14 Actions Day 2!

The second day of 14 Actions For 14th Street was cold and rainy, but we managed to get a lot done. Our first action of the day was near 14th and 7th, where we set up a small gallery and tried to sell a work of art. It may have been the cold weather, or our sales technique, but the work didn't move.



After that, we moved up the block to 14th and 8th, for a surprise inspection on a building. We looked it over, and made our report on the status of the facility, its overall safety, and our followup plans.



Later in the day, near 14th and 6th, we found a great backdrop to campaign for George McClellan in his bid for the Presidency. We read a campaign poem extolling the virtues of Little Mac and taking Lincoln to task for his terrible handling of the war. We also gave out campaign pins to passersby.



We ended the day near 14th and 5th with a tailgate party. As Harvey Loves Harvey, we often hear people question our masculinity, so we used this busy location to prove otherwise. There were Xtreme drinks, junk food and a football game. We cheered the Bills/Jets game and talked with passersby about machismo. Below is a lovely woman who told us "ABY: Anybody but the Yankees. I usually cheer for the Red Sox."

So I hugged her.





We'll be on the street again next weekend, with 7 more actions to go. See you there.

14 Actions Day 1!

Just finished Day 1 Actions for 14th Street for AiOP
Monitored for Radiation:


Listened to an unwound show from 1998:



Held a Eulogy for Henry Hudson:

Rain Gear

Headed to B&H to get some raingear for this weekend. Hopefully we won't have to use it? Right?

Radiation monitoring

Here's our warning if needed after we collect results of radiation monitoring for 10th and 14th.

Weather

We'll need to plan for rain and foul weather. I am working out a way to attach an umbrella to the monopod, so we can keep the camera dry. We should also have some plastic bags ready to wrap the camera in as well if need be. Hopefully it won't be too bad, but we should wear rain slickers under our jumpsuits and have knit caps on under the helmets if it gets cold. Personally, I get cold easily and will wear long johns and wool socks.

Baseball

Got the baseball to leave behind after we fail to find each other on 2nd ave and 14th Street.
I'm working on that script by the way...or something of a script....can we record the audio somehow?
Is there an Iphone app to record a phone call?

Harvey Building-Safety Certificate

Here's the pass/fail cert for the building inspection at 14th and 8th Ave.
I have a 8 page safety checklist for us to fill out....that reminds me, I need to go put betteries in those walkie talkies.
And...do you want me to put anything on the construction helmets? Like an HLH or H...maybe we just use gaffers tape?

MTA artwork

I just got an email from Matt Laskowski, the illustrator I hired for the artwork on the MTA fliers we will hand out. I asked him for a semi-futuristic look at NYC, with a gondola skylift over 14th street to supplement the subway system. This will be the picture along with text about how stimulus dollars are being spent to realize a turn-of-the-20th-century idea of NYC transit.

Man, this drawing looks awesome! Great work Matt L.

Postcards arrived

Matt,
I got the postcards, they look great, I've been giving them out to people, they love them. Nice work.

I voted for Best Album stickers

Made the stickers to give out for people that vote for best album.
I'd like to get a still photo of these on peoples shirts also.
I was going to put the website address on the stickers themselves but I thought we could hand out the postcards to people that vote to see the results.

Henry Hudson Memorial Stickers

Made some backup stickers just in case the ones I orddered don't make it, just enough for like 10 candles or so.
I need to make some 'I voted' stickers for the What would Lester Bangs do best album poll...last weekend before the project...can't wait.

Easel built

Just finished building this thing for about 3$, pretty sweet, can't wait to sell this picture!

Sunday 1:30PM!

It's yours...We'll even throw in the easel!

Damn.

Easel plans

Went to home depot to pick up wood for the protest signs and easel for 'the Intersection of Art and Commerce' so we can leave the art, (after it doesn't sell) on the easel on the street for some pics.
Drew up some plans, I'm going to build it tomorrow.
Yay.
I need to go get a baseball somewhere.
I keep meaning to ask you about the tailgate party piece, are we going to drive your car over to 5th and you leave from there?

