January 27, 2008
Brooklyn: Fort Greene
For more than 10 years I worked in Ft. Greene at The Brooklyn Academy of Music. I love it there and I love the neighborhood. I saw this jewel in the rough get discovered and changed and re-populated by its new inhabitants. And yet it's maintained some of its old traits and class as well and grown into a new rejuvenated place.
With growth in residential luxury condos going up, hip new restaurants, bars and wine stores. I saw the price of a four story corner brownstone across from Ft. Greene Park on one of the best tree lined, brownstone lined streets go from 399,000 to about 2 million and now comfortably resting at 1.8. I saw buildings erected in what seemed like over night. Traffic patterns change from one day to the next. I saw the new inhabitants buy up everything and move in. A welcome change in the night life and night dwellers has brought a hip and happening scene.
Businesses were forced to clean up, polish up their acts or hit the road. The Bodegas gave way to nice clean markets; Chinese fast food places gave way to Mediterranean
Cuisine, empty commercial spaces were filled with Real Estate businesses, demands were met and all that you want is right here.
BAM went from some place way out in Brooklyn that you could see cutting edge, innovative performing arts from around the world if you could get there with out getting mugged to a force to be reckoned with that is. A sold out performance is now a common occurrence. Big names and productions and new upcoming artist make their debuts and join the tradition of BAM. The BAM Rose Cinema plays important films from the best directors starring the best actors; offering Q&A's, Movie Premieres and a wonderful Cinematic program. The BAM Cafe that year round is bringing in the up and coming musical artist as well as a younger and fresher audience.
So here are a few photos from Ft. Greene that I took on a walk the other day on my lunch break. I hope you like them. I will post the next set soon.
Posted by Victor at 11:58 PM | Comments (0)
January 20, 2008
Post Office, Madison Square Garden Area, and Macy's
The other day before my basketball game I had time to kill so I walked around Madison Square Garden and the 34th street area. A friend of mine Joey had mentioned a couple of weeks earlier that they finished the work they were doing on the Post Office there and that I should take a shot of it. So here you go Joey a picture for you. As you can see I also took photos of the Garden and of Macy's. I don't think I had ever been inside that post office but standing outside of it made me not even want to go inside. It was just too big. Madison Square Garden I've been to many times. To see the NY Knicks play basketball, to see a few concerts, Golden Gloves Finals Boxing, the Circus and Disney on Ice. Macy's is one of the old big department stores and is always worth a walk though. Go visit Santa and tell him what you want for christmas, oops just missed him about 11 more shopping days till christmas left!
Posted by Victor at 11:44 PM | Comments (1)
January 13, 2008
Laguardia Airport, Shea Stadium & The Triboro Bridge (Queens side)
American Airlines @ Laguardia Airport
American Airlines @ Laguardia Airport
Shea Stadium
Triboro Bridge
I make lots of "airport runs". I travel quite a bit and it seems my family and friends travel quite a bit as well. My favorite "airport run" to make is to Laguardia Airport (LGA) Its about 30 minutes from my house and the traffice usually is good. Because of living in the Bronx and working in Brooklyn I pass by Laguardia airport often. I see the planes landing and taking off and wonder where are they going, where are they returning from. Any way here are two photos of the American Airlines buildings that still have the old look that the other terminals used to have but as the airport expands and looks more modern I like the old look better. After taking those photos I decided to circle around to Shea Stadium, home to the MLB team The NY Mets. I lived in queens until i was 12 and grew up a Met Fan. Lee Mazilli was one of my childhood heroes. I remember Dave Kingman hitting home runs in to this very parkinglot. Just behind the stadium they are erecting the new Citi Field and I'm not sure what they will do with this one. Then on the way home I shot a picture as I crossed the Queens side of the Triboro Bridge. A connector of Queens, Manhattan and The Bronx that I often use to get to and fro. Its been under heavy construction but its looking nice and beautiful.
Posted by Victor at 09:47 AM | Comments (0)
January 06, 2008
Radio City Music Hall
Radio City Music Hall is one of the places that has be a part of my life since I was about 15 years old. I went to see The Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular starring the Rockettes. There was a priest, Father John O'Keefe at the high school I went to that took me and a small group of us. Any how it was magical and seemed so big. Little did I know that I would return there a few more times in different capacities.
The next time was when I was about 19 and my dad had two tickets to Anita Baker that he gave to me. Back then I loved Anita Bakers music and walking in to Radio City Music Hall was magical again just like the first time.
Then a few years later while going to school at John Jay College of Criminal Justice on my lunch break one day I saw a table where they were giving applications to work there. Well you could imagine my excitement to work at the World Famous Radio City Music Hall.
So it ended up being my first real job as an adult and I worked there for 6 years. I began as a cashier in the Merchandising department and ended at the Box Office that became my line of work till this day. During my time there I did many jobs including: cashier/floater, merchandise lead, Stock room supervisor, Bartender, night security, telemarketing, Rockette Audition camera man, and Box Office ticket seller. I had so much fun and learned so much in my time there. I met my ex-wife there, that resulted in my daughter Victoria. I made friends that I am still friends with today.
Last time I was there I went to see a taping of a Blues documentary that was produced by Martin Scorceses and directed by Antoine Fuqua. It was nice to see some of my old friends still working there. It brought back old memories and I contacted a couple of old friends that are still working there.
Its amazing that a historical landmark could have such a personal history as well.
Posted by Victor at 09:27 AM | Comments (0)
January 01, 2008
Luca Brazi sleeps with the fisheye
Atlas
Roc Center X-mas Tree
New York Palace
Santa brought me an AF DX Fisheye-Nikkor 10.5 mm f/2.8g ED lens for my Nikon D70. So I thought of the idea of shooting NYC sites that I will miss in 5 years if or when I return to Vienna to live.
So for now it seems I will only shoot fisheye for this blog and I'm contemplating on shooting with this colorization function that I stumbled upon in photoshop. I know some people don't like it as some people people dont like fisheye lenses, but what can i say. A good friend of mine said to me that what is important is that I'm doing something. So I will trudge along in my hopes of having something special to look back on.
Some sites will be obviously recognizable and others not. I'm just going to shoot places that either I havent been to ever, or places that have some role in my life. I don't want to shoot photos of a place because it is a NYC landmark that everyone takes photos of. Of course there will be these landmarks that will work their way in to my photos too.
I look forward to my new project and I hope that people enjoy visiting my site and leaving feedback, opinions and of course many comments. Thanks and I hope everyone has a wonderful new year!
Posted by Victor at 12:00 AM | Comments (2)