Saturday, October 04, 2008

Radio City

Today I worked in Radio City! Open House New York asked our firm's founder, Hugh Hardy, to lead tours in the building, since it was he, in 1999 that was essentially responsible for the complete renovation of the building. They also needed several volunteers to shepherd tourists along as well as get drinks and such for Hugh. I ended up being a shepherd. I said, "We need to rejoin the rest of the group now, sorry," more times than I wish to recall. Sadly, the tour didn't go into the backstage area - I was hoping we'd go backstage at an opportune moment and I'd meet one of my favorite comediens, Margaret Cho. Not the case...ah, well. During the first tour, which I was on survey-handout duty for, I saw a limo pulling up so I hung around to see if it was her, as there were camera people everywhere. But no, some 14 year old girl in the sluttiest, shiniest dress ever got out and started to pick her underwear, right in front of us. Kathy and I nearly died laughing. I went off to go find food, but Kathy later told me that the girl was there for some sort of old black guy's music video. They filmed it once where she ran up to him and talked to him. Okay, well, that just sounds messed up to me somehow, having a little girl put on a slutty dress and run up and talk to some dirty old man on camera. Apparently, Radio City didn't condone the activity either and on the loudspeaker blared, "Young man, you are NOT allowed to film here, this is private property!" Mwahah. But anyway, to go back to the tour, it was fun. Hugh's a very good speaker - I suppose that's what got him to where he is today. And Radio City, itself? Lux - lush - rich - bold - warm - vibrant. Loved it. There were a lot of art deco stylings, of which I am a big fan, but Hugh explained to everyone that though they borrowed elements from the art deco movement that was big at the time, the actual style is more American Modernism, because in the overall project, there were too many simple, undecorated elements for it to be true art deco. Still reminded me of "the Hudsucker Proxy"...
Also, just now, I was in a Korean bakery getting a chocolate croissant (mmmmmmmmm) and the girl at the cash register saw my H3 tote and asked if I was an architect. I thought she just saw the OHNY pin on it, since OHNY is mostly architectural stuff. So I just smiled and said yes. Then, it turns out she works part time for Penny Hardy...some relation of Hugh? And they designed the graphics for the bag. Nice.

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