Rutgers Law

Today I present three views of the vicinity of the Rutgers Law School in Downtown Newark. First, a view of the clock tower beyond three flags. The two on the right are the New Jersey State and United States flags. I don't know what the third is.

This second shows a detail view of the Washington Street façade.

This third shows a view from in front of the Law School past the flags to the Management Education Center.

Rutgers is one of two law schools in Newark, the other being Seton Hall, which is in an office tower farther Downtown. Not too shabby for a city of less than 300,000, to have two law schools!

147 Years, and Counting

The area around the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart in north Newark displays banners like this, celebrating 150 years since plans were first made to create that magnificent building.

Actually, the Cathedral's website says the proposal for a great cathedral was made in 1859, which is only 147 years ago. Construction commenced in 1899, and was completed in 1954, 52 years ago. The banners look pretty sturdy, so might make it to 2009, when the full 150 years will be up.

Emanuel Baptist Church

For this "Church Day" at the Newark USA fotoblog, I present two views of Emanuel Missionary Baptist Church on Chancellor Avenue in the Weequahic section. First, an overview.

And now a closer view of the stained-glass windows on the side of the church.

The name of the (retired?) pastor, Leonard Shamberger (shown on the sign at the near end of this church; legible in my original foto if not in this smaller one), seemed familiar, so I did an Internet search and found a tribute to him in the Congressional Record by Newark's Congressman, Donald Payne.

Timestamps

I mentioned here last Monday that I took pictures after the art exhibit/party at the National Newark Building last Sunday. In reviewing them today, I note that I have a record of exactly when I took those pictures, in two fotos taken an hour and nineteen minutes apart. Too bad I didn't need an alibi for anything.
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This first picture is a closeup of the clock in the steeple of the North Reformed Church on Broad Street near the IDT Building, opposite Washington Park.

This second picture is a view of the the NorCrown Bank Building as seen past a clock on Broad Street on the western edge of Military Park.

I spent the entire 1 1/3 hours between those clocked times taking pictures — which is to say, looking at my environment, evaluating what is appealing, moving to a good vantage point, setting up my tripod, taking the picture, reviewing it in the camera's built-in little monitor, and taking a safety copy if I'm not absolutely sure the first shot turned out rite. I hope the time and trouble I go to shows in the finished product. I don't just take a quick peek at what I happen to find myself surrounded by, and go 'click'.
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And Newark doesn't just throw names around. There is a reason that each of Newark's three major parks along Broad Street has the name it has.
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Washington Park is named for — guess. That's right! George Washington. Unlike a lot of places named for Washington, this piece of terrain has an actual connection to the man, in that, as stated on a plaque on the nearby Episcopal Cathedral, Trinity & St. Philip's, Washington passed by the Cathedral and the park that was later named for him, on his strategic retreat from an area of unchallengeable British strength (New York City) to an area safe for the Continental Army to bivouac (Morristown).
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One of my ancestors, from the Lower Hudson Valley of Upstate New York (the Cornwall-on-Hudson area), served in the Continental Army, but I don't know if he was part of the particular army that passed by Washington Park. Wouldn't it be wonderful if he was?
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Military Park served as a drilling ground for soldiers in the Revolutionary War.
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Lincoln Park was originally called "South Park" (not to be confused with the pointed Comedy Central, adult-cartoon program of the same name). It is, after all, the southernmost of the three parks set out in the original plan of the city.
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Abraham Lincoln spoke from the steps of the South Park Presbyterian Church near the northern end of the park in 1861.* After his death by assassination, the people of Newark renamed South Park in honor of the great man who had honored us in speaking near that park.
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Newark, a city of long history, has actual connections to a host of famous people of old. That's part of what makes Newark so appealing to a lot of us: history, and a place in it.
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* Sidebar: In checking for the year Lincoln spoke near the park, I found a New Jersey State webpage about Lincoln's appearance, that contains a glaring typo, "pans" for "plans". I clicked on the "Contact Us" link to suggest they fix that, and found this notation: "Please e-mail the Office of Information Technology to let us know of technical problems". Unfortunately, the Office of Information Technology page DOESN'T WORK! How do you report a problem with one of the website's pages, when the page you report to doesn't work? Come on, people. Fix this! There is no reason any such webpage should ever be offline, not in the middle of the day, not in the middle of the nite, which is sometimes the only time I am available to access it.

