If you want to do something controversial, it's easy. Just create a series of themed sculptures and place dozens of them around the city. The last one that I recall was the Cow Parade.Everyone seems to have strong feelings about such displays. Being they are in public space certainly gives the populace a feeling of entitlement as to how such space is used. And of course the displays are seen by nea...

I love this kind of thing. The New York City where we can find an icon based on something so ordinary, it defies comprehension how it attained mythic status. Its very ordinariness drives it. I think it is a form of defiance - our sense of self importance is such that New Yorkers can take something completely mundane, champion it and say: "This is the definitive coffee cup. Why? Because we say so! W...

Take a culture of sensory overload. Then add New York City and it and is easy to understand how very difficult it is to isolate and notice individual things. There are exceptions, of course, like the color red, which really screams and is still able to makes its presence known in a crowded, competitive visual environment. I have written before of red on two occasions: Who See the Red and That's Qui...

One must be careful in making condemnations of contemporary culture and claims regarding the degradation of society and romanticizing the past. There is no dearth of criticism regarding the "malling" of New York City and the invasion of big box retailers into the NYC marketplace. And certainly many of the criticisms are valid.At first glance, when looking at this magnificent Beaux Arts building at...

I have had this photo for some time but knew nothing of the advertiser - Rowley. But the setting was so dramatic, I thought I would share it anyway. After all, we can let things speak for themselves on occasion, can't we?This illuminated billboard was located on the West Side Highway in Chelsea, a neighborhood in the West 20s, abutting the Hudson River and the highway. Chelsea has become somewhat o...