Museum of Jewish Heritage

If you look at the Manhattan skyline for the southwest corner of the island - you will notice a funny shaped grey pagoda like building that looks a wee bit out of place amongst the skyscrapers.  This very beautiful very unique building is The Museum of Jewish Heritage   which states its missing as "to educate people of all ages and backgrounds about the broad tapestry of Jewish life in the 20th and 21st centuries - before, during, and after the holocaust."  The museum honors those who died in the holocaust by celebrating their lives and traditions that they cherished, while affirming the vibrant worldwide Jewish community across the globe today.  

The building of the museum was designed by an architect team known as Roche-Dinkaloo.  (Kevin Roche and John Dinkaloo)  They built a 6 tiered hexagonal pagoda at the roof of the museum.  The 6 tiers and 6 points of the hexagon represent the 6 million Jews that died in the holocaust.  (It also represents the 6 points of the star of David.)  

The museum has several ways of relating its messages - through photographs, through objects, through videos (including testimonies of holocaust survivors acquired and collected by Steven Spielberg's "Survivors of the Shoah Foundation"), and audio tours narrated by Meryl Streep and Itzhak Perlman. 

The staff of the Museum of Jewish Heritage also keep a blog which you can read here!  http://www.mjhstaff.blogspot.com

2 for 1 "Two Memorials of Battery Park" entry.

First of all - I KNOW I skipped a night! It was the first night I've skipped since I started the blog but I have a fairly decent excuse.  I flew back to NYC from Florida last night and my flight was delayed by several hours so we did not land until midnight and I was working this morning so my head hit the pillow ASAP.  I still haven't even unpacked!

I'm just going to write a really quick two-in one blog here about two memorials in Battery Park.

The first one is the "East Coast Memorial."  If you've ever been to Battery Park you've probably seen the "huge eagle" statue.  (It is also coincidentally next to my favorite hot dog stand but that is besides the point.)  This memorial actually honors the 4601 missing American Servicemen who lost their lives in the Atlantic Ocean during World War II.  Around the eaglye or 8 massive gray granite slabs on which the names, rank, and organization of the deceased are carved.  The eagle standing between these slaves is gripping a laurel wreath in its talons which suggests it is mourning over the watery grave of these brave soliders.  The monument was dedicated by the then president, JFK, on May 23, 1963.

The second monument is the "American Merchant Mariners Memorial."  Now I did not know what a "Merchant Mariner" was.  So I looked it up.  (It's what us curious and questioning folk do.)  The Merchant Marine is a fleet of ships (some of which are civilian) which carries imports and exports during peacetime and serve as a naval auxiliary during war time.

The American Merchant Mariners Memorial is a really innovative sculpture based on photos of a real life event.  During WWII, a Nazi U-boat attacked a merchant mariner vessel and took photos as their victims struggled to save their boat and their lives.  You can actually see great photos of the memorial here. https://plus.google.com/115284646709679397918/about?gl=us&hl=en

My favorite aspect of this memorial is that it is subject to the tides.  During low tide you can see a marine struggling, reaching up towards his comrades on the ship.  As the tide rises, the mariner disappears, its as if we can witness him drowning.  This makes the sculpture a very active very tense memorial to the brave merchant mariners including 6,700 merchant mariners who lost their lives in WWI and WWII.


So there is your two for one.  I hope you can make it to Battery Park to see these memorials.  There are so many beautiful memorials but these are two of my favorites.

You can learn more about all of the memorials here.  http://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/batterypark/highlights/page/1

Trash Art! A NYC treasure!