Urban Campus

Rutgers Newark is an urban institution, to be sure, but I hadn't realized until I walked around, that there is a semi-rural feel to an inner campus area with lush plantings, a lawn, outdoor tables, etc.

"Urban" doesn't necessarily mean "gritty" in Newark.

NJIT dorm(?); Artist says hi

I got an email today titled "One of the artists in Newark Between Us":

Thanks for posting an image of my painting Mukhtaran Bibi (the veiled woman) which you photographed on leaving the 744 Broad St. exhibition. I really like how you are documenting Newark — there are some beautiful shots on your blog-site.
grace

I replied:

Thank you. Do you live in Newark? I found yours not only one of the more striking works in the show but also one of the prettier ones. A lot of art nowadays is almost purposely un-pretty, as tho there is something wrong with art being pretty, pleasing to the eye. I'm glad the architects of the Taj Mahal didn't think that.

It occurred to me only later that I neglected to ask "Grace"'s last name. I don't pry. I also did not get a guide to the works in the exhibition. If I go back before it closes, I'll try to match names to works.
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Today's foto is of the last thing I noticed about NJIT on leaving last Saturday's art exhibit opening party, a britely lited, rounded building in the foreground, and a higher-rise building in the background that has the look of a dormitory, in that there are lites in what seem separate residences. One of the most encouraging developments in recent years in the revitalization of Newark is the demand for on-campus housing from the senior colleges and grad schools in the city, a most-welcome development.

Silver Skates

One of the points of interest on Newarkology's walking tour of the Weequahic section was this intersection with the great big house.

But the house was not the point of interest. Rather, it was the street name "Mapes Avenue".

Our guide pointed out that many of the streets in that area were named for families who lived in the area at the time street names were assigned, and one of the families was the Mapeses. A female member of the clan, Mary Mapes Dodge, wrote the famous 1865 children's book Hans Brinker or the Silver Skates, which contains the famous legend (a complete invention of her own) of a boy who stuck his finger in a leaking dike to keep the water from widening the hole and collapsing the entire dike, subjecting his town to a flood. Altho Ms. Dodge was born in New York City, she is buried in Hillside, NJ, which adjoins the Weequahic section to the south, and she was apparently in Newark when she wrote her famous fiction.
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(This is an entry for Wednesday uploaded Thursday because of time constraints.)

View from the Broad Street Station

Today's foto is of Mies van der Rohe's Pavilion Apartments as seen from the Broad Street Station. The foreground untidiness is part of the renovation and expansion of the station to accommodate higher traffic.

Great Day in the Evening; Met a Reader (19 pix)

Where to start? I know, it's too much, 19 fotos in one day. I've got to be stopped.
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Yesterday, the last day of Newark's big arts weekend, was a bit much for me even to face, but I got thru it.
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The day was gray, and I am very lite- and weather-sensitive. Brite sunshine energizes me; gray days can actively depress me unless I compensate with additional liting (something I realized long before scientists starting prescribing lite boxes for people subject to "Seasonal Affective Disorder" brought on by short winter days and long winter nites). I also have a ton and a quarter of backlogged things to do at home, including some that are fairly urgent (or so the IRS seems to think). So when I got up Sunday, I as much dreaded the day's activities as looked forward to them. I updated my Simpler Spelling Word of the Day website and this blog for "Church Day", answered email, backed up fotos onto CD, and realized I was not going to make it to the Kislak Building by 5pm for the bus tour of the Gallery Crawl. Drat. (Family version of what I really said.)
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So I had something to eat, did a little of this and a little of that around the house, and got myself out in time to arrive at the Kislak Building around 7:45. It was closed. I thought it was part of the nitetime Gallery Crawl, but its participation in the arts weekend ended at 6pm. Also, there was apparently only one bus for the tour, which I had long before missed. Ah, well.
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I left my car on Broad Street there and headed to the National Newark Building (744 Broad Street) on foot. Along the way, I heard what sounded like drums in Military Park, so investigated.
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It turns out that a small group of young men were practicing their routines for the Arlington (?) drill team of East Orange, inside Military Park near the entrance closest to the Robert Treat Hotel, where the female members of the team were involved in a fashion show. I asked a young woman standing nearby, who seemed to know them, if she thought it would be alrite to take a picture. She said yes, but called to one of the members of the drill team to advise him that I wanted to take a picture. I introduced myself, gave him my card, and said I would like to show a foto of his group in my fotoblog. He didn't see a problem. So here it is.

