PRIMARY FLIGHT-MIAMI GRAFFITI AND STREET ART EXPLODE IN WYNWOOD AND THE DESIGN DISTRICT

Wherein The New York Minute goes south for Spring Break...


If Miami is the Street Art Mecca, then Primary Flight/Primary Projects is the Qaaba.  Primary Flight major domo Books IIII Bischof sounds off…

Jonas Mekas-The Godfather of American Avant-Garde Cinema

Jonas Mekas at 'My Mars Bar Movie' premiere at Anthology Film Archives in the East Village, which he founded.  He poured shots of Tequila for everyone after the movie!  An incredible NYC legend. 

"For some twenty years Mars Bar, on the corner of First Street and Second Avenue, Manhattan, has been my bar. That's where we went for beer and tequila whenever we had to take a break from our work at Anthology Film Archives, and it was also a bar where most of those who came to see movies at Anthology ended up after the shows. We always had a great time at Mars Bar. It was always open, there was always the juke box, and very often there was no electricity, and it was old and messy and it didn't want to be any other way -- it was the last escape place left in downtown New York. So this is my love letter to it, to my Mars Bar. Mars Bar as I knew it."  
-Jonas Mekas

Shane LaVancher. Photographer.

Out of his Spring Street studio,  Shane LaVancher creates images that are an incongruity: expository, yet simultaneously antithetical to his work as a fashion photographer.  Beauty, frenzy, and death play an important role in his work; as well as whimsy and absurdity.  Although now that I think about it, maybe he, along with collaborater Jason Clay Lewis, has captured something of the essence of his subjects, and of his profession as well.

Los Watcheros in SoHo

Los Watcheros play an amazing blend of different rhythms, from Cumbia and Mambo, to New Orleans Funk.  SoHo's Ideya, a 'Latin Bistro' (with killer Mojitos), hosted the band for an evening of live music.  Three sets, a little extemporaneous dancing, and said Mojitos, really got the crowd going.  'El Tocino', aka John Speck, leads the band, and has played with the likes of Jorge Ben Jor, Ricky Martin, Bacilos, Paige McConnell, and Miami's Spam Allstars.  John was born on a houseboat on San Francisco Bay, and has remained a traveler since birth, spending time in Miami before relocating to Brooklyn last year.  This is 'music for boats and trains', as he likes to call it, music to take you places.