New York, New York
New York City Sights – The Financial Buildings
Sunday, June 28th, 2009Back in the day, if you wanted to see the buildings that made up Wall Street’s titans, you had to go to, well. . . Wall Street.
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Celebrity Sighting – Chris Matthews
Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009I don’t often spot celebrities on the streets of Manhattan, usually because I’m too oblivious to notice them as I walk right past them. But today, on my way to New York’s Penn Station, I looked to my left and there was Chris Matthews talking on his cellphone. This is why I finally threw a digital camera in my laptop bag (hat tip: Ilya Burlak).
Anyway, I moved to a respectful difference and then snapped a picture:
Figures he was to my left… (bad political humor)
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New York City Sights – Wimbledon in New York
Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009The plaza in front of 50 Rockefeller Plaza is one of New York’s best kept secrets. The folks at Rockefeller Center transform it every few weeks into something completely new & different, often drawing big crowds. This week, as the Wimbledon tennis tournament starts up in London, they’ve created a grandstand in front of a large screen TV, and a scaled down tennis court. I’m told that during the lunch hour, Jennifer Capriati and Jim Courier were on that court hitting tennis balls with some of the tourists (sorry – I didn’t go outside during lunch today, so they’re not in the pictures. You can all have your money back if you want it…)
Anyway, some pics:
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New York City Sights – Window Washer
Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009It’s been a while since I posted to my New York City Sights feature, so tonight I present two entries. The first is a New York window washer (seen here in Rockefeller Center). Anyone want this job?
NOTE: Not that it makes it any less insane, but he is tethered to the building with a belt around his waist. That said, he does have to climb into and out of the window while detaching/attaching said belt.
I’ll keep my feet firmly on the ground, thank you very much…
Categories: New York, New York | 1 Comment »
Blogging for a Rainy Day…
Thursday, June 18th, 2009Someone in my office, originally from Boston, having just been through a wet and lousy commute, commented that New Yorkers seem to get 30% dumber when they get wet.
Looks like we’re in for a pretty stupid week and a half:
Ugh…
Categories: New York, New York, Random Acts of Blogging | 2 Comments »
New York City Sights – The Hotel Pennsylvania
Saturday, May 30th, 2009As promised last week, here’s a look at what is directly across the street from Madison Square Garden:
(Excuse me while I channel James Lileks).
It’s the Hotel Pennsylvania, who’s famous phone number is (212) 736-5000. Why is that a famous phone number? Well, until the late 1960s, phone numbers were referred to in the 2L-5D format, where the first two numbers were expressed as letters, using the letters that appear above each number on a telephone keypad (yes, kids, they served a purpose before text messaging). If you check your phones, you’ll see that “73” translates into “PE,” making this phone number “Pennsylvania, 6-5000” immortalized in song by the one and only, Glenn Miller, who frequently performed in the hotel’s Cafe Rouge ballroom:
It’s also, according to Wikipedia, the oldest continuing phone number in New York City.
My wife and I had occasion to stay in the fabled Hotel Pennsylvania once, when she had a two-day professional conference to attend in New York. The room was, well, what you’d expect from an old and historic hotel, I guess. It was old. Very old. And it showed it. A lot. Bottom line: you’re much better off looking at the Hotel Pennsylvania from the outside or from the lobby.
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New York City Sights – Madison Square Garden
Monday, May 25th, 2009Not a particularly amazing picture this week (to truly photograph MSG well, you need a helicopter), but here it is:
Madison Square Garden – the “World’s Most Famous Arena,” or so they keep telling us. Home of the New York Knicks, the New York Rangers, the New York Liberty, and a virtually uncountable number of concerts and shows, including the Ringling Bros. Circus:
It’s also built directly over New York’s Penn Station, which is the train station I take to/from work everyday. So, to say the least, this is not an uncommon view for me.
Next week: What’s across the street?
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New York City Sights – Radio City Music Hall
Wednesday, May 20th, 2009
As you can see in this handy, dandy map, my office building (50 Rockefeller Plaza) is actually the same physical building as Radio City Music Hall.
That made this set of pictures pretty easy to come by:
If you Google around, you’ll learn that the music hall holds almost 6,000 people and boasts a stage 20 meters deep and 44 meters wide (66.5 feet x 144 feet). You’ll also read that it used to be a movie theater (the largest in the world at the time), and that it houses the “Mighty Wurlitzer” pipe organ (4,410 pipes – the largest ever built for a movie theater). And, of course, you’ll read about the Radio City Rockettes, all 200+ of whom must be between 5’6″ and 5’10” to participate.
But what you won’t find out is this: how do they change that sign every day? No, no – for that information, you need to come here to Familygreenberg.com (“providing useless knowledge to the masses since 2005”). Just about every morning, I pass this plain, yellow cart filled with plastic panels engraved with letters:
and then two guys (both of whom are clearly not Rockettes, even if they are between 5’6″ and 5’10”) move slowly around the sign with a ladder and change each letter by hand.
I find this fascinating, since Radio City could probably put in an electronic LED display that could be changed from a laptop in their ticket office for less than the combined annual salary of these two guys. And yet, the cart, the letters, and the ladder live on.
Tradition!
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Learning from their mistakes
Wednesday, May 13th, 2009Internal memo received at work today:
Sent: Wednesday, May 13, 2009 1:28 PM
Subject: Authorized Flyover – May 20, 2009THE NEW YORK CITY POLICE DEPARTMENT ANNOUNCES A MILITARY FLYOVER AS PART OF THE FLEET WEEK FESTIVITIES
New York City Police Department advises [New Yorkers] regarding a military aircraft flyover that will occur on May 20, 2009 at 11:45 a.m. The flyover is part of the Fleet Week festivities and will include four military planes flying over New York City at a low altitude.
At approximately 11:45 a.m., four F-18 Hornets will pass over the Verrazano Narrows Bridge at an altitude of 2000 feet. The aircrafts will then turn and follow the Hudson River north over the assembled fleet while decreasing their altitude to 1000 feet. When the F-18s reach Pier 90, they will climb to 2500 feet and higher, exiting New York City airspace over the George Washington Bridge.
That’s more like it, folks. Thanks…
Categories: New York, New York, Political Rantings | 2 Comments »
For Sale: Dirt and other Garbage
Wednesday, May 13th, 2009In recent months, I’ve blogged quite a lot
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