urban ku # 59 - the terms of our existence
Monday, April 30, 2007 at 03:08PM 
City Island views - The Bronx, NY • click to embiggenFrom this past weekend's itinerary, City Island is a small island approximately 1.5 mi long by 0.5 mi wide. It is part of the New York City borough of the Bronx. City Island is located at the extreme western end of Long Island Sound, south of Pelham Bay and east of Eastchester Bay. Stepping Stones Lighthouse, marking the main shipping channel into New York, is off the southern tip of the island, near the Long Island shore.
The truly odd thing - I would even go so far as to say, positively disorienting thing - about City Island is its quaint New England fishing village feel and look. A drive or walk down its main street, City Island Avenue, which is lined with small speciality and antique shops and about a billion seafood restaurants, does nothing to dispell the notion. So it's odd when you keep reminding yourself that you're in The Bronx. You know, the home of The Bronx Bombers and Yankee Stadium.
French fry tossing • click to embiggen Photo by The WifeNot that you really have to keep reminding yourself - there are plenty of visual cues. Most of those cues are people. There are no cute grey-haired salt-o'-the-earth New England grannies or Barnacle Bills the sailors dotting the cityscape. The population is predominantly hispanic and black. It is, don't forget, the Bronx.
The residents have also managed to create an indigenous form of wildlife-based entertainment - the seagull french fry toss. From my limited observation, it seems to be requisite ritual at all the waterfront eateries, especially those with menus brimming with artery-busting deep fried seafood.
In any event, City Island is a very interesting place. One I never knew existed. If you are ever anywhere close at hand, make it a must see.
That said, my urban ku # 59 look at City Island reminded me of the following from The Photograph by Graham Clarke (Oxford Press);
The images of Eggleston, Callahan, and Berman are examples of a new kind of art photography, which looks towards postmodern engagements with meaning and the nature of representation. Moving beyond a concern with the 'pure' and the aesthetic, they produce an imagery dedicated to the continuous probing of the terms of our existence ... they return art photography to a popular forum, releasing it to deal with the terms of our existence rather than the ideal of formal content divorced from the world of its meaning. Their images have an underlying ambiguity fed by a deep lyrical sense of the human context of photography's focus.
gravitas et nugalis
Featured Comment: Jim Jirka wrote;
A man is with his boss as they are talking while having lunch.
The Man: " Only Baseball players and hookers live in the Bronx"
The Boss: " My wife is from the Bronx"
The Man Sqirming: " What position did she play?"
Reader Comments (2)
congrats to "the wife" (ha...I feel funny saying that!)...forget triptychs, bring on the pink leggings!!!
A man is with his boss as they are talking while having lunch.
The Man: " Only Baseball players and hookers live in the Bronx"
The Boss: " My wife is from the Bronx"
The Man Sqirming: " What position did she play?"