The Christmas Tree

I’ve always liked to put up the Christmas Tree. Sometimes I am getting into the spirit more than others. This year it was more like a duty. I’ve enjoyed it but I knew I had to finish fast, because I wanted to watch the movie on HBO. So I had less than 3 hours. I use to stop and watch it and change things and watch it again.
I always like the outcome though.
The Christmas tree reminds me of places I visited as I brought decorations from all over. These decorations always take the center stage.

2 years ago

2 years ago, December 14′th. I was heading for the most incredible vacation in the US. I remember each day like it was yesterday. 3 days in NYC at Christmas time, the Rockefeller Christmas tree, Macy’s and Lord & Taylor “dressed” for the occasion, the Christmas lights tour on a double decker bus, that cold that I felt in my knees for a week…

Then Florida… West Palm Beach and dear friends, malls all day long, Miami and that incredible view, the Star Island, Fort Lauderdale and those big boats for those rather small canals, Boca Raton and the beautiful hotel, Florida’s Hollywood, NASA, Epcot.

Remembering London

A couple of weeks ago I’ve seen some pictures from London. The pictures of a friend in London. And I’ve remembered places. I don’t know if there will be posts about London as there were about NY or Washington. I do not like London so much. I like places in London but there’s no chemistry between us.
I have photos, videos and memories. I don’t feel the need or desire to return.

It was in 2008 for my 30th birthday. I have mixed feelings about the trip. I cherished some places and I have good memories of them, I cherished others but the memories are a bit hurtful. Especially the ones from June 4th.

And I really tried and succeeded in enjoying Greenwich.

If only it weren’t for the count down…

Napapijri

Whether you surf in Kapalua or hike Kilimanjaro, Napapijri has outdoorsy yet modern clothes for men, women, and kids. In keeping with the nature-inspired clothes, the Italian house’s new Soho store, and first in the U.S., features an all-wood interior, an indoor garden, and fitting rooms surrounded by miniature birch trees. You won’t find high fashion, but you will get durable board shorts, vintage-looking polos, and cargo jackets.

I first saw their clothes in Paris, at Lafayette, in 2006. Even now I think about that pair of pants I wanted to buy. After that I found out they have 2 stores in U.S., one in NY and one in Miami. In 2007 I could not visit them. But the second time in NY, Napapijri was a must.
I did not find that pair of paints, nor something I really wanted. But we bought something, though. A shirt for my father, another fan of the brand. There were 2 guys in the store, very nice people. One of them served as a model as we couldn’t decide what size to choose.

http://www.napapijri.com/navigation.asp?tskay=A75E8812#/homepage/landing

The smell of NYC

It’s a hard task to write about smell. And there will be no pictures today, obviously…
The smell of NYC is as cosmopolitan as the city itself.
Mostly it is about food and it hits you, no matter where you are. Imagine barbecue smell all along Fifth Avenue, even at the corner with 56th Street, so close to the Trump Tower. It almost interferes with the Fierce cologne coming from Abercrombie & Fitch, across the street.
Let’s say that this barbecue smell is the worst, mostly because of the smoke that emanates it.
A more bearable smell is the sweet one, vanilla or cinnamon. The smell of doughnuts and bagels and waffles.
The smell is, without a doubt, an important part of my particular experience with this incredible city.

Century 21

I thought I knew all the big names in terms of US department stores. Until last September, NYC, just across the street from the former WTC site. It is called Century 21. I have not been impressed with it. They say all of its merchandise is sold less than the usual department store price. I cannot say this, at least about shoes. The rest of the stuff seemed second hand.

The company was founded in 1961. The Century 21 flagship located in Lower Manhattan, was first opened on April 3, 2000. The flagship store became an emotional flashpoint during and after the 9/11 Terrorist attacks.

The store was evacuated after the first plane hit the World Trade Center, and the interior was heavily damaged from the collapse of the twin towers. Initially it was not certain that the store would be rebuilt, but the owners opted to remain at the same site and the store was renovated and reopened in the summer of 2002. Thousands of people waited hours on the morning of the reopening so they could have a sales receipt from that day. To many, the store’s reopening was considered pivotal to the rebirth of the trade center site.

