Carrie Fisher. R.I.P.

Man, 2016 turned out pretty shitty, huh? Politically, we're headed into very dark times, of course. But it also seems like we've lost an unusual number of artists and celebrities this year. Prince, David Bowie, Muhammad Ali, George Michael, Florence Henderson, Garry Shandling, Elie Wiesel, Gene Wilder, Edward Albee, cartoonist Darwyn Cooke, and many, many others.

Carrie Fisher's death really stings, because I'm a big Star Wars fan, and her death was so sudden and unexpected. Of course, I had a crush on her as a boy. Princess Leia was awesome not just because she was beautiful, but because she was strong and independent and sassy and acerbic. Star Wars has been rightly criticized for its paucity of female characters, but the one it did have was pretty kick-ass.

Drawings from New Hampshire and Maine

I was recently in Kittery, Maine and Portsmouth, NY with the the Bang Group. Here's some drawings from that trip

Across from our hotel in Portsmouth, this freighter was docked. The Elvira Bulker is a 19,812 ton freighter operated by the J. Lauritzen corporation, flying under the flag of Denmark. For the three days I was there, it was continually unloading a gigantic mountain of gravel or sand or crushed stone or something like that.

Utility pole outside the venue, in Kittery. I always like the mess of cables around these poles.

Antique phonograph, backstage at the venue. Actually, I'm sure it was not an antique, just a reproduction.

The Pavilion

The Pavilion movie theater at Bartel-Pritchard Square in Park Slope.

The Pavilion closed last month, and is going to be re-opened under the management of Nitehawk Cinemas of Williamsburg, a dinner-movie theater known for indie films and theme nights. Most of the time, the closing of long-standing local businesses is lamented by locals, but the Pavilion was not beloved. In fact, it had been called the worst theater ever. Among its problems, infestation of bed bugs and rats, no heat in winter and no A/C in summer, an infamous incident where the movie staff called the cops on a diabetic patron who'd brought his own fruit to snack on, very small screens (In the past, three theaters had been divided into nine), and general dirtiness and run-down-ness.

I only went here a few times, and while I never experienced problems as bad as these, it still was not a good theater. The tickets were cheap, relatively, but . . . Perhaps the best indicator of the quality of the theater is how the movie "Middle School" is misspelled on the marquee. It's misspelled on all three sides of that marquee!

Farragut Substation

The Con Edison Farragut Substation, in DUMBO.

Collegiate Church Lamppost

Lamp on the facade of the Middle Collegiate Church on 2nd Ave. in the East Village. The church dates to 1892

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Martha's Vineyard in Winter

Last weekend, I spent a few days on Martha's Vineyard doing the lighting for a dance performance by The Bang Group. I had a little bit of time for some sketching.

Roadside in the village of Chilmark.

Trees on the property of The Yard, the dance residence where we stayed.

View of the ferry bow on the return.