Latest news with #RockefellerCenter
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Hoda Kotb Opens Up About What She Misses Most After Leaving 'Today '(Exclusive)
Hoda Kotb opens up about what her life is really like after walking away from the Today show The former co-host is keeping busy and still making regular trips to Rockefeller Center Today anchor Savannah Guthrie shares with PEOPLE what she misses most about having Kotb as a colleagueIt's been five months since Hoda Kotb walked away from one of the most coveted spots in broadcasting, as co-anchor of the Today show. In that time she's been settling into a new life, relishing the amount of time she has for her daughters Haley, 8, and Hope, 6. She's also making plans for the future, with a new wellness company, Joy 101, complete with an app, live events and a subscription newsletter that will all center around themes of joy, mindfulness, meditation and wellness. 'When someone erases your schedule and says, 'Okay, here you go. Have fun,' you're sitting there going, 'Oh my gosh, what am I supposed to be doing right now?'' Kotb, 60, tells PEOPLE in this week's cover story. 'On the very first day, I was scribbling in my journal and feeling a little off. There was a big, huge, full moon and it was so bright in my office, it was like a light was on. I still remember looking up and Haley scampered down the stairs and jumped in my lap. She looked and me and she goes, 'You really are here.' It was really, really beautiful.' But she admits she does miss her old life. "I do. I just had coffee with Savannah [Guthrie] a little more than a week ago and we sat across from each other and, in that one hour, we laughed, we cried, we held hands. She shared all this personal stuff and I did too. And she asked me, 'Tell me what it's like on the other side,'' Kotb recalls. 'And I said, 'I'll tell you what I miss: I miss this.' I miss walking in a room and having an instant daily connection that you don't have to put on a calendar." She adds, "I saw Savannah and Jenna [Bush Hager] every day, without fail, and we shared our lives. It's so funny. It's not the work part of it, but I miss that a lot. It's like an empty space for me.' That feeling is mutual. 'I've missed her giggle so much,' says Guthrie. 'She could really walk in a room, giggle, and everything in the world just fades away.' To read more about Hoda Kotb's life after , pick up the newest issue of PEOPLE on stands now. Kotb's been into the city and back at her old Rockefeller Center stomping ground a few times since leaving Today, as she hosts her podcast Making Space from the Today offices. On May 28, she went on Today to promote her new company — and stuck around as Bush Hager's surprise guest host for the 10 o'clock hour as well. Never miss a story — sign up for to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. 'Every time I walk in, I feel warm and fuzzy,' says Kotb. 'It's not like when you break up with someone you're like, 'Oh God, there he is!' I don't feel that. I want to see everybody. And look, the pictures are now Craig [Melvin] and Savannah. I like looking at them. I'm not like, 'Well that was quick!'" Read the original article on People
New York Times
6 days ago
- Politics
- New York Times
A Young Rockefeller Vanished in 1961. The Met's New Wing Celebrates His Memory
It's been said that Nelson Rockefeller, who as a grown-up managed the opening of Rockefeller Center, the real estate colossus in Midtown Manhattan, liked to play with blocks as a boy: the ones between 49th and 55th Streets. In fact, according to his most recent biographer, Richard Norton Smith, Nelson was 'less concerned with Rockefeller Center's commercial prospects than its artistic possibilities' (notwithstanding his eradication of a Diego Rivera mural there in 1934 after the artist defiantly superimposed a profile of Lenin). Rockefeller, who was elected governor of New York four times and was Gerald R. Ford's vice president, was infatuated with sui generis objects of art. He defined their value not by their provenance or price or the artist's cachet, but simply by what he liked. Inspired by Brasília, he created a new Capitol complex in Albany. He commissioned Picasso to produce tapestries, including one that hung in the boathouse of his vacation home in Seal Harbor, Maine, which he proudly showed off for visiting reporters after he was nominated to the vice presidency. His first