NY may be a pricey place to stay but some things are free.. Unknown by some, museums sometimes allow free admission or a voluntary donation. Say for example, The Met.. the three of us were able to get in for just a buck.
This is the rooftop of The Met, it was a Friday so people were guzzling booze & shooting the crap.
The Urban Dictionary defines this phrase as:
covering your back. six comes from being behind a person (six o’ clock position). so “watch my six” is “cover me from behind”
SWAT Team Leader: Watch my six boys, this is goina get uglySWAT Team Members: Roger that sir.
I helped out Tun with a shoot he did for a designer friend – see, being antisocial brings you nowhere.. lol. His friend thought that the “Sphere within a Sphere” sculpture by Arnaldo Pomodoro in the United Nations would look rad as a backdrop for the shoot. It’s a good thing the security guard was cool with that idea too, anyhoo, the shots came out pretty good and it was fun.
Check out the photos (and the dresses) here.
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Time seems to pass you by when you’re busy with something, on the flipside, it just drags on when you’re doing nothing.
The Times Square Alliance partners with Dancers Responding to AIDS and the many astonishing dance groups and artists who work with that organization to bring creativity to the Crossroads of the World, a free performance featuring more than 20 local, international, and student dance companies performing some of the best dance that NYC has to offer will take place right in the heart of Times Square, on the island at the insersection of Broadway and Seventh Avenue between 43rd and 44th streets.
06/19/2008 Update:
I wasn’t able to get the name of this dancer, but her repertoire is a rough mix of ballet and … … I can’t describe it.. it’s just intense! 🙂
Thanks to Mr. Giarmo, I was able to know the name of this talented dancer and give her credit for an excellent performance. Her name is Drew Jacoby and she can be found here.
It rained for a bit yesterday so I never thought that we would be able to get out. But the sky cleared a bit and off we went to church, but who knows that just around the corner, the Tony Awards was going on. 🙂 We stalked the red carpet across the street in anticipation of the celebrities and pseudo-celebrities that would pass by. We weren’t disappointed ‘coz our 3-hour wait paid off with a couple of celebrity sightings.
Here’s a member of the media gazing out into the dark, empty void that is the Red Carpet.
From the rooftop of The Met, a grandma & grandson (I suppose..) looking down Fifth Avenue..
..tricycle pedicab drivers waiting for customers around Columbus circle..
The story of the Pisan traitor Ugolino della Gherardesca, imprisoned with his sons and condemned to starvation was told by Dante in The Inferno. The sculpture by Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux shows the anguished father resisting his sons’ offer of their own bodies for his sustenance.
Most of the time the city hosts a variety of free events, like this one.. a jazz trio @ Bryant Park. (Trust me, they’re a trio, the other guy didn’t fit the frame. lol)
..met up with a few photogs @ Coney Island for what i thought was an ordinary stroll around the beach.. turned out, there was a model! sweet! 🙂
Here’s JennyBoo.. she’s a fun model to shoot. You can find her on ModelMayhem (#692714)
06/18/2008 – Here are some more shots from last week.
Supposedly, there’s a heatwave going on today. With record-tying temps reaching the 90s and increased humidity to boot, no wonder the media is hyping it up. It’s all in the news, but it makes me smile. I was thinking “..so this is a heatwave”, not bad, considering I’ve lived in Manila for five years and almost each day there’s a heatwave. I just brushed it off as another typical day..
Here’s another shot from the parade last Sunday..
Summer.. a preview of things to come. 🙂
Yo soy Boricua, pa’que tu lo sepas!
Braving the crowds, trudging uptown, under the sweltering heat of the sun, in between NYPD barricades I stalked an ample (if not perfect) location to shoot.. I perched under the lamp post at the NE corner of 72nd & 5th avenue, behind 2 Puerto Rican ladies one of who possessed an accent very much like Fran Drescher has. lol. All in all it was an experience of a lifetime, the energy of the crowd was intense!! 🙂
The Puerto Rican Day Parade (also known as the National Puerto Rican Day Parade) is a locally televised parade that takes place yearly on Fifth Avenue in New York City. The parade, which is always held on the second Sunday in June honors the nearly 4 million Puerto Ricans on the island itself, as well as the Puerto Ricans and those of Puerto Rican heritage on the mainland. In 2006 more than 80,000 participants marched and nearly 2 million spectators lined the parade route. The parade always attracts many celebrities, both Puerto Rican and of Puerto Rican heritage, and many politicians from the tri-state area.
