Mockingbird Hill Cottage

We watched the series finale of Newsroom last night.

I’m in mourning.

After three seasons, creator and writer Aaron Sorkin decided to end it. And I want to scream, “No!” In fact, I did.

There’s so much over-hyped drivel on television. It’s all a matter of personal taste, of course, but I find the vast majority of American television series, especially those on the networks, to be poorly written, overblown, not very well acted, sensationalized, and in some cases, laughable. Every new season, I start out hopeful and end up disappointed.

Aaron Sorkin writes smart dialogue. He creates vivid characters on the page and then casts actors who are really good at what they do. He doesn’t dumb down the plot or the words or the pace of the show. We, as viewers, have to pay attention and keep up with the dialogue. We have to use our brains.

What a novel concept.

I’ve been a big fan of this show from the beginning. It makes me think. Don and I invariably spend an hour discussing it after we’ve watched an episode. It’s the reason we keep our subscription to HBO. It’s simply excellent. Sorkin has a streak of idealism running through his veins that I find refreshing and heartening. He examines the issues of the day; in this case, framed around the changing world of 24 hour news. He asks tough questions. He doesn’t play to the lowest common denominator – he raises the bar.

And the cast is uniformly excellent, especially Jeff Daniels.

Can you tell I’m going to miss this show?

And, now on to NYC.

I took a lot of photos. Today I’m going to concentrate on Grand Central Station, one of my favorite buildings in the city.

The taller building on the left is the MetLife Building. During the blackout several years ago, Don was caught in the city and he had to spend the night sleeping on the floor in the lobby.

Grand Central in the foreground. My absolute favorite building, The Chrysler Building, in the background.

Inside:

The soaring windows. The gorgeous hand painted ceiling, showing the constellations.

The stars light up. I remember seeing the Holiday Light Show several years ago. Music played and the constellations lit up and it was magical.

This sort of carving is everywhere. They don’t make them like this anymore.

The holiday pop-up shops in Vanderbilt Hall are an annual event. Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to explore them this year.

People everywhere. That’s an Apple store you’re seeing at the top of the stairs.

It’s the perfect place to people watch.

There are tracks upstairs. There are tracks downstairs.

Also downstairs: a giant food court, but a thousand times better than the kind of food court you see in your average mall. I’ve grabbed a meal there more times than I can count.

And look what we saw! Those of you who have been reading this blog for a while are familiar with my love for Magnolia Bakery’s cupcakes. We laughed when we saw them here at the station because we had already purchased 4 cupcakes from their store located near Rockefeller Center. (We almost bought more, but we ran out of time.)

Tomorrow: Rockefeller Center and more.

Happy Monday.