I’m guessing most of you have heard about comedian/entertainer Uncle Floyd’s death. As many of you know, I was the show’s photographer back in the day, so he was a very special person to me. Not sure who he is? Look under “U” on bobleafe.com

 

Tributes to him are ALL OVER social media, but if you’d like to see something special, there’s one tomorrow night on StageIt.com.

 

Every Tuesday for the last 254 weeks, “This WAS The Uncle Floyd Show” has been running on StageIt. These shows are lovingly put together by cast member Scott Gordon from his collection of hundreds of shows and were hosted by both Scott and Floyd until Floyd’s stroke two-and-a-half years ago…………..in the studio! (but thankfully, not on the air).

 

Scott’s putting together a tribute show with great comedy and bands for tomorrow night at 8pm Eastern that will be a must-see event. They usually sell (I think) 100 tickets, but those went fast, so they added another 100 (I think) yesterday. Half of those are already gone, so if this is something you’d like to check out, don’t delay!

 

Tickets are $5 each and are available via the link in StageIt’s letter (below).

 

Don’t miss this!

 

 

Message from The Uncle Floyd Show with Scott Gordon:

The Uncle Floyd Show with Scott Gordon has an upcoming show entitled, “This WAS The Uncle Floyd Show #255 – A Tribute to Uncle Floyd..” Join us tomorrow, January 27, 2026, at 8PM Eastern Time for a special tribute to *Uncle” Floyd Vivino hosted live by Scott Gordon.

If you don’t already have a ticket, you can grab one here: https://www.stageit.com/the_uncle_floyd_show_with_scott_gordon/this_was_the_uncle_floyd_show_255_a_tribute_to_uncle_floyd/121101

Have any questions? Just use our Contact Page to reach out to us, and we’ll help you out (Please do not reply to this email).You have received this mandatory email announcement to update you about changes to your StageIt account or purchase.

©2026 Stage It Corp.

(Never heard of the Uncle Floyd TV Show? Google it before you go any further.)

I was gonna post this on January 11 – the 10th anniversary – but it slipped my mind until today. Floyd used to have an online radio show with radio-voiced Joe Lemire. They accepted random calls on the air and I called that night. 

This mp3 that I recently came across isn’t the entire call………….I’m guessing it’s just the favorite bits that I slapped together back then. And there’s a glitch just before I mentioned “cards”…………that was about baseball cards (and why I no longer have mine).

December 1

We start off the month with a good sign: Two colorful (red and green – Christmas colors!) – connections over an open space that a white dove (probably a seagull, but “dove” sounds better) has just flown over:

 

Five shots of roof work:

 

Interior room work:

This may be the only shot I have of a worker smiling!

 

I think the worker in back is sawing wooden sheets:

 

One of the sawed sheets:

 

Conversation near the connected red-green (now looking a little blue-ish), Christmas-colored line:

 

Red tubing whose purpose is not apparent to me:

 

A 5-picture wood delivery:

 

Work on either a porch shade with a light fixture or a patio for the apartment above:

 

Just think……….I may be up on that roof by the end of the month:

 

DECEMBER 2

Looks a bit more “populated” at 1:17am:

 

And a bit less so 12 hours later:

 

December 3

Seven shots of various people doing various things I know nothing about:

 

Taking out the trash (THAT I know about):

 

Back to know-nothing:

 

DECEMBER 4

Wood hanging from the southwest corner:

 

More deliveries:

 

Painting dull walls a nice color (I was later told it was waterproofing):

(click to enlarge these 3 PANOs TWICE and then twice to go back)

 

Sun reflecting off the windows next door:

 

DECEMBER 5

Looks like more “night tenants” have moved in:

 

I don’t know what that shadow is, but it looks awfully ugly on that nicely-painted………….Oops! waterproofed wall:

It did go away eventually.

 

Barriers to keep those annoying “night tenants” out?

 

 

DECEMBER 6

Multiple multiples………..

 

 

DECEMBER 9

These are bases for all the heavy HVAC equipment that will be placed on the roof:

 

Another delivery:

 

“Patio” is my guess:

 

While taking this picture, I noticed this sun-brightened section that never stuck out like this before (second pic):

 

DECEMBER 10

This is a plastic bag tied to something for some reason and blowing sideways in the wind:

 

This is a hand-me-up trio:

 

One-third of this group is not wearing a hard-hat!

 

If you really want to see what he’s doing, click TWICE to enlarge:

Hey – it beats making 16 posts!

 

 

Only one image needed here:

 

DECEMBER 11

Doesn’t look like any kind of glass to me:

 

Are these two communicating?

 

Rooftop assault in full view of midtown Manhattan:

 

The march of the rooftop HVAC bases:

 

More unidentified red tubing…………..

 

…………..and unidentified garbage:

 

Checking the growth of a toddler wall:

 

Bribing a worker with wood for a “night tenant” room:

(no wonder he covers his face)

 

Cleaning out the rooms for new night tenants:

 

DECEMBER 12

Where’s that “hand-me-up” team when you need them?

 

He was told to go stand in a corner…………….on a ladder:

 

Looking up to the guys in the buckets:

 

The picture on the left of the top floor southwest corner unit was taken from home. The picture on the right was taken later that day as I was driving down Passaic St. They show guys working in or near that top-floor corner unit.

I hadn’t been doing walkarounds lately, so this shot showed me that the easternmost third of the building had already been Typar-covered, which told me to resume the walkarounds.

 

DECEMBER 13 

This photo shows midtown Manhattan atop the midnight tenants’ partying area (which still shows that ugly shadow on the recently painted/waterproofed wall section):

 

This guy looks befuddled as to how to get this vehicle started and what it’s for, so he leaves (Note: it stayed in that spot for a long time afterward):

 

DECEMBER 14

Baby’s (building’s) first snowstorm at 10:00am and 2:50pm:

 

DECEMBER 15

Why shovel when the wind will remove the snow for you?

