Friday, April 16, 2010

Signs, signs, everywhere there's signs...

So I'm back from NYC. OK, I've been back for almost a week, but with work and all I haven't been able to get around to posting my pictures.

As you can see, I was staying right on Times Square at 45th and Broadway. Pretty sweet digs. Anyway, for this small-town D.C. boy, the first thing that struck me was all the signs. You can't escape them.

Also, Holy Swarm of People, Batman! It was like a never ending Cherry Blossom Festival. Everyone just wandering this way and that, no particular destination and, like myself, looking up all the time. You couldn't help it. Even if you tried.

Here's one I found interesting. The guy was advertising "the ultimate stimulus" package. I don't know if he was talking about his own or the condoms and I didn't ask.

This one kinda made me want to laugh. A giant J-Date sign that threw up the pictures of couples it had matched. Kind of like a giant electronic shadchen.

I also thought this was a pretty interesting idea. On top of one of the ticket brokers' box office, they've built a kind of grand stand. You can just sit there on the red-lit steps and watch the whole world go by. The statue there is of Father Francis P. Duffy who served with the "Fighting Irish" of the 69th New York in World War I.

For anyone who doesn't know, parts of Broadway have been closed to traffic and are now a pedestrian mall. I kind of like it. A very town square kind of feel. You can just go out there, grab a table if one's available and lounge away.

As the son of an engineer, a man who worked on many of the buildings and bridges (no kidding, one of his first jobs out of college) in NYC, I find buildings and bridges very interesting. More so because, even though I love the classical design of much of Washington, we don't have anything like this:

Here's a close up on the windows, pretty cool:

This is a nearby building. I really like the shapes and what they did with the glass:

Again, a close up:
One more sign picture. At least he's honest.

I saw this guy twice, once in Times Square on Sunday night and again the next day down by Penn Station. Apparently the weed doesn't impair his mobility.

5 comments:

lacochran said...

The gold and silver building reminds me a little of the "dumpster" building on the way to Dulles airport.

Looks like you had a good trip.

Shannon said...

Years ago, I took a trip to NYC with Rob. Right outside our window was a ginormous Maidenform billboard. Nothing makes a woman feel insecure quite like a pair of 50-foot tits.

Pauline said...

Those photos are awesome! NY City looks very interesting, but the neverending crowds do kind of intimidate me!

Sebastian Anthony said...

Ah, signs! Nice collection :) We have a similar amount in London, I guess -- never bothered to chronicle them though!

IIRC, signs are quite a 'big' thing... a lot of thought goes into them -- location, wording, etc. They also cost a fortune in NYC or London.

There are people forums out there that would really like your pictures, too :)

FoggyDew said...

la - have to take a look for that one. haven't been out to Dulles in a very long while.

Shannon - i'm laughing like a 12-year-old thinking about that. did you get a picture?

Pauline - yeah, the crowds were kinda intense, but not bad enough to make you want to run screaming. One nice thing I saw was when a family looking in the window of the 'za joint where I was eating another family inside gave them a thumbs-up. It was good 'za.

Seb - Really? I never would have thought that of London. They are pretty in their own way, it was just a little bit of an information overload. Seriously, there's only one little area of D.C. like that and it clashes so so much with the rest of the city.

Wish I would have brought my big camera, these were all shot with a point-n-shoot making it a bit difficult to get what I wanted. Maybe next time.