missing
A BUTCHER'S #68
A BUTCHER’S hook/look (Cockney rhyming slang)
car was
There used to be gas/petrol stations all along East Houston St. - at least 8 that I can think of. Now there are none - and as you can imagine, it’s really hard to fill up in New York, almost impossible in downtown Manhattan.
The ‘all new concept’ carwas(h) on East Houston & Broadway in 1984 provided a whale of a wash! (as the sign says)
The new bike lanes and the lack of parking, made not having a car in the city less painful - even though there are times I really miss it! After all, I’d had various old ‘fix it on the street’ cars in the city for over 20 years - loved it, but don’t need it.
removed
I was living in Rome for a bit in 1988 and while roaming around museums, I gravitated toward the empty frames where the work had been removed for restoration. So what if I made a postcard of the empty frame where the painting had been?
Having seen enough paintings of the Madonna & Child and given the shape of the frame, you can almost imagine the missing painting in your mind.
It’s not painted over - I physically removed the image from the original postcard by removing the top layer, then painted the space to match the background.
not there
Triskaidekaphobia is the superstitious fear of the number 13 that has led to many buildings in New York not having a 13th floor. Why? Many people just don’t want to live or work on the 13th floor. Of course it’s all in the labeling, but the elevators go from 12th to the 14th floor.
I found this elevator panel in the 2010 building on the corner of Ludlow St — not that old, so triskaidekaphobia is clearly still a thing. Funnily enough, the building next door actually labels its 13th floor.
lost and found
A fantastic exhibition in Rome last summer was of over 100 art pieces dating from 9th century BC to the 3rd century AD, recovered in the last 3 years that were stolen/illegally sold, both at auction and privately. Some were small, some huge but whatever size, it’s hard to believe that there are people out there who had this incredible stuff in their homes - from giant Etruscan painted vases, tomb headstones, Roman bronzes, just too much. And a lot of it was recovered from New York.
The Carabinieri Art Recovery Unit stated: “In fifty-five years of operation, we have recovered over three million works of art. Yet our database still contains 1.3 million missing items, and now artificial intelligence is helping us find them.”
missing you
and from the distant past a 1909 postcard message to Arthur from E.S.
missing - at the pump on Houston on weekends the gas station sent out guys to pinch batteries in Soho. How stupid to connect a car horn to a battery? High Art = CAR WAS 6 red buttons on a roll out All New Concept in which the draftsman reduces the letter size on PRESSure at the margin. Empty frame or missing image? The public order: what if An uncle has what's missing and his son has what's shown? Do they keep the peace through a trade?