Oh I know. It's just I felt - like much of everything - it was magnified in NYC. It's obviously a very rich city; but to me it seems the lower people and areas are seen as a necessary and unavoidable by-product of wealth. I don't buy it.

Anyway, here are some of my favourite pics I took:



^ The 'GRACE' building, on 42nd and 6th. Perhaps my favourite in all of Manhattan. (There's another one, nearer Central Park.)



^ The Flatiron building.



^ First night. Our introduction to the city, really. As I said, humbling.



^ The post office building, which as I said before is an example of the architectural approach of New York City in general: make your city look beautiful, and the people will be beautiful too. It results in a lot of excess.



^ Quite a cliché, but these fire escapes fascinate me. Their novelty hadn't worn off by the time I'd left.



^ By no means a great photo, but it's the Barzini steps, dammit!



^ I didn't take any pictures of the World Trade Center site. I'll happily take plenty once the new complex is up, but I can't see I agreed with or understood my friends taking pictures of it. Anyway, this building overlooks the site, and I stood at the very bottom of it to take this. Because of the rich blue of the sky, it looks like the building itself is actually disappearing; hard to tell when it ends. It's beautiful.



^ I took several of the Statue of Liberty; this, with it 'suspended in air', is by far the best.



^ I think this is where Moochie's Bar used to be, the bar in which Popeye Doyle gets shit-faced in The French Connection. I looked that up before I went, and I'm pretty sure this must be the site.



^ Not a great photo really, but I was wondering why you often see a line of police cars sitting stationary, with their lights flashing? This was opposite the UN building.

^ Of all the buildings in New York and of all the views I've seen, this is my favourite photo of the bunch.



^ Manhattan from Brooklyn.



^ Harlem.



^ 125th Street.



^ As I said, I was surprised by how deserted Central Park was when it rained.



^ I didn't go picking my feet.



^ Me and Fidel.



^ Me and Woody.



^ Vito!!! (After taking $80 off us as if it were a single dollar!!!)



^ In Holsten's, in the booth.

^ Manhattan from New Jersey.



^ Possibly my favourite painting ever, definitely my favourite in the MoMA. 'Christina's World' by Andrew Wyeth. The photo cannot and does not do it justice.



^ Me with the sun in my eyes.

I believe the other one is 9 West 57th Street. Cool looking buildings!




The old Penn Station used to be right across the street, and that was also an architectural delight. It was torn down in the '60s to build Madison Square Garden.





I didn't realize they are unique to NYC, but many a hot summer night was spent on them by millions here (especially before air conditioning became affordable).






And don't forget "12 Angry Men" and "Wall Street" featured those steps also.






That looks like U.N. Plaza, and there are some foreign embassies located in those buildings. NYC police have the responsibility to guard them.

Woody Allen and El presidente in the same week!

Nice pics, Mick. Interesting how the fire escapes fascinate you. I can't find the thread, but about a year ago I made a post about how my brother and I would sleep out on the fire escape of our building on very hot nights. This was the late '60s, early '70s, in a VERY Italian neighborhood, so not much to worry about. I wouldn't try it today, though .

Don't the walkups and older structures just have so much more character than the homogenized, more recent structures?

The Flatiron building is amazing, considering it's over 100 years old, but I think it's a bit overrated.

The Post Office at 42nd Street, near the Grand Hyatt, is an amazing place to look at. It's one of my favorite buildings in midtown. My favorite has sentimental value for me. It's the old Daily News building on 42nd, between 2nd and 3rd. My grandfather, an Ellis Island Italian immigrant, was a typesetter there. When I was a kid, I LOVED visiting him at work. The big globe is still there. To a 10 year old, it represented the whole world.

I could talk about Manhattan all day. I'm still down there 3 or 4 days a week and I'll never tire of it. It's probably the main reason we don't live in Florida full time (aside from the wretched summer heat). I could NEVER leave New York all together. Never.

The pics are gorgeous, Capo. I can't wait to go back.

I don't know where the Flatiron building gets it's name. haha.

Great review and pics, Mick!! I'm glad you had a great time and I, too, wish I could've made it up there to meet you. Didn't make it to 7B's, huh?

capo, even the photo of that painting moves me There is something beautiful about it.

Did "Vito" actually charge you guys $80 to take a photo with him?

Great pictures Mick. I love the Manhatten skyline.
Hey is Holstein's the same restaurant in the Series finale of Sopranos? Looks like it. And Vito is way thinner than I saw him last.

Sounds like a fantastic trip.

TIS

It was $40 each for a Bada Bing license plate and a signed photo. So not directly, but you know...

