rockefeller center

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30 Rock Was Always a Hit
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ArnoldJulisa
05/02/09

In reply to 30 Rock Was Always a Hit
when romantic fools think of NYC, this is what they see. I can't stop looking at it
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krismry
05/02/09

@ArnoldJulisa: Romantic fools might like to have New York 1930, a great big art book from Rizzoli, that shows all the buildings in midtown so far up till then.
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lobstr
05/03/09

@krismry: I impulsively thought "holy shit i must get that book" until I saw a new one is $850 ..

[www.amazon.com]

must be a pretty ... badass book? :D
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krismry
05/03/09

@lobstr: Wo! I'm rich! I had no idea! It is almost 850 pages, but no way is it worth a dollar a page! Try if the library has one or could order it for you. Meanwhile, do check out Delirious New York by Rem Koolhaas, it's a big crazy paperback that was $18.50 when it came out in 1978, which I thought then was totally out of line but got it anyway, and now it's listed at $250. Moral of story, who knows what crazy prices your old books might be worth to someone somewhere! xoxo thanks for telling me this lobstr!
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lobstr
05/03/09

@krismry: ay, congrats! .. i do what i can to help the peoples... :D

Hah I wish Half-Price Books was even remotely as generous .. Oftentimes I'd take literally a car-full of books in for "appraisal", wait for my name to be called thinking I'm going to at least walk away with ten bucks, only to find they'll give me a whopping 45¢ ..
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krismry
05/04/09

@lobstr: oh noes, the book business is now arbitrary, whimsical and capricious, and people selling off their entire stock of books at second hand bookstores have no idea what to do with half their titles and have thousands piled up in storage. i guess except for the occasional jackpot the book buyers are scared to pile up even more inventory. eventually we are all just going to need to trade our books among ourselves, like some kind of medieval secret book society. argh!!
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Bos'un's Mate
05/02/09

In reply to 30 Rock Was Always a Hit
A brilliant blunt serrated knife slicing its way across the island.
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lobstr
05/01/09

In reply to 30 Rock Was Always a Hit
That musta been pretty cool to say to someone in the 1930s "Yeah, I work on the SIXTY-EIGHTH FLOOR..."

elevator ride musta been a bitch though...
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lobstr
05/01/09

In reply to 30 Rock Was Always a Hit
that is .. badass...

ah the glory days, before they built that facocta "plaza" for trash like Gwen Stefani to romp around on ..
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naugahydeinplainsight
05/01/09

In reply to 30 Rock Was Always a Hit
@m4ximusprim3: @bjonston: Thanks. And yes, a monumental building in every way. When I was growing up my dad had offices in there; I always knew it as the Atlas Building. Quite a thrill passing below the statue, through the revolving doors and up up up the elevator!
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SarahHeartburn
05/01/09

@naugahydeinplainsight: My dentist was there. Talk about mixed emotions....
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chelseabill
05/01/09

@naugahydeinplainsight: I thought the atlas guy was on 5th accross from St. Pat's. Is there more than one atlas?
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naugahydeinplainsight
05/01/09

@chelseabill: Nah. One Atlas but many buildings in Rockefeller Center and I think I may be conflating 630 Fifth and 30 Rock. Guess I always thought they were connected, but if not, my bad. :-)
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naugahydeinplainsight
05/01/09

In reply to 30 Rock Was Always a Hit
Not sure it matters, but is the orientation reversed from life (see the writing in the negative border at the top)?
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bjonston
05/01/09

@naugahydeinplainsight: The picture seems to be correct because St. Pauls is northeast of the 30 Rock building.
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The Lone Scout
05/01/09

@naugahydeinplainsight: I think not. The image projected onto the negative would have been both flopped and turned upside down as the light traveled through the camera's lens. Therefore, to see it correctly, one would have to flip the negative over and turn it upside down. (The printer of this negative choose to include the frame of the film and its product marking. Very artsy, indeed.) And, if you look very, very closely, you can see Al Roker down in the front corner of 30 Rock delivering the weather report out in front of the Today Show's studio.
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SidAndFinancy
05/01/09

In reply to 30 Rock Was Always a Hit
To think: today, the Port Authority is almost finished with the construction in the foreground.
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SarahHeartburn
05/01/09

