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The Last Roller Skating Rink in New York City

By Paul Hiebert on

The last roller rink in New York City isn’t as much a roller rink as it is a gymnasium in the Salvation Army building located along Kosciuszko Street in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. Every Wednesday night since 2008, the Crazy Legs Skate Club has opened its doors at 8:00pm for all those 18 and over wanting to get down. Admission is $10.00, because the charitable organization doesn’t rent out its gym for free.

One Wednesday night in February, I visited Crazy Legs. The painted lines on the gym’s wooden floor were faded, the basketball rims up above were bent, and the northern wall was lined with a row of metal folding chairs. A scant assortment of Christmas lights festooned about provided the otherwise dark room with a muted glow, while a great mass of bodies on wheels moved in a counter-clockwise formation. Some experienced skaters occupied the center, where they swirled and twirled to the music in a manner that left no limb looking anything less than fabulous. Around 120 people were there, total. … Read More

Architecture

Vintage Photos of Bizarre World’s Fair Architecture

By Claire Cottrell on

A few weeks ago we took a look at some of the most bizarre buildings we’ve ever seen: the strange Soviet architecture that emerged during a fascinating era of extreme artistic inquiry fueled — as so many are — by social revolution. Now that we’re officially obsessed with far-out retro-future design, we literally fell off of our chair when we came across the progressive pavilions built for two World Expos that we would have loved to attend. From a building that looks like a giant blue Jell-O mold to a larger-than-life paper forest, click through to take a quick virtual tour of some of the most incredible structures we’ve ever seen. … Read More

Tech

Technological Taxidermy: Ghosty Images of Obsolete Gadgets

By Caroline Stanley on

Barcelona-based artist Max de Esteban creates strange, faded images that look a lot like X-rays or old school cyanotypes. In reality, they’re a layer-by-layer photographic reassembly of the cameras, tape decks, typewriters, and other outdated gadgets that he has taken apart, painted white, and then shot at different stages of the rebuild. “By eliminating the objects’ individual peculiarities, each photograph becomes a generic symbol of decay and death,” de Esteban explains in his artist’s statement. “While sophisticated and state-of-the-art not long ago, these tools evoke today a sense of fragility, archaism and trauma.” Click through for a slide show of his work, which is currently on view at New York’s Klompching Gallery. … Read More