Happy Halloween!

Roar! Happy Halloween everyone! I hope you enjoy this pumpkin I carved with my claws!

Roar! Even my paper T-Rex is getting in the Halloween spirit! Have a great night and stay safe everyone!

Visiting Collect Pond Park!

Roar! Today I decided to take a visit to part of New York's "forgotten" history. Most people have heard of New York's infamous Five Points seen in big budget, Hollywood movies like Gangs of New York, but few know the "pints" was built on the former site of Collect Pond Park. Collect Pond Park was a small pond in lower Manhattan that during the 18th century was a popular picnic spot and ice skating location. Then once industry took over in the early 19th century it turned into one of New York City's many dumping grounds and quickly became known as one of the most polluted sites in the city. The pond was filled in and though many people said it was daft to build in a swamp the city went right on to develop Collect Pond Park. After several different developments sank into the swamp, they built the Five Points District, and the Five Points stayed up! Roar! 

The Five Points was so notorious for being the absolute worst neighborhood in the city that when the city was re-developing downtown the city planners made it a point to built right over where the Five points had been and hopefully erase it from memory, even possibly from history! Roar! Here I am at the current day Collect Pond Park. This small, urban park is one of the few reminders of the old area. 

Roar! It's also the most rat infested area in the city! Because the park is still technically below grade it has become a major breeding ground. There are literally hundreds of rats here! Some of them have even broken off into factions! It turns out the Native Rats of Collect Pond Park are fighting with all the rats that are moving there from other parts of the city!

Most of the rats spend there time hiding in all the ivy growing all over the park. It turns out the main immigrant rat group, the Dead Mice, were holing up in the ivy preparing for war with the Native Rats! Things are looking pretty bad down here in Collect Pond Park, someone needs to remind all these rats just whose paws built this park! Roar!

Mixtapes and Pumpkins!

Roar! I've been working on a couple of fun pieces of art to leave around my neighborhood! The first piece is some seasonal street art where I painted up some pumpkins with my tag! The second thing piece is I made a bunch of thematic mixtapes which I left at a few different venues in the area!

Here are some of the pumpkins I left around. The first one is in the new coffee shop 3 Angels by the Park in Bushwick, and the second one is in Beacons Clsoet over in Williamsburg.

I left three of the Mixtapes I made in the Loom general store on Flushing.

Roar! Can a mix tape fully encapsulate a moment? I made this tape after watching a sunset on the Hill of Graves at Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn. In it I explore all the ideas and feelings that were present during that one moment in time! It's like an aural painting!

Roar! Globalization is a concept that's been around for as long as there has been a globe! Even back in the days of Pangea ideas traveled from the East to the West and vice versa. A major example of this during human times was the Silk Road! Follow it from Europe to China with this mix tape!

Roar! Here is a mix tape that is two mix tapes in one! The mixes were made about the abstract concepts of what it means to be left and right and each mix plays in its own channel. It's also a pop exploration of the duelling hemispheres of the brain! I wonder which side will win?!

Next, I left 3 more tapes in Market Hotel for the people there to enjoy!

Roar! This mix tape was made with my friend Hippo using some crazy Surrealist Collage Techniques! Let me tell you, the surrealists sure knew how to have fun! I once went to a clock melting party in Spain and this was exactly the type of music they were listening to there!

Roar! Do you often take the Subway? I don't like to because I think the underground is scary! But there was a human who wasn't scared of the underground! He even willingly went there to find his wife! I wonder if he took Duke Ellington's advice? Here is a mix tape about it!

Roar! What if we traveled through time? What if there was a flood? What if that flood happened in time? Here is a mix tape I made about folklore, history, time travel, and cyberpunk culture! I'm not sure if it makes complete sense but it certainly is fun to listen to!

I left my last three tapes over at Silent Barn. It sure was dark in there! Roar!

Roar! When you've been around as long as I have it's easy to think the universe will go on forever! While I don't believe anything is forever, sometimes it's fun to think about the concept! Please enjoy listening to this mix tape about Infinity for a finite amout of time!

  

 
Roar! Laozi sure said a lot of wild things! But when you're an immortal I guess it's ok to do that! I remember what it was like to go drinking with him back in the day, he sure liked to hit the baijiu pretty hard! This is a mix tape about journeys!

 
Roar! What is the nature of existence? What is the nature of permanence? If I were a Buddhist these are the types of questions I would try to answer with this mix tape! Instead, all I could do was wonder whether a leaf and a mushroom are aware of each other! It is the most important question of the age!

I hope everyone had a fun time listening to all these different mixtapes! I had a lot of fun making them with my friends and thought they would make for some fun discoveries! Roar!

Tuna Fish Sandwich Piece

Roar! I recently performed a realization of a Fluxus score by Yoko Ono called Tuna Fish Sandwich Piece. It goes something like this:

Imagine one thousand suns in the sky at the same time.

Let them Shine for one hour.

 
Then let them gradually melt into the sky.

Make one Tuna Fish sandwich and eat.

Roar! It sure was a lot of fun performing this score and the tunafish sandwich was delicious! You can see a video version of my performance here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmVT9b3pohU

Open House NYC 2010: New York's Laid an Egg!

Roar! Yesterday was Open House NYC, the day where a ton of cool private areas in the city are open for tours! It offers a rare chance to see some of the more hidden aspects of city life and I'm always excited for the chance to learn more about the city I love! This Open House NYC I signed up for the Digester Egg Expereince with the New York City Department of Evironmental Protection. I've always wonder what went on inside those huge towers on the shores of Greenpoint and yesterday I got the chance to find out!

