#LOOKUPNY – Look Up, There’s Beauty To Behold in New York City!

My company, TOWN RESIDENTIAL, has launched an exciting, unique and engaging marketing campaign.  Our company slogan is: “Our neighborhoods define us as much as we define them”.  Taking this to heart and to a higher branding level, TOWN has embarked on a 90 day campaign: LookUpNY.

TOWN is encouraging the public to interact with the company’s website by posting photos of interesting buildings, facades, street scenes, anything that speaks New York to them.   We have so many landmarks, so many pre-war buildings with amazing sculptures, setbacks, cornices and spires.  However, do most visitors and for that matter denizens actually see this beauty.  The answer is a resounding NO.  You have to look up, as in LookUpNY.  That’s not to say that New York is all about what’s up in the air.  I have been scrolling through the hundreds of photos already submitted and there are snippets of neighborhoods, parks, statues, landscapes, seascapes and more; After all New York is a pretty big city!

I strongly suggest you visit http://www.townrealestate.com/lookupny/ and look at the fabulous photos, check out the daily quiz question about the photo of the day in the Gallery.

This is MY blog so you can guess this is heading someplace other than the TOWN web site.  I asked Murray to give me some photos I could submit to TOWN and who knows maybe he would win.  All I wanted was to go on the helicopter ride around the City which is part of the first prize.  I picked the ones I wanted to enter and was about to file all of them on my computer when it occurred to me what would make a better FAB FOTO FRIDAY than several of his spectacular shots of The Chrysler Building.  This striking landmark, this icon of the City deserves a blog post of its own.

I did some quick research and just a couple of remarkable facts are:

Ground breaking:  September 1928

Built at the pace of 4 floors per week – no workers died on the job

Originally designed to be 975 ‘ – 125′ added when the spire topped off the building.  The spire was built secretly inside the building and then hoisted onto to the dome and lowered into the 68th floor .  The remaining sections of the spire took a mere 90 minutes to bolt in place.

Built to house Chrysler Headquarters, there are many homages to the auto industry;  radiator caps, hub cap design, setbacks with abstract images of automobiles, gargoyles like hood mascots anchor the upper corners of the building.

Briefly the highest building in the world until the Empire State building eclipsed it.

BUT enough words, take a look at the pictures!

Art Deco Architecture

The Chrysler Building at Night

This is MY CITY

Reflections

Hood Ornament in the Sky

Two Iconic Figures
Nacho and the Chrysler Bldg

All photos courtesy of Murray Head

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New York City – Characters Welcome

Just like the TV station, USA, New York City could have the same slogan, “Characters Welcome”.  If ever there was one place in the world where anything and anyone and everyone and everything goes – this is it.  Everybody does their own thing here, whether they be human, animal or even plant.  The fact that all of this diversity and individuality and sometimes quirkiness is contained in the 22.7 square miles that Manhattan is made of, only serves to intensify the total impact.  Here are a just a few of the characters spotted in The City yesterday!

Siesta in the Park

New Construction Underway

Fashion Forward

“What’s that you say”?

One Must Always Dress For Croquet

A Regiment Of Turtles

Decked Out In Spring Colors

“Up To My Knees In ….”

“Goin’ My Way”?

“w..ooops”

All photos courtesy of Murray Head

 

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Urban Legend-The Tail of the City Squirrel and the Little Blonde Girl

Most of the country thinks New York City is just one big asphalt jungle.  Well they are so wrong! We have lots of parks, lots of trees and as you know a fair share of wildlife living the good life in the Big Apple.  It’s Fab Foto Friday and I have a picture story for you; This is the tail, tale of the City Squirrel and the Little Blonde Girl.

“Look what I have”

“Yes I’m serious, it’s for you”

“It’s right here, can’t you see it”?

“There’s more where this came from”

“Hey, see ya”

All photos courtesy of Murray Head

 

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Who Do You See in Central Park?

