TSX: American Marketing Distilled and Injected

[ZoWie]

No, not Toronto Stock Exchange. It's what's become of the fabled Palace Theater of vaudeville history. First this was eaten by a Doubletree Hotel, but now this entire large hotel has been eaten by, well, a Thing. It's the next state of evolution of the Times Square tourist industry. No, not Times Square that you walk through. That's a street intersection full of people, where you can smell sweat and piss and weed, and get hassled by people dressed up as Elmo or the Statue of Liberty who won't let you go until you pay for a photo with them. I'm talking about the other Times Square, which is essentially a theme park that is visited by millions of people for no other reason than the fact that it's visited by millions of people. It's what they used to call high concept. It's a marketing construct.

This Thing is TSX Broadway. Maybe it stands for Times Square Experience. It's not really on Broadway, it's on 7th Avenue, but since a pedestrian mall that used to be Broadway is just a very short block away, I guess it's close enough for rock, and marketing purposes. It's the world's first tourist attraction that was built for the sole purpose of attracting tourists.

The letters SX of course occupy a unique place in American marketing. They remind the human unconscious, at least in the English speaking world, of, well, that sex thing. Getting laid. Etc. This potent arrangement of two characters appears on the backs of cars, and everywhere else including even old ham radios. Hams have sex too. I think.

I happened to be in New York when they raised the Palace Theater. Raised it. It was a big hype thing... sort of stuff the Nooz eats up. They couldn't build the Ultimate VR Tourist Experience on the lower floors until they got rid of the damn thing, but it's a protected historical landmark, being after all perhaps the most famous live stage on the planet. So they built a box around it, raised the box 30 feet and built their theme park around it.

You can get a sense of what this new Thing will look and feel like at this link here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3m5ZXyq32k

You also get a sense of America's true priorities. It's about the mon-eeeeeeeee. As in get on a plane, now, get your sorry ass over here, and give us all the cash you can raise.

Mostly what you see from anything resembling human perspective is the video screen. I don't know if you've been to Times Square since the neon lights were replaced by essentially giant TVs up high like the ones in bars, except that they show only commercials. 24/7. Gigawatts are consumed in the dead of night, displaying heavily researched marketing creations to rats, bugs, a few homeless who got kicked out of the subway sleeping it off outdoors on a 37-degree night, a cop or two, and the occasional taxi passenger. The pulsating glow in the sky is visible from most of Manhattan.

Well, good old TSX has the biggest one of all. They've just spent several months hiring cranes and large well-paid union construction workers to put up something the size of Mount Rushmore, completely dedicated to the presentation of psychologically calculated images to a waiting world of consumers with disposable income. It's Huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge. Something like 12 stories high and wrapped around two whole sides of the building, with no break at the corner. Currently they have no ads to put on it yet, and there are still some dead pixels and such to troubleshoot, so they alternate test patterns with this unctuous video of pretty people. All races, genders, ages, everything... only always pretty and always doing something cute. Sickeningly cute. 100 feet high cute. Not selling anything, yet, just being cute. Like every commercial you ever watched distilled down to its nonverbal content.

Two of the Times Square webcams look right at the thing. It overexposes them, and blacks out everything else. You used to see humans doing relatively human things. Now you see a few moving shapes with your [soon to be] commercials.

It all reminds me of the darker visions of dystopian SF movies. You know the ones. Logan's Run, THX1138, etc. Those running movies. As in GET ME OUT OF HERE.

Trust your instincts.

[bird]

No, not Toronto Stock Exchange. It's what's become of the fabled Palace Theater of vaudeville history. First this was eaten by a Doubletree Hotel, but now this entire large hotel has been eaten by, well, a Thing. It's the next state of evolution of the Times Square tourist industry. No, not Times Square that you walk through. That's a street intersection full of people, where you can smell sweat and piss and weed, and get hassled by people dressed up as Elmo or the Statue of Liberty who won't let you go until you pay for a photo with them. I'm talking about the other Times Square, which is essentially a theme park that is visited by millions of people for no other reason than the fact that it's visited by millions of people. It's what they used to call high concept. It's a marketing construct.

This Thing is TSX Broadway. Maybe it stands for Times Square Experience. It's not really on Broadway, it's on 7th Avenue, but since a pedestrian mall that used to be Broadway is just a very short block away, I guess it's close enough for rock, and marketing purposes. It's the world's first tourist attraction that was built for the sole purpose of attracting tourists.

The letters SX of course occupy a unique place in American marketing. They remind the human unconscious, at least in the English speaking world, of, well, that sex thing. Getting laid. Etc. This potent arrangement of two characters appears on the backs of cars, and everywhere else including even old ham radios. Hams have sex too. I think.

