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Stoned on Fifth

What to do first, get stoned or saved? Since Stoned, brought to us by the owners of the Rock Star Warehouse in Manhattan, opened in the slope 4 months ago we've had the option.

I must be a very good daydreamer, because for the last 2 months or so I kept daydreaming about a franchise of that place opening here. I was thinking more along the lines of Windsor Terrace, though, for my convenience. Last week when I went online to check the address for the Rock Star Warehouse I saw they'd opened a store on the northern section of Fifth Avenue. Wuh? I'm there, I thought to myself.

I was eager and apprehensive about going. I was afraid I would be slammed with boutique prices beyond my means but I actually found things I could afford. Not the $4200 quartz conglomerate by the door, no, but things... beautiful quartz crystals that serve up bundles of inspiration for only $2 bucks, for instance. A little beauty goes a long way.

Stoned was open only 2 days a week but as of this week they'll be open Wens - Fri from 3 - 7, Saturday and Sunday from 2 - 7. 82 Fifth Avenue between St. Mark's and Prospect.

Below, the Assemblee on fifth, with self-lined architecture, not far from Stoned.

Committed in Stone

Seeing the work of long dead stone carvers means so much to me, especially when I run into work like this piece on 14th Street, which was carved with surprising delicacy. It reminds me of the show at the Bandshell 2 years ago, when Yo La Tengo played behind a screening of Jean Painlevé's dreamy aquatic footage. I hope this season's offerings will reach those heights, I don't think last year's did. But I suppose it's a matter of taste.

A range of music will be offered, I don't know what they have lined up yet, I'm waiting eagerly to hear. My favorite moment from last year was watching the singer from Malajube perform in a large dog outfit, singing about things rather not fit for my children's ears in his Canadian French.

John Jay's entrance seems to be wearing some kind of outfit which unfortunately it can't take off. It is the most heavy handed carving I've seen around here. The laurel leaves on the left look more animal than vegetable, like amoebas trying to crawl into an unsuspecting student's brain. I'd love to know the story behind this production, it's literally a mess, the pile of books next to that strange boy is worse than something I'd see in my daughter's bedroom. And last week I found an open bag or cornstarch in her drawer. (Double click image for full effect)

There are many good reasons to pass through that overwrought entrance however, one of them being the pool I keep hearing so much about.

Especially Grand Entrance, 185 PPW

Does anyone know how to carve stone like this anymore? I sure don't. Hey you ghost hunters out there, it looks like there's a very cool greenish orb in the lower right corner of the detail below.

Holy Family Angels

Driving down 13th Street today the Holy Family Roman Catholic Church caught my eye because I saw that one of its many carved panels depicts a menorah. What, I said to myself, I've never noticed a synagogue there before. What was the menorah doing on that church, I'm sure there's a very good reason it's just beyond my scope of knowledge at this point in time. I know enough to know that Jesus was a Jew, a Rabbi, so no doubt he went around a menorah from time to time.

Once I stopped to investigate I got really carried away taking pictures of all the beautiful carvings on this church. It has many many gorgeously varied botanical elements. I took pictures there for a while. The image above shows 2 angels on either side of a cross. Other panels show angels surrounding a cross within a circle. It is my understanding that this probably refers to Ezekial's wheel, which some know as the tetramorph, a wheel of fire and wings and radiance containing within it 4 figures, a man, an eagle, a bull and a lion. To read Ezekial's account of what he saw is confounding for me, I find it very hard to make sense of. It renders an image similar to Picasso's Demoiselles D'avignon sans boobs, with an abundance of wings, hooves and hands. If you want to give it a whirl, look up Ezekiel 1:1, 4-14, and hang on you will be visually challenged just like those first individuals ever treated to cubism.

Hey, if that rainbow in the upper right is the Holy Spirit, then we have ourselves a genuine Park Slope miracle. It is such a gorgeous display of the spectrum. I promise you I didn't do that in Photoshop. But I know what my skeptic friends would say, that's just some play of light on the lens.

Below, the tetramorph figures nicely framed in their own little arches for our viewing convenience. I believe they correspond to the various gospels. Others would know much more than I about that.

The News Brooklyn Garage

We have great treasures of gorgeous stone carving here in Brooklyn. A camera motif is not often seen among them. This comes by way of 3rd Avenue near Degraw Street. What kind of camera is that? Look at that tube thingy on it. Shutter cord? (please double click for larger view)