You just never know who you’re going to run into when you walk through Central Park.  On this day, there was a colorful assortment of feathered and furry friends.  The camera caught a few of them in going about their daily tasks.  Mmmm do they actually have chores?

Love that Grackle on the Left

“Who goes there”?

Ole!

A Black Squirrel making off with a peanut!

Not A Happy Duck

Is Big Bird Lost?

Going Eye to Eye With A Red Tail Hawk

A Tufted Titmouse

Red Bellied Woodpecker Actually has a Red Head

“Am I Having Fun Yet”?

“Coming ashore”

All photos courtesy of Murray Head

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The Common Grackle – Uncommonly Colorful

I love to watch birds hopping on and off my feeder in the backyard.  I also love the sound of their manic early morning chirping as dawn breaks and they descend upon the feeder for breakfast.  Mostly we get Sparrows and Chickadees, Morning Doves, sometimes a pair of Cardinals.  I have a couple of Blue Jays who periodically visit, not to eat from the feeder but rather to steal some of the peanuts left out on the table for the squirrels.  The jays do not have a pleasant voice at all but they are beautiful to look out and bold enough to land on the table or porch rail even though we are present.  Soon, as Spring overcomes winter, there will come a day when all of sudden I hear a lilting song and I know that the Red-Winged Blackbird has arrived!

Over the years we’ve been visited by Grossbeaks, Woodpeckers, Yellow Finches, House Finches, Cowbirds, Starlings, Robins as well as Blackbirds, and of course pigeons (those I chase away).  AND we get Grackles, those iridescent beauties.  They are part of the Starling family and by many, not considered to be an exciting siting.

I disagree! Their luminous feathers literally reflect sunlight, they gleam in the sunshine and as they move around (they are ground feeders) their colors shimmer as their shading goes from blue to purple to green.

Sapphire Blue

Purple Wings

Touches of Teal Blue

Aquamarine Throat

Nature’s Gradient Colors

All photos courtesy Murray Head

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Life After New York City?

When my daughter and her husband moved to Florida at the beginning of this year, I was devastated.  Well actually I still am because I miss my little Finny so much.  I enjoyed having them nearby even though I didn’t see all that much of them, they were still close , and often I would pick Finley up from school or take her there.  

My husband and I took her to the Metropolitan Museum and were looking forward to immersing this bright little girl into the culture that’s so readily available in The City. Alas, she’s gone to Florida and is now taking tennis lessons and learning Spanish.  She was just getting to the age where the adventures were about to begin.  Finley is intelligent and curious and very observant so any little outing with her was exciting. 

Her parents certainly exposed her to the theater while in NYC and took her to the many child-centered events held in Manhattan.  She went to see Mary Poppins, Annie and shows like Pinkalicious and some show where the performer created monster bubbles.  There were more too. We went to the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Show together every year since she was two!  I even made her a hat to wear in the Easter Parade! Her other grandparents took her to the Empire State building and other wonderful sites in the City.

I knew that if we went to the Village she would find it fascinating or Chinatown….so many places, so much to see and now she’s gone.  I’m hoping we can bring her to New York for a week sometime soon and keep the City alive for her and not have it become a distant childhood memory.

And where is all this leading up to?  Well actually I didn’t sit down to write a lament about how much I miss Finley Ray, it sort of just came out on the keys.  Chiara, my daughter, sent me a photo yesterday and it prompted me to want to muse about life after New York City – See for yourself!!!

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Hail To The Blue Heron

Central Park is so  full of life! Over the past couple of years, I’ve posted photos of the park’s four-footed and feathered denizens.  You’ve seen the spectacularly colorful Wood Ducks, the entertaining squirrels, the royal red Cardinals, the fierce-looking Red Tail Hawks, flocks of Mallard Ducks, frolicking dogs, and shy raccoons.  Today, it’s all about the Blue Heron.  Strung together, these pictures seem to tell the story of the Heron who went out for a walk  and realized too late that it had snowed.  His feet were cold so he tried standing on one leg and then the other. He looked very uncomfortable.  Finally he thought it better to just leave.

