Inspirations from NYC: Part 3 - Northern Soul at the Union Pool
The second half of our trip turned nocturnal. Friday night we closed down the dance floor at the Union Pool, a hip bar in north brooklyn complete with two rooms for bootie shaking, fire pit and taco truck. What else do you need?
Inspirations from NYC: Part 2 - Heaven for Muppet Junkies
The massive campaign to promote the new muppet movie made New York a heavenly place for muppet junkies like my family. Beyond the ads everywhere, we found a Jim Henson exhibition at the Museum of Moving Images in Queens.
The Museum of Moving Images is a must see for any pop culture junky. It features costumes, props and stories from the greatest movies and tv shows in history.
Jim Henson’s Fantastic World exhibit opened me up to his work beyond muppets. I mean there was plenty of muppets happening (bert & ernie, rolph, fraggles, etc.), but it was his earlier work in film and commercials, and the process documentation that I found most fascinating.
If you’ve seen any of my bolg, you know that I’m a total muppet junkie. Seeing the sketches of character development (like big bird above) and storyboards of hilarious short films (watch Time Piece) and commercials broadened my admiration of Jim Henson’s genius.
Inspirations from NYC: Part 1 - Warhol and Steak
In our recent trip to New York, I was reminded that there is inspiration everywhere. Friday night we were lucky to stumble upon the Pink Pony on our tear through the lower east side.
While waiting to be seating, I found this huge book about Andy Warhol. I’ve always been a bit skeptical of Warhol and pop art in general. As a graphic designer, the reuse of commercial art for fine art has always given me a stink face.
A quick flip through Giant provided a visual look at Warhol’s path, including his time as a commercial artist. It popped my ignorance bubble and validated a lot of his pop concepts by showing his insanely in depth studies of anything he found beautiful… many of those revolving around repetition. I was reminded of my long nights in design school endlessly sketching subjects in search of insight.
Also… the food and ambience at the Pink Pony was perfect… including the trippy backward mirror.
Future Shock Bike Crew, Queens, NY
Check out this crew of hoodlums that roll around Queens with crazy huge systems built onto their bikes. Read more at ReedYoung.com.
Turned out great as always Reed and crew! Totally worth the headache of dealing with badass high school kids!
