Roberta Roller...What?

   (or Rabbit Redux)
     ...from a photographer's notebook

Sometimes a photo taken a while back will jump out and tickle the funny bone. That usually happens when some little detail in the composition not previously noticed…gets noticed, often with whimsical glee.

I suppose you’d have to know my whimsically warped sense of humor, which can put that funny bone into an “easily-tickled” state, but…

I wrote last time about exploring Duane Street in New York’s Tribeca, on a delightful late spring afternoon in 2013, including a reference to how the name of this attractive boutique brought forth a smile, as I imagined bunnies on roller skates scooting across the cobblestones in the late afternoon sun.

In illustrating that story, I used the photo above (you may see it in higher definition here). It was my favorite of the many I shot of Roberta Roller Rabbit, as I especially liked the foreground interest of the bicycle with basket tethered to the sign post, as well as the fact it showed the neighboring shop, Mondo Cane, also mentioned in the narrative for the musical association the name evoked.

So, there I was the other night, looking at the photo again as I prepared to upload it to my Foto-Community pages and, suddenly, instead of furry little bunnies on roller skates scooting about on Duane Street, perhaps stopping to munch on the greenery in Duane Park, I see another unlikely but, to me at least, equally smile-inducing scenario…as I notice that little detail not previously seen – the one letter covered (only in this particular shot of Roberta Roller Rabbit!) by the red parking sign.

Well, if there were travellin’ preachers in the Wild West that rode their horses from one town to the next to tend to their faithful, why not, in crowded Manhattan, a corps of highly mobile female…rabbis, also getting around on ball bearing footwear (or would it be bicycles?)…one of them headquartered right here in Tribeca!

OK, so I’m easily amused…but this photo, in addition to calling up my ever so enjoyable introduction to Tribeca – for reasons known only to my wicked little funny bone (and you, of course) – still makes me smile!

©2014 Steve Ember

Bunny Beats Last Bass Drum

           ...from a photographer's notebook

Detail from "Anybody Seen My Drum?" - Tribeca Moment No.11

Sometimes, “enough is bloody well enough,” according to an unidentified spokesperson representing the vigilante group Tribeca Citizens Against Noise Pollution.

After several weeks of complaints to the NYPD over a rhythmic low frequency thumping in the neighborhood at 3 AM, irate citizens, determining the racket was not coming from a disco or underground sewer gas explosions, focused their attention on a short stretch of White Street between Church St and Broadway.

Surveillance equipment recorded the unlikely sight of the Energizer Bunny beating a large bass drum as he walked repeatedly up and down the deserted street, from Church to Broadway.

When police detectives assigned to the case dismissed the video as “some kinda geeky YouTube hoax,”  TCANP vigilantes apparently took matters into their own hands.

On the afternoon of June 23, a visiting photographer, looking upward at architectural detail along White St, captured the grisly sight of the bunny hanging from a sign pole, drum beater still clutched in his left paw.

No trace was found of the bass drum, but area merchants reported anonymous notes slipped under their doors warning them not to sell Energizer-brand batteries.

©2014 Steve Ember

If you'd like to see the full image, including the Photo Note Card design click here.

My growing series of "Tribeca Moments," as well as other NYC images can be found in my New York City folder on Foto-Community.