a simple life

Mise en ligne par • Eliane •

Meet Nicholas. He's an urban cat who enjoys strolling on Broadway on late sunny afternoons. Well, assuming he gets proper carrier service inherent in his feline status, that is.
I now have one more reason to wish to be reincarnated as a cat: independence, long naps in the sun, snacking on fresh birdies and goldfishes, philosophing all day long, exploring, a little fighting, shiny hair and carrier transportation. And did I mention you can make new friends while doing your shopping?

That's a life.

ah, spring...

ah, spring... Mise en ligne par • Eliane •

Ah, spring... It’s hard not to love spring. Well then, it’s hard not to love fall, winter or summer too. Perhaps because I was brought up in a country where seasons are well-defined, I like it this way. After winter, I rejoice about spring. After spring, I get excited about summer. And after summer, I look forward to fall. Simple facts of life but nature is wonderful this way.

And if you ask me, I think this guy had the right idea:

the new york times building

Mise en ligne par • Eliane •
And the visit would not be complete without leaving you with a vue d'ensemble of The New York Times building. It stands in the west side of midtown Manhattan. In the distance, you can see the Hudson River. And on the other shore, it's New Jersey.

Happy Monday, everyone!

the times online

Mise en ligne par • Eliane •

Here's a glimse of the installation in The New York Times lobby. It is made of a multitude of little screens, on which pieces of sentences that appear on nyt.com are displayed episodically. It is constantly changing.

One of you made the comment that The New York Times must be in pretty good shape to be moving in this new digs. You can learn much more about it in this article Pride and Nostalgia Mix in The Times’s New Home - you'll learn that renovating the old building to bring it to the digital age would have been a nightmare, that The NY Times does not occupy the entire building but rents a large part of it, et cetera, et cetera. Plus, the pictures of the interiors are pretty cool.

inside the new york times

Mise en ligne par • Eliane •

So here it is, the lobby of The New York Times building.
Turning to the left will lead you to the 41st street entrance, to the right to the 40th one, and behind us is 8th avenue.
My very bad photographic skills do not let you see very clearly that right in front of us, there's an outdoor space with several beautiful birch trees.
The walls are bright orange. Lots of vitamins! Tomorrow I'll show you the artwork.
Enjoy your weekend!

the new york times building

Mise en ligne par • Eliane •

Recently, the venerable institution that is The New York Times moved to its new headquarters between 40th and 41st street and eight avenue, on the west side of Midtown Manhattan. Every day, I see this beautiful building designed by Renzo Piano, one of my favorite architects. I saw it grow up. I witnessed the helicopter celebration when the last piece was placed at the very top. So today, I took a peek inside. As you can see from this side street entrance (on 41st street), there's still some work going on.
More tomorrow.

subway getaway

Mise en ligne par • Eliane •

You take the subway to commute in the city. And sometimes the subway takes you in a complete different universe. Like here, where it takes us in an invigorating forest. If my memory serves me well, it was an advertising campaign for the Westin hotel chain. The entire car was wrapped in the woods.
For a taste of the real deal, no need to escape too far though! In Grand central, take the train (railroad) to the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx. There, you can enjoy 50-acre of the native forest that once covered New York City. The Bronx River and its rushing waterfall runs trough it. See, no need to flee that far for a little evasion.

(more photos of the NYC forest on www.nybg.org)

step in and stand clear of the closing doors

Mise en ligne par • Eliane •

Are you in? Good. Oh, and do not lean on the door. Dude,it's just not cool.

a bunch of spring for $6

a bunch of spring for $6 Mise en ligne par • Eliane •

Last Sunday, I went to the local farmers' market for one of my weekend rituals: buy fresh flowers. Six bucks to bring a little bit of spring in your interior, who can resist that? Not me! Especially after I put my nose in one of those delicate bouquets. Sold!

foie gras dog treat

Mise en ligne par • Eliane •
What a wonderful-wittle-wooter-booter! Who's a woosy-boosy? Who's a wubby-dubby? There, here's your foie gras biscuit my wittle binky-booter.
And to think that all I had for lunch was a miserable jambon-beurre with a lame cappuccino.

Happy Monday, everyone!

Update: this is apparently a hot topic. I was surprised to find an article in the last issue of New York Magazine: Battle of the Gourmet Dog Biscuits in which Gordy, Bear and Chopper, three tough canine judges, assess a variety of gourmet dog treats.

un p'tit chocolat?

Mise en ligne par • Eliane •

Would you care for a chocolate? Come on, it's Sunday. Those ones come from Bouchon Bakery in the Time Warner Center on Columbus Circle. Which is a very good spot to avoid Pope traffic.
You'd prefer a macaron? Bien sûr!

NB: For those of you who enquired about the picture format, I opted to go back to the little format which is the rule for CDPBs. It's easier to read in a mobile fashion.

mirrored

mirrored Mise en ligne par • Eliane •

I love building reflections. This one reflects the south side of Bryant Park. And if you walk and look at it, it's almost liquid.
And here's to give you an idea of the building's height:


Enjoy your weekend!

did he say hi?

Mise en ligne par • Eliane •

We're under a light bulb signage in Times Square. Most businesses of the area play with the whole theater/billboard theme of the neighborhood. Here we are in front of Loft, a women's clothes store. And we're looking up to their sign made up of a multitude of light bulbs. It is much more dramatic at night of course.
The building in front is One Times Square. This is the building hosting the New Year Ball each year, On its façade, there is a news feed scrolling pretty quickly. It's only when I uploaded the picture that I noticed the news feed reads: "prez sarkosy says h". Did he just say hi?

wine to go

alt=""
wine to go Mise en ligne par • Eliane •

After all our liquid conversations of yesterday, I had to post this one. I simply could not resist. There are several wine stores in my neighborhood. This one seems to go for the young-hip-and-cool niche. Seems like these two products would be the essential addition to your brown bag lunch. You know, those days when you have to jump from meeting to meeting.

liquid considerations

For this one, I was inspired by your comments of yesterday.
So please allow me those liquid considerations. ;)

This...
... is water.
And this...
... is also water.
On any given day,
I can hardly finish a few of these...

