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Showing posts with label New York. Show all posts
Showing posts with label New York. Show all posts

Thursday 20 July 2023

World's Largest Nipper Statue

World's Largest Nipper Statue In Albany New York

Location:
Albany, New York, USA
Address:  991 Broadway
Date: June 2023
Website:  www.rca.com

  In 1898, Francis Barraud painted a picture of his dog Nipper curiously listening to a phonograph.  It has since become a famous logo for corporations such as RCA and HMV.  RCA stands for Radio Corporation of America and HMV stands for His Master's Voice.  His Master's Voice was the name of the painting.

His Master's Voice Oxford Street London England

  The front entrance of the HMV store on Oxford Street in London, England has Nipper pictured with a gramophone. When Barraud tried to sell his painting, the Gramophone Company was interested but only if the phonograph was changed to a gramophone.  Barraud painted another painting and this is the logo that you see today. HMV started using this logo in 1909.

World's Largest RCA Dog Statue Albany New York

      The world's largest Nipper has been sitting on top of a warehouse in Albany, New York since 1958.  He is made of fibreglass and steel and weighs about 4000 kg and stands almost 28 feet tall.  He has no gramophone, so he listens to the sounds of the city.

Giant Nipper On Albany New York Rooftop

   Nipper sits alone in an industrial part of town so he would be happy for you to come and pay him a visit. He is an interesting part of history and an interesting logo. What is Nipper listening to we wonder?

RCA Logos On A Compact Disc.

    You may already have something with Nipper on it in your CD and record collection. We took a look around and quickly found the old electric RCA logo as well as Nipper on this CD from Pop Will Eat Itself that was released in 1990. Nipper may already be in your home too. If not a trip to Albany, New York will get you the most Nipper that can be found in one place.


Map of Our World
World's Largest Nipper , His Master's Voice
Post # 325

Saturday 20 May 2023

Lake George

Lake George New York State
 
Location: Lake George, New York, USA
Address:  2 Canada Street
Date:  September 2010
Website:  tikiresort.com

  Lake George is located in the northern part of New York state. It is located beside the Adirondack Mountains. The area is a popular tourist destination to enjoy the mountains and steamboat rides on the lake. After falling in love with Maui, Hawaii, we visited Lake George for the Polynesian dinner show. If you can't make it to Hawaii then you might want to head to Lake George in New York state and visit the Tiki Resort.

Polynesian Dinner Show At The Tiki Resort in Lake George.

   We enjoyed a dinner, a few drinks and the show. It featured Hawaiian dancers and drummers all the way from Schenectady.  One of us even got to participate. A few lucky dancers were chosen to shake their stuff based on the fruit shouted out by the band. "Coconut" to the right, "Pineapple" to the left and "Papaya" to the rear. By the time we were done we had danced up a fruit salad.

Lake George Mallard Duck

     We were only in Lake George for one night to catch the Tiki show. The next morning we decided to see what else was going on in town before heading to New York City. As we approached the waterfront this duck quacked out to us.
 
Minnie Ha Ha And The Mohican Steamboats At Lake George
 
  Across the water at the pier we could see the Mohican and Minnie Ha Ha steamboats getting ready to take tourists out for a relaxing trip around the lake. We hear that in the fall, the colours are lovely.

Uncle Sam Magic Forest Lake George

    As we headed out of Lake George, we were in for one last treat. We noticed a giant Uncle Sam in a parking lot. We pulled over and went to check him out. This Uncle Sam is 38 feet tall. He was designed for an Ohio restaurant called fittingly, Uncle Sam's. He then stood outside of the state fairgrounds in Danbury, Connecticut until coming to Lake George to stand in the parking lot of the Magic Forest amusement park.

Uncle Sam And Santa In The Magic Forest.

  Behind Uncle Sam we noticed someone else very special. It was Santa Claus! What more could you ask for in a town? A Tiki Resort and Santa are two of our favourite things.