There was no streetlite nearby, so I had to use my flash, which I think often produces an unpleasant effect. But I had no choice, given the absence of ambient lite.
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This is the second time I've been in Military Park on my way to something and been pleasantly surprised to chance across an event I had known nothing about.
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This little percussive performance was unplanned, just one of the spontaneous efflorescences of creativity that are popping up all over Newark nowadays.
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I then looked at the view from Military Park toward 744. This is the setting for the evening's events. 744 is the building with the crown of lites atop it.

I had never been inside 744 before. It was a revelation.

That is a view of the reception/security desk and the ceiling beyond. My camera does not have a wide-angle lens, so I had to take this separate picture to focus on the wonderful ceiling.

This medallion, perhaps 30 inches across, is inlaid into the floor in advance of the reception desk.

The art exhibition was on the 6th floor. I didn't think to get a picture of the ornate elevator doors, but may someday. The pictures below are intended to give a sense of the event more than of the individual artworks.
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At Saturday nite's NJIT show/party, I looked in vain for a printed key to the works on display, and asked Matt Gosser, who curated that show, where I might find one. (I was afraid that, since he curated the NJIT show, he would not be able to make it to the 744 show/party, but he got there.) Gosser said they had run off several hundred copies, but they were all gone. He modestly suggested that perhaps some people had used them as coasters for their drinks or plates for their food, but I saw two women looking studiously at theirs as they went around the room, so maybe there just actually were hundreds of people that nite looking at title and artist info.
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Again last nite, at the 744 exhibit (and, yes, party), I saw no guide, so cannot tell you whose work is what. The 744 exhibit ("Newark Between Us"), which continues thru December 17th, is huge by comparison with the NJIT show, occupying two very big rooms and the corridor between. There were HUNDREDS of people there when I got there around 8pm — white, black, Oriental — all festive and sociable. Alas, I did not bring my tripod, since I didn't know if the organizers would allow any picture-taking at all, much less the setting up of a tripod that might get in people's way. I was even loath to use a flash until I accepted that other people were getting away with it so employed a flash on some shots. Thus, altho I took about 78 pix of the event, from my handheld camera, many of them were too fuzzy to use. I discarded 14 altogether, and may portion out the others (with explanation as to why they aren't crisp) over the next few months. I don't want to over-art anyone.
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As with the NJIT party Saturday nite, Sunday's party had terrific music, this time by an all-black group that had been put together in hours.

I know that only because I chanced to get close enuf to the female singer when she was returning from a break to say that I liked her choice of the song "My Secret Love" (a Doris Day hit from the 50s whose words have a lot of meaning to me and other gay men:

Now I shout it from the highest hills
Even told the golden daffodils
At last my heart's an open door
And my secret love's no secret anymore.

I said to Saturday's singer that it was like (a love of) Newark. She immediately agreed, and remarked that she has lived in Newark her whole life. I didn't get her name. I don't like to pry. I did, however, mention that I might run a picture of her in my blog unless she objected, and gave her my card so she could express any reservation. She said she did not anticipate a problem, but I gave her my card anyway. (I gave out about 10 cards that nite, in 744 and on the street; see below. Got to build an audience.) Alas, even if she were not concerned about her picture appearing, she might be irritated by the absurdly fuzzy picture below, which is what happens when you don't take a tripod to a low-lite event. I apologize for this fuzziest of the pictures today and wish I had it to do over, with a tripod. But I haven't. So we're stuck with fuzz. At least you get a sense from this of the movement and energy of the crowd. Think of it as an impressionistic work of art, that deliberately fuzzed the picture in order to show movement to the beat. (It was no such thing, but that can be our little secret.)

I asked about the group she was singing with, expecting her to say they were called thus-and-such and could be found thisaway. She surprised me, in saying that only about two hours before she was to appear, she got a call asking her to sing, so this was the very first time she had ever worked with these guys. Wow. They were terrific together, as tho they'd been working together since high school. I suspect that there is a depth and breadth of musical talent in Newark that few (or no) other cities of comparable size could equal, much less surpass.
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Music was not the only live performance that nite. Here, an artist assembles some kind of elegant wooden structure in front of the crowd.

