NYC Vintage Image Of The Day: Coney Island... No Speedos! 1896

This photo taken during the early summer of 1896 shows the grand modesty of sunbathers in the 19th Century. Not a Speedo in sight!

Hurricane Irene: Sunday National Newspaper P1's Up The Coast

Here's a sampling of Sunday newspaper page 1's from N.C., Va., Md., Penn., and N.Y., focusing on Irene. Respectfully beginning with the most-impacted state, North Carolina...
Virginia...Maryland, Pennsylvania...And New York...(Click on any image to see a larger version.)

Hurricane Irene: Sunday @ 5p... Not Quite Done; No Rain, Winds Howl

Psych! The sun came out, the rains subsided... and then the winds began to howl. News reports say they're reaching 40 mph. It's the most dramatic impact I've seen in NYC from Hurricane Irene, aside from flooding in Manhattan along the river. Below, wind along the Brooklyn Heights Promenade.

Stir crazy. As soon as the rains stopped, the Promenade was teeming with folks.

A view to Manhattan... At last, the sky has cleared.

Hurricane Irene: Sunday @ 2p... NY Media's Hysterical Hurricane Hype

Some "major damage" from Irene, posted by Facebook pals.

Anyone wanna buy a flashlight?

That's one of the many sardonic comments from New Yorkers now rolling their eyes over the sensational 48 hours of media hype surrounding Hurricane Irene. I know, I know: Be thankful it wasn't worse, authorities were trying to keep New Yorkers to stay safe. Yeah, I get it.

But I also watched a wall of coverage on local and national networks that used every melodramatic descriptor to keep viewers tuned in—if not frightened—long after it became clear that the worst New York City was going to endure was steady rain and low-lying flooding.

In Mayor Bloomberg's wrap-up press conference, he was asked how the city was going to deal with Monday's commute, after shutting down public transportation, with no hope for it reopening until tomorrow afternoon. His flippant response: "How does the guy that drives the train get to the train? You're going to have a tough commute tomorrow. You know, there's taxis and some people can walk and that sort of thing."

So perhaps while Bloomie "prepared" for the hurricane, he apparently gave no thought to getting people out of the shelters they were ordered into or getting the city back to normal post-Irene. That's a strategic misstep in my playbook... The worst of the storm is actually the fact that no one can get from here to there for the next 24 hours. In a city with 8 million residents, that is a very big deal.
In my Brooklyn Heights neighborhood, a giant beloved American elm tree was felled by the excess moisture in the ground, reports the Brooklyn Heights Blog. It smashed a brick wall at the apartment building on Hicks Street, and broke a window in the house across the street, but there were no cars parked on the street in its path. Ironically, in 2008, authorities believed the tree was a potential hazard, and neighbors rallied to preserve it.

Hurricane Irene: Brooklyn, Sunday @ 11a... This Bitch Is NYC History

Around 10:30 a.m. Sunday, the sun peaked through, the rain ceased and the Brooklyn Heights Promenade began brimming with folks and their dogs & cameras. Meanwhile, Hurricane Irene's flood waters have pretty much subsided across lower Manhattan.

As the tropical storm approaches Rhode Island, the NYC forecast calls for winds to pick up slightly, but here, this bitch has bitten the dust.

So now, Mayor Bloomberg, instead of bragging about how well you protected the city by forcing 8 million folks in lockdown, explain how everybody you mandated into shelters is now supposed to get home without subways or buses. If it really takes eight hours to restore public transportation service, then get the process rolling right now, so that New York City can return to normal by tomorrow morning. And yet, for the first time all weekend... Bloomie is nowhere to be found.
Hard to see here, but hundreds of birds take refuge on a concrete slab along the East River against Brooklyn.

The extent of the wind damage in Brooklyn. Twigs and leaves sporadically sprinkled about.

Hurricane Irene: Sunday @ 9a... It's All About Flooding In NYC

With rain now battering New York for more than 12 hours, Hurricane Irene is beginning to wreak havoc on the low-lying areas of Manhattan, with the Hudson and East Rivers cresting onto walkways and into the streets (and sadly, buildings) in Battery Park and the Jersey coast facing New York. Wind is no longer an issue in NYC, but the water is getting ugly.

