Times Square Then/Now

Times Square becomes ground zero for New Year's eve all around the world...

The New York Times did a nice feature in recent months called Then/Now.

Here's the one for Times Square

It includes a cool little feature where a 1979 black and white photo is inlaid (via some cool) Internet widget against a full color 2008 view of the same Times Square block...

Both photos were taken by David W. Dunlap.

You can drag the demarkation line across with your mouse to see what was where when...

Great feature...

I do miss the old Times Square. I do. I do... I was there when they tore down the Helen Hayes and the Morosco Broadway Theaters to make the ghastly Marriot Marquee tower which is viewed as the start of the major change-over...

I Love Battlestar Galactica: The Music Video

If embeddiing is screwed up click here.

Nice little red shorts, there, too, Jonathan Mann...

Thanks to Wonder Man for calling my attention to this work of pop art!

Restoration Sunday in the Empire State

Am *reaally* taking it easy this weekend...

Just took a loooong hot bath. And am loading up on vitamins... And staying in.

A face scrub.

It's a restoration of health Sunday here in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan, USA.

Out! Out! Damned Sinusitis. Allergy? Bronchitis? Whatever you are:

Out out out! (It's definitely on it's way out, but it's still a nuisance... I'm fed up!)

So, today, I DVR.

I blog. And I quote.

I Facebook.

I read.

I listen to music.

And I eat... and drink...

Enough about me...

How's *your* weekend going/gone?

Finders Keepers

Dear Lady Donothing:

Found a gift card on a Hell's Kitchen avenue early this morning... For 

J. Crew. And it's dark green... 

Do you have it in your collection yet??

Anyway, I checked online and see that it still has $8.50 on it... So, I'll go buy a belt or something and then send it to you...

Unless you want it with the $8.50 cuz you need to get yourself something at J. Crew...?

I never would have even thought to pick it up off the sidewalk, if it weren't for your collecting hobby...

So YOUR collection is actually paying Dividends!... Of a whopping $8.50!

Believe me! That's *more than* my IRA has paid in the whole last six months! 

LOL...

Friday: Rest and Recuperation

What does R&R stand for anyway? Rest & Relaxation? Rest and Recuperation? Rest and Recreation?

Who knows? I dunno.

Fact is, I'm plum worn down.

It's been a long winter.

And a long and intense stretch at work with pressures of Quality Reviews and  bombardments of every bacterial and viral disease that exists over the last few 5 day workweeks of March...

I'm usually a healthy guy... But this stretch has taken it's toll...

No wonder then that I have a lingering cough, post nasal drip thing going into the fourth week now... I took off yesterday for a breather.

And late last night a new intestinal thing started and has persisted. That's a pain in the... Well, you get the idea...

Sooooo, this will be a completely restful weekend...

Comfort dinner of a Swiss Omelette with mashed potatoes and Greek Rice Pudding from The Flame on order... 

And lots of rest and relaxation. 

And lots of water. 

Thursday Interlude: The Wrong Side of the Tracks

Wednesday's Word: BlackBuried

BlackBuried

Being inundated and exhausted trying to be on top of all your email 24/7 with your handheld mobile device

Now that I have a BlackBerry, I feel obliged to attend to all my email day and night, it makes me feel BlackBuried

Source: Urban Dictionary

Social Media Studies 101...

Thanks to Keith of The Sturdy Soapbox!

Meanwhile, here's what I think about that cartoon:



LOL!

HAIR 2009 Discount Offer Coupon Code Broadway

Anybody (of you, my friends) want to see HAIR on Broadway? I figure if you read my blog, you are my friend! LOL

Here was my review of HAIR from a few days ago!

I got this in the e-mail today...

"Send a Friend to the Show
You loved it. You know your friends will, too. Send a friend our discount code HAAFU32 to get up to 50% off their ticket purchase*. Or use the code yourself. We'd love to see you again.

"*Valid for performances through 5/10/2009. Prior sale excluded. Offer is subject to availability. Offer may be revoked at any time".

Site is BroadwayOffers.com and then enter the code I just gave you... That's the same site I used to get my ticket initially. You can even choose your seat on there. I opted to pick up my ticket at the box office for another couple of bucks. Works great.

Meanwhile, if anyone has the secret discount code for tix to West Side Story... Please leave it in the comments. thanks!

A Delightful Sunday Tea Dance

I walked by Roseland this around 9AM this morning while doing my Sunday errands. I could hear the beat, beat, beat of the bass driven disco music thudding all the way across West 53rd Street.

