The Gates are here, haven't you heard? I have not been to see them yet, but armed with second hand information and well-formed opinions (as always), here is my post about the Christo project. Following, a highly subjective list of pertinent details:

The photo above, taken by my friend Frank, is my favorite Gates photo so far.

Don't worry if you forget your camera, there are lots of pictures taken by others, readily available online.

There's lots to read about The Gates, too. The New York Times has a whole section devoted to the project, which includes interactive maps, videos and slideshows.

Seeing The Gates from above is OK, but really walking through them and seeing them contextualized in (and contextualizing) the landscape is the thing to do.

New Yorkers are actually, gasp!, being nice to each other. (This is not so new to me, but I guess people are super chatty and friendly amongst the billowing saffron arches.)

For some people, The Gates are nice and everything, but the color Orange has been ruined for them forever because of (cue somber music here) the events on and after September 11, 2001. From Julie Lasky in the Design Observer article linked to above:

...though the saffron-colored fabric is meant to connote peace and comes close to matching Jeanne-Claude's hair - this miracle of efficiency, this triumph of persistence over municipal bureaucracy, this delicate orange grove, which an acquaintance rightly likened to an evanescent eruption of cherry trees in the spring,cannot overcome associations with hazardous conditions, at least not to my mind.

There are quite a few things that Christo and Jeanne-Claude would like you to know. From their Common Errors page:

Christo was born in Bulgaria NOT IN SEVEN OTHER COUNTRIES.

That page, often linked to, is priceless. If you click on just one link in this post, click on that one.

Egregious errors? Important information overlooked? Have a Gates picture that'll trump mine? (Not likely, I say.) Email jen AT unbeige DOT com.