November 12th: Downtown Magazine hosted, Brokers, buyers, personalities, and press gathered at 17 State Street for the Premiere Showing for 77 Greenwich, a luxury tower rising out of Tribeca. The event, which took place in a fully furnished model apartment, also featured a scale model of the building. Representatives of Trinity Place Holdings gave a presentation, showing off the final product to interested parties.
Guests were treated to hors d’oeuvres and desserts from Ladurée off of their new vegan menu, as well as a delicious white wine from Oceano. One lucky attendee, Cristy Kaur from Merrill Lynch, won a door prize, a $700.00 hair makeover from NYC Fashion Hair Stylist David Cotteblanche.
77 Greenwich will be a 500 ft tall, 42-story, environmentally sustainable haven with a stepped-glass curtain wall facade that offers each of its 90 condominiums stunning views of New York Harbor or the Hudson River. Besides the 14-floor elementary school, the tower will feature a raised outdoor dog park, a 3,600-ft rooftop garden, as well as shared amenity spaces on in the 41st and 42nd floors, including a catering kitchen, a private dining area, and children’s activity room.
IIDA NY’s Color Invasion 2019; Photographs by Johnny Wolf.
Just last week, the International Interior Design Association’s New York Chapter (IIDA NY) hosted their 17th-annual Color Invasion event to record-breaking success at Center415. With over 1,500 attendees, the design and architecture community came out in full force for this year’s Sweet Dreams-themed affair. Aptly decked out in fancy and imaginative pajamas, party-goers helped to support the local chapter’s initiatives and the Pajama Program, a non-profit organization dedicated to delivering pajamas and books to at-risk children in the hopes of creating “Good Nights for Better Days” for kids in need of a positive bedtime experience.
IIDA NY’s Color Invasion 2019; Photographs by Johnny Wolf. IIDA NY’s Color Invasion 2019; Photographs by Johnny Wolf.
Just as dreams are rooted in the subconscious, this year’s Sweet Dreams event was a fantastical landscape brought to life. From the Beauty Bar (sponsored by Mercer Hamilton) with its plethora of lashes, braids, eye gems, and tattoos, to an Andy Warhol-inspired Pillow Room (sponsored by Maars Walls), and a Bed Sheet Maze (sponsored by Carnegie) that instantly recalled the haphazard fort-building fun many of us experienced as kids, there was no end in sight to imagination gone wild. In addition, a meandering enchanted forest led to catering stations including a Bed Buffet (sponsored by ProSec), a party-sized Cereal Bar (sponsored by InsideSource), and Raid the Fridge (sponsored by Framery)—an area chock-full of party favorites such as mini personal pizzas, sesame noodles in Chinese take-out containers, and meatloaf sandwiches.
Guests danced the night away to the tunes of one metallic glitter-covered Sandman DJ (sponsored by Milliken) under a full moon and with the help of some liquid courage provided by the Under the Stars Bars (sponsored by Arper and Clarus). While Moon Lyre dancers weaved through the party, various other sections drew crowds. The Movie Theatre, Concession, and Bar (sponsored by Andreu World and NJM), offered an escape from the crowds with incredible dream sequences being played out on the big screen. Meanwhile, The Cloud Room (sponsored by Humanscale), was a serene sky-like space enhanced by a dancing cloud that brought the otherworldy-like feel to life.
Around the corner, a Psychedelic Dream Room (sponsored by Urban Office, Infinium, and Svend Nielsen) offered live music, a black-light experience, and so much more. All in all, it was a master class in how to throw an imaginative, sensory-filled party. It also happened to yield approximately 2,000 units of pajamas and books ready for donation in support of the program. To donate or read more about Pajama Program, please click here.
Paradoxity, which opened at 10 Greene Street, SoHo October 24 and runs through November 24, invites guests to venture urban life with a theme of paradox.
Influencer Karina Blackwood at Paradoxity, Photo Courtesy of Sandy Fan
Paradoxity, meaning “paradox in the city,” uses city as a prototype.
Paradoxity features four large settings, Nowhere Station, Green Pollution, Transparent Bathroom, and Addictive Office. These four settings, respectively, illustrate the ideas of the sense of being lost in life, environmental issues, privacy and sexuality issues, and working pressure.
Influencer Carty Caruso at Paradoxity, Photo Courtesy of Sandy Fan
Paradoxity is more than a space for “Instagram-friendly” pictures.
Throughout the exhibition, designers embed their reflections upon both the ever-busy city life and the humanities through a variety of visual devices and plenty of interactive installations. While encouraging its audience to interact with the installations, the team at Paradoxity also prompts the audience to explore these issues further and arrive at a new understanding of their city.
All designs are created by student designers from the Top 4 Design Schools in NYC.
This exhibition is organized by the four art schools’ CSSAs (Chinese Students and Scholars Associations in Pratt Institute, Parsons School of Design, School of Visual Art and Fashion Institute of Technology). They want to strengthen their partnership and create a friendly atmosphere for teamwork among the designers. CSSAs aim not only to provide a platform for students to showcase their talents, but also to build a space for interdisciplinary art practices. Paradoxity has eight designers specialized in different fields including interior design, graphic design, industrial design, and fashion design.
Sustainability is highly valued by the team, therefore, some installations are made from trash which was collected from streets in New York City. Paradoxity will donate its profits to other non-profit organizations that are dedicated to environmental issues and sexual politics.
Influencer Bella Dong at Paradoxity, Photo Courtesy of Sandy Fan
Niabi Aquena of Searmanas in an interview with Downtown
Listening to the opening strains of a Searmanas song is like falling into a murky pool of lucid dreams. The ethereal vocals of Niabi Aquena gently sprinkle cinematic fairy dust over her lush soundscapes. Her work has been described as “etheric darkwave,” with nods to Sigur Rós, Fever Ray, and composer Jóhann Jóhannsson.
