Skip to main content

WOTBA's Walking News Digest: Walking Off the Tribeca Fim Festival, Walking on Concrete at the Olympics, and Other Stories

The first news item is from Walking Off the Big Apple.

Blogger Walks 15,246 Steps on First Day of Tribeca Film Festival
While walking from my apartment and back to attend two film screenings and one reception on the first day of the Tribeca Film Festival yesterday, I walked 6.73 miles, 15,246 steps, and burned 461 calories, according to my Omron pedometer. Wow! Audience applause, please! Entrepreneurial weight-loss gurus should look into opening film fat camps around the country.

The UK's Superiority in Walking Culture
The UK, once again, shows up other parts of the world when it comes to walking appreciation. This article describes a 16-day walking celebration, one longer than the film festival I'm attending (but theirs doesn't include Lou "Take a Walk on the Wild Side" Reed) and features a veritable cornucopia of themed events including tight-rope walking and stilt walking." (Travel Connect website, UK)

Walking Tour of Norwich, England's Architecture
Here, again, advantage UK with a walking tour to explore the attractive architecture of Norwich. (BBc, UK)

Everything A British Woman Spending Euros for Walking Could Need
Not only do the people of the UK know where to walk (Norwich) and how (stilts, tight-ropes, and regular), they're given all sorts of advice about shoes and pedometers, etc., in their newspapers.

Walking on stilts
This story comes from Blissfield, Michigan – "A Blissfield man plans to walk 830 miles on stilts this summer to support United Cerebral Palsy of Michigan (UCP). During the eight weeks of May and June, Neil Sauter, who has mild cerebral palsy, will cross the lower and upper peninsulas of Michigan, sharing his story and encouraging others to support UCP’s disability advocacy." That's pretty amazing! Finally, a good walking story from this side of the pond. (The Daily Telegram, Adrian. MI.)

The Beijing Race-Walking Course is Made out of Concrete
Olympic race-walkers complain that the new walking course in Beijing is too hard, literally. Most would prefer asphalt. The Beijing Olympics has all sorts of issues. Add this one. (AFP)

AHA's Start (Exclamation Mark) Walking Day
I gathered many stories on The American Heart Association's National Start! Walking Day. The numbers of participants varied from place to place. According to WCTV in Florida, "Dozens of folks in Tallahassee are participating in the rally, walking around Remington Green Circle." Dozens! Count 'em! (WCTV, Tallahassee)

Brooklyn Poet Waxes Poetic About Walking
Brooklyn-based poet Edward Hirsch elegantly explains the relationship between writing and walking in an essay for The Washington Post. Truly nice, and nothing for me to make to make fun of, darn it. (Washington Post)

Image: shoe repair sign, outside of shoe repair store, University Place, New York, New York, and near venues for the Tribeca Film Festival. They know how to cash in, don't they?

Comments

  1. Anonymous8:00 PM

    You mentioned Norwich,I live close by lol, I enjoy your walks around New York Immensley

    ReplyDelete
  2. A great Blog. I'm a New York wanna-be but have to settle for a crammed full 2 weeks each year. Love to do the unusual things and look for them all year in various places. Your blog will help me.
    Thanks
    Judy

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular Posts

25 Radical Things to Do in Greenwich Village

A list of 25 things to Do in Greenwich Village with history of protest, old cafes, and signs of change. Hipstamatic iPhone images of contemporary Greenwich Village by Walking Off the Big Apple (Revised and updated.) Flipping through  Greenwich Village: A Photographic Guide by Edmund T. Delaney and Charles Lockwood with photographs by George Roos, a second, revised edition published in 1976, it’s easy to compare the black and white images with the look of today’s neighborhood and see how much the Village has changed. A long shot photograph of Washington Square taken up high from an apartment north of the park, and with the looming two towers of the World Trade Center off to the distant south in the background, reveals a different landscape than what we would encounter today.    On the north side of the park, an empty lot and two small buildings have since given way to NYU’s Kimmel Center and a new NYU Center for Academic and Spiritual Center Life. The Judson Me...

