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Euro-Bungy (or is it Bungee?) at South Street Seaport

July 3, 2008

As I was wandering the South Street Seaport mall over the weekend, I saw one of the local attractions in use. It’s called “Euro-Bungy” and is a small bungee jumping setup that is pretty cool. I think I saw it in use one other time (but only by one person) whereas this time there were, I think, four of them in operation at the same time.

It looks like a lot of fun.

The kids have two bungee cords attached to them and they bounce up and down on a small trampoline at the bottom. It looks like they can get up about 10 feet with no trouble at all but it probably tops out at not much more than 20 feet up. I think that’s plenty high from my angle.

I think it costs about $10 for five minutes of jumping and every person I’ve ever seen jump has been under 16 or so. I think one kid I saw was more in the six or seven year age range. Of course at that age you can’t expect them to be able to bounce quite as high. But I think their parents are thankful for that.

I don’t know about doing it though. I did note a sign saying no one over 20 is allowed to do a flip on it. That’s terrible! If I can’t flip, I ain’t doing it.

-H

Categories: Manhattan, Wanderings

Comments: 3 Comments

Lever House Sculpture

July 2, 2008

I was wandering past “Lever House” and saw something I didn’t expect: something fun and interesting.

I’m getting way too cynical in my old age.

I’ve done a couple of earlier posts on Lever House artwork (see here and here) and I generally find their stuff not to my taste or just insipid. This one was absolutely primed for such treatment, and then I found myself enjoying it.

Wait for it….

It’s “Hello Kitty”.

Yeah. Hello Kitty. I have never for a moment found anything interesting about Hello Kitty…until now. I’ve always thought of it as the quintessential commercial dreck aimed directly at five-year-old girls and their mothers. And I’m a guy who was watching anime from way back. (I actually lived in Japan as a teenager and used to watch some of the shows and read their comic books. And I’m sure no teenager now. Decades away, in fact.) Bluntly put: until this exhibit, I hated Hello Kitty.

The pieces are huge. And, despite their white color; they’re made of bronze. Okay, I don’t know that for certain, but the collection is called “Bronze Collection”. I didn’t touch them to confirm. The sculptor is Tom Sachs and they are on display until September 6.

The next pictures above and below have some motion to them: streams of water shooting out of their eyes. That’s anime for crying. No tears: streams of water shooting outward.

Why did I enjoy them? I really don’t know. They are certainly a relief from the supposed intellectual content of the earlier sculptures that I didn’t like. I do enjoy playfulness and although a small Hello Kitty depiction on a handbag or t-shirt is not something I get any pleasure from; a ten or twelve foot one is a delight.

Sort of like a giant walking marshmellow if you catch my drift.

-H

Categories: Events, Manhattan, Mid-town, Wanderings

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Goats and a Blue Guy at Union Square

July 1, 2008

I couldn’t help it. I was at Union Square and noticed two things that I hadn’t seen there before. Well, the title tells it all.

Union Square was having one of its regular farmers markets and plant/flower sales as I was going through it, and I happened upon a nice little place.

Nothing special, just kind of your usual stall selling cheese. In this case, goat cheese. I’ve seen them before. What I hadn’t seen before were the proof of the cheese source: Goats.

They were pretty skittish, but then this is a new land for goats. We don’t get much livestock in Manhattan, dontchaknow? Well, not nowadays. Go back a dozen decades and it would probably be a frequent sight.

But this is a sight you wouldn’t have seen that dozen decades ago. And probably not last week, either.

I honestly don’t know the purpose or reason or joke that’s being pulled here. For some reason, the figure looks familiar, but I don’t really recall seeing him/it before. Of course, you see all types in NYC.

With regard to livestock (to revisit that topic for a moment). No, we don’t have livestock, but our farmers markets can have some game for sale. Not live, though.

-H

Categories: Manhattan, Union Square, Wanderings

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Basketball at South Street Seaport

June 30, 2008

I was down at the South Street Seaport area over the weekend and saw that they were setting up a basketball court.

Not that they were going to play any games there, though. Instead, it seemed to be a combination of Verizon, the NBA, and the WNBA to publicize their products and to let some locals have some fun. It was around 12:30 or so when I first walked by and people were already lined up and waiting to join in.

There seemed to be some minor obstacles to perform. In honesty, I only saw one person do the process and that was when I was leaving the area. Basically, it was something like shoot a basket, dribble the ball around the cutout figures, pass a basketball to a holding area, and then shoot another basket. I have no idea why I remember those steps. Like I said, it was just one person doing it and that may have just been a staff member testing it out. But everyone else was patiently waiting their turn.

While I was wandering, I did get a nice elevated shot of the area. Everyone on the court in the below view is actually a staff member. Man, those people in line were very patient for such a hot day.

I saw the same sort of thing last year. I think that they actually had some WNBA players on hand at that event. I don’t know if they did at this one or not. It just didn’t interest me enough to wait around for who knows how long to find out.

-H

Categories: Events, Manhattan, Wanderings

Comments: 4 Comments

Tudor City Greens

June 29, 2008

I don’t put much personal information on this site, but I have mentioned a number of times that I live in the Tudor City section of Manhattan. It’s generally older and a little more residential in nature than a lot of other areas. There’s a bit of retail, but you usually have to go a block or so to get to a store.

Coming from 2nd Avenue, there’s a rise to an elevated portion of the area. At that point, you’re basically surrounded by Tudor City buildings and just to the side is the area called “Tudor City Greens”.

It’s a park. A pretty small park, but it has a few very redeeming features. First, it’s relatively quiet as the traffic is minor (at least by NYC standards). Second, it’s broken into two parts; a north park and a south park. They are split by 42nd Street. (I live near the south part of the Greens.) Third, the landscaping is wonderful.

In Spring and Summer, there always seems to be something or another in bloom.

And there’s lots and lots of seating. Both inside and just outside the park.

The rules (aren’t there always rules) basically state that you can come in and sit. No music (unless there’s a band playing) or games. It’s all strictly for relaxing and silently enjoying.

And it is open to the public. Mostly locals enjoy it, but I know a number of non-locals who always comment about that little park just up the street from me. They know a nearly perfect park when they see it.

-H

Categories: Manhattan, Mid-town, Tudor City, Wanderings

Comments: 3 Comments

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