6/10/03 Stuyvesant Sing Premiere; New Hudson River Park; Ducks and Drummers in Riverside Park South at Sundown:
I do a very strange thing for a living. I might be the only one in the world who does it. I videotape school plays. I'm a documentary maker, in a way... I've found a particular kind of documentary that people will pay me to make, and pay me to duplicate. But... I'm a documentary maker who never gets to have a big premiere. Not only that... I never even get to see my audience enjoy the fruit of my labor. Except... on the rare occasion that a screening is scheduled for a play that I put on video... and if I can make it to that screening. Well, today, was just such a day. Some of the kids at Stuyvesant wanted to project Senior SING!, a show in which the senior class wrote and performed a musical, on the big screen in their auditorium today. And so, I went. Only 20 kids showed up, as it was one of the last days of the school year, and it was beautiful outside. But it was still rewarding, nonetheless.
On my way walking back to my apartment, after the "premiere," I snapped this shot of the Timoneer, still parked in the North Cove of Battery Park City... just to show what it looked like by day, and how tall the masts are.
I decided to go for a bike ride, as the weather was absolutely perfect. Mid-70's. Light breeze. That sweet smell in the air that even the early Dutch explorers, who first came to the Lower Hudson Valley, noted in their logs. And I came across something totally unexpected along the path going up the Hudson on the west side of the island... where there had been construction and mud since I started biking up the island, there was now a brand new park, just opened to the public. At the main entrance at Christopher Street, there was a beautiful new water fountain!
Next to the fountain were bathrooms, an information stand, and an ice cream vendor. [I hear he sells crepes too!]
Two piers stuck straight out into the Hudson, one short and one long. Here is the long one.
The piers, which once had serviced the shipping industry, were now covered with real green grass, benches, shaded areas, and walkways.
People inhabited this new park, as if it had been around for 150 years! But, unlike Central Park, this thing must have opened yesterday, or the day before.
This interesting structure creates shade for tables and chairs. People sat talking, playing cards, etc.
The sunset began above, resembling a giant piece of stained glass that the glass store might refer to as "wispy."
I biked further uptown. In Riverside Park South, a man was stalking a family of ducks, who were otherwise enjoying the exclusive use of another park that is about to be opened. Phase 2 of Riverside Park South at about 67th street and vicinity.
Ducks in the just-about-to-be finished new piece of parkland, with the old industrial ruins in the background. This land used to be the rail yard for the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad. Amtrak still runs through, on a track that was about 100 feet behind me when I took this picture. The pier in the distance is my favorite pier at 70th street, part of Phase 1 of the same park.
Qwack. Nature and City, Past and Future. Here where city meets the Hudson, it's all a jumble.
Then I came across something that reminded me very much of camp, because this exact thing would take place on "the lawn" at Buck's Rock. On the Pier at 70th street, a bunch of people were sitting around, drumming an amorphous, but repetitive beat. The various drummers would start or stop playing at will, but the beat would go on, as at least one person would keep it going. When they all played at once, it would get into a groove that was special in its particular rhythm, and in the fact that it would never be played quite the same way ever again, occurring by chance, and ending the same way. I took a movie of these people drumming. Click on the photo to hear about 12 seconds of their beats.
The sun sets over the Hudson, behind the Jersey Palisades, on a beautiful, new, rewarding day.