very simple

Select photo from a walk across Houston street today. Additional pics to come later.

I’m still trying to find the erector set Eiffel Tower, but for now the empire state building will have to suffice. Erector sets were my favorite toy as a child.

There’s nothing quite like the luxury of the craft services table late at night on a street that is pretty much the closest thing to an alley you’ll find in midtown (45th and Park, behind the Metlife building). Encountered on my way out of the office. The permits for the film list something titled “A Winter’s Tale”, which apparently stars a LOT of famous people. None of whom I actually saw.

this is actually an extra photo that I took yesterday in Madison Square Park. NYC empties out the fountains in the wintertime under the theory that frozen water is not good for them. Of course, it hit 60 degrees today. In January.

These three buildings used to comprise one store known as the M. Gordon Novelty shop. It was a bright blue eyesore, made even more eyesore-ish by the fact that in the entire time I lived in the flatiron neighborhood, the shop was actually abandoned. It spend years as a closed, gated over, crumbling mess in the middle of some of the most premium real estate in the city (you can sort of see the old building from an angle in a photo I took in 2005. and this flickr group seems to be dedicated to preserving its memory). But it was also one of those vestiges of old new york that more often disappear too quickly in our modern age. I’m glad that they refurbished the buildings – if nothing else I spent years wondering when the thing was going to collapse. I just wish they had found something more unique than yet another le pain quotidian to stick inside.

It’s been a really long week at work, for many reasons, but the biggest one is that this is our first 5-day week in the office since before Christmas. Compounded by the fact that the sun sets at, like, two in the afternoon and sunlight becomes hard to come by, so you have to find the beauty in 6th Avenue at night while waiting for the bus…

Well, maybe not the last tree, but given the rate at which I’ve seen dead christmas trees out on the sidewalk for garbage pickup in the past few days, it’s certainly one of the very few left. And it’s the most famous tree around. I had to pop by my office today for something, so I decided to use the excuse of going to midtown to wander up near Rockefeller Center. No way was I going to fight the crowd to get any closer – working in this neighborhood for a dozen years will cure anyone of that desire.

Another classic – the clock in the middle of grand central station.

I actually took this last night as I was wandering around on my last day off for the holidays. Yet another really cool piece of street furniture that often gets overlooked in favor of the flatiron building across the street.

Tonight, I ended up going to a work-related event at the Time Warner Center, part of which was held in the Allen Room overlooking (coincidence of coincidences) Columbus Circle. So here’s one more shot of Discovering Columbus, from the outside, at night. Pardon the reflections.