When I started to write this blog entry - I totally thought I was going to write about garbage pick-up in New York City.  (I hear rumors that it is pretty smelly up there, I guess I'll find out when I return to the big city tomorrow.)  However, when one googles "NYC garbage" the very first site that pops up is www.nycgarbage.com  I clicked on the link expecting to find a very detailed history of the solid waste authority of the city, but instead found a very unique visual artist who actually makes art out of trash.  Literally.  He walks around New York, finds trash, and makes these really beautiful interesting cubes, capturing a moment, the moment someone discarded something for some reason.  As a tour guide, I am always trying to frame the city in different light. I personally tend to frame the city as an artist.  I occasionally get paid to sing dance and act, and I find the impact that artists of all kinds have had on the city to be the most interesting impacts.  When I read the news, news about the actors unions, hottest shows, performers visiting, auditions, symbolism of statues, etc…is what sticks out.  REITs do not.  But if I were to give a tour to a group of investors, I would have to try and frame the city from that point of view.  I once gave a food tour to the president of Pepperidge Farms.  I had to frame the tour in terms of tastes - someone who is always looking for new tastes, what tastes are unique to New York?  The village?  Harlem?  etc…  What this "trash artist" does is frames the story of the city out of trash and it is eerily and humorously beautiful.  (He is also a fabulous visual artist - so he frames the city as an artist too!)

Now, I do not believe he set out to "frame the story of the city."  According to the website the idea was born out of argument about whether or not the packaging of a product is important.  He set out to prove that if you package anything correctly people will buy it - even if it is trash - literally.  In many ways though, he is not packaging trash - he is packaging moments.  New York is dirty.  New York is smelly. New York is bustling and you leave sunglasses behind or can't find a trash can so you throw your subway card on the ground.  You drop photographs, throw mardi gras beads, toss ton of confetti, miss the trash can when throwing out your latte that allowed you to start your day.  The moment before these items were "trashed" they were treasures.  Something worth some amount of money or sentimental value to someone.  (You see this is why I'm a border line hoarder - ask my roommate.)  What this artist, Justin Gignac , does is takes these ex-treasures and turns them into beautiful art.  And when you look at his cubes - filled with an old pinkberry frozen yogurt cup and diet coke bottle you don't think "what trash" - you think - I love pinkberry and remember that moment in NYC when I sat in Riverside Park with my friend Phil and ate pinkberry covered with extra mochi before my contemporary dance class and that diet coke my mom always drinks at dinner when she comes to visit.  He captures the most intimate, most memorable, and most malleable memories in his cubes. I personally think he is a New York treasure, and you should certainly check out his site and his work!

The New Yorker Hotel

Almost every day I see a large lowering art deco building that says "New Yorker" in big red block letters on top of it.  Before I became "curious and questioning" I always thought it was where the New Yorker magazine was published.  I was wrong.  This building is the "New Yorker Hotel."

When the building was completed in 1929, it had 2500 rooms, making it the city's largest hotel for several years.   It also boasted a 4 station radio in every room!  (How times have changed!) Today it is a 900 room mid priced hotel in the "Garment District" of NYC.  

Famous guests of the hotel include Spencer Tracy, Joan Crawford, Fidel Castro, Muhammad Ali (who recovered from his fight with Joe Frazier there), and Nikola Tesla.  (Tesla actually discovered/harnessed/'invented' electricity though Edison is given credit) spent the last 10 years of his life in the hotel as recluse who occasionally met dignitaries but spent most of his time feeding pigeons.  

Another fun fact about the hotel is that when it opened it had the U.S.' largest private power plant in the form of steam boilers and generators that produced 2,200 kilowatts of direct current electric power. Today it runs on alternating current.

So the next time you see "The New Yorker" block letters lighting up the sky, know it belongs to a hotel that housed several of New York's most interesting characters and once had its own power plant!

Make reservations or learn more about the hotel on their official website: http://www.newyorkerhotel.com

Pools

It's HOT in NYC.  And there is not a delightful beach. HOWEVER - there ARE public pools!  16 free public pool in Manhattan to be precise!  You can find a whole list of them here: http://www.nycgovparks.org/facilities/outdoor-pools  There are actually 34 outdoor public pools within the five boroughs, 12 indoor pools, and 19 "mini-pools."  

If you are interested - you can read about the history of public pools in NYC here: http://www.nycgovparks.org/about/history/pools

*still on vacation and having trouble finding time to write proper posts!  Please accept my apologies!

How far are you from NYC?

