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To be successful in New York City is really difficult nowadays due to the collapse of the economy. We all know how expensive the city is, and how difficult it is to land a job. We have millions of people from everywhere in the world and more still coming in. So, we do not only have to compete with Americans for jobs, but with people from around the world as well. However, to land a job is not the only way to be successful. Many of us want to be wealthy, many of us want to be successful at helping others, and others would consider being successful if they are happy whether they are wealthy or not. It all depends on the kind of success we desire.
The diversity of the city’s habitants makes it harder for people to get the desired high-paying job. For this reason many Americans are going back to finish school and finally get their degree. A college education has become so vital that even a bachelor’s degree is not enough when companies require at least a master’s. However, those who do not want to be cashiers, or cleaning bathrooms all the time make the sacrifice of working and going to school at the same time to broaden their horizons.
It is definitely true that it is not as easy as it seems. I can speak from experience that there have been times when I wanted to throw in the towel and quit school. I was always tired, not eating right thus falling asleep all the time and not doing weel in school. I can’t stop working because I live by myself and there are bills to pay so quitting school seemed like the best option I had. But I want a prosperous future and I want to, in a way, pay my parents back for all the sacrifices they have done for me. I want to give them everything they want and much more. As for me, I see myself in an office overlooking the whole city as a CEO of a prestigious bank. For these reasons I hung in there and still attending my classes. I am going to finish school and get my master’s degree.
Social skills are also vital these days. By getting to know the right people we can get in contact with someone who might be hiring and consider me the right candidate for the position.
However, to be financially stable is not what success is all about. How can someone be successful if they are not happy with what they are doing in life? Having a good, close relationship with family is key to being happy. Family is a big part of our everyday lives. Many would say “but we can have a dog”, well yes, a dog is a good and loyal friend but family helps you get through obstacles. A dog might look like it’s listening to you complaining about a bad at work, but it’s just looking at you because he’s hungry.
Sacrifice, perseverance, good family values, fortitude, and well-organized timing are some of the things that will make anybody reach the finish line, regardless of the many threats that may impede them to do so. Oh, I almost forgot! All of these attributes mentioned wouldn’t do any good to somebody that does not have the will to succeed. Those people who fall and don’t get up will not get anywhere in life.

As I was looking through the different student blogs, I couldn’t help but notice one that stood out through the use of “big words” and metaphors, which paint an image of what she’s talking about. There is something different and unique about Marquita’s writing style.
The essay People Watching, a New Yorker’s Past Time is the best example within this blog that provokes the readers to keep checking out the rest of her works. The use of metaphors in this essay puts the reader right in Union Square. This style of writing just makes the reader want to take his/her girlfriend/boyfriend to Union Square and go to Republic to enjoy some Thai noodles and then walk through the park holding hands.
The design of the blog is pretty simple yet the black background gives it an elegant touch. However, navigation through the different essays are just a bit difficult. The essays need to be separated a little bit more, while making the titles more noticiable to differentiate them. Also, the different sources of information posted as links, make the reader feel confused and lose the flow while reading.
Besides the true facts included in her essays, Marquita’s tone boosts her credibility. She knows exactly what she is talking about, therefore making the reader not doubt that this blog is a real source of information. In the essay A Timeless Journey the tone is very much expressed in a way that looks like she owns the scene she’s describing. It is just incredible how much detail she’s able to incorporate in her essays. Marquita goes from mentioning the “sticky river…from someone’s juice bottle” in a subway car, to the sexual tension between a “beautiful woman” and a “young attractive man”.
I have come to realize how helpful this blog is. Her knowledge on the city is vast and the reader can see that by paying attention to the unique way in which she writes. Also, these essays have made me realize how vague I am when I write my works. I’m definitely not detail-oriented, which make my essays simply boring compared to Marquita’s.
Overall, all I have to say is why go to the city anymore if we can just visit this student’s blog ? Great work.

