Happy Holiday Season and Happy New Year

I’m making digital cards this year and wanted to put together something a bit different. You know, not your typical NY themed holiday card featuring a yellow cab, some skyline, Rockefeller Tree, Times Square or Central Park.

Welcome to the 2014 FiDi (Financial District) holiday card edition, where you can find a card featuring the new Fulton Transit Center and another featuring the Christmas Tree at the Seaport.

top left to right clockwise: 1) Front of Fulton Street Transit Center overlooking Freedom Tower. 2) Side view of subway signs. 3) Beautiful staircases. 4) Basket-like weaves on the ceiling. 5) Sign for Fulton Center

 

Left to right: 1) Neon stars overlooking Freedom Tower. 2) Side view of a beer hall at the Seaport. 3) Seaport Christmas Tree next to ice rink.

Bonus: colored version of Fulton Center

All photos were taken with my iphone on a windy Dec evening. I made the collages in Shutterfly, using their “collage poster” feature. If you want any of the photos as a stand-alone, let me know.

I’ll include a few streets (around the seaport) and their entries from “The Street Book: An Encyclopedia of Manhattan’s Street Names and Their Origins” by Henry Moscow.

Front Street: The namesake: its location in front of Water Street, which until the end of the 17th century was the city’s shoreline.

South Street: The namesake: something of a misnomer though the street’s lower end is close to Manhattan’s southern tip. South Street might better have been called Easter Street since it parallels the East River.

Water Street: The namesake: the East River waters that washed the street at high tide in the 17th century.

Have you walked around your neighborhood lately? You may find tons of beautiful and unexpected subjects for a holiday card. What better way to personalize your holiday cards or correspondences than to include photos and facts about your neighborhood!

Monday Night Winter's Eve

Dec 1 was Winter's Eve, a fun evening celebration of music, food, and cheer around the Columbus Circle / Lincoln Center area. I have been to my share of tree lighting ceremonies in the past few years but was attracted by the sheer number of music groups advertised in this festival. and who doesn't love to go out on a Monday night!? 

Stars

After work, I took the subway to Columbus Circle. Got hit by the cold rain as soon as I walked above ground. Needless to say, I needed to warm up somewhere and headed towards Time Warner Center. Time Warner Center Stars are definitely crowd favorites around the holidays. Those spectacular stars change color and also dance to holiday music as part of a show. The best place to see them is on the 3rd floor. 

Eats

After warming up inside, I went outdoors again looking for food. Many local restaurants set up bite-sized foods in stalls around the center. I avoided the extremely long lines and still managed to have a 3 course meal courtesy of the following establishments. Total bill was $11. 

• appetizer - duck soup from Asiate
• main course - delicious pasta from Landmarc (also found a recipe online!)
• drink/desserts - mulled cider and ginger cookies from Whole Foods. 

Tree

After dinner and fighting the rain with my umbrella flipping open every second or two, I walked to Apple Store to check out Hot Sardines. Then on my way back, I heard a great brassy sound coming from the Christmas tree. The music from Raya Brass Band was so warm, friendly, and festive that most of the audience started dancing despite the rain. 

You know a band is playing well when people opt to brave the cold outdoors to listen instead of going to a dozen other indoor performance offered throughout the night. I'm actually listening to their album on spotify as I write this. I've discovered that I like anything with a good brass section (tuba gets bonus points).

Jazz

I met up with my friend D. near the Christmas tree and we walked towards Time Warner Center to see a jazz flute show I read about on the program. Elena Pinderhughes and her group gave a great performance. I recently got back into playing the flute again so was very inspired to hear her play. Everyone had a chance to show off their moves (bass, piano, flute, and drums).  

There are so many other bands to look up (and the website will likely get updated next year) but wanted to share the link anyway: http://www.winterseve.nyc/entertainment/

Holiday train show in NYBG

I went to the NY Botanical Garden (NYBG in the Bronx) Holiday Train show this past weekend with J. This is our first time attending the show and we enjoyed all the miniatures that were made with more natural materials (tree bark, flowers, seeds, etc). Check it out this holiday season! Show ends Jan 19, 2015. 

Public transit options: The show is a short metronorth train ride away from Grand Central Terminal. There is also a "getaway" combo for metronorth + holiday show admission. http://web.mta.info/mnr/html/getaways/inbound_botanicalgarden.htm

If you don't get a chance to trek away on metronorth , take a look at the train show in GCT (ends Feb 22)!

NYPL (the one with Lions)

Grand Central Terminal

Manhattan bridge soaring above

Skyscrapers Chrysler and Empire State

a train in front of the stock exchange

Origami Holidays and High Line in the Snow

Our friend Talo Kawasaki created a shadow box Three Kings installation for a restaurant called El Quinto Pino (in Chelsea). A group of us attended the event featuring the beautiful exhibit. Food and bubbly was also provided, definitely try the mushroom croquette when you’re back!

