My first weekend is only half over and I’ve managed
to do a lot of fun stuff and explore a fair amount. I went downtown again, spending most of my
time in Battery Park and then a little in Brooklyn as well. To think, I spent an entire day down there
and still missed stuff.
I did research when I woke up about what trains to
take and what stops to get off at, because honestly the whole generic tall
building thing is really confusing to me still.
I decided to hit up The NYPD museum first. I decided to get off the subway a stop early
at Wall Street and take a look at that famous street…where someone is making
money and it’s never you. Also saw that
bronze bull…which I honestly thought was right on Wall Street…not even
close. Speaking of not getting close, I
couldn’t even get close to that Bull…so mannyyyy tourists. Then I started making my way to 100 Old Slip
(NYPD museum) and I pretty much just ran into Battery Park…here’s what I saw
there:
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| Found The Men in Black HQ....in case you were curious, I don't know if I made it in there or not...I feel like 30 minutes of my life is just missing, like some older gentleman with a slight Southern accent wiped my memory with a shiny blue light...I know weird |
FINALLY got to the museum! Apparently, today was their annual NYPD car
show, so cruisers from pretty much the beginning through present time were out
there. People there were telling me this was a big deal, so I'm glad I got there on the right day...even though I didn't mean to...yeah I'm awesome like that. The museum is inside the NYPD’s
old Precinct #1, I guess a fitting location you could say. Here are some pictures of that part of it:
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| seriously, what highway |
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| vintage cop cah's |
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| It'd stink to get into a gun fight as a cop, but it'd also suck to parallel park |
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| you got radios in this squad car? Nope, I've got a telephone that doesn't call base, reprogrammed it to call Little Italy Pizzeria II |
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| wow, 100 mph was a thing back then? |
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| here, lets switch from Ford to Plymouth...this one look pretty cool.... |
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| this one's legit though...I'd love to be involved in a high speed pursuit of a mo-ped in one of these things...I feel like I could be in Adam 12 in this car (if you get the reference, you just dated yourself) |
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| maybe this is more Adam 12ish |
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| seriously...a station wagon AND highway patrol...I'd be embarrassed to get pulled over by this thing! |
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| In case you couldn't see |
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| Finally,a more parallel-parking-friendly cruiser design |
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| BATMOBILE!!!!! I guess it fits into the whole crime fighting motif... |
While I was out there, I saw an entire road just
blocked off and a police cruiser with “Motion Picture Unit” on the side. If you know me, you’ll know that what I did
next is in no way out of the ordinary or anything like that. I approached a guy with a walkie-talkie and
asked him what was going on…a total stranger; but the guy had a walkie-talkie
and looked official so it seemed like a good call. So you can exhale, it was. This guy – I didn’t get his name – was in Fox
20th Century’s “On Location Team.”
It’s their job to coordinate with the city or town or barren wasteland
(depending on the shoot) to make sure they can get the location Fox needs. The film I found of from him was “The Secret
Life of Walter Bitty,” the third re-boot it looks like of a comedy movie about
a guy who hallucinates frequently or something like that…the guy from Fox was
trying to explain the scant details he could without violating his
confidentiality agreement with Fox. The
scene they were filming he told me had been under way for about 3 hours by the
time I got there. It legit was just cars
driving down 2 blocks over and over again…I stayed for 3 takes and that was
enough for me. Ben Stiller’s 2 stunt
doubles were there…Kirsten Wiig and Ben Stiller were not there however, which
would have made it cooler. The guy from
Fox let me stand in front of the barrier in the middle of the road behind where
they were shooting when I told him I was working for NBC, he said as “a fellow
broadcaster I could appreciate what it takes to get a good shot.” Although I explained to him I don’t work in
the broadcasting part of NBC this summer – but that I have a lot of experience
elsewhere – he was adamant about it.
Maybe I should have given him my card…or maybe I should print out
card-sized resumes or something. Here
are the pics I got of that:
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| This exhibit brought a ton of emotions back. I am not personally effected by this event as firefighters, cops, buisnessmen, journalists, etc were; but walking in here...well it was tough to watch the video they had |
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| taken from one of the planes that hit in NY |
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| They had a display case across from this that had AP images of 3 cops helping people at Ground Zero, as I read I saw they were all killed that day in the line of duty...one of the cops killed, her family loaned the badge and belt she was wearing that day to the museum...it was tough to look at; but I understand why it's there. |
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| lots of cars..... |
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| Hall of Hero's; every cop killed in the line of duty since the NYPD's incorporation in the 1800's |
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| A lot of the badges have a date then "9/11 line of duty;" that represents the officers who died from complications brought about by exposure to debris on The Pile |
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| badges changed significantly throughout time. |
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| You have a navy, air force, special forces and intelligence but no motorcycles.... |
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| And a cavalry too! |
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| Before they found out fingerprints exist, they took mug shots of criminals and wrote descriptive notes on the reverse, because really no one ever thought about changing their appearance until the cops started to check fingerprints |
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| The last beam brought out of Ground Zero |
I went over to a pub on Stone Street right nearby to
get lunch and catch a bit of the World Cup Qualifying matches. Lunch was good, but they tried to charge me
$50 bucks on accident by handing me the wrong check! I was attentive, and I knew I didn’t order 2
steaks, a burger, 3 pints of Guinness and a scoop of vanilla ice cream. The waitress tried to deny her mistake, can
you believe that?! Then the bar tender
came over and said she remembered exactly what I got because she brought the
food to me…so she rang me up with the right price for lunch…$12. Needless to say (but I’ll say it anyway) I
gave the bartender a tip and not the
waitress.