Above is a foggy view looking into Manhattan just before 9 a.m. Sunday. On the Brooklyn side at the bottom of the image, you can see water about to flood over concrete platforms where the future Brooklyn Bridge Park will be built. Fortunately, this view is some 50 feet below the Brooklyn Heights Promenade, so there is little danger of flooding in my nabe.Eerie... The Brooklyn-Queens Expressway on a typical day, left; and before 9 a.m. Sunday.The Brooklyn Heights Promenade before 9 a.m. Sunday. One solitary figure stands in the far distance.

Hurricane Irene: Sunday @ 7a... Best NYC News Images

It's here, it's dear, it's wholly unclear why the news continues to hype the shit out of a big NYC rainstorm, when there's serious damage and power outages in North Carolina and Virginia. News outlets are trying their best to offer dramatic images, but the only sensation here is New York's odd desolation.Spooky! Grand Central Station completely deserted, thanks to NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg's knee-jerk shutdown of all public transportation. This is a first due to a weather-related event.Likewise, the Holland Tunnel and Brooklyn Bridge are practically void of human life.Times Square late Saturday night. Wow, look at that splash. Catastrophic!Bloomberg has left New York City paralyzed until at least Monday afternoon, locking New Yorkers out of any potential exit strategy.You can wrap your van in plastic, but you can't idiot-proof its owner!Workers at a downtown office building in New York prepare for their skyscraper to float away.Shoppers clear the shelves at a New York D'Agastonio grocery Saturday. God knows what we'd do if we couldn't eat everything in the store during the one-day storm.Fear and loathing in the New York tabloid press.

Images: Gawker, NY Daily News, Huffington Post

Sheena Easton: A Rare Newspaper Interview & Amusing Quotes

'Pop music might not be the music somebody wants played at their funeral, but it’s something you’re going to be humming when you’re pushing your Walmart cart.' -Sheena Easton

Sheena Easton performed Friday night at the Parx Casino in Bensalem, Penn. She granted a rare interview to The Times Herald's Mike Morsch. Below is a streamlined take of his article. See the full story here.

In 1981, MTV was in its infancy and Sheena Easton was in her “bad perm” stage. Sounds like the perfect recipe to make a video for a hit record, huh?
“I remember going into EMI in London and (the executive) said, ‘They started this thing in America called MTV, making little films to go with the music,’” said Easton.
The result was a low-budget music video for Easton’s “Morning Train.” That “little film” helped propel the song to No. 1 and kick-start Easton’s pop singing career, despite the fact that the video had virtually no budget, no makeup artist and yes, no hair stylist.
“When I look at that video now, it’s just so horrible,” said Easton is a recent interview from her home in Las Vegas. “But it’s cutely horrible. It was the start of music videos and it sure as heck didn’t hurt the song. It was No. 1 everywhere.”
Now 30 years later, local fans will get a chance to hear Easton belt out “Morning Train” and her other hits at a standing-room-only concert at the Parx Casino’s 360 club in Bensalem. Easton is no stranger to casino gigs. She made a conscious choice several years ago that family was more important than career and she didn’t want to drag her children all over the world. So the Scottish-born singer made Las Vegas her permanent home base.
“It was easier to choose Las Vegas and play eight shows a week in a showroom there,” said Easton, whose two children, a son and a daughter, are now 16 and 15 years old, respectively.
“I did that for a few years until it got old. After a while I decided to work a couple weekends a month. And the easiest way to do that is to travel and do casino gigs.”
Although she’s grown from what she called “an unsophisticated 20-year-old kid” to a woman who “had money to go into stores and buy nice clothes, go to good hairdressers and learn about makeup,” one thing never changed about Sheena Easton: She was a pop singer in the early 1980s and she’s a pop singer now.“If something has universal appeal, like pop music, that’s a good indication you’re going to hear it in elevators for quite some time,” said the now 52-year-old singer. “It might not be the music somebody wants played at their funeral, but it’s something you’re going to be humming when you’re pushing your Walmart cart.”
If that sounds like somewhat of a playful perspective, it is. Easton knows what her fans like. “I’ve never been a believer of doing a concert and your fans going home unhappy because you decided to get all creative and artistic,” she said. “You have to give the audience the hits they paid to come and see. They’re coming to relive memories because they have a real connection to the music."
A two-time Grammy Award-winner, Easton has 13 gold albums and four platinum albums to go along with 15 Top 40 Billboard hits. She has sold more than 4 million albums in the U.S. and 20 million worldwide over the span of her career. “Morning Train” was her first and only No. 1 hit.Over the years, Easton has stayed busy with work on Broadway and in television in addition to casino appearances. In 2004, she was inducted into the Casino Legends Hall of Fame at the Tropicana Resort & Casino.
Easton rose to fame in the early 1980s with hits including “Morning Train," “For Your Eyes Only,” the theme song of the 12th James Bond film of the same name, which was nominated for Best Song of the Year at the 1982 Academy Awards, “Strut,” “Sugar Walls,” “The Lover in Me,” and “U Got the Look.”
And through it all, Easton has stayed true to herself and her goals. “When I work, it’s something I’m choosing to do on my own terms at my own pace,” she said. “It’s not a career, it’s not about having hits, it’s not about going into the studio and recording an album and going out to promote it because it needs to be a hit and the record company needs this and this and this. It’s none of that anymore. This is just about—and it sounds corny to say it—a celebration every time.”

