Quixotic Queens
My trip to Queens was a real roller coaster ride. We started out meeting the group in Penn Station as scheduled at 11 AM. The Professor went over some basic rules and an expected itinerary for the day. We left Penn station and went down to one of the subway terminals. The subway terminal was very hot and very humid, with no ventilation. After about 15 minutes of waiting for the subway, there was an overhead announcement, and the Professor realized that due to weekend switches in the schedule, the subway train we planned on taking was not going to come. The Professor told us that there was a change in plans and we would have to do some walking and take a a few trains to get to Flushing Meadow Park.At that moment I thought to myself: " What? This is going to be interesting..." It was a rough walk. The temperature was 93 degrees Farenheit and it was a humid day. Due to the unexpected weekend train switches, we were behind schedule and there were students already waiting for us at the Park and there was no time to stop for a break or even for water. .Since we did not stop for a break, and we did not stop for water, by the time my group got to our destination we were sweating bullets. It was not a fun trip at the beginning of the day. Finally, we reached Flushing Meadow Park an hour and a half later than scheduled. I was just so glad to take a break from walking and sit down to be perfectly honest.
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Flushing Meadow Park
Flushing Meadow Park was such a serene place to visit. I learned that the park was originally The Corona Ash Dumps in the 1920's. In the 1930's, At that time the Ash Dumps were cleared out by Robert Moses to accommodate for the 1939-1940 World's Fair and it was renamed "Flushing Meadow Park." My favorite attraction at the Park was the "Unisphere". We were lucky to come to the Park this weekend because normally, the water sprouts that surround the Unisphere are not on, but because the US Open was taking place a the USTA Billie Jean King National tennis Center that was next door,, they were on this weekend so it was a great experience.I learned that day that The Unisphere was specifically made for the 1964-1965 World's Fair. It was designed by Gilmore D. Clarke and was constructed by the American Bridge Company. The structure is 12 stories high, 120 feet in diameter and weighs over 900,000 pounds. One of the reasons I like the Unisphere so much is because it made me feel so small. If you think about it, this structure is only a representation of a bigger world, so if I seem small compared to the Unisphere Structure, I'm truly minuscule in comparison to the real world. The Unisphere was built to symbolize "Man's achievements on a shrinking globe and an expanding universe" and global interdependence. Interesting concepts when you think about the time period these ideas came about- Post WWII and the Cold War. An interesting FYI about the Unisphere is that the builder encountered a problem. With all of the continents spaced out, the structure would have not been balanced. he decided to place all of the continents on the top of the structure. This made the structure top heavy and provided stability.
Queens Museum
The Queens Museum was not my favorite part of the day, but it was very informative and provided a lot of history. This museum of Art was originally the NYC building created for the 1939-1940 World's Fair. Later, it served as temporary headquarters for the United Nations from 1946-1951 before they took residence in Manhattan. Currently, the building houses the 3-D NYC Panorama model that was originally built for the 1964-1965 World's Fair. The Panorama covers more than 9.335 sq feet and contains almost 900,000 buildings. The scale it was built to is 1 inch to 100 feet. The Panorama includes every building contained in NYC that existed before 1992. The Twin Towers and PS 1 are still shown on the Panorama. PS 1 is now a Public Art Museum. If you look closely on the Panorama, the Public Schools each have a flashing white lights. Blue lights indicate police stations and red lights indicate fire stations. The bottom of the Panorama used to have black phosphorous lights, but it has since degraded and is no longer visible. Every 60 seconds, the airplanes make a complete circle from the airport that they departed from.The brick red buildings indicate public housing, while the pastel colored blue buildings indicate privately owned luxury buildings. The Museum tour guide showed us the Manhattan Skyscrapers. The reason the skyscrapers are built in the location they are is because they are built on top of the Manhattan Shist, which is very thick ans stable bedrock. Since the making of the Panorama, it has gone through 5 major updates. The Museum has decided to discontinue updating the Panorama and preserve the model and preserve the history of what NYC used to be. I think that's very practical. NYC is a place that changes in the blink of an eye and very few people take the time to take it in and preserve the history and experiences that are already here. I think its great that the Museum wants to preserve the model of the city the way it is and the way it used to be. Its also practical because the city structure and buildings change so rapidly that they would be updating this Panorama all the time. They would have a hard time keeping up with the updates. I was impressed with the Panorama. A lot of thought, organization, and detailing went into the model. If today in 2014, I thought it was cool, I cant imagine what was going through the minds of the People in 1964-1965 World's Fair. It must have blown their minds to get that kind of representation of the true NYC.
Lunch: The Jackson Diner
After we left the Queens Museum, we took yet another subway train. Boo. It was about 2 o'clock when we reached our destination for lunch. What was on the menu? Indian Food! I have never eaten Indian food before in my life. HOWEVER, I was so hungry and so thirsty, i was willing to eat anything at that point. I tried the red chicken, the rice, the chick pea soup, the potato medallion, and the grilled vegetables. I expected it to be spicy, but it wasn't. It was pretty refreshing to say the least. Delicious!!. A pleasant surprise and a positive new experience i can put under my belt. The restaurant we ate at was located in Jackson Heights. It was the called the Jackson Diner and it was in a part of Jackson Heights known as "Little India." Jackson Heights is a great place to visit if it is variety you are looking for. It is one of the most diverse neighborhoods in NYC, which makes it easy to sample the food inexpensively. Yum.