The snowman above is made of three rose auditoriums (designed by our friend Uyen and folded by Talo).

Since it was snowing that day and the High Line was a block or two away, Linda and I braved the snow to see NYC’s winter wonderland! I never paid much attention to the benches but their colors sure stand out!

I found blue TANT (a type of origami paper, comes in mono color with plenty of variations) colored building! How awesome. 

For food afterwards, Linda and I visited yet another Westville and ordered these four market sides with blackened chicken and salmon. Brussel sprouts, fennel, butternut squash, and plantains.  Tried soy chai latte (thumbs up) at Whole Foods and liked it, even though I always go for the almond latte. If you are adventurous, you can get latte with the following types of milk at Whole Foods: regular cow milk, soy, almond, and rice.

2012 Trees and Cheer

New York is fun during the holidays and after taking some of my own ideas on winter activities [blog entry], I wanted to share some photos.

NYPL – Schwarzman Building (the one with Lions near Bryant Park). The main attraction is on the top floor. Probably the fastest place to get a library card (and afterwards, you can walk across the street to the Midtown library for checkout)

Origami Tree at American Natural History Museum

Bryant Park Tree (in the background as I was trying to take a photo of the rink)

The 30 Rock Tree

The close-up of the star

I also finally figured out how to add the “social” bar, so hopefully it’ll allow easy sharing? Granted I probably use twitter/email the most when I visit other sites. or comments…

NYC Autumn/Winter Guide 2012– Preliminary Listing

Seems I haven’t updated my city guides in a few years. Looking back (link to 2009, 2010), I really did take advantage of all the events NYC had to offer. Now that I live in New York, NY proper, should look into more events that I missed in the past while living in Queens. With the retirement of awesome NewYorkology site which listed tons of daily activities, I will have to do a bit more research. To be fair, my 2009-2010 events listings were pulled from various sources as well. This winter reason, I hope to write up some of the activities, instead of just providing a straight up listing. I will take these favorites and them to my guestbook and also my NYC welcome corner. Think of it as my NYC picks for winter (to be followed by the other seasons!)

Updated Nov 2012. (continuously updated throughout winter)

Winter/Holiday Outings
//Bryant Park Ice Skating Rink [link] until march 3, 2013
Free ice skating (if you bring your own skates and a lock) in the middle of the city surrounded by skyscrapers. You can also juggle with BPJugglers on Tuesday evenings and daily during lunch. A few things had changed about the Pond since I last wrote about it. For one, they opened up a chic lounge called Celsius (it’s only exotic to us Americas since we only use F while the rest of the world is on C). The place is conveniently located near the rink so you can relax and have a drink. While the holiday shops more or less stayed the same (I love the Star Wars one, every year), I noticed they have included more food/drink options (including food truck stars). Makes perfect sense to me!

//Radio City Christmas Show [link] until dec 30, 2012
Sadly, after 6 years of living in New York, I still haven’t seen this show. Everyone I know still recommends it so I’m going to keep it on my guide.

//Nutcracker at Lincoln Center [link] until dec 30, 2012
Ditto.

//Holiday Trains at Grand Central Terminal

//Even more Trains at NYBG in Bronx

//Stroll on the High Line

Various Trees and Lightings 2012
//Rockefeller Center: W Nov 28. The biggest tree in NYC. More lights than tree. If you haven’t followed @30rocktree on twitter, go read him now! Other favorites in the area are Saks snowflake show. Personally I’ve never skated there due to crowds.

//Bryant Park: Tu Nov 27. They always have great ice shows and ornaments on this tree.

//Natural History Museum: Famous origami tree. While you are at it, take some origami classes or join an origami meetup! (disclaimer: I’ve been to the class and meetup before)

//Metropolitan Museum of Art: medieval tree. like angels? you’ll love this. If you’re at the Met for any of their exhibits this season, do make your way to this tree.

//Christmas Stars at Columbus Circle

Indoor Happenings
//B&N Readings (Union Square Listing)
Great authors. I just saw Tony Bennett today and was inspired to update this winter activity list. Fired up Spotify to check out his new duets album Viva Duets as well. If you like Rachel Ray, looks like she’s coming Dec 4. Check out the holiday shops in Union Sq. before the book events too!

//Strand Books Readings (Calendar)
Even if you don’t make it to the readings, just walk around the bookstore and browse five areas that you wouldn’t ordinarily read. There’s a big world of books out there. I also like their cards selection the best, if you still like sending out cards with stamps (yea, old school).

//Jazzy events at Lincoln Center
http://jalc.org/multimedia
I can’t find the listening parties that I’ve attended in the past but the online live-cast and media archive is great for a cold day when you just want to get some music at home with a cup of hot chocolate.

//karaoke 
http://www.karaokeduet.com/

Other interesting stuff
http://bkbazaar.com/
http://www.bigonion.com/
http://www.theskint.com/
http://www.walkingoffthebigapple.com/