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W42ST Daily 6/3/2020
Yesterday morning, we created our Black Lives Matter post and switched off social media for the day…
I cycled around New York, trying to make sense of it all. I saw this…
This on 5th Ave…
This at Times Square…
Down in Chelsea (oh, we SO need to dance again)…
Then I headed up to a Hell’s Kitchen rooftop to photograph my friend Shanti’s work (she planted these flower beds months ago, and she’s now upstate working on a farm but wanted to see the beauty she had created).
When I got back home, I saw that our neighborhood restaurants are struggling with the curfew (as if COVID was not enough).
And my favorite HK 7pm applause DJ @hello_jono had gone quiet.
And then… while this was all good intentioned, had we been hoaxed? Was it all a distraction? Read Marcy Harriell‘s full Instagram post for the details.
So, this is what we saw. What did you hear? It’s tough for many of us to work this shit out.
SPONSORED
In half a century, TF Cornerstone (TFC) has transformed the Long Island City waterfront, developed some of the first residential buildings in the Financial District & Hudson Yards, and revitalized the Meatpacking District. TFC continues to cultivate the surrounding community long after a project’s completion date. Learn more…
OFF BROADWAY STORIES
We’re proud that MCC Theater came back to its roots in Hell’s Kitchen. They have a challenge. Their management is all old white dudes like me. They call it: “And by “we” we include ourselves as four white men in positions of power atop a cultural organization in New York City.” MCC produces great work. The Wrong Man moved me when I saw it last year (and in the mass of NYC media, that’s not often). Watch and listen to the at-home performance. It might move you too.
Meanwhile, in case this got lost in all this noise, please listen to how Griffin Matthews has taken a risk to share how he sees Broadway as racist. We watched his brave and passionate video on Instagram, and we transcribed it here. It’s an important issue that might get lost in the noise. No mainstream Broadway media is reporting about it. Please take the time to listen. We all need to listen more.
DAVID & GOLIATH
My friend Max runs Hell’s Creative. It’s a small agency in Hell’s Kitchen with big ideas. It started on the shared tables of Gotham West Market.
Tomorrow we will know whether he and his team are the Davids of the advertising world. They’ve just been nominated in three categories of The Drum US Ad awards – and in one category there are only two nominees: Hell’s Creative and IBM Watson. You remember IBM? They did the Deep Blue chess thing — and Watson did that thing of winning Jeopardy.
Max – we an underdog. You’ve got to win this tomorrow. Hell’s Kitchen is rooting for Hell’s Creative!
WHAT WE’VE BEEN READING
Regular subway and bus services are set to resume next week. Stand clear…
Good news on insurance for small businesses in the UK. Let’s hope this can happen in the US too. Fair play…
The show goes on – how ‘Phantom’ is weathering the pandemic in Seoul. Mask up…
Travel back in time with this video compilation of 1950s NYC street scenes. Nostalgia…
“Being forced to stay in a place I love kind of feels like being forced to eat only cake for an indefinite amount of time; it loses its luster” – why being stuck indoors for weeks on end can change the way you feel about the place you call home. Sweet home…
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