Bank Of America Tower Rising In Midtown

With the demise of the World Trade Center, the four tallest buildings in NYC are all about 75 years old. But change is coming and the building I'm watching most excitedly is the Bank Of America Tower, currently going up at the corner of 42nd Street and Sixth Avenue, which upon completion in about 2 years, will become NYC's second tallest building. The building will have two spires, one at 1200 feet and one at 945, placing it second only to the Empire State in height, even though it will only have 57 floors of office space.

Being constructed with tax-free Liberty Bonds, intended to rebuild lower Manhattan after 9/11, the BOA Tower is not without controversy. However, the public's imagination (and mine!) has been captured by some unique aspects to the tower, which include a giant wind turbine at its top, which is claimed will be able to provide 70% of the building's electricity needs. Builders also claim that the building's air purification system will exhaust cleaner air than enters the building, rendering the tower as one giant air filtration system for the city.

Also of interest is the builders' claim to be using mostly recycled materials and their plan for a greywater system with will capture and reuse waste water and rainwater. I'll be grabbing pictures of construction of the BOA Tower every few months and posting them here. The main skeleton should be done in about a year. This glass tower, for once, looks like a beauty.

Brooklyn Gets Hairier

I am turning into a regular outer-borough-going type person. Two days ago, I rode my bike over the Queensboro Bridge (slightly scary but feelin' groovy) and explored Long Island City (definitely scary) . T'was my first Queens experience, other than taking the AirTrain to JFK. And tomorrow, Saturday, my crew is gonna trek to BK for the Big Lug bear picnic. Next stop, Staten Island. W00t!

Anthology Ships Monday

The anthology I'm a part of, From Boys To Men: Gay Men Write About Growing Up, is shipping on Monday. Pick it up for stories by me, Alex Chee, Aaron Hamburger, Michael Dogpoet McAllister and others. The book is edited by Ted Gideonse and Rob Williams. Oh, and I just got a little bit of a rush to see that Amazon is offering a special deal if you buy the anthology AND Andrew Holleran's Grief. I have to go lie down now.

Kiki & Herb Benefit Ali Forney Center

Kiki & Herb's Tuesday, August 29th performance will be a benefit for the Ali Forney Center, NYC's homeless shelter for LGBT youth. Buy your $100 ticket on the shelter's site, and get a fantastic Broadway show and a post-show VIP party with the cast, including some free booze! Here's a great chance to do some good and see a show that has garnered one of the best reviews I've seen from the NY Times.

Morning View - American Radiator Building

Midtown's Byrant Park Hotel has been reviewed as "New York's Most Romantic Hotel" and "one of the best hotels in the world". Built in 1924 as the American Radiator Building, it was designed by Raymond Hood, who patterned it after his earlier Chicago Tribune Building. Check out the hotel's crazy flash-heavy website and you can tell that most of their business comes from the fashion industry.

I'm The Internet, You're The Internet

Coming out in support of Net Neutrality are some of the folks whom the 'Net have made famous, my favorite being this guy. And it's a great tune, I can't stop playing it.



(HT- Blah, Blah, Black Sheep)

Blowoff -The CD

The album I've been waiting all year for is now available for pre-order! Blowoff, the DC-based duo comprising indie rock legend Bob Mould and dance hitmaker Rich Morel are releasing their self-titled first CD. The Blowoff parties at DC's 9:30 Club have entered into the realm of nightclub legend and faithful JMG readers know that these guys are friends of mine, as I write about them often. (And for those that have written to ask, that's a Blowoff poster over my shoulder in the first JMG vidcast.) After hearing the first single, Hormone Love, I can't wait to get my hands on the full-length. Get yours here.

UPDATE: I should have noted that the entire album is available on iTunes now.

Morning View - Roosevelt Island Tram

That tiny swinging basket up there is the Roosevelt Island Tram, which was being tested yesterday after months of repairs following the stranding of 67 passengers over the East River for 11 hours, back in April. Roosevelt Island is also accessible via the subway and a small bridge on the Queens side of the island, but not via the massive Queensborough Bridge that straddles the island, pictured above under the shroud.

Open Thread Thursday

A popular relationship question has always been "Would you rather have hot sex or true love? A variant of that is "Which is more important to you, sex or love?" Here's a weirder one.

Would you rather lose your libido or lose your ability to taste food?

A) Hot fucking but just chewing.

B) No fucking but delicious food.
.

Last Call For Stonewall

The most famous gay bar in the history of the world, New York's Stonewall Inn, is closing. The New York Observer, in reporting the bar's impending demise, uses a clever play on the old headline used by the New York Post during the Stonewall Riots, "Stonewall To Shutter? Queen Bees Stinging Glad!", a reference to the distaste that neighboring merchants and residents have for the young, hip-hop crowd the Stonewall has been attracting in recent years.