Santa Claus Lake George

  Sadly, Uncle Sam has returned once again to Danbury and Santa has disappeared. The Tiki Resort is still doing shows so that is more than enough reason to spend a day in Lake George.  Coconut!!


Map of Our World
Tiki Resort , Minnie Ha Ha

Post # 323

Monday 20 March 2023

Kelly & Ryan

Live With Kelly & Ryan Niagara Falls Canada

Location:
New York, New York, USA
Address:  77 W 66th St
Date: June 2017
Website:  kellyandryan.com

  LIVE with Kelly & Ryan is a morning talk show filmed at ABC studios in New York City.  The show has left the studio and travelled to Canada on three occassions.  Back in 1996 the show filmed from Niagara Falls, Ontario and the hosts were Regis Philbin and Kathy Lee Gifford.  In 2006, the show returned once more and this time Kelly Ripa joined Regis as a host. In 2017, the current hosts Kelly Ripa and Ryan Seacrest filmed a pair of episodes and this time we were there.  Ryan Seacrest has announced that he will be leaving the show so we found ourselves looking back.

Sheraton Fallsview Hotel

  We didn't actually have tickets to the show but we obtained ourselves a bird's eye view.  We had a room at the Sheraton Fallsview Hotel which overlooks the Oakes Garden Theatre where the taping of the show was to take place.

Sheraton Fallsview View Of Niagara Falls

  The hotel also offers a great view to look across and admire the American and Horseshoe Falls.

Kelly & Ryan Stage Preparations Niagara Falls

     As we looked down from our balcony, we had a perfect view of the stage below.  The day before the taping we could watch the crews getting everything ready for the big day. The proximity to the Falls means that even if there is no rain in the forecast, you always have a chance of mist. The main desk on stage remained under a tarp for protection.

Kelly & Ryan Stage Oakes Garden Niagara Falls

   Since we had arrived the day before, we were able to go down into the gardens and get a close up view of the stage. This is what it would be like to be one of the lucky audience members in attendance when the show went live.

Crowd Wait To Enter Kelly & Ryan Taping Niagara Falls

  The audience members started to fill up the street at the bottom of Clifton Hill, waiting for their chance to enter the gardens.

Kelly & Ryan Live From Niagara Falls

  While the crowd squeezed into the gardens, we admired the beauty of Niagara Falls and were quite happy having our own private viewing area. It may have been way in the back, but we had an unobstructed view. 
 
Kelly & Ryan Lobby Of Sheraton Fallsview Niagara.

   As show time approached we headed down to the hotel lobby.  Rumour had it that the stars themselves were in the hotel and getting ready to walk across to the Oakes Garden Theatre. Next thing we knew we had a front row seat as Kelly & Ryan were greeted to cheers from their fans.

Live With Kelly & Ryan 2017 Niagara Falls.

  We headed back up to our private viewing suite.  We were just in time to catch the start of the show.

Kelly & Ryan And Their Fans Niagara Falls.

  Kelly & Ryan addressed the crowd of mostly Canadian fans.  It is only a short walk or drive across the Rainbow Bridge to get to New York state for any American fans in attendance.

Kelly & Ryan Live From Niagara Falls.

  Kelly & Ryan sat at their big white desk. The desk was nice and dry after being protected under tarps waiting for the hosts to arrive. 

Kelly & Ryan & Justin Trudeau.

  To make the show even more Canadian, one of the guests was Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The highlight of his appearance seemed to be that he wore R2-D2 and C-3PO Star Wars socks.

ABC Studios New York City.

  Since Kelly & Ryan had been nice enough to visit us in Canada, we decided to see more of them when we were in New York City. The show is filmed at ABC studios at West 67th Street and Columbus Ave. in Manhattan.

Kelly Ripa Bench In Central Park.

  If you follow West 67th Street into Central Park you will see a row of benches as you enter the park.  One of those is dedicated to Kelly Ripa.

Kelly Ripa 30 Years With Disney Bench In Central Park

      The bench congratulates Kelly Ripa for over 30 years with the Walt Disney Company which owns ABC. Kelly has been with LIVE for over 20 years and shows no signs of stopping. Her next co-host will be her husband Mark Consuelos.  If they choose to do another taping from Niagara Falls, we know where we will be watching from.


Post # 321

Thursday 20 October 2022

Rise Of The Jack O'Lanterns

Rise Of The Jack O'Lanterns New York
 
Location: Wheatley Heights, New York, USA
Address:  185 Colonial Springs Rd.
Date:  September 2022
Website:  jackolanterns.com

  As Halloween season approaches, all sorts of creatures prepare for October 31st to arrive.  Nothing represents Halloween quite like a carved pumpkin or Jack O'Lantern.  While we were in New York City we visited the Rise Of The Jack O'Lanterns.  The Rise Of The Jack O'Lanterns is a winding trail through the woods and is filled with hundreds of pumpkins.  There were pumpkins from all sorts of movies from animated Disney to Pulp Fiction.  This blog is going to focus on some of the spoookier carvings.  We followed the trail into the woods towards the glowing orange lights.

The Scream Carved In Pumpkins.

   The first pumpkins we encountered were based on famous works of art.  There was American Gothic, Mona Lisa and this more Halloween appropriate, The Scream.

Rise Of The Jack O'Lanterns Marge Simpson Carving.

     The next section featured all the Simpsons characters.  While not normally spooky, the animated show does a special Treehouse Of Horror episode at Halloween.  This year they will have made more than 32 of them.  Also Marge's hair reminds us of Bride of Frankenstein.

Venom Pumpkin Carving.

     There was no shortage of comic book heroes and villains.  We have pictured Venom above, as we find him to be the creepiest.
 
Jack O'Lantern With Fangs.

  While all the character carvings were made out of groups of pumpkins, there were still more traditional carvings scattered along the trail.

Uncle Fester Pumpkin Carving.

  The next group of carvings were from the creepy and kooky Addam's Family.  The Uncle Fester above appears to be from the movie version with Christopher Lloyd.  Further down the trail was also Christopher's most famous character of Doc Brown from Back to The Future.

Skeleton Biker Carved Into Pumpkins.

    This skeleton biker reveals a bit of the secrets behind how these intricate carvings are made..

Pee Wee Herman Pumpkin Carving.

    A Pee-Wee Herman carving was the next we encountered.  Pee-Wee's Big Adventure was Tim Burton's first feature film.  Pee-Wee himself is not very scary. 

Large Marge Pumpkin Carving.

    But Large Marge is!

Beetlejuice Pumpkin Carving.

    Tim Burton's movies have always had a darker feel to them.  They have been associated with ghosts and strange creatures and Halloween.  He is responsible for Beetlejuice.

Jack Skellington Pumpkin Carving

    Burton created the stop motion classic The Nightmare Before Christmas.  Jack Skellington has become both a symbol of Halloween and Christmas.

Mars Attacks Martian Carved In Pumpkins.

     There were also some carvings from the hilarious Mars Attacks!
 
Crying Carved Pumkin.

    We headed further into the woods to see what else awaited us.

Linus Pumpkin Carving.

    There was a section for Peanuts characters.  Each Halloween, Linus waits for the Great Pumpkin to appear.  This year a great pumpkin carving of Linus waits for the Great Pumpkin.

Flowers & Skeletons.

    There was a section dedicated to artwork made up of flowers and skeletons.

Nightmare On Elm Street Pumpkin Carving.

   There were some classic horror film villains such as Freddy Krueger and the clown from It.

Darth Vader Pumpkin Carving.

    In the Star Wars section there were lots of carvings.  Sorry Rebel forces but Halloween belongs to Darth Vader.

Happy Halloween Pumpkin Carving.

    There were so many more pumpkin creations along the Rise Of The Jack O'Lanterns trail.   We were impressed by the amount of work that went into the carvings.  If you need to get some costume ideas or enjoy a fall evening walk, these type of events can be found in many cities across North America.   Happy Halloween!


Map of Our World
Rise Of The Jack O'Lanterns

Post # 316