Michael Sporn Animation – Splog

- Here’s a recap of one of my favorite SundayPhoto posts. It came from May 2007. I’m posting it anew since I plan to upadate it in the next week or two. Enjoy your Sunday.

I’ve always had something of a fascination with the rooftops in New York. There are lots of pipes and chimneys, and other paraphernalia on tar paper covered roofs. My curiosity should have pulled me off my bum to do a bit of research and find out what those bits & pieces and unidentifiable objects are.

For this reason, I often look up while walking down the street. I decided to photograph some of these things while out and about this past week. For better or worse here they are:

a b
Most buildings look like these three. There are the older buildings constructed in the early 20th Century (as in “a”) with a fancy ediface. They’ve been cleaned of any gargoyles or protrusions that might’ve once leaned off the face of the building – landlords didn’t want to be sued as these objects started to come loose and fall off.

There are the sleeker, newer, less interesting buildings (as seen in “b” above) which are boring to the eye. The flat top in the foreground is not as attractive as the turreted red building in back of it.

My favorites are the smaller, more interesting buildings built (to the left) with odd pipes and chimneys peeping out.

In the not-too-distant past, rooftops were covered with TV antennae.
This has been replaced with satellite dishes. I’m not sure which is more attractive.
I know illustrators still enjoy putting an occasional antenna on a city rooftop
or even a pair of rabbit ears atop a television set.
After all, what says TV more than an antenna? A cable box?

d e
I only photographed the one building, but I found that many of the early 20th Century constructions had crosses on the top. These aren’t churches, either. Perhaps in an earlier time they had some connection to a Christian organization, but today they’re very commercial. However golden globes are definitely big on the tops of many of the buildings in the City.

e f
Many are under maintenance; many just stand out shining.

There are also those, such as the building on the left, which have a beautifully sculpted golden top that merely crowns the steeple of the building.

A lot of care went into these rooftop pieces that shone over a pre-neon city. This building, on 23rd Street and Madison Avenue, was at one time the governmental center of the city. It was a very rich area until the downtown low-lifes started encroaching, and the rich moved further uptown. The Mayor’s home, Gracie Mansion, is on 88th Street, the far East side of Manhattan.

Where does such a building keep its air conditioning equipment and water towers so prevalent on other buildings of the period? That might be asked of a lot of buildings, today, in this modern era.

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j k

Speaking of water towers, there are plenty of them. They cover the rooftops and range in sizes and shapes. Some look more industrial than others, and I’m not sure what purpose they serve.

Years ago I took my father to a show at Lincoln Center. He was an air conditioning engineer, and as we passed the large fountain in the square, he remarked that the water of the attractive fountain also served the air conditioning of the entire center. That bit of information has stuck with me for many years.

Do the water towers of the city also serve the air conditioning? Are they the remnant of an architectural solution of the past? The newer, less attractive buildings don’t seem to have these structures. I guess I have more homework to do.

m n
Plants, of course, proliferate on the City’s rooftops. Any way to add green to the tans and greys of Midtown is obviously optimistic.

o p
However, one isn’t always prepared for the variey of plants and trees one sees in the distant sky. Many fir trees abound, but obviously a homesick Californian would plant palm trees on his roof. (see “p”)

I couldn’t help but finish with one of my favorite little buildings in town.

It’s not so much the rooftop that’s interesting, here, but the building, itself.
You see the entire structure in this photo to the left.
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It sits on 28th Street squeezed between two larger buildings. In a way it reminds me of the “Little House” in the Disney film as designed by Mary Blair. I doubt laundry would ever have hung out of a midtown Manhattan window. They used to dry it on clotheslines on the rooftops (a bit I used in my film, The Red Shoes.)

One wonders what the story of this building can be told and what interesting landlord didn’t sell out to the money grubbers to the left and right of him. There’s a lotta history in this City.

- Before getting into the photopost today, I have to say that I saw Ponyo last night. Pleased to report that the theater was sold out (though I know the prediction at this point is for the film to make $4.3 million over the weekend.)