Washington Monument

The Washington Monument is an obelisk near the west end of the National Mall in Washington, D.C., built to commemorate the first U.S. president, General George Washington. The monument, made of marble, granite, and sandstone, is both the world’s tallest stone structure and the world’s tallest obelisk in height standing 555 feet 5⅛ inches (169.294 m).

There are other monumental columns (which are neither all stone nor true obelisks) which are taller. It is also the tallest structure in Washington D.C. It was designed by Robert Mills, an architect of the 1840s. The actual construction of the monument began in 1848 but was not completed until 1884, almost 30 years after the architect’s death. This hiatus in construction happened because of co-option by the Know Nothing party, a lack of funds, and the intervention of the American Civil War. A difference in shading of the marble, visible approximately 150 feet (46 m), or 27% up, shows where construction was halted for a number of years. The cornerstone was laid on July 4, 1848; the capstone was set on December 6, 1884, and the completed monument was dedicated on February 21, 1885. It officially opened October 9, 1888. Upon completion, it became the world’s tallest structure, a title previously held by the Cologne Cathedral. The monument held this designation until 1889, when the Eiffel Tower was completed in Paris, France.

The monument stands on axis directly to the east of the Reflecting Pool, and the Lincoln Memorial.

White House

The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the President of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., it was built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the late Georgian style and has been the residence of every U.S. President since John Adams. When Thomas Jefferson moved into the home in 1801, he (with architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe) expanded the building outward, creating two colonnades which were meant to conceal stables and storage.

In 1814 the mansion was set ablaze by the British Army in the Burning of Washington, destroying the interior and charring much of the exterior. Reconstruction began almost immediately, and President James Monroe moved into the partially reconstructed house in October 1817. Construction continued with the addition of the South Portico in 1824 and the North in 1829. Because of crowding within the executive mansion itself, President Theodore Roosevelt had nearly all work offices relocated to the newly constructed West Wing in 1901. Eight years later, President William Howard Taft expanded the West Wing and created the first Oval Office which was eventually moved as the section was expanded. The third-floor attic was converted to living quarters in 1927 by augmenting the existing hip roof with long shed dormers. A newly constructed East Wing was used as a reception area for social events; both new wings were connected by Jefferson’s colonnades. East Wing alterations were completed in 1946, creating additional office space. By 1948, the house’s load-bearing exterior walls and internal wood beams were found to be close to failure. Under Harry S. Truman, the interior rooms were completely dismantled and a new internal load-bearing steel frame constructed inside the walls. Once this work was completed, the interior rooms were rebuilt.

Today, the White House Complex includes the Executive Residence (in which the First Family resides), the West Wing (the location of the Oval Office, Cabinet Room, and Roosevelt Room), and the East Wing (the location of the office of the First Lady and White House Social Secretary), as well as the Old Executive Office Building, which houses the executive offices of the President and Vice President.

The White House is made up of six stories—the Ground Floor, State Floor, Second Floor, and Third Floor, as well as a two-story basement. The term White House is regularly used as a metonym for the Executive Office of the President of the United States and for the president’s administration and advisors in general. The property is owned by the National Park Service and is part of the President’s Park. In 2007, it was ranked second on the American Institute of Architects’s List of America’s Favorite Architecture.

On May 20, 1995, primarily as a response to the Oklahoma City bombing of April 19, 1995, the United States Secret Service closed off Pennsylvania Avenue to vehicular traffic in front of the White House from the eastern edge of Lafayette Park to 17th Street. Later, the closure was extended an additional block to the east to 15th Street, and East Executive Avenue, a small street between the White House and the Treasury Building. The Pennsylvania Avenue closing, in particular, has been opposed by organized civic groups in Washington, D.C. They argue that the closing impedes traffic flow unnecessarily and is inconsistent with the well-conceived historic plan for the city. As for security considerations, they note that the White House is set much further back from the street than numerous other sensitive federal buildings are.

