Tag Archive for Tom Kaminski

For Mets Fans Only: Joni, Too

Two more aerial photos of Shea Stadium from Chopper 880, taken by Tom Kaminski. Why is this so fascinating to me? I feel like a crow circling a cadaver. Don’t get me wrong: I’m happy about the new stadium. Shea was a dump. But it was always, always there. And now it’s gone. Disorienting.

Hat tip to Steve Keane of the Eddie Kranepool Society for the lyrical suggestion, Joni Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi.”

If you are ever looking for something a little oddball (and who isn’t?), you should track down Bob Dylan’s cover of this tune. The story behind that: When Dylan decided not to  renew his Columbia contract, in 1973, the label released a bunch of poor outtakes for the album, “Dylan.” “Big Yellow Taxi” is on that appropriately maligned disk.

They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot
With a pink hotel, a boutique
And a swinging hot spot
Don’t it always seem to go
That you don’t know what you’ve got
Till its gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot

Here’s a newer version, the Counting Crows with Vanessa Carlton, featuring some nice shots of Coney Island and NYC. Though I think the Vanessa Carlton walking-around-aimlessly-with-scarf shots are beyond lame.

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For Mets Fans (and Elliott) Only: IV

Two aerial photos from Chopper 880 — tales of destruction and construction — taken by Tom Kaminski.

Shea Stadium:

Citi Field, where the infield takes shape: