New York Video Friday! Episode #4

With Halloween fast approaching, there is nothing more New York than the infamous Village Halloween parade. Its been going on for 38 years! As a former participant, I can vouch for the insanity, diversity and ferocity of the paraders. Although things have become more homogenized in recent years, one thing we can thank the internet and social media for are all the large groups performing together. One of my faves is the "Thriller" contingent. Here's a clip from last year's parade. (If you want to be a part of it, go here: Join the Thriller Gang!)

If you want more info about the parade: Village Halloween Parade

What thrills you on Halloween In New York?

Layers of NYC #7: Then...and Now?

Prior to 1904, Longacre Square was filled with horse exchanges, carriage factories, stables, and blacksmith shops.  What is the name of this area today?

Answer after the jump.

Layers of NYC #6: Then...and Now?

In 1893, William Waldorf Astor tore down his father's house and built a hotel, the Waldorf, to tower over his aunt's mansion next door.  Properly insulted, Aunt Caroline moved uptown, and her son, John Jacob IV, considered replacing her house with smelly stables to offend his cousin.  He chose to work with his cousin instead by building another hotel, the Astoria, in 1897.  Together, the Waldorf-Astoria thrived for thirty years before moving uptown to its present location. 

THE ORIGINAL WALDORF-ASTORIA WAS DEMOLISHED TO MAKE ROOM FOR WHAT STRUCTURE?  Answer after the jump.

Layers of NYC #5: Then...and Now?

There was another receiving reservoir north of the one mentioned yesterday.  Olmsted and Vaux had to plan Central Park around this structure which was active until 1925.  It wasn't until the 1930's that Robert Moses successfully filled in the pits and transformed them into one of the most picturesque sections of the park.  (The reservoir the joggers run around was a later reservoir that was discontinued in 1993.)

WHERE IN CENTRAL PARK WAS THE OTHER ORIGINAL DISTRIBUTING RESERVOIR?  Answer after the jump.

Layers of NYC #4: Then...and Now?

When Croton water finally reached New York in 1842, the massive distributing reservoir was located north of much of the city in present-day midtown.  It was discontinued in 1890 and demolished during that decade.

 

WHAT NOW STANDS WHERE THE ORIGINAL RESERVOIR DID?  Answer after the jump.

New York Video Friday! Episode #3

Celebrating the births and mourning the deaths, it's just another week in New York City.

First, the sad news. Joan Sutherland, famed Opera star died 10/10/10 at her home near Montreux in Switzerland. Known as "La Stupenda," her debut with the Metropolitan Opera in New York was so anticipated that fans started lining up at 7:30 in the morning. In 1961, this was unheard of... They were not disappointed. Her singing of the "mad scene" garnered her a 12 minute standing ovation. The video below is from 1981 with another great NYC Opera company, the City Opera. Please listen and enjoy, Ms. Sutherland singing "Tu del mio Carlo ... Carlo vive!" from Verdi's I Masnadieri.

 

Now, on to cheerier news. The Bronx Zoo hosted the debut of the 3 tiger triplets born this Spring. Nice to have good news about the name Tiger.... 

As always, we would LOVE to know what YOU think. Please leave a timely comment below.

Layers of NYC #3: Then...and Now?

This area was a potter's field where thousands of poor New Yorkers were buried, especially after the yellow fever epidemics of 1797 and 1822.  In 1826, the field was used as a parade ground to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.  That patriotic land grab allowed the city to transform the graveyard into a park the following year, making way for one of New York's first upper class enclaves.  

WHAT PARK TODAY SITS ATOP 20,000 EARLY NEW YORKERS?  

Layers of NYC #2: Then...and Now?

The Bloomingdale Asylum (aka, New York Insane Asylum or Bloomingdale Lunatic Asylum), one of the oldest in the United States, was located for most of the nineteenth century on a rise in Manhattan that provided beautiful views of the city and the Hudson River.  As the city expanded uptown, the area became less and less secluded--it was a popular destination for New Yorkers and tourists in carriages and on bicycles.  In 1892, the asylum sold over 17 acres and moved to White Plains.  (Another parcel of land would be sold in 1903.)  In 1897, the purchasers moved to their new home. 

WHAT INSTITUTION TODAY STANDS ON THE SITE OF THE BLOOMINGDALE LUNATIC ASYLUM?  Answer after the jump. 

Layers of NYC #1: Then...and Now?

As far back as 1795, this stretch of land on the East River was where cattle came to die.  The area became known as BLOOD ALLEY for its large concentration of abattoirs.  Butchers worked here for well over a century supplying the taverns, pubs, restaurants, and steakhouses of the city.

In the 1940's, developer William Zeckendorf began buying up parcels of this land to build an extravagent futuristic residential complex called X-CITY.  Unable to capitalize the project, Zeckendorf sold the seventeen acres for $8.5 million in one of the fastest, most urgent real estate deals in the city's history.  Purchased by New York's wealthiest man, the land was immediately donated to an organization in need of a home.

