The Third Thinker

Hooray! I spotted my third copy of Rodin's Thinker today. This cast is located in front of the philosophy building at Columbia University here in NYC. The two previous versions I saw were in Cleveland and San Francisco.

Moon Over Gotham

Turns out they have the same moon up here in Manhattan that we have down in Florida. Who knew...

No!

I think I may be the only person in NYC who has ever noticed this sign. It's certainly not stopping anyone from using their horn.

Not The Bat Signal

High above Lower Manhattan last night, I spotted the two towers of light that they put up in honor of the fallen twin towers of the World Trade Center. We headed down towards them to get some better shots, but they were out by the time we got closer. Pretty impressive even at this distance, though.

You Know You're In NYC when...

...When you see the Empire State Building towering overhead. But it's still two miles away.

New York, New York

Well, if everything goes according to plan, this share will pop up on the blog while I'm on board a big ole jet airliner heading from the Sunshine State to New York City. Yep, I'm heading up there for a long weekend of picture taking and to pay my respects at Ground Zero. Hopefully I'll have some time to share pictures with you while I'm there, but if not, I'll have plenty to share when I get back. The list of places I want to see and shoot is outrageous. But just because I'm the one on vacation doesn't mean you don't get a little gift. I wanted to share this record with you because of the NY, NY theme, and I think you'll agree it's an incredible find. I can't believe that it hasn't been shared out a million times on the internets. This is Harry Geller And His Orchestra-New York, New York (RCA Victor LPM-1032, 1955). All the tracks on here were written by Mr. Geller specifically for this homage to the world's greatest city. Not only is the music great, but the LP sleeve itself folds open from the middle to reveal the great city skyline at night! Here's the download link, go download this baby!

I'm going to try something a little different with this share. I'm putting the tracklisting below, with the thought that it might draw more hits when people search, and I've included scans in the ZIP file of not only the front, back and inside of the record sleeve, but also the A and B side labels as well. I figure it's a nice little touch. Here's that tracklisting.

Side 1:

1. The Rivers
2. Subway Polka
3. Statue Of Liberty
4. Canal Street Cantata
5. Window Shopping On 5th Avenue
6. The Cafes (Including The Automat)

Side 2:

7. Radio City
8. Shubert Alley Overture (Opening Night)
9. Museums
10. Park Concert
11. Central Park
12. U.N. Building

Again, this is probably one of the best records I've ever had the pleasure to share. Trust me on this. The track Subway Polka appears to have been used as the theme to Beat The Clock at one point, and this may be the same Harry Geller who wrote the music for The Odd Couple TV series, who passed away earlier this year.