All posts by gwong

Saks Fifth Avenue Holiday Light Show

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I’m gonna make a preemptive apology here – it’s about to get all Christmasy on this here blog. There’s a lot of fun stuff to take photos in this city during the holiday season and I’m gonna try to capture as much of it as possible. So first up is Saks Fifth Avenue’s annual projected light show on their building facade. This year, there’s translucent white snowflakes and bubbles while “the visual effects include snow gathering on ledges, bubbles emerging from windows, and the building exterior appearing to freeze over.” I got a few photos but I think it’s better explained with a video, no?

These photos and video were taken on December 2, 2010.

The View From My Brother’s Apartment

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After a very filling Thanksgiving meal and the subsequent cleanup, it was nice to take some time to just sit down and relax. After all, we’d been running around my brother’s apartment, prepping, cooking, and, yes, eating for the past five hours. All I wanted to do was watch the end of the Saints-Cowboys game and to stare vacantly out the window as the Cowboys blew a late lead on a stupid fumble, making it that much harder for the Giants to get a wild-card bid. Ah, well, at least there’s this view of the 59th Street Bridge in one direction and the Citi building in another.

These photos were taken on November 25, 2010.

Time Warner Center’s “Holiday Under the Stars”

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‘Tis the season to be jolly, no? I found myself spending way more time inside the Time Warner Center this past weekend than I ever have or thought I ever would. I was in there for at least three hours on Saturday and it’s not like I was even eating at Per Se!!! Being there after the sun set did afford me at least one treat – I got to watch their Holiday Under the Stars light and music show. Above are some photos of the snowflakes in different colors and below is a quick 30-second clip of the snowflakes changing colors, while “Deck the Halls” plays in the background.

These photos and video were taken on November 27, 2010.

30 Rock

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After taking a few shots of the Parmelee family in front of the as-yet unlit Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center, I tried to get a full shot of 30 Rockefeller Plaza with the tree in the foreground. Yeah, I didn’t get the entire building but it’s still a nice shot, especially with the lights reflecting off the building and the still-blue sky.

Next time, I’ll try this shot while standing at the entrance to the plaza on Fifth Avenue.

This photo was taken on November 27, 2010.

30 Rock

Thanksgiving Dinner

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For the first time in my entire life, my family did a home-cooked Thanksgiving dinner that didn’t take place at home. This year, we had our feast at my brother’s apartment in LIC, which makes sense since he ends up doing the brunt of the cooking anyway. And it’s definitely a win for me since his apartment is a much shorter trip from Astoria than it is all the way to the southern part of Brooklyn. The feast is what’s become the usual fare for us at Thanksgiving – turkey, cornbread dressing with mushrooms and andouille sausage, brussel sprouts, mashed potatoes (truffle oil instead of roasted garlic this year), ham, kale, and cranberry sauce. Even as I type this out, I’m still working on finishing the leftovers!

These photos were taken on November 25, 2010.

Thanksgiving Turkey

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This is the turkey we had for dinner last Thanksgiving, a turkey we hadn’t planned on having but ended up making anyway. We were gonna do a Chinese-heavy Thanksgiving dinner since my brother was moving into his new apartment the day before and wasn’t inclined as such to go the whole traditional Thanksgiving route. But the fates conspired to force him into the kitchen for hours when our father’s friend gave him a frozen turkey. I mean, what were we gonna do, not cook it? Thus, we ended up doing a Thanksgiving that was pretty much the same as it always is in the Wong household – some traditional, some Chinese, all good.

And on that note, Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Eat well – I know I will!

This photo was taken on November 26, 2009.

Thanksgiving Turkey

Marcus Samuelsson, Restaurant Owner?

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Far be it from me to beat up on a guy needlessly but we’re talking about a celebrity chef who’s a lot more celebrity these days than chef. Marcus Samuelsson is, without a doubt, a talented chef but it’s more apt to say that he plays one on TV these days than in an actual kitchen. Fittingly, he won the first ever Eater Award for Fameball of the Year for, among a myriad of appearances: Cooking Class Leader for Buick, Appearance on A&E’s Fix This Kitchen, Kitchen Linen Collection for Target, Menu Consult for Holland America Line Cruises, Top Chef Masters Winner, MasterCard Spokesperson. From the above ad that I saw at the 34th Street-Penn Station subway stop, I guess you can now add American Airlines to the list. But what is this Red Rooster restaurant they speak of him owning in Harlem?

This photo was taken on November 23, 2010.

Marcus Samuelsson, Restaurant Owner?

Gazing Longingly Out the Window

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So when I took this photo, it was a little past 11 pm on a Tuesday night, about four hours into covering a community board liquor license meeting for Eater. To say that these meetings are soul crushing is putting it mildly. Am I doing a service for Eater NY readers? Man, I hope so because I’d hate to think my suffering went for naught.

If you’d life to see the post I ended up writing for Eater NY from my covering the meeting, it’s here.

This photo was taken on November 9, 2010.

Gazing Longingly Out the Window

Times Square Cardboard Apartment

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No, I’m not talking about the kind you’d see a homeless person take shelter in a back alley in the old Times Square though I say that being far too young to have actually seen a Times Square that looked like that. This was actually a one-day-only installation from Services for the UnderServed (SUS), helping “individuals and families faced with a wide range of challenges—mental illness, developmental disability, physical disability, AIDS, homelessness, unemployment and poverty.” While the cardboard apartment, complete with cardboard furniture like chairs, a desk, and a bed as well as cardboard food, it serves as a stark reminder of how rough some people have it. Sadly, I don’t think enough can ever be done to help all those who need it.

These photos were taken on November 12, 2010.