Category Archives: Nature

Daring Sea Rescue Yields Treasure

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Treasure is what you’ll find in the upstairs galleries of The South Street Seaport Museum in Lower Manhattan, following its daring rescue by The Museum of the City of New York.

Armed with a two-year plan, a dedicated team, and construction crews, MCNY figured out how to transform former storage areas into sixteen beautiful galleries, re-open, and give new life to the museum and iconic tall ships anchored downtown.

In a brilliant use of space, MCNY enables us now to enter three separate time machines that should warm the heart of any NYC booster, particularly the side-by-side installation of two versions of Manhatta (the original name of our island community). The first is the (slightly reduced) reinstallation of the acclaimed Manhatta exhibition (and scientific project), which shows you visions of the island, inhabitants, geology, river systems, and fauna that Henry Hudson would have seen in 1609. (Crowds flocked to this uptown in 2009, so you here’s your second chance.)

The second is the adjacent gallery, where you can sit down and contemplate three stunning simultaneous views of our waterfront — Paul Strand’s famous 1921 documentary of our waterfront (Manhatta), Edison’s early 1900s views of our water’s edge, and a contemporary visual meditation. Time travel doesn’t get any better than this!

The third view, MCNY’s Timescapes film, sweeps more grandly over time and history. Images pop onto three screens as Stanley Tucci narrates the whole, complete story, from forested island to home of the High Line. It’s hard to take it all in, but you’ll be swept away and seriously, it will make you proud.

Although these shows are in open-ended runs, check them out sooner rather than later. Although the Seaport Museum has been thrown a lifeline, it’s only temporary. MCNY only has 18 months to demonstrate that these stories, ships, artifacts, buildings, Bowne & Co. Stationers, and galleries are worth saving.

Be part of the rescue. Shop at Bowne, bring your friends, and step back in time.

Venus in Transit or Fur

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In an out-of-this-world coincidence, Venus (the planet) gave Venus in Fur (the play) a run for its money yesterday, pulling in gigantic audiences in New York City just a few days before the Tony Awards.

On an intermittently cloudy day, crowds flocked to the Hayden Planetarium (AMNH) to watch Venus (the planet) begin its stroll across the face of the Sun via the NASA feed projected on the giant screen in the Cullman Hall of the Universe. Venus put on similar shows in 1882 and 2004. Hundreds of science geeks heard astronomer Steve Bayer interpret what they were seeing on the live simulcast generated from Hawaii’s Mauna Kea Observatory.

Venus (the planet) appeared as a tiny dot at the “8 o’clock” position on the Sun’s disk and kept on moving across until well after midnight (like the movements of Tony Award and theater attendees). The AMNH cut the live feed around 7pm, but not before the planetarium paparazzi snapped photos of the disk, and the diminutive moving Venus dot with and without friends, families, and kids in front of the giant screen to commemorate this once-in-a-lifetime event. Check out the photos.

Our only questions are 1) will Venus in Fur favorite Nina Arianda get similar attention at the Tony Awards next Sunday a few blocks south at the Beacon, and 2) will you see Venus in Fur before it completes its Broadway transit in two weeks?

Venus begins its journey across the Sun

Bioluminescent Superstars

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You don’t need to be James Cameron or build your own submersible to peek in at the amazing stuff in the deep, deep ocean. The American Museum of Natural History has pulled together a gallery of some of the strangest creatures of all time for its Creatures of Light: Nature’s Bioluminescenceshow.

Credit: AMNH/E. Grosch

In the deep, black depths of the ocean, several varieties of Anglerfish have strange bodies, heads, and hunting apparatus – bioluminescent fishing lures. They can light up these lures and also affect a strange glow due to the presence of their own colonies of bioluminescent bacteria.  You can’t make this up.

Want to catch a glimpse fast? Look at the Anglerfish video.

If you want to linger over these unbelievable deep-water superstars, go right to the Flickr Luminous Lures page.

Hey, Socrates, What Do You See?

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If you’re hankering for last summer’s BMW Idea Lab, zoom in on the conversation on the future of Long Island City and the shoreline near Socrates Sculpture Park at the Noguchi Museum’s visionary show Civic Action.

Noguchi and Socrates have commissioned four artists to work with architects, designers, and urban planners to reimagine the surrounding neighborhood, a mélange of homes, high rises, light industry, and Costco. The proposals by Mary Miss, George Trakas, Natalie Jeremijenko, and Rirkrit Tiraanija are on display at the Noguchi for a few more days. Other related installations will appear at Socrates in May.

If you can’t get to Queens, go virtual by checking out three videos and watch the brainstorming among artists and planners:

Enjoy the discussion and contemplate some exciting futures.

Farming The Grid

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Did anyone notice that there’s new land and a farm just east of First Avenue and 29th Street? It used to be a dirt-road exit from the FDR, but not anymore.

If you’ve visited the blockbuster show The Greatest Grid at The Museum of the City of New York, you know that around 1804 this section of Kip’s Bay was being homesteaded by the various Kips relatives before their land got gridded.

Well, the farm has come back, courtesy of Tom Colicchio’s protégé, Sisha Ortuzar, the top chef at Riverpark restaurant tucked back behind Bellevue in the ground floor of the glamorous new Alexandria Center – a biotech high-rise whose tenants include Pfizer and ImClone (remember them?).

Because scientists can get hungry, too, Colicchio opened up his ‘Wichcraft sandwich shop right next door in the plaza inside a bright, shiny, Apple-worthy glass cube.

The farm is producing fresh produce for the Colicchio businesses on site (look at the crop list), and his crew is also giving tours and workshops on urban farming.

Check out the photos of the new land and spring crops. And drop by the farm the next time you’re on the M-15.