New York, Pt. 8 - "Panorama-ding-dong"

On Saturday of Memorial Day weekend (yes, I know, this was going on five months ago, but isn't it more fun to get this stuff in rationed-out portions?) Regina and I hopped a train out to Queens to meet up with her fiancé John--he's from over thattaway, and was there for the day to help some friends with some carpentry work. We met up at his mom's house, who was lovely and funny and to a hayseed like me, the very embodiment of much of what I've seen on Seinfeld over the years--like George's mom, but without the shrillness, and way nicer. We had tea and danishes and I was referred to repeatedly as "the visitor from West Bumblef*@k."

When I was planning this trip to NYC (and I use "planning" loosely, because let's face it, I'm kind of a hunt-and-peck sort of traveller), one of the few concrete must-see items I had on my list was this: Flushing Meadows Corona Park, aka the site of the 1964 (and 1940) World's Fair.

Home of...the Unisphere.


I *heart* the Unisphere. I don't know if it's the space-age thing, or the design of it, or just the fact that there' s a giant steel globe sitting in the middle of a park somewhere--I just love it. I could have sat by this thing all day long just staring at it, taking pictures of it...it's just somethin' else.



Some of the buildings from the Fair have been preserved and still function in various capacities today. One of those is the Queens Museum of Art, which houses rotating art collections as well as a nifty collection of artifacts from the Fair. (It also looks out on the Unisphere area of the park.)



Here's a small model of what the fairgrounds looked like in '64--you can probably spot the Unisphere globe in the middle, towards the top. The Queens Museum of Art is that rectangle right behind it.


And posters from the two Fairs.



The Museum is also home to the Panorama of the City of New York, or as Regina and I referred to it throughout my stay, the "Panorama-ding-dong."


It's a room-sized scale model of the entire city of New York--every building there as of 1992 in all five boroughs is represented in the panorama. Very tiny-like. The original panorama was built for the 1964 World's Fair--apparently there were little helicopter-shaped carts you could ride in with glass covering their floors, being lowered from the ceiling, right over the top of the model. Neato!


Nowadays, there's no airlift, but there is a cool walkway all around the model (with a glass floor in parts, for a birds' eye view), with pictures and maps lining the walls to help tourists and locals alike get their bearings.


Little tiny Central Park.


Little tiny Statue of Liberty (on the little island closest to the bottom).


Little tiny downtown Manhattan. (On 9/11 anniversaries, they apparently install two little beams of light in place of the towers, emulating what's done at the memorial site downtown.)


Little tiny Flushing Meadows Corona Park.


Regina & John, picking out landmarks far more readily than I was capable of.


All in all, quite possibly one of the coolest things I've ever seen.

After we'd toured the museum, we headed back outside and went to see the New York State Pavillion.


Back in the day, elevators took fairgoers to the sightseeing decks up top. Nowadays, the elevators are long broken, and I imagine the place is far too run-down for visitor traffic like that.


Also, there was a domed ceiling over the top of the Pavillion (kind of behind the towers/decks), made out of big, brightly-colored plates of clear plastic (blues, oranges, etc.). They had to remove those as the building grew more unstable, and the roof posed a hazard.


The Pavillion is padlocked shut (although there is a Children's Theater functioning & thriving beside it)--but I peeked inside through a crack in the gate.


The floor was once covered by a giant map of the state of New York--not anymore. (Then again, that was forty years ago.)*


After the World's Fair, the pavillion was apparently used as a roller rink for a while...I think that closed back in the 70s. Since then, I guess it's been sitting, waiting...it's made notable appearances in Men In Black (although I think most of it was computer-generated in the movie), and, for those of you familiar with They Might Be Giants, it was in their "Don't Let's Start" video (circa 1986). The map on the floor was still mostly intact then, as you sort-of make out here.



We walked over to the other side of the park (it's a BIG park!) and got some ice cream after that--and when I saw the picture on the side of this truck, all I could think of was the Mr. Tastee episode on The Adventures of Pete & Pete. Wonder if this served as any inspiration...


As we looped back out of the park on our way back to Brooklyn, we passed Shea Stadium...


If you ever get the chance, head out to Queens & to the park. Seriously. I know, if you're just visiting NYC it's a little ways off the beaten tourist track, but wow, was it ever worth it.