A slide show of pictures taken along 4th avenue in Park Slope, Brooklyn, NY, the morning after the December 26, 2010 blizzard.

The storm started on Sunday afternoon, and by nightfall the street was clogged with stuck cars — many returning from the Christmas holiday weekend. Monday morning brought un-plowed roads and heavy, unprepared traffic.

Official snow totals in Central Park were measured to be 20″, though snowdrifts were 3-4 feet deep in areas.

Slide show music by Mecca Bodega: meccabodega.com

This past summer, two very good friends of mine and Michelle’s, Joshua Dean and Benjamin Franklin, performed in the Goodspeed Opera House production of Carnival!

Co-founders of Suspended Cirque (along with Michelle, Angela and Kris), Josh and Ben were featured aerialists in the show — adding a strong cirque aesthetic to the production. Josh created all of the aerial choreography.

Check out the highlight reel of Carnival! from the Playbill website:

Michelle and I went to see the show twice! It was a beautiful production, and the entire cast were absolutely fabulous.

There’s an article on Playbill’s website about the show here, and you can read a very nice interview with actress Lauren Worsham, who plays the show’s lead character Lili, here.

Below are a few official press images from the show (by Diane Sobolewski) that I have collected from Internet.

Thanks Ben and Josh!

By the way….

Suspended Cirque, featuring Josh, Ben, Angela, Kristin, and Michelle can be seen at the Galapagos Art Space in their 2010 Holiday show, Under The Tree: An Aerial Holiday Celebration.

Wednesday, December 22nd, 2010 at 8:00pm
Thursday, December 23rd, 2010 at 8:00pm

More info at: www.suspendedcirque.com

Okay, what’s up with the weather here lately?!

We just had a massive hailstorm here in Brooklyn. It sounded like someone was wailing handfuls of gravel at our apartment windows!

So I went outside and took a few shots, and then scooped up a coffee cup full of the hailstones.

At least there was no tornado.

(I don’t think there was a tornado!)

HOLY CRAP!!!!

Check out the below video shot from a 20th floor apartment in Queens, NY, by YouTube member DTRAVELZ

The video is a bit shaky in places (he was in a freakin’ tornado!), but the camera clearly captures the sight of this storm approaching and absolutely engulfing the entire area. This thing passes directly over his building! Check out the intense power of the wind and the incredible amount of rain falling. The clacking sounds are likely hailstones bouncing off the glass window. Great work DTRAVELZ!

This guy is really lucky that his windows stayed intact — apparently some of the glass panes of the balcony below his were blown off.

Put this on full screen, and turn up the speakers!

YouTube – TORNADO in Queens, Highrise view

After getting a fabulous write up over at Pawesome.net by Jolene Robichaud, The Squirrel in our Window has had more than 25,000 people visit the website over the past 4 days!

After Pawesome posted their story, it was quickly picked up by Jezebel.com, The Gothamist, Neatorama.com, and Metafilter.com. Images of the squirrel and her family were even featured on the website of Italian newspaper, La Repubblica!

But the best part has been all of the wonderful emails that visitors have sent to Mama Squirrel from the website’s squirrel contact form.

I’ve posted most of the messages to the squirrel over on the The Squirrel in our Window blog. You should go take a look!

Look for an article about the squirrels from the pets website of a popular magazine in the next few days! (Can’t say which yet…)

The tree visible in the video stills is towering above the surrounding 2-4 story buildings — it must be about 60-70 feet tall.

While you cannot see a visible “funnel cloud” in the video, you can definitely see the sheer power of the wind, and the intensity of the rain as the storm hits and practically shreds the giant tree. It’s lucky that it’s still standing.

The NY Times is reporting that over 2000 trees in Brooklyn and Queens were toppled or fatally damaged. See incredible reader’s photos and interactive graphic here.

NY Times also reports that meteorologists have confirmed two tornadoes occurred in this storm.

