Empire State of Mind

Screen shots of Jay-Z's video for Empire State of Mind

I am not a big Jay-Z fan, but this video, directed by Hype Williams, just captures the timelessly seductiveness of New York, with its intricate layers of architecture and life in myriad configurations. The history of celluloid is filled with intoxicating footage of this concrete jungle, and I never seem to tire of looking at it. I am reminded of what LeCorbusier once wrote upon seeing the New York skyline at night:

"The night was dark, the air dry and cold. The whole city was lighted up. If you have not seen it, you cannot imagine what it is like. You must have it sweep over you... The sky is decked out. It is a Milky Way come down to earth; you are in it. Each window, each person, is a light in the sky. At the same time a perspective is established by the arrangement of the thousand lights of each skyscraper; it forms itself more in your mind than in the darkness perforated by illimitable fires. The stars are part of it also–the real stars–but sparkling quietly in the distance. Splendor, scintillation, promise, proof, act of faith, etc. Feeling comes into play; legs strengthened, chests expanded, eager for action, we are filled with confidence."

The Fairy Catastrophe, 1936

I heart New York, in all of its complicated, mythical, and endlessly photogenic iterations.

New York Store Fronts

James & Karla Murray

STORE FRONT: THE DISAPPEARING FACE OF NEW YORK (Gingko Press, 2008)

These elegant and vivid photographs of New York store fronts, a project spanning 10 years, are a treasure trove of bygone and soon-to-disappear signage, typography and streetscape. The pictures are on view at Clic Gallery until August 30, 2009.

New York

Bookends of my day yesterday. I love seeing the city skyline. It's always slightly intoxicating even if I've seen it countless times before, in movies as well as in real life.

New York

New York Places and Pleasures by Kate Simon, fifth printing 1960, cover design by Elaine Lustig and Jay Maisel. 

I really like the graphic of this cover.  After having lived here on and off for almost 20 years, I am finally learning about the city and appreciating it from many different perspectives. As Shakespeare wrote, "what is the city but its people?" (Coriolanus), my experience of New York has until now been shaped mostly by the people I've come into contact with here. But lately, I am learning to look at the city in its actual physical elements and learning about what makes it one of the greatest cities in the world.