The Riveting Story Of The Raid That Killed Osama Bin Laden

This week's NEW YORKER magazine has a fascinating and intensely detailed story about the U.S. military raid that killed Al Queda cheif Osama Bin Laden on May 1st.  There are some incredible details about the operation as the writer, Nichoas Schmidle, puts you in the helicopter, flying illegally over Pakistani air space with a team of elite Navy operatives on a mission to kill the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks.

It's incredible how the raid seemed like it was going to be a disaster from the minute of their arrival, when the team's Blackhawk stalled and crash landed into the compound.  But, in an interesting point of view, one of the Seals later says it was best the copter was left behind as it's physical evidence instantly quelled any conspiracy nuts. Another great detail was what was found in the computers and hard drives in the compound. There were plots to assassinate President Obama, General Patraeus and even plans for another massive attack on the 10th anniversary of 9/11.  But more shocking was the sizable cache of digital pornography too.  However, this discovery didn't phase the intelligence folks... they have found that on every computer they've seized in all their Al Quadea raids.

Anyway, this is an amazing story reported to death in true New Yorker style.  Coming in 2012--the movie version of this fateful night via THE HURT LOCKER's Kathryn Bigelow.

A Weekend Of Art And Rock In NYC

Over the weekend, I attended a couple events to blog about for NEXT magazine's THE NEXUS.  I am a semi-regular contributor to their Scene & Heard section.  So I'm linking to my adventures today.

Saturday afternoon, I hit the opening of the Pop-Up Museum of Queer History, started by my friend Hugh Ryan in his Bushwick loft back in Februrary and now moving downtown to the gallery district in Soho.  Later that night, I checked out a couple queer bands at the QxBxRx party, newly relocated to Public Assembly in the 'Burg.

 It made for a busy a weekend...and a couple fun posts too.  Check them out!

Summer Streets: Park Avenue Closed Next 3 Saturdays

For the last four summers, the city's Department of Transportation has been closing down Park Avenue on Saturdays in August.  This weekend is the first of the annual Summer Streets Saturdays where from 7am-1pm you can take to the avenue by foot or bike and experience something rare in NYC: no traffic!  Well, that is car traffic.

I did Summer Streets last year and things can get a little congested later in the day as it's a very popular event. I'd encourage you to get up early and take advantage of the lack of crowds while they last.  All along the 7 mile route through the heart of Manhattan, there are going to be free bike rentals, free yoga classes and free performances from the NY Intl. Fringe Festival.  It's a great chance to see the city in a whole new way!

Swingin' Second Avenue Subway Workers

Ben over at Second Avenue Sagas posted this video of an MTA crooning during the lunch hour.  In neighborhoods on the UES where the noise, dirt and general nuisance of subway construction have been driving residents nutty, this guy intends to have his music calm the savage upper east-sider.  It just may be working....

Outside The Stonewall Inn When Marriage Equality Passed

My friend and fellow filmmaker Ira Sachs is currently directing a new movie called KEEP THE LIGHTS ON, about a gay romance that goes awry through drugs and addiction in the mid-1990's. He's also started a website to chronicle the process of the production of the film, which will also be featuring shorts and posts about gay life in NYC, past and present.

Yesterday, he posted some footage that was shot outside the Stonewall Inn the night that marriage equality passed in New York State.  There were hundreds of revelers outside the Stonewall where more than 40 years ago the modern gay civil rights movement was born.  This historic short was shot by Onur Karoaglu and beautifully captures the emotions of that evening.


KTLO Gay Marriage Video from keep the lights on on Vimeo.

Performers Get Naked On Wall Street

Yesterday morning, the workers of Wall Street were confronted by naked versions of themselves.  Artist Zefrey Throwell put together a performance art piece called "Occularpation" in which dozens of men and women stripped bare and mimicked the work of the daily denizens of the financial district.  He had men pushing brooms and women acting as traders, all in the nude, "working" in and around the NY Stock Exchange.

