I walk down the east river promenade at lunch sometimes. Some guys from work and me have seen a really cool old building being renovated for years (without much progress) down by the Staten Island Ferry. Apparently its called the Battery Maritime Building and we can now all get inside because David Byrne has decided to pull one of his old broken organs out of circulation and into the second floor of this building. He has connected thin blue and yellow tubes to the keys. The tubes are gathered up behind the organ and then strung out to various parts of the building where they activate either a percussive, wind, or vibratory element that strikes blows or shakes a part of the building (mainly pipes) to make a tone. It was great to walk from the seaport down to this building with the Waterfalls blowing out off the promenade. Sure its $15 million for steel scaffolding, pipes, and pumps but it is cool to see the wind blowing the water and providing flag like indication of the wind direction and I heard that the taxpayers didn't foot the bill.
You have to enter on the side of the building where people ask you to fill out a liability waiver even though admittance is free. The girl taking my signature was laughing along when I asked if the word on the street was true that the old pipework and plaster is so old and degraded that it is very likely to fall crushing to death at least one person during this show run but some of the other quietly hip and reserved signing on next to me did not seem to enjoy the banter and seemed a bit uncomfortable that I dared to speak in such tones in the presence of artistic genius.
Moving upstairs the building looks like no one has worked on it in 100 years (what were these construction workers doing these past few years hhhmmmmmmm?) which is perfect for the Addams Family-esque organ sitting in the center of the floor like an 18th century version of a supercomputer with veins and arteries running from its keys out to the structural elements of the building. It is refreshing that there are no visible authority figures there and people just line up behind the organ for a chance to play the building (no time limits no rules or regulations). Other poeple just wander around and look at the building and its wired endpoints - many with a deeply reserved look of appreciation for the overwhelming artiness of it all. Banter on the organ line not so appreciated (Crowd Interaction at a free fully interactive event 1/2 star).
Waiting on line I get the answer to my first question, no, the keys are not in tune, after several people play around and some couples force their hip babies to bang the keys I get the answer to my second question from the old guy playing in front of me who is the only one who got any kind of rythymn out of the thing, yes, he said the keys are very unresponsive. I get my chance to play and realize not all the keys are wired and the pedals and pull knobs do nothing but it is really a unique experience.
I give it 4 out of 5 stars for the entertainment value. It is completely free and the walk up is accompanied by the completely free waterfall exhibit (plus there are quite a few man of warish looking jellies to look at floating in the east river right now). This is the most entertaining thing from David Byrne since his Look Into the Eyeball CD several years ago - don't go out of your way but check it out if you have nothing else to do and want to kill a little time.
http://www.batterymaritimebuilding.com/ 
