, warming their hands. but there was no camera crew, no tent of craft services food to walk through, no mega cords and pissy pa's to trip over. just a fire in a can at twilight.

two hours later, as a group of my friends climbed the subway stairs to fourteenth street, a man and a woman screamed at each other, threatening to call the cops and hurling insults. as we waded through the melee, half cringing for fear of catching a stray punch, the screaming woman wrapped her hands around a steel crossbeam that supported a large scaffold. she twisted it mightily as the joint weakened and we scurried more quickly by. she meant business. jade's friend muttered as we chuckled with near fiendish delight, "it's about to get real old new york in here."

home is where the heart is?

before i ditched my old phone i almost forgot that i'd been taking a few pictures with it. pictures of things that grabbed me and made me upset that i didn't have a camera on me. they had to be special in order to warrant enduring the poor quality to share them. except i could never figure out how to get them out of the phone. enter emir. do you know that not only do i have an in house turkish techie to help me through my 'special' computer skills, but also his brother? it's incredible. it makes it almost worth enduring emre's musical affinities.
i said almost.

this subway graffiti warmed me heart.

it ain't sesame street...or is it?

yesterday as i sat on my couch studying by the window overlooking the street, i heard the usual saturday ruckus. teenagers cruising down nassau avenue blasting polish hip hop, some guy yammering on loudly--maybe the wino who sweeps the bodega's sidewalk in exchange for beer. usually i can tune this out. but something was different this time that distracted me. wait, he's not speaking polish, he's speaking english. and WHAT is he saying? propositioning some girl to go to the empire state building and make out?! i try to ignore it but he keeps repeating his request, and even calls her a hussy! okay, now i must spy out the window to check out who could have the nerve...and what do i see, but a donkey with bulging eyes and an orange mane leaning out the window of a pick-up. of course.
oh. they're filming a movie. not one of those 'close four blocks of streets with trailers and catering tents' numbers, but a handheld small crew affair. maybe a student film, or that williamsburg hipster internet tv show.


soon everyone else in the neighborhood joins me in my voyeurism. confused people gather on the sidewalk and hang out their windows listening to this cross between mr. ed and jimmy stewart.



and again, i was totally concentrating on my homework. and i got caught.


embarrassed, i retreat back to my philosophy, but check back in a few scenes later after our donkey hero sexually harasses a man on the street then proceeds to snatch a tourist's purse and run (blindly) down the block with the purse in his 'mouth'.



i think the oscar buzz has already started. though prussia was clearly unimpressed with the ass's acting. maybe she's species-ist, or just down on donkeys. you heard it here first.
kitty joe, reporting live from greenpoint.

let no man separate what we create

have i posted this photo before? it seems like i've tried unsuccessfully many times but it was stored in a much maligned folder called 'williamsburg' which would crash Adobe Bridge every time i opened it. now that i have cs3 (thank you, pirate emre!) you may just be baraged with a flood of images from hipsterville! this, one, taken from the pedestrian walkway of the willy b bridge.

queensbound

welcome to brooklyn, dad

my dad is flying somewhere over michigan right now, en route to new york. have i mentioned ten times here that my dad has never set foot in any of my last four homes? which is to say, that he's never been to new york. this is a consequence of moving halfway across the world that i never considered--opting out of the dad's home improvement help that my local sisters got. hey dad, i know you've got like, only four days, but how 'bout checking out this crumbling tin ceiling in the kitchen?
i'm excited to show him around, because, like me (probably not a coincidence, as i am his flesh and blood), my dad is totally fascinated by everything, and he loves to talk and brag about his trips. so i feel all pressured to give him something to brag about. i leave that task to new york city. i guess it's a pretty impressive place all on its own without me even trying. but also, there's the fact that i owe all of my impressive reputation as a tour guide to this man en route on an airplane, who tirelessly toured every foreign exchange student in the state of california (whether or not they 'belonged' to us) to see every beach, drive through redwood tree and beautiful back road in northern california over and over and over, until i, as a child, rolled my eyes and said, "we're going to armstrong grove (which is now on my top five places in the world to be) AGAIN!?"
after much brain wracking i've decided to keep it simple and classic tourist. after all, it's his first time in new york. gotta see times square and rock center. and eat bagels, and pierogis and knishes and turkish food and thai food. dad, did you pack the tums?
seriously though, this trip will mark the first time that my dad is on my turf, which may be strange for someone who 'knows everything', who just happened to spawn another human who 'knows everything' (that would be me).
this featured note was a reminder to me the last time i visited california and borrowed a car of my dad's that almost made me cry with laughter. really dad--have you forgotten that i grew up late nights in the garage pumping the brakes and helped build that mgb? can change a tire. DEFINITELY know what a dip stick looks like and how to check the oil! love the drawing though. and the fact that my dad's handwriting is the only specimen of penmanship on the planet that is worse than my own.