The parade marches along Fifth Avenue from 44th Street to 86th Street and has grown to become the third largest parade in New York City after the St. Patrick’s Day Parade & the West Indian Day Parade along Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn. With close to 3 million spectators annually it is one of the largest parades in the country.
I guess this guy’s too busy txting to notice “Liberty”, or he’s already been desensitized seeing it in his everyday commute.
I didn’t notice this girl in the frame up until now.. talk about weird..
Still from the Jefferson Memorial, Mr. Jefferson gazing upwards..
Some pillars from the side of the Jefferson Memorial. A nice place to spend the afternoon watching the sun set.
One day a year, for the past 29 years, nine of the country’s finest museums, all ones that call Fifth Avenue home, collectively open their doors for free to New Yorkers and visitors for a mile-long block party and visual art celebration. This traffic-free, music- and art-filled celebration fills the street and sidewalks of Fifth Avenue from 82nd to 105th street, the mile now officially designated as Museum Mile. Over 50,000 visitors attend the festival annually. Kids and kids-at-heart channel out their inner Michelangelo on a mile long stretch of asphalt canvas.
Still from the parade yesterday.. a twisted view of Madison Avenue.
There was a parade today to celebrate the 110th anniversary of Philippine Independence. It’s still no match to the parades we have back at home though, but this’ll do. At least there was a bunch of good food. 🙂
The girl’s passive reaction mirrors mine.
Hello, Mr. President.. 🙂
I was expecting a bigger White House, but I guess stuff you see in the movies are actually not so big in real life.
This is the sculpture in front of the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum.
Looky what we got here.. It’s the US Capitol’s dome..
Taken on a weekend Memorial Weekend tour..
The United States Capitol is the capitol building that serves as the seat of government for the United States Congress, the legislative branch of the U.S. federal government. It is located in Washington, D.C., on top of Capitol Hill at the east end of the National Mall. Although not in the geographic center of the District of Columbia, the Capitol is the focus by which the quadrants of the district are divided. Officially, the east and west sides of the Capitol are referred to as “fronts”. Historically, however, the east front was initially the side of the building intended for the arrival of visitors and dignitaries.
A weird steampunk sculpture erupted underneath the Brooklyn Bridge. To celebrate the 125th anniversary of the bridge, this structure was put up. It looks like a cannon poised to blast Manhattan..
The Telectroscope (linking New York and London)
Hardly anyone knows that a secret tunnel runs deep beneath the Atlantic Ocean. In May 2008, more than a century after it was begun, the tunnel has finally been completed. An extraordinary optical device called a Telectroscope has been installed at both ends which miraculously allows people to see right through the Earth from London to New York
and vice versa.
Some kid doing some tricks in front of the museum.
The Washington Monument is a large, tall, white-colored obelisk near the west end of the National Mall in Washington, D.C. It is a United States Presidential Memorial constructed to commemorate George Washington. The monument is the world’s tallest stone structure, and is the world’s tallest obelisk, standing 555 feet 5â…› inches (169.294 m) in height[1] and made of marble, granite, and sandstone. It was designed by Robert Mills, an architect of the 1840s. The actual construction of the monument began in 1848 but was not completed until 1884, almost 30 years after the architect’s death. This hiatus in construction was because of a lack of funds and the intervention of the American Civil War. A difference in shading of the marble, visible approximately 150 feet (45 m) up, clearly delineates the initial construction from its resumption in 1876.
In preparation of Memorial Day, several wooden gravestones have been erected along Independence National Historic Park
I found this guy along 42nd street in Bryant Park while walking towards the subway. I don’t know what this means but I guess for $1, he’s allowing you to “Tell Him Off”. Anyone here mind telling me what that means?
Yesterday was the kickoff celebration for the 125th anniversary of the Brooklyn Bridge. The highlight of the night was a Grucci fireworks extravaganza. There also was a concert by the Brooklyn Philharmonic so I expected a lot of people to show up at DUMBO. This was taken at Brooklyn Heights.
The ever familiar 42nd Street.
The New York State Pavilion, constructed as the state’s exhibit hall for the 1964/1965 New York World’s Fair, is also a feature of the Flushing Meadows Park. However, no new use for the building was found after the Fair and the structure sits derelict and decaying.