Can't even imagine what it was doing to the eardrums inside the joint... Can you?

The Black Party is continuing inside from last night. $125 cover charge for ear drum damage?? Not for me.

This You Tube video is a much more pleasant sort of Sunday Tea Dance... Don't you agree??



Thanks to Nicomar for sending!

Battlestar Galactica: A Great Ride

I watched the final two hour episode of Battlestar Galactica today... It aired last night, but Thank Gods for the DVR.

It's very satisfying to have a series with an ending. And it shows that Sci-Fi channel (soon to be SyFy) cares about it's fans!

Reminds me that Buffy the Vampire Slayer ended with the creative team intact to take us there.

And it reminds me that I'm still pissed at HBO for never wrapping Carnivale or Showtime for abandoning the loyal fans of Huff. (At least give the fans a series of novels, for Gods' sake!).

Speaking of Gods and God... The BSG series ends on a rather spiritual note. This might make your average atheist viewer uncomfortable... But will provide comfort to all those twelve-steppers out there who enjoy trusting in a Higher Power on their personal paths to recovery from this or that.

The New York Times quotes Baltar today:

“Whether we want to call that God or Gods or some sublime inspiration or a divine force that we can’t know or understand doesn’t matter... God is a force of nature beyond good and evil.”

As for me, I was identifying the underlying "Power Greater than Ourselves" theme many episodes ago and tried explaining it to a co-worker who was hellbent on the two dimensional... Either they are cylons or they are human, he kept arguing. Unity Church would call all of this "Divine Order".

Anyway... I'm glad they wrapped it all up so nicely.

I'll miss the series...

It was a great ride for the last Battlestar Galactica and the rag tag fleet in search of the planet known as Earth...

Spring is Sprung in Hell's Kitchen

Winter is over at about 7:45 am this morning...

It was "a gooder"*.

Many bitter cold walks to work... So invigorating and refreshing.

A goodly amount of snow... Always beautiful! (See photo of an earlier storm)

And even a rare snow day off from work... Heaven!

I have no complaints about this winter...

As a cold weather afficianado, I feel satiated...

So, to all you whackos that like your warm weather (LOL)... USA Today says 38% of Americans say Spring is their favorite season! I wish you all a happy Spring... and Summer.

I can wait patiently til the next Fall and Winter...

* a gooder" is one of my father's expressions... despite the fact that the spell check gives it a nasty red-underline.

Thursday Tuner

Wednesday's Word: Chachki

chachki

Trinket, useless sentimental stuff filling up your book cases and counter space, miscellaneous items collected and set out to enhance your decor, stuff you should probably box up or sell in a garage sale, things kids take when their parents pass away because it reminds them of good times past.

Source: Urban Dictionary

St Pat's: This and That

* Top of the Good St. Patrick's Day Morning from Hell's Kitchen, USA.

* Still wrestling with a nasty cold that has settled in as chest cough. Throat still a little raw too. Been over a week already.

* I ran around the Pier Antique Show on Sunday. Bought a couple Pinocchio items. I didn't even know that a Roly-kin existed. $10 bucks. Thanks to Danny for the free pass.

* A co-worker told me at sign-out that she was pregnant. Told her I noticed her belly a few days ago, but didn't inquire as she might have just been FAT! LOL.

* Got an email from *another* friend who lost his job. He was e-mailing in a library checking emails & filing for unemployment. These are tough, tough times.

* March is a long month. Can't believe we're only about halfway through it!

* Sci-Fi Channel will become SyFy in July. Seems dumb.

* Spoke to the 93year old man over the weekend. It was the first time he could talk when his roommates weren't there. It was nice to talk to him when he was relaxed and not feeling eavesdropped.

* Figured out that turning Java OFF in the SK2008 browser allows commenting on Blogger again. Awesome. But some blogs comment feature doesn't even show up. I have to explore more to see how Java turned off affects web browsing in general. FaceBook, for example.

* Today is the *last day* of the Quality Assurance Hoo-Hah. Wish us a bit of the luck of the Irish.

Snow White Goes Punk

Thanks to Wonder Man for showing this to me...

HAIR HAIR HAIR HAIR

I saw HAIR yesterday.

I thought it was WONDERFUL.

The whole ensemble is brilliant!

So glad I got to see it!

PERFECT for these times.

Just TERRIFIC!