childhood love, he once said, was a marbled Bodhisattva — a figure of a Buddha — from the Tang Dynasty. (At his request, his mother, Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, left it to him in her will.) On his eighth birthday, he asked for Raphael's Sistine Madonna, one of the few objects on his wish list that proved to be inaccessible; the 16th-century painting remains in the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden. What his mother did for her trove of underappreciated American folk art by establishing a museum in Williamsburg, Va., as well as helping to found the Museum of Modern Art, Nelson Rockefeller did for Indigenous paintings and sculpture. He triggered a cultural revolution that elevated so-called primitive art from objects relegated to discreet ethnographic collections to their proper place as an integral component of global human creativity. The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Michael C. Rockefeller Wing originally opened in 1982, celebrating the arts and culture of Africa, the Pacific islands and the Americas. In 2013, introducing a yearlong celebration of Nelson's artistic and cultural vision, the Met's director, Thomas Campbell, acknowledged, belatedly, that the museum had embraced 'a seismic shift' that 'changed the direction of the museum radically.' 'For the very first time,' Campbell said, 'the Met became truly global.' Smith, who wrote 'On His Own Terms: A Life of Nelson Rockefeller' (2014), said in an interview, 'I think he did as much to promote awareness of so-called primitive art as his mother did to make folk art respectable.' On Saturday, after over four years of repurposing and reconfiguring, the $70 million renovation of the Michael C. Rockefeller Wing of the Metropolitan Museum will reopen, supported by contributions from 'the Rockefeller family and their affiliated philanthropies,' as the Met explains it. The incandescent exhibition space and its contents prodigiously proclaim the fulfillment of a legacy that was inspired by Nelson's mother. It was catalyzed by his first purchase of a carved wooden bowl in Hawaii on his honeymoon when he was 22 — the same age as Nelson's son Michael when he traveled to what was then Dutch New Guinea for the first time in 1961 with a documentary film crew. As much as the collection celebrates the incomplete career of Michael, a novice anthropologist who was lost on his second expedition to New Guinea later that year, it also salutes the steely determination of his fraternal twin sister, Mary Rockefeller Morgan, a psychotherapist who is the daughter of Nelson and his first wife, Mary Todhunter Clark Rockefeller, to preserve and display her family's patrimony. 'I'm a watchdog for the family. and the world,' Morgan, who is a spry 87, said in an interview. 'Like Father and Michael before me, I have developed an emotional connection to Indigenous art,' she explained. 'I love that this art so directly speaks to humanity's most basic needs and desire for safety, power, order, beauty and meaning.' A favorite example of 'the art's sophisticated patterns and echoing designs that often have symbolic meaning,' she said, is a 2,000-year-old wooden sculpture of a Mayan priest from Peru. 'He kneels, hands clasped to his breast; his head is back, and his mouth is open,' she added. 'To me, his face is filled with reverence and sheer awe of his gods. Whenever I see this ancient priest, I respond in stillness and with emotion. I am touched by Indigenous art's honesty and receive it as intimacy.' The 40,000-square-foot remodeled wing at the Met occupies the same footprint as the original, but feels more commodious and blazes with natural light. Its 1,726 artifacts represent about a quarter of the museum's trove of Indigenous art, about a third of which was collected by Michael and Nelson Rockefeller. But is the Met going against the grain by celebrating art from the Global South when 'inclusion' has become a dirty word? 'We think of this as great art from three-quarters of the world,' said Alisa LaGamma, curator in charge of the Rockefeller Wing and a specialist in African art (Joanne Pillsbury and Maia Nuku have curated the Ancient Americas and Oceania collections, respectively). 'We didn't think of this as a diversity project.' Provenance has been established. 