Another one of those places that has been shot to death, the Manhattan Bridge from DUMBO.
Another one of the participants in the Dance Parade.. I wonder what he’s gonna be dancing to..
They look like a bunch of mini-brides walking down the aisle right? 😀 Actually, they just had their First Communion.. that’s Julienne way back in the line.
Here’s a dancer from the Dance Parade. Lifted off of their website, here’s a short description of what it’s all about.
On May 17th, thousands of us will dance in the streets of New York City, moving to every kind of dance music under the sun. Why?
To celebrate diversity as “One Parade with Many Cultures” 31 genres are represented:
African, Algerian, Ballet/Ethnic, Ballroom, Ballroom, Swing, Latin & Tango, Belly Dance, Break Dance, Cumbia, Disco, Ecstatic, Folkloric, Greek, Hip-Hop, Hooper, House, Hustle and Salsa, Jazz, Mambo, Modern, Roller Dance, Roller Disco, Sacred, Salsa, Samba, Swing, Tap Dance, Techno, Tinku, Tribal, West Coast Swing, Zydeco, just to start!
Awhile back I mentioned something about Weehawken people having a spectacular view of the city.. well, here it is. Imagine having to wake up to this scenery.
A relic of the New York World’s Fair, towering over Flushing Meadows is the twin Observatory Towers of the New York State Pavilion. In the decades after the Fair closed it remains an abandoned and badly neglected relic of the Fair, with its roof gone the once bright floors and walls are almost faded away. If you’ve seen Men In Black, then you might remember the alien they call a Bug climbing one of the towers.
Took a stroll under DUMBO, killing time while waiting for the plane to land.
As taken from Wikipedia.
Unisphere is a 12-story high, spherical stainless steel representation of the Earth. Located in Flushing Meadows Park in the Borough of Queens, New York City, the Unisphere is one of the Borough’s most iconic and enduring symbols.
The Unisphere, commissioned to celebrate the beginning of the space age, was conceived and constructed as the Theme Symbol of the 1964/1965 New York World’s Fair. The Theme of the World’s Fair was “Peace Through Understanding” and the Unisphere represented the theme of global interdependence. It was dedicated to “Man’s Achievements on a Shrinking Globe in an Expanding Universe.”
I’ve passed by this brasserie under the Park Avenue viaduct a lot of times already and not once did I had the nerve to venture inside. I guess it’s the cheapskate in me screaming “If you’re hungry, go get a Gyro!” 😀
Just a couple of pink tulips.
On the way out of the Botanical Garden after a day’s stroll, there was this kid sitting on a stone staring at something.
Tied in third as the “Tallest Building in NYC” is the New York Times Building, which is the newest kid on the block. The Times’ motto is “All the news that’s fit to print.”, and my motto is “All the stuff that’ll fit the frame” 😀
So, a while ago, I went out & took a boat to New Jersey to get a different perspective of Manhattan. I walked south from Port Imperial along the waterfront when I spied a 100-foot stairway zigzagging against the cliff. Thinking that a better view could be seen from atop the stairway, I ventured further. Although a bit out of breath from the climb, the view was astounding! I was thinking “Boy, these Weehawkens (or whatever they’re called) have it good!”.
Here’s a bridge right across of the Boston Museum of Science & Charles Hayden Planetarium.
This is Ichigo from the Japanese manga Bleach, written & illustrated by Kubo Tite. It’s one of the several manga titles I’ve been reading. The scene is from Volume 22, Chapter 192, where Ichigo whips Yammy’s butt. I’ve probably read this chapter over 20 times already now. It never gets old, I’ll probably be reading it over & over again while waiting for the next chapter to be released..
Taken in a male’s restroom somewhere around Union Square.
Despite the dreary weather, my friend Nina (check out her photo blog here) wanted to go shoot some stuff. At first, we were planning to go “paparazzi mode” and go see Rachel Ray at the Upper West Side, but we know we were a bit late, we opted for “the photographer’s disneyland”, B&H Photo. Turns out, even B&H was closed, so we proceeded westwards & got to the piers where I saw this solitary blue footprint.. talk about weird..
Approaching the City Hall from the south side, this is what you’ll see – the 37 feet, 27 ton tower of the city founder, William Penn.