Radio City Music Hall
May 20th, 2008I’m sure there is a chemical reason why every time I shoot this sign I see the colors this way. It has something to do with midtown Manhattan and how crazy it is up in there with the tall buildings and the light and the people and the smells.
Maybe it’s because the sign makes me think of J.D. Salinger and reading about New York as an adolescent and how midtown is the embodiment of that world for me. Even if I’m dead wrong, I still have a certain romance about midtown that I see when I think of Zooey Glass going to audition for television. Or maybe Holden Caulfield in the phone booth. When phone booths existed. o
Tags: Manhattan, NYC, touristy
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May 20th, 2008 at 5:13 pm
I loved Franny and Zoey. I had to read it in 9th grade just after we read The Stranger by Albert Camus. Those were the first two books, that had any kind of meaning, that I ever read.
The pic is fabulous. NY is the best!
May 20th, 2008 at 5:26 pm
Ah, New York. Something about the air exaggerates colors (probably all of the pollution). Great photo. I am impressed you were able to get such a shot without being run over by the hoards of people in this part of the city.
May 20th, 2008 at 6:12 pm
That’s wicked — as soon as I saw that photo I thought “JD Salinger”. Absolutely.
May 20th, 2008 at 10:57 pm
I can’t go past the Met bag-check without my heart breaking a little bit. I should re-read Catcher now that I’m older than Holden.
May 21st, 2008 at 8:49 am
I passed that sign every day for several years when I worked in midtown. The rocked-out colors really capture the feel of the place far better than reality does.
May 21st, 2008 at 8:52 am
If you weren’t already my biggest blog crush, this post would have cemented it. I read F&Z as a freshman in college; I re-read it a few years ago when I moved to NYC. The notes in the margins and the furious underlinings made it feel like I was reading a letter from my angst-ridden 18-year-old self… I decided I’ll read it again after another 10-ish years have passed and see what lessons it has for me then.
You and Heather and Leta and the pups are awesome. Keep on rockin.
May 21st, 2008 at 10:18 am
In college, I went to back issues of the New Yorker, to find more J. D. Salinger short stories that weren’t included in his books. His views on religion in the Glass family stories definitely influenced me. I took Asian religions in college because my interest by peaked by reading him. Thanks for the great photography and the memory of a great author.
May 21st, 2008 at 11:53 am
Jodie, I totally did the same thing. Our library had strict rules about checking out periodicals, so I sat hunkered into a dark corner reading Salinger instead of doing my school work.
May 21st, 2008 at 1:11 pm
It’s odd, but I never realised it. Phone booths really have disappeared, haven’t they? I can’t remeber the last time I’ve seen one. There’s still payphones here and there, but no actual phone booths.
May 22nd, 2008 at 6:36 am
Isn’t it great how some signs stand the tests of time> I’m sure they keep that thing meticulously maintained, but there’s always the small dents that just stick out like a sore thumb, and the bubbled paint at the bottom. And the neon! Kids today don’t know the history of the stuff - hope these old neon signs never fade away completely! Love it!
May 22nd, 2008 at 9:16 am
I am Salinger obsessed and your description just solidified your awesomeness.
May 22nd, 2008 at 5:56 pm
My buddy Erik wrote a piece in the New York Press about phone booths and the few that are left. It’s worth a quick read.
http://www.nypress.com/21/4/news&columns/feature3.cfm
May 23rd, 2008 at 12:39 pm
Love this picture. I want one to frame and put in my house as the centerpiece to my living room.
May 28th, 2008 at 7:01 pm
Whenever I see Rockefeller Center all I can think about are goddamn twitchy skirts.
May 29th, 2008 at 12:47 pm
I would have to suggest that the reason phone booths have disappeared is because they were frequently being used as bathrooms. That was my experience anyway, and that is back when I lived in NY more than ten years ago. You just couldn’t use a pay phone in the subway at all. They were all booths and the booths just reeked of urine, old and new.
I get the oogys just thinking about it. Bleah.
But that’s just my opinion on the subject.
LOVE the photo!