Times Square

It’s commonly called the center of the universe, and rightfully so. Nestled ever so neatly smack dab in the center of New York City. Just a STONES THROW FROM extraordinary eateries, world-class entertainment, swanky shopping, high-class hotels, studios and sets, and bustling business center to boot. All aboard. We’re taking a trip to Times Square on today’s FYI. 

If you want EXCLUSIVE bonus audio/video content along with, weekly/monthly classes, and tons of advantages; become a Patreon member at http://patreon.com/albertoalonso

Transcript

0:11

it's commonly called the center of the universe and rightfully so nestled ever so neatly smack dab in the center of new york city just a stone's throw from extraordinary eateries world-class entertainment swanky shopping high class hotels studios and sets and a bustling business center to boot next stop 42nd street times square please stand clear at the closing doors all aboard we're taking a trip to times square on today's f y i welcome to for your info english you got it[Applause][Music][Applause][Music][Applause][Music][Applause][Music] hello hello hello my amigos and welcome to this the first episode of the second season of fyi and the only reason i'm here and the only reason we have a second season is thanks to you guys thank you so much for making the first season such a success 30 episodes about all different topics and i'm so glad you guys enjoyed them and if you didn't know about that well here's your opportunity those are all available wherever you listen to podcasts whether it's spotify ivox apple podcasts i'm proud to welcome you to the second season of fyi so thank you thank you thank you for making the first season a great a roaring success as we say and well i hope the second season just gets better and better you know me i'm all about evolution as a teacher as a student as somebody who loves to learn i really believe in evolution i believe in the fact that we have to evolve i don't mean evolution like charles darwin darwinism i mean evolution as far as we need to evolve as people every single day and i've said this many times the day we stop learning is the day we start dying and i believe that a hundred percent so guys we're here to learn some english and about many other topics on our adventure remember i'm always open to hearing topics that you guys want to hear about because after all this show is for you guys so if you don't like the topics well we're doing something wrong so send me your suggestions remember you can follow follow me on social media it's at alberto underscore alonso that's on instagram on twitter it's i'm alberto alonso or you know what you can just find everything on my website and that's albertoalonso.com and before we get into the intro i'd like to wish you and yours a happy new year i hope you guys accomplish everything you want to accomplish in 2021 and let's look at it this way it can't be worse than 2020 oh no did i just jinx it this is a great word to jinx's cafe so maybe i just jinxed it no no no we're gonna have a great year i hope you guys have made all your new year's resolutions i don't know how you say that in spanish your prepositions no proposito that's the word propositos well we say resolutions and obviously one of your resolutions is to work on your english well i'll tell you what right now you're on the right track yeah how do i know that well you're listening to a podcast where you're learning english so good job it's a good way to kick off kick office to kick off 2021. all right well let's take a look at the intro as we always do and uh there i go i'm starting my year off with some more double alliteration yeah no surprise there uh or we say like you guys say in spanish for a change have you heard this before for a change i think you say paravariar and a lot of times like you guys we use it sarcastically so i'm using double alliteration for a change well i said it's commonly called yamado i think i just made that word up it's commonly called the center of the universe yeah well times square's got a lot of nicknames and the center of the universe is definitely one of the most powerful ones i mean how many places can claim that they're the center of the universe and the rest of the world just goes along with it i think just one times square and then i said rightfully so i said it's nestled ever so neatly now i know you guys have seen the word nestle like the brand nestle right you say nestle the chocolate brand but if something is nestled it's sheltered it's in it closely you say recogido inclavado it's nestled in the mountains it says over here e required so now don't get me wrong i'm not saying times square is nestled in the mountains but a lot of times we use it when we talk about mountain villages oh this is a little beautiful mountain that's a beautiful village excuse me that's nestled in the mountains so nestled it's kind of tucked in there and i said it's nestled ever so neatly smack dab now neatly organized so neatly so if you are neat it is organizado and believe it or not you're saying what new york neat times square need yeah well guys it's controlled chaos i'll tell you you know it's crazy all the stimuli around you but i feel like it's controlled there's some kind of order to it so that's why i said nestled ever so neatly smack dab in the center now if your smack dab in the center is and there's no better way to describe a place like times square than calling it smack dab in the center of new york city and as we said before to many the universe then i said it's just a stone's throw a stone's throw from extraordinary eateries now extraordinary is obviously extraordinary and then eatery is a place where you eat it's another way to say restaurant and then i said world class entertainment entertainment no de primera de primera swanky shopping now the word swanky is like pico or swanky shopping high class hotels and believe me there