Photosensitive Lifeguard Dabbles in Constitutional Law
Artist Anne Gabriele, whose haunting miniatures are on display in a new exhibit at the Ocean Beach Historical Society, had an ugly confrontation on the shores of OB July 2 when an overprotective parent and an overzealous lifeguard joined forces against her art.
Gabriele’s Polaroid emulsion transfers – she takes photographs and then transfers them to watercolor paper, creating uniquely dreamy, indistinct images that look like watercolors – often take her to the beach, where she can be found taking photographs of strangers. These people, if they’re lucky, will find themselves immortalized as tiny, hazy figures in her seascapes.
On this foggy morning (Gabriele’s preferred working conditions), a father took umbrage. Gabriele says she was 50 or 60 feet from his children, using her rather bulky and strange-looking old Polaroid land camera to take pictures of the waves and those wading in them, when dad angrily approached her. She offered to show him the pictures she had taken (in which his children were merely unrecognizable blobs) but he was not interested, she says, as he was too busy screaming.
“In hindsight, I’d handle it differently,” admits Gabriele. “I got defensive because of his arrogance.”
A lifeguard soon joined the fracas.
“He told the lifeguards to stop me,” Gabriele said.
“What part of ‘don’t take pictures of my children’ doesn’t she understand?” asked the lifeguard, according to Gabriele.
Lifeguards, widely recognized for their erudition on matters of public space, the arts, copyright law and the Bill of Rights – which makes certain provisions concerning freedom of the press (that thingy that allows people like photojournalists to take pictures on the sidewalk or the beach without asking for each individual person’s permission), then chimed in with this sagacious verity: “He owns his children’s image.”
Whatever that means.
Memo to lifeguards: You have a serious job – saving lives. Don’t make it more complicated than it needs to be.
Memo to overprotective parents: No, that kindly local artist-lady with the boxy camera is not a child pornographer. Valium. Valium.
Mr. Big
Chris Noth, best known for his roles as Mr. Big from Sex and the City and Detective Mike Logan on Law and Order was at the Albatross with a lady companion and another couple on July 8. After frozen pina coladas at the bar, Noth sat down and dined on stuffed flounder and Pellegrino water. Waitress and Noth fan Heather Laffey, 23, said, “It was kind of surreal” to serve him. We asked, Was she checking him out? “I tried to hide it,” said Laffey. We’re sure she hid it well.
Newsflash
Rob, a.k.a. Foggs, the esteemed Bocce Beach drink-pourer, is dating the hot waitress at The Alligator. Developing…
Quiet, Please
The Ocean Beach village trustees met with Chief of Police Ed Paradiso and Sgt. George Hesse two weeks ago, in response to the crescendo of complaints from the public stemming from the June 12 pub crawl held in OB by Patchogue-based Clare Rose Distributors.
“That incident incited a lot of people to complain,” said trustee Steven Einig.
Enforcement of the doors-closed policy to keep the streets in town quiet was a priority at the meeting, Einig said.
Paradiso is in the habit of giving two warnings to barkeeps, once saying close open doors, and then a second time to say that, if he must return again, a ticket will be written. “We said, ‘no, if you have to go back a second time, you’re writing a ticket,’” said Einig.
In other law enforcement news, officials are determined to crack down on the explosion in medical permits for bikes and carts being used by our more able-bodied residents. “It’s been suggested that there’s an awful lot of people who don’t need them who use them,” said Einig; he also had praise for Paradiso for coming down on illegal group renters who lacked the proper permits. With tickets doubling and redoubling on second and third violations up into the quadruple digits, “It’s much cheaper to get your rental permit,” said Einig.
Lake Midway
It’s deadline Tuesday here at The News and the rain hasn’t stopped for more than 24 hours now. We’re tired, we’ve been drinking coffee for days, and there’s a lot left to do before this paper is ready to go to press. The rain isn’t helping anything. But, credit where credit’s due: they used to call it Lake Midway when it rained this hard, and now, though there are a few good-sized puddles, it’s actually pretty darn dry. Kudos to Ethan and the rest of the gang.
Land of No Rules
This week’s suggestion for Ocean Beach Violation: OBV 10-52 mandates that, in light of the new National Endowment for the Arts study which puts reading of literature at an all-time low, sullen teenagers who bring only a cellphone as entertainment to the beach and then sit there pouting at the one-inch screen will be forced to read Pevear and Volokhonsky’s translation of Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina Sullen teens who cannot afford their own copy will have one provided for them, however dog-eared. OBPD officers will also be equipped with copies of Tolstoy’s brief but equally moving Father Sergius, to be given to first-time offenders at their discretion.
Please send all questionable photographs, quizzical missives and trivia to ps@finews.biz. Paige answers any and all questions of her choosing.