I have to say that this was far and away the most enjoyable film experience I had this year. The movie kept me on the edge of my seat absolutely enrapt by Miyazaki‘s brilliant presentation. The mid section where the girl returns has to be one of the greatest animated sequences of all time. I will see this film again, and I can’t encourage you enough to take it in. It’s great. Best film of the year so far.

I’ll have a ore detailed review later this week when my brain settles down.

- Here with another gripe, I have the Sunday photo bit. Last Saturday I woke up to Police preparing Park Avenue for the 2nd annual Summerstreets program/festival/whatever. I don’t know what they’re actually calling it.

This is the latest attempt by Mayor Bloomberg to turn all of Manhattan into a suburban mall. He’s taken Times Square/Madison Square and Herald Square and closed them off to traffic. People can sit in the middle of these large thoroughfares and picnic. Excuse me, but Broadway is the major street in New York, and there’s no driving on it. Traffic is what there is now. It’s absurd!

Walking across Broadway and 29th Street, I found the street cut in half. There’s one lane for traffic (this is BROADWAY!) and one lane for pedestrians. What’s to say?

So, I found Park Avenue shutting down to traffic at 6AM last Saturday. The same this week.

Signs were placed in the middle of the street to tell pedestrians
what to do. .

The area that’s closed for these pedestrian malls is quite long.
Maps were set up to show people where they could go
without being run over.

All of Park Avenue from 42nd Street
(photo shot at 30th St looking downtown) down to . . .

. . . Houston Street in the Village. (shot from Bleecker looking uptown)

I haven’t been near the street during the mid-day hours, so I can’t vouch for how crowded it gets. But I’ve been told it’s pretty congested.

At 2pm the program shuts down and traffic can move again.
I wonder how much this costs the city to hire police officers to watch the traffic, set up and pick up the stantions, people to produce the signs and posters, and oversee the whole magilla. I’m not sure, but it seems whacko to me.

- I’ve had a number of different spaces over the years, and I’ve loved them all. Here’s a recap of a post I did back in Feb. 2007 which showcases a couple of those spaces.

Thes are the only pictures I have of my very first studio. Originally I set up in an apartment leased by Richard Williams. I took care of his apartment while he was out of town (most of the time), and we did Woman of the Year out of that space. (You can see photos of that space here.) Once it became clear that I needed my own space, I found one in a building at One West 30th Street.

It was an historic building and a very interesting site. Every floor was decorated differently, and except for the second floor it was completely housing. The second floor had about half dozen office spaces. Two of them were Persian rug dealers with whom we spent time drinking a lot of Turkish coffee. (This area of NY features quite a few rug sellers.)

My office looked like something out of Sam Spade. All these steel and glass partitions broke the space up into two parts. In the photo above, I’m standing in the larger space (maybe 20 foot squared) which leads into the back area, my space. This was possibly 10×20. I loved it.

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The B&W photo above left is the only other picture I have from that space. The framed cels are from Woman of the Year; it sits above the end title image from Morris’ Disappearing Bag. Both of these were done in 1981-82. Hence this photo dates back to 1982. The color image above was taken this morning from the vantage of our current studio’s front door. The flowers are on the front desk.

Last week we saw a day of heavy snow/rain/sleet which left the City covered with 3-4 inches of iced snow. A week later it still covers most of the town. Garbage is piling up a bit more than usual and construction has slowed down – just a bit.

This is the front of my building. A gypsy fortune teller sits just atop the entrace to my space – down a dozen steps. There’s a knitting shop (red for Valentine’s Day) next door. They have a cafe wherein many women seem to gather to knit. (I’ve only been in the store once, but it’s usually filled into the late hours.)

This is the actual entrace down some icy steps.

Once you go down these steps you have to walk down an icy, outdoor corridor. On the left you can see this corridor from the street side. On the right it’s from the studio side.

Finally. from the front door of this studio you see this space. (I’m literally standing in the doorway.) This room has four stations equipped with drawing tables and computers as well as two other computer setups. The editing station is all the way in the back right. Matt Clinton, our principal animator on staff, works to the back left with Katrina Gregorius working just to his front. Christine O’Neill, my assistant, sits behind the flowers, up-front.