'We are not a colonial collecting institution,' LaGamma said. (The museum said that Michael typically traded tools and tobacco pouches for the artifacts he collected, which, since most were ceremonial, would otherwise have deteriorated or been destroyed.) Smith, the biographer, suggested that the former governor's attraction to primitive art might have been rooted in his dyslexia, a learning disorder that affects the ability to read, write and spell, which Michael and Mary inherited. 'With dyslexia comes a real visual sense of how objects are placed,' Mary said. Michael's favorite painting was a whimsical collage by Georges Braque, she said, and recalled that her father once walked into Brooke Astor's living room and, without missing a beat, began rearranging the furniture. 'I think Nelson saw parallels between Indigenous art and the abstract forms he was forever having to explain to the uninitiated,' Smith said. 'Dyslexia may have been a factor in his enjoyment of both, but I think a greater influence was his globe-trotting for business as well as pleasure. Certainly his feelings for Latin America found expression in his collecting. Likewise, he showed interest in Africa in the 1950s, when most Americans were content to neglect the continent.' Nelson once put it this way: 'The more intellectual you get about art the less aesthetic you become.' In 1954, Nelson Rockefeller founded the Museum of Indigenous Art in a townhouse on West 54th Street between his boyhood home and the Museum of Modern Art. (He changed the name to the Museum of Primitive Art only after too many people associated the name with 'indigent' or 'indigestion.') Nelson recruited Rene d'Harnoncourt (who later became the president of MoMA) and Robert Goldwater to curate the art bought from New York dealers or acquired on his forays abroad — beginning with the Hawaiian bowl and including a feathered Peruvian textile, a Yam Mask by the Abelam people of New Guinea and a whale carved in ivory from Tonga — as coordinator of the Office of Inter-American Affairs in the early 1940s, which sought to strengthen U.S. influence in the region, and on his private philanthropic ventures. Michael Rockefeller first traveled to southwest New Guinea as the technician recording sound for a documentary film by the Peabody Museum's Harvard Film Study Center about the Asmat people who inhabited the uncharted jungles and rainforests of what they called 'the land of lapping death.' 'Michael had never been happier than in the nine months he spent in New Guinea,' Nelson recalled. But Mary wrote, in her wrenching memoir of losing a twin, 'When Grief Calls Forth the Healing' (2014) that she had a premonition that the 1961 expedition would be perilous and that her brother would not survive. 'I was dead set against your decision to go to such a dangerous and remote place,' she wrote in a post-mortem paean. 'Father championed the whole idea, so there was no way I could change your mind.' She wondered, though, why Michael hadn't rebelled when Nelson, a larger-than-life figure at home and in public, vetoed his intention to major in architecture at Harvard. 'God, I'm still getting out from under Father,' she wrote. 'Is that part of what you were doing by going to New Guinea? An unspoken agenda — but with his blessing? I have to admit, it was perfect for you, perfect for finding out about yourself without the family and for exploring your love of art.' Michael's love of art brought him and Nelson 'together in a special bond,' she wrote. After coming home to the United States briefly in a vain attempt to dissuade his parents from divorcing, Michael returned to Dutch New Guinea to collect and meticulously catalog artifacts, including nine 20-foot-high Asmat ceremonial poles to honor their ancestors, a 49-foot-long longboat canoe and fertility figures, ancestors, gods and spirits carved from mangrove trees. Michael had warned, though, that, 'many of the villages have reached that point where they are beginning to doubt the worth of their own culture and crave things Western.' He wrote his uncle John: 'There is a beauty in the simplicity and something compulsive about the way the Ndavi people have a grip on life' and recommended that Americans would benefit from the experience. When his catamaran capsized 10 miles from the coast, near the mouth of the Eilanden River, he decided to swim to land. He disappeared, either drowned (the official explanation) or killed by the Asmat, who had been known to practice head-shrinking and cannibalism. A partner on the expedition, a Dutch anthropologist who couldn't swim, was rescued from the boat 22 hours after Michael had dived in. 