One of the fun things about New York is the tradition of holiday shop displays, which range from the sublime to the charming to the thoroughly creepy.
I’m planning on reviewing some notable holiday displays throughout the next month, and so I thought I’d start with the one I see almost every day.
The Shops at Columbus Circle are an upscale mall of sorts connected to the Time Warner Center. (I’m usually there for the Whole Foods in the basement, not the Swarovski boutique.)
Every holiday season, or at least for the past three that I’ve been here for, they haul out these enormous spiky stars and hang them from the ceiling.
The stars change color along with atmospheric holiday music. It’s quite beautiful. My husband’s CNN friend says that the Time Warner people are proud of their elegant, interfaith display.
One star hangs lower than the rest, though, and its sharp metal tip points directly at the people riding up from Whole Foods on the escalator.
Every time I get groceries in November and December, I think about the cable breaking and this pointy steel and glass object plunging through my right shoulder. My hands are full of grocery bags, so I’m helplessly immobile as the star of death comes crashing down, ripping my flesh asunder.
Here is the view, looking up, right as I’m about to pass under it.
At least it would be a festive way to go!
ouch! I think that calls for some Mochimochi knit body armour…
Ooh, those are very cool!! Looking at all the displays is a great way to feel Christmassy!!
Odd, isn’t it, the visions we get from time to time?
I love stars like that. Structurally they remind me of these boxes made by one of the studio art majors in college. She combined glass (and plexiglass) with metal to make the box into functional art.
Great! I work up the block and pass through the Time Warner Center often. From now on, all I’ll be thinking about while I’m in there is my imminent death from impalement. ;)
I’ve been there! My husband and I stayed near Columbus Circle in June, and we walked through that building a couple of times. It’s great to read about how it’s done up for the holidays — even if it’s a little worrisome to you as you ride the escalator.
And that Louis Vuitton thing? They had one here in Seattle last year, and we thought that nothing says Christmas more than a deathray pointing across 5th Ave.
The stars are very beautiful, if deadly! I’ll worry about you until January…… :O) samm
No wonder everybody’s grumpy in that whole foods! eeek!