My room is in another room to the right.

- I have something of an obsession with Psychic storefront shops. For some reason they stand out for me. I did a post a while back and thought it time for an update. There are so many of these shops in my sightline. So, I’ve decided to add some more.

(Click any image to enlarge.)

This is a closer view of the window display for the Psychic above.

This Psychic just advertises her phone number.
Call her cel.

An awning is all you really need.
You can set up a waiting room outside (as long as it’s not raining.)

Steve Fisher checked in with these psychic shops in Queens:

Not too confusing. Psychic? Realtor? Entrance?

An upscale establishment in Middle Village?
It’s the same Psychic as the one above.
Just some work on the storefront.

The Psychic who operates out of the home (as opposed to
the Psychic business operating as a home.)

Hi-tech. The electric Psychic.
The future of the Psychic revealed.

- Walking to work yesterday morning, I saw a lot of stands just being set up. At first I thought it was some kind of independent film. For two blocks all of the laborers were Asian and they had unmarked trucks and rented vans. Soon I realized they were unloading material for stands they were going to set up. After I’d moved another couple of blocks of this, they were suddenly Italian-looking guys setting up bigger stands. Obviously, this was the annual (semi-annual?) Bleecker Street fair.

So I thought it time for my annual (semi-annual?) post.

Here’s the first block I encountered with a few people setting up their stands.
They put the wares on the sidewalk and make it hard to pass by.

Moving on to the next block, we can see things are not quite as busy.

However the people that are there are seriously going about their work.

Naturally, the keystone vendor is the Italian Sausage place. I expect
they’re probably the first to be in place setting up the stand.

Six hours later. Things are hopping.

Plenty of people have turned out, as usual.

This year cel phones and electronics have turned out
in as great a force as those selling shirts and blouses.

Many a souvenir can be found.

Dresses, hats and sandwiches sit side by side.

and food, food, food. All of it ethnic.

Even the grilled corn has a Mexican tint.

Of course, there’s plenty of meat.

There’s also women’s jewelry made of encased, frozen bugs. Attractive.
Only $6 each.
There are about five of these stands.

However, I saw only one porta-potty.

Even the NYTimes was represented, in case you wanted to subscribe. This
is the only vendor with a loudspeaker annoying the otherwise quiet crowd.

The sidewalks remained empty. All of the crowds
moved up and down the center of the stalls.

Still more blocks of vendors with plenty to sell.

Needless to say, there were psychics ready to tell you about your future.

I saw two of them, neither busy, a block apart of each other.

I’m not quite sure if there’s a misspelling here.
Plenty o’ Mexican food.

The sidewalks remained empty. I took the opportunity to
head back with the fast move on the pedestrian path and
avoided the crowds shopping and window shopping.

- I’ve been fascinated with the things that have been scribbled or drawn on the streets and sidewalks. I’ve come across many varied bits and pieces, so I thought it time to post some of them.

(Click any image you’d like to enlarge.)

A lot of messages are left on the ground by a Public Utility worker
for other workers. When Con Ed scopes out a site, they leave
their info discovered right out in the open.

These calligraphic images and remarks leave everything
to the imagination of those who don’t understand.

It’s really just a bunch of gibberish to me, but so are heiroglyphics.

Of course, there’s the old drawing in cement with your finger sign.
Here’s a relatively new one on Bleecker Street that doesn’t really
make much sense either.

This one was used to try to save a garden outside of a
local supermarket when it changed hands. It worked.
The garden is still there – pretty wild, too.

Seeing Leviticus on the sidewalk, and I think I’m supposed
to be somehow thinking in biblical terms – dismiss, dismiss.

It turns out to be just another ad for some local studio.
Cheap advertising.

Nom de Guerre marks the entrance to a store.
In the basement – down those dark stairs.

Here’s another one that’s been turning up around town.
Who knows what it’s for – potatoes?

Give me a good ol’ painted heart, and I think I understand.
This is a painted ad for an off-Broadway play.

