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American Academy of Dramatic Arts

January 1, 2008

When I was walking to Church on Sunday, I ran across a building I hadn’t noticed before and thought it was interesting. It’s the American Academy of Dramatic Art located at 33rd Street and Madison Avenue.

The building’s sign state that this was constructed in 1907 and was the original home of the “Colony Club“. That club was the first social club for women and was founded by one of the daughters of JP Morgan. The thing that I find interesting is that it was designed by Stanford White and he was killed just three months before this building was completed. If you’re not aware of the circumstances of his death, think “Trial of the Century” sorts of thoughts and take a look at Harry Thaw’s trail in Wikipedia.

Oh, and that is the Empire State Building in the background.

-H

Categories: Manhattan, Mid-town, Wanderings

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Merry Christmas!

December 24, 2007

It’s Christmas Eve and I’ve spent the day doing my NYC tradition: wandering around wishing people Merry Christmas! And I did wander.

I started by going up to Harlem. It’s been way too long and I wanted to see how Harlem’s streets are set for Christmas. I went this morning and found that Harlem’s streets are mostly deserted at 10am on a Christmas Eve. I’ll be posting pictures over the next few days, but it was pretty devoid of Christmas decorations. I didn’t do any of the backstreets where a lot of the small Churches are, so there may have been more. The most I saw was a Christmas tree outside of the Adam Clayton Powell building. On the other hand, the stores did have a lot of Christmas stuff. I wished a couple of people a Merry Christmas, but I was delighted when someone wished it of me first. That seldom happens and is very welcome.

After a little over an hour, I left Harlem and went to Greenwich Village. The Village had a bit more in terms of public decoration. I wandered on West 10th Street and saw an interesting sight: a lot of the townhouses have put out evergreen decorations. A lot of them also had lights, but it was too early to have them on. Nevertheless, the evergreen branches were a nice touch. I did wish a number of people a Merry Christmas and had roughly half of them respond in kind. I then went over to Union Square and looked for Schleiermacher. The guy running the Unemployed Philosophers Guild confessed they didn’t have his fridge magnet. Woe is me. I looked, just in case, but they actually seemed to be light on the philosopher fridge magnets. They had a lot of historical figures and writers, though.

This evening, I wandered around my part of town and wished the random passers-by a Merry Christmas. Once again, about half responded.

And now I’m at home. I’ll go out in the morning/afternoon and do the same sort of thing. It’s nice to do and it gets me out of my place; and I really enjoy it when somebody beats me to it.

I hope to get a chance to post some of today’s photos and some pics from the weekend when I wandered in Times Square and Gramercy Park.

-H

Categories: Harlem, Manhattan, Mid-town, Union Square, Wanderings

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The Empire State Building in Disguise

December 23, 2007

It’s the time of year that lights are on to celebrate the Christmas season. But for the rest of the year, two of NYC’s great buildings have lights on every night. And they are predictable. The Chrysler Building’s lights are always white. Always. Okay, I’ve never seen them any other color so I guess there’s a pattern.

The Empire State Building always has two colors. Reds, blues, yellows, greens, whatever.

When I was at Macy’s, I took a look up and saw something that I hadn’t really expected.

That’s the Empire State Building all in white. It’s as if it decided to disguise itself as the Chrysler Building for a day.

That shows good taste. The Chrysler is the best.

-H

Categories: Manhattan, Mid-town, Wanderings

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Lining Up for the Tourists’ Christmas Dollars

December 18, 2007

There’s no doubt that street vendors work hard for their money. Look at the competition!

The picture was taken a little before they all finished their set-ups on a Sunday morning. Obviously, this is near Radio City Music Hall. These guys set up tables anywhere that people are likely to be wandering. When you’re in this part of town, that’s everywhere. You don’t really see them on the avenues, just on the sidestreets.

And people do buy. Oh yeah, the do buy. This photo was possible because they didn’t have their stuff out for sale. Otherwise you’d see just see pictures of groups of people standing around.

-H

Categories: Manhattan, Mid-town, Wanderings

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