The below video is kinda shaky, as the guys filming it were freaking out and running around from place to place in their apartment — and rightly so — this was a freaking scary two minutes here in Brooklyn (and Queens), and even I was looking out of our windows yelling “Holy f***ing shit!”

New York City based Aerial Theatre troupe Suspended Cirque announces their return to Brooklyn’s Galapagos Art Space with their newest show, URBANOPOLIS.

My wife Michelle Dortignac and her four über-talented collaborators (Joshua Dean, Ben Franklin, Angela Jones, and Kristin Olness) have done it again!

Actually, I should say that they WILL be doing it again for three upcoming shows at the Galapagos Art Space on August 14, 15, and 16.

Their all-new performance entitled URBANOPOLIS, is inspired by the dramatic and unique qualities of the Galapagos Art Space — the audience sits on several large steel islands, surrounded by water on almost all sides.

The performance takes place above, around, below, among the audience — no part of the performance space is left unexplored, and the audience is an integral part of the entertainment. The show’s format of short performance sections divided by mini-intermissions allows the audience to mingle and explore the unique water-filled theater space.

Visit the Suspended Cirque Website for more information, bios, images, and news.

Suspended Cirque is:
Joshua Dean, Ben Franklin, Michelle Dortignac, Kristin Olness, and Angela Jones.

Special guest Leenya Rideout; and as always, DJ Uri Attia

An online press release can be seen here:
URBANOPOLIS: Aerialists Spark an Evolution of Cirque in New Show at Galapagos Art Space

No, this is not about the beloved NYC rock-opera musical. It’s about the differences (and benefits) of access vs. ownership; and a look at just what will have value when so much is available for free.

Kevin Kelly over at KK.ORG has just posted a very interesting essay on this topic, called Better Than Owning: Access is better than ownership. Take a few minutes and read it. Here’s an excerpt:

Very likely, in the near future, I won’t “own” any music, or books, or movies. Instead I will have immediate access to all music, all books, all movies using an always-on service, via a subscription fee or tax. I won’t buy – as in make a decision to own — any individual music or books because I can simply request to see or hear them on demand from the stream of ALL. I may pay for them in bulk but I won’t own them. The request to enjoy a work is thus separated from the more complicated choice of whether I want to “own” it. I can consume a movie, music or book without having to decide or follow up on ownership.

For many people this type of instant universal access is better than owning. No responsibility of care, backing up, sorting, cataloging, cleaning, or storage. As they gain in public accessibility, books, music and movies are headed to become social goods even though they might not be paid by taxes. It’s not hard to imagine most other intangible goods becoming social goods as well. Games, education, and health info are also headed in that direction.

In fact, take a few more minutes and read this piece posted by Kevin Kelly in January, 2008: Better Than Free. Here’s an excerpt:

The internet is a copy machine. At its most foundational level, it copies every action, every character, every thought we make while we ride upon it…

…Every bit of data ever produced on any computer is copied somewhere. The digital economy is thus run on a river of copies. Unlike the mass-produced reproductions of the machine age, these copies are not just cheap, they are free.

When copies are super abundant, they become worthless.
When copies are super abundant, stuff which can’t be copied becomes scarce and valuable.

When copies are free, you need to sell things which can not be copied.

Well, what can’t be copied?

And finally, if you’ve got 43 minutes to invest in getting a glimpse of the future of the Internet, watch this Kevin Kelly presentation at Web and Where 2.0+ in February 2008.
(The presentation is about ~23 min. and the Q&A, the other 20 min.)

Kevin Kelly’s “Web 3.0″

Whoa!

There’s an article in the NY Times today about the meat storage box at the famous Peter Luger Steak House in Brooklyn.

It’s a 2,000-square-foot industrial walk-in cooler (located below the restaurant’s kitchen) packed with 30,000 pounds of raw, aging meat. Read the article for more info if you like words.

But if a 360 degree panoramic photo of all that meat is more to your liking, then check this out!

Vegetarians beware.

Say no more!

It’s… Monty Python’s Flying Circus!

No it isn’t.

Yes it is!