Page 1 of 3

The Good, the Bad and the Utterly Absurd -- a Tour of NYC

Posted: Fri Feb 09, 2007 3:20 pm
by Elaine
I thought it might be fun to take a virtual tour of New York -- or at least explore Catherine's world a little bit. I'm going to look for links to appropriate websites but I started by googling Above + "New York".

So take a look at New York from Above by day
http://www.travelphoto.net/a-photo-a-da ... rom-above/

Or by night http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap951119.html

If you want more aerial pictures, it looks like there's a book on the subject. See the book here.

Or you could make reservations for a helicopter tour.
http://gonyc.about.com/od/nychelicopter ... _Tours.htm

You could even, believe it or not, eat Above.
http://www.opentable.com/single.aspx?pc ... f=&rid=613

Seeing the sights

Posted: Sat Feb 10, 2007 6:12 am
by hanklove
Elaine, you are a creative genius! This is a great idea! Thank you for thinking of it and for what you've already done.
hanklove

Posted: Sat Feb 10, 2007 6:29 am
by Elaine
I've done very little -- the geniuses behind this site are J Ecris and Sobi and Gabi -- but I'm glad you enjoyed the links. Stay tuned for more.

Explore New York Neighborhoods

Posted: Sat Feb 10, 2007 11:30 am
by Elaine
I've always thought that Catherine lived on the Upper East Side. Can't remember if I got that from the show or I just made it up -- but if you're curious about one of the ritzier sections of the
City, you can read about it here:

http://nymag.com/realestate/articles/ne ... ereast.htm

If you'd like to explore other parts of the City, check out the Neighborhoods at:

http://www.ny.com/sights/neighborhoods/

I think the D.A.s office would have been in the Financial District, Charles Chandler's law firm was probably in Midtown East. The East Village is certainly the location for the coffee shop where Kristopher sketched Catherine in S2's Songs of the Bluebird -- it was in Astor Place.

Anyway - there are lots of great links on this site. If you find anything you really love, let me know. (Don't forget -- there's a con coming up in 2008 in New Jersey, right? It's never too soon to start looking for add-on day activities, right?)

New York Buildings

Posted: Sun Feb 11, 2007 5:39 am
by Elaine
Was Tom Gunther an architect or a builder? Catherine seems to have an affinity for builders, doesn't she? There are Tom and Elliot -- and, when you think about it, all that digging and carving -- even Vincent and the tunnel team are builders.

Anyway, here are some sites where you can see the buildings that surround Catherine in her daily life, that Vincent walks among in darkness, that fascinate her annoying suitors. . . .

http://www.greatbuildings.com/places/new_york_city.html

http://www.galenfrysinger.com/city_arch ... k_city.htm

http://www.nyc-architecture.com/

See any place you'd like to live?

Museum Mile

Posted: Mon Feb 12, 2007 11:55 am
by Elaine
New York is home to many wonderful museums -- too many to put in a single post -- so I thought I'd start with those that are in Catherine's neighborhood.

Museum Mile -- a stretch along Fifth Avenue with one museum after another.

El Museo del Barrio at 104th Street
http://www.elmuseo.org

Museum of the City of New York at 103rd Street
http://www.mcny.org

Jewish Museum at 92nd Street
http://www.jewishmuseum.org

Cooper-Hewitt National Museum of Design at 91st Street
http://www.si.edu/ndm

National Academy Museum and School of Fine Arts at 89th Street
http://www.nationalacademy.org

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum at 88th Street (famous as much for the building as for the art inside)
http://www.guggenheim.org

Metropolitan Museum of Art from 82nd to 86th Streets (you could spend weeks here and not see everything)
http://www.metmuseum.org

Goethe House German Cultural Center at 82nd Street
http://www.goethe.de/uk/ney/enindex.htm

The Frick Collection at 70th Street (may be a little too far south to really be part of Museum Mile -- but I like the Frick -- so sue me!)
http://www.frick.org

What would any virtual tour be without. . . .

Posted: Tue Feb 13, 2007 9:05 am
by Elaine
The Park

See one of New York City's greatest treasures and what will become one of Catherine's favorite places (once she meets Vincent tonight at the release party) (okay, okay -- I know she's known him for twenty years -- but I'm starting over, can't you tell? How else do I get to be twenty years younger in one fell swoop?)