Six months ago, a worker fell off a construction site and died.
The site was closed for a short period and ultimately everyone
went back to work.

This is the tribute that sits there now, in the pedestrian walkway.

This isn’t written on the sidewalk, but it’s too great to bypass.
I think my cat may be lost.
Though I’m not sure he has that big a smile.

Last year, I offered a showcase of some of the local color, the Fortune Tellers, Crystal Readers and “Gypsies” in the area. I’m planning to have a follow-up post to this (so many more have opened in town), so I thought it’d be enterprising to recap the original. Here that post from April 2008:

- The thing about New York is that there are an awfully large number of Gypsy fortune tellers. They seem to be nicely hidden, part of the fabric of their street front locations. Oftentimes, they occupy store front locations, but sometimes they take up space on the second floor of buildings.

It’s hard to tell how they make enough cash to pay the somewhat high rents they have to cover. I’d always assumed that it had something to do with illegitimate betting or drugs or something. Then I read a New Yorker article several years ago which revealed the answer – crystals.

I decided to photograph all that I saw on my walk from home to the studio. The first thing I came upon, on Park Avenue and 29th Street, was this posterboard for an out-of-sight store. I looked, somewhat cursorily but couldn’t immediately locate it.
_______(Click any image to enlarge.)
_____________________________.__________They turned out to be hidden behind
some construction. The shop was on the second floor of a small building undergoing a face lift. No wonder they felt the need for a _street placard, half a block away.

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_They were forced to use the construction work to advertise their business. This has to be _hard for them.
_
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_This space is located between Lexington & Third Avenues on 29th Street. It sits adjacent _to an excellent Thai restaurant.
_
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_Farther west, on the corner of 29th Street and Sixth Avenue, there’s one on the third floor.
_A business with plenty of neon advertising; you could mistake it for a nail salon if you
_weren’t looking for it.
_
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_This space was on 21st Street between 5th and 6th Avenues. The pharoah head seems
_to be a familiar that appears in seveal of the windows. It obviously means something I _don’t understand. “Mummies welcome.”
_
___
On Sixth Avenue just off 14th Street there’s this second floor shop. They’re closed this morning, consequently it’s hard to tell if they have neon lighting as well. The windows, this morning seem to be closed off; they’re probably still asleep. (Of course, the “fortune tellers” usually live in these spaces.)
_
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_A block away from the studio, on Houston and Bedford Streets, there’s this
_space just above the “Quick Deli.” The awnings are the only announcement of their _location. It’s a one-floor walkup.
_
_____
____This storefront sits just above my studio. It helps me identify where the studio is.
____I just tell people to walk down the stairs just beneath the “Psychic.”
_
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_These are the artifacts to be found in the window of the “Psychic” storefront above me.
_As I said, the New Yorker article suggested that they sold crstals. If they found two or
_three customers a year who would come back regularly for new and more helpful crystals,
_it would cover the year’s rent. It’s an alien world to me. I can’t imagine even walking
_into the stores.
_
___
_I’ve also noticed three or four used cars irregularly parked on the street. They all have the
_“For Sale” signed painted on the rear windows. The seller is this store’s operator.
_When I moved in, four years ago, my landlord told me that he was paid every month, on
_time, in cash. Those crystals must be selling.
_
_____
_____This, of course, is the entrance to the walkway to my studio. Très discrete.
_____I’m supposed to have exclusive use of the wrought iron fence for signage, but
_____as soon as I put something up, their placard arrived. Why argue? For some
_____reason everyone notices my sign, and some curious visitors have turned into
_____clients. Usually it’s someone wanting to know what an animation studio does
_____ or they’re looking to buy a cel. (Maybe I should sell them.)

These were the shops most obvious to me. I’m sure I walked past others without noticing. There are many, many more of these store front places. I don’t think they wander much beyond the second floor, since they have to be there for the curious person looking to have their fortune told, tarot done, or buy those crystals.

- The world is made of patterns. When man touches them the patterns become eccentric. Steve Fisher’s been sending me pics for so long that I found some patterns in the patterns.