Most the the New Yorkers watching seemed pretty unfazed and a newspaper man quoted in the TIMES said he'd seen a lot of nudity this summer because of the heat.  Not surprisingly though, this morning peep show did not last long as NYC cops came in and arrested three of the guys, booking them for disorderly conduct.  Zefrey did a similar performance piece in San Francisco which featured himself naked on the street doing the work of a cubicle drone.  There the performance lasted for a few hours and, of course, no one batted an eye. And that's the difference between SF and NYC.

Color Pictures of NYC From The 1940s

A friend of mine sent a link to a website called Retronaut which recently posted some rare color photos of New York City from way back in the day....1942 to be exact.  This one is of Canal Street on the west side.  And the one below is familiar to denizens of the East Village.  It's McSorley's Tavern on 7th Street which has not changed at all since 1942, except for that fact that women are now allowed.

We're so used to seeing ol' New York in film noir black and white that it's always a shock to see that, yes, the world was colorful back then too.  What's notable to me is how quaint the city looks with it's low curbs and cobblestone streets.  There are some really beautiful pictures on the main site, worth checking out....

Deep Under Park Avenue, A Resting Place For A Drill

This is a picture of the East Side Access tunnel that has been carved out more than 100 feet below under Grand Central Station and Park Avenue over the last 4 years.  The machine that did this incredible job is a huge TBM (tunnel boring machine) which, now that the work is done, will be buried below the intersection of 37th and Park because it's basically too expensive to extract it out of the tunnel.  That's right...they are just going to leave it there encased in cement, with a nice plaque of course, to explain this weird subterranean artifact to future generations who might discover it in the future.

This remarkable story was in the TIMES earlier this week.  Apparently this sort of machine burial is often done on tunneling projects due to the expense of removing the machine.  However, it's never been done under New York because the underground real estate is often just as precious as it's above ground counterpart.  But in the case of this East Side tunnel, removal would not only have been ridiculously expensive (about $9M!) it would have been impossible to open up a 40 foot hole in the middle of the tony block which boasts the Union Club.

Anyway, this is another fascinating story of what's going on underneath the city as part of the largest expansion of the transit system in more than 60 years.  East Side Access trains are set to run in 2016.

The Short That Started AUGUST

We had our screenings of AUGUST last weekend at the NewFest and they were a big success!  Nearly sold-out crowds filled up both of our screenings, despite the 100-plus heat.  And though the movie itself takes place during a heatwave, it was certainly easier to watch that on screen in a nicely air conditioned cinema.

During both Q/As afterwards, questions came up about the short film that started it all, Eldar Rappaport's POSTMORTEM. I saw it at Outfest in 2005 and was so impressed that I approached the director asked if he was doing a feature.  I actually assumed there was a full-length script.  But there wasn't and that's when I started working with Eldar to expand it into a feature film.

You can watch the short below, on the Logo website.  The feature will be released in the US by Wolfe Video, who just acquired AUGUST this month. More details to come on that soon....

Tags: Gay Video & Lesbian Movies, Logo: Fierce TV

Photos Of The New World Trade Center

I was downtown yesterday for a meeting and took some pictures of the new One World Trade Center building.  It's really coming along and is now more than 700 feet tall!  And despite the generally negative reviews it received when David Childs released his re-design, the former Freedom Tower  actually looks like it could be quite a beautiful building when completed.

One thing I noticed is that, with it's reflective glass, you can see an image of the Woolworth building when looking at the eastern facade (second photo below).  I thought that was pretty cool...unfortunately the effect won't last when WTC 2 is built across of the newly restored Greenwich Street.  It's glass surface is a strong contrast to the original building, which had narrow glass windows between its trademark supporting beams on the outside.

You can see echoes of the original WTC in the building going up on the southeast corner of the site, WTC 4.  This building has window panels that mimic the look of the the trade center's windows with faux "beams" running in parallel lines (see below).  This building is going to be a big one too....almost 900 feet tall!  You can follow all the progress at the site on the new Port Authority website which features a live cam.