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I really want to stay but I am already starting to turn.......And you should scream 'til you're red in the face. But I won't hear most of what you say Cause I'm already starting to turn.......by Andrew Paul Woodworth
www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXFOjWkLg-E
None stop drizzle and water droplets from Live Oak at my backyard as cold front passing thru Austin and it seems to me the leaf in red is asking the leaf in Green to stay Green but...
Round Rock and Central Texas
Nikon D300S, 135mm F/2 DC
RAW file converted by Nikon Capture NX 2
Corner darken with Nik Color Efex Pro 3
I started capturing ice and frost 6 or 7 years ago with an old point and shoot. This is again this time of the year but I still have to master my DSLR and macro lens for this type of close-up. It will come.
Located in Buckler's Forest, Crowthorne on the site of the former Transport Research Laboratory, a steep 1 in 6 hill, known as Hill Start Hill, a man made hill used to test handbrakes and hill starts, and to see how vehicles would cope with a steep gradient.
Start Bay, South Hams, Devon
Start Point is one of the most exposed peninsulas on the English Coast, running sharply almost a mile into the sea on the South side of Start Bay near Dartmouth, The lighthouse sited at the very end of the headland has guided vessels to safe passage along this part of the coast for over 150 years.
As the autumn winds start to blow my mind wanders back to the sweaty, sun soaked dances of summer. In this moment a young boy gets his first taste of centre stage in the drum circles of Montreal's Tam Tam.
To follow me on my photographic journey check out my blog at www.correctlyexposed.blogspot.ca.
It started with the now iconic Snowman by Raymond Briggs, but to celebrate the 30th anniversary of that book, Raymond Briggs created a follow up, called the Snowdog, where the boy creates a dog out of snow, which comes to life.
Wild in Art have created a Winter sculpture trail of just 12 dogs, which this year have been in Buxton, Derbyshire. At the end of the trail they were auctioned off to raise funds for Blythe House Hospice.
The Crescent was built by the 5th Duke of Devonshire in the 1780s as the centrepiece of Georgian Buxton, which was fast becoming a spa town. It was designed by John Carr of York to house 2 hotels and private lodging houses for those "taking the waters".
It's had various uses over the years, including housing the public library for a while. In 2003 a consortium of partners joined to renovate the property and it's now once again a hotel and spa.
Although it's still officially Spring in Europe my kids associate the start of Summer with my bringing the trampoline out of hibernation.
Outfit is From:Cats n' Kittens Boutique ~ Veronica Jeans Set (Both Blue & Black Sets)
Store: maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Mystique%20Isle/33/94/2300
DropBack Cove
maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Brethren%20Cove/63/31/22
Hair: Doux Brandie
lets blow away our past (see comments)
HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE
I'm so glad 2009 is over with, I just want to start new and create a new life for me.
I have so many resolutions that I just decided to simply make it:
To be happy with myself and my decisions.
so yes thats what I will be working to do. I was starting to really hate who I was all around, so this year I'm going to work to change that.
Also my 365 project is over in 26 days. :D
I am so pumped. It's been a long year, but I've made it, even if I have felt like I needed to quit multiple times, I kept going, so I'm very proud of myself :)
I also am applying to get into a PVA dance class in high school, and the application/ essay or whatever is due in 6 days? - just found out today D:
school starts in 4 days :(
I really really just want to be on winter break for a while longer. I'm not done having a break from everything.
I need to get a grip on everything and myself, before I go back to school and all the shit I really don't want to have to deal with.
Gdy dzieci są starsze, rozmawiają z rodzicami o czymś, co
naprawdę pragną robić.
Rodzice mówią: „A skąd weźmiemy na to pieniądze?”.
Dzieci oczywiście nie wiedzą. Pieniądze przecież nie rosną na drzewach.
W ten sposób daje im się do zrozumienia, że muszą porzucić swoje marzenia. I porzucają.
Niestety to programowanie następuje już w bardzo młodym wieku. Nazywamy to warunkowaniem środowiskowym.
Jest ono wszechobecne.