above

looking down from 7 world trade center at sunset.

point of departure: the elements

tonight is my first night of the much dreaded yet anticipated 'point of departure'. i'm dreading this class because i'm supposed to clarify what my 'style' is. that word makes me squirm. the word on the street, or at least from my friend, august, is this teacher rocks so i am alternately excited yet terrified about getting my ass kicked. so what does kitty joe do to impress the teacher on the first day of class? you guys have all heard tales of the stomach turning extent of my teacher's pet syndrome. this is a good one. way to impress your teacher on the first day of class: just don't show up. yup. that's what i did. in my worst blunder of my new school career, i really, truly believed, all summer long, that my 'pod' class would meet monday nights. tailored my work schedule around it. it seems, however, i must have been suffering from a bout of temporary dislexia because that M was really a W! wednesday nights?! naturally, i discovered this fact on a thursday, a day too late, and i'm only now emerging from the depression and self loathing this incident produced. ugh! rocks in my head, bugs in my bed. yes, i'm blaming the bugs. it's cheap, but they deserve it. i corresponded with my teacher and he was understanding, though i've probably cemented my reputation as an airhead. he forwarded me the first class assignment, which is to photograph the four elements. earth, wind, fire and water. remember now, this is 'point of departure' so creativity is a must here. one thing i already love about the class is that we are supposed to keep a journal detailing our ideas and experiences completing the assignments. just say the word 'journal', and i'm there. so here we go.... reverb please....EXCERPT FROM KITTY'S CLASS JOURNAL

'the four elements. earth, air, fire and water. hmm. stumped on this one for days. then a piece of inspiration hit me, bounced off the floor and started to slowly unfurl. i was at work, setting up for a rosh hashana celebration on the fortieth floor of 7 world trade center. the view was incredible. the atmosphere was so clear. buildings were stacked like blocks all around me. the bridges over the east river looked like toy models i could reach out and pluck with my fingers, plop down somewhere else. the land was covered with this amazing network of buildings all the way to the horizon. 'wow!' i thought. 'look how we've covered the earth!' from that vantage point i did feel like i was looking down on a sphere and new york city was the whole world. i'd been thinking a lot about the elements, due to this impending assignment. i started thinking about how the elements affect our lives in new york, or how we as humans affect the natural elements, or what elements translate into in our urban setting.

urban elements.

earth.
there it stretched out below me. our earth carpeted with our dwellings, apartments, offices, businesses, places of worship, bombed out war zones, storage. steel, concrete, wood, poles. even central park, artificially constructed like a train model landscape. tree here, lake there.

fortunately, i had my camera with me.
unfortunately, i was a work. these people had the nerve to expect me to boss waiters around rather than shoot to my heart's content?! so i itched and ached until finally i stole away into an empty conference room and took some shots.

nikon D70s. 50mm 1.4 lens. i had a terrible time with window reflections. couldn't control the lights in the room. also, i know i'm overdue for a polarizing filter. i had one for two fun-filled weeks. then i left my nikon n90s on the roof of a rental car in new mexico (another one of my fine, brainy moments). drove off obliviously, camera clinging to the roof until about 50 mph, at which speed i heard an ominous scraping above and saw a black ufo out the rear view mirror. it took an entire tear filled hour to find that camera in the roadside shrubs, during which time i berated myself, insisting i don't deserve nice equipment. the camera was shockingly resilient, with 'only' $450 worth of damage. but that polarizing filter seemed to be the lens' hero, absorbing the impact of the fall, completely shattered, so the lens didn't have to.
okay, so as i struggled to photograph through that reflection-ful glass, i yearned for a polarizer. but i also wonder, as far as sky goes, how much is too much? past teacher of mine told me i 'over polarized' the sky on that trip. hmmm. reflections aside, though, i'm happy with the image. it conveys what i want.