I've only been to the Stonewall a couple of times since moving to New York, not enjoying either experience as the place is pretty much a stripper bar these days, relying on guest appearances from porn stars who do jack-off shows. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but hey, there's two bear bars on the next block. According to The Observer, the Stonewall is $150,000 in arrears for its rent and has just lost a lawsuit with its alcohol suppliers over lack of payment.

Closed after the riots in 1968, to finally reopen in 1990, an interesting point made in the Observer story is that the clientele of the Stonewall today is actually fairly close to those that patronized the bar back in its riot-era heyday, namely hustlers, dealers, and outer-borough gay youth of color. What will replace the Stonewall Inn in today's gentrified, less-gay West Village? Another attempt to cash in on the name? Or another forgettable noodle shop? The building IS a registered National Historic Landmark. Either way, I don't see much of an outcry coming from gay New Yorkers. And that, gentle readers, is a pity.

No Soup For You

Sigh. I noticed yesterday that the Nissin Foods sign is gone from its long perch atop 1 Times Square. The 60-foot Cup O'Noodles was the last of the "steaming" signage in Times Square, which has included over the years: a steaming Preston iron, an A&P cup of coffee, and a smoking Marlboro cigarette. Doubtlessly, Chevy plans on replacing the Nissin cup with Times Square's zillionth Jumbotron.

You Talkin' To Me?

On Sunday, Jeff, Tom and I were in a Lexington Avenue store when an elderly woman stopped in her tracks to say to me, "Oh, my! You look just like Robert De Niro." Reading my reaction, she walked away muttering, "I meant it as compliment. I happen to think he's very handsome." I had totally forgotten about it until last night, when the guy in front of me at Best Buy gave me the weirdest double-take. He was buying Goodfellas.

This isn't funny, people.

Go Dorks!

OK, this is kinda fun: Two dorks are trying to break the NYC subway riding record today by traveling all 26 lines, all 665 track miles and through all 468 stations in under the record time of 25 hours, 11 minutes, which was set by two other dorks in 1998. Even if they break the record, they won't make the Guiness Book Of World Records, whose rules mandate that stops must be made in all stations. Competitive subway riding first began in the mid-60's when students from MIT's Artificial Intelligence Lab wrote a computer program that plotted out what was thought to be the most efficient route. Today's dorks are working from their own maps. Go dorks! For the Amateur New York City Subway Riding rules, go here.

Morning View - Two Deco Gems

To the left is the 47-story tower of the Waldorf-Astoria, built in 1931. An art deco gem of midtown (the lobby is a must-see), the Waldorf-Astoria started as two separate hotels owned by feuding cousins William Waldorf Astor and John Jacob Astor. New York is littered with streets and neighborhoods named for the Astors. William built his original hotel on the site where the Empire State Building stands. A second Waldorf-Astoria, to be built near Disney World, was announced by Hilton Hotels earlier this year.

To the right, at 50 stories and also built in 1931, is 570 Lexington, formerly the General Electric Building. This is one of my favorites, with lots of zig-zag ornamental references to electricity and you really can't do it justice without a long lens. Visit the above linked site for some much better shots. In the early 90's, during a Manhattan real-estate depression, the building was donated to Columbia University.

Right On Time For The Midterms

In his new book, State Of Emergency: The Third World Invasion and Conquest of America, currently #1 on Amazon, former presidential candidate and current crazy person Pat Buchanan claims that the Mexican government is secretly encouraging illegal immigration into the U.S. as part of its plot to retake the American southwest for Mexico.

Key Quotes:
"Between 10 and 20 percent of all Mexicans, Central Americans and Caribbean people have already moved to the United States."

"Powerful Mexican and U.S. elites seek to erase America’s borders and merge the United States and Mexico into a “North American Union.”

“Concerned about his legacy, George W. Bush may yet live to see his name entered into the history of his country as the president who lost the American Southwest that James K. Polk won for the United States."

Where are the men with the nets when you need them? Buchanan also calls for "an Eisenhower-type deportation program, beginning with all illegal aliens convicted of felonies and every gang member not a U.S. citizen." Oh c'mon, Pat. Deport over 10 million people? We couldn't even get a drink of water to a tiny fraction of that many people during Katrina, and THEY wanted to be found.

In his last book, The Death Of The West, Buchanan ranted that declining birth rates among white people in Europe was going to bring out the end of Western Civilization. You may also recall his '92 presidential campaign chestnut, "AIDS is nature's retribution for violating the laws of nature." Buchanan is a madman and it depresses me immensely to see his book at #1.