Jeśli czegoś pragniemy, ale nie wiemy skąd wziąć na to pieniądze, jesteśmy zaprogramowani tak, by uznać, że należy to marzenie porzucić.
A circa 1906 staged photo featuring the men and equipment of DCFD Engine Company No 1 at 1643 K Street NW. The building has been renumbered "4" for reasons unknown.
The Park Central Hotel (formerly the Omni Park Central, The Park Sheraton)
870 7th Avenue
New York, NY
Construction started in 1926 on the Park Central Hotel. The 25-story renaissance revival style building at 870 Seventh Avenue was designed by Gronenberg & Leuchtag. The 1,600 room hotel was named Park Central due to its close proximity to Central Park, its rooms though, did not have actual views of the park. Previously at this location was the Van Corlear apartment house, designed by Henry Hardenbergh for builder Edward Clark and put up in 1878.
Gronenberg & Leuchtag were noted for many of Manhattan's apartment buildings and for one previous hotel - the Times Square Hotel (now the Common Ground Times Square Building - housing for 652 low income individuals) built in 1922 located at 255 West 43rd Street.
The hotel was built for approximately $15 million in the pre-Depression building frenzy of the late-twenties; its grand opening took place on June 12, 1927. The NY Times described the hotel as 31-stories and had a swimming pool and an elaborate roof garden. The hotel's mural paintings were done by William Clark Rice and J Scott Williams. The hotel's lobby had wood carvings and marble designed by Leo Lentelli. In 1929 the hotel opened a sales office in Paris, France.
The owner was Harry A. Lanzer who operated the 1,600 room hotel through the Great Depression and managed to make ends meet and hold on to it until he sold it in 1948 to the Sheraton Corporation of America. Ernest Henderson, president of the Sheraton Corp., led the negotiations, and the Park Central Hotel became the 28th hotel within the Sheraton chain - renamed Park Sheraton Hotel.
*Arnold Rothstein Murder*
Arnold Rothstein was known coast to coast as the nation's most notorious gambler. He was heading to a meeting in room 349 of the Park Central Hotel on Sunday, November 4, 1928, but never made it. He was found shot and mortally wounded in a first floor service corridor at the Park Central Hotel.
Rothstein had lost $300,000 at a 3-day poker game in September of 1928 and refused to pay the debt. More famously he was known as the man behind the Black Sox scandal in which the 1919 World Series was fixed. No one is ever convicted of his murder. Rothstein's show biz girlfriend, Inez Norton, opens in the Broadway play "Room 349" at the National Theater (now the Nederlander Theatre) on April 21, 1930 - it closes after 15 performances.
*WPCH*
Prior to the Park Central opening the radio station WFBH (the Voice of Central Park) was given notice in 1927 its antenna located atop the Hotel Majestic would have to move since the Majestic was to be demolished. WFBH moved its broadcasting facilities and transmitting towers to the Park Central Hotel. The move to the Park Central Hotel ended the WFBH call letters and the station became known as WPCH, incorporating the new hotel's initials into their call sign. It seems that once the Park Central installed its electrical roof signage there were transmission problems and WPCH had to again relocate - this time to the Hotel McAlpin. WPCH went silent in 1933 and was absorbed by WMCA - named after its transmission tower location - the Hotel McAlpin.
*Wine Cellar*
Prohibition was lifted in 1933. The Park Central Hotel was opened without any consideration to the possibility of storing or serving alcoholic beverages. To prepare for the expected demand of wine and spirits the NY Times reported Park Central Hotel's Chief Steward, J.J. Mullins, authorized the excavation through the hotel's bed rock of a wine cellar some 30 feet below the hotel. The wine cellar would hold up to 150,000 bottles. In those days it was thought that vibrations from subways would rattle the wine and spoil it, hence the need to go in to the bedrock.
*Albert Anastasia Murder*
Albert Anastasia was a founder of the American Mafia. A Brooklyn gangster, he was an accomplished underworld enforcer, earning the nickname of "Lord High Executioner." Anastasia was gunned down in what was probably the most sensational public and daytime assassination in mob history.
