Empire State of Mind

Left: Empire State Building with "Canada Day" Lighting


Disclosure: This post has absolutely nothing to do with sustainability, something to do with living in a city, and everything to do with things I find mildly amusing.

The coolest thing about my bedroom is that I can see both the Empire State and Chrysler buildings in all their Art Decco-ie glory from my window. The lamest thing about my bedroom is that it is pretty much the size of a largish closet. Emphasis on the ISH. So, I regularly glance out my window at the NYC skyline as a means of reassuring myself that living in a closet is OK since the closet is located within viewing distance of Manhattan, while costing only a third of the price of renting in the city proper.

Tonight however as I gazed longingly out of my window I was somewhat shocked to see the top of the Empire State Building sporting a medley of lights that could most accuratley be described as technicolored vommit. The normally distinct trifecta of colored bulbs has been replaced by a mish-mash of clashing, blurred colors that looks more like an Empire State fuck-up than an Empire State Building! However, minimal investigation has confirmed that this cluster-fuck of colors is indeed intentional. Phew. Indeed tonight, October 19, 2009, the ESB is sporting "Psychedelic Tye-Dye Colors" in honor of the New York Historical Society's Benefit for Grateful Dead Exhibition and Archive. Uh huh. No joke. Apparently I no longer live in New York City at all, but have instead been transported to some alternate reality outpost of Burlington, VT. Mostly I'm left lamenting why they stopped at psychedelic tie-dye lighting and didn't go as far as chucking free cartons of Ben & Jerry's Phish Food from the top of the building to mark this momentous occasion.

Now, if you've been living in a cave for the past several years, or just don't frequent NYC all that often, you might not be aware that the colors of the ESB tower change to reflect holidays. Or at least thats how it used to be. You know, red/white/blue for Independence Day, orange and yellow for Thanksgiving, red and green for Christmas -- this all seems quite reasonable. But then some a-hole got the bright idea that sticking to the pallate of major American holidays, was, well frankly, quite limiting, and that the TALLEST building in the BIGGEST city in the GREATEST country in the world was capable of much, much more.

Now, I'd like to think that this bold vision came from the guy in charge of changing the lightbulbs every night --some outer-borough guy with a name like Vinnie or Joey who grew up in a house in Brooklyn with plastic on the couches and outrageously garrish Christmas decorations in the front yard, but a safer bet is probably some corporate schmuck sitting in a meeting, bored out of his mind with one finger up his nose while the other mindlessly scrolls through a Wikipedia list of bizzare holidays on his Blackberry. Oh harsh reality!

Regardless, the ESB now boasts an impressive lighting schedule, with the tower colorfully lit most nights of the week, for a multitude of obscure holidays and events. And I'm not talking Yom Kippur and All Saints Day. I'm talking Purple/Orange/White for the Cat Fanciers' Association -Iams Cat Championships as seen on this very date last year, or Blue/Green/Blue for Corporate Philanthropy Day on Feb. 23.

And my personal favorite: April 23, 2009 - Green/Green/Green for the 25th Anniversary of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Also my 26th birthday. Hellz yeah.