'I see now that you made your final choice, steeped in the Asmat environment where you'd found life and death exposed and intertwined with everyday reality,' Mary wrote. She accompanied her father to New Guinea to search for Michael, but his body was never found. Three years later he was declared legally dead. In 1974, after President Gerald R. Ford tapped Nelson as vice president, Mary became the last president of the Museum of Primitive Art. She also joined the board of the Met where she headed a joint committee that oversaw the transfer of the Rockefellers' collection — including some 400 objects that Michael had collected and were shipped to Westchester and stored in the old milking barn at the family's estate in Pocantico — to a new wing dedicated in his memory. Prolonged negotiations between d'Harnoncourt and Thomas Hoving, the Met's director, to transfer the collection to the museum had begun in the mid-1960s. In 1969, Nelson donated 1,400 artifacts, worth more than $20 million. He left the museum some 1,400 others valued at $5 million when he died in 1979. The wing finally opened in 1982. After Mary's fund-raising efforts and her insistence, supported by the museum's own conservators, the vast glass curtain wall facing south has been screened to protect vulnerable objects from the sun. 'Father wanted that collection in the Met and the collection being there is the stamp of approval,' she said. 'That wing being what it is today really impressed the world of the greatness of these art traditions.' The 1982 version of the wing cost $8.8 million to build and $9.5 million more to install the exhibits. Financing was supplied partly by members of the Rockefeller family, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the Vincent Astor Foundation and other donors. The original catalog explained that describing the art as primitive was misleading. 'The art is not crude or rough, nor were the social or intellectual structures of the people who made it,' the catalog said. 'What then is primitive art? Properly it is the art of those peoples who have remained until recent times at an early technological level, who have been oriented toward the use of tools but not machines.' The new wing, Mary Morgan said, finally represents closure to a devastating episode for the Rockefeller family. 'Michael and I were lost,' (he literally, she figuratively) Mary wrote, but 'the thing that enabled us to accept Michael's death was that life really continues in this gift that he brought back from New Guinea. 'I feel like the reopening of the wing is the fulfillment of father's dream,' Mary said. 'And Michael's dream.' Nelson never got to be president. Nor did Michael fulfill his dream of becoming a professional anthropologist. But if any proof were needed of their commitment to art for art's sake it can be found in an alcove on the first floor of Kykuit, the Beaux-Arts mansion in Pocantico Hills that was home to four generations of Rockefellers and is now open to the public. A 30-inch-tall sculpture that Michael made in high school, of galvanized iron wires protruding from a stone base, is prominently displayed there — along with works by Gilbert Stuart, Alexander Calder, Andy Warhol, Robert Motherwell and Picasso. But it wasn't merely parental pride. Mary Morgan recalls that when she was in the third grade, she crafted a wooden wastebasket. Nelson kept it in his dressing room on Fifth Avenue, and never showed it publicly. 'Father would not have put that there,' his twin said of Michael's sculpture, 'if he didn't like it.'
Bloomberg
6 days ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
A $5 Billion White Elephant Is Roaming New Jersey's Swamps
In the real estate industry, patience is not only a virtue but often a necessity. Consider New York's Rockefeller Center, built by John. D. Rockefeller Jr. during the Great Depression. Although always considered one of the crown jewels of America's property market in the 1930s, the family didn't see a profit from their investment until the 1970s. 1 Then there's the $5 billion American Dream megamall and entertainment complex across the Hudson River from New York in the swamps of New Jersey's Meadowlands. Even though the development opened its doors in 2019, it's already destined to look more like a white elephant than a crown jewel.
