The 1964/1965 New York World’s Fair was the third major World’s Fair to be held in New York City and the second World’s Fair to be held at Flushing Meadows Park in the Borough of Queens, New York in the 20th century. It opened on April 21, 1964 for two six-month seasons concluding on October 21, 1965.

View image gallery of 1964-65 New York World’s Fair Flashcards >>

For more information on the 1964-65 New York World’s Fair visit:

• 1964 New York World’s Fair on Wikipedia
• The Story of the Fair on nywf64.com

After spending past five years of my life in Los Angeles, seeing magnificent towers and sea of people on the streets of New York really dazzled my imagination. For the whole time I was in New York, I couldn’t rest; I couldn’t take my minds off from the world around me.

In Los Angeles, big real estate developers are trying to build what they call “Times Square West” in Downtown LA. But, I doubt that it will ever match the fierce splendor of Manhattan .

In early spring-tide, when the icy drip
Melts from the mountains hoar, and Zephyr’s breath
Unbinds the crumbling clod, even then ’tis time…

Spring is back. Upstate is melting.

During spring break I went on a delightful hike with my family and friends, along the Ashokan Reservoir. The reservoir, like others in the area, was created in the early 1900s, I learned. It flooded the town of Ashokan and surrounding farms, to quench the thirst of the big city, downstate.

Home from the hike, looking at the photos taken that walk among as of yet leafless trees, frost and thaw, I feel the need to learn more about this watering can of the five boroughs.

My Brooklyn window looks out on a budding magnolia, and I know the garden hoses around town are starting to be unfurled by the thousands, as I write this.

I was doing a little reading on Welkin in anticipation of the launch event this evening, and found this interesting Wikipedia article about a line of warplanes built in the 1940s with the intention of fighting at high altitudes.

For those interested, here is the link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westland_Welkin

Welkin… it sounds so strange, yet so familiar. The vault of heaven. I like it. Then I saw the del.icio.us “Wolken” link, with all these skies from around the world—photographed, labeled with location, date and time, as if the skies were classical architecture captured on a sightseeing tour, snapped by someone fascinated with vaulted ceilings. Imagine the joy of that tourist spotting that cloud over Brussels, Belgium, on October 10, 2005, at 4:30 in the afternoon. A welkin touched by a rainbow, touched as if by a seven-fingered hand frantically hailing the bus that didn’t stop, throwing itself up so high, it discovered the texture of Brussels’ ceiling—dissolving disappointment, discovering welkin.

Lynne and I had a wonderful chat about the artistry of “Wolken” and the word almost being welkin. Wolken is the word for clouds in Dutch, my mother tongue. Welkin and wolken—not quite synonymous, but they must be distant cousins. The next day, I went for a walk at lunchtime, with the podcast of the Writer’s Almanac of March 28th in my ears. Garrison Keillor read Gary Johnson’s “Up in the sky the lovers lay in bed…”
(http://community.livejournal.com/poetry_readers/31497.html)
Next time I look up between the skyscrapers of this awesome city, I may just say: “Thank you, welkin. Thank you.”

When I was asked to make a video about the odd sounding, but very
pretty looking word quidnunc for the Abecedariumnyc Project, I
immediately thought of New Yorker Magazine editor and author Ben
Greenman’s satirical “newsical” Fragments from Death Comes for Britney
Spears! The Musical.

Since Quidnunc is a person who seeks to know all the latest news or
gossip, I wanted to make something based on entertainment gossip and
the ever-expanding number of blogs, news programs and magazines
devoted to the cult of the celebrity. I adapted Ben’s rhyming
“newsical” and placed it within the confines of a office where I could
play off the whole notion of gossip and use such signs as the water
cooler, internet, a little bird, gossip magazines, the tabloid
journalist and gossipy co-worker; and fold these clichés into the more
sinister aspect of entertainment gossip. Though a dark parody, the
project is intended to create sympathy for Ms. Spears, and to
encourage a discourse on the gossip industry by which celebrities are
manufactured and then recycled into mulch.

To see the whole project,click here:
http://news.aol.com/newsbloggers/2008/02/05/britney-and-the-grim-reaper/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXhceW4ey4I

Hmm… All at once. Yes, that’s the New York I came to New York for, the City worthy of being expressed with the completeness of ABC

as beleaguered city dwellers entertain follies
gothamites harass, ignore, jaywalk, kiss,
lumber

mutually nixing other partakers
quixotically rushing
shuttling through underground veins

wistfully xenophobing
yawning
zipping.

Maritime Industry Museum at Fort Shuyler >>

“A walk through the Maritime Industry Museum at Fort Schuyler brings with it a vivid presence of seafaring in both bygone years as well as today’s present era. The exquisitely fashioned ship models, historic artifacts, nautical photographs and prints, and the host of corporate banners identifying exhibits of the respective steamship companies they represent gives the visitor a true sense of being at sea with those individuals who experienced life in the merchant marine or passenger cruise line industry.”

– SUNY Maritime College | http://www.sunymaritime.edu