 

DECEMBER 16

Nothin’ like 100% compliance with the hardhat rule:

 

DECEMBER 18

Wind and rain (and that partially-visible vehicle still hasn’t budged):

 

DECEMBER 20

Nine more shots of patio installation……….at least I think that’s what it is (You might need 3 clicks to fully-enlarge this one):

 

DECEMBER 22

It looks like there might be at least one case of non-compliance with the hardhat requirement:

 

One of the “hand-me-up” guys shows up on the wrong floor:

 

 

These are exhaust fans for the parking garage:

 

Main St shot taken through the green fence covering on Passaic St:

 

PANO: The Main St side of the building – now almost completely Typar-covered (click to enlarge):

 

PANO: the Passaic St side of the building – now about half Typar-covered (click to enlarge):

 

DECEMBER 23

Taken from home while it was snowing, this shows the Typar-wrapped corners of the Main St façade from behind:

 

DECEMBER 26

Teamwork:

 

Same place: Step over or step on? (It appears to have to do with what color your hardhat is):

(Note the corner of the Main St side façade where the leftover Typar is wrapped around it…………….this time, without the snow.)

 

Three different ING mindsets: Hammering, Contemplating and Littering (It’s possible there was a plastics recycling bin below the litterer, which would change the ING from “Littering” to “Tossing”):

 

Time for a worshipping (another ING) break at the Cola Altar, where one of the worshipper’s hard hats is part of the service:

 

One of the workers is totally fed-up with all this ____ING around (use your 4-letter imagination):

 

DECEMBER 28

Look what’s STILL on the roof:

 

And look where I wanna be in two days:

 

DECEMBER 29

The next-to-last sunset of the year looks good on the building and then on midtown Manhattan:

 

I took this shot just after 1am. I’m not aware of Foschini Park field lights being on that late, but what else could it be?

 

DECEMBER 30

I’m guessing that this threesome shows a vent pipe?

 

Wind-blown Typar:

 

Painting/waterproofing pix from home…………

These two look pretty much the same, but the difference is that the one on the right was taken a couple of hours after the left one, when the sun caused two opposite-building window reflections to show up on the wall:

I know……………big deal, right?

 

Closeup:

 

Closerup (click to enlarge):

 

Remember this shot………..it’ll pop up later:

 

Time to head on over to the site. The project manager (Chris) and I worked it out for me to get up on the roof today at 1:30pm. He had about 20 minutes for me, so there was no time to waste.

First stop: that same wall up-close.

PANO (click to enlarge):

No one’s home (lunchtime).

 

Next stop: I took this sequence on my way to meet Chris (click to enlarge):

 

And then one more while crossing Passaic St by the appointed corner (click to enlarge):

We were to meet at Main and Passaic Streets and he was quite prompt. We walked up to the truck entrance on Passaic St and entered the building. Unfortunately, the elevators were not yet working, so we had to trudge up 6 flights of stairs.

Let’s be honest here: he breezed up the steps and I was the trudger. I survived 4 flights OK, but needed a break every few steps after that. When I finally got to 6 (the roof), I told him that I couldn’t remember the last time that I was THIS winded!

And I wasn’t kidding – it was brutal!

When I recovered (sort of), I got the bad news that because of ice on the roof, my explorations would be severely limited. That meant NO great views from anywhere near the roof’s edges, so I only got to take two PANOs from close to the stairwell.

Here’s the first one (click twice to fully-enlarge):

Lotta stuff, but nowhere near what I could have gotten closer to the edge. (but I can see my apartment in this one)

 

This is the best part of that PANO (click to enlarge):

 

Here’s another PANO in a different direction (click to enlarge):

 

I hope I’ll get another chance to do something better before all the HVAC equipment is loaded onto the roof. The ice wasn’t that bad, but it wasn’t up to me and I understand the need for absolute safety. It should take one day above 32º to melt what was there.

 

Meanwhile, Chris came up with a good idea. If we walked down a floor, I could shoot from open window spaces in apartments, which would be somewhat similar to shooting from roof edges, but that wound up only happening in one corner of the building (albeit the best one).

 

Here’s what I got from that 5th-floor corner apartment (click to enlarge):

I like this one a lot. It’s the intersection of Main St and Passaic St:

 

This is the soon-to-not-exist former YMCA (click to enlarge):

 

This shows Passaic St with Main St on the left and untrimmed Typar (anti-draft building wrap) on the right, along with the Hackensack hi-rise buildings and Hackensack Hospital up on the hill (click to enlarge):

(BTW – the hi-rise tenants pay 3 times my rent to look at my old building while I pay 1/3 of that to look at theirs.)

 

This PANO goes from the abandoned Sears on the left to the YMCA with the Hackensack River in the background (I moved a couple of rooms to the left to get a better view of the river) Click to enlarge:

 

At this point, Chris suggested we walk over to another area for an interior perspective. Here’s what that looked like (click to enlarge):

 

The building I’m shooting from is at 359 Main. Next door to the right is 389 Main. But way in the distance between them is 430 Union, where a certain photographer lives. And he’s been kind enough to place his watermark right below his apartment, including the big picture-window where he shoots all his big pictures:

 

Now that the day’s “big” excitement is over, it’s time to head back downstairs. But before we get to the stairwell, Chris points out something he thinks is photo-worthy and I agree:

 

At the stairs, I look down and see a few floors of steps and take a picture (left half). There’s something bluish-purpley at the bottom, so I zoom in (right half) for a better shot (click to enlarge…………..slightly):

Mind you – I’m shooting everything with just my phone, which I think did a pretty decent job. I can’t shoot PANOs without it.

 

Downstairs, Chris points out an interesting, photo-worthy apparatus and I agree again:

 

We exchanged “Happy New Year”s and I headed back to that big blue wall because – I don’t know if you noticed – but in that closer shot of my building (4 pix above), this crane was visible and had them working high up on the wall, so now I can get a couple of the closeup shots I wanted at lunchtime…………like these two:

 

NOW I can go home.

 

BUT……………..remember that AM shot I told you to keep in mind (“Remember this shot………..it’ll pop up later”.)?

I thought it might show which window I shot from when I took the photo that included my building (5 pictures ago).

 

It did! (It’s X’d):

 

How do I know that’s the window?

To the right of that window, there’s an obstruction – a ladder. The window to the left shows a wooden, mid-section bar. Look at this PANO once again on the far right…………..the wooden bar! (Click blah, blah, blah)

 

Thanks if you made it all the way through and (a very late) Happy New Year to you all!