I happened to be in New York when they raised the Palace Theater. Raised it. It was a big hype thing... sort of stuff the Nooz eats up. They couldn't build the Ultimate VR Tourist Experience on the lower floors until they got rid of the damn thing, but it's a protected historical landmark, being after all perhaps the most famous live stage on the planet. So they built a box around it, raised the box 30 feet and built their theme park around it.

You can get a sense of what this new Thing will look and feel like at this link here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3m5ZXyq32k

You also get a sense of America's true priorities. It's about the mon-eeeeeeeee. As in get on a plane, now, get your sorry ass over here, and give us all the cash you can raise.

Mostly what you see from anything resembling human perspective is the video screen. I don't know if you've been to Times Square since the neon lights were replaced by essentially giant TVs up high like the ones in bars, except that they show only commercials. 24/7. Gigawatts are consumed in the dead of night, displaying heavily researched marketing creations to rats, bugs, a few homeless who got kicked out of the subway sleeping it off outdoors on a 37-degree night, a cop or two, and the occasional taxi passenger. The pulsating glow in the sky is visible from most of Manhattan.

Well, good old TSX has the biggest one of all. They've just spent several months hiring cranes and large well-paid union construction workers to put up something the size of Mount Rushmore, completely dedicated to the presentation of psychologically calculated images to a waiting world of consumers with disposable income. It's Huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge. Something like 12 stories high and wrapped around two whole sides of the building, with no break at the corner. Currently they have no ads to put on it yet, and there are still some dead pixels and such to troubleshoot, so they alternate test patterns with this unctuous video of pretty people. All races, genders, ages, everything... only always pretty and always doing something cute. Sickeningly cute. 100 feet high cute. Not selling anything, yet, just being cute. Like every commercial you ever watched distilled down to its nonverbal content.

Two of the Times Square webcams look right at the thing. It overexposes them, and blacks out everything else. You used to see humans doing relatively human things. Now you see a few moving shapes with your [soon to be] commercials.

It all reminds me of the darker visions of dystopian SF movies. You know the ones. Logan's Run, THX1138, etc. Those running movies. As in GET ME OUT OF HERE.

Trust your instincts.

Watched the video. The “serious guy” did his serious thing. Which actually sounds incredibly vapid when filtered. All about the “BRAND” which is so amazing, fantastic, wonderful until it isn’t.

Times Square and TSX, just another place not to go.

[ZoWie]

I loved the whole premise, which is that they're building the ultimate machine for separating tourists from their money, and how it's bigger and newer and more commercially potent than the 50 or so other ways people from the rest of the planet can leave the area poorer than when they unwittingly ventured in.

The existing Times Square webcams are good for an overall view from the high ground, and/or a quick weather check before you board your flight to JFK, but you don't get the true experience of how generally vile the whole place can be on a bad day.

For me the real New York experience is in considerably more prosaic locations, in cool pockets of what the Nooz usually derides as trendies but they're really artists, film makers, and the assorted imaginative young or young-in-soul creatives who also know a good party when they see one. The locations change about once a decade. I know where the action is right now, but I won't tell, and besides I'm weird and you'd probably hate it.

Far as tourist experiences go, I'd stick with the Empire State Building. They have observation decks where you can see and hear what an amazing creation Manhattan really is. It's a monument to unrestrained vampire capitalism, yes, but it's sure gosh-wow breathtaking no matter how many times you've seen it.

There used to be a perfectly good Starbucks on the first floor, but now I think that place has become ... well, a flagship. Tragic.

[bird]

I loved the whole premise, which is that they're building the ultimate machine for separating tourists from their money, and how it's bigger and newer and more commercially potent than the 50 or so other ways people from the rest of the planet can leave the area poorer than when they unwittingly ventured in.

The existing Times Square webcams are good for an overall view from the high ground, and/or a quick weather check before you board your flight to JFK, but you don't get the true experience of how generally vile the whole place can be on a bad day.

For me the real New York experience is in considerably more prosaic locations, in cool pockets of what the Nooz usually derides as trendies but they're really artists, film makers, and the assorted imaginative young or young-in-soul creatives who also know a good party when they see one. The locations change about once a decade. I know where the action is right now, but I won't tell, and besides I'm weird and you'd probably hate it.

Far as tourist experiences go, I'd stick with the Empire State Building. They have observation decks where you can see and hear what an amazing creation Manhattan really is. It's a monument to unrestrained vampire capitalism, yes, but it's sure gosh-wow breathtaking no matter how many times you've seen it.