NBC News
19-05-2025
- Entertainment
- NBC News
"SNL" star Ego Nwodim sports Crystal Palace shirt after cousin Eberechi Eze leads team to FA Cup win
"Saturday Night Live" cast member Ego Nwodim celebrated the end of the show's historic 50th season the usual way, by socializing on stage in Studio 8H at Rockefeller Center in New York City. She was there with the host, Scarlett Johansson, the musical guest, Bad Bunny, and fellow cast members. But her heart may have been dreaming of celebrations on the other side of the Atlantic. Nwodim made sure cameras captured her upper torso as she sported a Crystal Palace jersey with the name of her cousin, English soccer star Eberechi Eze, on the back. Hours earlier, Eze had helped Palace win the first major trophy in its 120-year professional history, scoring the only goal in the Eagles' 1-0 win over Manchester City in the FA Cup final. In a 2023 interview for the Crystal Palace website, Eze revealed the family relation and said he had given Nwodim one of his jerseys. 'That's my cousin,' he told a team interviewer who asked why an "SNL" cast member had worn his jersey. 'She came down to London and I gave her a shirt. So that's quite sick.' The shirt Nwodim wore Saturday matches the club's third shirt from the 2022/23 season. She has worn it at least one other time on the show. Nwodim and Eze share Igbo Nigerian heritage, with Eze having grown up in his team's backyard of South London and Nwodim in Baltimore. The relatives were both a part of history on Saturday. SNL completed a 50-season run that launched when it was still a hippie showcase featuring folk stars and psychedelic comedy. Eze led his team to a win at a historic place, too — Wembley Stadium.
Miami Herald
05-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Miami Herald
Check out great things to do in New York City for a perfect day out
With snow retreating and the sun peeking out, it's quite normal to get that sudden urge to step outside and do something fun. Plus, in New York City, there is plenty to choose from. This year is even more exciting with the city celebrating its 400th anniversary, bringing special events alongside the usual favorites. Maybe it is ice skating at Rockefeller Center, catching a Broadway show, or trying something unexpected like visiting a tiny 36-square-foot museum or braving an ice bath class—food, music, comedy, theater, museums, whatever sounds good, NYC has it. So, if you're wondering where to start, will help you find the best things to do in NYC. Scroll down to learn more. And if you're planning to drive around the city, it's worth sorting out parking in NYC ahead of time. Having a spot ready can make exploring NYC so much smoother. Step Into Ancient Egypt With the Horizon of Khufu Ever wondered what it would be like to explore the Great Pyramid of Giza? With Horizon of Khufu, you do not have to imagine because you can experience it in New York City. When talking about things to do in NYC, this is one spot you should not miss. This immersive virtual reality adventure takes you back 4,500 years to see the pyramid as it was in ancient times. Held at Eclispo at 555 W. 57th St., the experience lets you step inside hidden corridors, witness ancient rituals, and even sail the Nile. The attention to detail is incredible, making it feel as if you are truly walking through history. With a virtual Egyptologist as your guide and even a sassy feline companion, you will learn fascinating details along the way. The experience lasts about 45 minutes, and tickets range from $34 to $44 for adults depending on the date. If you are a student, in the military, or bringing kids along, you will get a discount. Since it is fully virtual, you will need to wear a headset that completely immerses you in the world of ancient Egypt. However, if you are new to virtual reality, do not worry because the staff explains everything before you start. The space itself covers 10,000 square feet, giving you plenty of room to explore without bumping into others. Step Aboard the Intrepid Sea Air and Space Museum There are not many places where you can walk on a real aircraft carrier, explore a submarine, and stand beneath a space shuttle all in one visit. The Intrepid Sea Air and Space Museum at New York City's Pier 86 lets you do just that. The USS Intrepid is not just any ship. It survived kamikaze attacks and a torpedo strike during World War II. Later, it became a NASA recovery vessel, retrieving astronauts from space missions. Today, it stands as a tribute to American courage and innovation. Visitors can explore the lower decks, where sailors once lived, check out historical artifacts, and get up close with fighter jets and helicopters on the flight deck. One of the biggest highlights is the Space Shuttle Enterprise, an early NASA orbiter that paved the way for space exploration. A visit to this museum is one of the most exciting things to do in NYC, especially for history and aviation