The barber shop

East River Bar: shape makers

Death by plastic

In a day and age when going green is in the top three pointers of what warrants a `political agenda', should we still be swimming in optical luxuries like pigs in shit? on a walk round Brooklyn today plastic seemed to be hot topic in an visual form. Check out this amazing wall made from a web of plastic capsules. Housed behind this wall were a set of fans that when activated, gently breath on the bags so they bellow in silence. Such a simple installation that looked so striking!

Who needs glass when we can have plastic vases right? at $7 a pop i can see your crush from here ladies. But just to install a little guilt into the situation here are some silly facts about one aspect of recycling plastics. Todays discoveries might be desirable, but when are we gonna listen up?

In 2006, Americans drank about 167 bottles of water each but only recycled an average of 23 percent. That leaves 38 billion water bottles in landfills.
Bottled water costs between $1 and $4 per gallon, and 90 percent of the cost is in the bottle, lid and label.
According to the Beverage Marketing Corp, the average American consumed 1.6 gallons of bottled water in 1976. In 2006 that number jumped to 28.3 gallons.
It takes over 1.5 million barrels of oil to manufacture a year’s supply of bottled water. That’s enough oil to fuel 100,000 cars.
Eight out of 10 plastic water bottles become landfill waste.
In 2007 we spent $16 billion on bottled water. That’s more than we spent on iPods or movie tickets.
Plastic bottles take 700 years before they begin to decompose in a landfill.
If everyone in NYC gave up water bottles for one week, they would save 24 million bottles from being landfilled. One month on the same plan would save 112 million bottles, and one year would save 1.328 billion bottles from going into the landfill.

Talking heads David Byrne says park here

David Byrne of the Talking Heads has designed a range of bike racks across NYC to help promote a a competition with the department of transportation. its nice to see something functional with a visual purpose. This being to look spectacular in itself rather than house advertising space. nice one Byrne, fancy a stint in London?

this past weeks venture

As if you proudly own this van thing? come on! spotted in Brooklyn.

Let me see.. a place where you can eat great brunch, non of the chairs match, and you can draw all over the table cloth with crayons. Did i just die and go to childish heaven? Yerr... i did. I also realized there is a reason i take photos and don't draw. Unless you look like a stick man and women on a ship being sick on each other with a wonky willie taking a poop, i don't think the combine effort of Alex and myself could cope. god knows what an Analyst would make of this. It was fun though!

These things bum me out so hard when ever i see them. As a pretty avid bike rider these really hit home. For those of you not clued up these white bikes are popping up world wide right now. Iv mainly seem them in the UK and AmericaThey are the ominous tribute to various young bike riders losing their lives on our streets daily. Originating in St Louis, Missouri in 2003, It sad to say these 'GHOST BIKES' are popping up all to frequently these days.

NYC ate me

so iv been pretty poor in the upkeep of things since arriving in NYC. Since election night various drinking holes, events and adventures have branded me useless in keeping up to date. iv a flux of photos from all over town including all the coney stuff and my encounter with bobbie the coney island construction worker. Here is to catch up time and the rain that has fallen on NY reminding me of wet grey home (London)

Meserole street

You just don't know who you might meet.

Hi ho, hi ho, its off to Coney i go

So today i took one of many future trips to Coney island over the next few weeks. Last time i went to Coney it was under threat as always. By some magical turn we came across some darling contractors that let us walk around Coney and let us into the closed park to document some of its last breaths. It dawned on me that that excursion was a pretty special encounter and the access granted was priceless. 

Today i was lucky enough to come across Bobbie, another contractor with a kind face, he was super sweet in letting me into part of the Coney plot and even let me into their "the future of Coney" trailer to see the model for Coneys future over the next five years. Again the kindness of strangers is warming. I shot some sweet portraits of him on my medium format so it will take me some time to get them up. but he had a darling neck tattoo that said "made in Brooklyn" swoon! thug lovin at its prime.

So here are some photos from today, the more considered ones shot on my medium format (including large people looking out to sea, award winning corn on the cob, tree rows, dilapidated rides, home of the international hot dog eating contest,junkies and so on and so forth) will follow shortly.

Gifts from new friends

i forgot to post this little guy. On a casual Sunday stroll after brunch we were lured into a beautiful furniture/ tasteful bits and bobs store. And hour half later having put the world to rights with our new friend and store owner John of 'a tree grows in Brooklyn' we left the store with matching gifts. Kindness from strangers really goes a long way. I cant explain the skip in my step that was a result of such rare gestures. NY really does have some beautiful strangers.