In Part I of this series I had arrived at Port Authority Bus Terminal on 8th Ave and done a brief tour of the West Side before walking east on 42nd St to Grand Central Station, and then walking through the station on my way to the Upper East Side. You can walk directly from Grand Central into and through the Met Life building next door. The Met Life Building abuts Grand Central Station, and then just north is the Helmsley Building now owned by the United Arab Emirates. It straddles Park Avenue. Park Avenue emanates from under the Helmsley Building having made a 90 degree turn inside the building! The Helmsley Building was formerly owned by Leona Helmsley, the Queen of Mean. She had become notorious for her gross mistreatment of employees at many of the Helmsley hotels across the United States. I always wanted to get this shot looking south along Park Avenue with the Helmsley Building in the foreground and the Met Life Building in back of it and Park Avenue disappearing into the Helmsley Building. It is quintessential New York! The Helmsley Building was bought in 2005 for $705 million by the royal family of Dubai, along with the Essex House. When Dubai Ports tried to purchase several American ports there was a big outcry, but no one seems too concerned that they own a prime piece of Manhattan real estate located next to the Met Life Building and Grand Central Terminal.
We continue up Park Avenue and very soon come to another landmark - the Waldorf-Astoria - at 301 Park Ave. 
Below is a view of the interior of the Waldorf. 
According to the Waldorf's website,
"The Waldorf Astoria is a privileged environment of eminent elegance, and has hosted distinguished visitors from around the world for decades. It's unparalleled luxury and impeccable service indulges the most discriminating of travelers with an exclusive hotel experience." Evidently, all this pretentiousness doesn't include access to a good grammarian since the compound subject "unparalleled luxury and impeccable service" should take a plural verb "indulge." I didn't inquire about the room rates.
The next stop was at the Seagram Building at 375 Park Ave. Architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe built this simple, bronze and glass tower in 1958.
Don't plan on peeking inside the venerated Four Seasons Grill and Pool Room though. Security at most New York skyscrapers is extremely tight. Chances are you won't get beyond the lobby unless you have a good reason to be there.
The Sony Bulding at 550 Madison Ave is distinguished by the circular cut-out at the top of the building. The first floor arcade is home to Sony Style electronics stores.
Pathetically, here in the world capital of commerce, they can't even give you a decent demo of a Windows Media Center Edition computer interacting with a Sony HDTV. A sales person was attempting to give one to a well-heeled looking group, but, when the woman asked to see what an internet website looked like on the TV, the salesman had to admit "it wasn't hooked up" to the internet. Then she said well just bring up a Word document then. When he couldn't even do that, he was forced to admit that the TV was not only not hooked up to the internet, it wasn't hooked up to the computer's hard drive either! 
Very disappointing as I had also tried to get a similar demo from a Sony Style store in San Francisco a week earlier with similar disappointing results. How do they expect to sell this stuff if they can't even give a decent demo? They should train their salesmen better! On the right is a photo taken inside the Sony Building looking out.
The next building of interest is the Citicorp Center on Lexington Ave between E 53rd and E 54th Streets. It can be distinguised by its large angled top as seen below. Don't count on seeing much inside the building though. They made me go through security just to get into the atrium, and there were security guards everywhere. About the only things I had access to were a couple of shops and restaurants. You needed a badge to actually go anywhere inside the building. According to a recent documentary, after they got the Citicorp building built, someone discovered that the whole building could actually collapse in a sufficiently high wind storm. Without publicizing it they went through and retrofitted the whole building so now it's safe supposedly!
Here is a photo of the entrance to the building:
Tucked into a corner of the Citicorp building is St. Peter's Church which is known for its support of jazz. As you can see from the following photo of their program, they have jazz vespers, jazz memorials, jazz by the Duke Ellington Society etc. etc. St. Peter's doesn't look like much from the street, but it goes down underground several stories and is really quite extensive. It supports the arts as well.
Now I proceed north on Madison Ave toward my next stop at the Whitney Museum of Art, Madison Ave and 75th St, at which I was planning to spend some time especially since they were featuring my favorite American artist, Edward Hopper. Unfortunately, the Whitney is closed on Monday. But this was just as well since I was already late getting to my final destination, Carl Schurz Park.
Here is a picture of my favorite Hopper painting, Nighthawks:
Here are some pictures of the shopping available along Madison Ave between 59th and 79th Streets. You can click on any picture to get a larger version of it.
We will make one more stop in this part of Monday in Manhattan, and that is at the Cafe Carlyle at Madison Ave and 76th St. The Cafe Carlyle is where the well-heeled denizens of the upper east side go for the most sophisticated entertainment. Mr. Sophistication himself, Bobby Short, played and sang here for over 30 years. Since he died in 2004, they have even named a nearby street after him. Singer Barbara Cook and Woody Allen perform here as well. Woody Allen plays clarinet on Monday nights with his Dixieland band.
We have to leave it here for now. In Part III, we'll continue north to 82nd St and then head east to Carl Schurz Park on the East River.
