1916 Fourth Avenue. I spent ten years here as a company member at Annex Theater.
The old Fred Astaire Dance Studio with the sprung floor and light booth permanently improvised on top of the bar is gone.
In its place is a new high-rise.
The tower’s street level facade evokes the building it replaced.
The ghosts of “Captains”, “Annex” and “7-11” keep the old tree company — the same tree that shaded our front windows and hid our rotating anarchy A sign.
Some familiar landmarks.
The platonic ideal of dive bars, Patrick’s 1911 is now a flyfishing shop.
Outside “Olivers”, where Susan always remembered your drink, the tower rises from behind Cameras West — or as it actually appears in some nirvana-latin memorium, “Came as u est”.
A-man now walks a less upscale neighborhood. I wish the current company the best. I acted, directed, produced, stage managed and designed sound but think my legacy is the background image they for some inexplicable reason still use on their website.