Hello Boys and Girls!
It’s now Thursday and almost the weekend over here in sunny New York. Time to fill you in on my latest adventures.
Yesterday I had the delight of catching up with the great producer Evan Koons over Earl Grey and Ice Tea at the Norwood Club. Evan is currently producing an incredible project called “That Time of the Month”, which is an awesome parody of 1950s B-Movies. You can read all about it on their blog here, and be sure to catch this clip featuring the filmmakers themselves explaining the movie and its concept:
After that I headed over to the Magno Screening rooms for a press screening of Friends With Kids, courtesy of Red Granite Productions.
The Magno Screening Rooms are extremely popular and close to Times Square!
Friends With Kids will be my movie of the week this coming sunday so be sure to check out the review then!
As I was close to Times Square I strolled through and was captivated by the wonders of New York City. There’s just something so special about it isn’t there?
Times Square at its most iconic!
10 Fun Facts About Times Square
1. Formerly named Longacre Square, it was renamed in April 1904 after the New York Times moved its headquarters to the Times Building, now called One Times Square.
2. Nicknames include ‘The Crossroads of the World’ and ‘The Great White Way’, and reportedly ‘The Tenderloin’ because it was supposedly the most desirable location in Manhatten in the 1920s.
3. The 1929 stock market crash took its toll on the area, with many businesses moving out of the area to be replace with seedier forms of entertainment, including pornographic “peep shows”.
4. New York City began a slow but steady push to clean up Times Square in the 1990s led by Mayor Rudolph Giuliani – the process was referred to as the ‘Disneyfication’.
5. On New Year’s Eve, close to a million people congregrate to celebrate the ‘Dropping of the Ball’.
Times Square on New Year's Eve!
6. The ball was replaced by an energy efficient ball in 2008.
7. In 1972, Dick Clark began hosting the half-hour special Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve.
8. The location has been used in numerous films, including Vanilla Sky when it is depicted as eerily quiet, and a post-apocalyptic version in I Am Legend.
9. Famous for its electric, neon and illuminated signs including Coca-Cola, Toshiba and the curved NASDAQ sign.
10. In February 2011, Times Square became smoke free.
And of course, no visit to Times Square is complete without catching the Naked Cowboy:
The Naked Cowboy doing his thing in Times Square!
Hugs and Kisses
Derek x
derek@ineligibleforgreatness.com
twitter.com/ineligiblederek
Ineligible For Greatness 