Who Needs the Hamptons?

F.I.B is still alive but moving kind of slow in this heatwave. I cooled off at Fort Tilden the other day. Amazing how it is located within New York City (on the Rockaway Peninsula, Queens) limits yet so ghostly, peaceful and natural. If it were not for the distant hazy skyline of Manhattan in the background, I would of thought I was on Fire Island or Cape Cod or something.
Fire Island does not have structures like this, which were built to protect New York Harbor from foreign invaders. The appearance of it amongst the greenery reminded me of that scene in "Planet of the Apes" when Charlton Heston comes across the bombed out Statue of Liberty on the beach. Although not as dramatic (not many can top Charlton in that department) Fort Tilden has that kind of vibe.The insides of these structures have been bombed with some of the best graffiti I have seen around. Everything looked fresh.You quickly forget about those last vestiges of urbanness once you get past the remains of Fort Tilden and you are left with a peaceful, natural beach. On the the late afternoon I was there, there were hardly any other humans to be found. And the few that were there were au natural.


To learn more about Fort Tilden click here.
F.I.B stayed till the sun set and found upon leaving the beach that the buildings on the grounds of Fort Tilden were no longer ghostly and had come to life. There was a lot going on! On Thursday nights the Rockaway Artists Alliance has a free open mike starting at 8pm and there seemed to be some punk rock bands getting ready to go.

And! Upon seeing some men wearing skirts it was learned that the final dress rehearsal going on for "A Funny Thing Happened on the way to the Forum" by the Rockaway Theatre company. It's playing for the next couple of weeks. Click for the schedule here. I am sorry I missed their production of one of my favorite movies, Cactus Flower! The Odd Couple is coming up next!

Hope you are all keeping cool! You don't need to be rich to go to the beach, all you need is $4.50 or a bike to get you to Coney, Brighton, Riis Park, Fort Tilden and Rockaway Beach! While the beaches at Coney and Brighton are great for people watching and eating food and drink from the various vendors (both legal and illegal), the beaches in the Rockaways offer a more calming natural experience. Also!The pools are free! F.I.B has been swimming laps at the Double-D pool in Gowanus. Click here for a full list of NYC pools.

Between the beaches, the pools, the free outdoor concerts and movies, you have no excuse to complain that you are "stuck in the city this summer!"

Neck Face wuz here...

A Neck Face bombed van with Vermont plates parked on Carroll Street....The other side, although defaced, looks like the work of somebody else, anybody know?

Open Your Eyes Girl! Stop Shopping...

While "Open Your Eyes" has been fantastically beaming it's message to the masses, the addition of the word "girl' happened over a month ago and then around the corner of the building "stop shopping". It just seemed unfinished. Then after the words "stop shopping!" they added "it's sick!Barf!" It's been like that for a time, I was waiting a while to post this as I wanted no chance of whoever is bombing this building to get any extra attention and get caught. I don't know, while I love the "open your eyes girl" and "stop shopping", the "it's sick!Barf!" part doesn't resonate much power....how about "open your eyes girl! stop shopping! your'e avoiding something!". That ones not too good either, anyone got any ideas?
Also on the Whole Foods "construction" wall that is totally falling down ( I saw a boy of about 12 wandering around in there alone),someone, either the artist or a fan, has put up laminated photographs documenting the phases and stages of the building. Should you be interested that's on 3rd Street between 3rd Avenue and Bond. See F.I.B's past images of this building here and here.

xxx READ-UP! xxx

Mystery Solved!!!

If you ever get stuck in traffic on the BQE around the Navy Yard headed into Brooklyn you may be familiar with Read-Up! He/she/they have some prominent work up around there that's been up for years.

Once again many thanks to Brian Berger for the photo.

Open Your Eyes!

"OPEN YOUR EYES" & "NO MORE CORPORATE RULE"!

Looks like the "batcave" building over near 3rd and 3rd got bombed over the weekend. Nice to see some quality messages after all the downright bad grafitti (particularly around the Carroll Street bridge) that has been around the Gowanus of late.To whomever did this (the building not this awful fence), I salute you! You got skills!Many thanks to the keen eye of Brian Berger for the photos (except for the first one that one is mine! and is what i see from the front of my house, reminds me of Minor Threat "in my eyes".)

Moeller Snow Gallery to Mars (Pink & Red Theme).

Joe Heidecker sculptures
The opening I mentioned at The Moeller Snow Gallery the other night was phabulously phantasmagorica!! Both the art (of course I'm biased but the general consensus of the attendees was the same!) and also the space. Just loved the hot pink floors, a nice change from the usual gallery bland tastefulness. Go see this show! Click here for the details.
Blah
Beautiful red door (just don't put any graffitying on it! ) at East Village Indian Restaurant where the after party took place.Ended the night at my favorite bar in all of Manhattan, the Mars! And there's that pink again!

P.S- Please support the Mars Bar, they need your business and they are sadly COMPLETELY dwarfed by the ugliest condos on the planet at 2nd Avenue and 1rst Street. I'm sure the clock is ticking and it will be yet another sad blog post on Jeremiah's Vanishing New York. Enjoy it while it's here. Dig?

I'm confused-Is there a Toll ahead?

Last week I read on the Gowanus Lounge that someone put a sign "Toll Ahead" on the corner of 1rst Street and Bond Street, when I walked by it the same night I noticed that someone had hastily spray painted it with rustoleum. I figured the person who put up was a graphic designer type into subtle double ententres and the person who sprayed it out was working for Toll or or one of the other developers around these days. Tonight I was riding back from the park (which was really lush and luuuvvly this evening) and I took a turn down the alley. Well, they don't like "art" either.
They sprayed out the face on this piece by Teo.and sprayed out some of this one too. (Who is this artist? I know it's not Swoon, right, it's like her in scale, in body but not color and the nose & flower ain't her, but I could be wrong) The funny thing was when I was snapping a picture of the sign, one of those well heeled Smith St. type couples (that I love so well, I like to call them "Biff & Muffy")strolled by walking a dog , the boyfriend/husband said very sarcastically "artists".
Maybe HE did it!

Word to your Mother (Happy Mother's Day!)

Here's some premade art that has been attached to a wall along Carroll Street. They even attached an old woodblock to the wall. In my attempt to decipher these I think it says "Gorber Museum Quality". Then of course there is "Erupyo", maybe it is one of those serious French grafitti artists doing a shout out to Europe.