She's Got the Power: A Girl Group Extravaganza

Rock-n-roll's original bad girl Ronnie Specter rocked the house Saturday night with The Ronettes' classics "Walking in the Rain," "Be My Baby," and "The Best Part of Breaking Up"--and Amy Winehouse's "Back to Black."

That's Ronnie in red. Yep, that's Paul Shaffer on keyboards and Steven Van Sandt (wearing his trademark headscarf of course) far left on acoustic guitar.

She wasn’t the only girl-group diva bringing the crowd to their feet at Lincoln Center's She's Got the Power: A Girl Group Extravaganza. Lesley Gore, LaLa Brooks and their backup singers knocked it out of the ballpark with their performances of "Going to the Chapel," "And Then He Kissed Me," and many more chart-toppers from the 1960s.

 LaLa Brooks of The Crystals

Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of Lesley Gore. Guess I was just too mesmerized by her performance of "You Don't Own Me" to get out my camera. Go here to see what I'm talking about!

Another High Line pretty

I'm not sure what this lovely flower growing along the old train track is since it's not included in the High Line Plant Guide Spring/Summer 2010 pamphlet. Maybe some sort of black-eyed susan? If anyone out there knows, leave a comment and let me know!

The High Line on a summer afternoon

It felt like the crowds at Grand Central Station and Penn Station had been beamed over to the High Line when Seth and I met good friends from Portland (Hi Lara and Scott!)there a few weeks ago on a Sunday afternoon. It was hot-as-you-know-what and hard to see anything except people, people and more people. So I didn't get any pictures that day. These photos were taken in early summer on a weekday afternoon when my good friend from Seattle (Hi Tina!) was in town.

In full bloom, these urban grasslands and woodlands put on quite a show, splashing the New York skyline with brilliant pops of color:

Here's a peek at the section that just opened in early June:

It's distinctly different from the rest of the High Line, and I love it. Some of the highlights include this old mural painted on the side of the building, People's Pops for coconut popsicles, the 23rd Street Lawn (an expansive stretch of grass for naps and picnics), and...

...an elevated section with gardens growing under the pathway. Here's a bird's eye view of a small section of garden on the lower tier:

The new section is pretty close to where I work, so it's been nice to be able to stroll the High Line on my lunch hour. (It seems to be much less crowded on weekdays and in the winter.) 

The other day I mentioned to Seth that the ornamental grass and giant puffball-shaped flowers that make up the High Line landscape reminded me of a favorite gardening book by Piet Oudolf. Turns out, he's the High Line's planting designer. Guess I need to brush up on my High Line history. At any rate, check out his Web site to see before-and-after photos. Here's the 34th Avenue stretch. It hasn't been renovated yet and it's not open to the public:

 
And finally, a close-up of the showy foxtail lily. If I ever have my own home, it's going to be one of the first things I plant in the yard! (Wonder how much Oudolf charges to design a private garden. This would be nice.)

Chasing rainbows...

...in southern Illinois...

Look closely. It's a double rainbow!

...and in St. Louis.

The arch. Spring trip to home sweet home, April, 2010.

Birdwatching

Birdwatching at the Watershed Nature Center in Edwardsville, Illinois. I spy...

The shy Cardinal perched in the treetops. Why won't you look at me?:

The not-so-elusive Redwing Blackbird:

A ray of sunshine on a cloudy day, the Yellow Finch in its lemony glory:

The...wait a minute, that's fellow birdwatcher Grandma Aunt Adel!

And the Purple Finch enjoying a late afternoon snack. 

Not pictured: more finches and some sort of gray woodpecker (they ate and flew before I could snap a pic), as well as swallows, a gray heron and other wading birds, hundreds of Canada geese, and my mom who likes getting her picture taken even less than I do.

Magnolias in Prospect Park

Yay! Spring has finally sprung!

Back to the Navy Yards

Meet Neil. He's the new Armstrong in my life--just kidding, "he" is just an empty life-sized replica of NASA's Apollo Era A7LB, created by mad scientist/artist/inventor/CEO of the Brower Propulsion Laboratory, Steven Brower. The A7LB is an upgrade of the A7L, the suit Neil Armstrong wore when he became the first man to walk on the moon.

We're over the moon!

Brower's copy of the A7LB looks incredibly lifelike, and cost a fraction of what NASA spent to manufacture the original. On his Web site Brower describes the suit as having "several layers, and a mechanical and air conditioning system that mimics the actual artifacts, although made in my art-poverty-compromise vernacular. I machined all the fittings and fabricated all the plastic and rubber parts in my shop."

A life-sized replica of NASA's Apollo Era A7LB created by Brower Propulsion Laboratory.

Pictured below is the other Armstrong in my life, no relation to the astronaut. Here he's being forced to demonstrate how this sandblaster doubles as a drink cooler. 

Gouache paintings from the BPL-004 Experimental Outsourcing Mission To China, the LIMPER (Limited Intelligence Marginally Produced Exploration Rover), and other models and inventions, including a karate chopping mechanical arm were on display at the Brower Propulsion Lab open studio that took place on April 23, 2011. It was too crowded to take many pictures, but I did get a shot of BPL's "recycled mugs":

The last time I was in The Brooklyn Navy Yards I wanted to take a closer look at the building in the photo below: BLG 128163-A1. Well, wishes do come true since the Brower Propulsion Lab is also in the The Navy Yards right next door. In its heyday this building was at the center of "America's premier shipbuilding facility," but it's seen better days.

This building consists of many terminals and multiple floors, and spans at least a city block--it's so big my friend Bryan noted it has its own atmospheric haze. The terminals needed to be massive enough to accommodate the ships constructed inside them, for scale the most famous battleship built there, the U.S.S. Missouri, is longer than the Washington Monument.

It had rained earlier that day, and the puddles together with the late afternoon light gave the area a nice glow. BLG. 128163-A1 smelled very musty after the storm.

It's fun to imagine this factory up and running, especially during World War II, when female mechanics and technicians reported for duty for the first time ever. At one time thousands of people worked in this building, today broken glass and inoperable bits of machinery are all that remain.

"MAKE IT A SAFE PLACE TO WORK"

Here's a view of one of the dry docks with the East River and the Williamsburg Bridge in the distance.

Goodbye Navy Yards. I can't wait to visit again.