Using the NY Pass, I jumped on board the Downtown and Brooklyn tour bus to see locations I might want to return to for a greater explore. Ooh, lordy, Greenwich village looked good as did Soho, and the East side with the Tenement museum and best Chinese restaurant in town.    2 and a half hours later….visited the Rockefeller Center, commissioned by JD Rockefeller in 1928, a complex of 19 commercial buildings covering 22 acres between 48th and 51st streets; the older and original 14 Art Deco office buildings from the 1930s, and a set of four International-style towers. It is among the last major building projects in the United States to incorporate a program of integrated public art.

The Fire Department was having a promotion about Fire Education Week in the Plaza and all the dignitaries were present. Including yummy fire dude observing proceedings!!

The centerpiece of the Center is the 70-floor, GE Building (“30 Rock”, also the name of a comedy television show) centered behind the sunken plaza. The building is the setting for the famous “Lunchtime atop a Skyscraper” photograph, taken by Charles C. Ebbets in 1932 of construction workers sitting on a steel beam without safety harnesses eating lunch above an 260m drop to the ground. The skyscraper is the headquarters of NBC and houses most of the network’s New York studios. It’s home to the observation deck, the Top of the Rock, which allows visitors a unique 360-degree panoramic view of the city. Pity it was such a grey afternoon, visibility poor for photos.

Paul Manship’s highly recognizable bronze gilded statue of the Greek legend of the Titan Prometheus recumbent, bringing fire to mankind, features prominently in the sunken plaza at the front of 30 Rockefeller Plaza.

The famed annual Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree sits above it. The ice skating rink is located just below and in front of the statue…what a sight in winter!!

Everything takes time in NY with lots of queuing so by the time I came down from the observation deck it was time to get the subway, have an early dinner, and come back to downtown for the next play I’m seeing….”Book of Mormon” @ the Eugene O’Neill Theatre.

The Book of Mormon is a religious satire musical with book, lyrics, and music by Trey Parker, Robert Lopez, and Matt Stone. Best known for creating the animated comedy South Park, Parker and Stone co-created the music with Lopez, a co-composer/co-lyricist of Avenue Q. The Book of Mormon tells the story of two young Mormon missionaries sent to a remote village in northern Uganda, where a brutal warlord is threatening the local population. Naïve and optimistic, the two missionaries try to share the Book of Mormon, one of their scriptures—which only one of them has read—but have trouble connecting with the locals, who are more worried about war, famine, poverty, and AIDS than about religion. A very young, energetic cast made the play rock! Another very entertaining night!

Stopped off at the sumptuous Lillies bar over the road for a nightcap before making my way home…gorgeous. http://timessquare.lilliesnyc.com/?cat=17