 

 

This is just 9 vertical and 10 horizontal pictures that I shot in a very short period of time recently and decided to see if I could find a way to combine them all into one big…………..thing.

If you see wheels, it’s coming into Teterboro Airport (4 miles away). Without the visible wheels, it’s Newark Airport-bound (20 miles away). Mix in a setting sun (and its reflections), some streaks, a weather vane with a steeple under it, Hackensack Hospital and some played-with color and you have 22 minutes of my photography life on December 16, 2025.

I don’t know what else to do with it (suggestions?), so Merry Christmas, Happy New Year………………..and click TWICE to enlarge:

 

 

 

 

 

             (original title: “Hollywood Invades Hackensack”, but the company is actually in Santa Monica)

 

It all started the week before when I found this notice on my car in the parking lot of the church next door to my building, where I’ve parked since a couple of pastors ago:

They’re a good neighbor and we’ve helped each other out many times.

It’s not unusual for them to put out these notices occasionally because many people (the “unauthorized parkers”) from other nearby buildings just PARK there as if it was a free municipal parking lot.

But it IS unusual for them to close the lot for 3 days in a row.

 

One of the other tenants in my building is a church elder there and a friend of mine, so I asked her what she knew, since she also parks there.

She said there was going to be something going on that involved a TV or movie crew. We both park near the lot’s entrance/exit and she was told to park near the other end of the lot because the production crew needed the spaces near the entrance/exit, so I followed her lead and parked next to her at the other end:

 

Then all these yellow signs started popping up on all of the surrounding streets:

“POW”? What the hell is THAT? I guess the crew knew. And then there were numerous “CREW PARKING” signs and guess where they led to?

 

This was found near the church lot entrance on Ward St. Pointing upward? Were there multiple levels to park on? (not on this block):

But it directed the crew to the lot and informed them that SIXTY parking spots were available in that lot.

 

Just before the lot entrance, this sign indicated that an immediate right turn would probably get you one of those 60 spots:

 

You also knew that this was serious business when you saw that the police were also involved – especially on Monday, the 8th…………from MIDNIGHT until 10pm:

 

These signs were on the side street that separates the church and my building (Ward St) and were also found on every surrounding street (and for good reason, as you’ll see later).

This one’s by the back of my building:

 

The sun partially blocks out the fact that there were 35 additional parking spots in the municipal parking lot behind my building (and across the street from the church lot entrance), so there will be around 100 crew members descending upon us on Monday:

 

Another POW parking directional sign thrown in for good measure………

(“POW” – as it turns out – is short for “POWER”, as in “Power:Origins” – the name of the Starz series that’s being partially-filmed today.)

 

This last sign was at the corner where Ward St ends at Union St, where both the next-door church (436) and I (430) have addresses:

“SET” is pointing toward Anderson St, where I’m guessing all the action will take place on Monday.

 

 

On Sunday, this car with a constantly-blinking orange light at the top of its windshield was parked illegally – well, normally illegally – by a yellow curb ALL afternoon, ALL evening and ALL night on Ward St, directly across from the church’s parking lot entrance:

I got up early on Monday to find the car on the other side of the street and later, it sat all day in the first space in the church lot, so I’m guessing that the driver spent the night directing dozens of huge trucks to occupy EVERY SINGLE SPACE on EVERY SINGLE SURROUNDING STREET.

Also now on Ward St was this big truck that said “ANGEL AERIAL” on its side. Hmmmm……………..something interesting might be happening later:

 

So I went out at 8:30am to try to document everything I saw that was out of the ordinary.

Straight out of my front door is Conklin Place, which was now end-to-end huge trucks. This is what it looks like on a regular day – all cars:

 

Here are two partial views of that street early on the morning of December 8, with my building behind the second one:

 

Here are two PANOramic shots (click all PANOs twice to fully enlarge and then scroll side-to-side, if necessary) of the biggest trucks ever to park on Conklin Place:

 

Crew needs food, right?

 

I guess movie vehicles also need their own kind of food:

 

One more Conklin Place vehicle:

 

And now one very short walk over to blocked-off Anderson St – THE SET!

Keep that first car on the left in mind………….wait’ll you see what IT gets to eat!

 

So let’s take a stroll down Anderson St and see what’s needed to make this production happen (just don’t ask me what all these things are).

This is another PANO shot. The next picture shows everything that’s been unloaded on the far right side of the PANO:

 

Ever see a 3-door tractor-trailer? Interesting stuff in the back: a snow shovel, a basketball and a red plastic gas can (keep that gas can in mind):

 

And here is that very colorful 3-door tractor-trailer that came all the way from Maine. You can’t see the back door, but you CAN see the red plastic gas can:

 

If you think THAT was colorful, you’ll flip over the other side of the truck in this PANO:

 

A little less-colorful PANO:

 

Four more pix of stuff:

 

This last pic of “stuff” has something else going for it. I don’t recall the name of that corner eatery at 75 Anderson, but it wasn’t “Cosimo’s”:

So I asked Google……….the reply:

I DO know that they served Spanish food and that film-crew’s sign mentions only Italian food and looks WAY too new.

 

So I went back there a week later and guess what?

All writing on the sign is gone, the rim of it is now painted blue and all the Italian food has been transformed back to Spanish. Note that the Italian version has small signs and curtains covering the already-there Spanish signs.

Back to the Italian version: remember, we’ve still got that car out front to deal with later.

 

One thing I need to mention is that a crew member told me that this whole episode takes place in an Italian neighborhood in Queens, NY (hence, “Cosimo’s” and the New York license plates on the car parked in front of the eatery). As far as I know, NOTHING is portrayed as being in Hackensack.

 

As I start to head back home, the first cross street is a one-block segment of Pangborn Place. This is where all the westbound traffic on Anderson St has been diverted, including buses – something I’ve never seen before……..ESPECIALLY with film crew vehicles parked there:

 

I’m now in one-block-long Anderson Park, which is now surrounded by big vehicles on Anderson St and the other sides of vehicles we already saw on Conklin Place:

 

This is a closeup of a PANO on Conklin Place. Look what it says on the door:

I knew I saw another truck that mentioned Maywood – which borders Hackensack – but the “Power Origins Productions, INC” kind of blew my mind because that’s the business name of the Santa Monica, CA company that’s behind this whole shebang and “Power:Origins” is the name of the new Starz prequel series that’s partially being filmed in Hackensack………….and their trucking company is right-next-door in tiny Maywood? Very cool.

