Circumnavigate Staten Island

Top Left: Graveyard of Ships © Mitch Waxman
Bottom left: Staten Island Ferry With Statue of Liberty, and Right: Light house © Bernie Ente

The next New York City Hidden Harbor Tour is looming on the horizon, and will involve a Circumnavigation of Staten Island and look at six New York harbor lighthouses.

The tour takes place Sunday, 16 October, 2011

This tour will feature 6 lighthouses as well as the following points of interest:

• St George Terminal
• Kill Van Kull
• Arthur Kill
• Tottenville
• Stapleton - Fireboat Firefighter II
• And the graveyard of ships

The graveyard of ships (Witte Marine Scrap yard) is located in Rossville. It was once one of the largest marine scrap yards on the East Coast. It is now officially known as the Donjon Iron and Metal Scrap Processing Facility.

Opened in 1964 by J. Arnold Witte, Sr., the scrap yard is known for its large collection of old tugs, ferries, car floats, and more. These ships would come there quicker then Witte could disassemble them. This resulted in many boats and ships slowly rotting and sinking in the Arthur Kill.

There are quite a few noteworthy vessels here, including the New York City Fire Department fire boat Abram S. Hewitt. This graveyard of ships is a very popular point of interest on the Circumnavigation of Staten Island Tour.

Details

Date: Sunday, 16 October, 2011
Time: 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. on board the NY Water Taxi
Departs from The Battery Slip 6
(Water Taxi Stop in front of Castle Clinton)

Getting There

Subway: 1 to South Ferry, R/W to Whitehall St. or 4/5 to Bowling Green
Tickets: $60/$50 for WHC members and seniors

More Information

Working Harbor Committee…

Information on all Hidden Harbor Tours, and Tickets...

The Viewing List 6

Happy Birthday, John
John Lennon, who was born on October 9, 1940, would have been 71 today, so to mark the occasion I thought it appropriate to embed the video you can see below.

It presents John Lennon and Yoko Ono during their September 11, 1971 appearance on the Dick Cavett Show.

Dick Cavett was one of America’s leading talk show hosts at the time, and this interview, and other Lennon interviews with Cavett, is part of a DVD that you purchase at Amazon.Com. The DVD contains three complete episodes of the late-night talk show featuring John Lennon and Yoko Ono's most candid interviews as well as rare live performances.

You can purchase the DVD via this link: The Dick Cavett Show - John Lennon and Yoko Ono

The Lennon's clearly enjoyed being with Cavett and even cast him in one of their films. the September 11, 1971 show is notable as the first American television interview John gave after the breakup of The Beatles. Enjoy...

Thanks to Open Culture for bringing this to my attention.

The Viewing List 5

New Orleans: A Living Museum of Music (2010, 57 minutes)

Narrated by Wendell Pierce, this CINE Golden Eagle award-winner is an intimate look at the fantastic music that emanates from New Orleans - "America's music," namely jazz.

Learn about the work of local musicians like Irvin Mayfield and educators who mentor young talent; museum curators who care for musical treasures such as Fats Domino's Steinway piano, ruined by the Katrina floods; historians and archivists who research and document the stories, including the Louisiana State Museum's Greg Lambousy who shares Louis Armstrong's first cornet; activists working to protect, heal and inspire the many musicians whose livelihoods were taken away by Katrina, such as the New Orleans Musicians' Clinic.

"The living museum is a manifestation of participation," proclaims Ellis Marsalis, revered jazz pianist, patriarch of the Marsalis family jazz dynasty, and one of the many artists featured in A Living Museum of Music, which you can watch below. Make sure you click on the Full Screen icon at the bottom right of the video for optimal viewing.

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Cecelia Webber Photograph

Take a closer look at the picture on the right. What do you see?

- A couple of flowers.
Well, yes, but look closer.

Los Angeles based artist Cecelia Webber creates flower and butterfly assemblages using hundreds of nude human form photographs. That’s right, every stem and petal in the image is composed of naked human bodies! Although Cecelia’s photographic compositions can take up to two months to produce due to the complexity of finding the right pieces, the results – as you can see – can be quite stunning.

You can see more of Cecelia’s, and purchase images from her site at Cecelia Webber Photography…

Thanks to AmO Life for bringing Cecelia’s work to our attention.

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And finally, something to leave you with a smile on your dial, and joy in your heart: an amazing ‘surfing’, skiing, and skateboarding bulldog. Enjoy.