And the cast looked BEAUTIFUL in "Time Out New York" this week! (See Cast of Hair, Naked)

If the Tony Awards would ever get that Ensemble Acting Award together, this would be the PERFECT ensemble cast to give it to!

(Broadway's HAIR at The Al Hirschfeld Theater has a running time of 2.5 hours including an intermission.)

Postcards from Choreland

Last Saturday was my trip to the Intrepid... And I subsequently felt that I was behind chores all week long... 

During work weeks... Saturdays and Sundays are doomed to be more about chores than anything.

Cleaning this, vacuuming that. Folding this, stowing that. Marketing... And so forth.

Still, there's enough time to scoot off to see a Broadway matinee when Broadway is a 15 minute walk from home. Lucky, I know. But it's luck by design.

Today's featured attraction?: HAIR...

Details later...

Meanwhile, it's back to Choreland...

No Stress Friday the 13th

Another declared No Stress Friday

Although, it's not easy with all the hub bub about the big wigs that will descend on my work site for the next three days of rock em sock em down and dirty inspections.

Should I worry cuz it's also Friday the 13th? Nah. It's a No Stress/ Friday the 13th.

Spent much of the week looking for my old fashioned checkbook sized calendar book. I've never warmed to the electronic calendar concept. It's too cumbersome and pen to paper is fast and easy... But the agenda diary went missing and I was ferklempt re-tracing steps, climbing under the couch, and so forth...

Alas, it was in my Yankee's Cap... Why? Dunno. But I found it, so that is the end of that saga.

Amazing how that little thing kind of threw the whole week off kilter...

Then there was last night's full moon. My charges were bouncing off the walls yesterday and today... Off the walls, I say!

Also, I've been waging a full immune system frontal assault against a rhino-virus. Several colleagues were fighting the fight, too, but they called in sick today.

Me? I'm fighting upward and onward... Didn't want to be missing in action if they need me to chip in for this inspection preparation thing at work... Anyway a few more shots of vitamin C and another good night's sleep and I'm confident that this will be gone enough to be a non-issue.

Will be glad when it's all over. The cold AND the big wig inspection.

Meanwhile, have a great weekend!

I WILL do the same...

Amazing Grace Thursday

Embedding was disabled... Here's a link to a You Tube video:

Amazing Grace Il Divo

Thanks to Mikelaw for sending.

Wednesday's Word: Flashpacker

flashpacker
noun. A backpacker who travels in style. Also: flash-packer. [Blend of flash and backpacker.]
—flashpacking pp.

Source: Word Spy

Cathartic Zombies

As I was just telling Greg over at his place...

 I enjoyed this silly online game he had posted today...

I imagined each Zombie as a Republican politician or banker...

Quite cathartic, actually....

Try Zombie Shooter.

Where History Was Made

Over the weekend, I joined about twenty friends from the Hiking Group and we went on a V.I.P. guided tour of the U.S.S. Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum.

It was my first time aboard her since her last dry dock which brought her back to Hell's Kitchen last Veteran's Day (November, 2008).

The interior seems pretty much the same to me. The theater might have been a new addition. I dunno, as I rarely go to those kinds of attractions...

The secret to the Intrepid is to have a Guided Tour. When I was there the first time, I found myself dodging crowds and doing cursory glances of this warplane and that display case...

We learned why the lower decks are painted in Serene Green. That there were always between 3,000-3500 souls onboard her at any one time. That the Intrepid is about half the capacity and size of the current Nimitz class air-craft carriers. She usually held 90 aircraft on flight deck and hangar deck including the Skyhawk model like John McCain had flown when he was captured by the enemy. This is the ship that picked up the Mercury capsule and astronaut Scott Carpenter in 1962. And we learned what a flight chit is. (See photo).

With guided explanation, the whole thing comes alive and you feel dynamically engaged with a vessel where much history was made.

I'm sure there are many good guides aboard the ship, but our guide, Mike Miscione was especially superb.

There's also a Concorde on the pier as you disembark the vessel, that you can pass through and see what that famous and retired super-sonic aircraft was like.

Here are my Intrepid pix on Flickr.

MoMA Launches New Site

The Museum of Modern Art has launched their new website site. It's great.

See the new MoMA.org. And here's a NY Times article about MoMA's new website.

Meanwhile, I joined MoMA during my last break.

Membership includes unlimited free access. And I've already been there twice including a Member's preview...

Here are more of my shots of MoMA.

A Snooze Button for Email

Snooze your email.

