Monday, November 26, 2007

*Everyday Chatter

Remember the too-short Venetian blinds that hung in the condo windows at 110 3rd? Well, the same curtain-challenged tenants are trying yet another ill-advised window treatment--this time it's shrunk-in-the-wash-sized tab curtains hung mid-window by adhesive plastic hooks:


Meanwhile, most of their neighbors at 110 3rd don't even bother with curtains. Why conceal such cookie-cutter condo lives?


The Willets Point Industry & Realty Association is fighting the city's plan to use eminent domain to seize properties in the Iron Triangle of Queens. To help make their case at the City Council hearing on 11/29, they've put together this compelling video about the businessmen in the area: [WPIRA]

On the Upper East Side, motley old newsracks are being replaced by silvery Cemusa-style dispensers. I'm sure the Municipal Arts Society will be happy to see this, after launching their Nasty Newsracks contest, but I worry about yet more uniformity marching down our island (P.S. That pink sign in the background is announcing another Cashmere Mafia shoot):


The removal of a bodega's awning on 10th St. has revealed a set of vintage Cost and Revs wheat-paste posters, circa 1992. I dialed the phone number to find it's been disconnected, but it used to belong to someone who called herself the Grandma of Graff. Where is she now? And whatever happened to the artists' plan to "tear the city to pieces and rebuild it"?

1 comment:

nixie said...

cost and revs!! I love that you remember that -- those were everywhere. along with the missing foundation upside-down martini glass. (i've seen a few new instances of those in the past 2 yrs) there were cost and revs paste-ups on the subway support struts -- on the tracks in the 2nd ave station.

thanks for connecting us to our own memories