It Was Cloudy Today in Manhattan

None of the pictures we took came out right. The light levels were too low with a cloudy day. We took a walk through Grand Central Station on the way to the Lexington Avenue subway line. We had not seen the place in many years, so we gawked like a tourist. That is because for all intents and purposes, we were tourists. It is a huge hall with lofty roofs. We tried to take pictures of the  ceiling, with the pictures of the mythical creatures of the constellations set out like stars in the sky, but it was hard to keep a steady hand.

This is a photo of some tourists who station themselves at both ends, grouped together on the stairways of the massive chamber. They stand there with their video cameras, digital cameras and little cell phones at both ends. They are not commuters, they are all of them awestruck visitors held captive by the vista of the huge interior space. And since it was a chlly day in the 40's, the indoors was somewhat warmer and gave us an incentive to glance longingly at a  massive bit of movie nostalgia. The first film to come to mind is the romantic wartime film "The Clock" (1945) with Judy Garland and Robert Walker. Another more recent one we saw on DVD was KPAX (2001) with Kevin Spacey, whose unlikely alien hero somehow seemed to appear out of the brilliant light streaming through the massive windows of the Station.