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| Lunch was nice; I ended up eating outside with everyone else on the street, but I wanted to get a shot of the nice establishment inside |
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| The Old Customs House |
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| happens to be home to the Smithsonian's American Indian Museum |
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| absolutely BEAUTIFUL inside |
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| the murals on the ceiling of the rotunda harken back to the days it served as Customs House |
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| This reminded me of London...I wish NYC would upgrade more of their stations |
Next stop, Brooklyn!
The NY Transit Museum was the planned stop of the day, and this time –
since it’s Brooklyn we’re talking about here – I kept my head down and went
right to the museum and back out. I’m
sure Brooklyn is safe for the most part, but I wasn’t taking any chances. Now, I spent a TON of time at the Transport
for London Museum in Covent Garden last spring, so I was preparing to be critical
of what The Metropolitan Transit Authority put together. I still enjoyed The TFL museum more, but MTA’s
was actually in an old station underground, which made it so much cooler than
TFL’s purpose-built museum. I’d say that’s
the only way The Underground could make their presentation better. The 2 tracks
in the station are live, with a working signal room and huge gates that open up
on to working Subway tracks. Like most museums,
The MTA can only display 10% of their collection…which means they occasionally swap-out
the vintage cars on the tracks. Here are
the crap ton of pictures I took:
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| already, look at the spelling...looks good, right? |
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| ...still good here... |
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| ....still good all across here.... |
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| ...here's fine too... |
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| ....that's good... |
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| they guy got so tired of writing "Court," he decided to mix it up...or he got lazy...or it should be "Urt Street" and everything else is spelled wrong...I'm still undecided here |
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| This museum had its own cat...seriously it's own cat |
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| Her tag said "Sadie" on it...with an MTA logo and a "property of MTA" imprint on the reverse side |
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| she was so cute...annnd big |
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| they're so creative...this car is c. 1964ish |
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| this car looked like it should smell....and it didn't...that caught me off guard |
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| early air conditioning was a ceiling fan that worked less than half the time...they had to bend the edges so it'd fit in the car...God forbid they spend money on a more effective air circulation system |
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| look how simple the map used to be...I probably wouldn't get lost as often as I have |
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| revenue car...that doesn't look like revenue that I could spend...maybe it's different in New York |
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| The revenue car would go station to station at night to collect the fares compiled throughout the day |
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| this map looks a lot like London...why did they have to channnggeee it!?!?! |
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| ceiling fan...but now it's in a fancy case! |
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| this looks like a supped (is that spelled right....?) up go cart...I want to take it for a spin |
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| what's with these ceiling fans |
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| A time when people actually talked to each other on the subway |
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| bunch of signs from across the Subway |
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| real red signal |
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| signal box...this controls what trains go and stay from each station |
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| this is the map the signal man refers to |
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| Yes it's blurry, I couldn't use flash, sorry. It's called a tower b/c they all used to be above ground when NYC used elevated rail |
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| bus cab |
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| not a real bus for all you geniuses |
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| M stands for Metro...which is cooler than an S for Subway...that's a place I get sandwiches at..not where I go for public transportation...the only way that'd work is if they put Subway sandwich shops in the NYC subway... |
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| this is how you get into the Metro (I'm just gonna call it that now) today |
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| This is the kind of fare collector used during the Worlds Fair...ish...when they accepted Tokens...if you ever used a "Y" cut-out token, you're old FYI |
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| hey look the entrance to the museum I forgot to take on the way down |
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| the exit's just like the one I just saw a couple minutes ago!!!! SSOOOOO COOOOL |
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| This was in the Signal Tower...keep anything that burns away from the signal box...if that goes down, then a lengthy part of the line goes down |
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| these are active lines on both sides; these doors open to live rails as I understand it. The "red over red" signal you see there is a message to the train to stop and hold at the station for rail and station platform ahead on the line to clear up |
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| long lost time when people were nice and socialized and didn't fear each other |
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| I'm glad they got rid of this color...but the silver makes me think I'm still in the Cold War, when bombers had this shiny silver finish |
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| I loved the advertisements...if you look closely.... |
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| ...you see the date as 1925... |
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| this is the destination board for the Worlds Fair Special |
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| Does this look like a car you had once (paint scheme)? Then you're a redneck...nahh just kidding..you're old |
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| see the seat in the bottom right here...that wall is a privacy wall thing....wouldn't you feel like things were more private with this? |
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| this rolls (again, pun so intended) above ground |
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| locomotive...I forgot what it was used to tow |
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| I went back to that World's Fair car, and saw this advert....raise your hand if you remember Pez (or gas) costing this much..... |
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| I'm not really into science, but I'm pretty sure it's impossible for a skinny model to balance on a surf board with a gigantic can of beer |
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| ...options... |
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| lets socialize and go to our destination at the same time...I know it's crazy |
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| At least the Central Park courts are still around... |
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| Forest Hills is where The US Open used to be played before they moved to Flushing Meadows |
Tomorrow I think I’ll head up town to Central Park
and take a couple hours to look around that place. I’ve been having a ton of fun so far, and
what’s great about it, is I get to work at NBC.
I use “work” lightly, because honestly it’s fun to be there with
everyone else when I’m on shift. I’m
glad the stars aligned for me to be here this summer. Annnnd this is what I plan to do right now:
“I
usually take a two hour nap from one to four”
~Yogi Berra
Until next time, stay tuned…..
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