Yeah, TIS, Holsten's is the finale diner, and that's the finale booth I'm sitting in. And yeah, Joe's lost a lot of weight. It seems he can't do anything about his height, though.

Didn't Joe have the gastric bypass surgery?

The Main Branch Post Office was a grand twin to the old Pennsylvania Station right across the street. The two were among the finest expressions of an era when Americans considered cities the epitome of civilization. The old Penn Station was torn down to make room for Madison Square Garden, to the horror of anyone with taste.


Until about 15 years ago, Times Square was the epitome of tawdriness and sleaze, a place of XXX movies, ripoff souvenir shops, abominable restaurants, flea circuses, etc. Disney bought up a lot of properties, and with the city's help, transformed it. But, if you find it hyperreal, Mick, you will probably go into complete shock at Las Vegas, which makes Times Square look like a kiddy playground.

BTW: When we visited London in 1998, we were struck by two differences with NY (and most US cities): Everyone smoked, and the air quality was abysmal. Did you notice any differences in NYC?

And don't forget South Beach, TB. The most insane American "city-within-a-city" outside of Las Vegas.

Is it just me or does he look alot older to?

My best friend, with whom I travelled, has also been to the west coast, recently; this was his second time in NYC, and he said that San Francisco is now his favourite city - and in comparison to NYC, it gave him the impression he was seeing 'America'. 'New York' is a concept within itself.

He also noted that Times Square was similar to Las Vegas; there really isn't very much to 'do' there other than 'doing nothing': seeing, looking, becoming overawed by your own awe, experiencing your own experience. It also comes alive at night.

(More on hyperreality here. Read Baudrillard in particular, and his essay on Disneyland.)

I never visited London before our smoking ban. In all enclosed public places, smoking is now illegal in the UK. As for the air in general, it's difficult to make a comparison: NYC was so humid when I was there, very stifling, though to me personally never overwhelmingly so. I think London is less naturally humid, but more crammed with people. It's a busier city, somehow; and physically, less navigable, less simple in its structure; no grid system, more chaos. London is sprawling.

I should also note that, in central Manhattan, the streets are very clean. There must be a lot of waste, but to where it goes is unknown; the streets themselves are spotless. Or it might be a case of the architecture making you look up more than you look down; I could have been stepping in anything.

By the way, to those visiting New York City and those who live in it, I really recommend the Rock and Roll Annex. It's quite new, is set up by Yoko Ono, and is great value for money. $24.50 (our New York Pass got us in free), and we spent about two and a half hours in there. You get a set of headphones, and walk through the exhibition with appropriate music playing according to the exhibit you're most near to. Hendrix, Dylan, Cash, The Beatles, Springsteen, Clapton, Buddy Holly, Michael Jackson, Blondie, Talking Heads, Grandmaster Flash ( ), and more and more and more.

Frustratingly if not unsurprisingly, the whole thing concludes with a room dedicated to 'John Lennon: the New York Years', for which Yoko Ono turns up the pretentious factor even by her standards. It might have made for a good neighbouring exhibit, but as it is, the general Rock and Roll annex seems to lead up to it, as if Lennon (and Oko!) is (are) the epitome of the genre, of a 'movement', and it seems another attempt at self-declared Messiahism. Lennon fans will love it, others might cringe; either way it's worth visiting.

There was a large canvas on one of the walls in this final room, on which Oko wants people to sign their names; once it's full, she's going to send it off to President Obama as a petition against gun laws in the US. I wrote two things on it: "Lenin > Lennon", and "Slogans alone will not save us". Give peace a chance indeed.

Capo,

That sounds like a really fun place....

I have a feeling those sentiments might not make it to Da Prez. But cool, I didn't know about that exhibit. (Neither a resident nor a tourist, so I don't know anything lol)

You have that backwards... it should have read "Lennon > Lenin".

Or.... Talented-but-pretentious British twat ruled by Asian c-word. But still infinitely better than Stalin. lol

I'll be leaving for the Big Apple on September 22nd. I decided to leave earlier then October. If some of you New Yorkers wanna meet for coffe let me know. I can't wait!!

That's today.... you better not wait!

You got me!!! It's actually Saturday the 26th.. My mind is all on this trip..

coffee is still on me. Hope 2 see you PB. Will have pictures for you when I get back......

I'll be leaving San Jose International at 10:30 PM and arriving at JFK Airport at 6:52 AM.

If you guys have any more cool spots let me know....

Where are you staying?

The comfort Inn for a few days and then off to Bayridge to stay with my cugini....