  

Here I am way up in Greenpoint on my way to the Digester Egg! It's so ominous the way it looms over the East River like that! I wonder what goes on inside?

Here I am inside the egg, about to go up to the top to learn about exactly what it is this things does! Roar!

Turns out this sweet digester egg cleans contaminated water and turns it into safe drinking water! It's actually super neat! The egg uses a process of anaerobic respiration, just like at Fresh Kills Park, to break down waste products and leave us with safe, clean drinking water! Go DEP!

The top of the Egg also offers some truly unique views of the Manhattan skyline! Roar! 

Back at the DEP station they had all these great water fixtures to celebrate clean water. Then I go a drink from the water fountain! Mmmmmm! Fresh from the egg!

On my way out the staff was having trouble moving these old lockers to the trash! They were so happy that a big strong T-Rex like me came around to help them! Roar!

What a great place to visit on Open NYC! I love learning all about the neat things that go on behind the scenes to help make New York City my favorite color, Green!

Here Be T-Rexes!

Roar! Yesterday was the annual New York Medieval Festival held up at Fort Tryon Park in Manhattan. I decided it would be really fun to go up there and see what the middle ages were really about! 

I rode my bike over to the west side bike path, then rode all the way up to 197th street where it terminates. On my way up I passed this old overlook that was once part of C.K.G. Billing massive estate which used to occupy the land that is now Fort Tryon Park. Across the West Side Highway from the overlook is the old driveway that now leads to Fort Tryon Park! The drive way was turned into a highway entrance to the park after Billings estate burned down in 1926. Roar!

On my way to the Medieval Festival I passed the Cloisters, a monastery built here to house a good portion of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's medieval art collection! I decided to check it out in order to get a good idea of what to expect at the fair!

Here I am hanging out in the Cloisters! This is such a sweet place, I wonder if I'll meet an Abbot or even a Costello! Roar!

Get a look at this awesome tapestry! There is so much going on in it! It looks likes they've managed to weave quite a story here!

They even have part of a real Gothic cathedral in here! It's really neat and all, but where are the cabinets?!

Here is some of the amazing stained glass at the cloisters! A lot of the art here has dealt with religion, I think it's really impressive how medieval artists dealt with such a fragile subject! Roar!

Woah! They have lions here too just like in the SchROARzman building! I wonder what this one is staring at?

Oh my! Here is a medieval bible depicting the 4 horsemen of the apocalypse in revelations! I already lived through one apocalypse, I hope I never have to meet these guys!

I wonder, what is the secret of this grail? Who does it serve? Is it the cup of a carpenter? How did they even get it past the great seal? Was it housed in the castle... Roar!

Next I headed outside to the garden where there was this sweet apple tree! Wait a second, BLARGH! These apples aren't sweet at all!

From the Garden there was a great view of the fairgrounds! I decided it was time to head down to the festival and see how medieval times were being represented in 2010!

AAHHHHHHH!!! This isn't what the middle ages were like at all!!!

Luckily there was this group of brave knights who helped me fend off the fiendish dragon lady! Without them I might have been a goner!

The knights were there to help protect this fair princess who was riding a sweet unicorn! I wish I could ride one too!

Oh my gosh! They had an amazing baby unicorn for me to ride! Unicorn Power! Roar!

The knights told me they had to go compete in some games of medieval combat and skill! Here they are engaged in some serious armed combat! I wanted to compete too but the officials told me it was hand to hand combat, not claw to claw. Roar!

Next they mounted their horses to play some games of equestrian skill! It was all really impressive, I've never seen anyone ride a horse like that! It was quite the mount!  Roar!

This person was strangely dressed for a knight, they didn't even take part in any of the games! I wonder what was up with them?!

Next I decided to see what life was like in the middle ages for the common man. Here I am with some finely dressed town folk who were on their way to the market! I wonder if they're going to buy any meat?!

At the market there was this group of wandering minstrels who were singing some enchanting melodies! I want to go a-wassailing too! Roar!

There was even a great rope artists who was showing off her acrobatic prowess! It was really neat and all but I've seen plenty of this stuff in my own neighborhood over at House of Yes.

At the market I also ran into this mystical owl who told me he could unlock the secrets of the universe! I told this huckster owl I wasn't interested in his secrets and I would earn all my levels myself! Roar!

I was getting pretty hungry after wandering around the market so I decided to head over to the food area and get something to eat! I came across this Ye Olde Barbeque Shoppe that was in what was the old stables of C.K.G. Billings estate. It's nice to know some of the old structures of the mansion and still standing and now part of Fort Tryon Park!

There was also this Ye Fried Dough Stand! I didn't know they had fried dough in the middle ages! Roar!

At first I thought this Ice Cold Lemonade sign said Ye Olde Lemonade! It wouldn't have surprised me if it did!

I decided to go back to the Ye Olde Barbeque Shoppe to get a GIANT PIECE OF MEAT! It was so smokey and awesome, medieval times must have been awesome if everyone got to eat like this all the time! Roar!

After that huge meal I decided it was time to head home. But suddenly on my way out of the park I was attacked by a despicable Boy Skylark! They are the lowest class on the escheladder and I had no trouble defeating him! I guess he must have thought if he was able to beat a "Dragon Knight" like me his levels would soar! Silly Boy Skylark when will you learn!

Wow! What a strange end to the New York Medieval Festival! I wonder if it's like this every year? Even though its not really what middle ages were like, it sure was fun to come to this beautiful park and see everyone enjoy some live action roleplaying on a beautiful fall day! Roar!