PopCult Rudy Panucci on Pop Culture

The NYC Tour Diary: The Long-lost Part Six

The PopCulteer
June 7, 2019

Hey, remember how I was doing a tour diary of my trip to New York City early last month? Remember how I kept promising the photo essay of random stuff that would make up part six?

Well, I’ve finally gotten around to sorting through and editing the photos and writing the captions and stuff, so that’s what you’re getting for this week’s PopCulteer, exactly one month and two days after I got back from this trip. It’s been a bit hectic, and I apologize for the delay.

We had a lot of fun during our brief stay, despite the debacle that was our ill-fated attempt at booking a room at The Element Hotel, on West 38th Street, the worst hotel on the planet. Today’s photo essay will present some images from Rockefeller Center, a few from Times Square (like the shot at right), some iconic buildings, plus a few other cool things we saw. Instead of linking captions to the photos, we just put them in blocks of text below. Our blogging interface won’t let us have nice things.

You will be seeing more images from New York in altered, painted, or drawn form, in Monday Morning Art for the next few weeks. If you are so inclined, you can read my previous NYC tour diary entries at the following links:  Our horrible expeirence with the Element hotel can be found HERE; My review of King Lear can be found HERE; A photo essay about the new FAO Schwarz can be found HERE; Photos from our trip on the TopView bus can be found HERE; And my review of All My Sons can be found HERE.

But these, this is just photos…

 

Among many other things, Times Square is just one huge, surreal photo op.

 

There’s just something majestic about Coca Cola ads that are hundreds of feet tall.

 

In front of the Port Authority Bus Terminal we found a life-size statue of Ralph Kramden.  A matching statue of Alice Kramden is located on the moon.

 

Sadly, public art is not always safe in The Big Apple. Somebody made off with the arms and head from this statue.

 

 

First glimpse of the Empire State Building.  No monkey that day.

 

 

First glimpse of the Flatiron Building.

 

 

Melanie got this great shot of a brave Toreador taking on the Wall Street Bull.  The guy in the back is checking to make sure that it is indeed a legit bull.

 

 

It’s Prometheus. When he’s wearing a winged helmet, he’s the florist guy.

 

 

The stunning Rockefeller Center ice rink.  Oh crap, it was May.

 

 

These were all around the ice rink. Don’t know what they are, but they look cool.

 

 

If you don’t watch your step as you walk out of FAO Scwharz, you could smack your damn head on this sculpture by Juan Miro.

 

 

The world-famous marquee for NBC Studios, with the “bow” in “Rainbow Room” appropriately burnt out (it was raining). Those random people standing on the street under the marquee were chosen to be next year’s cast of SNL!

 

 

Random buildings. New York is FULL of these damn things! This might get painted up and turned into Monday Morning Art eventually.

 

 

Much of Show Business is located in New York City. This is how they get stuff moved around.

 

 

The international headquarters of Jenga Corp. are located in this building.

 

 

A shot of the ceiling of the fifth-floor lounge at The American Airlines Theater. Fancy, ain’t it?

 

 

Another cool-looking random building.

 

 

Our last photo is the first full-on glimpse of Freedom Tower, at the site of the World Trade Center.

And that is this week’s PopCulteer. Next week we have some cool stuff coming your way, including a 48-hour marathon of local music on Thursday and Friday on The AIR, and lots of news on two great toy shows within driving distance of Charleston.