I am currently 1088.30 miles away from NYC.  I must admit it feels like further as I listen to waves crashing up against the sand on the Florida coast of the Gulf of Mexico.  It feels like another world.

When thinking about what to write my blog entry on - I thought it would be fun to just see how far away various cities are from NYC.  Every city listed has a special meaning to me - most of them I had a very close friend in.  I'm sorry if I left your city out.  Here is my list.  (All measurements are in miles.)

Skagway, Alaska - 3704.2
Guam - 7046.46
Kuala Lumpur - 9405.15
Dubai (Where there tallest building in the world is) - 6,845.36
Sidney, Australia - 9946.17
London, England - 3465.23
Beijing, China - 6835.86
Buenos Aires, Argentina -5303.97
Botswana - 7658.40
Washington, D.C. - 204.35
Chicago, Illinois - 711.81
Detroit, Michigan - 481.07
Houston, Texas - 1419.19
L.A., California - 2448.29
Paris, France - 3631.09
Rome, Italy - 4285.68
Frankfurt, Germany - 3858.41
Tokyo, Japan - 6748.59
Calgary, Alberta, Canada - 2027.10
Sanibel, Florida - 1088.30

LED lights atop the Empire State Building

I'm afraid today is another cop-out post, but I'm simply too tired from all this Fourth of July-ing to give any topic is due time.

Instead I'm going to share with you a very interesting article I read today about the lights on top of the Empire State Building, which have gotten a makeover and made their grand magical moveable debuts tonight in NYC!  Wish I had even there to see the display in person!

http://www.nydailynews.com/empire-state-building-light-show-article-1.1385520

Canyon of Heroes

I feel that writing about the Canyon of Heroes is a good 4th of July entry!

If you walk up Broadway starting at Bowling Green and walk to City Hall Park, look at the ground.  Strewn about the pavement you will see black granite strips with names and dates on them.  You have entered the Canyon of Heroes.  The names on these black granite strips are the names of people, teams, troops, etc that were given ticker tape parades in NYC.  

As you walk along the Canyon of Heroes, if you look up you will see tall office buildings on either side creating a "concrete canyon" if you will - hence the nickname "Canyon of Heroes."

A tradition parade route was northward from Bowling Green to City Hall Park.  Anywhere from 50 to 5, 438 tons of paper confetti would be thrown on the heroes from the tall offices on either side during the parades.  (The most was August 15, 1945, during the VJ Day parade celebrating the end of World War II.)

The very FIRST ticker tape parade was held October 28th, 1886, during the dedication of the Statue of Liberty.  The confetti was made out of the paper output of ticker tape machines which used to provide updated sock brokerage quotes.  (Hence the name "ticker tape parade.") Today - the paper is repurposed from paper shredders or confetti the city provides.  

Some heroes of note honored by ticker tape parade include Albert Einstein (the only scientist to ever be honored with a ticker tape parade!), Charles Linbergh (following his solo transatlantic flight), Jesse Owens (for winning 4 Olympic medals in track & field) in Nazi Germany), Howard Hughes (for a 3 day flight around the world), Winston Churchill (for just being his awesome self), Carol Heiss (Olympic Figure Skater), Neil Armstrong, Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, and Michael Collins (for their manned mission to the moon), and the American hostages released from Iran in 1981.

If you are thinking these parades are a thing of the past - you'd be wrong.  THe most recent was held February 7, 2012 for the New York Giants after their Super Bowl victory!  

4th of July activities for 2013

So I'm not going to write about Keith Haring tonight because he deserves a worthy entry - and I'm discovering it is shockingly difficult to write blogs on vacations.

Instead  I'm going to share a link t a video with you.  This video gives you an idea of fun quirky Fourth of July themes activites in the city - while also sharing a little bit about this wonderful city's history!  Please enjoy.  I had NOTHING to do with the making of this video!:)

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/video/9043163-toni-on-new-york-the-big-apples-pivotal-role-during-the-revolution/

Technical difficulties

Due to a power outage tonight's blog will be postponed until tomorrow - expect a Keith Haring entry!