On the morning on October 25, 1957, Anastasia went to his usual barber at Arthur Grasso's Barber Shop at the Park Sheraton Hotel for a shave and haircut. He sat in the fourth of twelve barber chairs manned by Joseph Bocchino. Starbucks is now located at approximately this location on the hotel's first floor at 55th Street and Seventh Avenue. According to www.mafiahistory.us two masked gunmen burst into the shop and unloaded handguns into the 55-year-old Anastasia's body. The former Murder Inc. chief was hit in his head, back, right hip and left hand. Witnesses said he lunged from the chair and attacked the reflection of his attackers in the mirror in front of him before collapsing dead in a pool of blood on the floor.
The murder has never been solved. The killing allowed Carlo Gambino to take control of the crime family that would now bear his name.
Two weeks after the killing the Park Sheraton Hotel attempted to evict the operator of the barber shop claiming the shop served objectionable patrons. Thomas C. de Veau, the Park Sheraton Manager said the Anastasia killing was a ghastly incident that resulted from Arthur Grasso's failure to heed the term of the lease for maintaining an orderly shop. The complaint alleged that Grasso solicited and encouraged the patronage in the barbershop of notorious underworld characters.
*Jackie Gleason*
In 1953 Jackie Gleason negotiated a two year deal with CBS TV to produce 39 episodes of the Honeymooners to be filmed live at the Adelphi Theater. Upon signing the contract Gleason leased a penthouse atop the Park Sheraton Hotel to be the headquarters of his entertainment company. The 7-room 23rd floor suite had a terrace and sweeping views of Manhattan. According to www.drunkard.com Gleason outfitted the penthouse with a pool table, dance studio and four bars, staffed by a live-in bartender. It resembled a sultan’s palace more than a place of business. Gleason used the penthouse from 1953 to 1957, the heady years of ''The Honeymooners.''
In 1987 the Omni Park Central Hotel named "the Great One's” penthouse suite ''The Jackie Gleason Suite''.
Hilton New York owned the Adelphi Theater (demolished in 1970) which was adjacent to the hotel and held the site for expansion. In 1989 an office tower 1325 Avenue of the Americas was built on the site.
*Eleanor Roosevelt*
Eleanor Roosevelt was the niece of President Theodore Roosevelt and married her father's fifth cousin, Franklin D. Roosevelt who was president from 1933 to 1945. After FDR's death, the First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt rented suites at the Park Sheraton Hotel from 1950 to 1953. She returned to the Park Sheraton Hotel in 1958 as she waited for renovations on a new house to be completed. During the 1950's long term guests were using the 202 West 56th Street address (today 200 West 56th Street is the address for the Manhattan Club).
According to a 1956 Walter Winchell column it was Eleanor Roosevelt who forced the hand of hotel management to cover the bare breasted mermaids hanging from the Mermaid Room's ceiling. The room was celebrated for its Mermaids... but Eleanor Roosevelt complained the undraped sea sirens were indecent. Bras made of fish net were made to cover their frontages.
*The Mermaid Room*
The Mermaid Room was established on the main floor of the Park Central Hotel in the late 40's. Its fare was cocktails, steak, lobster lamb chops with dinner music 6.30 to 9.30pm and star entertainment from 10pm to 4am. The Mermaid Room had a large curvaceous bar and dance floor. It was known for its four very large terra cotta mermaids on the walls.
The Mermaid Room was designed by night club designer Franklin Hughes - live orchids in his night clubs was his signature. He also designed the decor for El Morocco and the Copacabana.
Irving Fields and his Trio found a home at the Mermaid Room and played for 16 years, 1950 to 1966. His hits included Miami Beach Rhumba and "Managua Nicaragua." Other Mermaid Room entertainers included pianist Belle Gale, Rosa Linda, The Milt Herth Trio, the Pepe Morreale Trio and the renowned organist, Ashley Miller.
