New York Daily Photo Analytics

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Toys "R" Us


Everyone has their comfort zones and for most, familiarity breeds contentment, not contempt. But I really have a difficult time with visitors who travel all the way to New York City and seek out the same shops and restaurants they have at home. Like eating at McDonalds after shopping at national chain retailers.

I am quite guilty myself of frequenting a small group of restaurants in a city with tens of thousands. When my stomach calls for refueling, this is typically not the time I want to become a risk taker. I want the tried and true - to eat the things I know are guaranteed to bring satisfaction. But there are limits to living in the comfort zone.

When I guide visitors brimming with enthusiasm for those things unique to the city, I am galvanized; when I find myself with someone looking for the places that are familiar to them, I begin to short circuit and lose voltage. On one occasion, I had in my custody a woman who rejected every cuisine I offered. She commented "At this point, McDonalds is starting to look good." When we finally agreed on Italian, she rejected every entree. The only pasta she would eat was not on the menu.

The most frustrating outing was one occasion when visited by my nephews when young. Knowing full well what I was dealing with, I put quite a bit of thought into what kids would want and geared the day towards the big and impressive - things like the Brooklyn Bridge and the new planetarium at the Museum of Natural History. What was requested, however, was a visit to the large Toys "R" Us at Times Square. I've been in a bad mood ever since.

If you are a shopper, you could be visiting places like the Morrison Hotel Gallery. There are two locations - the older at 124 Prince Street in SoHo and the newer (seen in the photos) at 313 Bowery, appropriately, the former location of the CBGB Gallery. In my recent visit, I spent some time chatting with Rick Edwards and Vicki Albanese, sharing stories of music venues and encounters with music legends in the past.

The gallery represents a bevy of renowned photographers, such as the legendary Jim Marshall who recently passed away - see here. The Morrison Hotel Gallery was founded in 2001 by former record company executive and producer Peter Blachley, former independent record store owner Rich Horowitz, and music photographer Henry Diltz. In 2008, a deal was made with Sony to sell photos from the archives of Columbia Records.

The Morrison Hotel Gallery has some of the largest collections in the world of historic rock photos. If you are downtown, I recommend you drop in to browse. If you prefer, I also know of another little known place to visit for a unique New York City experience, located in an off the beaten path location. It's in an area called Times Square and the place is called Toys "R" Us :)

5 comments:

Terry at Blue Kitchen said...

Well put, Brian! Ditto for the Olive Garden, Hard Rock Cafe, the Disney Store and other such chains.

Kiclne said...

Another beautiful scene. Love the distance you have that captures the whole area. I'll be ready to skip Toys R Us and visit Morrison's when I come to New York...Not much of a Toys R Us fan anyway....

dianasfaria.com said...

When I first saw your photos, I thought, oh my God what have they done to the cute little place on Prince Street??? - I didn't know there were two!

Brian Dubé said...

Terry B - Agreed.

Kicine - Tx

Lily - BTW, is that ur real name? If so, it's pretty awesome.

Anonymous said...

Hello Brian, I've just send you my email. I'm a Harvard PhD intrnational student and I will visit NY with my boyfriend very soon. He's a spanish press photographer, so I would like to show him some of those interesting places you know, as gallerias, but I really don't know which are the most interesting...

Could you help me with this? Thank you so much for your time...
Your blog is a great discover!
T. Martin