The Crane Outside My Window

One false move or another Hurricane Sandy, and that baby's coming through my window.

Horses and Bullhorns

This is the scene outside my apartment window these days. My once quiet corner of Long Island City is no longer a haven from the noise of Manhattan. Promptly at 7 a.m. workers commence hammering, engines start revving, bullhorns begin blasting and. . . horses neighing? Yes. Every time this 20-story crane changes directions, it sounds like the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. I searched online for a video clip of the four horses scream-neighing in the Lord of the Rings, but didn't find anything without Metallica playing over it. I did find this:

The sound of a crane turning directions.

Rockefeller Center Christmas

It's much easier to get to the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree AFTER Christmas. Each time I went there in December, it was too crowded to attempt to get close. Colors for the flags this time of year: silver and gold. Naturally, a photo cannot do justice to the tree. Is has so many lights it's like God spilled bottles of glitter onto it.

Anthropology Store Windows

My husband and I had just spent an uninspiring afternoon at the MOMA (Museum of Modern Art) when we walked past the Anthropology Store at Rockefeller Center. These window displays were the best art we'd seen all day. It's all paper mache and simply beautiful. I think I've mentioned in an earlier post that this particular Anthropology store has a full-time artistic staff to keep the store decorated. Such creativity!

 

Christmas Cactus

We spent Christmas in Tucson where the ubiquitous suguwara cactus plants (trees?) replace evergreens as Christmas decor. This one's fake, of course. It would be really hard--not to mention dangerous--to put lights on those babies.

Lord & Taylor Christmas Windows

Here you see Lord & Taylor Christmas windows. To get an idea of the scale, I took photos of people looking on, but you'll enjoy the detail of the next photos where I got close up. Their theme this year was Santa visiting places around the world.

New Light Show at Empire State Building

So I'm looking out my window last night and notice that the Empire State Building is moving. Not really, but its lights are . . . which is something I've never noticed before. Turns out this is a brand new presentation--an installation of synchronized LED lights that was installed this summer for its debut this month. You can see a better video of it from the New Jersey side and listen to the music it's synced to here HERE.