This footage was captured from a demo tape used by home entertainment dealers showing off the high quality of the new D-Theater (D-VHS) digital video recording. Enabling the recording and display of HD content, D-Theater/D-VHS was the VHS videocassette format's last gasp. From Youtube Pedant:
In 2002 D-Theater launched in the US - the dealers needed a demo tape of HD footage. JVC reused some HD video that had been shot as a demo for the Japanese HD market back in 1993.
This footage would have most likely been originally used for a HiVision MUSE demo (an HD Broadcast, Tape & Laserdisc format).
You can determine that the year is 1993 by the adverts in Times Square - The Radio 501 CD that's advertised on a billboard came out in 1993 and Paper Moon is playing at the Marquis Theater.
(Thanks, UPSO!) Read the rest
'CANCEL THE RENT'
'SEND MORE VENTILATORS'
'STOP ICE RAIDS'
NYC-based political projection collective 'The Illuminator' staged a large-scale public projection in Manhattan on Saturday night to make several demands on local, state, and federal governments during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. Read the rest
No, they aren't wearing any harnesses. But some of them are sporting rather dashing chapeaus. From Speed Graphic Film and Video:
New York's Chrysler Building, one of the city's most iconic skyscrapers, was built in a remarkably short time--foundation work began in November 1928, and the building officially opened in May 1930. Even more remarkably, the steelwork went up in just six months in the summer of 1929 at an average rate of four floors a week.
Fox Movietone's sound cameras visited the construction site several times in 1929 and 1930, staging a number of shots to maximize viewers' sense of the spectacular heights. Movietone almost never put somebody in front of a camera without giving them something to say, so a number of scenes include some staged dialogue.
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On Saturday night, a blackout darkened Manhattan's West Side for several hours. But that didn't stop cast members from several Broadway shows, and Carnegie Hall, from performing. Not in their scheduled stage performances but impromptu ones outside on the sidewalks.
The New York Times:
The electricity failed about an hour before curtain for most shows, meaning the casts and crew were already in place and audiences were on their way.
Some lucky patrons were treated to brief sidewalk songs while producers tried to figure out whether the lights might return in time to salvage Saturday night — generally the most lucrative night of the week for Broadway.
The shows got canceled, but "the show must go on," as they say:
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Josh, one of my inbox zine's readers, made this. He wrote, "For a very long time I’ve wanted to build a giant geodesic dome filled with fake grass in lower Manhattan. This August it happened."
His piece is called dusk-space and it's an immersive synthetic environment meant to "recreate the experience of being in a remote country field at dusk." Here are some words about it from its statement (emphasis mine):
Urban life is completely disconnected from natural experience. There is no night in New York City, only an artificial dusk that lasts until dawn...
Everything about the experience is designed to evoke the sensations and feelings of the real thing, while always being obviously and unequivocally manufactured.
Visitors arriving at the dome will notice the sweet and clean smell of Premium Grade Fresh Cut Grass Fragrance Oil as they walk past the stands of 36-40" Tall Natural Meadow Grass in Green. The diffuse sounds of Ambient Cricket Loop will fill the air. Entering the dome, they will feel the unmatched softness of the SYNAugustineX47 dense thatch below their feet. Looking up, they will see the sharp twinkling of the Ultrabright White 5mm Untinted Non-Diffused LED stars above.
I hope that everyone who comes will enjoy the simple pleasure of lying in a field on a warm summer night looking up at the stars, even if it is only a simulation...
Finally, I hope a few will stop to think about the meaning of authenticity of experience in our technologically advancing artificial world.
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FilmSpektakel takes hyperlapse to the next level with A Taste of New York, a frenetic and beautifully shot homage to Manhattan. Read the rest
What's a driver to do to kill time between rideshare gigs? For Noah Forman, the answer was trying to set a record for most consecutive green lights. He hits about 240 green lights in a row in this video.
This seems much safer and more fun than the knucklehead who set the fastest lap around Manhattan, an honor that landed him in jail:
• Noah hits 240 green lights. (Vimeo / Shawn Swetsky) Read the rest
Allison Meier reports on the progress in uncovering a gorgeous Max Spivak midcentury stained-glass mosaic that was found in March hidden behind an aluminum facade. Read the rest
Boing Boing reader Giant Eye, aka Matthew Borgatti, says, "Here's a sneak peek of something I'm working on for the Transmetropolitan Art Book. It's on the corner of W 26th st and 8th in Manhattan. If you live in the city you should come and see it before the installation gets graff'd over."
For those who aren't familiar: Transmetropolitan is a series of cyberpunk graphic novels written by Warren Ellis with art by Darick Robertson, published by DC Comics. Read the rest
