Invisible Frontier
Exploring the Tunnels, Ruins, and Rooftops of Hidden New York
-
- USD 4.99
-
- USD 4.99
Descripción editorial
In the shadows of the city waits an invisible frontier—a wilderness thriving in the deep places, woven through dead storm drains and live subway tunnels, coursing over third rails. This frontier waits in the walls of abandoned tenements, hides on the rooftops, infiltrates the bridges’ steel. It’s a no-man’s-land, fenced off with razor wire, marked by warning signs, persisting in shadow, hidden everywhere as a parallel dimension. Crowds hurry through the bright streets, insulated by pavement, never reflecting that beneath their feet or above their heads lurks a universe.
Led by its two founding agents, L. B. Deyo and David “Lefty” Leibowitz, Jinx is a stylish urban adventure out?t known for its daring—if sometimes ridiculous—forays into the hidden wonders that lurk above and beneath America’s greatest city, New York. In Invisible Frontier L. B. and Lefty chronicle Jinx’s dramatic—if sometimes absurd—exploration of a Dante-esque New York, from the depths of the city’s underground Hell (abandoned aqueducts and subway tunnels) to the pinnacles of its Paradise (rooftops and bridges) and everything in between, capturing the genius of the city’s engineering, the vibrancy of its found art, and the elegiac beauty of its ruins. Here is a true series of wittily narrated adventures into the hidden world beneath a great civilization.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This book's intriguing topic and delightful presentation by its knowledgeable and eccentric authors will enthrall New Yorkers and non New Yorkers alike. Deyo and Leibowitz, editors at Jinx, a zine devoted to the urban exploration movement, illumine what drives them to explore cities' infrastructure, the places few consider going (including sewage systems, subway tunnels and bridge spans). A charming pastiche of Alice in Wonderland and The X Files, this is both a paean to New York and a chronology of a love affair with the unusual. The authors take readers on a hike to Manhattan from the Bronx via the Croton Aqueduct, which was one of the major engineering feats of the 19th century, providing water for most New Yorkers. They also traverse the tunnels under Riverside Park to find the so-called mole people who live in the Amtrak system and to seek out graffiti artists. A semi break-in takes readers into the Roosevelt Island Smallpox Hospital. Other treks include exploring a condemned building in East Harlem, a nondiplomatic maneuver at the United Nations and climbing to the summit of the George Washington Bridge. Rife with literary quotations, historical and scientific tidbits, political and social commentary plus a plethora of details about the explorations the authors and their strange cadre have made (despite the muck and mire, the men always wear suits and ties and the women cocktail dresses), this smart, quirky book will delight spelunkers, couch potatoes and all in between. 25 line drawings, 25 b&w photos. (On sale July 22)