enthusiasts. Inside the Growler, the only guided missile submarine open to the public, guests can experience the cramped conditions sailors endured beneath the ocean's surface. The museum's exhibits go beyond displays, offering interactive experiences that bring military and space history to life. General admission tickets grant access to the aircraft carrier, submarine, and space shuttle pavilion, with additional guided tours available for a deeper look. Open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., this museum is a must-visit. Skip it, and you will miss one of the most incredible ways to experience American military and space history up close. Try the Viral Smash Burger at Little Grenjai Little Grenjai in Brooklyn's Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood has made a name for itself with its Thai American twist on comfort food. The highlight? A smash burger that has taken social media by storm. This Krapow smash burger, now available for lunch, is grilled to perfection and topped with American cheese and holy basil. It's finished with a spicy-sweet special sauce and a tangy lemongrass-infused giardiniera. The result is a flavor-packed bite that keeps people coming back. Stopping by for lunch is an easy choice, but dinner offers just as much to enjoy. The restaurant brings a welcoming feel, making it perfect for a quick meal or a longer sit-down experience. Those seeking a burger worthy of their Instagram feed will not be disappointed, but it is not just about the visuals. This is the kind of food that leaves a lasting impression. Grab a Slice at L'Industrie Pizzeria L'Industrie Pizzeria has built a reputation as one of the best spots for pizza in New York City. The first location opened in Williamsburg in 2017, and it quickly became a favorite, with people lining up for a taste of its long-fermented, naturally leavened crust. A second location in the West Village now serves the same incredible slices but in a more polished setting. The menu features high-quality ingredients imported from Italy. Classics include the Margherita slice, spicy salami, and the famous burrata slice, which pairs hot pizza with creamy cold burrata. Anyone looking for things to do in NYC should add this to their list. The Williamsburg location keeps the old-school sidewalk pizza shop feel, while the West Village spot offers a comfy interior with dark wood, exposed brick, and even natural wine on the menu. Slices come out hot with crispy edges, a bright and slightly sweet tomato sauce, and toppings that balance each bite. Regulars swear by the Wednesday-only sandwiches, like the chicken vodka and chicken caesar, served on the shop's own bread. Even dessert gets a twist, with gelato topped with olive oil and flaky salt. Taqueria Ramirez Taqueria Ramirez brings authentic Mexico City tacos to Brooklyn. When Tania Apolinar and Giovanni Cervantes opened the small taqueria at Greenpoint in 2021, they had one goal, which was to serve pork tacos the traditional way. They cook their carnitas in a special pot called a choricera that allows different cuts of pork, like suadero and longaniza, to simmer in their own fat until they are full of flavor. Unlike most taco spots, they do not serve chicken or shrimp, only pork. The one exception is their nopales taco made with cactus for vegetarians. Their success led to Carnitaz Ramirez, a second location in the East Village that focuses entirely on pork. Tacos here cost around $5, which keeps them affordable without sacrificing quality. Taqueria Ramirez does not offer delivery because it believes tacos should be eaten fresh right off the grill. However, for takeouts, it provides paper plates, or customers can order by the pound with tortillas and toppings packed separately. Moreover, family and tradition are at the heart of everything they do. Explore Broadway's Past and Present Visiting the Museum of Broadway is one of the best things to do in New York City, especially for someone who loves theater. It takes you on a journey through over 300 years of Broadway history, showing how theater has evolved from the 1700s to today. Inside, you'll find real costumes, props, and set pieces from some of the famous Broadway productions. There are even recreated sets and interactive displays that make you feel like you are part of the show. Located right in Times Square, it's easy to stop by while exploring the city. A self-guided tour lets visitors move at their own pace while brand ambassadors are available to answer questions and take photos. VIP tours offer a more in-depth experience with expert guides sharing stories and insights about each exhibit. Since opening, the Museum of Broadway has welcomed thousands of guests and continues to host special events for theater lovers. This is the perfect place to visit in NYC to learn about the magic behind Broadway's biggest productions. This story was produced by and reviewed and distributed by Stacker. © Stacker Media, LLC.