Hurricane Irene: Brooklyn, Sunday @ 5a... Nuttin' Much To See

Went to bed at 11 p.m., with the idea of getting up around 4 a.m. to check out the haughty action of Hurricane Irene as it allegedly begins gritting its teeth in New York City. Nothing to see. I stepped outside and made a quick loop around Brooklyn Heights. It's raining. It's breezy. No water standing, nothing in the least out of the ordinary.

I'm beginning to wonder if newscasters are getting a bonu$ every time they use melodramatic superlatives. Every channel—local and national—is still treating this story as if it's the second coming. And the persistent yammering about "tornadic activity" is becoming giggly. Hype much?

Latest reports: 4" of rain in Central Park, "dangerous winds" into the afternoon. By 8 p.m. tonight, the sun'll come out and everyone in New York will be wondering whatever happened to "The Great Hurricane of 2011." It's an insult to the areas of the East Coast that sustained real damage.

Hurricane Irene: Brooklyn, Saturday @ 10p... Ho Hum, Steady Rain

Ho, hum... It's raining in Brooklyn. Just plain raining. Steadily, but certainly nothing special. Zzzzzz... Where the hell are the 20-40 mph winds that were supposed to start reeling by 8-9 p.m.? I'm getting bored with relentless news reports attempting to scare the bejesus out of the viewing audience... Below, NY Channel 4's eerie image of Times Square... empty.

New York Drama Queens: Inland Businesses Board Up For Storm

My buddies Bob and Tim, who live in New York's Chelsea, took a walk around their nabe this afternoon and captured these pics of melodramatic reactions to Hurricane Irene. Mind you, these businesses are nowhere near the edge of the island of Manhattan.

Hurricane Irene: Brooklyn, Saturday @ 5p... Waiting And Watching

Well, I'll be... As of 5 p.m. Saturday, Hurricane Irene still has her claws set on New York City. The real action is forecast to center on the city from 2 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday, with winds expected to reach 50 mph and gusts as potent as 80 mph, with 6-12 inches of rain.

I took Abby & Spencer for an afternoon walk at 4:30 p.m., as the rain momentarily eased, and there were tons more folks on the Brooklyn Heights Promenade than when I was out an noon. Apparently, the notion that we're trapped at home is enough to keep a parade of peeps checking the action outside.National headlines: * A 2.9 mag earthquake reported near Albany, N.Y.! * Six deaths blamed on Irene: 1 dumb Florida surfer, 3 in N.C., 2 in Va. * Morehead City, N.C., completely blacked out by power outage * Columbia, N.C., reports 20 inches of rain * NY Gov. Cuomo aligns 1,900 National Guard troops * N.Y. airports closed all weekend.Back in Brooklyn: Gray and drizzly, but not anything close to alarming conditions at this point.Below is the center of the hurricane as of 5 p.m., and on the right is NY1's prediction of the worst of Irene's winds, peaking around noon Sunday. I'll keep shooting the scene as long as my bloomers don't blow off.