Graduation at Radio City Music Hall and the 9/11 Memorial

Friday May 24 Day 32

John and I are on our own today.  The graduation from the Tisch school of Drama, to be held at Radio City Music Hall, cannot accommodate the extra people who want to see the graduation.  Cassy has managed to score six tickets, so Maria and Jack, her father Joel and wife Julia, and the two biological grandmothers, Maria and Kris, are going.

So John and I head off to ground zero, now known as the 9/11 Memorial.   However, first we took the tram off Roosevelt Island and  the subway to Rockefeller Center.  Here's the famous Prometheus statue.

There is a huge new art installation at the Plaza.  It consists of nine statues, each weighing 17 1/2 tons, and it is called "Human Nature."  The rocks are bluestone from a Pennsylvania quarry and are unfinished  The artist,  Ugo Rondinone from Switzerland,  liked the juxtaposition of the rough hewn rock figures against the polished buildings of Rockefeller Plaza.  They are tall enough to stand underneath them, i.e. between the legs, for photo ops. You can see how tall they are in relation to the woman in the background. 

To me, they look like the Canadian Inuit figures called Inukshuk.  Here's one that is in the Canadian Embassy in Washington, D.C. 

Since we were so close, we went around the corner to see the venue for Cassy's graduation, Radio City Music Hall.   The wind has picked up, and it is raining hard.  And the temperature is dropping.  We empathize with all of the  people standing in line to get in.  But the neon lights announce a very happy occasion! 

We take the subway again to the World Trade Center.  There is still so much construction going on in the area, but the new World Trade Center, topping out at 1776 feet, is nearing completion.  There are still cranes on top.

You have to get your tickets in one place and then walk several blocks to get in line to see the Memorial. It takes you through snaking lines like the airport, and there is an actual airport security check  point where you take off jackets, etc. and run bags through a screening system.  Then they take ID to look at your ticket again, stamp it, and you wait in another line.

The two water features  are in the footprints of the twin towers.  Around the edges are the names of those who lost their lives, including policemen and firemen.   The water cascades down 40 feet.
There is a huge museum being built, but it looks to still be in the first stages.  It is closed off to the public, but you can peer through windows to work below.  There is a survivor tree on the grounds, a flowering pear which was saved, taken to a nursery, and coaxed back to health. It is looking very scarred but has healthy leaves and is now about 30 feet high.  I think it had bloomed earlier. It was replanted here in 2010.

Within a few blocks of the world trade center is 26 Broadway, where John's grandfather, the original
 J H Blake had his brokerage business,  the name of which was J.H. Blake Flour, Inc.  He bought railroad cars full of grain from the mills in the midwest and sold them to the bakeries in the East.  Entemanns was a customer of his, for example.  Dad Blake knew a lot about the different types of grains and their characteristics  making sure the right types of grains were used in the right products.
Later on, John's father, J H Blake Jr. joined him and they moved their offices to Long Island.  Everyone always needs bread, so Dad Blake had a successful business that lasted over 60 years, through the Depression, both world wars, etc.  He died at age 96 in 1989.  He was always proud of his seat on the  NY Produce Exchange.

Directly across the street from 26 Broadway is this statue of the Bull of Wall Street. 

And diagonally from the bull is Bowling Green park. I remember going there with John's father. We were on our way to the Statue of Liberty that day.

We walked a block further to the Battery.  This is a park right at the tip of Manhattan Island.  Unfortunately, Battery Park sustained a lot of damage from Hurricane Sandy.

While repairs are being made, local school children are planting an urban vegetable farm on the grounds.

Their fence is made of bamboo, but you can see the vegetables growing through the sticks.

When you think about it, New York has taken some very large blows in the past years.  Mayor Bloomberg is trying to get everything back to order, particularly after Sandy.  He has also instituted a new bike sharing program called Citi Bike.  It will inaugurate over Memorial Day weekend, but the bikes are ready to go.  John checks them out.

And right across the street from Battery Park is the Staten Island Ferry Terminal.  It is also where you get the ferry out to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.

Both the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island sustained damage from Hurricane Sandy.  If you look closely, you can see the construction going on around the base.  We didn't have time to go to either, but took a look at them through the windows of the terminal building.

Ellis Island looks a little better, but I understand they have damage to a lot of their records.

We had planned to go to the Museum of Natural History, but the weather is turning so cold, and we are soaked through, so we opt to head back to our apartment early.  We have dinner with Cassy, Jack Maria, and Joel tonight.