 

Continuing through Anderson Park, here’s something new………I thought maybe it was part of the movie set, but a crew member said it wasn’t:

Must be from Hackensack (as two other new park items we’ll see later must also be).

 

Back to the Ward St trucks………they’re now starting to empty their loads:

That lead truck is also from the Maywood “Power:Origins” company.

 

And directly across Ward St from that truck is the spotlight that will illuminate a Tiffany stained-glass window – from the outside – to create a brilliantly-bright window on the inside (as will the 4 spotlights on the other side of the church).

So why is this one aimed at the upper floors of my building on the other side of Ward St? Maybe it has a solar-powered battery? It IS facing the sun.

As I understand it, the only church filming is inside the church, which seems strange to those of us not in the know, given how brilliantly-lit the exterior will be.

 

Here’s a PANO of the front of the church that shows some of those other 4 spotlights to the right of (and below) the flag:

And why are those two cars closest to me (the PSE&G vehicle and the white one behind it) looking so small? Because their motion is from right to left and my PANO panning motion is moving from left to right, which compresses them (stationary vehicles are unaffected).

(Can you guess what would happen if I was panning from right to left? Hint: I have pictures of buses that are two blocks long.)

 

Back home, the Angel Aerial truck has dumped its load (discounting the two ladders, I don’t see any aerial components………..but what do I know?):

 

 

Back out for another AM stroll, I start with the church, showing spotlights on each side:

 

Closeup of the soon-to-be-very-tall street spotlight:

 

Side view of that spotlight and a few others:

That street spotlight will rise to great heights and do something I’ve never seen in my 37 years of living next door to that church.

 

 

Back in Anderson Park, we see the flip sides of two large Conklin Place trucks that we saw earlier (portable dressing rooms?):

 

I’m sorry, but this is the least-festive-looking Christmas decoration I’ve ever seen. It’s so raggedy:

It’s one of the two same new park items that I think the city provided. We’ll see it again later when it’s lit up (don’t hold your breath).

 

I didn’t see any of this stuff along Anderson St on my earlier stroll (that’s because you were on parallel Conklin Place, dumbass):

See that partial red and yellow box right above this sentence? I just noticed that it says “TOE WARMERS”.

 

Remember this statement? “Keep that first car on the left in mind………….wait’ll you see what IT gets to eat!”

Well, here it is!

WTF?

 

Later that evening, I mentioned seeing this to a crew member working with that very tall spotlight in front of the church. I’ve forgotten half of what he said, but it involved some guy (the car owner?) and the “Italian” eatery we saw earlier. There was nasty arguing on both sides, but I’m pretty sure he said it ended with the car owner beating someone with a baseball bat. Hey – wouldn’t you do the same to someone trying to turn your car into a vegetarian? (Is there meat in that mess? I can’t tell.)

I don’t know if the two people shown are in the movie or just passersby, but it does look like they might be arguing, so…………

Well, was all that worth the wait?

 

Another shot of my favorite 3-door truck:

 

More sidewalk stuff (or is it more of the same?):

 

There were two shots worth taking on the side-street (Park St):

I have no idea if that woman(? – I’m going by the longish blond hair) was part of the crew or a local who was “borrowing” a few items, but she might have a baseball bat under that coat, so I’ll leave her alone.

 

Back at the church, I got a nice shot of the church sign and the 4 spotlights that will illuminate the 4 Tiffany stained-glass windows to the delight of those inside:

 

BY THE WAY……….since we can’t go inside the church to see what’s what, I dug up some interior shots I took during daylight hours 3 years ago. Until the show airs, you’ll have to imagine the indoor Tiffany stained-glass windows with very bright outside spotlights on them (the first one is a PANO):

 

Back outside, the Insight Equipment truck on Ward St has dispensed some colorful containers (PANO):

 

Meanwhile, on the Anderson St side of the church, there was a lot of food and not a cash register in sight (PANO):

(I did not partake……..or attempt to.)

 

 

Pocket Canon shot (top) and an iPhone shot (bottom):

iPhone wins.

 

I thought the park holiday decorations came from Starz because I had never seen them before, but I’m told I am incorrect:

 

I’m sorry, but the somewhat out-of-focus lights are not helping that now-lit, unfestive-looking arch, so let’s make an adjustment:

Ah – much better!

 

Side view of two large vehicles on Anderson St:

 

Between those two trucks you can see a red sign and a yellow one. Here’s a closeup:

 

Hmmmmm………….dressing rooms for the Desi twins and the Lucy twins (Arnaz and Ball?)

More likely, Desi has two and so does Lucy.

 

Holiday lights, the church and a request in the second pic to please not wade in the fountain (behind me). And this request is necessary in December because…………..why?

 

 

The main spotlight is extended way up……and on! And could go a bit higher:

What purpose does it serve? All the filming in being done inside the church. If it’s supposed to illuminate the front Tiffany windows, wouldn’t it be more efficient to face the windows directly instead of at a very high angle?

Besides my building on the far right, there are two other apartment buildings a block behind the church that can now be seen, thanks to this light.

 

More on this later.

 

 

The side spotlights appear to be doing just fine aimed straight at the windows:

 

As does the one on the other side:

 

 

Back at home, I’m amazed to see how much is lit-up like I’ve never seen before:Even Manhattan looks a little brighter.

 

This isn’t particularly sharp, but it’s one of the two buildings that are a block behind the church and fully illuminated. One spotlight is even bouncing off one of the apartment windows:

 

 

That’s it for me………………..but I did find one other image online that interested me.

Someone who lives behind the church took this picture. An illuminated sliver of my building shows up on the far left:

She’s identified only as MinkSableSeven (on Reddit, which I’m not on), so that’s the best I can do credit-wise. I think I know which building she might be in (and I may have just photographed it), but I’m not about to mail a letter addressed to that ID.