When you're too busy to respond to an email right away, just forward it to 24@hitmelater.com and they'll resend it back to you 24 hours later.

You can replace "24" with any number or day. For example, forward it to 4@hitmelater.com and you'll get it back four hours later. Send it to wednesday@hitmelater.com and we'll send it back to you the first Wednesday morning after today. You can even specify specific dates or time periods...

Here are a few examples of addresses that you can forward email to.
Day - wednesday@hitmelater.com or wed@hitmelater.com
Date - january12@hitmelater.com or jan12@hitmelater.com
Minutes - 5minutes@hitmelater.com or 5m@hitmelater.com
Hours - 5@hitmelater.com or 5hours@hitmelater.com
Days - 5days@hitmelater.com or 5d@hitmelater.com
Weeks - 5weeks@hitmelater.com or 5w@hitmelater.com
Months - 5months@hitmelater.com

They have different levels of membership:

Basic
Free
5 emails per day
Snooze up to 24 hours
Just start sending!

Pro
$12 per year
Unlimited emails
Snooze up to 1 month

Exec
$30 per year
Unlimited emails
Snooze up to 1 year

TGIF As Always

Latest favorite tuner from Logo's Click List:

How Did Restaurant Row Get Its Name?

Michael Pollak in the FYI column of the New York Times has the answer:

How did the block of 46th Street west of Eighth Avenue become Restaurant Row? Why not 47th Street, or 45th Street?

A. “It was just a good strip,” said Mary Brendle, the community district historian for Hell’s Kitchen and Chelsea.

According to Ms. Brendle, West 46th had a fairly consistent line of rooming houses — some still exist — with zoning that allowed commercial activity on the first floor, perfect for a wall of restaurants just a block from Broadway theaters. The commercial space survived waves of high-rise development. Today, she said, the strip, as part of the Clinton preservation area from 43rd to 56th Street, and from 150 feet west of Eighth Avenue to 10th Avenue, is protected by low-rise zoning.

The designation Restaurant Row for the block between Eighth and Ninth Avenues was made official in 1973. “Where else in the world, except possibly Paris, could you get 16 of the best restaurants collected in such a short strip of land?” Mayor John Lindsay said at the dedication.

Wednesday's Word: Administrivia

Administrivia (noun)
Mindless bureaucratic tasks imposed on workers by management in order to crush the soul and prevent one from achieving anything useful or fulfilling.

"Oh God! Another diversity report for the Ethics Office. When will this administrivia end?"

Source: Urban Dictionary

Street Puppet Sculpture Art Thingies = Cool

Thanks to Nicomar for the tip to this link!

Happy Birthday Doctor

Special Weather Statement for New York, NY

This just in...

***************

Weather Underground Email Service for New York, NY

Special Weather Statement as of 6:47 AM EST on March 02, 2009

Heavier snow has tapered off across NYC...the lower Hudson Valley and
interior northeast New Jersey...as well as western CT. After a short
lull this morning...snow will redevelop. Accumulations of 2
to 4 inches are possible through later this afternoon.

In addition...winds will be increasing to 20 to 30 mph with gusts to 40
mph across the area. These strong winds will create blowing snow...and
possible near-white out conditions at times. Persons are urged to stay
indoors unless absolutely necessary...as travel
conditions will be very treacherous until the heavier snow tapers off.

*************

Stay in? No problem. Pass the chili. Pass the tea bag. Fire up
Battlestar Galactica, Lost in Space, blog some blogs and rest after.

First snow day off from work in over five years?

... I'll take it!

(Message composed on my T-Mobile Sidekick 2008 mobile device).

Sofie Krog Teater Denmark

Went, over the weekend, to HERE to see this international puppet lady named Sofie Krog.

Inventive.

Funny.

Excellent manipulation.

And abundant style.

Script?, not so much.

But... definitely worthy!



Sofie Krog

CNN Punked on Twitter

CNNTopNews feed on Twitter just reported Obama was assassinated while giving a speech to Congress.

Don't think Obama is giving a Sunday Morning Speech to Congress.

No doubt someone hacked in and punked CNN's twitter bot with a fake Obama assassination story.

*Not funny*

Of course it's a Sunday Morning and there's no one really on duty at any news organization, so it's not fixed yet.

What a world!

OOps

Now how did a day go by without my blogging?

They sometimes slip past me, but usually not on weekends...

Oops.

Sleeting in the city. Sidewalks aren't slick yet... But cars are covered in a white dusting. 5-10" of snow predicted before Monday evening.