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Pentanque in Bryant Park

May 15, 2008

The other day, I wandered by the eastern edge of Bryant Park and was confronted with the sight of people throwing large steel balls around. Not a problem, it’s called Petanque (pronounced, I’m told, as “pay-tonk”).

I have seen this small space in Bryant Park many times, but this was the first time I saw anyone using it.

The game is originally from France (where it was named “boules”) and appears to be the predecessor of lawn bowling.

Note the little orange object in the middle of the steel balls. That’s the target. The players throw the balls to see how close they get to this object. …at least I think that’s the goal.

There are actually free lessons given in this spot between 11:30am and 2pm Mondays through Fridays. I was there on a Saturday, and it was obvious that these people were also giving/taking lessons. Either that or the games were really, really lopsided. Some of those guys could throw those balls really well.

As you can tell, it was a pretty popular spectator sport. There were, I think, three games or lessons going on simultaneously. The area appears to hold up to four separate games simultaneously.

-H

Categories: Manhattan, Mid-town, Wanderings

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Central Synagogue on Lexington Avenue

May 13, 2008

Located on 55th Street and Lexington Avenue, NYC’s Central Synagogue is very distinctive and really stands out from the nearby buildings.

The building style is noted as “Moorish” and that seems absolutely appropriate to the structure. It’s pretty cool looking.

But you know the one thing that really caught my eye? Not the style (although that helped). Instead, it has the most absolutely perfect announcement/services sign that I have ever seen on any house of worship. I am just so used to the ones that some poor deacon has to go out and put up the plastic lettering on. For Central Synagogue, it is just a nice standard digital display.

It’s such a minor thing, but just something I don’t know that I’ve seen before. Well, I’ve seen Churches with the scrolling letter signs, but not something as simple and as nice as the above.

Incidentally, despite its old-style appearance, it is a Reform synagogue.

-H

Categories: Manhattan, Mid-town, Uncategorized, Wanderings

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Second Avenue Street Fair

May 12, 2008

Last week, I talked about how the street fairs were starting up again.

Oh yeah, they are. There was a pretty big one on Second Avenue up in the high 40s. It had the usual sort of fair, but I have to admit, I enjoyed the visuals of the street and the crowd a whole lot more than I enjoyed the vendors.

This is looking southward from maybe 48th Street or so.

And this is looking northward. What’s hard to see here is that there is a downslope and then an upslope. I don’t think I strayed from the center of the street for more than a few seconds when I went to the fair. There just wasn’t anything that tempted me. Seen one zeppole, seen ’em all.

-H

Categories: Events, Manhattan, Mid-town, Wanderings

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Windward Sculpture on 3rd Avenue and 42nd Street

May 10, 2008

Okay, I admit it. I spend too much time looking up at one of my favorite buildings in all of NYC. And let’s fact it, the Chrysler Building is on everybody’s short list of favorite buildings in NYC.

Maybe that’s why I have walked by a 1961 sculpture by Jan Peter Stern called “Windward” about a bazillion times without noticing it. It’s only about a block away.

Or, maybe it’s because they have it tucked away in a little corner.

Or, maybe it’s because it doesn’t seem to have anything to do with the word “windward” at all. To me, it’s just another bit of artistic flotsom from the 1960s.

But if you want to see it, it’s on the southeast corner of the intersection.

-H

Categories: Manhattan, Mid-town, Wanderings

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The First Electric Plant in NYC

May 7, 2008

I’m a sucker for historical plaques. In downtown Manhattan, I ran across this one at 40 Fulton Street.

It reads “In a building on this site an electric plant supplying the first Edison underground central station system in this country and forming the origin of New York’s present electrical system began operation on September 4, 1882 according to plans conceived and executed by Thomas Alva Edison. To commemorate an epoch-making event this tablet is erected by the American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society. The New York Edison Company.”

Reading it, I am a bit confused. A strict reading indicates that it wasn’t the first electricity generating plant. Not even the first one done by Edison. But it was the first one that supplied the “underground central station system”. And that system is what the rest of NY’s electrical system ended up based upon.

It sure doesn’t look like a site of a former power plant, does it. It’s pretty tall and I couldn’t tell what its current use is, but it looks like condos or apartments.

-H

Categories: Manhattan, Wanderings

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