CENTRAL PARK - NYC'S "GREENSPACE"


CENTRAL PARK IN NEW YORK CITY

The first landscaped public park in the United States, built primarily between the 1850s and 1870s, encompassing 843 acres in New York City between Fifth Avenue and Eighth Avenue and running from 59th Street to 110th Street.

New York bought the land for Central Park—and removed about 1,600 immigrants and African Americans who lived there—at the behest of the city's elite, who were embarrassed by European claims that America lacked refinement and believed a park would serve as a great cultural showpiece. The original plans of architects Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux sought to re-create the country in the city.

At first, Central Park catered almost exclusively to the rich, who used its drives for daily carriage parades. Though some working-class New Yorkers visited the park on Sunday, most lacked leisure time and streetcar fare, and they resented the park's strict rules, including the infamous prohibition against sitting on the grass. By the 1880s, however, shorter workdays and higher wages made park attendance more convenient for the poor and recent immigrants. With additions such as boat and goat rides, the zoo, Sunday concerts, and restaurants, Central Park's focus gradually shifted from nature to amusement. During the Great Depression, the powerful parks commissioner Robert Moses continued this trend, financing massive improvements, including more than twenty new playgrounds, with New Deal money.


CENTRAL PARK WAS THE FIRST LANDSCAPED PUBLIC PARK IN THE US

In many ways, the 1970s marked Central Park's low point. Though never as dangerous as reported, the park experienced a dramatic increase in crime, and it came to represent New York's urban decay. Moreover, New York's fiscal crisis decimated the park budget, and in the 1980s, the city gave up full public control by forming a partner-ship with the private Central Park Conservancy. Today, Central Park symbolizes New York's grandeur, as its aristocratic founders expected. They never dreamed it would also serve the recreational needs of a city of 8 million people.
Central Park's rolling terrain includes a zoo, lakes and ponds, greeneries, bridle paths, walks, and park drives. There are many playgrounds and other recreational facilities within the park's boundaries. The Metropolitan Museum of Art stands in the park on Fifth Ave. Other points of interest include a formal garden, an Egyptian obelisk popularly called “Cleopatra's Needle,” a New York City reservoir, and the Mall. In the open-air Delacorte Theater, Shakespearean dramas and other plays are presented free of charge.

STRAWBERRY FIELDS MEMORIAL TO JOHN LENNON IS PART OF THE CENTRAL PARK LANDSCAPE. THE LOCATION IS NOT FAR FROM WHERE LENNON WAS MURDERED IN DECEMBER OF 1980


ROCKEFELLER CENTER - BOTTOM OF THE ROCK


PROMETHEUS RECUMBENT

Rockefeller Center is a complex of 19 commercial buildings covering 22 acres between 48th and 51st Streets in New York. Built by the Rockefeller family, it is located in the center of Midtown Manhattan, spanning between Fifth Avenue and Seventh Avenue. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1988. It is the largest privately held complex of its kind in the world, and an international symbol of modernist architectural style blended with capitalism.

Rockefeller Center was named after John D. Rockefeller Jr. ("Junior"), who leased the space from Columbia University in 1928 and developed it from 1930. Rockefeller initially planned to build an opera house for the Metropolitan Opera Company on the site, but changed his mind after the stock market crash of 1929. He took on the enormous project as the sole financier, on a ninety-nine-year lease for the site from Columbia; negotiating a line of credit with the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company and covering ongoing expenses through the sale of oil company stock. It was the largest private building project ever undertaken in modern times. Construction of the 14 buildings in the Art Deco style began on May 17, 1930 and was completed on November 1, 1939 when Rockefeller drove in the final (silver) rivet into 10 Rockefeller Plaza.

ROCKEFELLER CENTER AT CHRISTMAS

The Center is a combination of two building complexes: the older and original 14 Art Deco office buildings from the 1930s, and a set of four International-style towers built along the Avenue of the Americas during the 1960s and 1970s. The Time-Life Building, McGraw Hill and News Corporation/Fox News Channel headquarters are part of these "newer" Rockefeller Center buildings, which are now owned/managed by the major private real estate firm, Rockefeller Group.