Searmanas (pronounced SHA-mah-nas) is the Irish word for “ceremony.” Much of her poetry explores nature and ritual through unusual sonic channels; for instance, she used the radiotelephony spelling alphabet in her song Opening With Phonetics. Aquena’s live performances transform her into a priestess solemnly creating altars of noodly wires and sound waves.
“I love the exploration of the role of ceremony within both urban and rural experience,” says Aquena. “I like showing, not telling. I’m inspired by intensity and poetry. I’m a romantic.”
Although she has called NYC home for two decades, Aquena originally hails from the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, where the oldest mountain ranges found on earth surround the region with rolling hills and green pastures. Many of her atmospheric progressions sonically mimic that landscape.
“I grew up in this beautiful place feeling as an outsider and a weirdo,” Aquena explains. “My mom named me from a New Age baby name book she found. I was 5’9” at age twelve; I had flaming red hair. I was different, and in rural Virginia, that was not accepted. This led way to a vulnerability founded in mettle.”
Aquena has since struck an intriguing balance with her place as a metropolitan artist, and the acknowledgment of the pastoral beauty that shaped her youth, through her mystical lyrics and transcendent electronic experiments. She is a unique fixture in the New York music scene, having shared the stage with other electronic visionaries like John Bender and Hieroglyphic Being.
“The city certainly has taken my heart, and the rhythm of this place motivates me to my core.”
“The only solution I could come up with after hot compresses failed me, was an eyepatch! The pics from that show turned out cool though, so now I’m asked when I’m bringing the eyepatch back…”
Since debuting Searmanas in 2016, Niabi Aquena has been signed to Cleopatra Records and taken her project on tour all over the Midwest and East Coast. Aquena describes tour life as “grueling, but very rewarding.” On the last leg of a major tour, however, a minor crisis struck.
“I got bitten on my eyelid at someone’s place and my eye swelled up. I looked terrible but was playing a show that night. The only solution I could come up with after hot compresses failed me, was an eyepatch! The pics from that show turned out cool though, so now I’m asked when I’m bringing the eyepatch back…although it most certainly wasn’t a fashion statement!”
Aquena has lent her considerable talents to other bands such as Dead Leaf Echo and Textbeak, but she has many more plans for her solo project.
“I’m waiting on getting a pedal. It takes the firmware from one of my favorite modular synths, but in a stompbox. Earlier this year I taught myself guitar, so I’m thinking of incorporating these two loves, modular synthesis, and guitar, together for the next iteration of Searmanas.”
Downtown’s food festival, ‘Taste of the Seaport,’ will return for the 10th year of food, fun, and fundraising on Saturday, October 19th. Taste of the Seaport brings together over 40 of the best restaurants in Lower Manhattan and showcases an array of local vendors, artisans, entertainers, and family-friendly activities, making it the perfect day out for children and adults alike.
McThor. Accompanied by “Agent Coldstone” (off-camera).
I’m almost embarrassed to have called yesterday “crowded.” As it turns out, significantly more people were comfortable taking off on a Friday. Also, most of the panels and events were limited to the Javits Center, Madison Square Garden, and the Hammerstein Ballroom. Luckily, that concentration meant a lot more cool stuff with less walking.
Everyone’s Watching The Watchmen
The biggest crowd I saw was for a sneak peek at the upcoming HBO Watchmen panel and preview. This new superhero show, based on the graphic novel by Alan Moore, covers themes of vigilanteism, police militarization, and superheroes punching people. One can see the draw.
Doing It Write
One of my personal favorite panels at NYCC so far was the Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2019 panel. It featured the authors of Sci Fi/Fantasy’s top short stories over the last year. Talk about a stacked panel. Writers Annalee Newitz, Brenda Peynado, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, Lesley Nneka Arimah, Seanan McGuire, and N.K. Jemisin (a personal favorite) spent an hour laughing, joking, and exploring the ways they keep science fiction and fantasy fresh at a time where both seem to be everywhere.
Friday at NYCC was also a big day for Shonen Jump, the powerhouse behind some of mainstream anime’s best-known titles. The day opened up with the Official SHONEN JUMP Panel, giving diehard fans updates on the Japanese manga magazine that launched a thousand animes. Later that day, attendees were offered a My Hero Academia Panel, as well as a sneak peek at MY HERO ONE’S JUSTICE 2, a fighting game based on MHA.
Nerds of Nerddom (with a small rant)
On Thursday, the NYPL was the source for a lot of more academic panels, with names like “Comic Theory For Kids,” “Truth, Justice, and Civics…The Comic Book Way,” and “#OwnVoices: Why Diversity Matters.”
With the NYPL taking a step back, Friday meant that Javits was filled with those kinds of discussions. Between new-content-specific panels, eager fans could find panels like “From 1969 to the Future: Stories in Space!” and “When it’s More Than Teen Angst: Trauma in Speculative Fiction.”
Maybe this one is just for me, but these are usually my favorite panels at NYCC or otherwise. Don’t get me wrong: I love finding out about new media or catching a preview showing the new season of a favorite show, but I will see all of that eventually on my own. These kinds of panels are opportunities to look at things I already know and love in a new light. They’re how you can enjoy something you already like in a new way. Even if you’re skeptical, find one that sounds vaguely interesting and check it out. It might change your mind.
Today’s Lesson Learned Too Late
It is VERY difficult to get to the NYCC Live Stage, and that area is loud. If you don’t get to the stage early, don’t bother showing up. If you’re 20 feet from the stage, you’re as good as deaf. Instead, hit up the SYFY WIRE fan lounge. They have a big TV that is constantly showing the content of the live stage. There’s comfy seats, phone chargers, and there’s rarely a crowd.