Later I heard what sounded like the entire assemblage falling down. It had not looked like something that could have worked as a machine to do something, so I guess there was no great loss.
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Here's a foto of what I found to be one of the more striking pieces in the show. Alas, it's a bit fuzzy as to the central focus due to my not using flash, and from the movement of some visitors outside the prime focus. An art show is not a piece of statuary, however, but a fluid, real-time experience of people interacting with people more than just with the art.

I liked the doggie thing (because the dog merely licked the man on the thigh; he did not bite him), but my very most favoritest thing of all was Willie Cole's piece "The Elegba Principle",* a whole bunch of castoff, beat-up, wooden doors with evocative short titles ("Blonde", "Chicago") written on each, arranged in fours as revolving doors. I did not at first realize what it was until I saw people walking thru it, pushing doors to make way. This view shows someone in the midst of the forest of revolving doors.

This is a view of a different area of that masterwork.

I made my own way thru the maze, whereupon I saw myself.

The art of the New Newark is the art of inclusion.
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Let me show now two works alike. This first shows a hollow sphere formed from metal strips. It's big, and you can see the crowd thru it. Noteworthy to me is that it is not a geodesic sphere, since not all the facets are formed by triangles. Note, in this view, two pentagons. Maybe there are other shapes as well.

Here is a smaller sphere, formed from little cutout men a là Bart Simpson, which is part of an antinuke area of the exhibit that includes a film showing various stages of the formation of a mushroom cloud. It's a pity that such a beautiful thing is formed only from such a terrible occurrence as a nuclear blast.

After about an hour (remember, I was tired), I left the party/exhibit. The last work before the exit is this woman in a veil, by Grace Graupe Pillard.*

I hadn't met a single real-estate agent, so that part of my plan failed. I did, however, see a large-format, glossy brochure about Cogswell Realty ("Cogswell's Newark") at the front desk of 744, and took one to look at later. Maybe I can work with them to bring more gay men and artists into Newark, tho Cogswell seems mostly concerned with commercial real estate, not residential, and I want to do both.
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I walked back toward my car, intent on getting my tripod to see if I could get good, stable pictures of various targets at nite. I could. I decided to use the self-timer, since my present camera (unlike an earlier model of the same series from the same manufacturer) does not have a remote control, and pushing the shutter button involves moving the camera a bit, even when it's on a tripod. The results of this new approach were more than satisfactory.
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My car was parked little more than a block south of Washington Park, so I walked to Washington Park first. For one thing, as I drove in, I had noticed that the color of the lites atop 33 Washington Street seemed different, a briter blue or something. I also wanted to get a closer look at the Washington Park lite-rail station to see if it too has public art. (It has; more on that in the future.)
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This is the view of the top of the buildings 33 and 15 Washington Street from Broad Street in front of the statue of George Washington standing beside a horse by renowned Scottish-American sculptor J. Massey Rhind.

As I was lining up that shot, a (black)** gentleman, curious as to my setting up a tripod, politely asked what I was doing. I told him I was taking pictures for my fotoblog, and asked if he had a computer. He said he just recently got one. I then asked if he accesses the Internet. He said he doesn't yet know how to do that, but is learning. I gave him my card and said that if he manages to go to that site, he may see the picture I was taking. He seemed pleased to see "Resurgence City: Newark USA" — which he read aloud, with some enthusiasm — at the top of my card (which covers both my website and this blog, both URL's being shown). I hope he checks out both, and tells others about them.
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I then walked up to the northern tip of Washington Park to take a picture of the Newark Public Library, which is also lited at nite. There are now a lot of entities in Newark proud to strut their architectural stuff at nite. As I was lining up that shot, a young, well-spoken (black) man asked if I was taking pix of the Library for personal use or as a professional fotografer for a client. I told him I have a fotoblog, and handed him my card. He looked at it momentarily, then looked up and exclaimed, "So, you're Craig Schoonmaker!", with some surprise. He said he has visited my site (presumably this blog) a number of times. I have now met three people who check out this blog from time to time. A tiny, but very elite, group.

