-- --

Sunday, July 6, 2008

More is More

Metlife Tower, Madison Square Park
Photo by myself near Madison Square Park, at 23rd Street, between Madison and Fifth Avenues.

An extremely tall modern building is rising up opposite the historic Metlife Tower. An equally staggering crane is aiding the construction.

The buildings all along 23rd Street to either side of this new building are rather low in comparison. Some restaurants, a nail and hair salon, and a FedEx office can be found at street level.

--

Saturday morning, I heard Mark yelling at the tv: 'Oh wow! Whoa! Come on!'

I shuffled over. What kind of game was he watching? Mark is one of those rare guys who isn't a huge sports fan. He'll tune into tennis or the Olympic trials that are going on, but that's it.

Turning the corner, I realized what he was screaming about: the annual hot dog eating contest held on Coney Island every 4th of July.

Nathan's Famous Hot Dogs sponsors the contest every year. Just about everyone in New York shakes at the name of Kobayashi, who won the contest six years in a row, typically eating more than 60 hot dogs and their buns in the 12-minute period. (Egad, it is a lot of dogs!).

This year's contest was scaled back to 10-minutes, and the winner, Joey Chestnut, also won last year. Chestnut tied Kobayashi by devouring 59 dogs. The contest was finally decided in with a tie breaker.

Part One


Part Two


For more on this year's contest, click here.

Related posts: Food on the Brain and Food For Thought.

9 comments:

Carolyn said...

Love the angle of the pic. Very Cool!

Anonymous said...

I also love the pic. You really take good ones! What is great is that you manage to capture the true NY feeling. Not just touristic stuff, but real life, as if we were right there on the street, looking up, wondering... saying wow!

Anonymous said...

Is it just the angle, or will that new building have a tiny footprint? Or does the height make the width look teensy by comparison? The perspective of that shot is great!

My husband isn't a big sports fan either (the exception is the Tour de France) but he, too, was ranting at the tv yesterday during the hotdog-eating contest. Think of all the nitrates *those* guys are ingesting? Yow!

Kitty said...

Thanks Carolyn!

Thanks Susu
The view is pretty astounding from the street.

Hi Spandrel
The height of the new tower is great in comparison to the floor plate, and the height is exaggerated by the angle, yes.

I think the amount of nitrates would be shocking to compute. These guys do other eating contests as well, like jalepeno poppers (!). It is a bizarre talent!

GMG said...

Wow! Another NYC blog with excellent pictures of a wonderful town!! Great job!
Thanks for sharing!
Blogtrotter

Dana said...

I heard about that hot dog eating contest! My stomach hurt just thinking about it!

Anonymous said...

Lovely photos. I've never been to NY, must be such a magic city!

Mom Knows Everything said...

That was on the news here about the hot dog eating contest.

Kitty said...

Welcome GMG
thanks for the visit from sunny Portugal. Mark and I are tempted to visit the country this year, but are undecided.

Hi Dana
the visuals of people eating, drinking and stuffing the food in is pretty intense. I dunno if you'd want to see it.

Welcome Suzanne
Lovely to meet other artists here. I look forward to checking out your blog!

Hi Tammy
Funny what kind of news gets around. Mark and I considered going there early to have a front stage view but were much, much too lazy.