The best (and worst) of 2007

WATER, WATER EVERYWHERE New Yorkers flocked to the Floating Pool in Brooklyn in the summer of ’07.

Photograph: Courtesy of Brooklyn Bridge park Conservancy

THE BEST...

…cure for seasonal affective disorder
Everything is illuminated in “Provoking Magic,” the Cooper-Hewitt’s retrospective of German lighting designer Ingo Maurer that debuted in September. The cheeky works on display include Tableaux Chinois, which incorporates a pool of live goldfish, and Maurer’s signature Lucellino model, a bare bulb fitted with tiny goose-feather wings. Betcha Edison wished he thought of that.

…update on Grandma’s favorite pastime
In January, the Museum of Arts & Design changed our view of stitch work in “Radical Lace & Subversive Knitting.” This fall, they followed it up with even more provocative pieces in “Pricked: Extreme Embroidery.” We chuckled at Maria Piñeres’s embroidered celebrity mug shots and blushed at Laura Splan’s doilies depicting sexually transmitted diseases. Guess there’s more to handicrafts than BLESS THIS MESS.

…hobby that skeeves us out
In June, the new Ripley’s Odditorium in Times Square debuted a record number of shrunken heads (24 comely craniums in all). In November, Park Slope’s Union Hall hosted Secret Science Club’s third annual Carnivorous Nights taxidermy contest. Earlier this month, Bed-Stuy artist Nate Hill led the Chinatown Taxidermy Garbage Tour, a safari of deceased critters along Canal Street. And all year long, cryptozoologist Takeshi Yamada has been showing off stuffed fauna in “Museum of World Wonders” at the Coney Island branch of the Brooklyn Public Library. Clearly it’s not just psychotic pet owners who want their loved ones preserved for posterity.

…case of Lower East Side gentrification
The Jews aren’t big on resurrections, but what else would you call the Eldridge Street Synagogue’s $20 million makeover, which wrapped up this month? The 120-year-old house of worship was in terrible disrepair for decades (water doused the congregation through holes in the roof), but after a two-decade renovation, the Moorish-style shul has its shayna punim restored, with ornate lamps, gorgeous stained glass windows, and a new museum and culture center. St. Pat’s better start looking over its shoulder.

…use of the Brooklyn waterfront
Confronted with tourists, high temperatures and inexplicable odors, New Yorkers tend to flee the city in droves in summertime. But this year we hightailed it to Dumbo to take advantage of the Floating Pool, the free swimming hole moored off the Brooklyn Bridge Park beach. Opening weekend was marred when a flooded ballast almost caused the pool to tip over, but days later we were back to playing Marco Polo and improving our doggy paddle.

…news about Coney Island
If Mayor Bloomberg’s plans for Coney come to pass (and that’s a big if), the area will see improved parking, a dazzling steel roller coaster, a skating rink, 4,500 new apartments and scads of new stores. The Cyclone, meanwhile, will probably wind up in the lobby of Donald Trump’s latest condo building.

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