No Majority From NY Dems

In a statewide poll conducted for CBS News, only 48% of New York Democrats said they support gay marriage, a low number that surprised the poll takers. The lowest support comes from black Democrats, 45% of whom are "strongly opposed". Gay marriage did not make the top ten list of concerns for Democratic New Yorkers. The poll takers noted that the majority of support for gay marriage came from the NYC area. (Via 365Gay.com)

Will these lower-than-expected numbers affect Democratic strategy? How will the GOP exploit this new poll?

Times Square - 9:45 AM

New York City boy
You’ll never have a bored day
'Cause you're a New York City boy
Where Seventh Avenue meets Broadway
-Pet Shop Boys

(Clicky pic-y makey biggy.)

Valley Girl, Meet Bronx Girl

Monday, 7:30pm, the S train

Girl 1: So I was all "As if!" and she was all "whatEVER!"

Girl 2: Yo, dats some fucked up shit.

Girl 1: So when I got home, I totally unfriended her on MySpace.

Girl 2: I'mo hafta smack dat bitch up, fo realz!

Girl 1: Oh, just unfriend her! She'd hate that even more!

Morning View - Trump Palace

I've ragged on other Trump Buildings around town, but this one I really like. Trump Palace, built in '91, is the tallest building on the Upper East Side at 55 stories. With balconies for every unit and windows that actually open, it looks bright, airy and livable. It's peach-ish color seems more suited for South Beach than Manhattan, but I rather like that too.

I admire this beauty every day on my way past it and several times a week I shop in the grocery store in its basement. The building is mostly condo, not co-op, as newer buildings in NYC tend to be, with some rental units as well. A friend of mine looked at a 400-sq foot studio and when he reported the price as $2600/mo, I actually said, "Oh, that seems reasonable!" Then I caught myself and laughed and laughed.

Scaffolding Ad Crackdown Imminent?

Today's Metro has a bit of good news. Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer appears ready to crack down on the abuse of scaffolding advertising, something that has irked me ever since I got to town.

The way the scam works: 1) Building owners schedule some kind of repairs or maintenance. 2) Scaffolding goes up to protect pedestrians from falling tools/debris. 3) Building owners sell space on scaffolding to advertisers, who reap huge visibility. 4) The repairs conclude (if they ever took place at all), yet the scaffolding and the advertising remains indefinitely. It's a huge blackmarket industry for advertisers who are happy to plaster ads for HGTV or Lipitor along several hundred feet of a prominent landmarked building. Above, see the Volkswagen Rabbit ads on the glorious 500 Fifth, a picture I took at lunchtime today.

Aside from being more visual pollution, these ads are often illegal and always an obnoxity (not a word, but should be). I have never gotten a decent photo of the Flatiron Building in five years, thanks to the eternal "temporary" scaffolding and the Citibank ads that reside upon it. I'll be very interested to see how successful Stringer is with this campaign. After all, the business of New York is business, and it's very hard to tell people they can't have millions in ad revenue anymore.

UPDATE: After work, I walked around the corner to get a picture of the fabulous art deco facade of the Graybar Building, which when it was built in 1927 was the largest office building in the world. However, the entire block-long facade is covered by ads for reality shows. FUCK! Oh well, here's somebody else's picture of what I wanted to show y'all.

Ho Hits Height

More Violence In The Village

This spring I wrote about the problems the West Village was having with gangs of violent gay black and latino youth, a topic which generated considerable debate among the readers. Today comes news that a "gang" of seven young lesbians from New Jersey stabbed and beat a 28 year old man for "coming on" to one of them. The New York Post covered the story with the header "Gals Gone Wild!" Just two weeks ago, the gay youth empowerment group, FIERCE!, came to an agreement with the city that will bring more police and social services to the pier beginning September 1st.

Parking

I have a habit of noting the monthly rates at the parking garages around the city. I don't have a car and don't plan on getting one, but I like reminding myself how insanely expensive keeping a car in Manhattan would be. The garage next to my apartment building (shown) has the lowest rate I've seen so far. Notice NYC's 18% parking tax!

Morning View - Christopher Street Pier

At sundown, people like to crowd the far end of the pier and watch the sun sink into New Jersey. (Insert joke, here.) Left, in the far hazy distance, is the Woolworth Tower. To the far right, the Goldman Sachs building in Jersey City.

Female To Mostly Male

Today's NY Times has a fascinating look into the lives of female-to-male transexuals, a growing phenomenon that is sowing anger and dissention among some lesbians, who see gender transitioning as a betrayal of feminism and lesbian activism. Many of the women who transition to male do not completely change their gender, leaving the so-called "bottom surgery" unperformed.

The article raises some interesting questions about how we define gender. For example, does a transman on testosterone, who may have a beard and a vagina, qualify to play women's sports in college? How about the Olympics? It's an interesting flipside to similar questions raised about Renee Richards back in the 70's, who successfully sued her way in playing at the U.S. Women's Open. It's fascinating to watch this all unfold. For many of us, Buck Angel is only the beginning.