I captured this trio in Tompkins Square Park in my neighborhood, New York’s East Village.  An unseasonably warm day in the city, a lot of people were out to enjoy one of the few outdoor days before winter.

The guy was singing his heart out, and these two girls were lapping it up.  The girls were far more attractive than the guitarist.  Just goes to show how far music can carry the heart.  They were both quite taken with him.  He sang so loudly that passers-by had to look.  I am not saying the singing was bad, but its volume created a spectacle.

The one in the middle provided shy, barely-audible background vocals overpowered by his Steve Perry meets John Mayer power chords.

The listening fare included Shwayze – lol.

They are sitting at the base of the famous Hare Krishna tree (from Wikipedia):

One of Tompkins Square Park’s most prominent features is its collection of venerable American Elm (Ulmus americana) trees. One elm in particular, located next to the semi-circular arrangement of benches in the park’s center, is important to adherents of the Hare Krishna religion. It was beneath this tree, on October 9, 1966, that A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, founder of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, held the first recorded outdoor chanting session of the Hare Krishna mantra outside of the Indian subcontinent; participants in the ceremony included Beat poet Allen Ginsberg. The event is seen as the founding of the Hare Krishna religion in the United States, and the tree is treated by Krishna adherents as a significant religious site.

Photos taken with the Samsung Memoir camera phone.

Julie Atlas Muz may not realize it, but more Wikipedia editors know her name than one would think.  There once was a minor battle on Wikipedia as to what photograph should illustrate the Neo-Burlesque article.  Muz, 2006 winner of the Neo-burlesque Miss Exotic World Pageant, was chosen as the lead photo.

As part of the Jackie Factory’s Viper Mad show at the 2009 HOWL! Festival in New York City, Muz and her Harlot Pixies performed.  Below is a photographic essay of her and a few of her pixies:

Joey Arias is a downtown New York City legend.  From Wikipedia:

Film credits include Big Top Pee-wee, Mondo New York, Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, Flawless, and To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar and Wigstock: The Movie.

His most recent work was performing in Arias with a Twist, a collaboration with puppeteer Basil Twist, at HERE Arts Center in New York and before that as the Mistress of Seduction in the Las Vegas show Zumanity, an “adult-themed” Cirque du Soleil show running at the New York-New York Hotel & Casino.

Yesterday Arias took to the stage at Tompkins Square Park with Sherry Vine, who I last photographed at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival (seen here on Wikipedia with Lady Bunny).

Below is my photographic essay of Joey Arias (black hair) and Sherry Vine (blond) at the 2009 HOWL! Festival:

There are some festivals that happen in New York you always wonder if they might up and close on you (Lady Bunny and Wigstock are still missed). So it’s excellent that the HOWL! Festival–the annual tribute to Allen Ginsberg and counterculture–continues in the East Village.

Each year the festival hangs up canvas over the gates of Tompkins Square Park inviting anyone to contribute a painting. It’s called Art Around the Park, and much of the work that goes up is as good as what you might find in a gallery (some artists seek to sell their work; others are anonymous and first grab wins once the festival is over).

Above to the right was a favorite of mine, by artist Izuo Watanabe, aka Izu, whose other giant face works can be viewed on Flickr, or on his website.

Finally, the last few weeks of testing the Samsung Memoir–what is supposed to be the best camera phone on the market–is coming to an end.  Previous forays include a beach vacation on Fire Island (Grade: B); poet Eileen Myles reading at Blue Stockings (Grade: F);  the Charlie Parker Jazz Festival (Grade: C); and its use as a spy camera (Grade: D-).

The shots below were all taken with Samsung Memoir, and it did a phenomenal job.

SAMSUNG MEMOIR CAMERA HOWL! TEST GRADE:  A

Michael Jackson

Artist David Greene–who has painted a series of public reproductions of iconic celebrity portraits–contributes his Jackson Five-era Michael Jackson.

Bloomdog Billionaire

Artist:  Krezell

Ben Dover

Artists:  Nora King and Lee Dawson (who seem to have come out of the Global Girls Art Workshop)

Anti-CIA

Artist:  Unknown (pictured)

Miscellaneous

Artist: Anonymous

Perfection or reality

Artists:  Sabel Salazar and Jeffrey Lux (click on photo to see contact information)

Politics of the LES

Artist: LV 2009 – I loved this!  I wish I could use it on Wikipedia.