*Cocktail Hostess Sues Widow of Park Sheraton Hotel Manager for Husband's Estate*
In 1952 Ralph H. Freeman was appointed General Manager of the Park Sheraton. He brought with him from the Sheraton Hotel in Chicago his mistress Delores Dunn, a cocktail lounge hostess. Freeman died unexpectedly in 1957 at the age of 54. A lawsuit was filed by Dunn against Freeman's widow for $100,000 claiming she had a relationship with Freeman for 8 years, that he induced her to move to New York and performed all the nursing, housework and cooking for him. Freeman had been a prominent hotelier serving as a director for the New York Convention and Visitors Bureau and a director for New York City Hotel Association. At his death he was the Sheraton Hotel's Regional Manager for the Atlantic Division.
*70's and 80's*
The Park Sheraton Hotel changed its name to the New York Sheraton in 1972. A press release issued by Jim Sheeran, the public relations spokesperson for the Sheraton chain said there was a corporate decision made to boost New York and the West Side of New York with the name change.
In May, 1983 V.M.S. Realty, a Chicago-based national real estate investment firm, acquired the New York Sheraton Hotel, on Seventh Avenue between 55th and 56th Streets, from the Sheraton Corporation. V.M.S. paid $60 million for the 1,450- room hotel, at the time the city's fifth largest. V.M.S contracted with Dunfey Hotels Corporation (owned by Aer Lingus) to manage the hotel. Peter R. Morris, the chairman of V.M.S., called the acquisition a ''once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.'' He added that the company's decision to take over the Sheraton reflected its strong belief in the renaissance taking place on the West Side between Times Square and Lincoln Center. In January 1984 Dunfey changed the name to Omni Park Central. V.M.S. and Dunfey provided the 1,450 room hotel with $15 million in improvements. Philip Grosse was the Omni Park Central's general manager in 1984.
Since its beginning in 1977, V.M.S. has acquired 3,500 hotel and motel units. VMS was one of the largest real estate syndicators, raising more than $1.5 billion through more than 100 real-estate limited partnerships. The firm's hotel properties included the Boca Raton Hotel in Florida, Four Seasons Hotel in Santa Barbara, California and Caneel Bay in the Virgin Islands. By 1989 VMS Realty Partners disclosed that it is suffering cash-flow problems and would replace its top management and lay off some of its 500 employees. The dismantling of VMS Realty Partners was one of the largest liquidations in real estate history.
*Ian Bruce Eichner and The Manhattan Club*
In 1995 New York developer Ian Bruce Eichner acquired the Omni Park Central Hotel in a bankruptcy sale from VMS Partners for $60.225 million. The hotel has more than 1,430 rooms and is the fifth largest in the city with more than 800,000 square feet. That translates into a purchase price of $42,115 per room. Upscale hotels were selling at that time for per room prices ranging from $75,000 to $200,000. Eichner said the Sheraton hotel chain still held the first mortgage for V.M.S that had failed in the early 90's. Sheraton agreed to maintain the mortgage for Eichner who had bid $60 million -- or $20 million more than the next highest bidder.
Construction began in 1996 on a $40 million conversion of half the 26-story Park Central Hotel into New York City's first time-share condominium. Eichner would keep the eastern half of the building as a "lower-end hotel" with its entrance on Seventh Avenue. They would have separate lobbies, separate entrances, separate heating systems. The western half transformed to a 360-unit time-share operation called the Manhattan Club, with a new entrance on 56th Street. The "intervals" or weekly shares initial price for seven days' use a year of a 650-square-foot one-bedroom would be $15,000; a two-bedroom will be $23,000. Annual maintenance fees would average $575, including real estate taxes. Manhattan Club buyers would be able to trade their weeks for any one of Resorts Condominium International's (RCI) 3,500 locations in 85 countries. Eichner thought that if The Manhattan Club ever sells out, there is a whole other side-full of rooms to tap! A sell-out of the timeshares would produce more than $300 million.
Eichner was developing a product that had never before been offered in New York City. Eichner even negotiated with the hotel unions to come up with a set of job rules and qualifications for a time share project.
