E M P T Y | V E S S E L | P R O J E C T | N E W S # 52 | AUGUST . 23 . 06
We're thinking of running an evening of short lectures, say three lectures of 15-20 mins each, and are soliciting ideas. If you have something to talk about -- maybe a political, artistic, scientific, historical, marine-biological, or astronomical subject that you think the EV community could be interested in -- please send a one-paragraph proposal to
as@emptyvesselprojectREMOVEANTISPAMMEASURE.org.
U P C O M I N G
FRIDAY, AUGUST 25, 8pm ::: Oil Slick Skies and a Concert with
Extra Life
Matt Baldwin
Moth
Zeke Healy
9pm, free, refreshments available
(No Work Day this week)
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 8 p.m. ::: Fritz Lang's METROPOLIS on 16mm (plus music tba)
RUSSIAN CLASSES WILL RESUME THE FIRST WEEK IN OCTOBER.
email
pz@emptyvesselprojectREMOVEANTISPAMMEASURE.org for more info.
Our calendar is at
http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=info%40emptyvesselproject.org
or
http://log.emptyvesselproject.org/view/Main/GoogleCalendar
W H E R E I S T H E B O A T N O W ?
Access to the Empty Vessel is from the west side of 1st Street, one block south of the Carroll Street Bridge over the Gowanus Canal.
We have berthed EV at the disused end of First Street since January 2006. Since our arrival, the street is safer and cleaner. We have created an access point for the public to use the water and a lovely perch to watch the sunset on the relics of gowanus history. Unfortunately, our berthing spot, is in peril. Berthing at the end an unused street is restricted by the City Commissioner and the Dockmaster, an employee of the Department of Small Business Services. They have been very generous to EV and appreciative of the positive impact we have had on First Street. Any day, they may ask us to move.
We have two options - convince them to let us stay or find an equally inviting new perch on the Gowanus edge. Can you help us do either? Your letters have been lovely and we have not been forced to move yet. Keep 'em coming!
You send an email to
dcotto@sbs.nycREMOVEANTISPAMMEASURE.gov, Dockmaster Dennis Cotto, expressing your aproval of EV's berthing and asking him to forward your message on to anyone who has the power to let us stay. Please cc
pz@emptyvesselprojectREMOVEANTISPAMMEASURE.org on your message.
Or you can send tips about a new home for EV to
as@emptyvesselprojectREMOVEANTISPAMMEASURE.org.
For directions by train:
http://www.hopstop.com. We are 3 blocks from the Carroll Street Stop on the F and G trains or the Union stop on the R train.
REFLECTION
By Joseph Conrad, from the first chapter of The Mirror of the Sea (1919).(With thanks to Project Gutenberg for scanning etc.)
*
Landfall and Departure mark the rhythmical swing of a seaman’s life and of a ship’s career. From land to land is the most concise definition of a ship’s earthly fate.
A “Departure” is not what a vain people of landsmen may think. The term “Landfall” is more easily understood; you fall in with the land, and it is a matter of a quick eye and of a clear atmosphere. The Departure is not the ship’s going away from her port any more than the Landfall can be looked upon as the synonym of arrival. But there is this difference in the Departure: that the term does not imply so much a sea event as a definite act entailing a process—-the precise observation of certain landmarks by means of the compass card.
Your Landfall, be it a peculiarly-shaped mountain, a rocky headland, or a stretch of sand-dunes, you meet at first with a single glance. Further recognition will follow in due course; but essentially a Landfall, good or bad, is made and done with at the first cry of “Land ho!” The Departure is distinctly a ceremony of navigation. A ship may have left her port some time before; she may have been at sea, in the fullest sense of the phrase, for days; but, for all that, as long as the coast she was about to leave remained in sight, a southern-going ship of yesterday had not in the sailor’s sense begun the enterprise of a passage.
The taking of Departure, if not the last sight of the land, is, perhaps, the last professional recognition of the land on the part of a sailor. It is the technical, as distinguished from the sentimental, “good-bye.” Henceforth he has done with the coast astern of his ship. It is a matter personal to the man. It is not the ship that takes her departure; the seaman takes his Departure by means of cross-bearings which fix the place of the first tiny pencil-cross on the white expanse of the track-chart, where the ship’s position at noon shall be marked by just such another tiny pencil cross for every day of her passage. And there may be sixty, eighty, any number of these crosses on the ship’s track from land to land. The greatest number in my experience was a hundred and thirty of such crosses from the pilot station at the Sand Heads in the Bay of Bengal to the Scilly’s light. A bad passage. . .
