Feed

Michele Narov

By Michele Narov 9/26/12 12:14pm

Tagging Out

5 Pointz. (The Flooz)

Aerosol Cans To Run Dry: 5 Pointz Out of Time, Space to Go With It

As the above-ground train rolls past the Court Square stop on the 7 line, a stone’s throw into the heart of Long Island City, passengers are awakened by a defiant cacophony of shapes and colors against a backdrop of the graying and decrepit Queens skyline. There, a red-brick warehouse stands proud, one entirely outfitted in graffiti tags and murals by aerosol artists. Born of a mission to create a legal urban canvas for the criminal art form flaring up in excess throughout the city during the early ’90s, the brainchild of founder Pat DiLillo—then known as “The Phun Phactory”—opened in 1993. In 2002, Jonathan Cohen—an FIT grad who had been tagging since he was 13 and is better known in these parts by his nom de plume Meresone—began curating the work. He soon rechristened the building “5 Pointz,” after the five boroughs of New York City. But it has since branched out and become a cultural mecca of sorts, with pieces by artists from cities such as Paris, Madrid, London and Germany.

On any weekday, while businesses—a clothing factory, storage space for city hotdog vendors and a small non-profit gallery called Local Projects—hum away inside the building, Mr. Cohen can be found in or around the building, monitoring projects and making sure nobody is painting without his permission.

“I’m here every day, I have no life.”

But the 39-year-old Flushing Native may soon be getting his free time back­—at the price of his life’s work. Read More

By Michele Narov 8/02/12 6:04pm

To Infinity and Beyond

Joe Acaba aboard the Soyuz TMA-04M spacecraft in May.

My Brains Are Going Into My Feet!: NASA Spins In Space With Introduction of First Ever Orbiting DJ

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has overcome a number of harrowing obstacles along the road toward accomplishing out-of-this-world feats—the Apollo missions, followed by the space shuttle, and now the development of Commercial Crew vehicles—but there remains one roadblock of sorts that it is still trying to navigate its way around: How do we get these darned kids to think we’re hip?

NASA administrator Charles F. Bolden Jr. is well aware that his current audience remains much the same as it was during the space race; a lot of older people follow NASA closely because of intense nostalgia for space-related memories like gathering around a black-and-white TV set with their entire extended family and watching something special like, say, the moon landing. Today’s youth, on the other hand, hasn’t grown up with these scientific breakthroughs occupying an abundance of airtime or attention, and these major events are pretty much known to them from what they’ve read in school textbooks or heard at family gatherings—when grandpa has had one too many bourbons.

But now, NASA is launching initiatives to bring the agency better remembered from monochrome boob tubes into the present, aligning itself with pop culture trends. Read More

By Michele Narov 8/01/12 2:00pm

Math and Its Problems

Hacker and wife. (Tequila Minksy)

Times Op-Ed Scribe Andrew Hacker Remains Staunch Opponent to Mandatory Math, Finds Reaction By ‘Math People’ To Be Typical

In The New York Times opinion section on Sunday, CUNY professor Andrew Hacker asked readers a question: Is Algebra Necessary? Mr. Hacker eventually reasoned the answer was no. Hundreds of his readers across the country screamed back, “Yes!”

These opinion articles are predisposed to garner strong reactions. Close to 100 readers might comment on an opinion piece on a controversial topic such as American involvement in the Middle East. Mr. Hacker’s article drove 474 commentators to their computers before The Times stopped accepting the respondents.

They weren’t to be halted; they then turned to the open platform of the web. Read More

By Michele Narov 7/23/12 3:19pm

Upper East Snide

This stinks! (NY Natives)

Upper East Sider’s Don’t Want to Be Waste-Full, Still Oppose Yorkville Waste Transfer Station

The Bloomberg Administration’s plans for a waste-transfer station in Yorkville mean that Upper East Siders will no longer be able to dump their trash on outer borough residents, and they are not happy about it.

The neighborhood’s residents can be a difficult bunch when it comes to government-sponsored projects in their backyards, as administrators of the Second Avenue subway line can attest, and they have been vigilant in their refusal to become trashy — the waste-transfer station was delayed successfully for close to a decade. Read More

By Michele Narov 5:06pm

To Infinity and Beyond

14 Photos

After traveling to many locations around the country, the Enterprise finally has a home in New York City.

The Enterprise Docks at the Intrepid Museum and Children of Generation Not Interested in Math and Science Show Interest

Susan Marenoff, president of the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum, is quick to warn us that she is not an expert on education. But still, she told The Observer at this morning’s opening of the museum’s new space shuttle pavilion, in her estimation of today’s youth, “The interest in math and science is not great.”

There we were—a young journalist—standing on the viewing deck of the recently erected bubble pavilion on the top level of the museum . From our elevated post we were eye-to-eye with the cockpit of the Enterprise, the shuttle that will be housed in this temporary structure until it finds a more permanent home on the premises. Just inches away from the craft’s enormous nose, Ms. Marenoff continued, “If the Intrepid can play a role in stimulating minds and getting them excited about science again by having the Enterprise here, that’s important to us.”

When The Observer arrived at the Intrepid for the pavilion’s ribbon cutting ceremony earlier today, the clouds were nearly as gray as the body of the massive boat. Read More

7/17/12 10:00am

THERE GOES THE NEIGHBORHOOD

45 Photos

The Last of the Bowery Boys

Last of the Bowery Boys: Skid Row’s Restaurant Suppliers Struggle with an Invasion of Eateries

A decade ago, the only sight more common on the Bowery than the homeless people lining the street was that of the stainless steel restaurant appliances crowding the sidewalk. Today, the streets are still full, but hipsters, tourists and wannabes have almost entirely replaced the punks, pandhandlers and chefs. Only a few restaurant suppliers continue to push their hundred-pound wares outside each day.

The Bari Equipment and Restaurant Supply store at 240 Bowery is one of the few suppliers with no plans to leave their Bowery home. The Bari’s have been shipping pizza ovens to pizzerias all over the city since 1930, when the founding Bari invented a cheese grater that catapulted the store into notoriety. They’ve seen a lot of people come and go in the last 80 years, from a host of unsavory criminals who once populated the Bowery to the shiny new gallery and restaurant owners who now rent some of the Bari-owned properties across the street.

Today, past the shiny new and used appliances pouring onto the sidewalk, past the cheap pans and giant colanders and whisks, foisted by numerous attendants eager to help new customers, three living generations, Franklin Bari, Anton Bari, and Anton Bari Jr., still run the business from a wood-paneled office at the back of the store.

“People walk in every week with offers to buy,” the eldest Mr. Bari told The Observer as he rifled through his desk, eventually locating a recent proposal of $6.25 million. “But we’re not going anywhere.”

However the Bari’s are an exception to the general Bowery restaurant supply store rule. Many of their neighbors have already traded in their Bowery addresses for homes in the outer boroughs. Read More