Back in NYC

So I just got finished watching the 2002 Tony Awards® and I have to say that watching these things always gives me a strange mixture of hope and despair. Despair, obviously, because another year has passed and it often feels like I'm no closer to my dream of being at the Tony Awards, and hope because I see so many of the people there who are "overnight" successes and know that they've been struggling away for years and happen to have finally gotten lucky, which is not entirely out of the question for me.

This years awards actually contained an element of suspense, because there was no huge blockbuster like The Producers to overwhelm all the other competition. So that, at least, made them interesting to watch.

Funny, though, how that kinda stuff makes me a little nostalgic for all of my friends...

Speaking of friends, the fabulous Maya Choldin and I went to Prospect Park the other day, and I toted my camera along, and snapped a pic or two of her and our surroundings. Believe it or not, I had not yet been to Prospect Park, even though I live about five blocks away from it... Central Park is still my favorite place, but I do have to say that the large lawn at Prospect Park is really quite nice, too.

We needed to escape the apartment, as the day wasn't going all that well and it was way too nice outside to spend the entire day inside. I decided to snap some photos with my camera in the "black & white" mode, and I have to say that I think I'd have had better results had I just shot them in color and later turned them into black & white shots via the PhotoShop software. As it was, they've taken some doctoring in PhotoShop, as many of them came out too dark for my tastes. 'Course, maybe I'm just blind.

That first shot there to the right is of Grand Army Plaza Arch. It's a monument to the soldiers who fought for the Union during the Civil War. You can find out more about it here. The arch is a pretty impressive thing up close. Not as big as the Arc d' Triumphe in Paris, certainly, but nonetheless impressive for we provincials who're new to big cities and their monuments.

Directly behind me as I snapped the Arch, there are three tall columns at the entrance to the park. I turned around and snapped the one of which I stood at the foot (did that make any grammatical sense whatsoever? I doubt it).

It was actually pretty impressive, though I don't think the photo does a very good job of conveying it. It's just a tall column in the (I'm guessing) Roman style, something to complement the Arch across the street. It seemed somehow fitting given the current mood in the country that I should shoot this one, even if it did kinda give me the creepies. All I could see in my head was marching brown shirts. But that's just me. Still, I like that I caught the thing with the sun shining right behind it.

Next as we strolled through the park, we came to a tunnel under the park drive that was, of all things, paneled in wood with wooden benches along its length. On it's far side, adjacent to the Long Meadow, was a sort of open-air porch or shelter that had a high, arched ceiling which was also paneled in wood. Very unusual and really quite lovely, though it was probably not as well cared for as it might have been had the people who run the park had more money to spend. Alas, welcome to the recession. In hindsight, I really wish I had taken the time to shoot it all, 'cuz it was really quite lovely in a bedraggled sort of way. I may have to make a pilgrimage just to do that some day when I find myself with time.

As it was, what I did shoot was this feature of the western end of the tunnel; part of the support structure of the overpass above. I liked the way it was covered in ivy. One half expected Romeo and Juliet to suddenly lean over and start their famous balcony scene. Ah, a year without a romantic partner, and still a romantic at heart.

Finally Maya and I settled down and the Long Meadow, and I took a few shots as we sat and soaked up a little sun, did some people watching, and read the New York Times. Three of my favorite things to do. This shot is looking west across the tree-tops to the edge of Prospect Park. I like to dream about one day being able to afford a condo or co-op in one of these buildings at the park's edge. And believe me when I tell you, it's a dream. Ah, but what is life without hope? Purgatory, that's what.

So one of the things I like best about being a shutterbug (I'm loathe, at this stage in my "development," to call myself a "photographer") is sometimes capturing a decent image of one of my friends. Check out this photo of Maya. It's not great, by any photographic standard, but I sure like it. I think that it captures a little bit of our relationship; the way she's kinda giving me the quasi-hairy-eyeball over her shoulder after I've interrupted the reading of the Times with a, "Psssst. Look over here a second." I do have to say Maya's a pretty good sport when I whip out the camera at her. I try not to abuse the privilege too often. I do have to live with her, after all.

So we were sitting on the Long Meadow and I snapped this one of her. I actually wonder what it would have looked like in color. I'm quickly coming to hold the opinion that I'm better off shooting in color and then sucking the color out later, if I've a mind to... at least with the digital camera. Not sure how I'll feel if I ever take an actual photography class. I was talking to Gordon Rosenthal one day while we were working - Gordon's a talented landscape photographer himself - and I asked if he thought an "eye" for photography could be taught, and I was surprised by his answer, but at the same time not, since it kind of mirrors my own thoughts about acting; he suggested that you can teach technique, and many people can get by on that, but that you can't teach talent. So for what it's worth, there it is, and I tend to agree with him.

Yes, my friends, that is indeed my foot. I was feeling whimsical, and this is what you get when you're feeling whimsical. Pictures of feet. Bad ones. It really isn't very good, actually... it's a bit overexposed, and my foot was too close for me to be shooting with the zoom lens attached, so it's a little fuzzy. But I thought it was fun, so you're stuck looking at it.

Get over it.

Here's one of the Long Meadow itself. I took a number of shots of the meadow, but none of them really turned out too terribly swell. I'm only showing you this one to prove that we actually did make it to the meadow and lolly-gagged on the lawn for a while. In many ways, the Long Meadow reminds me of Sheeps Meadow in Central Park, though it's a lot less flat, and has a more rolling, naturally pastoral feel - in the sense that it could be a pasture, not that it's any more pastoral than Sheeps Meadow. The interesting thing is that the original sheep from Sheeps Meadow (I'm not sure if they're still alive, but they once were) are now kept somewhere here in Brooklyn. I was under the impression that they'd been moved to Prospect Park, but they may be at the Brooklyn Zoo, for all I know. Now that I think about it, I believe that the Zoo is actually in Prospect Park, so they might still be milling about here somewhere. I'll have to look into it some time to see what I can find out.

Finally, Maya and I decided to return home by going a different way... we walked to the western edge of the park, crossed Prospect Park West and took a side street (if any of the streets anywhere in New York could really be called a side street) until it intersected 7th Avenue. We wandered along 7th until Maya found something to gnosh, and then we crossed over to 6th and walked back home along 6th Avenue. There are some mighty nice looking apartment buildings in Park Slope, and it's quickly becoming a goal of mine to be able to afford one of my own. With my credit history, that's a ways off. But I'm a patient man.

Anyway, this last shot was taken while I was standing in the middle of Prospect Park West during a rare moment when there were absolutely no cars coming toward me. Off in the distance (we're looking north here) is the Grand Army Arch. Funny side note: I snapped this photo and then dashed off the roadway (Maya, typically for her, was playing "2nd 2nd Assistant Director" - her real job - and watching that I didn't get run down by traffic while I got the shot). For a moment I thought I hadn't gotten it, and was going to have to go back and try again, but when we turned around to do so, cars were racing by non-stop, and there was absolutely no chance of catching a the street looking this quiet again. So I took my chances and stuck with the shot I'd gotten, and I think it turned out pretty well.