Famous Ankles

I missed a celeb photo…I think

Posted June 1, 2008 by Famous Ankles
Categories: Celebrity Points, LES, Manhattan, Wanderings

I was wandering through the Lower East Side and spotted a film crew. As I went past, I saw a little girl perhaps nine years old lip syncing and shoulder-swaying to unheard music and surrounded by a film crew. The little girl look slightly familiar. Perhaps not.

I walked on as I was on a quest to look at a garden. I knew they’d still be there in five minutes. If you’ve never seen this stuff, film crews stick around for hours and do very little, at least to my eyes. It seems to be multiple takes and you never see anything. I did take a quick photo of the crew. I didn’t want to throw the kid off her acting.

I wandered into the garden and spent less than ten minutes just looking at it and photographing it (it was the Sixth Street and Ave B Community Garden that I will post on separately).

And when I came out. They were gone. Not even the slightest sign of them.

Well, maybe a sign. There were postings by the NY film board or whomever that the new version of the Electric Company would be filming in the area. Maybe that was them.

In any case, the only film magic I saw was a little girl doing a little dance and a little lip-syncing to unheard music and then vanishing.

-H

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The Creative Little Garden in the LES

Posted May 31, 2008 by Famous Ankles
Categories: Greenwich Village, LES, Manhattan, Wanderings

It’s so small that it’s easy to walk right by “The Creative Little Garden“. Yet, it is so nearly perfect that it may be my favorite garden in the City. It’s located at 503 6th Street between Avenue A and Avenue B. It’s a block away from Tompkins Square Park which makes it a little more unlikely to find as that park is a magnet for the locals.

I was surprised how quickly I took to it. Most of these community gardens are interesting only for a couple of minutes. But this one had me sitting and resting and reading in it for quite some time.

I don’t know how thin it is, but this picture was taken while sitting on the bench in the picture above.

From what I understand, there’s a long story behind the garden. The woman who founded it is said to have been a member of the French Resistance during WWII and something of a far-left radical once she got here. The other part is that there’s some connection between the garden and the Godfather movie. I read that the neighborhood was used for some of the exterior shots for that movie and some of the funds were used to create the garden.

Or it could all be a bunch of hoo-hah.

But it is a great little garden.

-H

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10th Street – A good street for a good street fair

Posted May 30, 2008 by Famous Ankles
Categories: Events, Greenwich Village, LES, Manhattan, Wanderings

I usually hate street fairs. If I need a pair of socks, I’ll go to a store. I don’t like to eat the food at them as it looks…a little unclean.

But there are some good street fairs. They’re the ones that keep out the sock merchants and the gyro places and the like. I’ve really only known one: in the West Village.

And now I know a second. The 10th Street street fair between 1st Avenue and 2nd Avenue was quite good and nicely done. They had a couple of the usual horrible merchants. But mostly it was artists and homeowners selling stuff out of their homes like a garage sale. Well, this was pretty good garage sale stuff.

I saw a bunch of LPs and the like. I think a number of the people were artists. The area is pretty artistic, so I presume that they were the participants.

The most interesting stuff was some presentations by actors and poets. They seem to be associated with the Theater for the New City, which is where each of them emerged from to give their recital. This guy was doing a Shakespearean-style speech. I came in late on it and didn’t recognize it. He seemed very sort of old-school Shakespearean. That is, very deliberate and systematic recital; a recital for a real audience and not for the inner muse sort of thing.

There were a couple of poets that came up afterwards. Very…typical. This poet gave a recital of a work about people who accomplish things and ends with a Wall Street type who is mulling over who to put out of business. Bleh.

And then there was the poet in the picture below. He’s the very first poet I have ever heard who used sound effects as part of his recital. He seems to have hooked up some sort of echo process to the amplifier. It was nifty, but awfully artificial. Of course, maybe that was his point.

-H

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Fleet Week and the USS Kearsarge – Part 2

Posted May 29, 2008 by Famous Ankles
Categories: Events, Manhattan, Mid-town, Wanderings

It was Fleet Week. In yesterday’s post, I talked about the outside and the inside of the USS Kearsarge, a Wasp-class amphibious assault ship, or a LHD. It took me a while to find exactly what “LHD” stands for. I found it in a GAO report that states: “Landing Helicopter Dock (LHD) ships are the Navy’s new class of amphibious assault ships to support a Marine landing force. These ships can accommodate three landing craft, AV-8B Harrier aircraft, and the full range of Navy and Marine Corps helicopters. Commissioned in 1989, the U.S.S. Wasp (LHD 1) is the lead ship of this new class of multipurpose amphibious assault ships. Between 1992 and 1998, the Navy added five more LHD ships to its fleet. LHD class ships can accommodate 104 officers; 1,004 enlisted sailors; and 1,894 Marine Corps troops.”