Eulogy for Henry Hudson

Like many great explorers in the past and future, Henry Hudson possessed the rare spirit to go where no one had gone before him. Not only driven by trade routes and economics, it was his responsibility to all of humanity, particularly in man’s ongoing quest for information about the world around him. He was the kind of individual that will always live on in our collective fantasy... someone willing to forge into the unknown, no matter the risk, making the ultimate sacrifice.

There can be debate as to the word ‘discovery’, in this case, it’s true men already lived in Manhattan, and there may have even been voyages that landed haphazardly, or passed by these shores, but I hold that he discovered Manhattan in making it known to the world.
He writes in the Half Moon’s log on Sept 11, 1609, ‘they found a good entrance, between two headlands and thus entered into as fine a river as can be found with good anchoring on both sides...He learned later upon further exploring the Hudson river that ‘It is on that side of the river that is called Manna-hata’...and thus what we know now as Manhattan island was born to maps.
Not much is known of Hudson’s life, where he was born and died still remains a mystery. All recorded history of the great explorer marks only 4 short years in which he explored the arctic circle through Siberia, Greenland and finally what we are standing on today.

I don’t think we can really grasp what it was like to navigate by the stars across the Atlantic, endure weeks or near starvation and attacks by native people only to have your own crew turn on you. Henry met his end 700 miles north of this spot, when his crew, having spent the winter, iced in what is now known as Hudson bay, mutinied and set him, his son and loyal crew adrift in a small wooden rowboat.

It is this pursuit of discovery and ultimately information that we want to celebrate, his spirit of exploration into the unknown; the personal unknown as much as the geographic unknown.

Jumpsuits

Got the jumpsuits all set this weekend.

The MTA Improvement flyers

The drawings for the MTA Improvement flyers are amazing! So glad you hired these out...they are going to look amazing and should fool anyone.
just a couple of things...
Do we have any idea about the text? Do you have a design going for the flyer? Can you make copies of it for when you come down?
Can't wait to see the color version with the gondola.

Unwound Tape cover

Matt,
Great tape cover for this project. I really can't wait to sit on the sidewalk and listen to Unwound. I can't stop relating them to growing up, they are a stand in for music during high school and college. How all music affected me, relationships, everything.
It's our own personal mythology, a stand in for any band anyone likes that no one else really heard of...that local band, your friends band that you just always had the best time at, that can't ever be recreated. I know it's futile, I know you are ridiculous holding on to the past. Maybe that's what Unwound represents for us essentially.

Saturday Oct 17th, 5P. Unwound RIP.

Fun promo on Facebook

I posted some fun pictures of me with the Ross McElwee cutout on Facebook as promo for the 14 Actions. I'll repost them below...

A Bunch of things for 14th St

I had some time this morning to get into the studio, so I finished up a bunch of the items to be left behind during 14 Actions for 14th Street. I took some shots of them so you can check them out.


These are the booklets of Allen Ginsberg's poem "America" to be left behind. They have a description of the action inside, along with the poem.


Strike signs for our STRIKE!



The back and front of the LP cover for "Trader Joe's Calling" -- made to look like the "London Calling" cover.


The front and back of the George McClellan campaign song and poster, to be left behind.


"Re-living New Years Eve 1998" tape covers, complete with grungy old tape cases for that authentic look.


And finally Henry Hudson standups for the shrine to him at the center of our candle light vigil.

AiOP is on!

Just caught the City Meditations Crew in the street around 6th Ave. Also just across the intersection was Tim Thyzel's portable fountain project made out of traffic cones...nice. I have to be honest I forgot today was the first and the whole sebang was starting.

MAPS

Picked up the maps today from AiOP, can't wait to show you. Do you want me to send some along?
Let me know.