Five Bullets 11.11.22
This week: SS Normandie, Poetics and American Quartet
Hello and welcome back to Circles In Space for Five Bullet Friday, where each Friday I share some interesting stuff I collected during the week.
Earlier this week (thanks to Instagram), I learned that a church in Brooklyn has as it’s exterior doors the former ocean liner SS Normandie’s dining room doors. My grandfather, age 89, grew up in the area of New York City where Lincoln Center is currently located, known as San Juan Hill. From a neighboring roof, he remembers being able to see the SS Normandie languishing on it’s side in the Hudson River. When I learned that the ship’s doors survived and are part of a Brooklyn church, my grandfather’s stories about this forgotten piece of New York City history came to life.
On to this week’s topics:
The French passenger ship SS Normandie was the largest and fastest transatlantic ocean liner of the day, it’s maiden voyage was in 1935. During World War Two, when France declared war on Germany, the vessel was docked at Manhattan’s Pier 88. The U.S. Coast Guard seized the Normandie and later, the Navy refitted the ship as a troop transport, renaming her the USS Lafayette. On February 9, 1942, while under construction, a fire broke out on board and capsized the ship. The Normandie sat in the Hudson River until it was stripped and scrapped. Some items were sold at auction, including it’s dining room door medallions, which are now located on the front doors to Our Lady of Lebanon Maronite Cathedral church in Brooklyn.
Wondering about those giant odd-looking towers that are popping all over the city? The towers are part of the city’s Internet Master Plan, enacted by Mayor Bill DeBlasio, to provide free 5G WiFi access to underserved areas. Over the next several years, LinkNYC will build 2000 5G towers across the five boroughs. The city says it’s plan is the country’s first to ‘close the digital divide’ by offering broadband internet to millions of people.
In 1937 photographer and mountain explorer Bradford Washburn left a cache of equipment, including several cameras, on a remote glacier while attempting to climb Mount Lucania in Canada. 85 years later, a team of researchers and mountaineers located the cache and cameras. The expedition hoped to learn more about the glacier’s battle with climate change by determining how far the cache had travelled. Washburn was forced to leave the equipment after weather made it impossible for the team’s pilot to pick them up.
Brooklyn’s Amant gallery is currently exhibiting Siren (some poetics) until March, 2023. The exhibit spans the gallery’s entire floor plan with over 40 works by 17 artists. Siren (some poetics) “considers technologies of myth and mouth, earth and alarm, gender and poetics” as it explores the boundaries of language and poetry as visual and sonic art practice. The exhibit includes an array of sculpture, tapestries, text, poems, audio, visual and other mixed-media works. (Check out my recent visit for a preview.)
Guitarist and bandleader Yonatan Gat has a new album out, American Quartet - a punk-rock meets classical mashup of Czech composer Antonin Dvorak’s String Quartet in F major. Written while Dvorak was living in New York City, the piece was later nicknamed the American Quartet. Gat, joined by musicians Greg Saunier, Mickey Coltun, and Curt Syndor, masterfully weaves together this unique blend of musical traditions and improvisation with soaring and delicate guitars, bombastic and frenetic drums, and bass and organ filling out the arrangment. Gat’s rock quartet re-imagination of Dvorak’s piece was recorded live with minimal overdubs.
Got something to share? Leave me a comment! I’m always on the lookout for something new to dive into.
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That's all for this week! As always, thanks for reading and have a great weekend!
Until next time,
KW
Wow, interesting about the SS Normandie's dining room doors. Also, Yonatan Gat is a complete master. Amazing.