Adelaide Festival Centre: OzAsia Festival

The Adelaide Festival Centre’s OzAsia Festival was established in 2007 and is held annually in September/ October (according to the lunar calendar) for approximately ten days.

The OzAsia Festival presents work by Australian artists that identify with an Asian heritage, stages collaborative work between Australian and Asian artists, and presents a cross section of traditional and contemporary cultures of Asia. The OzAsia Festival has a broad cultural reach and includes theatre, dance, music, film, visual arts, food and design culture.

In 2011 the Moon Lantern Festival will be held on Monday 12 September in Elder Park.
When: Sepember 2 - September 17, 2011
Where: Adelaide Festival Centre, King William Road, Adelaide
Entry: Free
More info: http://www.ozasiafestival.com.au/

Friday Fotos – Rockefeller Center

The GE Building towers into a perfect New York sky

One of the highlights of my 2008 visit to New York City was a trip to the ‘Top of The Rock’ – or if you prefer, the viewing deck of the Rockefeller Center located in midtown Manhattan.

The Rockefeller Center is in fact a complex of 19 major buildings, the largest of which is the GE Building. Directly in front of this building is a large sunken outdoor plaza which doubles as an ice skating rink in winter and restaurant during the summer months.

Paul Manship sculptures, Youth and Maiden

Stunning works of art (like the two shown above), are what help to make the Rockefeller Center a location worth visiting in its own right, rather than simply a place to get a birds-eye view of Manhattan. So much great art is located around the complex that books have been written about the collection (see links below).

Michael Hammers 2008 Installation: Electric Fountain

With the loss of the twin towers of the World Trade Center, the Empire State Building can lay claim to being the highest building in New York City, although this will change once the new tower is completed on the site of the WTC. While it is tempting to visit the ESB rather than the Rockefeller Center building, I preferred the Top of The Rock if only because one can get great views (and photographs) of the Empire State Building which is near by.

Top of The Rock view of Manhattan skyline and Central Park

Getting There:
The nearest subway station is the 47-50th St - Rockefeller Ctr. Station which can be reached by the B, D, F, and M trains (more info: http://www.mta.info/).

Tickets:

• Adult $34.00
• Child (6-12) $28.00
• Senior (62+) $32.00
• Sun & Stars Ticket: Adult $63.00
• Sun & Stars Ticket: Child $43.00
• Note: Sun & Stars tickets allow guests to visit twice in one day.
• A range of add-on's and combo tickets are also available.

POST UPDATED MARCH 11, 2017

NOTE: The above ticket prices were correct as of March 11, 2017.
For up to date ticket prices, and to pre-purchase tickets to the Rockefeller Center click here... 

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Arteries of New York City

Check out this short film produced by Encyclopaedia Britannica Films during the 1940s.
The film shows transportation corridors into and out of New York City, using animated diagrams indicating directions of flow for trains, ferries, highways, tunnels, subways, buses, etc. It provides a unique view, not just of transportation in 1940s New York, but some great aerial footage of the Big Apple before the start of the post-war rise of the modern skyscraper.

There are also scenes of a very crowded Coney Island boardwalk, apartment houses and suburbs, Times Square, the 34th Street subway, Grand Central station, New Jersey ferry boat commuters, The Brooklyn Bridge and much more. You even get a glimpse of the many wharves that once jutted out into the Hudson River from lower Manhattan.

The file on Archive.Org gives the date of its production as 1941, but as some of the comments from other viewers of this clip point out, some images featuring a rocket and jet fighter as well as vehicles that were produced after 1941, can also be seen in the film.

Enjoy.