Video spotted via enjoybanking. Visit Barbara Celis's blog for more info, James's post, and this flickr stream.

I saw this when we were visiting the Cathedral of St. John the Divine with friends last week. I recognize Martin Luther King Jr., Albert Einstein, and Mahatma Gandhi. Who is the woman?

Update: We have a winner. Paul Schmelzer of Eyeteeth says it's Susan B. Anthony.

Here is a blog post on the closing from Jeremiah's Vanishing New York. A larger version of the note is here.

I only had my iPhone with me, so these aren't the greatest photos. This guy was in the West 4th Street subway. The top was removed to give more volume, and it sounded like a honky-tonk piano, but his playing was quite good, ranging from "Hey Jude" to Chopin. No one else was with him so I don't know if he managed to get the piano down there via the station elevator by himself. Having just been to a great concert of experimental music, this was a nice subway surprise.

Update: Olympia Lambert already posted about him in early February. He is Colin Huggins (aka The Crazy Piano Guy). He is also the music director of the Joffrey Ballet!

An homage to the series by Joy Garnett

Bedford Avenue station 2AM from Barry Hoggard on Vimeo.

James and I saw and heard these wonderful people in the Bedford Avenue L station early this morning. We were on our way home after a wonderful dinner at some friends' apartment.

If you know who they are, please comment or email! We were too into listening that we didn't get a chance to talk to them before the subway arrived. I think all of the excellent wine at dinner might have affected our judgment as well.

The art season is about to start up, and I know people want their shows listed on ArtCal, but sending info to ArtCal, James, me, and Paddy asking to be listed is counterproductive. Very counterproductive. Extra demerits if I receive the email at more than one of my personal addresses. Please just sent it to ArtCal to the proper address with the information we request.

Gov. David A. Paterson, who has made advancing gay rights as central to his policymaking, was greeted enthusiastically at the gay pride parade in New York. James Estrin / The New York Times

Today was the first time a serving New York governor marched in the gay pride parade. He has walked in the parade, on and off, since 1976! I would like to think my headline above just made some conservative idiot's head explode.

From the NY Times:

If there was ever any doubt that gay people form one of Gov. David A. Paterson's most loyal and enthusiastic constituencies, that doubt was erased on Sunday by the howl of a drag queen on Fifth Avenue.

The drag queen, standing at the foot of the steps to the New York Public Library dressed in a green Afro wig, a red miniskirt and candy-cane-striped stockings, had the duty of announcing the notables marching down Fifth Avenue in the gay pride march.

She introduced Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn, and the onlookers who had gathered along the parade route politely applauded.

But when she bellowed, "Let's hear it for the governor of New York, David Paterson!" the crowd roared.

...

Sunday was not the first time Mr. Paterson marched in a gay pride parade. He said he attended his first parade in 1976 at the urging of a gay friend and had walked in them on and off ever since.

"Back then, we would march in the back," he said. "But then we learned that wasn't cool because you couldn't hear the music in the back. So we moved up." He added that in those early years, he did not generate quite the same amount of attention from the crowd.

Here is an excerpt from a related NY Times story from two weeks ago.

Gov. David A. Paterson's decision to direct state agencies to recognize marriages of same-sex couples elevated his status in the eyes of many gays and lesbians to something of a celebrity.

But Mr. Paterson has unexpectedly discovered that some of the people who are most grateful to him for issuing the order are, in fact, parents with a gay son or a lesbian daughter.

The governor said in an interview last week that he had been approached by several people who expressed their gratitude. "What struck me were the straight people who came up to me," he said. "This has happened four or five times since. They'll say: 'We're so glad you did this. Our daughter is gay or our son is gay.' I found that to be so very touching."

One evening two weeks ago, while he was having dinner with his wife, Michelle Paige Paterson, at a restaurant at 105th Street and Broadway, the governor said, a man and a woman approached him, introduced themselves, and then each hugged him. Their son was gay, they told Mr. Paterson, and they wanted to let the governor know how thankful they were about his policy.

...

The one memorable phone call that Mr. Paterson said he received shortly after his order became widely publicized was from the Rev. Al Sharpton, a supporter of civil rights for gay people. Mr. Paterson said Mr. Sharpton called to offer thanks, but also to take a friendly jab at the governor for disclosing that he became comfortable around gay people at a young age because two close Paterson family friends were gay.

"He was calling on behalf of Uncle Stanley and Uncle Ronald, saying I'd be in trouble for outing them," Mr. Paterson said, referring to a gay couple who often took care of him and his brother, Daniel.

A flickr set from our friends at The Occasional Fag. I recommend viewing it on flickr for the captions.

Develop Don't Destroy is encouraging people to show up at the Brooklyn Museum on Thursday, April 3rd, 6:30-8:30pm to protest the museum's choice of honoree for its annual fund raiser: developer Bruce Ratner. He is the developer of the infamous Atlantic Yards project, which has resulted in the use of eminent domain on behalf of a private entity to displace a huge number of people and tear down historic structures such as the Ward Bread Bakery building. Note that the New York Times is now reporting that, despite the billions of subsidies promised so far, the project might be scaled back due to the shrinking bond and credit markets. That won't bring back any buildings or help the people and businesses that have already been forced to move.

If you're interested in some very detailed information on the project and Mr. Ratner, I have pasted below a copy of an open letter from attorney Michael D. D. White that I received via Chuck Yuen and Meredith Allen. This is my favorite paragraph:

Ratner should not be confused with an erstwhile robber baron who did ill a long time ago and is now dispensing funds after the fact to atone and get into heaven. Ratner is doing his damage to the community now and this "honor" from the Museum is a mechanism to further damage the community.

[Note: the comments have been closed on this post due to spammers loving it for some reason.]