While I have no problem
drinking eight of these...

Why?
Well, simply because
this...
tastes so much better than
this...

Period.

NB: Since this is a New York blog, I have to specify that this picture was taken in the Big Apple, in my office, against a red wall. Outside of the red wall, if you can see through walls, you might see Times Square. Careful please, we're on the 45th floor. You just might want to stay intra muros.

forum caffeinated

[click on picture to enlarge]

forum caffeinated, première mise en ligne par • Eliane •.

How to keep your customers awake during your seminars? It's called coffee breaks. Which is when this picture was taken: last week during a forum organized by my company. I was the booth babe. Delightful. Delightful, as are those simple mugs and paper cups. You would think that for the price they charged us, they would throw a little saucer and provide nice coffee cups. Nay!

email addicts

[click on picture to enlarge]

, première mise en ligne par • Eliane •.

Don't ask me what is going on in this picture. I have no clue. I think *cough* that the Knicks are the ones in white. But if what really intrigue me is all those people in the front rows. You see, those with the laptops. Are they checking their emails? Are they blogging the match? I want answers!!! They'd better have a good reason - seems a little rude to me.

sugar boost, anyone?

[click on picture to enlarge]

sugar boost, anyone?, première mise en ligne par • Eliane •.

A few weeks ago, I went to my first basketball match at Madisson Square Garden: the New York Knicks vs.the Detroit Pistons. I can't tell you much about the game: my eyes were itching and I took off my contact lenses. Not the best way to follow the game., lol! But I discovered you could pick up a few things by using the zoom of your camera, he, he... I was a bit surpised when this thing walked by. Cotton candy? Now? Aren't kids supposed to be in bed already?

visitors

[click on picture to enlarge]

visitors, première mise en ligne par • Eliane •.

Taking the bus is fun: you see the city, the daylight and the local fauna is a little different than in the subway. Last July, this gentleman hopped in the bus with some of his friends from another era. I kept looking if cousin Hube' from Les visiteurs would maybe join them at the next stop. Oh and, too bad you can't see it but he was wearing sneakers which definitely add a trendy touch to the outfit.

school mural

[click on picture to enlarge]

school mural, première mise en ligne par • Eliane •.

Still digging in my archives, I found this one taken back in November in my neighborhood. This school mural tells all kinds of stories: geography, biology, literature, history, ... and I guess they serve good ice cream sundays in the cafeteria, under the watch of the school mascotte cat.

inside of the apple

[click on picture to enlarge]

inside of the apple, première mise en ligne par • Eliane •.

Today, I am taking you shopping. We're inside the Apple store. On Fifth Avenue and 59th Street. Central Park is just around the corner. We are inside the store, which is a cube construction in glass with the store itself below the street level. So here we are actually in the spiral staircase leading to the store area. And we are looking up to the sky. The building we see behind us is where FAO Schwarz, the iconic toy store, is located.
Here's a peek at the staircase. Cool, no?

NB: I know I have not visited your blogs yet. Hopefully, I should get around it by the end of this week.

get carried away

[click on picture to enlarge]

, première mise en ligne par • Eliane •.

Confession: I have a weakness for the HBO series Sex and the city. I remember having SATC marathons when I first discovered it on DVD a few years ago.
I think the film opens here end of May. And I just hope it does not suck. The poster of the film grabbed my attention: I like the little catch phrase "get carried away" (for those of you who are not familiar with the series, Carrie is its central character).
This was taken end of January.

NB: I know I have not visited your blogs yet. Hopefully, I should get around it by the end of this week.

yellow cab at night

[click on picture to enlarge]

, première mise en ligne par • Eliane •.

It's been such a long time so I just want to make sure you still know what they look like, our yellow cabs.
I immortalized this one about a month ago, while waiting to cross the street in my neighborhood. The sky was spectacular, mixing blues and blacks in such a beautiful way. In addition to the movement of the cab, it is a little blurry but it sure adds a little drama, don't you think? That is absolutely what I was going for, er, yes. You don't really think that I would admit not wearing my contact lenses, do you?

green sanctuary

[click on picture to enlarge]

, première mise en ligne par • Eliane •.
Yesterday, I brought you to the NY Botanical Garden in the Bronx. Today let me show you one of my favourite destination there: the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory.
With 40,000 square feet, it is the largest Victorian glasshouse in the United States. It opened in 1902. Would you believe that it was scheduled for demolition? And this is when Enid Haupt came in: she donated millions to save it. You can read all about this amazing philanthropist in this article from The Washington Post. In New York City her money also helped restore Bryant Park and maintain the gardens in The Cloisters, among other things.
Which leads me to two random thoughts:
• I want to be a philanthropist when I grow up.
• Paris Hilton could learn a thing or two from Enid Haupt - I mean. as silly as it is, if she really wanted she could use her money and her fame a little more like Enid and she would have the power to make culture so fashionable. And I meant hot, of course.

april 2008 theme day: water

[click on picture to enlarge]

, première mise en ligne par • Eliane •.

I just found out that the theme day for April was water. Digging into my archives, I found this picture of a reflection in the water. It was taken in 2006 at the NY Botanical Garden in the Bronx. Can you guess what it is reflecting? No?? The answer is here.

For the list of participating blogs to this month theme, why don't you visit my friend Ming? He has a gorgeous picture of the New York harbour and links to all the blogs in questions.

A good April to all!