Sometimes you think they open a place just for you.

Chickalicious, NYC.

Labels: Food, NYC

Labels: NYC, Videos

I walked by the Municipal Building in lower Manhattan last Friday.

Ever walk by something a million times & never know the amazing story that goes with it?

I'd always wondered what statue was up there.

I finally looked it up & came away with a interesting story.



The statue of Civic Fame on top of the Municipal Building was installed in 1913 & is a gilded figure designed by Adolph Weinman. Standing barefoot on a sphere, she wears a flowing dress & a crown of laurels to signify glory.

Audrey Munson(1891-1996) was an American model & actress, she was the model or inspiration for more than 15 statues in New York City including this one.



The model for "Civic Fame", Audrey Munson, had an even harder & more intense life. At the turn of the century she was a supermodel for sculptors and painters. In some sense that yielded a much more permanent record of her than most of today's supermodels will enjoy as there are literally dozens of important sculptures of her in New York City & around the world bearing her likeness. When the movies came about, she became an actress & entered history books as the first known woman to star in a movie fully naked.

Here's
the Wikipedia article (if you want to know more...like geekhead me).
This woman had the most unusual & tragic life. From the height of fame...through a court case involving a doctor who killed his wife to be with her...to entering a mental asylum at the age of 39 where she died at the age of 104.

Labels: Art, Beauty, NYC, Photos

Macy's knows how to do up Christmas.



The Christmas windows glowed as people passed by.

See that store on the right?

Conway's...I'd never ventured in until the other day.

Gotta say...if you're looking for the filthiest store in Midtown...this is it.

& I don't mean that in a good way either.

Labels: NYC, Photos

Friday's Empire State Building colors.

The night before in was blue for a certain team in the World Series.

Labels: Holidays, NYC, Photos

The truck comes around once a week.



If you think something from a truck can't be heavenly...you'd be wrong.



Dumplings & a salad.



OK...I got nothing else...

I just wanted to post photos of dumplings.



Why not.

Labels: Food, NYC, Photos

A couple of weeks ago
I past filming for 30 Rock.
As I stood on the sidewalk across the street
The Southern woman next to me
asked..."what are they filming?"
"30 Rock", I said.
"Dirty Rock?", she asked.
Idiot, I thought.



Christmas themed show about the interns striking?



Kenneth the intern.



Tracy Morgan.



These 2 big guys play Tracy's bodyguards (& they are huge).

Labels: NYC, Photos, Television

Want to hear about hell…

…as I know it…

…it’s the train I was just on…

…mysteriously stalled…

…deep underground…

…hot…

…sticky…

…no seat to be had…

…jammed up against a strangers backpack…

…right in my face…

…nowhere to go…

…what’s that touching my leg…

…don’t look you do not want to know…

…I didn’t catch that last thing you said to me…

…do I look like I speak Indian…

…crap…

…yeah…

…that’s what I smell.

Labels: NYC, Train Stories

A couple of weeks ago
I went for a walk down Wall Street
& who did I see?
The Trumpster & looky here
at who was making a crazy face in the limo.
Trump was being all nicey-nice to the cop.
"Be good to my people", he said.
Nice guy?
Look at the lady in black on the right.
Think she thought much of The Donald?
I love that no one made a big deal about seeing a famous person on the street.
(except the girl with the camera).

Labels: NYC, Photos

On my way to lunch the other day

this is what I saw.

So damn cute.

These girlies were having so much fun posing for photos here.

Totally made my day.

Labels: NYC, Photos, Sweetness

The idea today was to walk down one street randomly

& see what would strike my fancy photography wise.

Langdon's florist got to me first.

I was swept away by all the greenery out front

& the fire escape's shadows overhead.


Something about that sign looked interesting to me.

I liked all the intersecting lines going off into the distance.

Cool reflections on the car.

Another pattern & I always love scrolly designs.

Labels: NYC, Photos

Walking down West 81st Street last Saturday.

If I had a gazillion dollars I'd so live here.

Labels: NYC, Photos

Saying goodbye to Fleet Week.



I was on my was to the Noodle place for lunch today.



Seriously, they were everywhere.

Labels: NYC, Photo a Day

So much activity at the WTC site.

See the square building (Deutsche Bank) in the middle?

It's going to cost more to take down (floor by floor)

than it cost to build.



The old next to the new.



My destination for the trip.



I love this store.

I mean look at the place...it just makes me smile.



The color, the freshness...ahhhh, makes me think of spring.

Labels: Food, NYC, Photos

I couldn't stand to be inside at work for one more second last Friday afternoon.

But, damn, it was 7 degrees outside without the wind chill.

I bundled up in ohsostylish long underwear under my jeans & sweater(s)

Topped myself off with a hat, coat, scarf & gloves & was off.

The cold air & wind knocked me over & hit me in the face when I finally made it outside.

It felt good for the first few seconds, then I was numb.

I walked down to the ferry terminal where I knew the plane would be.



I saw the comforting sight of the Coast Guard going up the river.



There were gatherers like me wanting to get a glimpse of the plane in the water.



This was as close as I was able to get.



Odd to see an airplane wing sticking up out of the Hudson River.



Beyond the ferry terminal you can see the crane that they eventually used to remove the plane from the river setting up.



This isn't a great representation of the media that was here...but they were starting broadcast for the nightly news.



All the rescuers involved, the fire dept, police, ferry operators, divers, Coast Guard & people riding on the ferries who helped pull passengers out of the river & gave them their coats deserve thanks.


...kinda put my sucky day into perspective.

Labels: Cold, Currently, NYC, Photos

SNL did a funny skit involving (legally blind) NY governor David Patterson.

I thought it was silly fun.

Some people thought it was offensive to blind people.



I think it's an incredible achievement that Governor Patterson is running the state of NY (he was appointed after Elliot Spitzer had sex with a high priced prostitute from NJ, remember?)

& I think the antics of SNL shouldn't be seen as taking anything away from that.

So silly.

Labels: NYC, Opinions, Silliness, Television

If you want to see some of the most extravagant Christmas light displays, you should make the trip to the Dyker Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn. Many of the Christmas light displays are done professionally, & they tend to evolve each year in an unspoken effort to outdo each other.



My mother grew up in this still very Italian section of Brooklyn.

I got to the the lights with her this year.



Many families collect money for charity when the crowds come to see the lights.



This house belongs to Alfred Polizzotto (1145 84th St.), who had a mechanical designer rig 29-foot-high toy soldiers to stand guard, waving their arms. Polizzotto also has 2,000-pound horses rearing and galloping, & a quartet of dancers almost 10 feet tall pirouetting in a massive ode to "The Nutcracker Suite." Polizzotto, a real estate lawyer & cancer survivor who got seriously involved in the Christmas madness to thank God for his illness' remission, estimates that the block draws 150,000 visitors a year (it's that much of a spectacle...I had to look it up).






I don't know why...but between all the Christmas lights & statues of Mary there seem to be lots of fountains...this one came complete with Koi fish & a closed circuit TV camera so that no one 'bothered' the fish.

This really has to be seen to believed.

Labels: Holidays, NYC, Photos