I asked for more and he complied. I love this stuff.

In amongst the clocks from last week was this brick wall,
and the patterns of the bricks just struck me as odd.
The same could be said of most brick walls, but this hit me harder.
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So here are some more brick patterns. The gray of the rainy day didn’t quite
articulate the raised brick, but there’s enough to see here. The placement of the
windows creates enough of a crazy pattern.
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A unique pattern doesn’t seem to have occurred
to the brick layer until he was about half done.
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I guess someone designy lives here. I’m not sure it’s purposeful design.
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Then there’s this house. They repaired the siding to create
this eccentric pattern.
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Ultimately they got to this beauty.
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This stone construction could only exist in Europe.
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The Palazzo Steripinto, famous in Sciacca, Sicily.
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In 1975 the John Hancock Building had suffered a terrible curtain wall
failure, with many of its glass panels blowing out. For a long time after,
until a fix could be incorporated, most of the glass panels were replaced
temporarily with plywood and plywood painted black (the building was
even jokingly referred to as the US Plywood building back then).
The photo was taken with a telephoto lens, which further flattened the
building surface, although its articulation was already quite minimal, and
tended to abstract it to an almost graph-paper look.
One appreciates the scale of the thing only with the help of the
roof-top appurtenances a building in the foreground.
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I couldn’t help but add a couple of my own photos.
This is a closeup of several NYU buildings not far from me.
The sameness of these casement windows is just what one looks
for in a futuristic movie of the 70′s. Multiply it by several buildings
of the same, and they almost become invisible.
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I often walk pass this building, I assume it’s a hotel. (I haven’t bothered
to check it out, to be honest.) The light sculptures that are attached
to the front entrance are nothing if not attention getters, yet the
building is hidden in amongst others on a side-street.
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Why quit at human housing? Birds need design, too.
Steve found this construction in Queens. Very Bauhaus.
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Finally, the truest and finest designer.
Nature.

- I recently ran into a brand new clock that was built into a local building. This took me by surprise; it’s not something that architects are currently incorporating into their buildings.

(Click any image to enlarge.)

It’s a simple clock, nothing ornate, but it did the job.

I began to look for other clocks on my path in Manhattan. There aren’t too many. Yes, there are some notables like the clocks at Grand Central or Penn Station. But I was looking for the ordinary. Then I saw one in Queens in Astoria.

It wasn’t very pretty, but there it was. This gave me the idea of mentioning it to my friend, Steve Fisher, who lives in Maspeth, Queens. I thought he might have more than I on his path. He did. These are the clocks he found:

From Steve: Off I went in search of clocks. Close to home,
there are two clocks on the Maspeth Federal Savings Bank building
in Maspeth that are less than remarkable, but it was a start.

A drive into Manhattan led me to my old stomping grounds, Cooper Union.
Parking a few blocks south of Astor Place on the Bowery, I immediately
came across an outdoor restaurant with a neat clock.

You can also see Cooper’s clock in the distance of the above image.

Across from the school, on the west side of Fourth Ave, the clock on the
Carl Fischer building has not worked from at least 1969
when I first attended Cooper.

The clock has been cleaned up, but, trust me, it still doesn’t work.
I like the fact that you can view its hand from along the face of the building.

A little further up town, at 14th Street, there is a great clock
on each face of the Con Ed Building (is it still called that?)

Heading back toward Queens, I came upon this clock atop a building on Houston Street near Essex Street. Its face numbers are very playful. (Sorry about the lack of sharpness – it was extremely hazy at that moment.)

I took this photo of the HSBC’s clock (the building once had a terrific
domed interior space) while driving across the Williamsburg Bridge)

Finally, I came across this one today on 69th Street back in Queens.
I liked the way the blue-green glow of the clocks picks up the green
signal light. And notice the times are close, but not exactly the same.

- Friend Steve Fisher sent some curious signs he’s photographed that are too unbelievable to pass up posting. They’re self-explanatory, so take a look.

(Click any image to enlarge.)

If you look closely at the backstop on this ball field
you’ll find this sign: