Weekly playlist

Curtis Mayfield: Move On Up
Cannonball Adderley: Somethin' Else
Gentle Giant: Three Friends
Al Green: Very Best Of
Fairport Convention: Liege & Lief
Joni Mitchell: Hejira
Bing Crosby: His Legendary Years
Public Enemy: Apocalypse 91...The Enemy Strikes Black
Mos Def & Talib Kweli are Black Star
OutKast: Stankonia
GZA: Liquid Swords
Chopin: Concerto #2 in F Minor
Shostakovich: Symphony #5
The Only Doo-Wop Collection You'll Ever Need

Wildwood

With its seasonal average of four million beachcrazed visitors, Wildwood in the summer is far from my ideal locale. In the off-season, however, the eerie streets & empty boardwalk provide for fertile photographic prowlings. The retro-futuristic Doo Wop architecture as evident in the numerous Jetsons-esque motels has not yet been completely obliterated in favor of condominiums. This was the atomic age -- neon parabolas, flying saucers & rayguns. There is something rather melancholy about a future that never had a chance to happen. Where are the jetpacks we once were promised?


The boardwalk in the off-season.




Interior of the Doo Wop Museum.


The Caribbean, quintessential Doo Wop architecture.




The Starlux Motel.


Sunrise over the Atlantic.

Weekly playlist

Captain Beefheart: Safe as Milk
Sly & the Family Stone: Greatest Hits
Small Faces: Ogdens' Nut Gone Flake
David Bowie: Aladdin Sane
Lightnin' Hopkins: Aladdin Recordings
Regina Spektor: Far
Be-Bop Deluxe: Live! In the Air Age
Marvin Gaye: What's Goin' On
A Tribe Called Quest: Low End Theory
Apples in Stereo: New Magnetic Wonder
Muse: The Resistance
Can: Tago Mago
Ice Cube: AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted
Ghostface Killah: Fishscale
Eric B & Rakim: Paid in Full
Run-DMC: Raising Hell

City Island

City Island, located off the coast of the Bronx, between Pelham & Eastchester Bays. Known as "Cinema Island" due to its use as a filming location for Long Day's Journey Into Night, Royal Tenenbaums, Awakenings, Margot at the Wedding, & The Groomsmen, among others.


Boats in Eastchester Bay.


The house from Long Day's Journey into Night.


The City Island Nautical Museum.


Our waitress threatened to cut off a local's fingers after he mouthed off to her. I played it safe and left a generous tip.


Pelham Cemetery.


Sunset over Eastchester Bay.


"I meant your other left."

Philadelphia

Philly skyline after the storm.


Christ Church, in Old City.


Elfreth's Alley.


A Spanish conquistador's helmet.


Fairmount Water Works on the Schuylkill River.


Swann Fountain in Logan Square.

Hitch a Ride to Rockaway Beach

Baffling seagull behavior. They stand expectantly on the edge of the shore like lawn ornaments pointed at the sea, waiting for fish to crawl onto the beach and into their hungry maw. Ah, but as the wave sweeps in they aboutface and flee in terror on frantic spindlelegs. Never expected the ocean to rise up and come for them. The wave soon loses its ambition and retreats back into the sea. Relieved at their narrow escape, the seagulls straighten their feathers and return to their post at the edge of the shore, certain the defeated wave is unlikely to attempt another sneak attack.


9/11 Memorial, Tribute Park



Neponsit is a quiet upper-middle class residental neighborhood. A little too quiet, it turns out. Seven in the evening and not a sound but crickets and the distant rush of waves. No one is coming home from work, foraging in the kitchen for dinner, watching TV in the darkened living rooms. No children play in the yards or ride in the streets. Bicycles lie discarded in the intersections, as though the riders were seized by talons and carried away. The entire town must've been evacuated in the dead of night, screen door still swinging in the breeze.


Warning: submerged objects

Sands Point

Manhasset Neck, Long Island -- or "East Egg," as F Scott Fitzgerald renamed it in The Great Gatsby. Home of the Old Money.


Castle Gould, built by the son of railroad tycoon Jay Gould. On completion, Mrs Gould didn't like it so it was converted into a stable.


The Hempstead House -- one of Fitzgerald's "white palaces glittering on the water."


Site of Gatsby-style lawn parties.


Rocco Road.


Bootleggers' Cliff.


The Long Island Sound.


Jay Gatsby wooed Daisy Buchanan on this bench. As far as you know.

Weekly playlist

The Bonzo Dog Band: The Doughnut in Granny's Greenhouse
Frank Zappa: Uncle Meat
Gilbert & Sullivan: Greatest Hits
Mike Keneally: Hat
New Order: Low-Life
Apples in Stereo: New Magnetic Wonder
Van der Graaf Generator: H to He, Who Am the Only One
Serge Gainsbourg: Histoire de Melody Nelson
Sly & the Family Stone: There's a Riot Goin' On

Weekly playlist

Gentle Giant: In a Glass House
Mike Keneally: Wooden Smoke
Snow Patrol: Eyes Open
Le Mystere Des Voix Bulgares, Vol 1
The Incredible String Band: The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter
Frank Zappa: Freak Out
David Bowie: Diamond Dogs
Genesis: Foxtrot
Mars Volta: Octahedron
Bob Dylan: The Basement Tapes
The Kinks: Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire)

Foggy Empire

Weekly playlist

Talking Heads: Fear of Music
Emerson Lake & Palmer: Tarkus
Firesign Theatre: I Think We're All Bozos on this Bus
Prince: The B-Sides
Faith No More: Angel Dust
Benny Goodman: Greatest Hits
Van der Graaf Generator: Pawn Hearts
The Dead Weather
Tommy Dorsey: Sinatra, Vol 1
Rolling Stones: Sticky Fingers
Brian Eno: Another Green World
Ray Charles: Anthology
Brian Wilson: Smile

Weekly playlist

Public Image Ltd - Second Edition
Genesis - The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway
Peter Gabriel - (3)
Frank Zappa - One Size Fits All
Steely Dan - Countdown to Ecstasy
Marvin Gaye - Gold
REM - Reckoning
Squeeze - East Side Story
Michael Hedges - Breakfast in the Field
Julie London - Time For Love

Weekly playlist

These tunes make the day go by quicker:

Apples in Stereo: The Discovery of a World Inside the Moone
Gang of Four: Entertainment!
David Bowie: Station to Station
Sufjan Stevens: Illinois
Jethro Tull: Thick as a Brick
REM: Murmur
Steve Hackett: Voyage of the Acolyte
Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall
Jellyfish: Spilt Milk
Brian Eno: Taking Tiger Mountain
Regina Spektor: Far
Pere Ubu: Dub Housing
Soundtrack to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

15 Books

Rules: Don't take too long to think about it. List 15 books you've read that will always stick with you. They should be the first 15 you can recall in no more than 15 minutes.

1. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - A Conan Doyle
2. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
3. Red Harvest - Dashiell Hammett
4. The Haunted Road - Margaret Sutton
5. Harriet the Spy - Louise Fitzhugh
6. Gravity's Rainbow - Pynchon
7. Notes from Underground - Dostoevsky
8. Big Sur - Kerouac
9. A Supposedly Fun Thing - David Foster Wallace
10. The Trial - Kafka
11. The Man Who Was Thursday - GK Chesterton
12. Harpo Speaks - Harpo Marx
13. Journey to the End of the Night - Celine
14. Ask the Dust - John Fante
15. The Code of the Woosters - PG Wodehouse

Ye Olde Music Meme

1. Put your iTunes on shuffle.
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3. YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN NO MATTER HOW SILLY IT SOUNDS!

Here we go...

IF SOMEONE SAYS "IS THIS OKAY" YOU SAY?
Voices in the Fan (Devin Townsend)

WHAT WOULD BEST DESCRIBE YOUR PERSONALITY?
I've Seen All Good People (Yes)

WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL?
Hellhounds of Madness (Harry Partch)

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE?
Poisoning Pigeons in the Park (Tom Lehrer)

WHAT IS YOUR MOTTO?
Afterlife (Dream Theater)

WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU?
Ghost Riders in the Sky (Johnny Cash)

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN?
Fried Chicken (Ice-T)

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BEST FRIEND?
The Number of the Beast (Iron Maiden)

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
Names (Cat Power)

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY?
Fig Leaf Rag (Scott Joplin)

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?
Chant of the Ever Circling Skeletal Family (David Bowie)

WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
Love is Here to Stay (Dexter Gordon)

WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU?
Some Girls (Rolling Stones)

WHAT WILL YOU DANCE TO AT YOUR WEDDING?
Inheritance (Talk Talk)

WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL?
Tokyo Storm Warning (Elvis Costello)

WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST?
Teeth Like God's Shoeshine (Modest Mouse)

WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST SECRET?
Sweet Mary Blues (Leadbelly)

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS?
One Big Yes (Lounge Lizards)

WHAT'S THE WORST THING THAT COULD HAPPEN?
When a Boy Falls in Love (Sam Cooke)

HOW WILL YOU DIE?
You and Your Folks, Me and My Folks (Funkadelic)

WHAT IS THE ONE THING YOU REGRET?
Nobody Told Me (John Lennon)

WHAT MAKES YOU LAUGH?
Golden Ball (Stereolab)

WHAT MAKES YOU CRY?
Liberation (Outkast)

WILL YOU EVER GET MARRIED?
This is What I Believe In (Adrian Belew)

WHAT SCARES YOU THE MOST?
Forty-Six & 2 (Tool)

DOES ANYONE LIKE YOU?
Caroline Says II (Lou Reed)

IF YOU COULD GO BACK IN TIME, WHAT WOULD YOU CHANGE?
Used to Love Her (Guns N Roses)

WHAT HURTS RIGHT NOW?
Hello From Inside a Shell (Zombies Enter the Harbor) (Of Montreal)

The Great Southwest

What follows is the photographic result of a quick little circumnavigation of the four corners of the American Southwest. Mountain paths were hiked, canyons climbed, rivers waded, horses ridden, tents pitched, skin sunburned, and egg burritos devoured. Impressive how quickly temperatures can fluctuate between 100 and 30 degrees fahrenheit in a matter of hours out there.


The Delicate Arch


The Eye in the Sky


Independence Ghost Town


Monument Valley


Zion Narrows

[Full gallery]

The Telectroscope

The backstory is this. In the Victorian age, an engineer named Alexander Stanhope St George visited the recently-completed Brooklyn Bridge and was enchanted by the ambition and ingenuity that went into its design and construction. He was less thrilled, however, with the arduous, stormtossed journey required to reach the bridge from his cheery home in England. He hit upon the concept of a complex configuration of mirrors and lenses which would allow the curious to see down the shaft of a transatlantic tunnel spanning the two continents. A "telectroscope," as it would come to be known. At first popular enthusiasm was high as St George set out to execute his idea, the romance of connecting London to New York bolstering support among the populations of both nations. The fanciful tales of Jules Verne were highly celebrated at the time and this eccentric scheme gripped the imagination in a similar fashion. However a tragic cave-in soon dampened the spirits and eventually St George was forced to abandon the project as enthusiasm waned and skilled workers became scarce. He died heartbroken in an asylum in 1917.

A century later, his descendant, an artist named Paul St George, discovered a dusty trunk in his grandmother's attic. Inside were diaries, diagrams, sketches, and various other documents concerning the ill-fated Telectroscope. Seized with inspiration, he set about making his great-grandfather's vision a reality.

In May of 2008 the Telectroscope was finally opened to the public. It took over a century, but now, at last, Asian tourists in New York can peer into the lens and see Asian tourists in London waving back at them.









Sadly the exhibit closed on June 15th. The Telectroscope is to be dismantled and the transatlantic tunnel filled in. Presumably something to do with Homeland Security.

The Ghosts of Asbury Park

Once an opulent seaside resort, now a haven for derelicts. Careful not to step on any discarded syringes in the sand.

Beacon Court

This would look much more impressive with an old clockmaker's wizened face peering over the top.

Madison Square Park

No fisheyes were harmed in the shooting of this photograph.

Photographs by Tara McGill