Somewhere there’s a smile with my name on it
When the world spins uncontrollably around you - a trait in the pre-Copernican mind - the best remedy is a journey to the furthest imaginable. It may well be true that that imperative over-rides the destination or the “whence” - that the most exotic of destinations is one embarked away from home. Distance or difference will always disrupt, hence the category of experience that we encounter is qualitatively challenging. A trip to New York is one such luxury.
Beyond the surface of its numbered grid-like terrain lies an island which carries a unique aroma and flavour; with its dash of colour, integral never extraneous noise, unyielding pace and parks of forgiveness, New York is quite unlike any other city in the world. Enjoy this page with a splash of music courtesy of NYC’s WQXR or visit the New York Times.
New York at its best
New York is one of those places you cannot but fall madly in love with, over and over again.
I fell in love with New York when I first visited in the summer of 1990; many moons later, it still has that allure.
Not the most affordable of places to visit, I was fortunate enough to find a studio apartment in Greenwich Village. This photo was taken from the stairwell of the building, looking out and north from Bleecker Street at the Empire State building.
I was here!
Looking uptown on the corner of 14th and Irving Place with the Chrysler building in the background.
Irving Plaza is located just around the corner from Union Square, which incorporates a medium-sized park. My favourite of the dozens of green spaces that dot the island, there is something peculiarly nourishing about it.
Forgotten
The lobby of the now unimposing Rockefeller Centre carries an array of images extolling the merits of labour. Although built out of this labour and upon its representation of labour, the Rockefeller Centre is more accurately seen as a product of a distinctively American patronage system. Such roots do not lessen the achievement and those who bemoan the lack of “history” in America only fail to see that it exists, richly and everywhere, but in different forms, having left differing traces.
A similar, if less grandiose, gesture is found on the NYSE.
The Empire State Building
Rising out of the Great Depression, the Empire State Building remains one of the more distinguishable features of the New York City skyline.
There are taller, more spectacular skyscrappers competing against it, but there is a certain grandeur to this structure located on 5th Avenue and West 34th Street. Its easy to forget that its 102 stories was only usurped as the “World’s Tallest Building” in 1972.
Have a look from this web cam along 5th Avenue.
Art Deco
The sibling to The Empire State, the Chrysler Building remains unassuming by day and is unmatched as it delights in defining the evening skyline.
Unlike others, its natural charm allows it to accomodate more recent architectural arrivals - in this instance the Hyatt hotel (to the left).
Does this need building need an introduction?
The Chrysler again, this time looking East along 42nd Street across from 5th Avenue. I wonder if, with these skyscappers, anyone ever walks these streets with their head down?
Flatiron Building
Located downtown, this construction by Daniel Burnham was not initially well received.
But when one charts its location on the twin arteries - 5th Avenue and Broadway - while intersected by the workmanlike yet unflattering 23rd Street, then one accepts nothing but this building could have occupied this space.
The photo was taken facing southwards, with the sharp end pointing north into the camera, the direction into which the city grew. Mid-morning Sundays is the best time to not find any New Yorkers - which is to say that if this is as far from a New York moment as you are likely to find. Which is also to say that you should have stayed out later the night before and spent the morning in bed.
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