A few nice south pacific images I found:
NYC – Vivian Beaumont Theater
Image by haleysuzanne
We saw South Pacific at the Lincoln Center. So wonderful. Great performances.
Play Me, I’m Yours, Day 10 – Jul 05, 2010 – 02
Image by Ed Yourdon
Note: this photo was published in a Jul 10, 2010 edition of the Everyblock NYC Streets blog, with a title of "1-99 block of W. 72nd St."
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On the absolutely final day of the "Play Me, I’m Yours" project, my objective was simple: there was a closing finale at Lincoln Center, and I wanted to photograph as much of it as possible.
The website press release implied that ceremonies and invited playing would be going on at two of the four pianos at Lincoln Center, but it wasn’t exactly clear which two would be involved. As it turned out, only one piano was involved — and it was one that had been moved from the south side of the main building to the north side, by the reflecting pool in front of the theater where "South Pacific" is currently being performed.
Thought the website press release also implied that the ceremony would be underway from 2 PM to 6 PM, it turned out that the first two hours were rehearsals and "sound checks" for the performers. I photographed some of them, but then wandered around to the other pianos to see what was going on. While there weren’t any formal performances, there were plenty of enthusiastic, uninvited amateurs — and I managed to take pictures of many of them before I headed back to the "main" show.
Once the main show was underway, I stayed there for the remainder of the afternoon. There were some very performers, including a silver medalist from one of the recent Van Cliburn piano competitions, and an actor from the current Broadway case of "Phantom of the Opera." Lots of other musicians and singers, too, and they were all quite enthusiastic.
So I ended up with 700+ photos and a dozen videos; I think that will leave me with about 70-75 keepers, plus whatever videos look like they’re worth uploading to Flickr and/or YouTube…
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A few years ago, a British artist by the name of Luke Jerram came up with the intriguing idea of spreading pianos around the city, with an open invitation for anyone nearby to wander up and begin playing something. Anything. First it was London, and now it’s here in New York City.
Starting on June 21st, sixty pianos have been donated, painted, and "installed" throughout the five boroughs of New York; you can see the locations here. I managed to visit seven of the pianos on the first day, and another seven on the second day. The program will only be running for two weeks, and I’ll be out of town for at least a few of those days … so it won’t be easy, but my goal is to track down, visit, and photograph all 60 pianos by the time it’s over. Even the one at the Staten Island Zoo, and the one located somewhere in the Joyce Kilmer Park up in the Bronx.
Aside from the logistics of getting to these remote corners of the five boroughs, it sounds like a straightforward task: ride a subway train to the appropriate stop, walk a block or two, take photograph or two, and then go back where you came from. But it’s turning out to be a little more difficult than I had thought, partly because the maps provided on the Web site are somewhat ambiguous and imprecise, and partly because the officials (e.g., guards, cops, grounds-keepers, etc.) whom you would expect to know about such things have been remarkably clueless.
I’ve also been hearing rumors that some of the pianos are being moved around between one day and the next. That might explain why I had to abandon today’s plan to photograph the piano in Bryant Park: after circling the park and the adjoining New York Public Library a couple of times, I concluded they had either hidden the piano, or moved into a subterranean cell.
As for the pianos I’ve found, the experiences have been quite varied. Some of the pianos sit mute and abandoned — including, oddly enough, the very fist piano in Times Square, which had been plunked down at Seventh Avenue and 44th Street, and basically ignored by everyone. The same was true of one of the pianos situated in a hard-to-find corner of Lincoln Center, as well as a piano ostensibly located at the Metropolitan Museum of Art — which turned out to be sitting next to the giant obelisk behind the museum, and on the far side of the inner park roadway.
As for the pianos that do attract some musicians: it’s quite a varied bunch. Some are casual amateurs, some of whom have no idea what the program is all about, and who had no advance warning that the pianos would even be there. Some have obviously been planning and practicing for months. Some of the musicians sing, some don’t; some bring along drummers, guitarists, and vocalists. I even heard that one musician brought some dancers to help liven up his performance, but I haven’t seen that myself…
Anyway, I’ll keep photographing the pianos, and uploading the best of the photographs, until I run out of pianos, run out of time, or run out of energy — whichever happens first.
South Pacific map
Image by Matthew Bartlett
Map of the South Pacific focusing on Kiribati. If you can find any errors please let me know. I made this in Indesign for endpapers for a book on Kiribati, as I couldn’t find a decent map online or off. Sing out if you’d like a higher-res version or the original files.