Turning Japanese

Three weeks ago, I saw this beautiful Japanese woman clad in traditional, authentic kimono in SOHO, and she graciously posed for a photo.

The CHRYSLER BUILDING Crown

On a clear, pleasant late afternoon before sunset, I made these images of the art deco ornamentation at the crown of the Chrysler Building. In one of the images, the crown is reflected on the glass siding of another building. The Chrysler Building is an Art Deco skyscraper in New York City, located on the east side of Manhattan at the intersection of 42nd Street and Lexington Avenue. (From wikipedia): Standing at 319 meters (1,047 ft), the Chrysler Building was designed by architect William Van Alen to house the Chrysler Corporation. The easily recognizable crown is composed of seven radiating terraced arches, Van Alen's design of the crown is a cruciform groin vault constructed into seven concentric members with transitioning set-backs, mounted up one behind each other.[30] The stainless-steel cladding is ribbed and riveted in a radiating pattern with many triangular vaulted windows, transitioning into smaller segments of the seven narrow set-backs of the facade of the terraced crown. The entire crown is clad with silvery "Enduro KA-2" metal, an austenitic stainless steel developed in Germany by Krupp and marketed under the trade name "Nirosta" (a German acronym for nichtrostender Stahl, meaning "rust-proof steel"). As an iconic part of the New York City skyline, the Chrysler Building has been depicted countlessly in almost every medium—film, photography, video games, art, advertising, music, literature, and even fashion, as its use quickly establishes without doubt the location in which the depicted events are occurring.

DIVERSITY at A and F: ABERCROMBIE & FITCH GREETER

Abercrombie & Fitch Co. is a clothing retailer marketing to young adults, teenagers and children. It employs over 22,000 employees, most of whom are college-age adults, in over 700 stores throughout the United States. According to afjustice.com, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California granted final approval to a settlement of the class action lawsuit Gonzalez v. Abercrombie & Fitch on April 14, 2005. The settlement requires A & F to pay $40 million dollars to Latino, African American, Asian American and female applicants and employees who charged the company with discrimination. The settlement also requires the company to institute a range of policies and programs to promote diversity among its workforce and to prevent discrimination based on race or gender.

The lawsuit alleged that the retail giant hires a disproportionately white sales force, favors white employees for the best positions, and discourages minorities from even applying for jobs. "The greeters and the people that worked in the in-season clothing, most of them white, if not all of them, were white," says one former employee. "The people that worked in the stock room, where nobody sees them, were mostly Asian-American, Filipino, Mexican, Latino."

In its Fifth Avenue flagship store, racially diverse employees are quite visible, including the greeter pictured above. The four-story, 36,000-square- foot retail store is located at 720 Fifth Avenue.

TAKASHI MURAKAMI'S OVAL BUDDHA

This is TAKASHI MURAKAMI's "OVAL BUDDHA," a huge piece of sculpture on view at the indoor public sculpture garden at 590 Madison Avenue facing 56th Street. It weighs 6,613 lbs. and more than 18 1/2 feet tall, and was originally intended for exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum. Because it couldn't fit into the Brooklyn Museum, the sculpture was then taken to its present location in midtown Manhattan. The quirky steel and aluminum sculpture is covered with platinum leaf and "reflects the artist's evolving body, mind, and spirit and his continuing exploration of his cultural, national, religious, and artistic reality." Murakami is is a prolific contemporary Japanese artist who works in both fine arts media, such as painting, as well as digital and commercial media. He attempts to blur the boundaries between high and low art, and makes his art available to different kinds of items including limited edition Louis Vuitton handbags.

The sculpture plaza is free and open to the public, and has plenty of tables for a brown-bag lunch. "Oval Buddha" will remain in Midtown until September 7. The Brooklyn exhibition will close July 13. On June 1, Louis Vuitton will launch Murakami's new Monogramouflage line at the museum.

Philippine Independence Day Parade 2008 New York http://bp1.blogger.com/_CwSYMd9KuCE/SEUv7ETCnaI/AAAAAAAABUY/nlxisFHzv2E/s1600-h/DSC_3419.jpgCity

video from jimfan155

The Philippine Independence Day Parade took place on Madison Avenue last Sunday in celebration of Philippine Independence on June 12. Featured at the celebration were young artists including singer Charice Pempengco and Broadway star Ali Ewoldt. The Philippine Independence Day Parade, like any major New York City parades, has a set schedule for its annual celebration. Its usual slot is the first Sunday of June. Since its inception in 1993, the parade has steadily garnered attention not only from the Filipino American community, also from the general population of the New York metropolitan area. A cultural show follows the parade.

AMERICAN IDOLatry: David Cook and David Archuleta on NBC's TODAY SHOW

The crowds packed the Rockefeller Plaza outside NBC's Today Show studio last May 29 to get a glimpse of this year's American Idol winner David Cook and runner-up David Archuleta. Cook performed 'Time Of My Life' and Archuleta sang 'Think Of Me.' They also signed autographs for the fans that showed up for the Today Show's concert series.