In reply to 30 Rock Was Always a Hit
I love the way the spires of St. Patrick's Cathedral rise out of the left lower corner, like it was Dracula's castle. Because it is.
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TedSez
05/01/09

In reply to 30 Rock Was Always a Hit
Let's go see some naked daughters and moms!
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bjonston
05/01/09

@TedSez: Loved that line! But I do love me some naked mothers and daughters. So long as they aren't mine.
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Aaron Altman
05/01/09

In reply to 30 Rock Was Always a Hit
Rockefeller Center: awesome then, awesome now.
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ChillbearLatrigue
05/01/09

In reply to 30 Rock Was Always a Hit
That's why human beings rule. Nature can't produce things like this. Mankind 1, Nature 0!
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SarahHeartburn
05/01/09

@ChillbearLatrigue: Well, I'd call it a draw. Artists take a lot of inspiration from nature; look at Gaudi. And I should know, because I stayed awake a couple of times in Art History 101.
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Baroness
05/01/09

@ChillbearLatrigue: In this case, I agree with Chill to a certain extent. It's not either/or, - nature is beautiful, but I think with a photo like this, the imagination and ingenuity to build the spectacular Manhattan we all love, to turn the city into a glittering metropolis, really is just as amazing in its way. It's the triumph of man over nature, which as much as we adore it, has its malevolent side too .

The building of gleaming cities throughout the dark night is something amazing, something done in just the last century. We moderns forget how tiresome and dreary and work-intensive "nature" was to the farm boys and girls who escaped all that in the 20th century. Today we fret about the energy costs of lighting our cities, but it's forgotten what a revolution that was- before the 20th century, "nature" held no special attraction- it was darkness, endless toil, vermin and crop failure, a waste of bright young people who dreamed of escaping to gleaming cities like New York. Sometimes we over-romantacize the past.

I just love this picture because it's the building of the splendor of NYC, the place where boys and girls could escape the farms and seek their fortunes among glittering modernity.
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ChillbearLatrigue
05/01/09

@SarahHeartburn: @Baroness: Thank you, both. I want you to know that I am jealous of every Manhattanite with whom I argue. At the end of the day, no matter how much we disagree, you guys win because of your proximity to the greatest city in the world.
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SarahHeartburn
05/01/09

@ChillbearLatrigue: I'm not in NYC now, but I was lucky enough to grow up in the center of Manhattan when that was possible for a middle class family (before the flood). I used to walk home from the Donnell Library (now gone, sigh, what a cultural gem)and cross Park Avenue and see all the buildings lit up, the then Pan Am Building glowing over Grand Central, and I never made that trek without thinking I was the luckiest girl in the world. Yeah, city life.
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Baroness
05/01/09

@ChillbearLatrigue: Well, Chill, what's wonderful about it is that it's there to impress you anew each time, you can go away for a long time and come back and it'll stir you again. I love NYC best when I've been away a while. Actually living here is nice but one gets bogged down in day-to-day stuff easily,like anywhere else, the city's many (smelly) frustrations affect everyone. When you live here, you often long to get away. You're too close to appreciate it after a while.

But when you've been away, and you see the skyline of Manhattan, it always feels like the first time. NYC is incredibly democratic in that way, in the very best American sense. No, we don't really "win", because I often believe NYC is best enjoyed by people who don't live here all the time. I'm far from condoning clueless tourists, just saying that NYC truly is for everyone. And you'll have a fine time here too in the future, I know it. NYC really is rather magic.
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Dagrolord
05/01/09

@ChillbearLatrigue: I agree with you on the general feeling of majestic accomplishment this cityscape gives us, but disagree in general. Nature produces erections this magnificent every morning. That being said, I'll concede scale to you before I get el-kabonged upside the head by a flying Manolo.
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Baroness
05/01/09

@Dagrolord: Give me back my shoe, you handsome and dashing Irish rascal.
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HiredGoons
05/01/09

In reply to 30 Rock Was Always a Hit
I want to go to there.
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seyswho
05/01/09

@HiredGoons: I was there about a year ago on the observation deck on the top. The view is breathtaking.
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HiredGoons
05/01/09

@seyswho: I've lived here for four years and never done that. Did the Empire State Building and Statue of Liberty - equally breathtaking.
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depardoo
05/01/09

In reply to 30 Rock Was Always a Hit
Spectacular!
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