David Smith has worked at the 42nd and 5th branch of the New York Public Library for 30 years, starting as a clerk and eventually landing at the General Research Division. Before becoming a librarian he was a bookstore clerk, Queens College student, cab driver and under the employ of Sufi Bakery and a butcher shop on Queens Blvd called Joe Salta's Meats.
David Smith, NYPL's Librarian to the Stars
Philly Bikini Anchor Arrested for Punching NYPD Officer
Alycia Lane, the anchorwoman from the CBS owned station KYW in Philadelphia , who was at one time linked to WCBS anchor Chris Wragge, sent bikini photos to a married man, and is frequently mentioned in the Post’s Page Six column got into some more hot water in Chelsea around 2 a..m. Sunday morning. The Long Island native, allegedly punched a female police officer from the 10th Precinct in the face at W. 17th Street and 9th Avenue.
Protesting the City's Supposed Bike Lanes
If you thought noticed a group of bicyclists playing dead on 6th Avenue near 33rd Street, your eyes weren't fooling you. Time's Up led a Bike Lane Action to "dramatize the fatal last moments of David Smith’s ride up 6th Avenue." Smith was killed when a passenger in a truck, parked in the bike lane, opened a door; Smith was knocked off his bike and into the path of a truck.
Open Car Door Kills Midtown Bicyclist
A 65-year-old man was killed during his bicycle ride to work when he was struck by an open car door in the bike lane at 6th Avenue and 36th Street. David Smith was then pushed off his bike and into the path of a box truck, which hit him.
$23.1M for This Piece of Crap?
Listen, we love contemporary American sculpture as much as the next guy, but when we heard that Larry Gagosian paid more than twenty-three million dollars for this David Smith sculpture (Cubi XXVII), we threw up a little bit in our mouth. You could make a better metal sculpture by stacking up silver kitchen parts from the Bowery, for godsakes! We're sure Larry did it as an investment, but we hope that he doesn't have to keep this thing in his living room until he can sell it to some museum.
New Art City
We'd been eyeing the huge book, New Art City, which is about American artists hitting their stride in the mid-20th century New York City. However, we were concerned that at 665 pages, we would throw out our back carrying it back home from the store (or cause UPS to slip a disc) and then it would break out coffee table. John Updike reviewed it this weekend in the NY Times Book Review, and he assuaged our fears: "This is not a coffee-table art book; its illustrations, though numerous, are small, and black-and-white. A dense text rules the textbook-sized pages - 557 of them, not counting notes, acknowledgments and index." The book looks at the famous - Jackson Pollock, David Smith, Willem de Kooning, Joseph Cornell, Andy Warhol, and Donald Judd - and the lesser known - Hans Hofmann, Joan Mitchell, Fairfield Porter, and John Graham. Author Jed Perl will be speaking at a few events here, so it should be interesting if you're at all interested in modern American art.