Prior to its inclusion within the fenced compound that now includes the Old Executive Office Building to the west and the Treasury Building to the east, this sidewalk served as a queuing area for the daily public tours of the White House. These tours were suspended in the wake of the September 11 attacks. In September 2003, they resumed on a limited basis for groups making prior arrangements through their Congressional representatives and submitting to background checks, but the White House remains closed to the general public. The White House Complex is protected by the United States Secret Service and the United States Park Police.

Lincoln Memorial

“In this temple, as in the hearts of the people for whom he saved the Union, the memory of Abraham Lincoln is enshrined forever.” Beneath these words, the 16th President of the United States—the Great Emancipator and preserver of the nation during the Civil War—sits immortalized in marble.

It is located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. and was dedicated on May 30, 1922. The architect was Henry Bacon, the sculptor of the main statue (Abraham Lincoln, 1920) was Daniel Chester French, and the painter of the interior murals was Jules Guerin. It is one of several monuments built to honor an American president.

The building is in the form of a Greek Doric temple and contains a large seated sculpture of Abraham Lincoln and inscriptions of two well-known speeches by Lincoln. The memorial has been the site of many famous speeches, including Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, delivered on August 28, 1963 during the rally at the end of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

Like other monuments on the National Mall – including the nearby Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Korean War Veterans Memorial, and National World War II Memorial – the memorial is administered by the National Park Service under its National Mall and Memorial Parks group. It has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since October 15, 1966. It is open to the public 24 hours a day. In 2007, it was ranked seventh on the List of America’s Favorite Architecture by the American Institute of Architects.

The focus of the memorial is Daniel Chester French’s sculpture of Lincoln, seated on a throne. French studied many of Mathew Brady’s photographs of Lincoln and depicted the president as worn and pensive, gazing eastwards down the Reflecting Pool toward the capital’s starkest emblem of the Union, the Washington Monument.

From 1959 to 2008, the Lincoln Memorial was shown on the reverse of the United States one cent coin, which bears Lincoln’s portrait bust on the front. The statue of Lincoln can be seen in the monument. This was done to mark the 150th anniversary of Lincoln’s birth.
The memorial also appears on the back of the U.S. five dollar bill, the front of which also bears Lincoln’s portrait.

Jefferson Memorial

The Thomas Jefferson Memorial is a presidential memorial in Washington, D.C. that is dedicated to Thomas Jefferson, an American Founding Father and the third president of the United States. The neoclassical building was designed by John Russell Pope. It was built by Philadelphia contractor Tyler Nichols. Construction began in 1939, the building was completed in 1943, and the bronze statue of Jefferson was added in 1947. When completed, the memorial occupied one of the last significant sites left in the city.

Composed of circular marble steps, a portico, a circular colonnade of Ionic order columns, and a shallow dome, the building is open to the elements. Pope made references to the Roman Pantheon and Jefferson’s own design for the Rotunda at the University of Virginia. The Jefferson Memorial and the White House are located north, form one of the main anchor points in the area of the National Mall in D.C.

The Washington Monument, just east of the axis on the national Mall, was intended to be located at the intersection of the White House and the site for the Jefferson Memorial to the south, but soft swampy ground which defied nineteenth century engineering required it be sited to the east. The Jefferson Memorial is managed by the National Park Service under its National Mall and Memorial Parks division. In 2007, it was ranked fourth on the List of America’s Favorite Architecture by the American Institute of Architects.

The site of the monument in Washington D.C. West Potomac Park, on the shore of the Potomac River Tidal Basin, is enhanced with the massed planting of Japanese cherry trees, the gift of the people of Japan in 1912.

The monument is not as prominent in popular culture as other Washington, D.C. buildings and monuments, possibly due to its location well removed from the National Mall and the Washington Metro. The Jefferson Memorial hosts many events and ceremonies each year, including memorial exercises, the Easter Sunrise Service, and the annual National Cherry Blossom Festival.