Showing posts with label Halloween. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Halloween. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Sandy on Halloween in NYC


Sandy on Halloween.





Looks like for Halloween this year New York City is going as Atlantis.

Tricko de treato, que smello mi feeto. Giverdoro mis somethingo bueno to eato.





Photo credit


SOHO at 6pm on Halloween night, looks ghostly 



West Side Highway at 6pm in the dark after 
watching the evacuation of the nation's oldest continuously running hospital.    












LaGuardia Airport will reopen Thursday at 7:00 a.m. ET with limited flight schedules.  

NYC has a FaceBook page that is quite informative.

Odd Sandy related  things.

A crazy jet skier on the East River during Hurricane Sandy.


Three trees and a fire


The news report on the jet skier




Twitter hashtag: 

From the Gothamist, which has loads of useful information
Still confused by which subways are or aren't going to be in service when it resumes? The MTA has released a modified map to help make it more clear—check out the PDF below. Also, tipster Zach van Schouwen created his own version, which you can see above.



According to the MTA's Kevin Ortiz, subway service resumes at 6 a.m. Fares are back in effect, but the "bus bridges" between Manhattan and Brooklyn are free. He recommends adding 30-60 minutes to the commute, which seems low.
Here are the details, along with information about buses, Metro-North and LIRR.
NYCT SUBWAY SERVICE: 1 trains will operate local between 242nd Street (Bronx) and Times Square-42nd Street.
2 trains will operate between 241st Street (Bronx) and Times Square-42nd Street, with express service between 96th Street and Times Square.
3 trains are suspended.
4 trains will operate in two sections making all local stops:
· Between Woodlawn (Bronx) and Grand Central-42nd Street
· Between Borough Hall and New Lots Avenue
5 trains will operate express in Brooklyn between Atlantic Avenue-Barclays Center and Flatbush Avenue.
6 trains will operate local between Pelham Bay Park and Grand Central-42nd Street.
7 trains are suspended.
42nd Street Shuttle S trains will operate between Times Square and Grand Central.
A trains will operate in two sections making all local stops:
· Between 168th Street (Manhattan) and 34th Street-Penn Station
· Between Jay Street/MetroTech and Lefferts Blvd.
B and C service is suspended.
D trains operate in two sections:
· Between 205th Street (Bronx) and 34th Street-Herald Square making all local stops
· In Brooklyn, between Atlantic Avenue-Barclays Center and Bay Parkway making express stops between Pacific Street and 36th Street
E trains are suspended.
F trains operate in two sections making all local stops:
· Between 179th Street (Queens) and 34th Street-Herald Square
· In Brooklyn, between Jay Street-MetroTech and Avenue X
G trains are suspended.
J trains operate between Jamaica Center and Hewes Street making all local stops.
L trains operate between Broadway Junction and Rockaway Parkway making all local stops.
M trains operate between Myrtle Avenue-Broadway and Metropolitan Avenue.
N trains operate between Ditmars Blvd. (Queens) and 34th Street-Herald Square making all local stops.
Q trains are suspended.
R trains operate in Brooklyn between Jay Street-MetroTech and 95th Street making all local stops.
Both the Franklin Avenue and Rockaway Park S shuttles are suspended.
SHUTTLE BUSES:
All shuttle buses will operate north on 3rd Avenue and south on Lexington Avenue.
1. Between Atlantic Avenue-Barclays Center and 57th Street-Lexington Avenue via the Manhattan Bridge
2. Between Jay Street-MetroTech and 57th Street-Lexington Avenue via the Manhattan Bridge
3. Between Hewes Street and 57th Street-Lexington Avenue via the Williamsburg Bridge
LONG ISLAND RAIL ROAD:
City Terminal - (Jamaica - Penn Station): Suspended (anticipate shuttle between these stations later tonight)
Ronkonkoma Branch: Suspended (goal to restore hourly service from Ronkonkoma to Penn Station for AM rush hour Thursday, Nov. 1)
Port Washington Branch: Suspended (goal to restore hourly service from Great Neck to Penn Station for AM rush hour Thursday, Nov. 1)
Babylon Branch: Suspended
Port Jefferson Branch: Suspended
Montauk Branch: Suspended
Hempstead Branch: Suspended
Long Beach: Suspended
Far Rockaway: Suspended
Oyster Bay Branch: Suspended
West Hempstead: Suspended
METRO-NORTH:
Hudson Line: Suspended
Upper Harlem Line: Suspended
Lower Harlem Line: Restored with hourly service
New Haven Line: Suspended
New Canaan Branch: Suspended
Danbury Branch: Suspended
Waterbury Branch: Suspended
West-of-Hudson:
Pascack Valley: Suspended
Port Jervis: Suspended
Bridges and Tunnels
Robert F. Kennedy Bridge: Open
Henry Hudson Bridge: Open
Throgs Neck Bridge: Open
Bronx-Whitestone Bridge: Open
Verrazano-Narrows Bridge: Open
Marine Parkway-Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge: Open
Cross Bay Veterans Memorial: Open northbound to Broad Chanel; Open southbound to Rockaways but subject to period closures for emergency equipment
Hugh L. Carey Tunnel: Closed
Queens Midtown Tunnel: Closed
Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.
By Ben Yakas in  on October 31, 2012 3:58 PM
Submerged escalator at South Ferry station (MTA Photos)
 Subway recovery map: go here to see the full PDF.

