"Fairway Shopping Around Manhattan Lease," Commercial Observer, 10/14/14. "Fairway supermarket chain may have gained attention for its expansion tear and accolades as a specialty retailer, but the company is looking to bail on at least one of its leases in Manhattan," says the Commercial Observor. "The lease in question is at Jack Resnick & Sons' 255 Greenwich Street in the Financial District with other Fairway lease transactions possibly facing the same fate." Fairway's reason for wanting to get out of the lease, according to the article, is that it lacks the money to build. "Fairway took a 52,242-square-foot, two-story space at the 14-story office tower at 255 Greenwich Street that spans the full block bound by Greenwich Street, Park Place, Murray Street and West Broadway. The building is adjacent to the World Trade Center site, National September 11 Memorial & Museum and Tribeca. The store is slated to be the first Fairway location in Lower Manhattan and the 16th Fairway food store in the tri-state area when it opens next year, according to Fairway's website." For the complete article, click here.

Tributes for Zelda: The Battery Conservancy continues to receive notes and photographs from Zelda's many admirers. The wild turkey, who took up residence in historic Battery Park in 2003, was killed in an automobile accident around three weeks ago. The Battery Conservancy has set up a Zelda tribute page on its website. To see it, click here. In addition, at the Harvest Fest on Saturday, Oct. 18, (noon to 4 p.m.) the Conservancy will have a tribute board where people can post their photos and memories of Zelda.

"Tourists' Photo Treasure Trove Captures 1980s New York City," Curbed.com, 10/15/14. "Dutch tourists Ed Sijmons and his wife Louise visited New York City for two weeks in 1980," says Curbed.com. "They came away with rolls and rolls of 35mm film, and had only found the negatives of one. Until this month, when they rediscovered the rest, digitized the entire treasure trove, and put it on Flickr in four sets for the world to enjoy (h/t Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)." The photos are snapshots - not works of art - and they are discolored by age, but they do show a New York City that many people only dimly remember, with a skyline dominated by the Twin Towers, and, in Lower Manhattan, centuries-old buildings, now demolished, a graffiti-covered plaque on the Brooklyn Bridge (plus other graffiti) and glimpses of Chinatown and the Lower East Side. For the complete article, click here.

"Silverstein, Robert A.M. Stern star in comical promo for 30 Park Place," The Real Deal, 10/15/14. In a video in which they bill themselves as "two boys from Brooklyn, New York, with the humblest beginnings," developer Larry Silverstein and architect Robert A.M. Stern crow over 30 Park Place, which is rising now as a Four Seasons hotel surmounted by apartments on a lot just behind the Woolworth Building. When completed, it will not only dwarf the Woolworth Building, but it will be the tallest apartment building in Downtown New York. "Look at what we're going to have, Larry!" The Real Deal quotes Stern as saying to Silverstein "in a new and often rib-tickling video promoting their latest Lower Manhattan project." For the article and video, click here.

"Brooklyn Bridge, Ornamented With Locks, Becomes a Gallery of Commitment," New York Times, 10/15/14. In recent years, the Brooklyn Bridge "long written about; photographed; painted; walked, biked or driven over; and sailed under - has become a gallery for padlocks known as love locks," says The New York Times. "Some are engraved with initials, names and dates. Some have that information inscribed, passionately, with a Sharpie. Some carry little pictures of New York landmarks like the Empire State Building. Some tell nothing about who put them there, or why. But if you can judge couples by their locks, you would think that they were as happy as Ms. [Briana] Swann, 33, an actress and writer who manages the bar at the Gramercy Park Hotel, and Mr. [Donovan] Christie, 31, an actor who is a night doorman there," who affixed their love lock to the bridge last week. For the complete article, click here.