Astoria
After finishing lunch, we took another subway ride. This time, we went to Astoria. Astoria was originally known as Hallett's Cove after William Hallett. In the 19th Century, a deal was made with John Jacob Astor to invest $2,000 in return for having the land named after him. Astor partially renegaded on his side of the deal, but the name "Astoria" stuck and remains to this day. In the area, some parts were nice, maintained, well kept, modern, and newly built. Other parts of Astoria were definitely neglected, the buildings were old, falling apart, structures needed fixing, and the land itself just wasn't maintained like it should be. The parts of Astoria that were nice, clean, modern, and built up with modern food franchises are considered examples of gentrification. Gentrification is when lower class areas are taken over by people and/or businesses with money to develop the area and bring money/commerce to the area. The benefits of gentrification include nice shops and restaurants, nice curb appeal, and property values increase. Some drawbacks to gentrification include loss of preservation of the original area, and driving the original lower class people out of the neighborhood.
In 1919, Astoria became known as the center of film-making and home of the now Paramount Studios, which produced films such as Rudolf Valentino, WC Fields, and the Marx Brothers. In 1982, the former studio buildings were taken over by a real estate developer, George S. Kaufman. he intended to reintroduce film production to NY and renamed Kaufman Astoria Studios. Today, Kaufman Astoria Studios has expanded to become a 12 acre complex that produced notable movies, such as, Men in Black and the "Bourne" Series, and a number of tv shows, such as, Sesame Street, The Cosby Show, and Law and Order, among others.
In 1919, Astoria became known as the center of film-making and home of the now Paramount Studios, which produced films such as Rudolf Valentino, WC Fields, and the Marx Brothers. In 1982, the former studio buildings were taken over by a real estate developer, George S. Kaufman. he intended to reintroduce film production to NY and renamed Kaufman Astoria Studios. Today, Kaufman Astoria Studios has expanded to become a 12 acre complex that produced notable movies, such as, Men in Black and the "Bourne" Series, and a number of tv shows, such as, Sesame Street, The Cosby Show, and Law and Order, among others.
Museum of Moving Images
Shortly after arriving to Astoria, we went to the Museum of Moving Images. By this time of the day, I was exhausted, but I loved this Museum. I decided to start backwards on the third floor and work my way back towards the ground floor. The third floor was devoted to cartoons. A majority of the cartoons on display and the episodes playing were Bugs Bunny. The creator of Bugs Bunny was Chuck Jones. The museum had a bunch of his original sketch works on display. This floor unfortunately did not allow photography. What i found interesting was that Chuck Jones wrote that his inspiration for the way the cartoons mannerisms are is that he likes to create movements and mannerisms that are not found or repeatable in real life. I thought that was awesome and that, I think, is what made him a genius. Then I went down to the second floor where the film artifacts were held. They divided this floor into a few different sections. One section was devoted to head shots of actors/actresses. Among them, I spotted were Judy Garland, Lucille Ball, Clint Eastwood, Shirley Temple, and Catherine Hepburn. The next section was devoted to Hair/Makeup used in films. They had makeup that was used in 'Sex and the City', they had the green mask from "The Mask", they had all 3 face moldings from 'Mrs. Doubtfire', and they had the wig that was used in 'Sophie's Choice'. Those were really cool to see. It never really occurred to me that those things were saved. I thought these items were stuffed in a prop closet or storage shed somewhere. The next section on display was sketches, blueprints, and models used in film productions. They had sketches used for 'The Silence of the Lambs', and the model house used for 'The Muppet Movie.' The next section they had on display was the costumes used on the set of different films. Among them, they had the body suit and old lady dress from 'Mrs. Doubtfire', the sweater from "The Cosby show", and the dress from 'Cleopatra'. Behind this section, they had collectable items on display such as toys from 'I Love Lucy', Magazines, Lunch Boxes, etc... Then, they had a small section devoted to the original video games. They didn't work, but they were cute. The last section they had on display was pictures and history of original movie theaters. I think the Museum didn't do this section much justice. This section was in the back and not easily seen, but was important. It conveyed how original movie theaters came about, where they were located, how they were run, and who originally used them.
Concluding Queens
After the Museum of Moving Images, we took some more pictures and we ended our day. Despite, the heat and humidity, all in all, it was a nice day. Today was a very educational tour of Queens. I never knew so many things happened in what I considered a small part of the city. (even though it's not) Queens is the largest Borough in land area and the second largest most populated in NYC. If Queens were its own city, it would be the fourth largest in the US. Queens is located on the western end of Long Island and is the eastern-most borough of the five boroughs of NYC. One of the greatest overlooked fact is that Queens is the most ethnically diverse county in the United States. I was glad I got a small taste of that today. I have lived in Long Island for a long time, it isn't very far from Queens. Yet, before today, it might as well have been its own country as far as I was concerned. It is rich in history, culture, tradition, commerce, and diversity. All things I wouldn't want to miss out on and never get to experience; especially if it is right next door.