Radio City Music Hall

The Radio City Music Hall was completed in December, 1932. At the time it was the largest and most opulent theater in the world. Its original name was the International Music Hall but was changed to reflect the new techonology of the time - radio. One of the complex's first and most important tenants was the Radio Corporation of America, hence the other name the Center itself was dubbed was "Radio City".

The Music Hall was planned by a consortium of three architectural firms, who employed Edward Durrell Stone to design the exterior. The interior design was given to the expert of the then European Modernist style and the expression of a new American aesthetic, Donald Deskey, through the direction of Abby Rockefeller. He believed the space would best be served by sculptures and wall paintings and commissioned various artists for the elaborate and now showpiece work. The theater seated 6,000 people and after an initial slow start became the single biggest tourist destination in the city. Its interior was declared a New York City landmark in 1978.

The GE Building (RCA Building)


30 ROCKEFELLER CENTER - HOME TO "TOP OF THE ROCK"

The centerpiece of Rockefeller Center is the 70-floor, 872-foot GE Building at 30 Rockefeller Plaza ("30 Rock") - formerly known as the RCA Building - centered behind the sunken plaza. The building was renamed in the 1980s after General Electric (GE) re-acquired RCA, which it helped found in 1919. The famous Rainbow Room club restaurant is located on the 65th floor; the Rockefeller family office covers the 54-56th floors. The skyscraper is the headquarters of NBC and houses most of the network's New York studios, including the legendary Studio 8H, home of Saturday Night Live. NBC currently owns the space it occupies in the building as a condominium arrangement.

Unlike most other Art Deco towers built during the 1930s, the GE Building was constructed as a slab with a flat roof, where the Center's newly renovated observation deck, the Top of the Rock is located, which was first built in 1933. The $75 million makeover of the observation area was carried out by the Center's owner, Tishman Speyer Properties and was finally completed in 2005. It spans from the 67-70th floors and includes a multimedia exhibition exploring the history of the Center. On the 70th floor, reached by both stairs and elevator, there is a 20-foot wide viewing area, allowing visitors a unique 360-degree panoramic view of New York City.

At the front of 30 Rock is the Lower Plaza, in the very center of the complex, which is reached from 5th Avenue through the Channel Gardens and Promenade. The acclaimed sculptor Paul Manship was commissioned in 1933 to create a masterwork to adorn the central axis, below the famed annual Yule tree, but all the other original plans to fill the space were abandoned over time. It wasn't until Christmas Day in 1936 that the ice-skating rink was finally installed and the popular Center activity of ice-skating began.

Center Art

Rockefeller Center contains, amongst many other corporate tenants, the New York headquarters of the world's biggest auction house by revenue, Christies. The Center represents a turning point in the history of architectural sculpture: It is among the last major building projects in the United States to incorporate a program of integrated public art. Sculptor Lee Lawrie contributed the largest number of individual pieces, twelve, including the statue of Atlas facing Fifth Avenue, and the conspicuous friezes above the main entrance to the RCA Building.

Lower Plaza at Rockefeller Center.Paul Manship's highly recognizable bronze gilded statue of the Greek Legend of the Titan Prometheus recumbent, bringing fire to mankind, features prominently in the sunken plaza at the front of 30 Rockefeller Plaza. The model for Prometheus was Leonard Nole and the inscription from Aeschylus, on the granite wall behind, reads: "Prometheus, teacher in every art, brought the fire that hath proved to mortals a means to mighty ends". Although some sources cite it as the fourth-most familiar statue in the United States, behind the Lincoln Memorial, Mount Rushmore and the Statue of Liberty, Manship was not particularly fond or proud of it.

In 1962, a plaque was placed at the plaza with a list of principles in which John D. Rockefeller Jr. believed in, first expressed by him in 1941. It begins with: "I believe in the supreme worth of the individual and in his right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness", and includes a list of other lifelong beliefs encompassing free enterprise and religion.

