Cock-of-the-rock

  • August 19, 2022

I’m in the city that never sleeps, which seems an appropriate moniker right now since it’s already tomorrow and I’m still awake. It’s been a long day 🙂

I came down for an end-of-summer trip, and to visit two observation lookouts. Let’s compare them.

The first was One Vanderbilt, which is the big silver skyscraper you can see in the middle (towering over the library in Bryant Park). The observation levels are the 91st through 93rd floors, and the experience is accompanied by an art installation that begins the moment the lift doors open and you notice the mirrored floors.

This gives a startling impression of walking on air while inside the building, and momentarily draws your attention away from the striking views just outside the windows.

It’s very high (1300 feet) and the views are in every direction. As you can see it was lovely today (a bit hot actually) and I could see forever from up there! Can you see the Empire State Building in the above photo?

As you move through the various levels of the observatory there are other art installations, like the ‘bubble room’ and a room with a giant video screen showing creepy living clouds. But I was mostly taken by the views, which were fantastic.

That’s Bryant Park, with my hotel the black one on the left side. I’m in there right now typing this entry!

There were loads of people and I had to be a sneaky little rat to get clean photos. But I was amused by the abundance of girls posing for their Instagram snaps or making TikTok videos. I suppose that’s what you do these days?

Overall, it was a wonderful lookout and is highly recommended.

Later in the day – after dinner – I visited Top Of The Rock at Rockefeller Center. This is a more famous and popular lookout than the previous, and consequently had many more people. That said I didn’t have significant waits at either site, possibly because I bought tickets in advance.

No art installation here, just views. It was past sunset when I went up, and the city lights were already on. You get access to the three highest levels, each of which have outdoor sections, and one of which is mostly open (not even glass shields). At 800 feet it’s not as tall as Vanderbilt, but being outside gives it a different sort of thrill.

A word on the elevators for each of these towers: they were super fast and super smooth. Vanderbilt had a crazy light show which simulated movement since the lift was so smooth you could barely feel the acceleration, and Rockefeller had a glass ceiling and a lit lift shaft so you could appreciate how fast the lift whizzed up!

I stayed on top until it got darker, but there were just so many people it wasn’t easy to relax and I was deeply exhausted after my long day. So I bade goodbye to the lovely views, but not before imaging living at these heights (or even higher, like the apartment buildings visible in the photo two above)!

That photo shows both (Vanderbilt on the left) viewed from the other. I’ve circled the observation levels. If you’re only visiting one, I’d suggest Vanderbilt (since it’s higher and has the funky mirrored floors), but if you like lookouts then both are absolutely worth the visit. I enjoyed them both so much I may have to one day visit the other two I haven’t yet gone to here in NYC!

As I’ve said it was a busy day with lots of other stuff I could write about but I’m almost asleep so I’ll leave it here. Happy end-of-summer 🙂

  • Posted in Trip
  • Robert

Ramen 19: Stop In The Name Of Ramen

  • August 16, 2022

No soup this time, but a few more ramen-adjacent items I’ve acquired on my travels.

I bought the above in Australia. It was one of those things that come ‘free’ with a Japanese magazine, and is a Cup Noodle ‘purse’ (based on the photo of the girl using it as a purse). Naturally it’s an insane item to use as a purse, so I’m displaying it here as a ‘ramen carrier’. It’s a nifty thing, with nice printing in and out and a cute fork-shaped zipper pull. Of course I have no actual use for it 🙂

Here’s another ‘noodle stopper’, displayed in the intended position. This is now my second such figurine, and was a prize from a (type of) UFO machine in Sydney. Sue watched bemusedly as I loaded $1 coins into the machine at a good clip, and I’m sure she shared my joy when it only cost me $52 to ‘win’ it. Naturally I’ll never use it to steep noodles, and it will live happily on my shelf forever.