There used to be a perfectly good Starbucks on the first floor, but now I think that place has become ... well, a flagship. Tragic.

Yeah, we’re really good at building things that separate money from people.

When I was employed by one company about 5 years ago I made a tactical error and ended up doing a stupid tourist thing in NYC. My GPS took me through SoHo at rush hour (so named because it can’t rush). I moved 4 blocks in two hours on Broome Street and got a ticket for blocking the box. Sigh. My stupid.

[ZoWie]

Yeah they're vicious with that box thing in Manhattan. The street grid is compact and if people wait in the box pretty soon 1/3 of the island is sitting there polluting the air and getting nowhere.

[bird]

Yeah they're vicious with that box thing in Manhattan. The street grid is compact and if people wait in the box pretty soon 1/3 of the island is sitting there polluting the air and getting nowhere.

$90 ticket. I learned if I needed to get to CT from NJ I drove around NYC. If I had business in NYC I hired a limo. Of course I also thought that the cops could have been directing traffic but then again maybe that wouldn’t have helped that much.

Mrs. Bird enjoyed shopping in NYC the couple of times she went before we were married. I would like to visit but I think it would be day trips from NJ.

[Number6]

It really doesn't matter where you are in the world because there are always tourist areas that attract visitors. It's no different if it's in London, New Your City, San Antonio, San Francisco, etc... I was stationed in Germany I tell people who are heading to Germany on vacation if they want really, authentic Germany food they need to find a small restaurant or Gasthaus (inn or tavern) about 15 - 20 kilometers outside the city. In England, there are a lot of sites to visit that are tourist destinations like Stonehenge, Tower of London, the Roman baths at Bath, etc.. but if you visit England do some research on the history of small towns and villages because they have some of the most interesting stories to tell. Check with the locals as to their recommendations and you probably won't go wrong.

[ZoWie]

Most tourist attractions start with a real reason to exist. Take Mt. Rushmore. Somewhere in there is an artistic vision. There was a desire to honor the country's heritage, even though the dark side of same is what got them a whole mountain to hack away at in the first place. That state needed a tourist attraction, and the mountain was available because it had been freshly stolen from Native Americans. But it's the vision of the makers that made them work their butts off to create a sculpture there.

Times Square, as far as I can tell, was a monument to open space, then to the real estate business. You don't find much open space in midtown Manhattan, and what there is becomes precious. It was a gathering place more or less by default, because the intersection of 7th Avenue and Broadway was shaped like a bow tie and huge. It was also in the theater district, so there was actually a reason to be there besides having your picture taken with the Naked Cowboy. Not just expensive hard-ticket shows, but big time movie palaces and such.

It was originally Longacre Square and had some fancy hotels, then it became Times Square after the NY Times built its (for the time) gigantic headquarters at the south end. That building is still extant, though it's so covered with electric signs that you can't really see it. Its primary function is to hold up these signs. Most of it is kept vacant because they can make more money off the ads on the signs if they aren't always fixing things for tenants.

TS declined badly in the 1970s when the movie business declined. Something similar happened in Hollywood on the other coast. TS became very seedy and funky, with dopers, perverts, hookers of all types and genders, XXXX peep shows, rigged 3-Card Monte games, and of course more petty theft than most whole cities get in a year. They did a good job cleaning it up, but now it exists just to exist, and it's mandatory for all visitors to have their pictures taken there even though Rockefeller Center only a few blocks away is a much better place for that.

Some big time corporations have major offices there, but those are up in the sky. Back down on human scale, it's a theme park. Right now, today the 23rd of December, Christmas Eve Eve, it's about to become an ice cube. Brrrrrrrr. It's at the noreaster end of the worst continental-scale winter storm in 40 years. Climate change follows the laws of physics. Put more energy into a system and it does everything bigger.

[ZoWie]

Weather forecast for Manhattan:

This Afternoon
Mostly sunny and cold, with a steady temperature around 14. Wind chill values between -5 and zero. West wind around 17 mph, with gusts as high as 28 mph.

Tonight
Mostly clear, with a temperature rising to around 17 by 7pm. Wind chill values between zero and 5. West wind 13 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 26 mph.

Christmas Day
Sunny, with a high near 27. Wind chill values between zero and 10. West wind around 14 mph, with gusts as high as 24 mph.

Sunday Night
Mostly clear, with a low around 19. Wind chill values between 10 and 15. West wind 8 to 10 mph, with gusts as high as 22 mph.

https://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.p ... Y%2C%20USA

---------

In LA, of course, the sun's out and it's supposed to hit 80 on Christmas.

