As if New York City didn’t need another spectacular tourist attraction, well they have done it again and this time bigger than ever. A special public art fund has commissioned a breathtaking exhibition of huge waterfalls around the New York waterways. Danish/Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson has come up with the design which features four 90 – 120 ft high waterfalls. One is at Pier 35 in Manhattan, two at Piers 4 and 5 and the most spectacuar flowing out of the magnificent Brooklyn Bridge. The waterfalls are lit in the evenings after sunset and add a magical touch to the New York Skyline. Thousands’s have flocked to the ferries and other watecraft to get a close up look. The falls are on display until the 13th of October.
Well it’s the 4th of July so we are off to the United States of America today and we play tribute to the grand old lady of New York – the Statue of Liberty. Just about everyone is familiar with the statue so we thought we would feature some interesting trivia about America’s much loved monument. Did you know that she is probably America’s biggest lady with a waistline of 35 feet, she has a face 8 feet tall and from the tip of her torch to the ground is 305 feet. The seven huge rays on her crown measure in at 9 feet long and weigh up to 150 pounds each. The torch has been replaced several times and each time it has been in a different style, the current one was installed in 1986 and is covered in sheets of 24 k gold. You might think being such a huge statue the copper outer is thick, no it is actually only about 3/32 of an inch think which is less than the thickness of two pennies. After being closed for several years after the 2001 terrorist attacks the Statue of Liberty is now open for visitors, where people can once again walk onto the observation deck for spectacular views of New York City and the harbor. Read the rest of this entry »
Situated in the historic area of Manhattan where Fulton Street meets the East River you will find the South Street Seaport Museum. The seaport is a collection of beautifully restored 19th century commercial building, restored sailing ships and plenty of tourist malls with food, shopping and good night life and one of the best views of the majestic Brooklyn Bridge. One of the more popular vessels to visit is the Peking a Flying P Liner which was a sailing ship of the German F Laeising shipping company which originated in Hamburg. Built in 1911 the ship was made famous by Irving Johnston who filmed onboard the ship as it rounded Cape Horn back in 1929. The ship has been on display at South Street since 1975. Other interesting vessels include the Wavetree which is a 1885 fully rigged cargo ship and the W.O Decker a 1930’s tugboat which sometimes gives the public a chance to board it for strips around New York’s waterways. Read the rest of this entry »
The Library Hotel in New York is kind of a theme hotel based on the dewey decimal system where each of its 10 floors is catergorsied into one of the standard library catergories with each room devoted to a particular subject. An example is that the room one on the seventh floor would have an “architecture” theme while the second room would have a “paintings” theme as the seventh floor is part of “the arts” catergory. The book Lemony Snicket’s The Penultimate Peril had a hotel in it called the Hotel Denouement that was modeled after the Library Hotel. Interestingly the owners of the Dewey Decimal System trademark once sued the Library Hotel for trademark infringement, now the Library Hotel is allowed to use the system in its hotel and marketing in exchange for making a donation to a nonprofit organization promoting reading and literacy among children. Read the rest of this entry »
You might not recognize the name Toms Restaurant but I’m sure the picture looks familiar, does Monks Cafe bring back memories. Well Toms or Monks was the restaurant used in the hugely successful Seinfeld TV show of the 1990’s It is actually a real restaurant and can be found at 2880 Broadway in Manhattan, New York on the corner of 112 street. The outside street scape was used in the TV show but a studio was used for the inside shots. Now Seinfeld wasn’t the first time Tom’s Restaurant became famous, it featured in a Susan Vega song a few years earlier, and has since appeared in a novel and is often seen in some of the New York police dramas shot in the city. The restaurant has been ran by the Minasizoulis family since the 1950’s.
The beautiful Chrysler Building on the corner of 42nd Street and Lexington Avenue in Manhattan New York is one of the finest examples of art deco architecture. Designed by William Van Alen and built in 1930 the building was the tallest building in New York until the Empire State Building stole its crown a year later. The building’s beautiful metal upper cap were designed inspired by the Chrysler vehicle of the day, while hood emblems and radiator cap designs inspired gargoyles and other designs on the structure. Today the Chrysler building still holds the crown for the worlds tallest masonry building, and should probably also hold if for the most beautiful skyscraper, shining gracefully into the New York Skyline.
If you want to see a live performance in New York you don’t need to visit Broadway or a nightclub, all you have to do is hop on the Subway. Once banned, busking in New York’s subway system has flourished since the mid 1980’s, with the subway operators even picking out the better ones and giving them approval to perform in the top spots on the subway, via their Music Under New York program.
Even with all the hand picked licensed buskers there are still plenty of unapproved buskers that range from fantastic to just plain awful. A common occurrence is buskers that ride the trains raking in money from carriage to carriage with performances that range from barbershop quartets to break dancers, so if you are on the subway and some one breaks out into song don’t be alarmed, it’s art. Read the rest of this entry »