are many of these in the times square theater district then i said studios and sets are you guys catching all this alliteration studios and sets and those are places where you film tv shows and well new york as we'll see later on has its share of tv shows and a lot of them are produced right smack dab in the center of times square and then i said it's a bustling business center to boot all right so a couple bees in there a bustling esca mucho ache trail a bustling business center right and centro de negocios a bustling business center to boot and a lot of times when we talk about new york we talk about the hustle and bustle and what is this to boot a labota no that means in fema ademas another way we could say that is in addition or as well but you guys remember i was going for my triple alliteration bustling business center to boot then you heard something it was one of those subway announcements and you guys are lucky usually you can't understand what those people are saying but i tried to make it at least a little understandable a little comprehensible and i used a very uh famous line that they always say on those announcements and they say stand clear at a closing doors stand clear of the closing doors so the the typical subway announcements but as i said don't go to new york and expect to understand them because nobody can they usually sound like this ladies and gentlemen[Music] and you're like uh you know what i was less confused before so that is the clearest subway announcement you're ever gonna hear then i said all aboard we're taking a trip to times square on today's meet up quadruple alliteration we're taking a trip umbiache to times square on today's fyi so welcome guys welcome to times square a place that i lived just 10 blocks from i lived right there i lived in a neighborhood in new york city called chelsea now i've got to be honest with you as a new yorker i avoided times square like the plague i avoided well it's touristy you know and well i usually went downtown or just stayed in my neighborhood in chelsea and i know i know you got you can't go to new york and not go to times square but it's like uh madrilleno you know do madrillenos go to seoul seoul i i really pronounce that gidi over there do they go to seoul every day no exactly so i have to say i i avoided times square if i didn't have to go there but if you've never been there you gotta go and that's where i'm gonna take you today to this place that i lived so close to as we said in the intro just a stone's throw away from now some of the other nicknames are crossroads of the world el cruce de los del mundo another one where all roads meet yeah you thought it was rome well guess what the new rome is new york city and that's where all roads meet uh another one the great white way i don't know if you guys heard this one another way we call it yeah the great white way and why is this well i've got to say i didn't know it either i'm from familiar with the you know the the nickname but i didn't know exactly where it came from and it's because um this was one of the first areas in the united states to get lighting so people could see at night so it gave it's uh it gave it its nickname broadway this area the great white way and you're saying broadway but aren't we talking about times square well we're gonna define what times square is right now because broadway is part of times square and you want me to be honest with you right now i don't i don't want to burst your bubble no uh a margaret la fiesta but times square is not even a square nope it's uh it's two triangles and the reason it's a triangle is because as many of you know new york city is a grid okay a grid is perfectly square and the reason there's two triangles there is because broadway intersects the island of manhattan so those triangles that you see in times square are created by broadway and if you guys remember in the broadway episode broadway has been around a lot longer than most new yorkers even the the the ones who settled new york it was a path camino that was used by the native americans before so broadway one of the oldest i wouldn't say roads but yeah yeah maybe roads if you count dirt roads so what is times square because you know times square what is it well we just saw that it's not even a square it's two triangles but here's i'm to read the definition here from the online dictionary times square is an intersection in new york city formed by the juncture of broadway 7th avenue and 42nd street in midtown manhattan if you guys know we're very logical we have uptown midtown and downtown and then we have the east side and the west side guys you won't find people much more logical than a new yorker well maybe the dutch but just a little reminder it used to be called new amsterdam because it was settled by the dutch so i would go as far as to say there's a lot of dutch influence in new york even to this day now that we know the boundaries and what is times square well let's talk about what times square is when you think about time square it's the center of the entertainment district in the united states i would say i was going to say in new york but the united states came out because i don't know any other place where you can get more bang for your buck more bang for your buck is spectacular you know more excitement and uh and that's new york city so it's an entertainment capital it's an entertainment district obviously there are broadway theaters as i said in the intro uh there are tons of broadway theaters which bring restaurants and hotels and so many other things so times square yeah it's a junction it's you know a crossroads but in the end it is the center of entertainment in the whole world i would say it is definitely along with hollywood and maybe a couple other places that can claim that title but there aren't many places like times square now let's take a look at the history of this very famous square it