Tag: manhattan

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New York City Holiday Windows – Lord & Taylor

This is part of a series on New York City holiday windows for 2014. You can also see posts for Barney’s windows, Macy’s windows, Sak’s windows, Bergdorf-Goodman’s windows and Bloomingdale’s windows.

See the 2015 Lord & Taylor windows here.

For Lord & Taylor’s 2014 holiday windows, they chose a journey through the imagination, and mansions filled with creatures like mice, cardinals and other animals – plus an enchanted fairytale garden. Check it out.

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The birds are actually moving in the scene.

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New York City Holiday Windows – Macy’s

This is part of a series on New York City holiday windows for 2014. You can also see posts for Barney’s windows, Sak’s windows, Lord & Taylor windows, Bergdorf-Goodman’s windows and Bloomingdale’s windows.

Macy’s theme this year is about a boy too excited to sleep on Christmas Eve. So he takes out his telescope and sees Santa visiting other planets. So the windows revolve around planets and Santa/toys.

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Here you see Alex looking through his telescope at the night sky. The story is in the bottom part of the window.

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New York City Holiday Windows – Bloomingdale’s

This is part of a series on New York City holiday windows for 2014. You can also see posts for Barney’s windows, Macy’s windows, Sak’s windows, Lord & Taylor windows, and Bergdorf-Goodman’s windows.

The Bloomingdale’s main windows  were technology focused.

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You watch the bows move around between boxes and try to figure out which one it is. And you can play online.

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Guide to the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade 2014

The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade is celebrating its 88th year. If you haven’t already gmacysposter2one, maybe now’s the time. You’ll join 3.5 million people watching from the streets and windows, and an estimated 50 million sitting in front of the TV. As for participants? A whopping 8,000 are marching, wielding balloon strings or on floats. Look for some fun stats toward the bottom.

The parade is on Thanksgiving morning, this year it’s November 27 at 9 a.m. It takes about 90 minutes for the parade to make it from the start to the finish. Navigating the parade with kids isn’t that hard if you’re prepared. And that’s what we’re here for – your family guide to the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade!

Balloon Inflation

Even if you can’t go for the parade, the giant balloon inflation is open to the public the Wednesday before the parade, on November 26th. Head over to the Museum of Natural History, entering the inflation area at 79th Street and Columbus Avenue. The inflation goes from 3-10 p.m. Here’s a behind the scenes guide to the making of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade balloons. Continue reading “Guide to the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade 2014”

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Visiting the 9/11 Memorial

Last time I was near the World Trade Center, the fences were still up and you needed tickets to get into the memorial area. That is no longer the case, as of May. This September 11 is the first anniversary of the memorial. You can just walk into the plaza now and visit. I’ll give more information on the bottom – you can see pictures from my visit as you scroll down.

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There was something very sacred about the woman’s work cleaning and polishing the metal holding the names.

 

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You can see a short video of what the World Trade Center 9/11 Memorial pool looks like here. Continue reading “Visiting the 9/11 Memorial”

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9/11 Museum Review – Should You Take Kids?

This summer I went to the 9/11 Memorial and Museum. I went without my kids because I wanted to see if it was appropriate for them, and also wanted the time to go through there without the pressure of “I want to leave!” “I’m hungry!” “Are you almost done?”

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You can see the museum in the background – it’s the lower building just above the treeline on the left/center.

I’ll get into details about tickets, timing etc. at the bottom, along with age issues. I’ll also save my grand overarching thoughts about the museum for the end, so if you’re just looking for that, scroll to the bottom area. First I’d like to lead you through the museum. Continue reading “9/11 Museum Review – Should You Take Kids?”

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Review: Jeff Koons Retrospective at the Whitney – Should you Bring Kids?

I had one thought when walking up to the Whitney Museum, to see the Jeff Koons’ retrospective. Thank God we were getting in via the corporate sponsor ticket line. That regular line snaked out the building and around the corner, and it was LONG. We only had to wait behind four people who were either members or also worked for corporate sponsors. The lesson here: if you aren’t either category, expect a long line.

