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.

NetPix: Marwencol

In the midst of summer movie madness, I've been trying to do a little counter-programming on my Netflix queue. I found a rare recording of a revised Tennessee Williams play THE ECCENTRICITIES OF A NIGHTINGALE, the original TRON newly re-released, the first Barbara Streisand TV special, James Franco as Allen Ginsberg in HOWL and a documentary about the folks behind Pixar.  But recently, I discovered another doc that just blew me away called MARWENCOL.

I had read about this film when it had a limited release here in NYC last year and put it on my queue.  It's about a man in upstate New York, Mark Hogancamp, who was drinking heavily and got assaulted outside a bar by a group of five youths.  He survived but his memory was basically wiped out as were his skills as an artist.  He had to relearn how to speak, write, everything.  However, he was sent home from rehab early because he couldn't afford it. Thus, he was forced started his own unique physical and emotional therapy by building a fictional, WWII-era Belgian town filled with toy soldiers and Barbies.

I have to admit that, when streaming on Netflix I often stop and start and sometimes never even finish films.  But with this one, I was riveted.  This is a fascinating story of a unique man who channels his fear and rage into his art in the most surprising way.  The photos he takes of the town and the people are stunning; they are at turns graphic, melancholy, creepy but totally unforgettable.  Mark's story has many surprises and revelations along the way so I'm not going to say more other than I have not been so moved by a documentary in a very long time.

A Wedding Weekend Told In Pictures

Marriage equality kicked off in grand style this weekend as hundreds of gay couples in lower Manhattan got hitched.  It was an extraordinary day in New York City's history.  A number of photo galleries on the TIMES site and on Buzzfeed online to give a sense of the emotion and beauty of this moment so many years in the making. What's especially moving to me are the photos of the senior couples, like the guys above, some of whom have been together 30 or 40 years waiting for their wedding day.  A hearty congrats to everyone and another step forward in the continuing struggle for equal rights for all!

AUGUST'S New York Premiere Perfectly Timed With Heatwave

I have talked about AUGUST on the blog a bit lately.  It's a film I co-wrote and helped produce that is about  love triangle set in LA during an intense summer heatwave.  Well, in a case of crazy timing, the movie has it's NYC premiere this afternoon during an intense summer heatwave.  I just checked on Weather.com and it's 104 degrees in Central Park.  Amazing.   That means it's gotta be at least 107 in my hood, where there are a few less tress than Central Park.

Anyway, despite the heat, the show will go on as the movie theatre is air conditioned.  The film plays today at 5PM at the SVA Theatre on 23rd Street, just west of 8th Avenue.  Tomorrow, it screens at 7PM at Cinema Village on 12th Street, just west of University Place.  Tickets are still available for both screenings at the NewFest website.  So come and cool down with our hot sexy film this weekend.  Hope to see you there!