She seems to be pretty much into Hackensack, so maybe she’ll stumble across this.  

If so, Merry Christmas, MSS (hey – your “initials” are in “Merry Christmas”!)

 

And Merry Christmas and Happy Everything Else to EVERYONE Else!

 

NOVEMBER 1

Crane delivering (left), Manhattan (right).

 

Another delivery: closeup and not:

 

Plane coming into Teterboro Airport (note deployed landing gear). You’ll see a lot of that this month:

 

Whole lotta wood:

 

If I recall correctly, this was left open overnight (check for squatters!):

 

It appears that 3 cranes were working Passaic St (but 1 and 3 might be the same) and click to enlarge:

 

Prepping a load for liftoff:

 

PANO shot from mid-block of Passaic St between Main and State:

 

Crane at Main & Passaic (Look at its wheels……about to tip over?

 

Another mid-block shot:

 

Getting close to State St:

 

AT State St:

 

 

NOVEMBER 3

Crossed cranes, delivery closeup:

 

Crane’s strap flapping in the breeze:

 

NOVEMBER 4

Yesterday, it was strap-flap – today, it’s house-wrap being installed:

 

I had to walk to somewhere on State St. On my way back, I noticed what the sun was doing on the building and took a quick shot:

 

And then I took a couple more photos between State and Main:

 

NOVEMBER 5

More Typar to put up…………but who stole my ladder?

 

OK – that’s better:

 

Gettin’ there………….

 

Top: Perfect!

Later: “Someone/something ate holes in the Typar!”

Much later: “Someone/something ate rectangles in the Typar!”

 

“Might as well clean up the mess while somebody else sticks his arm between the wall and the Typar for some reason.”

 

“I know what I’ll do! I’ll play Pickleball with someone!” (Note the net)

Sounds like a logical move……..

 

Sunset:

(at least THAT seems semi-normal)

 

 

NOVEMBER 6

Watch your step!

 

And remember to look both ways when carrying a big board!

 

Geez – a lot of that going on around here!

 

And be ESPECIALLY careful with your board toss!

 

Enter the wood maze……….

 

And while you’re lost in there, straighten some stuff out, wood ya?

More angled wood that caught my eye (yours too, I hope):

 

NOVEMBER 7

It’s all good because it’s all wood, all the time (and in the order I photographed them):

That last one where he’s feeding the wood panels into the floor wood shredder (not really)…………that’s a wide one, so give it a click, woodja?

 

Remember that mysterious “Plaza is closed” sign from 3 days ago?

Here’s the full visual story (click to enlarge – twice……and you’ll still need to scroll – it’s a biggie):

 

NOVEMBER 8

More wood stuff:

That last one’s got some strap-on-sap action going on.

 

Oh, look! Another Teterboro-bound private jet!

 

Historical side note: Hey – does anyone remember Arthur Godfrey? Did you know he recorded a single called “Teterboro Tower”?

Don’t believe me?

 

Back on the ground, I’m starting to see all-night lights on a couple of floors of this building…………….it’s almost like people are already living there:

 

 

 

NOVEMBER 9

This is what it looked like the very next night with Foschini Park’s blazing field lights on when there was a slight haze in the air:

I hope that no one in this building ever has to see those field lights directly.

They’re pretty brutal.

 

November 10

Visitors, workers and more wood:

 

 

NOVEMBER 11

Make sure your sound is on for the explanation:

 

Different aspects of large wooden planks:

Carried:

 

Standing:

 

Tilted:

 

Dropped:

(It’s the most difficult shot to capture – that’s why there’s only one)

 

Nailed:

I thought that maybe if I took the first, second or third of each group of 3, that they’d line up as a sequence, but they’re all different workers.

 

 

I was driving up Main St, saw the building and thought I’d get a nice shot of it as I drove by, but – like my barber – I took a little too much off the top while trying to avoid the oncoming car:

 

Not wooden men, but men in wood (excluding the bottom two guys):

 

Our man Buldo, picking up the pieces:

 

You’re gonna see a LOT of plane/crane in the next couple of days:

 

Remember that NYC building I showed you a while back that had a bright red section? Well, here’s what replaced that red section – red, white and blue……an interesting new addition to the Manhattan skyline for Veterans Day (and the crane is visible, but not particularly well-lit):

NOTE: the “pearl necklaces” you see at the bottom of the pic are on top of two residential buildings in Hackensack………….an interesting bi-state lighting display.

 

NOVEMBER 12

More wood, plane and (posing) crane images:

 

 

NOVEMBER 13

Before we get into too many plane/crane pix, here are the other shots of the day:

Blocking a lane on State St for some reason:

 

OK……….ready to fly on National CranePlane Day? (Didn’t Ed Kraneplane play 18 seasons at first base for the Mets?)

 

Here we go:

I told you there were too many………….and there are still a few more to go.

If you’re interested, all the planes are approaching Teterboro Airport (about 3-4 miles south of me) – the airport of the stars (they all fly in on private jets and take a very short limo ride into Manhattan).

 

NOVEMBER 14

WOOD…………..it’s everywhere – on big trucks, in the air, and forming new homes:

 

Lots more Typar to put up (my fingers keep wanting to type “Party” instead of “Typar”). You can also see glass doors and windows being installed:

 

 

NOVEMBER 15

It’s AV (Avian Visitors) Day at the site:

 

NOVEMBER 17

Lots of wood-pushing (mostly upward), a little wood-receiving and some more plane/crane activity today:

 

NOVEMBER 18

Lotsa ladders in the wood(s):

 

Ladderless wood:

 

More CraneWood:

 

Egad! Even MORE CranePlane activity!

But there’s something different in that last one (left side). For all you youngsters who have never seen one of these before, that’s a propeller on its nose.

 

The crane does its flex-and-stretch exercises to impress Manhattan:

 

Did anyone notice in the last couple of pictures that the crane is in a new position that I don’t recall seeing before? It’s now on State St, so I took this full-building shot to commemorate that fact:

 

I’ve gotta go out and shoot this new development. So here I am on State St, where it looks like the crane has been attached to a telephone pole for stability:

 

Getting ready to send the next load skyward:

 

The view near Passaic St on State St showing the building and crane AND the back side of next-door neighbor 389 Main St:

(The first double-rear-end photo of the two projects that I shot from the beginning – mostly from my living room).