This last item was a surprise! I’d never seen a noodle stopper for sale here, so when I saw this double pack at Kino in NYC a couple of months ago I had to have it. Here’s a closer look at the contents:

A cute pair of noodle stoppers, and it even comes with a fake ‘cup noodle’ for them to sit on! These are of course sisters Ram and Rem from the anime Re:Zero (which I’ve never watched) and are amongst the most licensed characters in animation these days. The pair cost me less than the previous figure. So I have four noodle stoppers now, who sit on the edges of shelves. I think this is enough 🙂

Next installment some more chicken noodles. Stay tuned…

  • Posted in Food
  • Robert

Panini Warhammer

  • August 10, 2022

Panini has been releasing sticker albums for decades now and the format has barely changed: you buy an inexpensive booklet with pages full of empty spaces waiting for stickers to be applied. The stickers are of course purchased separately in packs, like trading cards. Collecting them and sticking them in the album fills out the pages until you have a nifty picturebook. Aimed mostly at children, hundreds have been released – and continue to be released – since the 1970s.

Unfortunately, very few of these ever make it out of Europe. In the 1980s for instance Panini released loads of such albums for every imaginable kid-friendly film, but most were Europe and the UK only. A few were released in Australia when I was a kid, but they weren’t of little interest to me (Smurfs, football albums) so this was never a big part of my childhood.

In the years since I’ve bought a few more while on trips to the UK or Europe (a few different Star Wars ones, a WWE one) but with the exception of various sports albums or properties for very young children Panini still seems to mostly ignore the US market, and I’ve never had much experience with collecting the stickers or filling an album… until now!

When Panini announced a Warhammer 40k sticker album I was astonished, since it seemed so out-of-field compared to their other properties. But given how many other sets they have recently published – based on films, video games, toys, sports and even animals – it’s not unusual. It’s very specific though, and certainly aimed older than most of their other albums. The initial announcement was tempered (for me) by the followup that it would be England only, and exclusive to physical Warhammer stores. Bummer. However shortly after it was released sellers offered it on Amazon, which is how I got my album and a box of sticker packs.

It’s a beautiful album, full colour and crammed with detail and information. There are 204 stickers to collect, and each pack also comes with one of 50 ‘hero’ (trading) cards. The stickers are glossy and come in several shapes and sizes, some with various types of foil or holographic coating.

Over the last few weeks I’ve been opening packs and sticking the stickers into the album. With 50 packs I only had 200 stickers, and knew I wouldn’t be able to complete the album, but I hoped I’d make a good effort. It’s been a lot of fun, and now I know had Panini products been widely distributed in Australia when I was a kid I would have gone bonkers for them!

I’m impressed with how seamlessly the stickers match the book. In photos the page looks more matte than it does in real life, and when stuck (and aligned correctly) it can sometimes be difficult to see where book ends and sticker begins. A completed page doesn’t look like an array of stickers as it did back in the older versions (such as in the Gremlins book from the 1980s, shown in the photo at top).

The first and last page of the book contain 6-sticker murals. I was unable to complete either of them, and the above is as good as I got. There are many 2 or 3 sticker murals as well, most of which I completed. As you can see, the stickers align together nearly seamlessly (although I will admit I was extremely careful when applying them).

That’s a shot of two of the trading cards. Of the 50, I got 34 which I think is a good approximation of how many stickers I managed to get as well (about two-thirds). The cards are ok and have nice art, but are more a bonus than a reason to buy this collection.

Worth mentioning is the lore of 40k. If you know anything about Warhammer (which is a table-top strategy game played using miniatures) you know it has a bonkers story, and the snippets of lore in this album reinforce that. These aren’t just soldiers in robotic armor fighting orcs and demons: there’s all sorts of madness on both sides of the eternal war that is our future 38,000 years from now!

Once I had finished opening all my packs, this was the only one double-page of the album I managed to fully complete. Can you see the 11 stickers in the above photo? As I said I estimate I got about two-thirds of the stickers, which means I got about 60 doubles (which will go to Adam). Panini has a service where you can purchase individual stickers directly (for £0.28 each) which is nice for diehards, but I’m happy with my incomplete album and won’t try to finish it.

Overall I’m extremely impressed with this collection, and would love for them to not only make more genre-specific ones (such as Dungeons & Dragons or Ultraman!) or at the least sell more of them in the USA!