Brian in New York

Memorial Day in Brooklyn Bridge Park

I had to work today because I wanted to get ahead enough that my taking a few days off wouldn't cause me to be too far behind. It's the 150 Anniversary of the Brooklyn Bridge completion and there are lots of great this happening. I missed the big celebration last Thursday but there's still a lot going on. They lit up the bridge at night, they completely spruced up the entrance to the foot path, there are signs everywhere directing strangers to parts of Brooklyn, and there's the Telectroscope.

So I wondered down to the park where I eat lunch for some great views. Here's one.


Then I wandered over the other side to check out the Telectroscope. It's an art project that I've been reading about. Here's the website: http://www.tiscali.co.uk/telectroscope/home.php

It's different than I imagined but also cooler than I imagined. The story is there was an undiscovered tube below the atlantic that connects NYC with London and it was redescovered and surfaced. In actually its two pieces of art that look like telescopes from the 1800s, one under the Brooklyn Bridge and one at city center in London. You peer into the scope and you see a high def vision of people on the other side in London or NYC. It's actually pretty cool, really high def so it looks like you are really looking through a long tube to the people on the other end. It's hard to get a picture of the other side but there are some great ones on Flickr.

My photo:


Lots of people are writing notes and showing them to each other, lots of people are on cell phones talking to the other side, and surprise... there are a lot of British people looking for loved ones :)

Here it is at night: http://www.flickr.com/photos/laja/2521136019/
here it is in London: http://www.flickr.com/photos/glediator/2519396898/

What it looks like to peer in to London:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/38117599@N00/2524693294/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jsal/2523718507/

Great video from the London side to give you a sense of the thing: http://www.flickr.com/photos/harrisj/2515906385/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/elventryst/2519652878/

What London looks at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/strawberryfrog/2523433477/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/oldton_tim/2518501043/

The best sign I saw was "Send Guinness, Fish & Chips Please". It's only up until June 15th but I wish they would keep something like it up all the time. Nothing could be better for American-British relations. People were having a blast just connecting with one another through video conferencing. Imagine if you could walk up to a wall in your city and wave hi to a loved one or business associate in another city... way cool. Technology is awesome.

Gung Ho Fat Choy!

Gung Ho Fat Choy! Happy Chinese New Year everyone. It was a few days ago but the parade was today in Chinatown and I had to go. It was tons of fun, about 400,000 est. people showed up to Chinatown and it was great to see everyone together enjoying the day. All the markets on E. Broadway were open in high style, all these amazing treats and foods. I had a few sesame balls, steamed pork buns, and lemon cakes.

Gulliani made fireworks illegal so there were no firecrackers but everyone had those caps you throw and they pop. Also large confetti poppers that launched a huge plume of confetti into the air, by mid parade there was confetti everywhere. You'll see in all the pictures I think everyone had one or two, it was awesome. After the parade everyone poured up the streets and you couldn't move but it was fun and everyone had a good time. So here's to the year of the Rat. See all my pictures at my Flickr account.

www.flickr.com

This is a Flickr badge showing photos in a set called Chinese New Year Day Parade- NYC. Make your own badge here.

Yesterday was epic

Yesterday was epic, went into the city to get my phone fixed. After that ended up walking around central park enjoying the perfect weather (while it lasts). I found it funny that the ice skating rink was already setup even though it's still in the 70s.

It's as if the city threw a party for me...

Well I was bored yesterday so there are signs all over the city talking about a free culture festival, NYC Culturefest in Battery Park. What I thought it was was a multi-cultural festival which sounded fun so I hopped onto the train to check it out.

After a rude awakening to weekend train schedules and maintenance alert. I had to jump two stations to get there. A daunting task even for people who are familiar with the subway lines. Must pay more attention to the transit alerts.

When I got there I was surprised and pleased to find that it wasn't a multi-cultural festival instead a giant city of booths from every major cultural attraction in all the boroughs of New York. Every museum, symphony, dance hall, theater group, etc.

So it was like NYC said "hey Brian's coming lets all setup a booth in a park to tell him about all the cool things we have to offer. Perfect timing!

Battery Park: Going to battery park was one of the first "touristy" thing I have done in New York  (aside from the Met Museum) and it was great. Weather was perfect, great views of clipper ships sailing in front of the Statue of Liberty. Walked around Castle Clinton. Soaked up the sun. I did take a look at the sculpture that was in front of the World Trade Center (picture at left) after they extracted it from the rubble the artist, Fritz Koenig,  reassembled what was left in Battery Park. A few months back I watched a documentary on it called Koenig's Sphere, which was all about the reassembly. Interesting to see it in person.

The rest of the evening had me walking up broadway a bit, stopped at trinity cathedral, st. pauls, wall street, looked at world trade center hole, city hall, and grabbed a bite to eat in a fun sports bar on Chambers St. (watched Notre Dame game). Since it wasn't too late and I wanted to kill time (remember... empty apartment) I decided to walk home across the Brooklyn Bridge. A pretty touristy start HaHa.