Spiral

My good friend John bent me some metal into a spiral for my hanging sculpture. Until I have time to put everything together, I have hung the spiral at the foot of my bed. It is the first thing I see in the morning, after the cat. Those bits of plastic are remnants of an earlier version of the sculpture.

I was up near the Hotel New Yorker today and the Tesla tag is still there.

You can see John's metalwork at this site http://laidman.com/

Visitation - Nicolas Tesla part II

I went out last Saturday to hang the pictures of Tesla. After all the difficulties I had with his picture and the weather, this trip was effortless. The morning light was excellent and the wind was not too strong.
I made a mistake looking for Tesla's South Fifth Avenue laboratory. The address was where West Broadway is today. I put his picture on regular Fifth Avenue. On the bright side, he might have strolled up that way back in the day. And considering a fire destroyed his Fifth Avenue laboratory along with his research on x-rays, he might have preferred a place with better memories.

It was very pretty by 10th Street with all the trees in bloom. I do not think it is so nice on West Broadway.

The lab where Tesla worked on Houston Street is gone, an ugly modern building with a Bank of America is there. Across the street is the Puck building which was there when Tesla's mechanical resonance experiments were disturbing the neighbors.

He had to smash the electromechanical ocillators with a sledgehammer when those experiments got out of control. I guess that didn't help his reputation for madness.

I think that Tesla would have liked all the modern changes to the city.

I could not resist this plastic sheeting in the rising sun.

It was oddly symbolic for an Easter morning.

There is a commemorative plaque to Tesla at the Radio Wave Building which was called the Hotel Gerlach when he lived there. I did not really search out the plaque, but it is visible on the lower left, behind the tattered strapping tape on the pole.

There are NYPD signs promising security cameras along the street.

The Hotel New Yorker has maintained its art deco elegance in spite of its age. Tesla spent his last years here, alone and with little money.

I am sure he would be surprised by the change to Penn Station.

It is usually so busy here. I wonder if that frenetic energy is what drew him here.

Or maybe it was the view.

Spring Interlude

I had wanted to do the Tesla visit over the weekend. Then the weather turned foul and I came down with a cold. Although it would have been fitting to hang his picture during a lightning storm, I regretfully put my plans off for another week.


Spring has finally started to creep in. The forsythia are in full force and there are even some early cherry blossoms.


The budding trees are what catch my heart right now. It is my favorite moment, just before all the trees burst into flowers and leaves.


The mornings are cold and the weather is fickle (as noted earlier). The trees are still grey but with so much potential.


The red buds don't even flower, they turn into leaves.



They are more like fleurettes, than buds. I can't remember if they fall to the ground or if the leaf unfurls from them. I will have to keep an eye on them to see.


My favorite is the pear tree. It is so delicate with its white buds folded up in pale green, like stuff for a wedding veil.


In a few days, this will be a canopy of frothy white, which I also like. In fact there is little about spring that I dislike.