August 20, 2009 @ 3:40 am
After an earlier exterior stairway collapse this year that injured a fellow artist resident, the New York City Department of Buildings issued a notice for all tenants of 5 Pointz, NYC’s graffiti-laden structure in Long Island City, to vacate. As of now, it looks like those tenants and artists won’t be moving back into the building once maintenance is complete because the city will not issue a new certificate of occupancy for the building. This means that the owner of 5 Pointz will probably have to paint over all of the graffiti there and turn the building into a standard factory.
Gothamist took one last look at the interior and exterior of the building and has pictures of it to show. My own photos from this place are on a harddrive somewhere…I should dig them out just for memory’s sake.
February 23, 2009 @ 10:42 am
Photo: Manny’s Music by ArtBrom on Flickr
Manny’s Music, one of the biggest music stores on 48th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues, will shut its doors forever at the end of May. Many fear that if Manny goes, so will the rest of the music stores on that block, effectively putting an end to years of service to famous musicians and city folk alike.
But honestly, I’m not too surprised. With the onslaught of online sales lately, it’s hard for stores like Manny’s to beat online deals. In fact, physical stores like Manny’s aren’t good for anything except emergency equipment buying. I’m sure at one time, musicians would flock to stores like Manny’s to talk music, hang out, and get advice, but I doubt that atmosphere still exists. Has anyone even been to Manny’s lately? Not the friendliest of places, let me tell you…
January 2, 2009 @ 8:21 pm
One of the best online photo publications, JPG Magazine, is closing on Monday, January 5, 2009 because of a lack of funding for their magazine. It’s a shame really that such a beautifully designed magazine with such great content is going to disappear.
The people behind JPG however have offered all of their back issues of JPG Magazine online for free download so if I were you, I’d go there now and download them all before they disappear entirely. The magazine has been a great source of inspiration over the last few years and I’ll be sad to see it go.
