Five Bullets 8.11.23

This week: Robbie Robertson, New York State World's Fair Pavilion, James Webb & more

Welcome back to Circles in Space.

If you’re new here, read this.

Good morning and happy Friday. Today’s newsletter pays homage to musician Robbie Robertson from one of my favorite bands so this one hits close to home. I’ve also got a few New York City-centric articles (per usual!) that are worth a read.

 The Band & guests from The Last Waltz © Ed Perlstein/Redferns/Getty Images

Today’s bullets:

• Music: RIP Robbie Robertson, songwriter and guitarist for The Band, who passed away this week at the age of 80. Robertson, a Canadian, wrote songs like The Weight and The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down which embodied The Band’s rural America/folksy rock sound. Check out Robertson’s documentary Once Were Brothers and The Band’s concert film The Last Waltz. 

• NYC History: Untapped Cities covers the history of the New York State Pavilion buildings at Flushing-Meadow Corona Park in Queens. Hallmarks of the Queens landscape, the Astro-View observation towers, the Tent of Tomorrow and Theaterama were built for the 1964/65 World’s Fair. Documents sourced from People for the Pavilion show Robert Moses’s efforts to determine the fate of the buildings post-fair. For decades the buildings were mostly forgotten relics though restoration efforts are now underway. 

• NYC News: Eric Adams’s Administration of Bluster, The New Yorker’s profile of the mayor offers an insightful peek behind the curtain.

• Science: NASA’s James Webb telescope captured a photo of a question mark among the stars which could be two merging galaxies.

• Quotes: NITCH has been on point lately with quotes including this one from Hemingway which has been rattling around in my mind lately:

"If a writer stops observing, he is finished. Experience is communicated by small details intimately observed."

That’s all for this week! Thanks for reading and have a great weekend.

Keith