Reflections, along Bryant Park

Photo by myself around 42nd Street and Sixth Avenue.

The Empire State Building was lit up purple, last Friday night. Its reflection was cast on a building near Bryant Park, which is behind me to the right.

As you can see, there are piles and piles of snow still leftover. Since the piles are located far from the curb, they're refreshingly white. Normally, the piles along the street are much grungier and littered with trash. Ick.

Related posts: The Empire State on St. Patrick's Day, The Empire State Building, Bathed in White, and What's Going Up, Near the ESB.

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New Years Eve, on Sixth Avenue

Photo by myself on Sixth Avenue, in Midtown.

The Empire State Building is bathed in red and green, to celebrate the holiday season.

Across the street, you can barely see that the crosswalk and sidewalks are mobbed with shoppers carrying big bags of stuff. End-of-year sales are going on at every store.

--Can it be the eve of 2014 already?!! Holy cow.

My best wishes to everyone for a happy and healthy new year.

Related posts: The Empire State, on St. Patrick's Day, The Empire State, at Dusk, and The Empire State Building, Bathed in White.

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The Empire State in Green and Blue

Photo by myself in Bryant Park, in Midtown.

Monday night, the Empire State Building was all lit up in green and blue. This photo was taken in Bryant Park, about seven blocks north.

During the winter, there is a raised area for seating and an ice rink. People were out skating while 'Grease' was being shown on a giant movie screen.

The colors for the Empire State Building are scheduled well in advance, and the colors often have symbolic meaning. These are LED lights, so technically, the color selection is limitless.

According to the ESB website, Monday's green and blue symbolized 'the Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy and International Corporate Philanthropy Day'.

Ha.

For the schedule of light colors, click here.

Related posts: The Empire State Building, Bathed in White, The View from Bryant Park, at Dusk, and Under the Canopies, in Bryant Park.

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Looking Down 34th Street, in Midtown

Photo by myself on 34th Street in Midtown.

The view down 34th Street includes the Empire State Building, looming above.

Macy's has been decorated with a huge Christmas tree on the canopy and a giant sign with 'Believe' in script.

It's oddly balmy outside though, with temperatures hovering around 60F, or 15 Celcius. People are walking about with their jackets flapping open.

Related posts: Looking Up at Macy's in Midtown, All Decked out Below the Empire State, and Lost Near Macy's.

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The Empire State Building, Bathed in White

Photo by myself, at 35th Street and Broadway, in Midtown.

The Empire State Building was all lit up in white, the other night.

The lights on the ESB are color-coded for various holidays. White is the default, neutral setting. Red, white and blue marked the July 4th weekend. Red and white honored Canada Day, recently.

As many as three different colors dress up the ESB on any evening. Most of July, the building will remain white. Whenever there is a 'subway series' game (when the Yankees play the Mets), the tower is lit up in white and blue.

For an up-to-date calendar of the lights at the Empire State, click here.

Related posts: The Empire State, at Dusk, All Decked Out, Below the Empire State, and The Empire State, on St. Patrick's Day.

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At the Entrance to the Empire State Building

Photo by myself outside the Empire State Building at 35th Street and Fifth Avenue, in Midtown.

There is usually a line outside the Empire State Building, or at least a crowd of people milling about, with the occasional tour guide trying to drum up business.

Above, a family just stepped out, looking a bit overwhelmed. I'm sure they were trying to figure out which way was north, and where to go next - downtown toward the Flatiron Building, or uptown toward Bryant Park?

Keeping with the style of the building, which was built in 1931, the signage is expressed in Art Deco lettering. The metal above is stainless steel, which has a dull sheen and rusts only minimally over time.

Related posts: Looking Up, from Fifth Avenue, All Decked Out Below the Empire State, and The Empire State on St. Patrick's Day.

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The View from the Far West Side

Photo by myself from 26th Street and 11th Avenue, in Chelsea.

The far west side in the mid-20's is not as dense as you'd think.

This is the view looking northeast from Mark's office at 26th Street and 11th Avenue, in the far west reaches of Chelsea. The building steps back a bit and there is room for a long balcony. What results is an expansive view.