 

Now standing on the corner of State and Passaic, I see an interesting shot of the south side of the project, but then I’m immediately cautioned to not come any closer:

 

So I start to head back, but there was one more shot I needed to take with the crane now detached from the telephone pole:

If you look really closely, you can see two guys on e-bikes who look like they’re trying to pull the crane back towards the telephone pole.

Didn’t happen.

 

 

NOVEMBER 19

The four images on the top look like they belong to the five on the bottom, so………………. (click to enlarge)

 

Another mish-mash of 4 images that seems to work:

 

And finally, a delivery quartet:

 

 

NOVEMBER 20

I’m starting to see lights left on overnight in the building. It’s like people are beginning to move in. Of course, they’re not, but the fact that the number of lights increases over time, does nothing to negate that feeling:

As I write this in December, all I can say is keep an eye on future images of this type. I think you’ll notice the same thing.

 

In this double image, the man on ground level seems to be waiting for the carrying cable (that no one up top is paying any attention to) to be lowered:

 

Still waiting…………….

 

Buldo backs into the shared driveway to pick up more debris:

 

Some more angled wood:

 

 

NOVEMBER 22

Slim pickings on a day when I’ll be shooting a Tommy James and the Shondells concert (HAD to get that in there – I don’t really do much rock stuff anymore):

 

 

NOVEMBER 24

Working around the elevator (I think):

 

Catching a delivery:

 

What’s cookin’?

 

Street-level deliveries:

 

Love those wood angles!

 

 

NOVEMBER 25

A couple of new “tenants”?

 

Top Pic: Bad viewLower Pic: Cleaning his toenails with a drill

(Hey – it could be!)

(Not bloody likely, Bob.)

 

Last two shots before I go for a walk:

 

 

On Passaic St, site workers stand around a hole in the street:

(No idea what that’s about)

 

Meanwhile, on Main St……………

 

 

NOVEMBER 26

Cones in shared driveway reflecting from recent rain while sign in bottom right suggests what I should be doing:

 

Delivered (5 pix), pickup (1), and drop (1):

 

2nd-level work over 1st-level parking:

 

 

NOVEMBER 27

Daylight version of yesterday’s wet cones shot (no change in the message, however):

 

Closeup of pickleball net:

Is this now common at construction sites?

 

Same net and Typar apertures of residences whose tenants will have to put up with the sounds of championship pickleball:

 

NOVEMBER 28

All wood, all the time:

 

 

NOVEMBER 29

More deliveries:

 

Nailgunning:

 

The last 4 November photos:

I especially like the third one because the sun is shining on what I think may be the edge of the new roof AND right above that is St Joseph’s Church on Palisade Ave in Bogota with other houses in that neighborhood, PLUS the high-rises behind the church that are actually a couple of towns away on the Palisades in Fort Lee/Cliffside Park – a lot to pack in from my living room in Hackensack.

This is my last post on this subject until next year, so Merry/Happy-Whatever-You-Celebrate and then have a Happy New Year!

 

The last concert I shot was 22 months ago, when I photographed ……………..Tommy James.

What can I say? I like his shows, they’re nearby, and his manager (and now wife – as of 4-5-25) is someone I’ve known since the ‘70s when she did publicity – and gave me photo passes – for bands like KISS and others.

This was a 7pm show with no opening act and I was to meet my friends Eric Leefe and John Auli in the lobby at 6:15, so we could go upstairs to the dressing room and do pre-show photos with Tommy.

I got there a little late because the highway I take to get there (Rt. 4) was jam-packed-stopped-dead and I had to take all side streets through Teaneck and Englewood. Fortunately, I’ve lived in both towns and knew my way, so I wasn’t TOO late.

I picked up my ticket and photo pass at the box office (click to enlarge):

……..and we waited in the lobby for someone to come down and get us because security wouldn’t let us go up there without backstage passes. I told the security guy that I was supposed to do photos with Tommy and showed him my photo pass, but what worked 22 months ago, didn’t this time and it was getting too close to showtime, so seeing Tommy before the show didn’t happen.

The security guy started giving me orders about where I could shoot in the house and I stopped him:

“I know the routine – I’ve shot here many times before”.

He gave me a dirty look and walked away.

John and Eric went to their seats, which were in a handicapped section to accommodate Eric’s wheelchair. They were in the last row of the far right corner of the orchestra – 32 rows from the stage. This is a difficult place for Eric because the audience stands up a lot during the show and he’s not able to do that, so he can’t see most of the show.

My ticket was in the next section over, on the aisle, 20 rows from the stage.

Here’s the seating plan:

The green, red and purple sections are X’d-out because they’re upstairs and the blue section is the orchestra. You can see where the stage is.

My seat’s circled in red and John and Eric’s location is circled in green. I never got to sit in my seat because I was shooting from the corners nearest the stage (where “BL1” and “BL2” are).

Note “Door to Stage” near BL1. Previously, I had used that to alternate between shots from the wings and near the stage. I thought that the hard-ass security guy would never let me use that door.

Suddenly, he comes down that orchestra side aisle to talk to the security person assigned to that stage corner. As soon as he turned his back to me, I bolted through that stage door and found an empty chair near where the band gathers before they go on. Thankfully, he didn’t follow me.

 

Here’s a phone shot I took from my chair in the wings that shows the stage and a bit of the audience (and where Tommy enters the stage):

 

There were still about 10 minutes before showtime. Some band members drifted in from the elevator they took from the second-floor dressing rooms.

Suddenly, I saw Carol and Tommy a few feet behind me. I stood up. Carol saw me and came right over with a nice hug and kind words about all the photo blog posts I send her. She always writes such nice things about them. I told her I thought she was my biggest fan.

Tommy joined us and Carol introduced me (again). Hey, it’s only been 22 months since the first time and Tommy’s only met 50 bazillion people since then.

I reminded him that he knew my name well because Eric Leefe’s father – Bob Leefe – was Tommy’s recording engineer for many of his hits (he also recorded Elvis’ “Jailhouse Rock” and many of HIS hits, plus dozens of hits by many early music luminaries – and that’s why Bob Leefe is in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame…………where Tommy should also be).