was originally called long acre square that's right there's a good trivia question what was times square called before it was time square long acre square and it took on assumio it took on its current name in 1904 and there's another good trivia question do you guys know the answer i'll test you here why do they call it times square well it's because of the new york times building in 1904 the new york times moved their headquarters to cede to the area and well i guess they had enough money and enough influence to say now this is called times square and the rest is history well i'm not going to sum it up so quickly let's go through some significant moments in the history of times square so 1907 1907 so we said 1904 is when it got its name times square its current name actual and 1907 was another big year because that was the first time that you could see the new year's eve ball drop now new year's eve is noche vieja and the ball is la bola esta famosa and it drops we call it the ball drop and that was the first time people rang in the new year this is another way we say it to ring in the new year means to celebrate the new year and in 1907 people started watching that ball drop that i think i've never missed i don't think i've ever missed a ball drop now i have to admit i've never been to one in person because we reserve that for the tourists yeah well once i heard people had to wear diapers and you couldn't move and you had to stand outside all day i took a hard pass as we say in english i said no thanks now i must say i have rung in the new year in times square but i was not out there in the square you know freezing my butt off no no no no i was in a club called the world i don't know if it's still there but i was uh i was partying in a vip area in times square so if you ask me alberto have you ever rung in the new year in times square i'll say yeah i mean not in the square but well actually yeah the club is in the square so that counts i think it's even better than sitting outside in the cold and well peeing yourself if you have to go to the bathroom it just doesn't seem very attractive to me but i guess if you're from out of town from out of town is you know and you're there and it's new year's eve you paid all that money to stay in an expensive hotel and you know what i guess i would do it if i was from out of town but being a new yorker you're you know i don't know too many new yorkers who go to times square and celebrate in the square i read some estimates that anywhere from 500 000 to a million people ring in the new year in times square and obviously that's not counting everybody who's tuned in on their television that's where i always check it out but what an amazing thing and it's always going to remind me of the new year new year's eve remember new year's eve we said before is noche vieja new year's day is january 1st is new year's day so that ball let's talk a little bit about that ball because people have a ball there[Laughter] the ball in time okay i know bad joke bad joke sorry uh well uh in 2008 they replaced the original ball with an energy efficient ball just to give you an idea of how much electricity this thing uses well uh they replaced the old one in 2008 and now they use one that is energy efficient but uh that doesn't mean it's not colorful the ball has a cap excuse me the capacity i was going to say or the capability better to showcase over are you ready for this 16 million vibrant colors and patterns so it kind of has this kaleidoscope kind of effect if you've never seen it you've got to check it out but it is a part of our celebration especially if you live in new york but if you don't live in new york you also watch the ball drop in new york and we're talking about a big ball over here the ball is 3.65 meters that's the diameter 3.65 meters and it weighs right pesa remember be careful with this one some of my students get mixed up they say how much do you wait and remember weight especially so the real question is how much do you weigh and in this case we're talking about the ball so let's say how much does it weigh are you ready for this it weighs a whopping 5 386 kilos yeah that's the kind of ball you don't want to drop on you now i found this next fact to be fascinating one time square one times square is that famous building uh it's mostly empty what how can a building be mostly empty in the heart of new york city i mean come on well do you know where they make their money i'm talking about the building where the ball drops so you're all familiar with this building one time square and well they don't make their money from tenants inquilinos from renting it out they make their money from the billboards that's right the billboards all those colorful billboards those digital billboards which generate in that building alone uh i the figure i have here is over 23 million dollars a year so you're like i don't need tenants i'll just put billboards on the building i had no idea i thought the building was full but it's practically empty they make their money from their advertising but if you think about it it makes sense because how many people pass by there in a typical day well we said on new year's eve there's about 500 000 to a million which is let's say 750 000 people but on a typical day 335 000 people uh over a quarter of a million people pass through times square every single day from all over the world too as i said most people who go through there are not new yorkers unless they're going to and from work which is a verb we use called commuting to travel to and from work is to commute so sure there's foot traffic and not to mention that times square is filmed and everybody's seeing it all the time so how many of these ads have ended up in iconic movies let's take a look at the history of the signs and the billboards in times square let's go back to 1904 the beginning when they first started to call it um times square and