TOP OF THE ROCK - CHECK OUT THE VIEW!


CENTRAL PARK FROM THE TOP OF THE ROCK!


We will be visiting the "Top of the Rock" during our tour of NYC. John D. Rockefeller, Jr. (the guy was like a gazillionaire) first opened the Observation Deck atop 30 Rockefeller Plaza more than 70 years ago, to give something back to New Yorkers and their guests from around the world - a place to appreciate and celebrate the city. The Observation Deck's original design was inspired by the decks of the great ocean liners of the era - complete with deck chairs, gooseneck fixtures and vents inspired by a ship's stacks. A trip to the Observation Deck was like setting sail in the heart of the world's most dynamic city.


LOOKING NORTHWEST TOWARDS THE HUDSON RIVER AND NEW JERSEY!


THE "CANYONS" OF NEW YORK!


LOOKING NORTHEAST TOWARDS TRUMP AND BLOOMBERG TOWERS!


Now, for the first time in 20 years, this vantage point is being re-introduced to the people of New York and the world.

As the steward of John D. Rockefeller, Jr.'s dream, Tishman Speyer, current owner of 30 Rockefeller Center, is proud to present the new TOP OF THE ROCK Observation Deck, as envisioned by the architect Michael Gabellini. When Mr. Gabellini re-imagined the new Observation Deck that is now TOP OF THE ROCK, he envisioned the same simple elegance and beauty of the original - but using modern materials and engineering. TOP OF THE ROCK is a unique experience - with panels of fully transparent, non-reflective safety glass allowing completely unobstructed, open-air views of the entire city. Gabellini blended modern materials with the deck's original elements - like the custom "shot-sawn" limestone and cast-aluminum fleurs-de-lis that are signatures of the original design. The result is Art Deco grace combined with state-of-the-art technology and simplicity.

MAMMA MIA! ITSA MIGHTA FINA MUSICAL!


PATRIOT BAND MEMBERS WILL SEE MAMMA MIA! AT THE WINTER GARDEN THEATRE WHEN IN NEW YORK.

A mother. A daughter. 3 possible dads.
And a trip down the aisle you'll never forget!


I took my family to see this musical when it was in Indy several years ago and we took my 75 year old mother with us. Needless to say, we all loved the show, including my mom! The plot is pretty thin - the daughter is getting married and wants her real dad to give her away. The twist is - mom is not sure who the real dad is!(not exactly a lesson in morality) But they all live happily ever after while singing 22 songs from the 1970s rock group ABBA! ABBA, comprised of 2 females and 2 males, is a Swedish rock group. The name "ABBA" is the named of a Swedish canned fish company and also an acronym for the first names of the 4 singers in the group. Mamma Mia opened in London in 1999 and on Broadway 2 years later. After almost 5 years on Broadway the show continues to be a popular ticket in NYC.


THE CAST OF "MAMMA MIA" ENJOYS AN ENCORE!

Mamma Mia is currently running in the Winter Garden Theatre on Broadway. The Winter Garden is best known as the theatre that CATS played in during it's record run on Broadway from 1982 to 2000! Historically, the Winter Garden Theatre was first a horse sale barn back when Times Square was known as Longacre Square. The barn was remodeled for theatre use by Herbert Krapp (nice last name) in 1910-1911. Over the years, the Winter Garden has been home to the "Ziegfield Follies", "Mame", "Gypsy", "Funny Girl", "Once Upon a Mattress", and Leonard Bernstein's "Wonderful Town" and "West Side Story".

A POEM FOR SPRING.....

THE BOIDS IS ON THE WING...

SPRING: A POEM

SPRING HAS SPRUNG, DA GRASS HAS RIZZ,
I WONDER WHERE DA BOIDIES IS?

THE BOIDIES IS ON DA WING!

MY, MY, HOW ABSOID!
I THOUGHT DA WINGS WAS ON DA BOID!

