More Gay Pride parade, love the old punk dude! Check out his spike of hair, and those boots! How many piercings do you suppose are lurking under that clothing? He certainly is overdressed in comparison to the boys on the Proud Few float. Gotta say, they were playing some fantastic music. And those three in the center, red hot pants, white hot pants, and the shirtless one, can dance!

As promised, here are the first of the images from yesterday's Gay Pride Parade on Fifth Avenue. Not the waterfront, but after turning west on Ninth Street, it certainly ended up there. I hadn't planned on going, I was uptown for a meeting and got caught up in it on my way home. And since this is the 40th anniversary of Stonewall and I've had lots of gay friends, I'd like to take a few days to posts some photos.

So, before I show you the photos I took at the Gay Pride Parade today, here's one last look at Chelsea and the Meatpacking District, seen this time from the water. On the very far left is the Sanitation pier, those white umbrellas are on a small dock that's got a playground on it, and the odd rounded shape along the waterfront to the right is a walkway that faces the Lackawanna terminal across the river. The building in the distance with the water towers is on 26th Street and the big blue double building where the High Line ends. Then it becomes the Village.

Wrapping up your mini-tour of the waterfront Chelsea/Meatpacking area. This is the Sanitation pier viewed from the south and taken that same day as the rest of the images of the New Jersey fire. A couple of helicopters are in the air, and there are lots of garbage trucks parked on the pier. You can also see the rounded end of the abandoned pier 57.

Same rocks shot from two sides, the top was taken through the fence in the image below, which is familiar because I posted one very similar recently. The top also shows the edge of yesterday's Sanitation pier, while the lower one not only shows the abandoned pier 57, the golfing range nets of pier 59, a bit of the Geary and it's patchwork window neighbor, but also the rusty old Cunard archway and pier 54 as well.

Two more images from the day of the Jersey fire that I posted Saturday. The left view is slightly north and east shot from pier 54, the Geary is behind the building with the Moet sign; and there's the High Line again, cutting through the brick building. Below is the Sanitation pier, directly south of pier 54's fence, where they keep sand for snowy weather, among many other odd things.

Across the West Side Highway from pier 54 is this scene of the Meat Packing District. There's the High Line, note the two different metal work sections, the plainer is probably repairs. Lots of architectural eras are represented, with some contemporary graffiti and a couple stinky delivery trucks. By the way, you could walk through this area with your eyes shut and know where you were because of that smell.

Front and back of the old Cunard archway at the entrance of pier 54 and whatever structure used to be there. Are you bored yet? Sorry, I find it fascinating. I stroll along on my walks home through history; so much of New York got demolished to make way for progress but this is proof that something else was here before the boutiques and galleries. And I got a schedule for the free films that will be shown on the pier this summer, I'd watch Iron Man again, or Dark Knight, but I haven't seen Vicky Christina Barcelona yet, so that's probably the one.

These are close up shots of pier 54, which I've been told had, at one point, a building similar to the ones on the abandoned pier 57 as well as the one at Houston Street. Looking at the bottom image, you can see that something used to be there. Now they use it for outdoor concerts, and from time to time, films, like a drive-in. I've never been, but I think I'll go the next time I hear about it.

This is the view looking south from the lower edge of the abandoned pier 57 below the Chelsea Piers Sports Complex, it would be on the right if I had included it in the photo. These mooring posts are visible in the bottom image from yesterday. What is beyond them is what's left of pier 54, which will be the focus for the next couple days. There's also the Lackawanna tower across the river, and those cranes are on the Sanitation Department's pier, which I'll save from another day.

These two photos were taken from pier 54, which will be our next stop, on the day I went to check out the new location of the gallery I now work at after I had my interview in its previous site. On my way home I watched this fire in Jersey, and caught the rounded back deck of the abandoned pier that was featured in last Sunday's and then Monday's Chelsea Piers Sports Complex posts.

I know, the Geary again, I just can't help myself since it's so different from every angle. Wait until I finally get on top of the High Line and shoot it from there, if it ever stops raining, hopefully at night so you can see how incredible it is lit up. But the real reason I'm posting this now is the Geary is directly across the street from pier 59, where the Titanic was supposed to dock, and all this time I've looked at it and seen clouds or waves when, here's a big Ah Ha, in fact it's an iceberg.

Inside the Chelsea Piers Complex, with all the restaurants and shops and various sports related venues, even including a fancy gym for kids, is a wall of giant historical photos that show important events that happened in the area. This blue sign to the right appears in the image below, I believe those people are waiting on the other side of what is now the West Side Highway.

So when I was over at Chelsea Piers the first time taking pictures and not paying attention, I thought this was pier 59 when I later looked at the images. It's actually pier 60, the next one up, heading north. Looks a lot like my beloved Houston Street pier, and even the abandoned one from Sunday and Monday. They put in new windows obviously, and those steps are for boarding cruise ships that dock there occasionally.

My mistake, the netting IS all about the golfing range. These are not my photos, but I did fiddle with them, ever the perfectionist. After walking around the piers on my way home today, sadly without my camera, I pulled these off their website. It's hard to see them, but that building to the right is a four story rabbit warren of climate controlled spaces like the one below for golfers to whack at balls to their hearts' content. What I found most amazing is this is the actual pier 59! Turned into a golfing range. Today it was surrounded by dozens of yachts which are docked around it, including one very large cruiser that was moored at the end

of the pier sideways, like the Titanic might have been if it had arrived.

