Author: Site Adminstrator
Yes, bugs are taking over New York this summer
Summer is always a buggy time in the Big Apple, but recently even more so, thanks to a curious and very annoying influx of insects around the city this week.
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“Is there a gnat invasion in NYC? I felt/saw them in Chinatown, on the Manhattan bridge, in Dumbo. A guy just stopped me to ask about it so at least I know I’m not crazy,” New York-based writer Nina Roberts posted on Twitter, unleashing a thread of similarly critter-filled stories and videos from other locals.
But exactly what the hell are said bugs and where did they come from?
“They are not gnats (a kind of fly), but rather aphids, and there appears to be two species,” entomologist Dr. David Grimaldi, curator of the Division of Invertebrate Zoology at the American Museum of Natural History, tells us. However, the doc is reticent to specify exactly which kind of gnats we’re currently working with, “since I haven’t examined them under a microscope and am away from NYC,” he says. “They may be native species or species that were introduced years ago (doubtfully recent).” Good news for you Jersey City and Hoboken folks, though: “We aren’t seeing swarms of them in northern NJ right now.”
Outside of being a nuisance and pretty gross, are the flies dangerous? Not particularly. “Aphids feed on the fluids of plants, such as tree leaves. They excrete little droplets of sugary secretions (called ‘honeydew’), which sustain ants and other insects (you see these droplets on your car when parked under a tree in summer),” Dr. Grimaldi added. If you don’t want to run into the bugs, steer clear of your local parks and green spaces, he suggests. “Given their numbers, these aphids are probably feeding from trees along sidewalks, in Central, Prospect, and other parks.”
We’re used to buggy warm-weather seasons in NYC, so why does the recent infestation seem so bad? Is it in any way tied to the local wildfires in Canada, which have been greatly affecting the air quality down here in New York? “I can’t see any plausible connection with wildfire smoke,” says Dr. Grimaldi. “Every species goes through population cycles over the years, and this might be a boom year for them, with a mild spring and then the rains and humid warmth.”
Hopefully, an end is in sight. Per the doc, ”local populations of each species tend to be synchronized in their development from wingless to alate morphs (not unlike cicadas), and the transition to winged forms is what we’re seeing.” Take those wings and fly away!
This must-see exhibit at the Whitney shows the human cost of corporate greed
This week, I finally checked out the Whitney Museum’s survey of artist Josh Kline’s work, called “Project for a New American Century,” after hearing it was “shocking” and quite frankly, “bananas.”
The exhibit, which opened back in April, uses immersive installations—video, sculpture, photography and design—to question how new technologies affect our way of life as well as the effects of capitalism, economic disparity, climate change and the weakening of democracy impact the people who make up the labor force. It’s a lot to tackle, but Kline does it in an unforgettable, haunting way.
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Seeing Kline’s Whitney exhibit is like walking into a Black Mirror episode, except you’re left with some sliver of hope that we could change course and prevent some of the futures he predicts through his work.
Broken down into more than half a dozen sections, his more than 100 works across two floors are stark, darkly comedic, harrowing, and somehow, cathartic.
“Josh Kline has had the uncanny ability to hone in on the most important issues of the day and create art that is disturbingly urgent,” Adam D. Weinberg, the Alice Pratt Brown Director of the Whitney Museum, said in a statement. “Watching the magnetic attraction of viewers to his work is astonishing: they are simultaneously enraptured, bewildered, and repulsed. Kline’s art is radical, uncompromising, and looks unblinkingly at the possible future.”
The show’s “Blue Collars” series consists of stand-alone, 3D printed sculptural portraits of working people accompanied by verité-style video interviews with the workers—delivery workers, cleaning people, restaurant waitstaff, an employee at a suburban big-box store. They were paid to do the interviews and get their heads, hands and feet 3D scanned. Their disembodied limbs are strewn about on platters, in cleaning carts and shopping carts, sometimes covered by the uniforms, brands, and logos of each person’s employer. This, quite frankly, upsetting scene screams out about the dehumanizing work experience of working-class Americans—many of whom have been recently deemed “essential workers.”
Likewise, “Unemployment” imagines what it would be like in the 2030s and 2040s when AI and automation have replaced white-collar workers like accountants, administrators and lawyers, destabilizing society. Kline created 3D-printed and CNC-routed life-size figures curled in the fetal position and wrapped in clear plastic as if they are disposable like trash to their respective companies. IYKYK.
