The original concept of a city daily photo blog was started by Eric Tenin of Paris Daily Photo. The idea was to give readers a slice of daily life in a city. I have gone beyond that initial idea in this website. However, I still often keep that theme that in mind when I create new postings.

If you saw my posting Interruption, you know that I have been engaging in a renovation project in my home. Because of this, the blog has suffered some here and there in the last week. Perhaps it is bad form to make apologies for anything a person produces for the public, but I have committed to a daily publishing schedule, and it is extremely difficult to work in this environment. I do feel that I want to make visitors here aware that this process is extremely disruptive, as anyone who has lived IN a construction site will attest.

Right now I am typing this on a laptop in bed, the only place left that is reasonably clean. Everything is in disarray, all my belongings have been in boxes for weeks, and dust is everywhere. Workers will arrive at any moment.

Rather than make a half-hearted effort and a mediocre posting, I am sharing with you a REAL slice of NYC life in the spirit of Eric’s original concept.

I hope to get back on track next week with more focus. Thanks.
Brian Dubé

Take a culture of sensory overload. Then add New York City, and it and is easy to understand how very difficult it is to isolate and notice individual things. There are exceptions, of course, such as the color red, which really screams and is still able to makes its presence known in a crowded, competitive, visual environment. I have written before of red in Who See the Red and That’s Quite a Briefcase.

But one day, I noticed a concentration of BLUE. It is surprising that it took so long, as blue is my favorite color. Every color has its fan base, but you can make a pretty strong case for the importance and significance of blue and its popularity. Blue is a more subdued color. Relaxing. The color of royalty, the ocean, and the sky. The “B” in RGB. Blue eyes, blue suede shoes, the blues, true blue, blue jeans, blue suits, bluetooth, blue gemstones. Interestingly, as George Carlin pointed out, there is no truly blue fruit.

If you really want to immerse yourself in the subject, there’s a fascinating book, Blue: The History of a Color, by Michel Pastoureau, professor and specialist in medieval history. He is an eminent scholar affiliated with Sorbonne’s École Pratique des Hautes Études.

Blue is serious business. Or, perhaps, I should say bleu est sérieux…

Regular readers of this site will have observed an interruption yesterday in this online publication for the first time in its 2-and-a-half-year history. This is not a harbinger for times to come or any lessened interested on my part. There is good reason for this interruption, as the photo and the tale to be told will tell. A tale of interruption, disruption, and commencement.

It is rumored that a particular residential tenant had contracted to perform much-needed repairs in his home. Residents of this city know that the services rendered by landlords can frequently be poor or nonexistent and that unless matters are taken into one’s own hands, one can be forced to live in a manner not too dissimilar from the Dark Ages. I am not an advocate of vigilantism or reckless activity, but at times, one must do what one must do.

So on Thursday, July 10, 2008, a crew of men was employed to make said repairs when all concerned were suddenly informed by the building management that work must stop immediately.

Now it was extraordinarily distressing to have materials, a work crew, and money committed and then be told that work must STOP and that a representative of the landlord would be making a personal visit. The mood was quite anxious as nine people alternated between waves of silence and nervous speculation, both positive and negative.

But good luck prevailed, and for reasons not completely understood but amid much speculation, after conversations with attorneys and the owner herself, work was permitted to continue, with no discussion of money, changes, or other negotiations.
Now in NYC, this is to be considered nothing less than a small miracle, perhaps even a large one. It goes without saying that doing a blog entry in a construction site and under these conditions is reasonable grounds for interruption…

I remember the first time I heard someone say, “Everything is different now, we’re in a post-9/11 world.”
At this point in time, the events and impact of 9/11 are not looming so much in the conscious mind but more as an ever-present background tapestry. But it still is there, altering the collective unconscious permanently.

However, from time to time, there are reminders, typically witnessed as increased security. Some of it appears to function a bit like public pacifiers, such as tight security in relatively small, nondescript office buildings of no import where a terrorist threat seems inconceivable.

Occasionally, we find national guardsmen with machine guns in subway stations. The most frustrating are the restrictions in areas of interest to visitors, both resident and non-resident. One primary example is the lobby of the Woolworth Building. The lobby was a favorite “secret” of mine. At night, one could visit and see the magnificent vaulted lobby with blue and gold glass mosaics, murals, marble, and the sculptured caricatures. Now, you cannot enter the lobby unless you have specific business in the building. And this type of saga is replayed in various ways and places throughout the city.

The sentry guards in the photo were on the upper level of the West Side Highway during Fleet Week, near the Kearsarge. Their silhouettes, cutting out shapes in the skyline against a dramatic sunset, was a silent and poignant reminder that we are in a post-9/11 world…

I once had a customer from Sweden who made a comment that had a lasting impression. I have many international customers, and I am frequently curious about their impressions of the city. So when I asked, “What do you think of New York?” there was a pause, and I could see that he was looking for a very diplomatic answer. “Very practical,” was his response.

Now I knew immediately what he meant. My mind’s eye raced around the city streets as I visualized those things that could be best described as “very practical” looking – our trash cans, lampposts, heavy chains around bikes, steel-reinforced concrete curbstones, roll down gates – so many things where function triumphs and utilitarian is the operative word.

Virtually everything on the city streets of New York is designed with the lowest common denominator in mind, and in the biggest city in America, that denominator is very low. The key concerns that define the design and construction of most things accessible on the streets are vandalism and theft (not to mention heavy wear and tear). Don’t be misled by articles and statistics on low crime rates in NYC. Much of this is not due to any inherent improvement in the goodness of people but rather by the actions of law enforcement and protective measures by individuals and businesses. Also, the general increase in the costs of living in the city has changed the demographic – where’s a heroin addict to live?

One big thing that we residents tend to overlook is not so much what is as what is not – decorative elements and architectural details. These are found primarily in those things which benefit from historical treatment. This can be easily seen if one compares post-war and prewar buildings. With enough time spent here, these decorative deficits and the triumph of the utilitarian become so inculcated that it takes a fresh eye to really notice.

I found the tree guard in the photo to be one of the most hideous examples of the practical I have ever seen. Even more surprising, it is located in central SoHo, one of the most upscale neighborhoods in the United States. But the tree needs protection. The solution may not be attractive, but it is very practical…