WHAT OPERATES TODAY WHERE THE SLAUGHTERHOUSES ONCE DID?  Answer after the jump.

New York Video Friday!

Episode #2 of Little Bytes Video Friday, brings us a classic video from the past. In case you aren't one of the 23 million previous viewers, it stands the test of time. In more ways than one.

Is this how you remember Grand Central Terminal?

Name That Author #7

"There are still flowers to buy.  Clarissa feigns exasperation (though she loves doing errands like this), leaves Sally cleaning the bathroom, and runs out, promising to be back in half an hour.

"It is New York City.  It is the end of the twentieth century."

Name That Author #6

"In 1902 Father built a house at the crest of the Broadview Avenue hill in New Rochelle, New York.  It was a three-story brown shingle with dormers, bay windows and a screened porch.  Striped awnings shaded the windows.  The family took possession of this stout manse on a sunny day in June and it seemed for some years thereafter that all their days would be warm and fair.  The best part of Father's income was derived from the manufacture of flags and buntings and other accoutrements of patriotism, including fireworks.  Patriotism was a reliable sentiment in the early 1900's.  Teddy Roosevelt was president."

Name That Author #5

"Alfred was surveying the baggage-claim cavern while pale travelers angled for position at the carousel.  There was a confusion of tread patterns on the linoleum, gray with the pollutants that the rain had brought down.  The light was the color of car sickness.  'New York City!' Alfred said."

The New and Shiny Tram

The old Roosevelt Island trams were removed months ago--after stalling for ten hours in midair as well as enduring an attack by the Green Goblin in Spiderman--but the newest models have just made their debut.  They're not carrying passengers over the East River yet, but you can see more photos and read about them at THE ROOSEVELT ISLANDER, THE GOTHAMIST,  and THE NEW YORK TIMES.

Launching Little Bytes New York Video Fridays!

One of the greatest New York songs was just written this year. Here are three versions to soothe, entertain and move you.

The Original:

 

The Parody:

 

The "Glee" Version:

 

Which one do YOU like best?

Let us know in the comments below.

Name That Author #4

Dawn in New York has

four columns of mire

and a hurricane of black pigeons

splashing in the putrid waters.

Dawn in New York groans

on enormous fire escapes

searching between the angles

for spikenards of drafted anguish.

Dawn arrives and no one receives it in his mouth

because morning and hope are impossible there:

sometimes the furious swarming coins

penetrate like drills and devour abandoned children.

Those who go out early know in their bones

there will be no paradise or loves that bloom and die:

they know they will be mired in numbers and laws,

in mindless games, in fruitless labors.

The light is buried under chains and noises

in an impudent challenge of rootless science.

And crowds stagger sleeplessly through the boroughs

as if they had just escaped a shipwreck of blood.

Name That Author #3

If I should learn, in some quite casual way,

    That you were gone, not to return again--

Read from the back-page of a paper, say,

    Held by a neighbor in a subway train,

How at the corner of this avenue

    And such a street (so are the papers filled)

A hurrying man--who happened to be you--

    At noon to-day had happened to be killed,

I should not cry aloud--I could not cry

    Aloud, or wring my hands in such a place--

I should but watch the station lights rush by

    With a more careful interest on my face,

Or raise my eyes and read with greater care

Where to store furs and how to treat the hair.

Name That Author #2

If I don't drive around the park,

I'm pretty sure to make my mark.

If I'm in bed each night by ten,

I may get back my looks again,

If I abstain from fun and such,

I'll probably amount to much,

But I shall stay the way I am,

Because I do not give a damn.

Name That Author #1

"There are roughly three New Yorks.  There is, first, the New York of the man or woman who was born here, who takes the city for granted and accepts its size and its turbulence as natural and inevitable.  Second, there is the New York of the commuter--the city that is devoured by locusts each day and spat out each night.  Third, there is the New York of the person who was born somewhere else and came to New York in quest of something.  Of these three trembling cities the greatest is the last--the city of final destination, the city that is a goal.  It is the third city that accounts for New York's high-strung disposition, its poetical deportment, its dedication to the arts, and its incomparable achievements.  Commuters give the city its tidal restlessness; natives give it solidity and continuity; but the settlers give it passion.  And whether it is a farmer arriving from Italy to set up a small grocery store in a slum, or a young girl arriving from a small town in Mississippi to escape the indignity of being observed by her neighbors, or a boy arriving from the Corn Belt with a manuscript in his suitcase and a pain in his heart, it makes no difference:  each embraces New York with the intense excitement of first love, each absorbs New York with the fresh eyes of an adventurer, each generates heat and light to dwarf the Consolidated Edison Company."

Name the author.  Answer after the jump.

Pictures of New York: Yoshitomo Nara's WHITE GHOST on Park Avenue

 

 

 

 

 

 

For more Yoshitomo Nara, visit the Asia Society which is hosting the first major NYC exhibition of his work.