“Contagious Unemployment,” created almost prophetically in 2016, features large, clear plastic sculptures of viruses that encase cardboard file boxes containing various workers’ desk objects, supplies, personal belongings and family photographs. They serve as little portraits or dioramas of desk workers and how work, health and disease are so connected—something we now know too well.
His “Civil War” installation, which was made in response to the 2016 U.S. presidential election, is set in a speculative America one or two decades in the future. He imagines there’s been mass unemployment thanks to AI (how very real this feels now with the introduction to ChatGPT). It has two series of sculptures and a three-channel film installation. One group of sculptures shows luxury and generic household appliances held together with stars-and-stripes-patterned packing tape with a ticking sound emanating from each work as if there’s a ticking time bomb, suggesting it’s only a matter of time before these class divisions will “blow up.” The second set of sculptures contains full-size reproductions of various artifacts of middle-class life made to look like concrete that has been ripped apart: a couch and a child’s playhouse, among them.
The newest installation, presented here for the first time, addresses the experiences of future climate
refugees forced to relocate due to catastrophic environmental changes. The room is full of tent-like structures resembling emergency housing, a medical clinic, a car, and a remittance center for foreign workers. Here, fictional video interviews give a human face to devastating global changes already
underway, according to the museum. It both feels and smells like a refugee encampment.
More hopeful, a short film, “Another America is Possible,” shows a radical and utopian scenario in the 2040s when the U.S. is anticipated to become a minority-majority country. In it, a diverse group of people have gathered to picnic and burn and bury the Confederate flag. I left smiling at this joyful act of defiance, hoping Kline would be just as prophetic in this vision, too.
As a privileged New Yorker struggling to keep up with the price of inflation, combating burnout and fighting for relevance, Kline’s work speaks loudly and directly to my fears and observations of where society is headed—and my role in it. His work is deep, yes, but it’s also crystal clear.
Kline knows he’s having a “very intense conversation with the public about America’s past, present, and future” through his work.
To take part in that conversation and see “Josh Kline: Project for a New American Century,” head to the Whitney Museum of American Art through August 13, 2023. Tickets are $25 per person and $18 for students, seniors or those with disabilities.
The NYC Ferry is making it easier to get to Rockaway this summer
The increased temps are coming in the next few weeks, which means New Yorkers will be looking for some much-needed reprieve at local beaches—luckily for us, the NYC Ferry just announced it’s making it easier to get to one of the city’s most popular ones.
Starting Saturday, July 1, NYC Ferry will expand weekend and holiday service to Rockaway Beach, including adding an extra vessel along the busy route to increase rider capacity by 25%. (Use the NYC Ferry app to view updated schedules.)
And if you’ve taken the ferry in recent years, you know how long and winding those queues can get when boarding at Wall Street’s Pier 11, so you can secure your place on the beach-bound boat by purchasing reserved tickets on any weekend Rockaway trips from 9am to 2pm, with a return to Manhattan between 3pm and 8pm.
Reserved tickets can be bought in the NYC Ferry app for up to 2 weeks before the date of your departure, and cost $10 as opposed to the ferry’s regular fares: $4 single trip, $2.75 as part of the 10-pack or the $1.35 discount for seniors, people with disabilities, and New Yorkers living at or below the federal poverty line. The Rockaway Reserve option will run until Monday, September 4.
“There’s no better place to be than Rockaway in the summertime,” Queens Borough President Donovan Richards said in a statement. “Better utilizing our waterways is both smart, climate-friendly policy and the most enjoyable trip our transit system can offer.”
This summer will also see the return of the convenient “Rockaway Rocket,” a reservations-only express ferry that goes straight to the Rockaways, though this year it has a new departure point. The limited-time route will run between Brooklyn Bridge Park Pier 6 (Atlantic Avenue) and the Beach 108th dock in Rockaway, Queens, for four weekends from Saturday, August 12 through Labor Day. Tickets will cost ten bucks and a final schedule will be released in the coming weeks.
“After the success of last year’s Rockaway Rocket, we are excited to be bringing new and additional improvements for beachgoers and regular riders this summer,” said New York City Economic Development Corporation President and CEO Andrew Kimball said in a statement. “These two new pilot programs are designed to make the entire NYC Ferry system more enjoyable, accessible, and efficient. As ridership continues to break records, it’s clear New Yorkers are endorsing the NYC Ferry Forward vision to create a more accessible, equitable and fiscally sustainable ferry system.”