We chatted briefly. He too had been out and about earlier that nite on the last day of this year's arts-and-available-space weekend. He moved to Newark recently (I don't think he said from where, and I was a bit distracted, so didn't think to ask), and now lives on Halsey Street, Downtown. That affords him easy access to the arts scene toured this weekend. We said goodnite, and I took a second picture of the Library, at a different lite setting, and headed back to Military Park.
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I'll show my pix of the Washington Park lite-rail station, the lited steeple of North Reformed Church, etc., some other time.
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On the way to my car from 744 I had scoped out some angles I might want to use. After I got my tripod, I took a bunch of pix from Military Park. Here is one that shows both 744 and a banner that speaks of a weekly farmer's market whose last stand this season is coming up Thursday.

Altogether, I took 137 pictures in Newark Sunday. Upon review for usability, I discovered that 14 were too fuzzy even for my graphics program to fix, so I deleted them. I have also now used another 19. That still leaves 104 to draw upon for this blog in future weeks. I've got to stop taking pictures.
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Let me leave you with two other views of the banner shown above. This first looks to the NorCrown Bank Building from the southern tip of Military Park.

This second shows Prudential Financial's world headquarters. (Hm. Prudential has a real-estate operation; maybe I should work for Prudential.)

I trust the banner itself is legible in at least one of the pictures above, and that if you are in the vicinity this coming Thursday, you will avail yourself of the last opportunity this year to see an aspect of Newark that most people wouldn't imagine: a farmer's market Downtown.
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* These identifications of artists were provided by a woman in Hawaii who was in attendance, since the supply of catalogs at the front table had been exhausted by the time I arrived. I have now met three Hawaiians who were visiting Newark!

** Remember that I mention race sometimes to help people visualize correctly, since, absent a descriptor, "man" will conjure different images in people of different races, like Chinese statues of Buddha with slanted, Oriental features, even tho Gautama Buddha was Indian, from South Asia, not East Asia, or African depictions of a black Jesus.

Pro-Cathedral; NJIT Party

This being "Church Day" at the Newark USA fotoblog, I present three pix of Saint Patrick's Pro-Cathedral,* Downtown.

That is looking up at the Cathedral from in front. This plaque gives visitors the history of the place.

And here's a view from the diagnonally opposite corner with the sun behind the tower.

Art Exhibit/Party Last Nite. I don't have time now to do more than show one picture of the party/opening of the "Jailhouse Revival" exhibit at NJIT last nite. This is the view of the band Double-Breasted playing at the party, as seen from the stairway outside.

The group seems to me most unusual, consisting of (left to right) a cellist from Denville who also sings, a drummer (now) from Hoboken, who apparently does not, and a harpist from Chatham (whose father was born in Newark) who also sings. The music they play is not chamber music, as the presence of drums suggests powerfully. Rather, it is a kind of soft-rock. Nifty.
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Now, I must rush out to try to make the 5pm departure of the bus tour of tonite's "Gallery Crawl" in the last nite of this big arts weekend. If I miss it and there aren't any later buses, I guess I can use my car or walk, since I got the map at the party last nite.
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* A "pro(-)cathedral", by the way, is "a church used temporarily as a cathedral" — Random House; a "cathedral" is, in churches that have a hierarchy with bishops, "the principal church of a diocese, containing the bishop's throne". St. Patrick's (at Washington Street and Central Avenue) served as the cathedral for, first, the Diocese and then the Archdiocese of Newark until the (real/present) Cathedral could be built, which took a long time. The present Cathedral, in addition to being the seat of the archbishop, was designated a"basilica" by Pope John Paul II on his visit here. In Roman Catholic use, a "basilica" is a special church entitled to host certain rarified Catholic religious events that less exalted churches are not entitled to host. Saint Patrick's in New York is just a cathedral, not a basilica. Nyaa, nyaa, nya nyaa nyaa!

Updates, "Gates", and Question

It occurred to me that I might have left a lasting impression that things are never fixed in Newark, in showing only the 'before' picture of gaps in an illuminated sign atop the Cancer Center at UMDNJ. The sign has been fixed for over a week now. I took this picture last nite.

That is the second picture I took of it last nite from inside my car. The first didn't turn out right, because I forgot I had the camera liting set to"Auto", and the flash went off! — inside my windshield. This is the result.

