City Views, Country Dreams

Good afternoon from New York.

There is a horrific story from Orlando, Florida, filling the news today.  Many lives were lost and others were changed.  Gun violence continues.

Earlier this afternoon, in order to also find some positive images, I chose to take a walk around the neighborhood to embrace the brilliantly sunny day and pleasant breeze.

As I crossed Amsterdam Avenue at 74th Street, I saw some heavy equipment and some white parked at the rear of the Beacon Theatre.

I was curious to see more equipment parked along West 74th Street between Amsterdam and Broadway.  (You can see the corner of the famous Ansonia Building peeking over the left side of those trees.)

I decided to investigate what was going on at the Beacon.  It's a grand old movie theatre that has been through several renovations over the decades.  Before the renovations I remember seeing the Kinks perform here many times.

Across 75th Street I saw a television sound truck.

Crossing 75th and Amsterdam, I spotted lots of stagehands taking a break, and more white tents.

These tents extended the full length of the north side of the Beacon.  I like this picture with the two policemen, the bright orange-red traffic cones, the barricades, the top of a fire hydrant, some trees and a yellow taxi.

This is a side entrance to the Beacon that leads right into the theatre.  Lots of security chaps were making sure only those supposed to enter were entering.  Have you all guessed which big show is going to start at 8 pm tonight?

It's the Tony Awards Show...where the best of Broadway gets their statuettes.  

Preparations take a long time.

The Beacon Theatre is part of the same building as the Beacon Hotel.  The red carpet for arriving starry invitees to walk upon stretched for several blocks.

Following the path of the carpet encouraged me to take some more photographs of Upper West Side architecture.  The building in the following photographs was originally a bank.

Its upper floors are now condominium apartments.

The architect was long ago inspired by Italy.  Apple Bank's logo really seems out of place.  It was not part of the original design.

Here is where the red carpet begins at 73rd Street and Broadway.

Here is a photograph of the southern end of the bank/condo building.

Just across 73rd Street is a little park that leads to the subway station.  This lady had a very good vantage point from which to watch the stars arrive, but she would have had to wait for several hours.

Easier just to show up next Thursday at the softball game!  

Something else was going on all along the western side of the tree-lined Broadway median strip. A street fair!

All sorts of delicacies and products were on sale.

Even though the weather was grand, the crowds were rather light.

This was probably because over on the East Side of town, the annual Puerto Rican Day parade was making its way up Fifth Avenue.

I hope that you all have enjoyed my neighborhood stroll.  If I had not noticed all the Tony goings on, I'd planned to show you all some flowers from yesterday's Union Square farmers market.

Here are just a few.

I have forgotten what the flowers in the following picture are, but I thought they were very dramatic.  Worthy of a Tony, perhaps.

Thank you all for your continuing visits and for taking time to leave comments, too.  Even when it can seem that many bad things are happening in our shared world, there is also much good to discover.