Picture Update

Karl Rove

Wow. Talk about unexpected.

I left my camera at home today, because all four of my rechargable batteries had died. I figured I'd settle in for a boring day of ticket lists, e-mail, and office work.

That all changed when I was given a list of stuff to prepare in the Green Room. Karl Rove was the day's guest, and I my jaw hit the floor. I disagree with a decent number of his policies, but the man is widely accepted to be THE premiere political mind of our time. As a sideline political junkie, I was in Heaven. You go ahead and try to orchestrate the two-time Presidential election of a man with the finesse of George W.

At first, I didn't recognize him when I was sent to 2 Penn Plaza's lobby to receive his party. He arrived with an aide, and a detective from the NYPD who escorts high profile guests for WABC. The reason I didn't recognize him is because he's lost a good deal of weight in the past four months.

Aaanyway, after leading the party up to WABC, we took Rove to the Green Room, and let Rachel (Sean's personal assistant) know that the guest was here, and was awaiting the cue to appear.

I could well make this a long story, but I'll trim it down. I'm tired, and the pictures I took (with a disposable camera) are on the way.

After the interview, I asked him if I could get a picture with him, so his assistant took us to the Green Room, and we did the cheesey handshake picture. That was all I ever could have asked for... but then, Rove hands me his card and tells me to send the picture to him, and he'll autograph it and send it back.

So... wow.

Also, in today's news, I kinda met Garrison Keillor. I went with a good friend to Barnes and Noble to hear him speak. Another long story, but as a casual fan of his show, that was a fun group to be in... ;)

That's all for tonight. I'm so tired.

Saturday Hike

Okay! It's time for another Saturday exploration report from Brett. Yesterday (yes, yesterday. I didn't get around to typing this all up until Sunday afternoon) I travelled farther uptown than I have so far. My goal was to see a little of central park. I figured it would be a good day to take pictures since it was raining, and had been raining for 24 hours. I've posted a picture of my route again, just below. The red line is my route uptown, and I've used a dotted line to represent where I took the subway. You'll notice that the blue line is solid. That's because on my return trip, I walked the entire way, 60+ city blocks.

I'll start today's story at the southern edge of Central Park. I got off the subway purposefully a few blocks early so that I could see the city disappear, and the park begin. Here's a look at said border.


My guess that the pictures would turn out better with the gray sky, and damp surroundings was fairly correct, I think. Everything just looked especially green.

Every once in awhile in the park, you'd catch a glimpse through some trees of the buildings towering over the park. The roads and paths within the park wind and curve, so the square grids of blocks within the city that you're used to definitely end here. I'm fairly decent with directions, but I lost my bearing once or twice in the huge trees and winding paths.

The park is filled with outcroppings of mica schist that were formed during the last ice age by a glacier carving the landscape and polishing the rocks. Some of the formations are really beautiful, and some of them are extremely large. One chunk of mica not pictured here is easily larger than a couple garbage trucks.




Finally, I wandered my way out of the park, and back to 5th Avenue. Now, I was in tourist-town. The high-end shops of New York are on 5th Ave just south of Central Park. Rolex, Saks Fifth Ave, Dolce & Gabbana, and Prada are just a short list of the shops around here. Sort of a reluctant must-see was Trump Tower as well. Yes, it's cheesey and tourist-y as heck, but it's a gorgeous building.


Walking further down Fifth, I saw Saint Thomas' Church. These church facades are beautiful, so I grabbed a few pictures here, and have them on my desktop now. No one else was taking pictures here, but I can't resist taking full note of all the detail carved into every inch of the stone on these buildings.


Next on Brett's list was Saint Patrick's cathedral. I saw it briefly in 2001. I don't really care to get philosophical on this blog, but there's a fascinating note to take between Saint Patrick's Cathedral on the east side of 5th, and Rockefeller Center, right across the street. On the doors of Saint Patrick's, you see saints engraved in the bronze door, and typical church architecture with representations of crosses, spires, and the like. As I turned around from the steps of the cathedral, I saw Rockefeller Center with an entirely different kind of symbology. At center is the famous statue of Atlas, holding the entire world aloft. Carved into the first few stories at street level, the building has the likenesses of Buddha, Zeus, and on the inside used to be a portrait of Lenin. The building went up in 1931, so a very post-modern, humanistic feel comes from the place. It was a style very common to the post WWI society, but its contrast to that of the cathedral, separated only by 5th Avenue, is striking.


Here's a look at the New York Public Library. The current exhibit is French book art.

No thanks.

As you'll recall, the sky was drizzling, if not raining all day long, so a cloud hung close above the city. Most buildings stood below it, but not the Emire State Building. In both these next two pictures, the top 20% of the building is obscured by the clouds.


One of the great things about New York are the bizarre little obscurities you'll see 100 times a day. Sometimes it's in the form of a person dressed like you wouldn't believe. Other times, you'll see strange, and random objects placed at odd places throughout the city. For example, last week, I saw two pairs of children's shoes, standing side-by-side, looking into a storefront. It was as if there were two invisible children, peering into the shop's glass facade. Was this done on purpose? It certainly doesn't seem to just be a coincidence. Yet, what did the.... (artist?) who placed them there intend to convey? Certainly not everyone noticed it. Only in New York do people turn vandalism into a kind of fun art. This mailbox almost looked like it could be a Disney character. I absolutely couldn't resist.


Next is the Flatiron building. definitely a NYC landmark.


Finally, I walked past my dorm on the way home to see McSorley's Old Ale House. It's the oldest drinking establishment in the city, going into its 153rd year. I dropped in, took a couple photos, and left. I'm not sure what these 75 people were doing at 5pm, but they were sure throwing plenty of ales back for that early in the evening. Oh well.


That's all for today. I'm hungry.