Curiously, the heraldic crest that is blurred in all the other pix is clear in that one! So that proved a happy accident.
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I had taken a picture soon after the sign was fixed and I found myself stopped at the (long) Bruce Street lite, but it was raining at the time. (When hasn't it been raining around here lately?) I got a different artsy effect shooting thru my wet windshield.

I rather like the distortions. In any case, you can see that the sign has been fixed. Newark isn't the rundown Hot L Baltimore, after all. (James Cromwell, an actor from that show, was, happenstantially, on Tavis Smiley's talk show on PBS last nite.)
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Let me update one other thing today too. In my discussion of the mural at the Greater Newark Conservancy, I speculated that the initials inside the Bears & Eagles Riverfront Stadium in the mural might have been those of the young artists who worked on the project. Robin Dougherty, the Executive Director of the Conservancy, emailed me to say:

Regarding the question you posed, yes, indeed, the initials are those of the high school students who were part of the Newark Youth Leadership Project in the summer of 1999 who put the mural together.

In returning to my original picture of the part of the mural in which the initials appear, to crop it to show here, I noticed writing on one of the buildings to the left of the Stadium that looks suspiciously like the full name of one young artist.

There is just so much to see in that mural. Small wonder, I guess, with a big mural. I'm not sure of the dimensions, but it must be at least 40 feet wide. I don't want to bother Robin again to ask, but if anyone from GNC (the Conservancy, not vitamin store) chances to see this and has that info for me, s/he should not hesitate to write me at ResurgenceCity@aol.com.
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The Gates. In looking thru fotos on my hard drive tonite, I rediscovered something I had forgotten. My niece Karen and grandnephew Josh flew in from Oakland, California* for the Christo/Jeanne-Claude mass installation "The Gates" on February 23rd of last year. (That date was easy for me to remember, since it is my younger sister's birthday, and we called her on my cellphone during our Central Park adventure.) I met Karen and Josh at JFK, and we toured the display on a brilliant sunny day, and took a great many pictures. What I had forgotten is that I started to create a webpage for relatives (especially Karen and Josh), friends, and others to show them how wonderful an event it was. But there was too much work involved to do in a single day (February 27th, 2005 — my late father's birthday), and I had to put it aside for later. The day or two delay I intended has turned into almost 20 months.
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I called it up and looked at it this morning for the first time in months. I found the effect of the mass of fotos (70 already incorporated, others waiting to be included) stunning. I don't think I'll ever be able to finish it as I intended, and see backslashes marking places I wanted to put more fotos. But I don't remember which particular fotos were to go in which particular spots, on what basis, so may never 'finish' that page. Still, there are 70 fotos on it.
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So I decided to put the unfinished page online and tell you about it. The URL is http://members.aol.com/Schoonmaker2000/Gates/Gates.html.
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It's not Newark-specific, of course, but (a) one of the best things about Newark is that it is so close, with such good transportation, that we find it easy to get into New York — and out — any time we want, and (b) my friends Gaetano from the Ironbound and Joe from Belleville (with whom I viewed some areas of the exhibit late one day, in fading lite) think it would be great if Christo could come up with a project for Newark. The current wrappings of City Hall and the Stickel Bridge in fabric behind which renovations are taking place look almost like Christo projects. I have some pix of those wrappings that I'll show here sometime soon. In a few days. Or 20 months, depending on how busy I am.
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Question. Traffic was badly backed up on I-280 yesterday when I was trying to get to work, so I got off at First Street and drove thru Downtown Newark via Sussex Avenue. Along the way I chanced to stop in heavy traffic alongside this striking building, with crenelations and what appear to be heraldic markings. Tho it appears to be an apartment house with a convenience store/bodega on the ground floor today, perhaps it was some kind of lodge in the olden days. Does anyone reading this know? If so, please advise me via ResurgenceCity@aol.com, and I'll tell the others.

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* Oakland is about 25 miles from one of those "Newarks of the World", Newark, California, which is in the southern East Bay area. Bizarrely, there is a "Union City" (California) only 5 miles from that Newark. The real Union City (NJ) is 10 miles from the real Newark.

