Times Square Ball Drop

 

Location: New York City, New York, USA
Address:  1 Times Square
Date:  December 2008
Website:  www.timessquarenyc.org

  Happy New Year!  One Times Square was home to the New York Times newspaper. In 1907 was the first time they dropped a ball on the roof to celebrate New Year's Eve. Don't get confused.  The ball drops in the year before. This means the 1907 ball dropped and then at midnight, 1908 was here.

   The ball would slowly slide down a pole during the last minute of the year and then the numbers of the new year would light up. The ball has been upgraded through the years and was even made to look like an apple during the I Love New York campaign of the 1980s.

    As midnight approaches crowds would gather in Times Square and look up to the ball.  Together they would ring in the new year, full of hope and promise.

     When the year 2000 approached there was a special Millennium ball built with the latest technology. It dropped for seven years. The ball above is the Centennial Ball.  The Centennial Ball was built by Waterford Crystal and had updated LED lighting for more colour options.

     The Centennial Ball was only dropped in 2007 to celebrate 100 years since the very first drop.  We were lucky to see it on display in the Times Square Visitor Centre. It only dropped once as a bigger, better, permanent ball was made for 2008. This new ball was made so that it could stay outside all year long.

 

  Since 2008 it has hung around waiting for its annual moment to shine. This photo of the ball was taken in 2010 from the observation deck at 30 Rockefeller Plaza.

  This is the ball still hanging around at night in 2013.

    This is a pretty good close-up of the ball in 2018.

    In 2021 this picture was taken on American Thanksgiving. From this angle it is hard to tell if the ball is there. For the 2025 ball drop, another new ball will be dropped with yet another new upgrade for even more lighting possibilities.  

        The Times Square 42nd Street subway beneath the ball drop also celebrates the New Year. In one of the many tunnels and passageways you can find glazed ceramic art by Toby Buonagurio.

    Also in the Times Square 42nd Street station is a work of art called Revelers.

You will always have a ball in New York City.  That is never more true than when you are standing in Times Square on New Years Eve.

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Map of Our World
Times Square Ball

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Post # 354

The Flying Foxes Of Sydney

Location: Sydney, Australia
Address:  Royal Botanic Garden, Mrs Macquaries Road
Date: May 2012
Website:  www.botanicgardens.org.au

   The Royal Botanic Garden in Sydney is home to a large variety of plants. This in turn attracts a large variety of birds to live and eat in the gardens. There is also one type of mammal that finds the gardens very inviting. At one point there were up to 30,000 flying foxes who made their home here.

  We first chose to explore the gardens by riding the miniature train called the Choo Choo Express. If we were going to travel under thousands of bats then we wanted a roof over our heads.

  Sure enough we could see little black creatures hanging upside down in the trees. In the bat world, the Grey-Headed Flying Fox is the largest bat in all of Australia and has a wingspan of about one metre.

  After our Choo-Choo ride we did venture over to get a closer look at the colony. When you see them hanging upside down in a tree you might see the thick black wings and a big tuft of orange fur. The big tuft is the fur around their necks. They get their name from the grey hairs on their heads.

  To see all the flying foxes take off and go foraging at night would be quite a sight. We were not lucky enough to have witnessed this. 

  Flying foxes are also known as fruit bats. They only eat fruit and therefore do not need echolocation.  Other bats that use echolocation are trying to capture insects mid air. Fruit is a little less agile.

Other bats may have giant ears relative to their heads. The flying fox looks more like a dog or, you guessed it, a fox. The flying fox is the best looking bat. Some bats look like they are just giant ears and teeth.

 For comparison, this angry little fellow is a little brown bat from North America. He seems rather unhappy to be held.

     Since the large colony arrived in the Royal Botanic Garden they have killed more than 30 large mature trees and damaged hundreds more. The flying fox colonies were moved in June 2012. We visited in May 2012 just before the relocation was to start. 

  Loud music was played to disturb the bats from sleeping. Maybe a local Sydney rock band like AC/DC would have been too much for the bats to tolerate?

  The plan worked and the bats moved to a new location away from the disturbance. You can now find a large colony in Sydney's Centennial Park. If you visit the Royal Botanic Garden take a look up at the trees and you may still see a few flying foxes.

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Map of Our World
Royal Botanic Garden Sydney

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Post # 353

What We Do In The Shadows

Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Address: 65 Heward Avenue
Date: March 2025

  What We Do In The Shadows is a TV show that follows four vampires living together in a mansion on Staten Island, New York. They are Nandor The Relentless, Nadja, Laszlo and Colin Robinson. They also share the house with Nandor's human servant Gizmo, sorry Guillermo, and a doll with the spirit of deceased human Nadja inhabiting it. Through the six season run of the show, the mansion exterior has been played by three different locations.

  A house in South Pasadena, California was used in the pilot episode and for various establishing shots in the seasons that followed. After the pilot episode, production moved to Toronto, Ontario. The Cranfield House (photo at top of post) is featured in a few episodes. In Season One Episode Three, the vampires feud with werewolves in Laszlo's topiary garden. In Season One Episode Ten, Gregor loses his head, yet again, in a motorcycle accident on the lawn.

   Cranfield House soon became no longer available for use as a filming location. In Season Two, the show set up a facade of the mansion on Eastern Avenue near the studios. For a few years the mansion stood in the parking lot (above) at the corner of Eastern Ave. and Heward Ave.

   In Season Two Episode Six, Mark Hamill appeared on the show as Jim the Vampire. He confronts Laszlo. Laszlo runs away and goes into hiding as regular human bartender Jackie Dakota. For unknown reasons, the house across the street has stars on its side wall. There is no mistaking it when it appears on screen behind characters in the front yard.

 Nick Kroll guest stars in Season Two Episode Seven. He plays Simon the Devious. Simon and Laszlo fight over a witch's hat which may be cursed. Laszlo stands in the street in front of the wooden fence above and gets struck by several cars before turning into a bat and flying into the sewer after Simon.

  There are many locations around Toronto that get used in the show. Another favourite is the Vampiric Council building. Where would the Vampiric Council meet? Scarborough, of course. 300 Consilium Place is the exterior of the building where the vampires go on trial and ultimately in Season Four Episode Three, Nadja opens her night club. At the beginning of this episode, Nadja flies down and greets her guests outside. That is all for now as we have to end this blog.  Bat!!!

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Map of Our World
Cranfield House,  65 Heward Ave,  300 Consilium Place

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Post # 352