 

A minute or two later, Tommy and Carol were standing together checking out a couple of band members already on stage. I walked over there and asked if I could shoot a quickie of them with my phone.

“VERY quickly”, said Tommy.

Here it is (half-lit by the stage lights):

 

Tommy hits the stage and straps up:

 

The last time, I couldn’t get any good shots of the drummer or the keyboards guys from the house, so I took a couple from the side while I was still in the wings:

That last one may be one of the best wings shots I’ve ever taken.

 

But wings shots get old very quickly because of the limited side angle, so it’s off to that near corner by the stage, where I only took 3 shots:

Why only 3 shots?

Because most of what I shot 22 months ago was taken from that corner and I was already getting bored with the same angles/shots, so I walked around the orchestra to the BL2 corner, where I shot the rest of the show.

Here are a dozen “shots” that actually contain 18 separate images. Some of the pairings contain similar, opposite or connective images that I noticed and found interesting (your reaction may vary):

 

But I still had 4 unconnected images. This was the only way to connect them that I could think of:

1. LABORed breathing:

 

2. “IT’S A BOY!”

 

3. “CONGRATULATIONS!”

 

4. “He’s also the father!”

Yikes! I’m afraid to ask who the mother is!

 

 

Lastly, I have to photographically address Tommy’s sashay through the audience (while the band plays on).

The best camera for this is my iPhone.

I’m on one side of the orchestra and Tommy starts out on the other, so I had to wait a while. Meanwhile, all sorts of people on my side are pushing through the front aisle to get over to Tommy’s side. I guess they don’t know that he’ll make his way over here eventually.

When he got to the middle of the front aisle, I started inching forward because I could then see what he was doing and I could just hold my phone up high and let its auto-everything take over:

 

Click to enlarge:

Click to enlarge:

 

As he got near to my original position (where the second stage door – his escape – was), some guy seems to have his attention exclusively.

These 3 pix were taken with that stage door open, but Tommy seems to be enjoying the conversation. In the bottom of the 3 shots, someone from either the house or Tommy’s stage crew, seems to want Tommy to come in and finish the song (as does the audience……………and the band):

 

Finally, the show ends and the audience files out. Time to take two iPhone PANO shots of the house from both my BL2 position and from the other side, under the mezzanine and balcony seats:

Click to enlarge:

This was a GREAT show and I’ll be happy to come out of retirement to shoot it again when I’m 97.

 

Final note: apologies to Eric and John…………I meant to take a picture of them at the show to make up for the less-than-stellar one I took at the same venue the last time Tommy played here. Here’s that on-stage picture:

This means you’ll HAVE to play BergenPac again soon, Tommy.

 

Meanwhile, thanks for this show.

 

 

I recently found three online posts that involve me from various stages of my career, which I will post in coming days in chronological order. These events are from 1977, 1983 and 2016 (Ooops! Already posted the 1983 one).

This was inspired by someone’s post from exactly three years ago (11-19-22) that was titled “Today in Punk Rock History”. It commemorates an unfortunate Joey Ramone incident that occurred at the Capitol Theatre in Passaic, NJ, on 11-19-77 – 45 years (to the day) prior to that post – and uses my definitive photo of what happened that night (and NO, I was not aware of the usage until I found it recently………….and watermarked it).

Here is the article and its attachments (shouldn’t his title’s last word be “Past” instead of “Post”?) :

 

By the way, that NBC appearance on Tom Snyder’s “Tomorrow” show was on 9-1-81. Sometime after that, I hand-wrote a letter to Joey (it’s only dated as “9/81”). It’s rather lengthy, so I am not going to enjoy typing it out, but here it is:

Joey,

For the 4th time, I now introduce myself as the photographer who took the Capitol burn shot of you. The 3rd time resulted in your outburst at the “Tomorrow” show. The first two times (Capitol 1978 and Asbury Park), you said nothing about you not wanting it published. What am I supposed to be – a mind-reader? Now it’s published and you’re pissed. I suppose you got equally mad at the magazine’s art person (who picked it out of the 40 or so slides that I gave) and the printer (for the crummy color separations).

 You’ve still never said why you feel that way. Sure, it’s not a complimentary picture, but if you will can the ego for a minute, it’s a piece of Ramones history…not a pretty one, but it’s something that happened to you that Ramones fans heard about and can now see the seriousness of it. And unlike Creem, which would have put some terrible caption under it (and you know it), Hit Parader’s was entirely factual. And since when is rock all happy moments?

 For your information, Linda Stein was so taken with it, that she told Sire publicity to buy it, but Janis Schacht had no budget and did not.

 I’ve shot the band for at least 4 years and was still interested enough to come into the city for a 2nd time that day to catch you on “Tomorrow”. So what do I get for my interest in the band and for doing my job? Eloquent verbiage from Joey Ramone: “Asshole” and threats of murder (!) upon future publication.

Listen, my agency has that shot and may spread it around the world (and the Federal Copyright Law says I can do what I want with it editorially). If you had chosen a more acceptable way to convey your message, I could have pulled it out of circulation, but I won’t lift a finger now after your tantrum, unless better communication is forthcoming. I have to deal every day with the prima donnas of rock (a group I never thought you’d be in) and I’ve never gotten an outburst + threats from any of them.

You must think it’s just business and money to me. The fact that I’m writing this to you should tell you otherwise – if I didn’t give a shit, I wouldn’t bother. The fact that rock mags pay shit and Hit Parader pays ½ of that, should tell you more.

 I also gave up my chance to shoot you guys on the panel during the break because I chose to explain my position to one of your people. I also knew enough to walk away from your verbal garbage, because you were about to go on and I still cared enough to not want to affect your performance in a negative way.

And you’ve got a lot of nerve complaining about me! Maybe you’d like to pay me for using one of my shots in “Rock ‘n’ Roll High School” without my permission.

Anyway, I still like the band and the music. You……..I’ll reserve judgment. I’m still open and willing to work with you if you can come up with something a bit more civil. If not, that’s your business. Just remember, future publication depends on future communication by you.