WRITTEN BY:
ROBERT C. VOGLER, SR (1928-1998)
AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSION EXPERT
AND POET

TIMES SQUARE - THE HEART OF THE CITY


NEW AMSTERDAM THEATRE IN TIMES SQUARE. NEW AMSTERDAM WAS THE 17TH CENTURY DUTCH NAME FOR NEW YORK.


Times Square is probably the most popular spot for tourists to visit when in New York. Times Square was named after the New York Times, the #1 newspaper in NYC, followed by the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post. .


LOWES THEATRE AND CBS STUDIOS IN TIME SQUARE


The "Times" is filled with liberal drivel for the most part, the "Journal" much more conservative and business oriented and the "Post" is a tabloid paper with what is referred to as "sensational" journalism - the kind of paper that would appeal to 90% of Jay County.


MTV STUDIOS ARE LOCATED IN TIMES SQUARE.


Times Square is THE theatre district with Broadway running right through the middle of it. Times Square has not always been the best area to hang out in. Once nicknamed "The Devil's Playground", TS was know for years for it's adult bookstores and theatres and the illegal activities which go along with that type of commerce. (one of the local neighborhoods around TS is still called "Hell's Kitchen" - the east coast spelling for "Dunkirk") An effort by New York City officials, led by then-mayor Rudolf Giuliani, to clean up the area has returned Times Square to it's former glory.


TIMES SQUARE LOOKING SOUTH TOWARDS LOWER MANHATTAN


For those of you who stay up late on New Year's Eve, Times Square is where they "drop the ball" to signal the beginning of the new year.


ONE OF THE WORLD'S LARGEST NEON SIGNS - THE NASDAQ SIGN IN TIMES SQUARE


Times Square is also home to one of the world's largest neon sign. The NASDAQ (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations) sign is 120 feet tall and cost $37 million to construct. In addition, NASDAQ pays $2 million a year to lease the space for the sign

WAKE-UP, PATRIOT BAND!

Daddy V - American

Ya know what makes me mad? Ya know what makes me so angry I could eat a entire porky pine and spit quills at the Goodyear Blimp? It's when you knuckleheads come up to your Daddy V and whine "but I didn't know how to get a hold of you." Well, let me say this about that - IT AIN'T ROCKET SURGERY, FOLKS! When Daddy V was a young pup educator there were only 3 ways to "com-une-i-cayt" with me - home phone, school phone or US Mail. But these days, with that there "information super highway" there are now more ways to get hold of Daddy V then there are Democratic candidates for president. As a matter of fact, as Daddy V was driving the V-mobile down the road the other day it occured to me that, by actual count, you can now irritate me by:

  1. Home phone - with answering machine
  2. School phone - EJ - including voice mail
  3. School phone - JCHS - including voice mail
  4. Arts Place phone - including voice mail
  5. Cell phone - with call back feature and voice mail
  6. Home e-mail
  7. School e-mail
  8. Arts Place e-mail
  9. "Talk to Me, Daddy V" blog
  10. Facebook - Yup, I'm on there!
  11. "GOOGLE" me - Yup! I'm on there, too!
  12. US Mail

And since Mrs. Daddy V got over the flu, she finally got out and shoveled our front sidewalk so you can walk right up to my flippin' door and ring the bell! So what's all this nonsense about "can't get hold of ya." Hey, ya ain't tryin' very hard, are ya?

Wake-up Patriot Band!

This is Daddy V!

V off!

MARCHING PATRIOTS ANNOUNCE 2007 SUMMER SHOW - REALLY!

"Skyline" of Moscow, the capital of Russia.