Update: Yup — Hydrant

Last Saturday I showed the icon below and wondered aloud what it was

A regular reader (Steve "Spats") told me it was a fire hydrant. Since anyone on the street can see the hydrant itself, perhaps there was a sign on a wall to indicate (a) there is a water line supplying the hydrant running between the wall and the curbside hydrant, rather than lengthwise along the street, where one might more normally expect it to be, so businesses digging in the area must avoid that line, or (b) there is a standpipe on the other side of the wall at that point. I was puzzled as to why I hadn't seen the fire hydrant itself, then realized I was on the sidewalk, at nite, looking toward the great big building being demolished, not looking the other way, which is where the hydrant itself is. Last nite, my car was parked near that location (which is probably over 1,000 feet from the PATH station, but sometimes I can't find a closer spot), so I braved the lite rain to see if there really is a fire hydrant there. Sho' nuf is.

Note that perhaps 40% of the building behind is gone. I have been taking progress shots of the demolition from the same point on the PATH platform (a very different angle and over 1,000 feet away), and will show them in sequence when the demolition is complete. Stay tuned. The wall itself upon which the once-mysterious icon sign appears is coming down. That's not very clear from the overview above, but you can see it better below. (The little brite spot is a drop of rain. See what I go thru to take pix for this blog?)

So I should soon be able to see if there's a standpipe beyond.
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Harrison's big project, of which this demolition is part, would almost certainly not happen without the nexus of transportation in nearby Newark, to which Harrison should be annexed for the greater benefit of the entire region. The foto below shows the density of that transportation, three trains pulling past the Harrison PATH station on their way to and from Newark.

Very Big Arts Weekend

Today begins a major group effort in the Newark arts community. As the Star-Ledger reported last Monday:

Newark's Fifth Annual Artist Studio & Available Space Tour, "Open Doors 2006," begins Thursday with three major exhibitions, a gallery crawl, and a film screening, all designed to both give Newark's arts community exposure and to showcase available real estate in the city. * * *

A Gallery Crawl takes place Saturday, 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Sixteen art spaces, from Gallery Aferro[*] at 73 Market St. to the Newark Museum at 49 Washington St., are included. Maps will be available at all locations. A bus tour departs from 581 Broad St. at Central Avenue at 5 p.m.

Unfortunately, there is so much going on that I can't decide how much and what to attend, other than the opening party for the exhibit on the Old Essex County Jail, in which Matt Gosser is playing a large part. I attended the closing party of the last exhibit he coordinated, about the old Pabst Brewery (site of the much-missed "Bottle"), and had a good time. So what I'll probably do is check out some of the venues on the group bus earlier Saturday, go to the NJIT party/show in the early evening, then drive into Manhattan to see friends in the Village thereafter.
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Sunday is also a big day, and I guess I'll just have to try to get out then too. That's a little hard for a stick-in-the-mud, stay-at-home guy like me.
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The focus of the overall event is to hilite Newark as a place for artists to live and work, and I need to make contacts to launch my real-estate sales career. I have passed my state exam, but have not yet found an agency to work for. Maybe there will be agents there I can sound out. But in any case I should have a clearer idea after this weekend of what-all is happening in the Newark arts scene.
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It's a little overwhelming, but you can get a clearer sense of everything on offer at the Newark Arts Council's website: http://www.newark-opendoors.org/. Right now, a workday, I don't even have time enuf to read the descriptions much less make hard plans. Got to get ready for work. In Manhattan. I really must try to work in Newark again.
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Today's fotos are of two pieces of public art at the new lite-rail outdoor terminal at the Broad Street Station. I don't know if all the stations are enhanced by public art, since this is the only one I've been to so far.
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This first picture shows part of the Happy Newark screen by Ik-Joong Kang, which is described thus on a sign at the site: "Over one thousand images were created with New Jersey children who have the magical powers of winter becoming spring, walls becoming windows [the screen itself, for one] and strangers becoming friends." Let's hope this weekend of art makes lots of friends for the New Newark.

This next foto shows a little chunk of the curb alongside the track, into which are carved the lyrics of the song Send in the Clowns. This bit in particular describes the current, and growing, Newark arts scene.

If you should see me on the gallery crawl or at the NJIT party, say hello.
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* See this blog's entry of September 18th for info about Gallery Aferro, tho the particular exhibit depicted there has since closed.