This is the southernmost part of the Chelsea Piers Complex, to the left, in the background, is the abandoned pier from yesterday's post. The netting goes higher than the top of the photo and is there because most of the Complex is sports related and has a golfing range, imagine that, and the netting has something to do with it. I used to think the range was inside the mesh when I looked at it from the street, but once I got inside and saw all these boats, I realized I must have been mistaken.

Enough yammering about the High Line, let's get back to the waterfront. Both of these are familiar subjects, but I wanted to give you a sense of place before I start yammering about the Titanic. That's the Geary again seen from Cunard's pier 54, with it's ruined  dock. The grey box to the left is the southside of the abandoned pier 57, its northside seen below facing the revitalized Chelsea Piers complex.

A familiar scene, but pretty. One can see this view from the newly opened High Line, so perhaps I'll be shooting it from there as well. I tried to get on it this evening, but there's only one entrance, lots of exits, but one entrance until they have a sense of how many people can be on it at the same time, and they're doing a head count at 12th Street. Which means I'd have to walk from 25th to 12th and then back up to 20th on the High Line only to get off and walk down from 20th all over again. Which adds another mile to my two mile walk home. 

Girl's got the High Line fever! Perhaps it's that I love all that's Chelsea. Like many downtowners, I'm excited about this bit of history in the making. This is the Meat Packing District end, if you look closely at the corner, you can see two types of iron work meet. The image on the right shows how it's chopped off, the bottom shows how they repaired the building where the tracks had run through.

The top picture is from the hey day of the High Line as a train roars through what was the headquarters of the electrical company (or so I'm told) on its way downtown. This is separate from the section that opened last night, and it ends at the corner of the building. I'll take some photos soon, but interestingly enough, I've posted the image below because it's one of my favorite shots without realizing it's the west side of the same structure, now an artist co-op called Westbeth.

Another view of the High Line on the block where I work. This image gives me vertigo. See how it passes between those buildings? In some places, it goes through them. And in some others, the passageway has been sealed up and there's just a bridge to nowhere. It turns out only part of the High Line opened today, the section below the fabulous Geary building. Too many people up there for me, I'm a touch phobic about bridges anyway, but I'll get there with my camera, eventually.

Two views of the same piece of the High Line on the street where I work. I heard on the news today that the official opening of the park being made along the High Line is tomorrow. It's hard to believe because so much of it is under construction, but I'll be walking on it as soon as I can since I'm so intrigued by it. Part of what's so interesting is how different the details in the ironwork is from 

section to section. It was built in the 30's to move freight along the harbor and to alleviate some of the street traffic. It never caught on, the Great Depression didn't help, and the whole thing was almost torn down in the 70's. I followed it down the other evening and found the terminus, where the park is, is not the real end of it, there's still a chunk of it cuts through the Westbeth building. Pictures are coming.

A whole bunch of interesting stuff going on here besides a New York mess. That's a piece of the High Line train track for one, and the Revs Cost graffiti has been there since the 80's. Look how big it is, that's a standard window in the E. Anybody up for construction site sushi?

Since yesterday's post about Banksy got so much reaction, here are the other two rainy day men from the series. I'm intrigued that they have been there for months now and nobody has come along and tagged on them or even on the wall they're on, although if you look on the left, somebody has repainted the blue around the figure, so maybe I missed some other handiwork. 

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There is some lettering in red between two of these figures, the one with the windows and the one from yesterday, that spells Vandal, but I don't know if Banksy did that too or a member of his fanclub. If you look at the two posts together, you see them in the order they appear with yesterday's on the right. Perhaps I'll do graffiti again tomorrow, maybe not make a week of it, though I can if I choose to.

If you are not a follower of the current art scene, you might think this is a clever bit of graffiti about the weather we're having in New York. And you're right, it is clever and graffiti reflecting how rainy it is here. But it is also, I believe, since it's not signed, from a three part series of men with umbrellas that were painted along a wall off Bleecker Street by the anonymous Banksy. They were done at the same time he/she painted an enormous rat on the side of a building on Houston that got a great deal of insider attention until it was painted over with an ad for a jewelry store a week later. Commerce trumps Art once again.

Generally this view has a gazillion of the old pier posts poking a foot or two out of the water. It's not that pretty or I'd show you an image of that as well. But a good reference for size are the big fat Canadian geese roosting on the only high and dry sanctuary available to them.

Raining again, here in New York, I should know since I had to schlep out in it to see the doctor again. Fever's down to 100' but I have itchy spots all over me, including several on my face. I ended up seeing his PA, who sent me to the in-office dermatologist, who wasn't sure what it was either but gave me a salve. Then my doctor, after seeing their reports, called me at home and said to stop the Tamiflu since the fever was low enough for just Advil. I should have insisted on seeing him to begin with, but another Tamiflu side effect is irritability, which I had in spades, and I didn't want to make a big scene. Well, actually, I did. 

Slightly different angles of the same view showing how much the water level on the Hudson changes. The beam in the waves to the right indicates how high it can get, if you look where the water and rocks meet the wall, you can see a spiky shadow that's in the bottom photo too. Rising above the algae line, the water also ebbs lower. Can you see the pair of geese eating in the bottom image? 

Another Lackawanna-Erie sunset, I like how those lights on its tower play so nicely with the two bright spots in the black row of waterfront buildings to the right. And by the way, I staggered to the doctor today with my headache and 102 fever and was told I had the flu even though I didn't have congestion or nausea. I got there before they had a chance to develop it seems. Eat if you get this, it helps. And sleep, obviously.