The vacuum cleaner room
The vacuum cleaner room

I learned a bit about Jeff Koons during my modern art history college classes, but after going through this four story retrospective, I realized just how little I actually knew. Get the free audio guide (you can listen to parts of it here) or take a tour. The signage is good too, but it’s nice having a little extra information. The retrospective covers 1978 to present, with 150 objects on display.

The inflatables room, with mirrors
The inflatables room, with mirrors

The exhibit is broken up into sections based on his genre of work/time period. They were all quite different and diverse, and the way they organized it provides an excellent way to see his progression of art and what concepts he worked with at that time. The first section (The New) was the vacuum cleaner one – first picture on top. He was exploring the interaction between the viewer and the object, using only new vacuum cleaners that had the added anthropomorphic ability to express life/death, male/female (phallic bag/womb of suckage) etc. Not such an interesting gallery for us, I’ll say. Continue reading “Review: Jeff Koons Retrospective at the Whitney – Should you Bring Kids?”

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Review: Fuerza Bruta Wayra NYC – Good for Kids?

My husband saw a Fuera Bruta show a few years back and has been telling me I’d love it. It’s a hard show to explain. It’s like a combination of performance art and Cirque du Soleil type acrobatics in the air (though not as technically difficult) but in a club atmosphere. The show goes on above you, to the side of you, behind you…you get the point.

When you enter the theater, the red lights are glowing like in a club, and you just stand there. You do not sit at all during the show, and the staff will move you around depending on what scene is coming up. They’ll use hand motions to move you. Just hang on to those in your party and back up or move to the side – whatever they tell you. It’s not the best place to go if you’re truly claustrophobic.

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In case you’re wondering (I was), Fuerza Bruta Wayra means “brute force wind” and the show was founded in Argentina. The name does help explain why many of the show elements did include wind! The show has live music (mostly drumming) and singing, but no words other than the words of the main song, which basically sounds like a backdrop. There’s no storyline either. It’s like a series of vignettes. Of course you can interpret themes like man’s struggle against the movement of time, or various emotions, or entrapment or whatever you want. I’m not sure what’s behind it, but you can just stand there and enjoy it without reading too much into it.  Continue reading “Review: Fuerza Bruta Wayra NYC – Good for Kids?”

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Review: If/Then on Broadway – Appropriate for Kids?

I will admit that the main draw to me getting If/Then on Broadway tickets was to see/hear Idina Menzel perform. And the concept of the show interested me too – a look at one woman’s life depending on which choices she made. Like in the movie Sliding Doors.

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The gist is that 38 year old Elizabeth moves back to New York City from Phoenix (my hometown – they had a few jokes at the city’s expense). She’s out of a relationship and looking for work. The show goes back and forth between two different scenarios: she takes a job as an urban planner or she takes a job as a professor. She hooks up with a stranger/soldier she meets in the park and gets married and has kids. Or she hooks up with her former best friend, has an abortion, loses him and lives a spinster life for a few years. Continue reading “Review: If/Then on Broadway – Appropriate for Kids?”

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Review: Avengers at Discovery Times Square with Kids

We love going to the shows at Discovery Times Square, and were excited about the world premier of Marvel’s Avengers S.T.A.T.I.O.N., because it involves superheroes and was high tech.

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In case you’re wondering (because I was), S.T.A.T.I.O.N. stands for Scientific Training and Tactical Intelligence Operative Network. I won’t be typing it out that way in the future. Too much!

The first thing you’ll do when you get there (aside from getting your tickets and checking your bags) is to go to a computer kiosk and print out an identification card. Don’t think too hard about this, because I’m not sure they actually use any of the information, other than pulling up your name once or twice in the exhibit (more later). My husband chose the name Thunderbutt Jones, just because. Also, while I put in my email address, I didn’t get any emails within one week – so not sure what that’s about. It’s good I’m not getting spam, but I thought I’d get some kind of results emailed to me.

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Continue reading “Review: Avengers at Discovery Times Square with Kids”

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