the first electrified advertisement appeared um on the corner of 46th street and broadway and that was the beginning of the end the rest was history and that was a you know electrified but i remember seeing ones that had like steam i remember one with a cup of coffee and you would see the steam coming out of it it was maxwell house coffee and then i remember the suntory whiskey one and the coca-cola that would the bottle would empty so look listen to what's going on here is this advertising effective yeah i remember these ads from my youth because they were just so colorful and so in your face and i've got to say something i've been to piccadilly circus and i know they say piccadilly circus is like the london times square sorry folks it there's no comparison sorry english friends but you cannot compare piccadilly square with times square it is just it's almost to the point where it's distracting i remember when i used to drive through times square when i lived there i couldn't concentrate i couldn't focus on the road because there was just these digital screens and amazing colors it was like going into the land of oz no la tierra de oath and it was tough not just as a driver but even as a pedestrian i remember you know back in the day you would walk through times square and you if you weren't paying attention you could get hit by a car or someone would splash some slush on you slushious agua nieve that's another thing you need to look out for so i remember it was kind of a jungle back in the day it was chaotic[Music] it's funny because if if you made it across times square whether you were on foot or you were in your car it was kind of like you celebrated it you're like oh cool i survived and uh well all that chaos came to an end in 2009 2009 and this is when they decided to make it a pedestrian area and they closed it off to cars which i think was such a wonderful decision because this place that you could barely walk and if you stopped for one second you would get knocked over by people or a car or a police officer push i mean it was chaotic it wasn't a place you wanted to be and in times square's defense uh they've made it a very very cool place now to have a coffee to sit down to relax so i'm glad that now uh cars are not welcome it really changed that for the better another step forward was in 2011 when times square became smoke-free and they said guys you can't smoke in times square anymore now smokers i know you're not too happy about this law but you know what you've got plenty of places you can smoke leave us some places that are smoke free so now times square the time square that we know and love now is smoke free car free it's a totally different place than it used to be and we're going to talk about that in the bonus part of today's show after the 1929 stock market crash um the area got very seedy cds como malo it got very dark uh this is like the pornographic area the the pornographic era the peep shows and uh and i remember that that was in the early 80s and mid 80s those were darker days for times square and i'm going to tell you all about those and what i remember from those days uh in the bonus part of today's show i'll also tell you guys about a hidden bar that's right there's a hidden bar that is frequented by celebrities we're also going to talk about a famous photo that was taken there and as always i'm going to give you guys my tips my pointers so that you guys don't get scammed to get scammed this is so i'm going to help you guys out as always give you some pointers tell you about some other things that maybe you won't find in every tourist book out there and if you want access to that well it's available for patrons and if you're thinking about becoming a patron a lot of you have contacted me and asked me about it you can get more information at patreon.com alberto alonso and you can get access to bonus content every week you can also get access to pdfs with all the vocabulary and expressions that we look at plus if you're on our higher levels you'll also have classes with me where we review on a weekly basis we review the vocabulary from each of these episodes and then we have a monthly master class there are so many different options for all different budgets and i think now is a good time to give them a big thank you thanks to all my patrons for your support i'm so glad you're enjoying the content and let's send a shout out to my super duper students roberto jose maria eva mila alex patricio and don't forget about my interstellar students carmen diana diego and pilar thank you so much to all of you guys for making this possible if you guys want more information find out more at patreon.com alberto alonso or drop me a line and i'll give you any information you might need well that about wraps up the first part of today's show but i just wanted to tell you that you can probably hear it in my voice sometimes i get a little bit homesick i think you say mourinho i used to say mourinho mourinho i don't even know if i still i probably still mispronounce it homesick is obviously when you miss your home when you miss where you're from so sometimes when i get home sick now that i live in madrid i just try and draw comparisons between madrid and new york and you know what i've done it i found the equivalence i'll tell you what is madrid's central park you guessed it retiro and what is madrid's broadway grambia oh wow and times square sol ah and fifth avenue serrano so there is an equivalent as i said it's not the same thing but it'll do for now it'll do is and that brings us to the end of our little trip to times square there's so much more to discover as i said we're going to check out much more in the bonus part of today's show but hopefully we'll be able to travel and get back on those planes and and see these wonderful places that there are in the world to discover thank you so much everybody for joining me on this episode[Music] you