Up in the clouds

For my next day in New York I started off by taking a tour of the NBC Studios at the Rockerfeller Center.  This took you behind the scenes into some of their most famous studios, including the studio where the Nightly News is broadcast on and that for the famous "Saturday Night Live" (which from British eyes is always surprising that it is broadcast at 11:35pm at night!).  To actually be on the floor of the news studio was the type of access that you would rarely get elsewhere.

From there I went on to the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) which was just down the road.  This had a strong permanent collection as well as some interesting special exhibits, including some flag paintings and an exhibition related to childhood (which due to poor signage I entered at the wrong end and ended up going back in time!)  One impressive part was an area where motion capture turned children into animated monsters in real time!  I also spent too long watching a recorded game of Tetris on a screen until I realised what I was doing...  The permanent collection was good, but included lots of pieces that were similar to those I have seen elsewhere (I think there have been sculptures by Alberto Giacometti at at least 5 galleries I have been at this trip!) - there was nothing really surprising.  The only down note was not being allowed out into the sculpture garden as there was a little bit of drizzle going on!

I then had a wander through town, which took in Broadway and Times Square (which was busy) and New York Central Library.  Here there was a great exhibition on the concept of "Lunch", including some of the automats that used to be part of New York.  There was one story that said that a popular coffee place used to offer coffee at 5 cents.  As the prices of the raw materials went up they started reducing the quality but were losing significant amounts of money.  If they could have charged 7 or 8 cents they might have been OK but the machine would only work on a 1 coin basis so eventually it had to go up to 10 cents which people hated and led to its decline.

My final stop was the Empire State Building.  As we were going up we were warned that there was zero visibility and given the option to come back some other time.  However, as I had seen the views across New York already I was going more for the experience so I wasn't turning back.  Actually, the weather made the visit.  At some points you were enveloped in clouds at the top, but it was windy so they were moving and would clear, revealing views of the city below.  Quite a unique experience and not too wet, so a lot of fun and some different photos!