Lower Manhattan Power Lunch Spot Becomes Sidewalk Kitchen

Gawker: The power imbalance between upper and lower Manhattan was never going to last forever: two days after closing for the hurricane, SoHo power-lunch spot Balthazar has re-opened. After a fashion. Trapped in a powerless Dead Zone, the bistro can’t exactly seat people; it can, however, dish out food, cooked on a sidewalk grill, to hungry passers-by. It only looks like a Halal cart, though — according to Twitter chatter, they’ve got lobster and steak sandwiches at a fraction of the price that they’d normally be. Makes having to walk up to Hell’s Kitchen to charge your phone almost worth it. — Max [photo by Nick Denton]
Normally this would be about $30. Today? $5 at the Office Fire Sale. @ Balthazar Restaurant



MTA:  Bridges and Tunnels suffered major damage with flooding of the Hugh L. Carey Tunnel from end to end and the Queens Midtown Tunnel also took on water.  Damage is extremely heavy in downtown Manhattan where several subway lines converge.  The South Ferry station was filled track to ceiling with water as were several of the subway tunnels. Water remediation work is continuing in several underwater tunnels.
It is still too early to say how long it will take to restore the system to full service. This is will be an exhaustive, time-consuming process with one goal: to restore safe and efficient service to 8.5 million daily MTA customers. 

The Future According to Sandy

“We [seem to] have a 100-year flood every two years now,” New York Governor Andrew Cuomo says he told President Barack Obama during his tour of the damage from Hurricane Sandy on Tuesday. 

Devastation of Sandy in the Caribbean

Post-Sandy New York Aims to Rethink Infrastructure Not Just Rebuild It

Emergency Disaster Pods


Sunday, October 14, 2012

Cool momento mori pre-Halloween, Vanitas, the transience of pleasures and life










Fiona Krüger’s Watches “Memento Mori”

Herman Henstenburgh, 1667 – 1726 | Vanitas Still Life | Image © The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Katsukawa Shunsho | The actors Ichikawa Danjuro V as a skeleton, spirit of the renegade monk Seigen… | Edo period, 1783 | The Art Institute of Chicago | Photography © The Art Institute of Chicago


Day of the Dead, Halloween, and the scary side of ARTstor


Halloween stems from the Celtic harvest festival of Samhain (roughly, “summer’s end”) held on October 31–November 1, when people would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off roaming ghosts. The festival was integrated into All Saints Day, a Catholic holiday observed on November 1 to honor saints and martyrs. The evening before All Saints Day was referred to as All Hallows’ Eve, which eventually became Halloween.


Vanitas 18th Century Robert Dighton titled, “An Essay on Woman: Life and Death Contrasted



Vanitas Figure,1700's Europe

19th C Anatomical Venus, Unknown Modeller and Workshop, Museu d'Història de la Medicina de Catalunya

Ignaz Günther, approx. 1756

‘Hell’O Monsters’ (Brussels, Europe)
Ignaz Günther






Fernando Vicente Vanitas





Hand Carved "Momento Mori" Skeleton Rocking Chair
A intricately carved mahogany "momento morie" rocking chair depicting a skeleton figure on rockers terminating in dragons. Probably modeled after the Mid 19th Century Russian example as illustrated in 19th century European Furniture by Christopher Payne. Vincent Price, a well-known actor in horror films, owned a whole set of skeleton chairs.
 Electric chair covered in butterflies and made entirely out of porcelain by artists Bertozzi and Casoni
 Bouke de Vries Mao Head with Skulls, a life-sized bust of Chairman Mao made out of tiny skulls made out of porcelain

"The original Vanitas paintings were concerned with the impermanence of man and his earthly pleasures in the face of death. Symbols used included human skull, as well as books, candles, hourglasses, mirrors, flowers, insects, soap bubbles and shadows, all combined to create both a literal and abstract symbolism suggestive of the transience of life.
The new show Vanitas: The Transience of Earthly Pleasures displays original works dating back to the 17th century alongside painting and sculpture from 27 international contemporary artists."

Coffins From Ghana


Coca Cola Coffin: Young carpenters open a coffin shaped in the form of a Coca Cola bottle in Teshie, a suburb of Accra January 22, 2004.

"Since pre-Columbian times, El Día de los Muertos, the Day of the Dead has been celebrated in Mexico and other Latin countries. This is a very special ritual, as it is the day in which the living lovingly remember their departed relatives. 
For centuries the inhabitants of Mexico have created fascinating folk art expressions of the Day of the Dead: magnificently decorated skulls and catrinas, fabulous candelabra, trees of life and  attractive skeletons.  Skilful artists transform wood, clay, tin and paper into wonderful  Day of the Dead sculptures many inspired by Jose Guadalupe Posada."


Maria Jimenez
Wood Carved Skull
Bat by Luis Pablo

“Be fully awake to everything about you … the more you can appreciate & get a full measure of joy & happiness out of life,” Jackson Pollock’s dad once wisely advised his 16-year-old son.