The Official Site
http://www.centralparknyc.org/

Some info on events
http://www.centralpark.com/

A virtual tour of the park
http://www.nyctourist.com/central_park1.htm

Central Park

Posted: Wed Feb 14, 2007 5:39 am
by hanklove
Oh, Elaine, how neat to have a site that offers a virtual tour of Central Park! I have never been in the park but plan to visit in the spring...already have hubby's promise though it wasn't hard to get. I'm going to enjoy this 'tour' you've found for us.
Thanks! You are not only a gifted writer but a clever - younger - gal!!!
hanklove

The Tunnels

Posted: Wed Feb 14, 2007 7:07 am
by Elaine
So -- for those of us who already got our DVDs, Vincent found Catherine last night and she found herself beneath the city in -- drum roll, please--- The Tunnels.

What an amazing, frightening, wondrous experience it would have been. To tell you the truth, I think she took it all much more calmly than I would have -- not being particularly fond of caverns and caves and having something of an aversion to even the possibility of rats.

But -- if it really had happened last night instead of back in 1987 -- she would have been able to go to the internet and find out a little more about this strange world she'd found herself in -- waking from a nightmare into what must surely have seemed a surreal dream. And had she gone to the internet, she could have looked at:

Abandoned subway tunnels
http://www.columbia.edu/~brennan/abandoned/

Read up on their inhabitants in a controversial (as in, many people doubt its accuracy) book called The Mole People
http://www.amazon.com/Mole-People-Life- ... 155652241X

Summaries and dissents can be found here:
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/040109.html

and here:
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/040305.html

And even looked at some photographs from Below:
http://www.atlasmagazine.com/photo/sacha6/

Enjoy!

Elaine

Posted: Wed Feb 14, 2007 8:03 am
by hanklove
How do we thank you for all of these amazing sites?!!! You are too good to us!
hanklove

Posted: Wed Feb 14, 2007 11:54 am
by Kat
Thanks Elaine!!

Posted: Wed Feb 14, 2007 12:02 pm
by hanklove
Elaine, the light coming into the Amtrak tunnel photo is...BLUE!
I'm loving these photos of the 'tunels' and Central Park was so surprising! I'd no idea all of that existed in the Park! First nice day that comes along we will be there to begin touring...and watching for the Tunnel kids, Catherine...Vincent!
Thank you. Thank you very much!
hanklove

2008

Posted: Wed Feb 14, 2007 10:55 pm
by Cosi
Wow! I knew very few of those websites.
I can't wait to visit the City at last after the 2008 NJ con :-))

The Protectors

Posted: Thu Feb 15, 2007 10:50 am
by Elaine
If you've had a chance to watch Terrible Savior on your new DVDs, you may have been wishing there was such an organization as The Protectors -- and some of you may already know that there is.

Find out about the Guardian Angels at their official website
http://www.guardianangels.org/

or on Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guardian_Angels

Escape from New York

Posted: Fri Feb 16, 2007 1:25 am
by Elaine
Escape from New York? Well, no. Not really. Vincent can't and Catherine doesn't like to be away from him. In fact, like most New Yorkers, there's a good chance she wouldn't be happy away from the City even if Vincent wasn't a consideration.

But, if you wanted to leave New York, your options are a little limited. Manhattan is an island and there are only so many ways in and out. Of course you could fly or take a boat--and maybe we'll look at those possibilities later--but for now let's consider The Bridges.

The island of Manhattan is surrounded by bridges. There are 2,027 bridges in New York City, according to one source. With that many bridges, it's no wonder our episodes almost always start with a bridge in one of the opening shots.

Want to see some of them?

Here are two sites with pictures of several bridges:
http://www.wirednewyork.com/bridges/
http://cryptome.org/nycbnt/nycbnt-eyeba ... %20Bridges

And some sites devoted to single bridges:

Verazzano Narrows Bridge
http://www.mta.info/bandt/html/veraz.htm

Brooklyn Bridge
http://www.endex.com/gf/buildings/bbridge/bbridge.html

George Washington Bridge
http://www.nycroads.com/crossings/george-washington/

Triborough Bridge
http://www.nycroads.com/crossings/triborough/

And, of course, the bridge I take most often, and the one with the most direct link to our favorite show --

"The city seen from the Queensboro Bridge is always the city seen for the first time, in its first wild promise of all the mystery and the beauty in the world."
-- F. Scott Fitzgerald in The Great Gatsby (and Catherine's cab driver in A Distant Shore)

http://www.nycroads.com/crossings/queensboro/