A Departure, the last professional sight of land, is always good, or at least good enough. For, even if the weather be thick, it does not matter much to a ship having all the open sea before her bows. A Landfall may be good or bad. You encompass the earth with one particular spot of it in your eye. In all the devious tracings the course of a sailing-ship leaves upon the white paper of a chart she is always aiming for that one little spot—maybe a small island in the ocean, a single headland upon the long coast of a continent, a lighthouse on a bluff, or simply the peaked form of a mountain like an ant-heap afloat upon the waters. But if you have sighted it on the expected bearing, then that Landfall is good. Fogs, snowstorms, gales thick with clouds and rain—-those are the enemies of good Landfalls.
W I S H L I S T
A free and safe new home.
We hope you can help us find the right person to talk to. There is a place on the Gowanus Canal, a mythical space called Public Place. Public Place is a 6.5-acre city-owned brownfield site situated along the west side of the Canal and bounded by Smith, 5th, and Hoyt Streets. It is bound for redevelopment in service of the community. Check out
http://publicplace.org for some fabulous research into the space and the community by students from New York University's Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service.
We think EV would be a happy boat if we could perch her at the watery edge of this Public Place. Our home at 1st Street, picturesque and convenient as it is, is surely temporary. We would love to align ourselves with the powers deciding the future of Public Place and become part of that future.
This is an appeal. Can you help us find the right person to talk to? Email
as@emptyvesselprojectREMOVEANTISPAMMEASURE.org with your connections or ideas.
H E R O E S
A history of heroes:
Danny, GDM, Captain Jim, Fictional Company, Ed, Michael, Madagascar Institute, Cindy Vanden Bosch, Dirty Fingers, Porkchop, northguineahills, Front Room Gallery, DJ Olive, Steven, Ed and Brooke, Paris 1968, Corey and the Free Store, Christian, Mike Topper, Alisa Blanter, Jesse Green, Leo Raphaely, Peter Field, Jeff Stark, Stephen, Lee Azzarello, Nathan,
ToddP?, Dan and Elizabeth, Trevor, Brian Spinks, Andy Baker, Shellshag (Jen and Shell), Urban Stitch (Alessandro and William), Paul Ford, Bez, Brian, Alex Lucas, Leah Beeferman, Brent Arnould, The Daniel Carter Quartet, Estee Pierce, Alison Prete, Jason Enghert, Rosie Weinberg, Johns Manville, Black Label Bike Club, New York Harbor School, Eric Forman, Gregory Zaslavsky, Leslie Stem, Andres Colapinto, Anney Fresh, Justin Green,
BuildItGreen?, Mojo Fine Art Moving, Dave Sharps, David & Sharon Lefkowitz Hannah Marcus, Ruban, Cameron Hull, Bill Wasik, Alyssa Abeta & Zeb Stewart of Union Pool, Dylan Gauthier, Arnie at the Puppet Lending Library, Josh Weinstein, Dept. of Transportation Bridge operators, The Doctor, Erica Freas, Chris Leo, Susanna Conaway & because designs, Iris Lasn, Miss Rockaway Armada, Imaginary People, Watersports, Dedrabbit
W H A T I S T H I S ?
The Empty Vessel Project is an action, art, and sustainability experiment. We salvaged EV, a WWII rescue boat, to create a space for re-imagining the post-industrial urban environment. We are a non-profit, volunteer-run organization and encourage participation on all levels.
EV is moored on Brooklyn's Gowanus Canal. The boat is our first project. We invite you to come join us on board to work and play.
We host work parties, movie nights, seminars, concerts, dinners, and workshops. The Empty Vessel is available to realize your dreams and schemes.
This newsletter is your guide. It appears in your in box each week, listing events and tracking changes. Can it be better? Contact
svm@emptyvesselprojectREMOVEANTISPAMMEASURE.org with suggestions.
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AlexScrimgeour - 23 Aug 2006
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