New York/Around Town

West 32nd Street
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Having finished shooting and printing the Civil War monuments project, I am now back to the 39 buildings I was photographing a few weeks ago. Actually, the 39 are done, but I've been given 20 more to do. So, I am all over town scouting ahead of bringing the 4x5 camera and assistant.

In the evening I went downtown to see Suzanne Vega perform in City Hall Park as part of a weekend festival sponsored by J&R, the big music and electronics store. I hadn't seen Suzanne since last fall when we were participants in a film festival in the Czech Republic. I was particularly keen on hearing her do the songs from the new album Beauty and Crime. Here's a less than wonderful photo of her and the band taken from the side of the stage.


Suzanne Vega and band (Mike Visceglia on bass) in City Hall Park

I was particularly impressed with Zephyr and Angel's Doorway, which benefit from the dirt and noise of live performance. Many of the new songs are placed in New York City, and touch on, or directly evoke the continuing presence of 9/11. And here we were, last night, one block away from ground zero. The flood lights of the site filled the sky beyond the stage where just a few days ago a fire in the partially deconstructed Deutsche Bank building killed two (more) firefighters.

Suzanne ended her performance with the hits Luka and Tom's Diner. I am forever connected to Tom's Diner–as some of you may know–and every time I hear it, I find myself momentarily awash in images and memories of all that has occurred since I came to this city in 1977.



Here's a video about the origin of Tom's Diner.