Actually it can freeze at night in LA this time of year. It doesn't very often, but it can. For some reason, though, the only 100% shot in LA weather forecasting is that it's 80 on Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's Day. No one has the slightest idea why this happens. Up until climate change kicked in, it was invariably cold and usually rainy just before Christmas when everyone was outside traveling or whatever, then Chamber of Commerce weather on The Big Day.

This shouldn't be happening. It should only be one of those human psychological constructs. To a minor extent, it is, but look at the stats. I'm right more often than I'm wrong. Crazy. Many years here and it still makes me dizzy.

It still rains New Year's Eve, and it often rains on January 2. Here's how many times it's rained on the 1st on the Rose Parade in the 100 years plus that they've been doing it:

Twice.

That's insane.

This year, the current forecast, which is of course subject to change, is 80 and sunny on New Year's Day. But there is no Rose Parade. When it's on Sunday they have a deal with the churches, and they do it on the 2nd.

Rain is forecast for the 2nd.

Without irony, there is no LA.

[ZoWie]

I looked to see whether our part of LA was the warmest spot in the contiguous US at 82 degrees. It wasn't. Malibu beat us out. They got to 85.

Today it's cloudy, and rain is in the forecast.

Just like every year. How this happens is beyond me, but it does.

[Number6]

I looked to see whether our part of LA was the warmest spot in the contiguous US at 82 degrees. It wasn't. Malibu beat us out. They got to 85.

Today it's cloudy, and rain is in the forecast.

Just like every year. How this happens is beyond me, but it does.

We got up to about 80 here in the San Diego area. November to March is California's funny weather in that it can be 80 degrees one day and then in the low 60s with rain. Of course, Santa Ana winds cause the heat and then we get the Pineapple Express from Hawaii for the rain which looks like why California will get a lot of rain this week. Whenever they forecast rain, I try to figure out between the local TV news, the local paper, and the Weather Channel how much we'll get. Most of the time, it seems, we get just below what they projected.

[ZoWie]

What I've noticed is that the wind always seems to die down right around the Winter Solstice. Once again this year, it's a dead calm here today. It was yesterday too. There's always some kind of wind here, except for these few weeks. That must have something to do with it. Absent an active storm front, you get Chamber of Commerce weather. Just enough air seeps over the mountains and warms by compression to cause these crazy numbers for a few hours around noon. It's not even 80 for a day, usually more like four hours, but that gets reported in places where it's -17 and that great sucking sound is 5000 more people moving out here.

[Number6]

What I've noticed is that the wind always seems to die down right around the Winter Solstice. Once again this year, it's a dead calm here today. It was yesterday too. There's always some kind of wind here, except for these few weeks. That must have something to do with it. Absent an active storm front, you get Chamber of Commerce weather. Just enough air seeps over the mountains and warms by compression to cause these crazy numbers for a few hours around noon. It's not even 80 for a day, usually more like four hours, but that gets reported in places where it's -17 and that great sucking sound is 5000 more people moving out here.

Now that you mention it, it does seem that the winds do die down around the Winter Solstice. That would be why when it's 70 degrees it seems warmer.

Both LA and San Diego are located between the ocean and the mountains and I believe with the millions of people living there, all the homes, buildings, and the roads/highways made of concrete and asphalt absorb the heat of the sun and radiate that back throughout the day. That heat radiation, known as "heat islands" would affect winds and affect the weather patterns in regards to rain. These "heat islands" give rise to micro-climates. In San Diego, you can drive five miles East from the ocean and the temperatures will be different. When we get rain, there are a variety of areas where they'll get twice as much rain and an area just a few miles away.

[ZoWie]

LA has so many microclimates that weather forecasting is done in zones. These zones get smaller every time they revise the map, which currently they're doing pretty much yearly. They changed them around here early this year, and they plan to do it again in spring of 2023. I can barely keep it straight which one I'm in. One of the lines currently goes practically right down the middle of our street.

[Number6]

LA has so many microclimates that weather forecasting is done in zones. These zones get smaller every time they revise the map, which currently they're doing pretty much yearly. They changed them around here early this year, and they plan to do it again in spring of 2023. I can barely keep it straight which one I'm in. One of the lines currently goes practically right down the middle of our street.

I noticed when they do the local weather report they do it citing various parts of the city and county. Back in the 60s and 70s, the city was broken down into a couple of distinct areas (downtown, Barrio Logan, Normal Heights, etc..) and now there are 20 or more areas which I have a hard time keeping up with.

[ZoWie]

Exactly. It's the hilly (in places mountainous) topography that creates all the zones, but also there's been some minor human effect. Here's the announcement for the next round of changes in the LA/Ventura County area.

https://www.weather.gov/media/lox/zone_ ... phase2.pdf