Anyway, I finally got to the flight deck. It is mildly impressive. Or massively impressive. Depending on if you can be impressed by something more than three football lengths long and holding really cool aircraft. But no Harriers. Unfair! I wanted to see me a Harrier. Anyway, I was ready to be impressed and was impressed. It’s just big.

In the above, not the small circles on the deck. More tie downs. These guys are serious about wanting to secure stuff when necessary.

There were several types of helicopters on display. Below is the CH-46 Sea Knight.

And then there was the MV-22B Osprey. It was at the front part of the flight deck. They allowed a walk-thru and I managed to get a picture of the cockpit. You weren’t allowed to sit up there, but it was cleared for viewing.

The Osprey is a tilt-rotor aircraft. Eventually, it may replace many/most/all of the helicopters. It has a lot more range and a lot more speed than the copters. I, for one, am still a bit concerned about them. I think the Osprey was cancelled at one point due to concerns over the complexity of the engineering and testing failures. They seem to have worked them out, but you never know.

Here’s the view from next to the Osprey. I really like the view of the conning tower from here.

There wasn’t free reign to wander around. Lots of secured areas. I imagine all the coolest stuff is behind here…but then the Osprey itself is awfully cool. There were a number of secured areas below and no ability to see the crew quarters and the like.

But the coolest I saw was the MH-60S Knight Hawk helicopter. This one is used in sea rescue. I talked with one of the guys doing the public relations stuff. He was a Navy rescue jumper. Yeah, one of the guys who jumped into the ocean to rescue people. We talked for a while. He was still in training (it’s about a 1.5 year course) and had done a lot of interesting stuff. The biggest seas he’s jumped into? About five or six foot swells. If it’s only your head above water, them’s mountainous waves. He expressed a lot of interest in getting into the artic training. That’s apparently the creme-de-la-creme of the job. Unreal stuff.

Just in case you don’t know, you’re warned…

After I left the ship, I was going through to the exit and saw something that interested me. The bomb disposal display. I talked with another of the crew. They had just gotten back from Iraq and had done a lot of work finding and disposing of bombs. Nicely done, guys.

I don’t know their names, their classifications, or anything about them. The below ships weren’t set for tourist like me. I presume they are cruisers.

As I was walking away, there was an overflight. No, they didn’t land on the carrier.

-H

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Fleet Week and the USS Kearsarge – Part 1

Posted May 28, 2008 by Famous Ankles
Categories: Events, Manhattan, Mid-town, Wanderings

Memorial Day weekend always marks NYC’s Fleet Week where New York is visited by Navy ships and sailors and Marines are spotted everywhere. It reminds you how casual the city is and how grimy the streets are when you see the sailors in their blinding white uniforms.

This year, the City was visited by the USS Kearsarge, a helicopter/Osprey/Harrier carrier. As Navy carriers go, it’s no Nimitz-class ship; but it is big. Baby, it is big! (844 feet long and 106 wide.)

Even the entrance-way is huge. Forgive my poor picture taking. There’s just no way to do justice to this ship without special equipment and a lot more talent than I have.

Getting in was a little tough. The ship was all the way on the West Side at 12th Avenue. You had to go through security and their metal detectors seemed to be pretty sensitive. At least I didn’t go when it was really busy as I had to go through it three times. The last time I removed a nickel and two pennies from my pocket. That seemed to do the trick.

Once inside, it’s a whole world in there. They were all set up to give us a song and dance. Fortunately, there was no singing nor dancing. The crew was on their very best behavior. Everyone was unfailingly polite, courteous, and friendly.

Note the circular items on the floor/deck. They were everywhere. I found a crew member and asked about them. They are tie-down sites. Apparently they can be easily raised and used to secure anything and everything in the event of heavy seas.

They had lots and lots of weapons and equipment out for public inspection and the like. Look at this place. It’s huge, even though it is just an entryway to the downstairs/below area of even more stuff. That’s a ramp at the middle front of the picture and even it has tie down points. They are everywhere.

The Kearsarge is an amphibeous assault ship, in addition to its carrier duties. That meant there were boats within the ship. And there were a number of these boats. Some may have been ships.

This young man appears to be getting educated and maybe recruited. There was a virtual reality training system that he was testing out. It looked pretty cool.

And by amphibeous assault craft, we mean this guy. Big. Wow, it was big. If it didn’t have the weirdest ramp for getting into it, you’d think in was part of the carrier. It was that big. I think everyone had trouble getting up that ramp. It seemed designed to require the stiffest shoe soles that you could imagine. It was all about traction for the vehicles that would be loaded/offloaded from the craft.