earth. adapted into human environment.

started thinking of the other elements in similar context. wind. i see air conditioning, fans. artificial wind. but then i'm walking through mc carren park and i see astounding imprints of leaves in the asphalt. wow. i am struck by the power of nature. wind has left its imprint on the urban landscape, blown that leaf right into the (albeit wet) pavement. i ran home to fetch my camera, delighted. it was an overcast day. i was shooting the grey sidewalk. blah. got extremely close up (as close as i could without macro!) to make the shots look interesting. had to mess with the levels in photoshop, though, to coax some contrast out of the blah images.
had fun kneeling on the sidewalk, people walking by only noticing the imprints because i was there photographing them. people oohing and ahhing. toddlers running to me to pose. some shots just of imprints. some shots with imprints plus a real leaf. the latter are beautiful, but i think the lone imprints are more appropriate for my idea. runner up is here: i love the diagonal pavement lines which look so much like wind. but alas, i chose the first image because the imprint is so powerfully deep...

on to fire.
i immediately think of my industry-ringed neighbhorhood. i live in greenpoint, brooklyn--factory worker's houses turned into homes for polish families and hipsters. under our soil the aquifer is filled with black oil from a spill back in the 50's larger than the exxon valdez disaster. nothing is done to clean it up. litigation drags on for decades. cancer and asthma rates soar. and we still live here, eat our pierogis and delight in the new ice cream shop down the street.
but the newton creek sewage treatment plant is impossible to ignore. some nights that awful smell wafts just a little too far into unwelcoming territory and i laugh as old factories are converted to million dollar lofts in that zone. it seems almost every time i drive over the pulaski bridge i am greeted by the neighborhood's volcanos--fire spewing from smoke stacks. always fire.
for two nights i've gone out with the tripod, whose mechanics allude me. nighttime. must use tripod--check!
and where the hell is the fire? no fire! 8pm. 10pm. 2am for chrissakes! i've ventured into the no man's land, the industrial wasteland surrounding the plant. i've choked on the hideous fumes, hoofed it over the pulaski bridge, greenpoint avenue drawbridge, for a better view, and still NO FIRE!!! time is running out. i'm becoming frantic and disappointed. my mind finds no alternative. i want my neighborly urban volcano!

and i, the bold nyc adventurer, drag my boyfriend along to "carry the tripod" because it's pretty deserted out there!

tonight, another try. printed my first 3 images today. earth, wind, water.
oh yeah, at least something came of one of my fire walks. stumbled on an "urban river" on a dark, deserted block. surprisingly, hand held the shot, just after sunset. editing between 3 very similar shots. level, level plus truck back lights, and tilted horizon. i love the tilt. i know i have to be careful with it because it's some yesterday's overused fad. but it comes so naturally to me. always has. i love the tilt. it's like sufjan's noise guitar adding edge to a folk song. tilt.

i'm having trouble abandonning this particular tilted image, though, because it allows you to see the tip of a building which is reflected in the 'urban river'. just love that composition more.

18 september 2007
another unsuccessful night stalking the sewage plant. my sister takes a photography class and hangs out shooting at wineries and the lake. i take a photography class and find myself nightly at the foul smelling (is that description even necessary?) sewage plant. hmmm....
got into a lengthy converstation with the security guard (after showing student id) about how unusual it is there's been no spewing fire this week. funny, he said. yeah, funny.
so, heartbroken i must go with plan b. emre actually thinks this idea is stronger, but my heart is all volcano. my next idea is merely the radiator--this city's version of the fireplace anymore. i know there were once fireplaces, but they've been bricked up.

fun quote of the week

in the hospital bathroom....

more-hygenic-than-i-cousin: "wait! don't put your purse down! there's shit all over the floor!"

far too un-germophopic and confused me: "what?"

more-hygenic-than-i-cousin: "it's true! i read an article that said that every time a toilet flushes, shit flies out and gets all over the floor!"

i live in new york. i can't even consider this fact or any like it or i'll go insane! already i've lost the luxury of sitting down on the subway platform benches because they are supposedly infested with bedbugs. more on that pleasant subject later.

no wonder i feel at home here--this place is crazy!

by the way, these two instances were observed within minutes of each other, at the same park. happy tuesday.