“Well, I certainly didn’t expect this”

“Maybe I should go back”

“Ooh that’s cold”!

“Extremely unpleasant”

“I’m Outta Here”

“Now where should i go”?

“C’iao for now”

All photos courtesy of Murray Head

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GRAND CENTRAL 100 Years GRAND!

Completed in 1913, the awe-inspiring Beaux-Arts landmark became the country’s busiest train station serving commuter and long distance rail lines and bringing development to midtown Manhattan.

I love to go to Grand Central Terminal.  It is so magnificent with its massive marble floors, soaring ceilings, marble columns.  The ceiling which was restored a few years ago is a heavenly vision of the Zodiac.  There is an astronomical mural depicting the Mediterranean sky during the period between October and March.  There are 2500 stars in the ceiling.  In the center of the main Concourse there is an information booth and a beautiful round 4-sided clock.  ”Meet me at the clock”  - an iconic meeting place for decades and has been featured in many films.  

GCT is home to many secrets!  Did you know that in the middle of the Main Concourse there is a marble column that holds a hidden spirlal staircase to the lower level?

The Campbell Apartment, a popular bar, is tucked away out of sight. Formerly the private office and salon of 1920′s tycoon, John W. Campbell; The Campbell Apartment has been fully restored to its original splendor — and reborn as a chic cocktail lounge that has already been cited in the national media as one of “the best bars in America”

The famous Oyster Bar and Restaurant are located on a lower level and obviously that’s not a secret.  BUT outside of the restaurant there are four columns positioned in a sort of square.  The secret is; If you stand in one corner facing the column and your friend goes to the opposite diagonal corner and you whisper a few words or sentence (and I mean whisper), your friend will clearly hear what you have said.  YES it is amazing but it is true.

“I’m late, I’m late…”

Photo courtesy of Murray Head

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CENTRAL PARK – Look Who Hangs Out There!

Sometimes I get a bunch of photos from Murray and Fab Foto Friday just doesn’t give me enough space to put a lot up.  So today because I also have an ulterior motive, I’m going to post some of the photos of the Who and What hang out in the park.  Oh so you want to know the ulterior motive?  Well the last few days and all the rest of this week is filled to the top with what is known in Yiddish as tsuris.  

There are ISSUES and more ISSUES with work, with the adult kids, with health, with timing, with trying to be in two places at once and God how I wish I had the power of bi-location!  Anyway, all that stuff is really personal and since I don’t want to put that stuff up on the blog because that I will have to bite my tongue a lot more than in chic!

Blue Jay On A Dead Tree

Wood Duck Hanging Out in the Pond

Who Knows?

Two Dogs Frolicking

Do Pigeons Really Kiss?

2 Shades of Gray-Look Closely

A Cat in a Collar

Look At That Snout!

All photos courtesy of Murray Head

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BIRDS of a Different Feather – All Together in the Park

Today is the last day of my photo week, however not the end of my photo posts!  It’s just been a great week for me as Murray has been sending me shots every other day or so.  So even though I did feature a magnificent owl yesterday, today is devoted to birds of a different feather altogether.  Nice play on words don’tcha think?

A Young Red Tail Hawk

A Slate Junco Sitting Pretty

Mallard Triplets

Cardinal Triplets

Hey how did you get in the picture?

Blue Jays Are Known Thieves!

He’s Really A Beauty!

HE

SHE

All photos by Murray Head

Some people think New York is an ugly city, dirty and without beauty.  They are SO wrong- There’s so much beauty in The City, it’s all around us.  Central Park alone is replete with beautiful flowers and wildlife;  The birds are wonderful, the ponds full of turtles, frogs and visited by egrets and herons alike.  If outside art is not your thing, we have amazing museums and art galleries filled with every genre and period of art and sculpture.  AND of course not to brag too much, MANY of the most famous artists original work hangs here.  

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