Symbol of Russia - The Two-Headed Eagle


The Patriot Band staff today announced the 2007 summer show entitled "THE COLORS OF RUSSIA:THE POWER, THE PEOPLE, THE CELEBRATION" The 180 degree turn in show theme was a staff decision with many different ideas regarding show music being tossed around. Once the Russian music idea was solidified, our newest staff member, former student teacher Emilie Boyes, developed the whole "Colors of Russia" concept. For the POWER segment, the prominant color will be purple - the color of royalty. The PEOPLE section will feature the color white - the color of innocence. The CELEBRATION finale will use red - the color of festivity. Throughout all three segments, the color of gold (gold lame) will also be used as a unifying theme. Musically, the show will begin with "Coronation Scene" from the Russian opera "Boris Godonuv" by Romantic era Russian composer Modeste Mussorgsky (1831-1891). Mussorgsky's opera is considered the masterpiece of Russian national opera. The story of "BG" involves Gudonov's murder of a young heir to the Russian throne and Godonov's subsequent rise to power in Tsarist Russia. Guilt eventually takes over Godonuv's mind and he goes mad. The "Coronation Scene" reveals the crowning of Godonov while a crowd of Russian citizens shout "Slava" (Hail).

American composer, Alfred Reed (1923-2005)


The next selection is Alfred Reeds arrangement of "Carol of the Russian Children". Alfred Reed is a 20th century American composer who is most well known for his concert band pieces. This section will feature a "boatload"of choreography by the guard and will show off some of the ballet they have been working on all year. The final selection will be another Alfred Reed composition entitled "Russian Christmas Music". This piece was commissioned in 1944 as part of a Russian-USA music festival meant to improve Russian/US relations - it didn't! Selections from RCM (Russian Christmas Music not Royal Canadian Mounties, genius!) will include "Antiphonal Chant" and the "Cathedral Chorus" - a big, brassy closer which will feature our pit percussion and some new guard effects, courtesy of Miss Boyes.

Band uniform changes will include removing the sequin sash from the uniform jacket and adding black gauntlets. Guard uniforms are still undecided, pending the arrival of the new guard uniforms later in March

From the 50 Yardline

Check out a new video all about band kids coming to theatres soon...
https://www.fromthe50yardline.com/

www.jcmarchingpatriots.com does not officially endorse this video. This organization is not responsible for links used beyond this site.

WHAT'S UP WITH COUNTRY MUSIC?

Because of the numerous school delay and cancellation news reports on local radio during the past 2 weeks, I've probably listened to more country music than I normally do in a year. I'm no stranger to country music and I had these thoughts before but now, thanks to "Talk To Me Daddy V" I have a forum for my opinions. Now before I start to rant and rave, let me give you an idea of my music history. First, don't forget, I was raised in New Jersey - not exactly the cradle of country music. Secondly, I had a father who, although he couldn't carry a tune in a bucket, was a fan of operetta, especially Gilbert and Sullivan and raised all 3 of his kids to love operettas. I was introduced to other classical music by my association with drum and bugle corps. To this day, I feel I learned more classical music repetoire from d and b corps shows than from all my years of under-grad and master's degree study. But I digress! My point is, I don't have a whole lot of experience with country music but I've been struck, over the years, by how depressing the lyrics are! I listened to 3 songs in a row yesterday that dealt with some guy crying because his girl was leaving him, somebody who wanted a dime for half the times he screwed up, and some girl who got pregnant after a "date" with her boyfriend. These are just three examples, but I checked the top 10 country songs on the internet and they all seem to deal with some tragic circumstance, love gone bad, a screwed up life, etc., etc. Now I know life is not all sunshine and roses (hey - I've been married for 25 years), but doesn't listening to music such as this tend to depress even the perkiest among us? At least Rock and Roll songs are musically complex enough that even if the lyrics are depressing you probably can't hear them! Now, to be fair, a lot of classical opera is tragic in nature, and even broadway musicals have tended to be a little heavy in subject matter in the last several years but even operas and musicals have there lighter moments and if nothing else, they nomally have some musically redeeming qualities. I guess, for the most part, I've always sought out music and entertainment in general, that is a little lighter, up-lifting or more humerous than "She Stopped Loving Me Today" - something more like "A Boy Named Sue". I feel the same way about my taste in books and movies also. Yes, my favorite movies of all time are the LOTR trilogy, but there a certain heroic quality to these movies which attracts me - the "against all odds" kind of appeal!

So tell me - what is the appeal of country music? What are you listening to? Are there any "classical" music fans out there" How about jazz? Talk to me.....I'm

Daddy "She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy" V