Travels in the 2nd half

  Over the past twenty years, many public spaces have begun celebrating the winter holiday season with light shows. One of the first that I was aware of was the San Diego Zoo. As the years have passed, many more places have joined them. This year, the New York Botanical Gardens added to their holiday celebration with NYBG Glow, their entry in the parade of light shows. NYBG Glow is a 1.5 mile walk through the gardens along paths that have been lined with lights and sculptures. The trees have been lit with changing colors. One of the high-lights is a show on the outside of the Mertz Library. Fronted by a row of Christmas trees and the Fountain of Life, colored lights and floral designs are projected on to the facade of the building. By the Conservatory there is the tunnel of lights, and the trees are decorated with “lighted roots”. The Gardens also host their yearly Model Railroad Show, and you can visit that for an added fee. And remember to save room for the excellent food sold b...

  My friend Mike in front of a large poster for Carter the Great Do you like those wonderful posters that advertise everything from movies to rye bread? Does good graphic design catch your eye? Well then, The Poster House is a place you should visit! The Poster Hous e is the first museum dedicated exclusively to commercially produced posters. It presents them, and places them in their artistic, social, and historical context. The museum is located on 23rd street, in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City. It was founded in 2015, and opened its doors in June 2019. While COVID closed its doors for most of 2020 and 2021, it recently reopened with three exhibits. The basement gallery hosts “You Won’t Bleed Me,” a show of posters from blaxploitation movies of the 1970’s. While often devisively dismissed, these low budget films played a key role in cinema history. During their heyday they were the only movies that consistently presented Black actors as heroes, taking on drug dealers...

  In 1924, R. H. Macy and Company decided to promote the start of the Christmas shopping season by holding a parade. On Thanksgiving morning, costumed employees of the store, along with animals borrowed from New York City’s Central Park Zoo, marched from 145th street and Convent Ave to the front of Macy’s store on 34th street. There, they welcomed Santa Claus, who appeared on a balcony above the street. While the animals are no longer used, and Santa now rides the entire route, Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade is still going strong. Macy's Parade in the 1920 from Cultureify.com The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade has been a yearly tradition for almost one hundred years, but it flashed into the national culture in 1947, when it was showcased in the movie “Miracle on 34th Street”. There is a tradition that the parade shares, one that used to be a New York insiders event - watching the inflation of the parade balloons on thanksgiving Eve. I say “used to be” because the crowds on Wednesda...