Good Luck,

Bob Leafe

 

I never heard from him again (gee, what a surprise!), but subsequent shows in ’86 and ’87 were shot without any problems.

 

NEXT UP: The photographers unite in 1983 to form AMPS (what the hell is THAT?).

Note: As I mentioned above, that post is already out there. If you’re interested in knowing all the crap we had to deal with:

https://iaintjustmusic.bobleafe.com/?p=24925

 

 

 

Things were going just fine for us in the ‘70s. We shot whole shows and placed the best of those photos in dozens of magazines.

We were quite proud of our work………until bands’ managements and publicists decided to screw it all up by placing new (and quite unwanted) restrictions on us and our work.

“You can only shoot the first 3 songs (uhhhh……..the lighting is always better late in the show and sometimes special guests show up then). I’ve had more than one publicist call me up the day after a special guest joined her artist onstage either late in the show or during encores.

“I’d like to see your shots of the two of them together”.

“No-can-do, dumbbell, you kicked us out after 3 songs!”

So much history was being lost because of this not-well-thought-out rule. I always used this to try to get them to drop their idiotic dictum:

“If the 3-song limit was in effect at 1967’s Monterey Pop, we’d have no photos of Jimi Hendrix burning his guitar.”

“Also, we all supply many magazines with pictures………..we can’t do that with only 3 songs-worth of photos, so we have to take many more photos during those 3 songs to make up for it and they’re not always good enough images that we would never normally take during a whole show. You’re hurting the image of the artist that you supposedly care about”.

I guess that made too much sense to change anything.

 

Other counter-productive rules soon followed:

“No flash!” Well then, how about providing sufficient lighting during the show? If you take away something that critical to good photography, you have to replace it with something equal (or better).

Most moronic use of the No-Flash rule: I photographed Stevie Wonder one night and was told I couldn’t use my flash! “Why? Is it gonna make him more blind?”

 

Really dopey rule: we have to send all of our work to the band’s management company so some secretary can look at them and say, “Ooooo, that’s cute” or “Ewww, that’s icky” and forbid us to use whatever they rejected. I think photographers know which shots are their best work. Besides – we’re in competition with each other………….we HAVE to provide only the best images or we’ll never be paid.

 

Next idiotic rule: We’re only allowed to use ONE photo in ONE magazine until the end of the calendar year. Tough to do if you shoot a show in December and the management company that’s censoring your photos is taking their sweet time returning your property.

 

One management (I forget which one) sent my slides back REALLY late. Their excuse? “We found your slides under a seat cushion on the tour bus”. Nice to know they take such great care of our property. That was the last time I ever sent my slides in for approval.

 

And that’s another thing…………it IS our property. We own the copyright and the law lets us do what we want with them editorially.

Some of the bands required us to sign very restrictive contracts before we could shoot a show and a lot of what was in them was patently illegal.

We were never provided with a contract copy to read in advance – otherwise, I might have just stayed home rather than sign any of these make-believe documents.

I still have a copy of one of the worst contracts I’ve ever encountered. It’s from 1981 and it was from a band I liked (Van Halen). I was not told about this contract beforehand and drove through two states to be presented with this “approval letter” and told to sign it if I wanted to shoot the show.

 

I’ve had a copyright lawyer since the late ‘70s. He told me about little ways to get around these restrictions and one BIG way: since all of these clauses were illegal and would never hold up in court, he suggested that we subtly violate them and see if anyone gets sued.

If that happened, we’d all $upport the defendant because these rules would all be exposed in court as illegal and we’d never have to deal with them again.

So we did little things to get their attention, such as writing a small “not” in front of verbs on the contract that ordered us to do something. Personally, I had many 1981 VH pictures published in many magazines over many years – three different violations! – I must be in big trouble! But I never heard a peep from anybody.

Related – I just found something in the Van Halen folder that I wrote up back then:

 

We were practically begging these managements to sue one of us, but no matter how much we violated the contacts, no one ever got sued. That’s probably a smart move by the managements, because they knew that everything they wrote would be declared illegal and they would never be able to bother any photographer now or in the future.

So – after reading the contract, I noticed that one sentence started off by saying, “…since it’s impossible to calculate the damages which a breach by me would cause you…”, but by the end of that sentence, it said that, “…you shall be entitled to…one hundred thousand dollars”. So what was impossible at the beginning of the sentence was suddenly possible at the end of it?

I signed the contract because it said “…you shall be entitled…” It didn’t say from whom! 44 years later, I guess I’m in the clear.

Here’s that horrible contract:

So, since we figured out that they were vulnerable, we decided to cement that by forming an organization. Some of us – myself included – got together and wrote up our manifesto and sent it to the music industry’s leading trade publication, Billboard magazine:

 

Much to our surprise and delight, the whole thing was published on their editorial page for the entire industry to see:

Finding this again is what drove me to make this post.

 

That was our impetus to form AMPS – the American Music Photographers Society. My copyright lawyer became our attorney and nobody messed with us after that.

I do think that the 3-song limit is now pretty much ingrained in the industry, but the stupid stuff pretty much got the boot (I hope).

It felt good to have written a healthy chunk of that Billboard piece and maybe helped out our successors a bit, but I have almost no connection to any of that anymore….. except I still do get calls for images of certain performers for things like online documentaries (Bon Jovi, Cyndi Lauper), the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony catalogs and my recent favorite – the Christie’s auction catalog for their sale of Jeff Beck’s guitars.

 

One more late find – a letter from VH management:

My 3 B&W contact sheets contained 91 images and they approved SEVEN of them? That means they rejected 92.3% of them.

Good thing that as the copyright holder, I have the final approval of what gets used and it was a LOT more than 7.7%.

And I don’t send ANYBODY original slides unless there is substantial money already promised as a result of viewing low-res copies submitted to lead to publication of the originals.

As for duplicate slides, they made no offer to pay for all that duplication, so they got nothing – not even a reply.

Lots of these images were published for years without any complaint from the VH people, so I guess my approval did a much better job than theirs would have.

 

Though I haven’t been active in the business for over 3 decades, I’m still not aware of any music photographer having been sued for violating any of the ridiculous “rules”.

Until I hear otherwise, I’ll consider that a victory for all of us – past and present.