New York City's Tompkins Square Park dog run is considered one of the best dog parks in the country, and recently underwent a $450,000 renovation.

In a press release, Rent.com surveyed and ranked the best cities for renters with pets.  The result?  New York City is Number 1 (it also recently ranked the best city for working moms by Forbes).

Here are the best cities for renters with pets:

1. New York City. Central Park is simply pet heaven, with its winding trails and fenced-in dog parks. If asphalt is more appealing, walk your pet along the Brooklyn Bridge. New York is also one of the few cities where pet daycares can be found in nearly every neighborhood!

2. Chicago.  It provides canine cruises across the famed Navy Pier, as well as pet-welcoming patio restaurants throughout the city. Chicago is also home to an assortment of pet resorts and boarding kennels.

3. Boston invites pets to tour the harbor by boat, as long as their pet owners come along! Walk your dog along the Freedom Trail to explore the many historical sites that this city has to offer. Leashed dogs and felines are even welcome on the subway.

4. Houston is home to a variety of pet-friendly hotels and restaurants that span throughout the city. Barnaby’s Café is a local favorite, where wait staff provide a cardboard dog bowl to keep your pooch hydrated morning, noon and night.

5. San Francisco boasts plenty of pet-friendly dining in addition to off-leash beaches and outdoor areas. Pets are even welcome to ride in the cable cars or walk alongside their owners across the Golden Gate Bridge!

6. Austin offers the Zilker Botanical Gardens and Congress Street Bats as top-rated pooch attractions, in addition to outdoor cafes and off-leash parks.

7. Washington, D.C. and suburb Alexandria, Va., offer a selection of pet-friendly restaurants in addition to an array of outdoor parks.

8. Portland, Ore., is home to the famously pet-friendly Lucky Labrador restaurant chain, in addition to the well-known Rose Gardens and Saturday Outdoor Market. Several pet boutiques have recently emerged in the city, including Portland Pooch and Cat’s Meow.

9. Charleston offers tours throughout the historic city, including day tours to Boone Hall and Magnolia Plantations, as well as nightly ghost tours. All pets welcome.

10. Ann Arbor invites pets for outdoor fun from dog-friendly canoeing, farms and gardens such as the Nichols Arboretum, a 123-acre botanical garden at the University of Michigan.

For advice on how to convince your pet-unfriendly landlord to allow you to have your pet in your new apartment, read Linda Collins’ advice in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle.

Using my Flickr photostream, to the right of any screen on Shankblog you will see candid street photography I have snapped in New York City.  My primary photo stomping ground is in the historic Tompkins Square Park in the East Village of Manhattan, my  home for the last eight years (the longest I have ever lived in one place my entire 34 years). 

I genuinely find people fascinating, and I personally like to imagine their thoughts and lives when I review the photographs I have collected of people going about their day.  This one in particular is a favorite of mine.  The boy’s expression is very nice, but I particularly like the dog’s expression.  Dogs are some of the best creatures on this Earth, and I thought this dog’s good-natured, love-filled gaze as he strains to give the little kid a kiss shows exactly why so many people love them.

A boy and his dog in the Tompkins Square dog park in New York City

I gave the Tompkins Square Park article a much needed photography face-lift.  It still had my photos from 2006, when I had my cheap 2.3 megapixel camera.

Mayor Ed Koch described Tompkins Square Park as “a cesspool,” filledwith “hundreds of people who are disheveled and people who you used tocall derelicts” and “very few, if any, women and children,” where”sandboxes are soiled with feces and urine.” (Lysandra Ohrstrom, The New York Observer, August 5, 2008)

”There are people, hundreds of them, I’m told, who park there all 24 hours a day, and obviously there are bodily needs,” said Koch.  (Todd Purdum, The New York Times, August 20, 1988)

Twenty years ago, when New York City was still in the midst of the crack epidemic, 44 people were injured in a massive riot at Tompkins Square Park. The NYPD later determined that the riot was caused by the officers on the scene.

I have lived in the East Village for seven years; references to the riot always abound, even though the neighborhood has drastically changed (as described in Ohrstrom’s article).