very simple

this is actually an extra photo that I took yesterday in Madison Square Park. NYC empties out the fountains in the wintertime under the theory that frozen water is not good for them. Of course, it hit 60 degrees today. In January.

Well, maybe not the last tree, but given the rate at which I’ve seen dead christmas trees out on the sidewalk for garbage pickup in the past few days, it’s certainly one of the very few left. And it’s the most famous tree around. I had to pop by my office today for something, so I decided to use the excuse of going to midtown to wander up near Rockefeller Center. No way was I going to fight the crowd to get any closer – working in this neighborhood for a dozen years will cure anyone of that desire.

Another classic – the clock in the middle of grand central station.

I actually took this last night as I was wandering around on my last day off for the holidays. Yet another really cool piece of street furniture that often gets overlooked in favor of the flatiron building across the street.

Tonight, I ended up going to a work-related event at the Time Warner Center, part of which was held in the Allen Room overlooking (coincidence of coincidences) Columbus Circle. So here’s one more shot of Discovering Columbus, from the outside, at night. Pardon the reflections.

Thanks to a well-timed reminder from a friend the other day, I managed to snag a ticket for this weekend’s opening of Discovering Columbus. Artist Tatzu Nishi has done this with other monuments around the world, and here’s he’s created a living room set piece surrounding the statue of Christopher Columbus so that he becomes a really large coffee table display. Sure, it’s a little weird, but it gives people a rare opportunity to get up close to a piece of art (and views!) that is ordinarily out of reach at the top of a 70-foot pillar. It also serves as a preservation effort – once the exhibit is done, the scaffolding will remain so that the heavily worn marble statue can undergo its first restoration effort in over 20 years (why people continue to think that a soft, easily-worn stone like marble is a good medium for statues that spend all their time exposed to the elements escapes me, but the choice was made well-before the current decision-makers were born).

In any event, the photos are a bit repetitive, what with there being the one statue (and the 3 good views out the windows), but hopefully they’re enjoyable. I highly recommend visiting if you get the chance – it’s free, but you need to get a ticket to reserve a time slot for crowd-limitation purposes. The public art fund website appears to have crashed (or they forgot to pay their bill!), but tickets are also available on the third floor of the Time Warner Center.

I took a boatload of pictures when I was up in the Berkshires for the last week of August, and I am slowly (very slowly) working my way through the various subjects.

Unlike Great Barrington, which seems to have been designed to maximize useful quaintness, Pittsfield was a true company town. There was a massive GE plant here for years, and it employed pretty much everyone. Pittsfield was the city that developed to accommodate it. And then it slid into despair, living up to its unfortunate name.

In the past few years though, it’s seen a bit of revitalization – a real push to make it a place people will want to visit. I’m not sure it’s there yet, but it’s certainly in a better place than it was ten to fifteen years ago.

as always, click through for the full image.

I’m winding down my off-time in the city, with my new engagement starting after labor day and next week being spent with various iterations of the family unit in the country, so I decided to go visit the high line yesterday. I’ve been a few times before (2009, 2011), but I think this is the first time I’ve been at the height of summer. They’ve also opened up an entirely new section, from about 21st street to 30th street, so this is the first time I’ve been up this far.

click on the thumbnails for the full images and descriptions

My friend Darcy lives in one of the tiniest apartments that I’ve seen (at least of the one-bedroom variety), but to make up for the size of the apartment, she has exclusive access to the roof right outside. I love the old east village roofline of mismatched buildings. Plus, hanging out all afternoon at our own private oasis in the middle of the city is pretty nice as well (you can’t see the hammock because I am sitting on it!).

I’ve certainly been in the neighborhood plenty of times recently, but I don’t think I’ve actually stepped inside Washington Square Park in several years. Back in the early 90s when I would come into the city on my day off and just hang out here people-watching, I wanted desperately to live in this neighborhood (and did live on 9th street and 5th avenue for one summer back in 1998). Views north (up 5th avenue) and south (to the new World Trade Center).