The Empire State Building is ahead, at 35th Street and 5th Avenue. Behind me on the left is the Hudson River.

Because of the recently constructed public park nearby, the High Line, this area is undergoing some change. This neighborhood was rarely trafficked not long ago.

Now the sidewalks are actually populated. Old warehouses have been converted into offices and gallery spaces. In a bit of time, the entire neighborhood will change.

Related posts: High Above Bryant Park, The View from Roosevelt Island and Sunset, from Brooklyn Bridge Beach.

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The Empire State at Dusk

Photo by myself around 23rd Street and Fifth Avenue.

The Empire State Building is located at 35th and 5th Avenues. This shot was taken at 23rd Street, where Fifth Avenue and Broadway merge. The streets open up for a nice vista. I was in the neighborhood on an errand, Monday night.

The Empire State Building bathed for the next few days in white light. The lights will turn green for St. Patrick's Day on Thursday, the 17th.

White is the default setting. The colors are for special occasions and include the colors of the rainbow.

Holidays are recognized, like Christmas, Thanksgiving and Valentine's Day. Non-holidays are recognized too, like the Westminster Dog Show (!), the Superbowl and the New York City Marathon.

Now that the lights on the building are programmable LED lights, changing colors is easy. For the building's lighting schedule click here.

The Empire State Building, or ESB, is currently the third-tallest building in the US, behind the Willis and Trump Towers in Chicago.

Related posts: The Empire State on St. Patrick's Day, Skating Under the Empire State and All Decked Out Below the Empire State.

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The View Uptown from the Manhattan Bridge

Photo by myself from the Manhattan Bridge.

Looking northwest from the Manhattan Bridge, one can see from Canal Street all the way up through to Midtown, some 40 blocks away.

The tall building in the middle is, of course, the Empire State Building. The smaller building jusy to the right with the gold pyramid is the New York Life Insurance Building, at 26th Street and Madison Avenue.

Related posts: The Empire State on St. Patrick's Day, All Decked Out Below the Empire State and Different Vistas.

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The Empire State on St. Patrick's Day

Photo by myself of the Empire State Building on St. Patrick's Day.

The Empire State Building is lit with LED lights. This means that the colors can be adjusted easily to any color imaginable. I'm sure in the past they must have been limited to a set palette of colored lenses.

You can see the schedule of the lights here. On days when nothing in particular is being celebrated, the lights are colored white.

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Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Here's another great thing about living in the city - you don't have to worry about drinking and driving. You can always jump into a cab, and the subways run into the wee hours. For a mere $2 a ride, you can get home safely, and even have a little nap on the way.

Did everyone wear a little green on Tuesday?

Related posts: What's Going Up, Near the ESB, Working Toward a Complaint-Free World and 42nd Street.

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What's Going Up, Near the ESB

Photo by myself of the Empire State Building, at 35th Street and Fifth Avenue.

No, the Empire State Building isn't under construction, but a building nearby is. There is still some construction going on in the city. NY1, the local news channel here, reports that some 5 billion dollars in construction has been postponed in the city.

Incidentally, the Empire State itself went up during the Depression. After being built in just two years, it sat empty for a long time. According to Wikipedia, the ESB did not turn a profit until its 20th year.

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The keywords 'the cost of living in New York' are still the most popular referrals to this site. Whether that means people are curious about how much it costs to live here, or whether they're planning to relocate is still unclear.

From the trenches, I can report that I haven't seen anything toooo drastic, but then, I'm not in finance. There is a general fear of layoffs in my industry. Work is still coming into the office, though not as much as before. Contractors have been slashing their estimates to get work.

Some clients have postponed their projects. Others have scaled back scope. So far our office hasn't had to let anyone go. Let's hope it stays that way.

I must say that I was shocked to see on television the other day a commercial for apartments (was it in Queens?). Never, ever, EVER did I think I'd see tv ads for rental apartments in a city where it seemed that everyone was fighting to move in.

My, how times have changed.

Related posts: The Cost of Living Here, The Cost of Living Here Part II, or Life in Playland and Through the Roof.