Connection bus lost and found: If you lose something on the Downtown Connection bus - the free shuttle bus that runs daily between the South Street Seaport and Broadway near City Hall - the best way to inquire about it is via the "Contact Us" link on the Downtown Alliance's website. (The Downtown Alliance runs the Connection bus.) Here's the link: http://www.downtownny.com/contact-us

Julia Wolfe, one of the founders of Bang on a Can, is a gracious, warm, unassuming woman who
happens to be a musical genius. On Oct. 14, John Schaefer, host of WNYC's "New Sounds" and "Soundcheck" introduced a performance of Wolfe's "Steel Hammer" at the Winter Garden in Battery Park City by saying that he had first heard the piece four years ago and it had made a profound impression on him. "It was the best thing I heard all year," he said.

"Steel Hammer" is loosely based on the songs and legends surrounding John Henry, the proud, determined man of little or no education, who wanted to be "a steel-drivin' man" and who ended up pitting his strength against a steam drill.

The story is universal and tragic, and Wolfe makes it more so by enlarging its folk-song origins. The opening of "Steel Hammer" is set to open tone harmonies that suggest church music of the Middle Ages. The three women vocalists sing, "Some say he's from" and then pause for a couple of seconds before uttering the next phrase, as though the story were being pulled from memories of a distant past.

Bang on a Can All-Stars.

The remarkable musicians of the Bang on a Can All-Stars performed the piece, using wooden bones, whose rustling and rubbing sounded like water, mountain dulcimer, banjo, and more traditional orchestral instruments - piano, drums, cello, bass, clarinet, saxophone and harmonica. At times, the musicians put their instruments down and clapped and tapped out rhythms using their hands and feet.

Julia Wolfe acknowledging applause after the performance of "Steel Hammer" at the Winter Garden.

Wolfe said after the performance that the creation of a work like this is a collaboration between the composer and the musicians. Since she was creating sounds and effects that had not been used before in the way she used them, she had to hear them, and then modify them. She said this is an ongoing process.

A CD of "Steel Hammer" was recorded in November 2011 and February 2012, and is very much worth hearing - though it was not precisely the same as the Winter Garden performance.

And the next time "Steel Hammer" is performed, it will again be the same but different - but the same in that, as Schaefer rightly said, it will be memorable.

"Steel Hammer" was the first night of three evenings of music under the rubric "New Sounds Live" presented by Arts Brookfield. All of the concerts were free.

Anti-fracking town hall meeting: New York State Assemblymember Deborah J. Glick invites you to an anti-fracking town hall meeting on Oct. 29. A panel discussion will explore the effects of hydraulic fracturing on our water and food sheds, and strategies for keeping fracking out of New York State permanently. Speakers will include Walter Hang, President, Toxic Targeting, Inc.; Erin Heaton, Anti-Fracking Activist; Assemblymember Deborah J. Glick. Place:

John L. Tishman Auditorium, University Center, 63 Fifth Ave., Room U100; Time: 6 p.m.-8 p.m. Free and open to the public. Event Cosponsors: Community Board 1, Community Board 2, Community Board 3, Community Board 4, State Senator Brad Hoylman, State Senator Daniel Squadron, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, Councilmember Corey Johnson, Councilmember Rosie Mendez, Bleecker Area Merchants & Residential Association, Downtown Independent Democrats, Downtown Progressive Democrats, Stonewall Democrats of New York City, Village Independent Democrats, Village Reform Democratic Club.

Ongoing: The National Museum of the American Indian is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., with free admission. It offers free films, docent-led tours of its exhibitions and tours of its premises, the Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House, designed by Cass Gilbert. The building, which was completed in 1907, is a National Historic Landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. One Bowling Green. Phone: (212) 514-3700. For the museum's calendar, click here.

Ongoing: "Give Me Liberty," a solo exhibition of new works by Brooklyn-based artist Sylvanus Shaw, is at the Fraunces Tavern Museum. In this site-specific exhibition, Shaw utilizes images from the Museum's permanent collection, invoking imagery of early American statehood in media ranging from oil on panel to collaged holograms, security envelopes, and other mediums.

Through March 16, 2015. Place: Fraunces Tavern Museum, 54 Pearl St. Museum hours: Mon.-Sat., noon to 5 p.m. Admission: $7; $4 (seniors, students, children 6-8); free (children under 5 and active duty military). For more information, click here.