Tag Archive for: new york

egg digesters for valentines day

Love stinks…and wastes for no one!

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egg digesters for valentines dayValentine’s Day is just two short days away, so we here at Thirsty in Suburbia are sure that all your romantic plans and reservations have already been made and confirmed. What’s that? You forgot about Valentine’s Day?

Well have no fear you hopeless, albeit forgetful, romantics! The Department of Environmental Protection in New York City is here to save the day! Why not take that special someone on a tour of Newtown Creek Sewage Treatment Plant in Brooklyn!? Just when you thought thought Brooklyn couldn’t possibly get any cooler…

Who needs breakfast in bed!? Highlights of the tour include the giant egg shaped digesters where you and your true love can see the magic of toxic sludge transformation first hand. Don’t let being single stop you from attending. We bet that the smell will rival your bitter attitude towards love. Love stinks, am I right?!

Tours fill up quickly, so try and secure your spot by emailing events@dep.nyc.gov.

Bottled Water, Same Old Story

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Back we go, more than a century, to this nostalgic photo of the Italian Festa, Mott Street, New York City, May 16th, 1908.

It’s fun to zoom in and study the details. And what’s that there to the right? Why, it’s our turn-of-the-century bottled water vendor, probably ready to serve up better-than-tap refreshment to festival-goers. Just like today! (Though we’d never criticize the 1908 populace for partaking… no one’s nostalgic for the tap water back then!) Note the handy bottle supply, hygienically stored on the open-air wagon top!

The orginal photo is a 5×7 glass negative from the George Grantham Bain Collection, via Shorpy. (Here, you can view this image in high-resolution and take in many more of the Roosevelt-era details.)

I was unable to resist the urge to annotate in some way, soooo..

In the Future, Business Leaders will be Closely Supervised

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I rarely read or write fiction. Why bother, when the real world produces rich stories like this, my nomination for best punch line in a news story in 2009. From News 10 in Rochester, New York,

It was a school fundraiser that some parents say went to the extreme. Drinking fountains at Canandaigua Academy were turned off during a school dance and students were told they had to pay for bottled water.

About 300 students attended that dance on Saturday. It was sponsored by a school club, the Future Business Leaders of America. The district says they were selling tickets to the dance and water to raise money for club activities.

The group asked for and received permission through a building use request form to shut off the two water fountains where the dance was being held. Once they were turned off, signs were posted on them directing students to a table where the club was selling bottled water for one dollar each.

The rest of the story is here, proving we still need much education on the evils of bottled water AND ethics.

No quaint paint for this water tower

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What is art? During my art student days in the swingin seventies, the idea that art is dynamically defined by perception was the new standard. Now it’s just the standard.

Awesome, because it opened the door to art today as expessed by a sweater for a water tower.  As reported last month in the New York Daily News story, Queens Artist Covers SoHo Water Tower with Yarn Sweater,

Some artists use paint, others clay. For Robyn Love, it’s all about the yarn. Lots of it.

The crochet fanatic unveiled her latest large scale art piece made of her favorite material Saturday atop a 15-story SoHo building. The Queens mother of two, using 60 balls of yellow and black yarn transformed a drab wooden water tower into a huge yellow pencil – point included.

“I wanted to do something that was iconic of New York,” Love said.

Love was hired by the D&AD organization, which gives out pencil-shaped awards, to create a supersized version. “The pencil is the highest award for design and art students,” said Maria Lishman, the organization’s spokeswoman.

Love was given three weeks to crochet what is essentially a massive yellow sweater to envelope the brown water tower atop 395 Broadway.

“I could never do this all by myself in three weeks,” Love said, so she called in backup – six crochet masters with decades of experience.

Team Love worked 10 hours a day and they pulled it off.

Love said she wants to take a break before crocheting anything else. “I’m going to see where the wind takes me before I do another huge project,” she said.

While it’s not my perceived idea of “art,” I would guess that the world is at least a more fanciful, unexpected place because of it. Hmmmm. Maybe it is art, after all.

Street Art Overflow

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What an unexpected delight for those who chanced upon it; as seen in New York City near NYU’s Barney Building: an anonymous street artist crafted these pixel drops flowing forth from this formerly plain and forgettable pipe. And sadly, ruined by graffiti a short time after this photo was taken by Flickr-er nickgraywfu’s friend Annamarie Tendler. I almost expect Super Mario to zip in and take a bouncing leap over it.