September 02, 2008
Graffiti on Morton Street
Graffiti on Morton Street
Originally uploaded by Oliver Ryan.
By Hub Station.
Posted by oliver at 04:55 PM
August 22, 2008
Lauras's birthday
Lauras's birthday
Originally uploaded by Oliver Ryan.
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Posted by oliver at 05:48 PM
August 19, 2008
Mambo Lobster
It was meant to be a small dinner party with a Cubano theme, but one thing led to another. Freddy and Amy came from New York to salsa dance, and we served paella for about 100. Most amazing: all the gringos mamboed under the moonlight for hours. Here are a few albums....
Posted by oliver at 09:43 AM
August 13, 2008
George
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Originally uploaded by Oliver Ryan.
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Posted by oliver at 02:52 PM
Cole
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Originally uploaded by Oliver Ryan.
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Posted by oliver at 02:52 PM
August 11, 2008
Wild Turkeys by the Hammock
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Originally uploaded by Oliver Ryan.
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Posted by oliver at 11:21 AM
August 07, 2008
James street
James street
Originally uploaded by Oliver Ryan.
Across the street from st James church, saved in 1986 by the ancient order of hibernians.
Posted by oliver at 08:46 PM
St. James Church
Saved by the Ancient Order of Hibernians. A great spot for these old timers to drink beer and get high on a summer's evening.
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Originally uploaded by Oliver Ryan.
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Posted by oliver at 08:43 PM
The "Cheapest Building in Manhattan"
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Eight apartments and three retail storefronts. 45 feet wide, and 25 deep. Listed for $2.3 million. And there's a reason for that.
Originally uploaded by Oliver Ryan.
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Posted by oliver at 08:43 PM
James street
James street
Originally uploaded by Oliver Ryan.
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Posted by oliver at 08:42 PM
August 04, 2008
Yoga Studio at MePa Equinox
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Originally uploaded by Oliver Ryan.
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Posted by oliver at 01:31 PM
July 31, 2008
Catalina at Emilly Keeton's Birthay.
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At Billymark's, and featuring Jackie Pepper, God's Gift to Show Business.
Originally uploaded by Oliver Ryan.
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Posted by oliver at 11:30 PM
July 24, 2008
Nadia Zaki
Nadia Zaki
Originally uploaded by Oliver Ryan.
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Posted by oliver at 01:34 PM
July 21, 2008
Leo
Leo
Originally uploaded by Oliver Ryan.
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Posted by oliver at 07:13 PM
July 16, 2008
Clubland
I wrote this story in 2004 while still in journalism school, but never posted it. Since then, some of the clubs mentioned, including Crobar and Mehanata, have closed, reopened, and closed again. What this means exactly is hard to say, but I think the premise of the story remains interesting, and better to publish late than never!
New York City
Spring 2004
Among the electronic dance music “heads” in New York, Paul McKinley is known as “The Professor.” It’s an endearment he picked up during the years he was a regular at Twilo, the last undisputed champion of New York City nightclubs. McKinley now lives in Salt Lake City, but he flew back on March 12th to see Sasha and John Digweed play at Crobar, the new nightclub in West Chelsea. It had been nearly three years since the Giuliani administration closed Twilo and thus ended the renowned British DJs legendary dance sets at the club. For McKinley, as for the rest of the Twilo Diaspora, the return of Sasha and Digweed to a big New York club was a portentous event, and he was inside Crobar by 10:00pm in his trademark faded peach tennis visor, a dark t-shirt, and sneakers.
“It’s like a reunion,” he said noting the many faces in the crowd familiar from Twilo nights long past. The old guard was impressed with the new club. Crobar’s owners, Callin Fortis and Ken Smith, spent $18 million to transform the 30,000 square foot space on West 28th street which was once the staging area for the Macys Thanksgiving Day Parade balloons. The club’s dominant motif is polished concrete, and the feel remains industrial, high tech but raw. A tunnel with sunken lights leads unsuspecting first-timers to the cavernous main dance area where exposed steel girders arc cathedral-like over a profusion of spotlights and an enormous disco ball.
“It’s not all glam and Disneyfied,” said McKinley approvingly. “It’s a warehouse.”
Around midnight on Friday, with a capacity crowd of nearly 3,000 jammed into the main dance area, a steady, expectant bass began to build in the massive Phazon sound system. Eight robotic light clusters descended in unison from the ceiling like so many black widow spiders, each spinning freely on two axes and flashing colored beams. Squeezing through the crush of bodies, McKinley smiled as he felt the hair on his arms rise and fall with each beat.
“That’s the feeling of Twilo,” he said, and looking up he noticed that Digweed had just begun his first set.
Posted by oliver at 02:49 PM