Watered Down Design...

New York's distinct wooden water towers, while appearing awkwardly out of place in the modern world, add a unique charm to the city skyline. The furniture company Bellboy has taken the well-aged wood from some of these towers (which need to be replaced about every 35 years) and turned them into these sleek modern chairs.

Piece by Piece...

When we left NYC one of the things we regretted that we had to leave behind was the fireplace mosaic that artist Judy Robertson had done for us. It was a work of art made of broken tiles, china, marbles and even a few buttons that we never got tired of looking at.  Judy did much larger and high profile mosaics around New York- including the mosaic work at the incredible El Teddy's restaurant in TriBeCa.

Lost Colony...

I didn't realize Colony Records was still open until I saw this article which ironically discusses its plans to close. I used to passed by it all the time when I lived in New York (usually on my way to the NY Times).  Although I can't remember what album I bought, I did shop there at least once and saved the paper bag (above) because of the out of date, but great logo graphics that they were still using.

Lights, Camera...

I came across a video for the movie Black Rain on a blog recently. It's a movie starring Michael Douglas that I've never seen, but remembered some of it was filmed at 27th and Lexington, near the studio I had in NYC. So I did a little searching and found this (motorcycle scene @ 7:00 on the video to be exact). Like most movies you see being filmed, there's a lot of waiting/ setting up before any action takes place, so every once in awhile I'd take a break and lean out the window to see what was going on.

Later that evening I wrapped up the job I was working on and headed home down 28th street. I stopped at the corner at Madison where the light was about to change. In front of me was this guy on a motorcycle waiting for the light to turn. Realizing they had just been filming around the corner I took a closer look through the helmet's tinted visor (for obvious reasons, different headgear than in the film) and saw that it was Michael Douglas. The light soon changed and he roared off towards uptown and I continued walking home thinking what a special town this was.

Cities of Circuits...

Artist Franco Recchia uses his technical training and welding skills to create these hi-tech cityscapes from discarded computer parts.

Via illusion 360

Neon Noir...

A captivating video( and song) by Radiohead featuring the neon and other the lights found in NYC.

Classic Cup...

For me a cup of coffee to-go in the Big Apple wasn't the same if it was served in anything other than one of these classic anthora cups designed by Leslie Buck. Mr Buck recently passed away at the age of 87 but left behind an enduring icon of the city. Read more here .

Elevator Going Up...

An amazing video made by artist Marco Brambilla for the elevators of the Standard Hotel in NYC. Heaven shows while going up, and Hell on the way back down- to the streets of New York.

As great as New York City is, sometimes it really is a 'Hell of a Town'.

Here's an amusing New York/Hell comparison by actor/comedian Roberto Benigni from New Yorker magazine.