what about the plastic animals?

Unisphere

The Panorama of the City of New York that I visited on Saturday is in Flushing Meadows Corona Park, the site of the 1939 and 1964 World's Fairs. Before the 1939 fiar the park was a huge dump for ashes. This year is the 65th and 40th anniversary's of those fairs and the park is throwing a party.

As I wrote earlier the Panorama is in a building built for the 1939 fair. A few other structures from those fairs are still standing.

Probably the most well-known structure is the Unisphere. The Unisphere was built of stainless steel by the United States Steel Corporation for the 1964 fair. The Unisphere is big -- 140 feet tall and 120 feet wide -- possibly the largest globe ever made.

Australia

Africa and the center of the world.

Unisphere with Arthur Ashe Stadium in background.

DUMBO Security

The neighborhood where I went for hot chocolate yesterday evening is known as DUMBO, which is the acronym for Down Under Manhattan Bridge Underpass. It lies between the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges in Brooklyn. I went back this afternoon solely to get a photo of the sign above.

DUMBO has a lot of 19th century warehouses. It is where Robert Fulton's ferry crossed to and from Manhattan. It is also where George Washington and troops evacuated Brooklyn during the Revolutionary War. A lot of the old warehouses and industrial buildings have been converted into residential buildings and artist studios. DUMBO still has an industrial feel to it, though. The Jehovah's Witnesses headquarters is nearby.

One of the things that I like about the neighborhood is artwork that is almost hidden in plain sight. Like this piece on a chain link fence:

It reminds me to keep my eyes open.

Of course, some sights are more noticeable than others:

Manhattan Bridge

Brooklyn Bridge

New York Panorama and a long trip to hot chocolate

I had a slow start to the day, but I eventually made my way to the Queens Museum of Art to see the Panorama of the City of New York. The Panorama is a 1:1200 scale model of the city and was built for the 1964 World's Fair. It took three years to build and was accurate to within one percent when built. The panorama is fascinating to look at. If you've ever flown over the city and admired the skyline, visiting the panorama is similar, only you can stay in one place for as long as you want. I highly recommend a visit if you get the chance.

More Panorama Pictures

Maybe today was not a big museum-going day, but there was hardly anybody in the Queens Museum. The museum is in the 1939 World's Fair New York City Building. I took a few photos of the Unisphere and other sights that I'll put up later.

After visiting the Panorama I went back to the subway, intending to make my way to DUMBO for hot chocolate at Jacques Torres. Little did I know how long that would take. I rod the 7 train to Broadway/74th in Queens, where I wanted to transfer to the G train to get to Brooklyn. The maps and signs above the platform indicated that the G train ran late nights and on weekends. Saturday being a weekend day, I made the foolish deduction that the G train would soon arrive.

I stood on the platform, reading Richard Russo's Empire Falls, looking up when a train rolled into the station, and not paying much attention to the time. After I don't know how long I realized that the G train wasn't coming so I hopped on the E train, intending to take that all the way into Manhattan before switching to the A/C to Brooklyn Heights. Two stops later, the conductor announces that 23 St/Ely Ave is a transfer point to the G. I hopped off, the G train rolled into the station, and 15-20 minutes later I'm in Brooklyn Heights. It was light out when I got on the 7 in Corona, but it must have been at least an hour after sunset by the time I got to Jacque Torres.

The hot chocolate? This is heresy, but I was disappointed. Oh, it was enjoyable, and I'll try it again if I'm in the neighborhood, but I didn't think it was worth the trip. It was really chocolately and thick. That was it, a one note drink. No subtlety, no depth, just intensely flavored chocolate. Maybe next time I am in the area I'll try the spiced chocolate. Oddly enough, I thought the Chocolate Bar's hot chocolate, which uses Jacques Torres chocolate, was much better.

In all fairness I should point out that the hot chocolate at Jacques Torres is an incredible bargain. A cup of the stuff goes for $2.50. The chocolate alone must cost that much. A cup of his hot chocolae is half the price of a cup at Vosges Haut Chocolate and MarieBelle.

Berried in Ice

We had a bit of freezing rain this morning. Okay, quite a bit of freezing rain until it warmed and turned to all rain this afternoon. I took these photos walking back from the cafeteria after lunch. I believe this is the first time berries encased in ice has ever been photographed.

Mural at Hugo Newman

Mural looking like it's being towed by a truck

Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine

Low Library, Columbia University

125th Street.

Another posting from the archives. This is a mural at Hugo Newman College Prepatory School, P.S. 180, on Morningside Ave. The mural was painted by the Tats Cru.

116th Street

Three photographs of sights on 116th Street, between Lenox and Adam Clayton Powell. I walk across 116th Street to and from the Columbia campus nearly every day. The cemented-over record store looks like a place that has many ghosts. When did it close? What albums were people eagerly pouring over when it was open? Why were the windows sealed with cement instead of being boarded up? Looking at the stained bricks above, was there a fire? What's it like inside?

Shells

I was scrolling through my photo archives, looking for a Tats Cru mural to post, when I came across these shell pictures. I found these shells while vacationing in Florida a couple of winters ago. Tats Cru can wait.

Fireman's Memorial

The Fireman's Memorial is at Riverside Drive and 100th Street. I was looking through some photos I took this fall and posted several pictures of the memorial on the Audrey Munson section of the site.

The ugly side of snow

Greg borrowed my camera over the weekend while he and Michelle went apartment hunting in upper Manhattan. I asked that he take at least one photo that I could post. Here's two of a car near the Cloisters.

Chili

Sunday evening was chili time! I wrote about making molé negro Oxaqueno a couple of weeks ago. Last night I cooked pork, onions, garlic and spices, combined that with the molé and cooked it for about an hour. The chili cooked for another hour or so this afternoon.

It was a full house! Greg, Michelle, Shelley, Michael, Shelley, Roseanne, Jim and myself filled-up all my chairs. In addition to chili, rice, and Grandma Brown's Baked Beans topped with maple syrup and bacon, we had a taco salad and an exotic cantaloupe and jicama salad. American beers and Mexican soft drinks were served. We won't mention the corn bread. Roseanne is going to harm me tomorrow if she reads this, but I forgot to put out the olives. I also forgot to grate the Oaxacan cheese. Nobody complained. For dessert I toned down my hot chocolate slightly to less than a sixth heavy cream, and served it with ice cream. Michelle mentioned cookbooks of the 1950s and I brought out my mother's series of Good Housekeeping as well as Culinary Arts Institute of Chicago booklets. You may have seen some of these on James Lileks Gallery of Regrettable Food. Shelley and Roseanne took turns impressing Michael on their inability to read German. After everybody left I noticed a bottle of white wine. Thanks to whoever brought it!

The Super Bowl? I don't have a television, so we followed the game as close as we could by the cheers of my neighbors. My building is usually quite, but we heard a few shouts and cheers during the evening. I take it the game was exciting? Between the seven of us, though, we were able to determine that New England was playing a team that was named after some sort of cat.

I rarely entertain, but I should make more of an effort to do so in the future.