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Different Vistas

Photo by myself of the Manhattan skyline from Long Island City. I took this photo during this weekend's barbeque atop one of the new residential towers in Long Island City.

Even though it's been nearly eighty years since its opening, the Empire State Building still strikes a distinctive impression along the Manhattan skyline.

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This afternoon I went over to the job site on Central Park West, for a meeting.

En route there was some mayhem outside the Trump Tower at 60th Street, along the Park. A woman with two young kids asked a doorman, 'What just happened?'

'Steven Tyler just went into the building, ma'am.'

I kept walking, worried that I'd be late for my meeting. But all I could think was, there is a whole class of people like Steve Tyler, who live in these amazing apartments looking out on the world below. This is normal for them - the beautiful view, the throngs of people, the architects and decorators that cater to them.

And then there is the rest of us.

It shouldn't be such a new idea to me. There are loads of patrons of various degrees of wealth, after all. It must have been the circumstance - walking along the same pavement, visiting neighboring apartment towers.

It's funny how you can look out at the same view but see vastly different things.

Related posts: Location, Location, Location and Sublime and the Ridiculous, or Why I See Few Celebrities in New York.

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Working It Out

Photo by myself of the Empire State Building, in the morning light.

It was overcast today, so I'm showing a photo from several days ago. The Empire State Building rises above all other buildings. By night, the lights in the lantern change color to commemorate holidays and events. When Frank Sinatra passed away, for example, the lantern glowed a distinct shade of blue.

For the current ESB lighting schedule, click here.

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The new job turns out to be much more stressful than the last job, due to politics. Oh dear. I'll give things a few months to play out before making any rash decisions.

I went to the gym tonight, since exercise helps you deal with stress better. I have to wonder about the percentage of New Yorkers who have gym memberships. I'm sure it's pretty high, since there are so many gyms and so many reasons for going: job stress, health and vanity.

After a mere 30 minutes on the elliptical machine, I felt absolutely amazing, I mean, really startlingly sublime. I came home to find Mark heating up some dinner and gave him an enormous hug. So if you haven't gone to the gym in a while, give it a try. Your friends and family will thank you for it.

Later, we caught today's episode of CBS Sunday morning, which we'd recorded. Guess what? There was a segment on exercise, with a celeb of yore.

Jack LaLanne was shown lifting weights, swimming and running around. The man is turning 94 years old this year and still works out two hours a day.

Inspiring? Oh yes. Time to strap on those running shoes!

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Working Toward a Complaint Free World

Photo by myself of the Empire State Building, from 5th Avenue and the 30's.

There's something really photogenic about this building that keeps me going back. It's hard to believe that it was built in a year and half, just before the Depression.

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Did anyone catch last weekend's CBS Morning News? There was a segment with Bill Geist about a church-based organization called A Complaint Free World in Kansas City that is helping people stop complaining.

I can't find the quote online, but Bill said that if New Yorkers stopped complaining, they'd have nothing to talk about. Apparently he thinks all we New Yorkers do is kvetch all day.

Hm. Possibly. Many of us aren't afraid of voicing the truth. And life can be far from ideal when you're living and commuting on top of other people all the time.

At A Complaint Free World, Reverend Will Bowen offers a challenge where a person stops complaining for 21 days. The theory is that if you stop uttering complaints, your brain will stop producing the complaints. The person then finds him or herself in a state of happiness, or at least, mute acceptance.

During the program, Geist went to a restaurant and remarked that his waitress was taking a long time to fill his order. Apparently the no-complaint way to handle the situation would be to sit and wait for one's food to come. Eventually.

Hello, isn't it more stressful to sit and wait while suppressing one's whiny thoughts? And you're losing an opportunity to bond with your fellow sufferers if you kept your mouth shut.

However, there is something to not complaining. When my mom kvetches about her anxieties, I readily feel antsy and begin to squirm. And so I apologize heartily to my dear readers for my previous worrying posts about bloodhounds hurling through space, potential camera snatchers and crime.

New York, despite all my whiny declarations, is a wonderful place to be.

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