Chelsea, 26th Street Between Sixth and Seventh Avenues

Mary Sargent © 2009 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

The name of this shop is Transit Culture R.A.A. Can you guess what it is? What it does? I called it a shop because it looks like a 19th century artist's studio, but it's actually a firm. If I read their material correctly, they are a design and branding management firm.

They have a couple of things in common with Peeq (from Wednesday night): they both have mystifying store fronts and they're both involved in branding. If I read their material correctly, Peeq is or was a print shop that has gone digitally into the 21st century and now markets itself as experienced in "helping agencies and marketers develop brands." Plus, they break down barriers. "The barriers between technology, design and production."

I know everyone is either involved in branding or should be – you do know that you should have a personal brand, don't you? I know the Republicans lost the election because they didn't have a brand. But when did all this start? I found The Blake Project, a branding strategy blog, to tell me why ad agencies are no longer the chief brand builders for their clients. For one thing, brand architecture is one of the most important brand issues and yet most ad agencies would have trouble even defining the concept.

Brand architecture. Along with the ad agencies, I have a lot to learn. And given the time, I could learn; there're blogs aplenty out there.

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Chelsea, 26th Street Between Sixth and Seventh Avenues

Mary Sargent © 2009 ……… click to enlarge




Mary Sargent © 2009 ……… click to enlarge

Construction! Didn't find out anything conclusive on the web. I'd have to go back and check out the address to get anywhere, but I'm just going to let it go.

By the way, everyone is referring to this area as Chelsea. That's not right, is it? It shouldn't be right. This neighborhood is nothing like Chelsea. This is mercantile! I thought 7th Avenue was the eastern border. They're saying 6th. Who's right?

I might have to give in and change all these titles and labels.

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Chelsea, 26th Street Between Sixth and Seventh Avenues

Mary Sargent © 2009 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

And I was afraid this was going to be a dull block.




Mary Sargent © 2009 …………………………………….. click to enlarge


Article in New York Magazine, December 8, 2008

“A Revolutionary Reading Room”
“Revolution Books/Libros Revolución, the cheerfully insurrectionist leftist hangout, is perhaps the only place in the city where you can drink coffee, discuss Mao Tse-tung, and pick up a copy of the 2009 Cat Lovers Against the Bomb calendar. Manager Travis Morales—longtime Revolutionary Communist Party member—says the financial meltdown hasn’t hurt the store: “We were packed to the gills for [Maoist political economist] Raymond Lotta’s talk. I’ve heard people on Wall Street are reading The Communist Manifesto to understand how capitalism works.” But surely a bad economy makes for a tough holiday season? “We’re having a sale called Take the Christ Out of Christmas, and the Holy Out of Holiday,” says Morales of one strategy. “Ten percent off all books on atheism and science.”



Mary Sargent © 2009 ……………….. click to enlarge

Oh, no! they don't like Obama! Well, that does it.

But seriously, folks, it looks like they have things worth checking out. Take a look at their website.

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Chelsea, 26th Street Between Sixth and Seventh Avenues

Mary Sargent © 2009 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

Here we have a visual palindrome. That is, it isn't spelled the same backwards as forwards, but it looks the same backwards as forwards. I went to Peeq's website to discover what their technology for the creative mind is, but it isn't something I can easily say to you clearly and succinctly. If you care, you'll have to go yourself.

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Chelsea, 26th Street Between Sixth and Seventh Avenues

Mary Sargent © 2009 …………... click to enlarge

So, you may remember that I had rationalized my way into buying myself a nice lunch, and here, I think I've found just the spot. Tre Dici Ristorante. You know if it calls itself Ristorante, it has an obligation to be nice. And nice it was.

Do notice how the garbage bags echo the colors of the restaurant with their jaunty red ties.

Mary Sargent © 2009 …..........................………... click to enlarge

Ahhhh.

I had butternut squash soup with asparagus, an unusual and good combination; the soup was also unusual in that it was not sweet (thank you!) and the vegetables were in chunks instead of pureed. Very good. And a Caesar salad which was nicely correct.


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Chelsea, 26th Street Between Sixth and Seventh Avenues

Mary Sargent © 2009 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

Two nicer guys you wouldn't want to meet, standing here in front of The Event Space, but they did confirm that they were there to keep people like me from going in.

They were shooting a commercial inside.

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Chelsea, 26th Street Between Sixth and Seventh Avenues

Mary Sargent © 2009 ……..….. click to enlarge

My initial look at 26th Street after I crossed Sixth Avenue led me to conclude that this block was going to be too dull to photograph. Wrong! I can't tell you how often that happens. The first thing I came upon was the Lana Santorelli Gallery. Not only was I surprised to find a gallery on this block, but I was happily surprised to discover that I know someone in the show: Robin Ross. Her work looked great, but it was in the back around the corner and the very nice person, perhaps Lana herself, asked me not to photograph the work, so I can't show it to you. Go to Robin's website, linked above, to see what she does.

This, of course, is a photograph from the outside, which no one can stop me from taking. Unless they ask nicely. Or wag their finger at me. Or look threatening.




Mary Sargent © 2009 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

Here is another man working, just outside the door.

Mary Sargent © 2009 ……. click to enlarge

And here is the gallery from across the street, with another view of men working. Although what they are doing is unclear to me.



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Midtown South, 26th Street Between Broadway and Sixth Avenue

Mary Sargent © 2009 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

There was no recession on East 26th Street this day. I couldn't make my way down the street without walking around or under men working. Notice the ladder on this side of the street, too.

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Midtown South, 26th Street Between Broadway and Sixth Avenue

Mary Sargent © 2009 ……….. click to enlarge

Across the street, this pretty townhouse with plaque, which usually makes me cross the street.



