SOME SNAPPY STOREFRONTS

Here are a few slices from a new file on some of the storefronts and businesses that make

NYC. an endlessly entertaining retail romp.

the GODFREYS

Occasionally, when i'm foraging for snapshots at the flea market, I will come across a whole album that will present a poignant portrait of some small part of a life. Recently, I came across just such a treasure with an intact album that described with snapshots and handbills, a family (father and daughter) vaudeville act that travelled through small towns in the American West during the teens and twenties. Many thanks to Larry Baumhor for allowing access to this gem.

the GODFREYS

Lightshow at The Boiler (3 minute excerpt)

Lightshow at The BOILER (excerpt) May 2010 from Ken Brown on Vimeo.

Some friends and I got together and created a visual jam/light show at "the Boiler", a gallery

and sometime performance space in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Here is a short excerpt.

Lights:
mike ballou, 
ken brown, 
tony martin, 
sally webster, 
rob razzle



Music:
paul scher, 
tim spelios, 
tony maimone, 
brian dewan, 
mark deffenbaugh

video shot by Lisa Crafts

CONEY ISLAND STATE OF MIND

Yesterday, I biked to Coney Island, and, though I had heard rumblings of it's imminent demise for some while now, it was good to see that much of the old funk and hoopla was still there, and fully cranked, though with a small bit of construction going on around the edges. I'm told these are some new rides going in. This is a much beloved institution and I think we all "Win Big" as long as it continues to function and flourish in the spirit that brought it forth in the first place.

70's MURAL IN THE EAST VILLAGE NYC

Last week, I was biking by a park in the East Village that I have passed for years, but always with the gate locked. That day the gate was slightly open. I wandered in and came across these beautifully aged murals from the late 70's, early 80's. It was a time of considerable strife in the neighborhood, (Tompkins Park riots, squatter standoffs, homeless camps, and the

ever present gnawing of gentrification). The artwork reminded me a little of Etruscan painting and

I felt a like an archeologist making a surprising discovery in a slightly off the path neighborhood in downtown Manhattan.

The struggle continues ...

PAPER FLOWERS PROLIFERATE

Here's to Spring with a special thanks to the anonymous artist(s) who, for the past few years, have brightened some lucky walls of lower Manhattan with their ambitious cutting and pasting.