Museums in New York Open on Mondays

UPDATED July 9, 2024 Please consult the museum websites for changes in days and hours. • Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)  10:30 am - 5:30 pm •  The Metropolitan Museum of Art  10 am - 5 pm • Whitney Museum  10:30 - 6 pm •  American Museum of Natural History  10 am - 5:30 pm • Jewish Museum  11 am - 6 pm • International Center of Photography (ICP)  11 am -7 pm • Guggenheim  10:30 am - 5:30 pm •  The Museum of the City of New York  10 am - 5 pm •  Cooper Hewitt  10 am - 6 pm •  Neue Galerie  11 am - 6 pm The Whitney Museum of American Art General Information  American Museum of Natural History Central Park West and 79th Street See the post, Big Things to See at the American Museum of Natural History . Cooper Hewitt 2 East 91st St. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum 1071 Fifth Ave Jewish Museum 1109 Fifth Ave The Metropoli...

10 Short Walks from Grand Central Terminal

(updated March 2017) Famously crowded Grand Central Terminal functions as a major crossroads for the city, hosting busy commuters as they come and go from the suburbs via the Metro-North Railroad or within the city via a few subway lines, but the terminal also happens to be a good place to launch short walks. With its south side fronting E. 42nd Street and its massive structure interrupting Park Avenue, Grand Central provides quick access to many of the city's most well-known attractions. The New York Public Library and Bryant Park are only a couple of blocks away from the terminal, a quick jaunt on 42nd Street. And from there, Times Square is just another block or two farther west of the library, its neon shimmering in the distance. One wonders, standing near the intersection of 5th Avenue and 42nd Street, how many souls have been lured away from their well-meaning library studies by the beckoning lights of the Theater District. Grand Central Terminal : Before setting...

From Penn Station to New York Landmarks: Measuring Walking Distance and Time in Manhattan

(revised 2017) How long does it take to walk from Penn Station/Madison Square Garden to well-known destinations in Manhattan? What are the best walking routes ? What if I don't want to see anything in particular but just want to walk around? In addition to the thousands of working commuters from the surrounding area, especially from New Jersey and Long Island who arrive at Penn Station via New Jersey Transit or the Long Island Rail Road, many people arrive at the station just to spend time in The City. Some have questions. Furthermore, a sporting event may have brought you to Madison Square Garden (above Penn Station), and you want to check out what the city offers near the event. This post if for you.  The map below should help you measure walking distances and times from the station to well-known destinations in Manhattan - Bryant Park , the Metropolitan Museum of Art , the Empire State Building , Times Square , Rockefeller Center , Washington Square Park , the High Line ...

25 Things To Do in Chelsea

On the High Line, with the Whitney Museum of American Art (revised and updated 2018) The phenomenal popularity of the High Line on the West Side has no doubt introduced many visitors to the pleasures of  Chelsea , the multifaceted eclectic neighborhood that stretches out below. On the west side of the rails, between W. 14th and W. 29th Streets or so, the  Chelsea Gallery District  is home to hundreds of contemporary art galleries in repurposed warehouses. New luxury residences rise up around these spaces, taking advantage of the stunning Hudson River views. On the east side of the line, the iconic Empire State Building comes into the picture, but closer in, the Gothic Revival outlines of the General Theological Seminary represent the neighborhood's roots in an earlier century. Chelsea is a remarkable neighborhood bound together by an artistic and visual history, but it's also a community held together by social institutions - schools, historic houses of worsh...

25 Things To Do Near the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)

(updated 2016) The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) at 11 W. 53rd Street is near many other New York City attractions, so before or after a trip to the museum, a short walk in any direction could easily take in additional experiences. Drawing a square on a map with the museum at the center, a shape bounded by 58th Street to the north and 48th Street to the south, with 7th Avenue to the west and Park Avenue to the east, proves the point of the area's cultural richness. (A map follows the list below.) While well-known sightseeing stops fall with these boundaries, most notably Rockefeller Center, St. Patrick's Cathedral, and the great swath of famous Fifth Avenue stores, cultural visitors may also want to check out places such as the Austrian Cultural Forum, the 57th Street galleries, the Onassis Cultural Center, and the Municipal Art Society. The image above shows an intriguing glimpse of the tops of two Beaux-Arts buildings through an opening of the wall inside MoMA's scu...