SHOCKING FEAT: Magician David Blaine is set to electrify the Hudson River Park— and himself — at an event called “Electrified: One Million Volts Always On.” The three-day, three-night stunt will take place on Pier 54, at W. 13th St., and will start on Fri., Oct. 5. A trailer shows Blaine, 39, suspended between two Tesla coils, with purplish-colored electrical currents zapping out from his fingertips. Hopefully, Blaine’s incredible feat won’t affect power in the 5-mile-long park. … Brings back memories of Gecko’s Tesla show at the old Collective: Unconscious on Ludlow St. We would caution spectators to heed her words of warning from back then: Remove all body piercings before approaching the Tesla coil, or Blaine.
TOP-SECRET TILES: We checked in with Andretti Mullens on the 9/11 tiles standoff last Friday for the latest, and it seems they are safe, but we have no idea where. We asked permission to view the formerly public tiles ourselves, but Mullens said it can’t be allowed right now, for the memorial tiles’ own safety. “The tiles are in safekeeping. I’m not going to say anything more than that,” he said. “We’re not going to jeopardize them by taking them out of safekeeping. We’re staying on target with our agenda, cataloguing them. Very soon, we’ll start stabilizing them.” He said that this month “a ceramics team” will start intensively working with the tiles to ensure that they’re fully stabilized, since the painted panels were eroding in the elements. Mullens said they will, as previously planned, eventually put the tiles in the Crown Relocation high-end art storage facility in New Jersey, but added, “we’re waiting for the dust to settle.” He said he and his partner, Dusty Berke, are waiting to see if the Contemporary Ceramic Studios Association backs off or if they will still try to wrest back control of the former street memorial. “We’ll see how they behave,” Mullens said, “if they meet the terms of our cease-and-desist letter. They’re going to have to do a retraction and a formal apology.” We tried to find out from the Sixth Precinct how mediation efforts between the two parties are going, but didn’t get an update by press time.
FIRESTONE FEMINIST APARTMENT: Fran Luck of WBAI’s “Joy of Resistance” feminist radio show said the effort to make the late Shulamith Firestone’s E. 10th St. apartment permanent affordable housing for a deserving East Village feminist is moving forward, as activists plan to deliver a petition to Firestone’s landlord Bob Perl next week. The campaign has garnered signatures from a number of prominent feminists and housing activists, including Kate Millett, Ti-Grace Atkinson, Frances Goldin and Nellie Hester Bailey. The petition has been posted to change.org, where people can sign onto it. Radical feminist Firestone, who died in late August, penned “The Dialectic of Sex.” Luck and other local feminists say Firestone wouldn’t have been able to do her important work unless she’d been able to live in an affordable apartment, since feminist writers don’t make much money.