Mary Sargent © 2009 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

I fantasized it was an endowed club for writers. If you were selected, you were free to come here and write in your own room. And although they didn't have a large library, there was free internet access in all rooms. And a kitchen with microwave with some comfy chairs all around, so if you wanted to take a break and chat with other writers, you could.

Can you blame me? But this is what it really is: Writers House, a literary agency. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

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Midtown South, 26th Street Between Broadway and Sixth Avenue

Well, not long after I passed through that door you saw last night, I was out again; it seems that although I thought I had made an appointment online, I had not. Or it had vanished into the ether. Whatever. My rolfer was more distressed than I was. I wasn't at all distressed. I thought, that’s okay, I'll just take my time on this photowalk and then I'll have a nice lunch which won't cost as much as the rolfing would have.

You may remember rolfing from the 80s. It's a type of DEEP tissue massage done to realign the body and make you perfect. As it was described to me back then by someone who had just finished her realignment, it REALLY hurts and my feet grew a size. That did not appeal to me.

However, recently, my walking guy recommended this to me. This is Jonathan FitzGordon, who is teaching me how to walk. It all started with my sciatica, which diligent readers with good memories will remember struck me about two years ago. I am trying to become perfect in an alignment sort of way so as to avoid back surgery. I can endure pain in an effort to avoid back surgery, just not to grow my feet another size.

BUT, it isn't painful. Well, once in a while it is, but not often. Most of the time it's like a quirky massage and you feel like you're being sculpted. Lovely. I love it. And I am becoming perfect. Yep. Brooklyn Rolfing, it is.

Mary Sargent © 2009 ……… click to enlarge

So now I'm walking across 26th Street. This tree seemed like a harbinger of spring, and it was quite a springlike day on Tuesday.

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Chelsea, 26th Street Between Eleventh and Twelfth Avenues

Mary Sargent © 2007 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

Same block, farther down. This photograph depends entirely on those red lights, and why they are red, I do not know, but I promise you they were really that red.

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Chelsea, 26th Street Between Eleventh and Twelfth Avenues

Mary Sargent © 2007 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

Now we're on the most westerly block of 26th Street. I just did what I should have done before I started the gallery photos, which is to go online to get a map of Chelsea galleries. If you take a look at it (be sure to enlarge it or you won't be able to see a thing), you'll see that most of the galleries are massed between 10th and 11th Avenues. But this block, between 11th and 12th, boasts Roebling Hall on the south side and a whole building of galleries on the north side. I didn't get a good shot of Roebling Hall, but you can see its windows just past the van here.

So what about this photo? Well, this is one of my favorite kinds of photograph; in part because its strength depends on its abstract elements rather than on its intrinsic interest. This is a van backed up to a loading dock. Who cares about seeing that?

I like it.

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Chelsea, 26th Street Between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues

Mary Sargent © 2007 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

We've seen the last of the galleries on this walk; now we're looking at galleries yet to be. Can't you just see replacing the metal gate with a nice glass door? Quite an imposing doorway.

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Chelsea, 26th Street Between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues

Mary Sargent © 2007 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

Of the photos I've posted on this walk, this one of the Stephen Haller Gallery shows most clearly the kind of spaces these art galleries took over. The glass door and doorframe are new, but the windows look original and you can just imagine a truck driving through the doorway. Many of the spaces in SoHo were in office buildings and, although wonderful in their own way, were smaller and much tighter, and I'm sure large art was a lot more of a hassle there than it is here.

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Chelsea, 26th Street Between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues

Mary Sargent © 2007 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

Galerie Lelong is on the second floor at 528 West 26th Street. It's the least colorful gallery tonight, except for the human drama being played out (note the suspicious character lurking in the back doorway).

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Chelsea, 26th Street Between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues

Mary Sargent © 2007 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

And here's the James Cohan Gallery. Here's a review of the show you can see a bit of through the front window. I saw a good amount of art through gallery windows, but I didn't actually see it; I was looking at it for photo possibilities. So now I'm thinking I wish I had at least stepped into the entryway to check out that piece that seems to be created around the doorway.

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Chelsea, 26th Street Between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues

Mary Sargent © 2007 …………………………………….. click to enlarge


The Mary Ryan Gallery is downstairs with the red window coverings, having just moved to Chelsea from 57th Street. It is opening on February 27 with Donald Sultan in its first Chelsea show. Upstairs is the George Adams Gallery about which I know nothing. Quick, the internet! Okay, here you go.

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Chelsea, 26th Street Between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues

Mary Sargent © 2007 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

Yes, we'll get to the galleries. One more day. I couldn't let this shot go, could I?

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Chelsea, 26th Street Between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues

Mary Sargent © 2007 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

Chelsea! It's about time. Last Saturday, FL and I went down to see Myra's work in the photography show at New Century. I made sure I had enough time to do a photowalk, because this area is untouched photoblogwise.

And right at the very beginning, on the corner of 26th Street and Tenth Avenue, was this gorgeous gas station (photoblogwise).

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Murray Hill, 26th Street Between Third and Lexington Avenues

Mary Sargent © 2006

Help me out here. I'm thinking that one reason I want to put this photo up is I want to show you the street sign that says Broadway Alley. Please pull out your Manhattan street maps and look closely at 26th Street between Third and Lexington Avenues. You will see such a street (!) faithfully noted. Notice that it is far from Broadway. It seems I will not be able to walk this street. However, that's not what I want help with. I want to know if this works on more than a documentary level. Sometimes it helps to hear other more objective opinions.