One of the most startling discoveries about Joan Rivers is that she looks ravishing in person; I expected a plastic surgery scarred woman.  Instead, I discovered that, for someone born in 1933, her body-sculpting paid-off.

All photos taken at Michael Musto’s 25th anniversary party and licensed by David Shankbone as Creative Commons 3.0 attribution.

Joan Rivers on stage, with Musto to her left and FifiBear on her right.

Michael Musto on stage with Joan Rivers looking on.

Rivers up close.

Joan Rivers enjoying the revelry.

Not just Obama – this woman was also selling John McCain and Sarah Palin condoms in Union Square today.  Yes it was her: the Obamacondoms.com lady.  All images licensed Creative Commons 3.0 attribution.

Below are three shots that I think remind the viewer of two things:  the immensity of New York City; and that it exists on a series of islands.  It’s such a large city that it’s easy to forget those.

All shots taken by David Shankbone and licensed Creative Commons 3.0 attribution.  All photos taken with the Samsung Memoir cameraphone.

The famous financial district in lower downtown with the Hudson River.  Taken from Jersey City’s Exchange Place train station.

Downtown Brooklyn with the East River seen from Pier 11 in Downtown Manhattan.

The Brooklyn Bridge with the Manhattan Bridge behind it, and the South Street Seaport in the foreground, taken from Pier 11 in Downtown Manhattan.  That’s one of the historic boats docked at the seaport’s museum.

Last night was a star-studded salute to one of the main reasons people pick up the Village Voice:  Michael Musto, who has written for the newspaper for 25 years.  Pick up his new book, Fork on the Left, Knife in the Back, and you’ll be as enchanted by his acerbic wit as is the rest of New York City.

Below are photos from the celebration, all taken by David Shankbone and licensed Creative Commons 3.0 attribution.

Joan Rivers hosted the party.

Countess LuAnn de Lesseps of the Real Housewives of New York

Irina Movmyga and artist Andres Serrano

Miss Dirty Martini, Michael Urie and Michael Musto

Ronnie Spector serenading Michael Musto

Ronnie Spector of The Ronettes

Joan Rivers enjoying Murray Hill’s performance.

Michelangelo Signorile and Linda Simpson.

Michael Urie of Ugly Betty.

Robert Verdi (center) and artist Robert Richards (right)

Burlesque sensation (and Karl Lagerfeld muse) Miss Dirty Martini.

Lisa Levy and David Shankbone (both of whom fought this People’s Court case for a dog rescue)

Epiphany, Brooke Crescenti and friend.

Party-goers

Robin Byrd

Musto and Judy Garland (Tommy Femia)

More party-goers

Unlike Snowmageddon 2010, Snowicane produced a good bit of snow.  The only thing keeping this from a complete blowout was that the snow was super wet.  It froze and accumulated during the night, but by late morning it mostly turned to slush.  The sky even cracked with sun for twenty minutes (last photo), and things started melting rapidly before the storm started up again, halfhearted.

I still tell you: we New Yorkers have become wimps with the snow.  So many people stayed home, yet the city was navigable.

Photos taken with my Samsung Memoir cameraphone.  All photos are licensed Creative Commons 3.0.

Snowicane-covered cars in Alphabet City, New York, 9 a.m.

Famous Katz’s Deli, 9 a.m. Snowicane.  You’re standing on the edge of the East Village,  staring across Houston Street at perhaps the most famous edge of the Lower East Side.

Snowblower outside of Red Square apartments on Houston; across the street begins the Lower East Side.

1st Avenue and Houston (the East Village) – man (I think) walking his dog in the Snowicane.

Wall Street, 9:30 a.m.  You can see it’s getting slushy.  It was quiet, many people stayed home and almost everyone else came to work in jeans and boots, which worked well in the conditions.

Looking north out a window in a stairwell toward the city from the financial district.  Click on the photo to see the slight outlines of the buildings in the distance obscured by the downfall.

A break in the storm over Wall Street.

Below are 2010 photos of the Lincoln Memorial licensed Creative Commons 3.0:

Lincoln Memorial stock photograph

Wide angle Abe Lincoln

Winter Lincoln Memorial with sun spots.

My winter study of the Washington Monument, with the remnants of the 2010 blizzards, licensed Creative Commons 3.0:

Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial with the Monument.

Washington Monument with snow.

Washington Monument from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial with the frozen reflecting pool in the foreground.

Me with my sisters with the Monument burned into the sky.

I took this early in my photography, on Valentine’s Day, February 14, 2007, two months before I bought my Olympus.  It’s the stage that is shared by both the New York City Ballet and the New York City Opera.  I had a cheap Panasonic, but a guy who I had fallen in love with once offered to show me around because he had access to what was then the New York State Theater.  I didn’t want to waste the opportunity, so I used what I had, but it still came out decent enough.  I believe this is my one and only panoramic shot.

Man, I had to go to the ballet a lot when we dated, because he had been a ballet dancer and I thought I should give it a try but after two I was burned out.  Nobody can tell me I don’t have a right not to like Balanchine, as it was his anniversary season so every show was Balanchine.  I’m sure he’s great, but I learned ballet is not my thing.  Particularly as I associated it with this guy.

Two years before on Valentine’s Day, 2005, was one of the most miserable moments of my life, and he had a good bit to do with it; that and MacroCat prematurely dying on that day as law school exams loomed.

I hadn’t spoken to him for over a year after he left to work in Europe, and in that time I had finally forgiven him for the lies and betrayals, forgiven him enough that I pined for that in-love feeling I had felt.  We tried to make a go of it again for about a month, but whatever we had was lost.  Worse, discovering new indiscretions and trying to remember what I had even seen in him cheapened what had been a proud bittersweet memory.

The photo I took that day of a ballerina working with her coach in the empty theater is used on 143 pages on 31 Wikimedia projects around the world.

Above you see my photograph of Ludmilla Petrushevskaya that is found on Wikimedia Commons used by the Miami Herald in a December 22, 2009 story by Lori Kozlowski that was recycled from the Los Angeles Times.  Nowhere on the article is the work attributed to me.

Now, I’ve written before about my own views regarding attribution and there are really only three categories where it does not bother me if someone does not give me the credit for my own hard work:

1. I am asked;
2. An artist is using the work, and attribution would interfere with their creative vision; and
3. For a non-commercial entity’s use.

All others should give credit where credit is due, and particularly a member of the mainstream media that has advertisements plastered all around it.

For those of us who work in the Creative Commons–I retired from it in 2009–one of the few benefits is credit for our hard work.  The Herald robbed me of that small satisfaction in this case, and I imagine I’m not the only one.

Boo, hiss, Miami Herald, for taking the hard work of others without giving them the credit.  It violates the copyright terms that are clearly spelled out where you found the image.

If you would like to see my other photos of Petrushevskaya, one of Russia’s foremost literary authors, click here.

Over on my Facebook account I put up a photo essay of the 100 favorite shots I took for the Creative Commons, such as the above 2008 shot of Ian MacKaye of Fugazi with Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth in Brooklyn.

My photography days for the CC are over, but I’m proud of the work I put into the project.