The 1996 cleaning of the hotel's 1925 Tuscan Renaissance facade -- found a beautiful mixture of arches, bas relief squirrels, deer and pelicans and Corinthian half columns that had been hidden for years by gold-colored aluminum panels.
In July 2011 Ian Bruce Eichner, the developer and the operator of The Manhattan Club, was sued for fraud by five buyers of time-shares in The Manhattan Club. According to the documents they are alleging fraud and “breach of implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing.” The timeshare owners allege that Eichner is not granting them access to their timeshares, despite their attempts to book up to nine months in advance, and is instead renting them out to the general public.
*Mony Mony*
The 1740 Broadway Building shares the block with the Park Central Hotel and was once the headquarters of the MONY (Mutual of New York). In 1968 the insignia "MONY" was located where *1740* is today. Tommy James was struggling with the lyrics for a new song when he looked out of his apartment building in New York and saw the sign "MONY".
Sung by Tommy James And The Shondells: "Here she comes now sayin' Mony Mony Shoot 'em down turn around come on Mony" …
*Recent Events*
In December 2004 the 935-room Park Central was sold by H. Park Central, LLC to Goldman's Whitehall Real Estate Funds and Highgate Hotels for $215,000,000 or $230,000 per room. Following this sell Bruce Eichner went on to develop the Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas however, in 2008 he defaulted on a $768 million construction loan from Deutchse Bank. Deutchse foreclosed on Eichner and took control of the property.
In October 2010 owners Rockpoint and Highgate Hotels put the 1,000-room Park Central Hotel on the market. The hotel had recently received a $65 million renovation.
In a January 2012 press release Lasalle Hotel Properties (LHO) announced it acquired the 934-room Park Central Hotel in New York City for $396.2 million. Michael D. Barnello, President and Chief Executive Officer of LaSalle Hotel Properties said “We remain excited about this well located New York City asset and our ability to acquire the hotel at an attractive purchase price.” Lasalle plans to implement a renovation of the hotel, currently estimated at between $30.0 and $35.0 million, including guestrooms and guest bathrooms, corridors and the hotel’s lobby. The renovation is expected to commence late 2012 and conclude during 2013. Highgate Holdings will continue to manage the Park Central.
All photos and text by Dick Johnson, February 2012
richardlloydjohnson@hotmail.com
212-832-0098
GO! GO! GO! GO! The Game is a'foot (lol) start posting!
I built this sign for a contest I'm running in the A "BAD SIGN" pool that starts tonight! Go check it out!
I believe its the first "Cash Contest" ever held in flickr!
The contest begins after I post this image in the pool.
C.C.
p.s. If your a contact of mine you've already been invited to join the pool ;^)
I know that these don't "go" together and I don't intend for them to, I've just pulled a random selection that I think might be up your alley, partner, so that you can let me know what direction to take. So please be brutally honest about which of these you may or may not like.
2016 CONCACAF Women's Olympic Qualifying
19 February 2016 - Houston, TX, USA
Canada Soccer by Mexsport
Christine Sincair
Diana Matheson
Erin McLeod
Desiree Scott
Allysha Chapman
Kadeisha Buchanan
Ashley Lawrence
Deanne Rose
Shelina Zadorsky
Sophie Schmidt
Josée Bélanger
GB Railfreight Class 92, 92038 prepares to take the Edinburgh portion of the Caledonian Sleeper Up Lowlander from Waverley to Carstairs, where it will join with the Glasgow portion.
This is the best part of the day - sitting down at my desk with a good strong coffee before the day begins.
Have a lovely day everyone!
Last bits of technology history, still found at a past home.
120 format film camera, maker/origin unknown, period: late 50-s or early 60s. Fixed focus lens, 2 switchable apertures and 2 shutter speeds (one is 'bulb' - indefinite). All-bakellite body, sturdy design (can probably knock nails into wood). Lens appears to be plastic, single element. Optical viewfinder, manual film wind. Pretty much the standard beginner specs of the time :)
Update: Traced the origins of this to East Germany (DDR). This appears to be the second model, which dates it approx to the 60-s.