The Latin musical genre known worldwide as “salsa” has its roots in the islands of the Spanish Caribbean, however, it is in New York City that salsa became a musical phenomena during the sixties and seventies due to a growth in the Latino community in the city.
Slavery had come to an end in the Caribbean region by the late nineteenth century. “With the transformation of plantation economies into agribusiness, displaced agricultural workers migrated from countryside into town, and from island to island.” (http://www.salsaweb.com/ny/historyofsalsa.htm) When these migrations occurred, the rhythm “rumba” was brought to Havana, “bomba” to San Juan, and “merengue” to Santo Domingo. All of these rhythms then migrated to New York City.
Since the 1920s Puerto Rican music has been as much a product of New York City as the island itself, due to the fundamental role the migration experience has come to play in Puerto Rican culture. As a result, Puerto Rican culture can not be seen as something that exists only in Puerto Rico; rather, it has become inseparable from “Nuyorican/Newyorican” culture, which itself overlaps with black and other Latino subcultures in New York and, for that matter, with mainland North American culture as a whole.
Puerto Rican migration to the city increased when Puerto Rico came under USA control. At this time, Latin and African-American came together to form bands that later played at the Carnegie Hall. Latin music grew in popularity during the 1930’s and Cuban dance music was being played theaters such as New York’s Palace Theater. “By the mid-1930’s American nightclubs were featuring the conga, a Cuban carnival tradition, and many Broadway musicals included Latin numbers. In 1939, two key Latino entertainers appeared on the New York stage, Brazilian singer-dancer Carmen Miranda (1909-1955) singing “South-American Way” in the Abbott and Costello revue On the streets of Paris, and Cuban-born Desi Arnaz (1917-1986) as a conga playing football player in the Rodgers and Hart musical “Too many girls.”” Arnaz then teamed up with Lucille Ball and came up with the television comedy I Love Lucy. “Featuring Arnaz’s character, New York based Latin band leader Ricky Ricardo, the show brought Latino music into homes nationwide beginning in 1951 and helped make mambo and cha-cha-cha the dance crazes of the 1950’s.”
And then came the 1960’s. New flavors like “bugalu” and younger musicians, such as Hector Lavoe, appeared to set a new format in music called “Salsa”. Then immigration policy changes made possible the migration of people from other countries. “Along with other demographic shifts, these two events altered the course of Latin music in ways that defined it even more sharply as a New York phenomenon.” By the late 1960’s, the Dominican merengue, the Colombian cumbia, and the Puerto Rican plena and jibaro came into this musical scene.
By the 1970’s, all of these forms and rhythms came together to create Salsa. This new name gained fame when one of the biggest record labels at the time used the term to describe the music it produced.
The 1970’s were the heyday of salsa and of Fania which dominated the market. By the end of the decade, however, salsa found on the defensive against an onslaught of merengue, hip-hop, and the lack of creativeness among the singers, writers, and producers. (http://www.latindance.com/history_of_salsa.htm)
Salsa is a diverse and mainly Cuban Caribbean genre that did not only gained famed in New York City but also spread to Latin America and around the world. “Most specifically, however, salsa refers to a particular style developed in the 1960s and ’70s by Cuban immigrants to the New York City area, and stylistic descendants like 1980s salsa romantica.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salsa_music)
Salsa is the music played primarily at Latin dance clubs because it remains a dance-oriented genre. Salsa is even played in Japan with huge amounts of followers. Salsa might be latin but it all came together under New York City’s roof.

Why would New York have only one hero when millions of people make up this city? There is no way I can choose a single person when we have firefighters that save lives, police officers that keep us secure, shoppers that keep businesses alive, and maintenance crews who keep our streets and buildings clean. Everyone in this city contributes to making it bigger and better.

The Empire State Building is an architectural marvel, and one of the most striking attractions in New York City. The building itself was constructed during the Great Depression and is a living monument to that era and the city it so proudly illuminates.
The excavation for the project began on January 22, 1930 and took only one year and 45 days to complete, or 7 million hours. The masonry for the structure was completed on May 1, 1931, significantly ahead of schedule. The total cost to construct the skyscraper was $40,948,000, including the cost of the land. The building alone was constructed with a little over $24,000,000. The onset of the depression significantly reduced the amount needed to construct the building. The total height of the building is 1,454 feet. The 86th floor observatory, where visitors can overlook the Chrysler Building, Harlem River and other scenes of New York City, is 1,050 feet above ground. There are 102 floors and 6,500 windows. When it was completed, the building was the tallest in the world and the New York Times referred to it as the “Everest on Fifth Avenue.”
Initially, there was trouble finding tenants to occupy the offices of this enormous building not only due to the effects of the Great Depression, but also because the area of fifth avenue and 34th street was not a prime location at he time. Since 1931 taller buildings have been built, but perhaps none remain as famous as the Empire State Building. The history of the building also includes the mishap at the end of WWII in 1945 when an Army Air Corps bomber plane crashed into the 79th floor in a dense fog. Since 1931, the building has also acted as the official welcoming landmark to many of the world’s important figures like Fidel Castro, Prince Charles, Queen Elizabeth and Nikita Khrushchev.
The fame of the Empire State Building has put it in movies like “Sleepless in Seattle“, “Superman II“, and “Enchanted.” However, it’s in the film “King Kong” where this monument plays a symbolic role. In the famous closing scenes of the film “King Kong” (1933), the giant ape climbs to the top of the building. His arrival at the summit announces his temporary mastery not only of the structure, but of the city as well. According to author Merrill Schleier, up to this point in the film King Kong represents the powerful and multiethnic working-class skyscraper laborers and the “human flies” who climbed skyscrapers for fame before the Great Depression. Kong’s fall however, signifies the “exploitation, unemployment, loss of manly purpose, and even death during the Great Depression.” An anonymous writer also refers to skyscrapers as “the material embodiment of the late bull market,” which “soar boldly above a mesa of roofs, very much as the spire-graph of 1929 equity prices,” but during the depression served as “ironic witnesses of collapsed hopes.”
The Empire State Building is also important for businesses and employment. Just to mention one example, Johnson Controls Inc. is serving as the energy services company for a $20 million energy efficiency upgrade program at the Empire State Building. The goal of the project is to reduce energy use at the facility by nearly 40 percent. The project is part of an ongoing overall $500 million upgrade program at the Empire State Building. This company is working in conjunction with the Clinton Climate Initiative, Rocky Mountain Institute and Jones Lang LaSalle, as well as subcontractors.
Can one imagine the number of people involved in this multimillion project? Without the Empire State Building this and many more projects wouldn’t exist and thousands of people wouldn’t have a job. Big buildings like this would always need upgrades and constant maintenance so this gigantic is a important source of employment. This project is only one topic. Lets not forget about the antenna of the Empire State Building. Different television and radio stations use this antenna, twenty two to be exact. NBC began experimental television transmissions from the first Empire State antenna on December 22, 1931. This single antenna site is the reason why workers like disc jockeys, and news reporters have a steady job.
The Empire State Building is also a target not only for New Yorkers who want to visit it, but for tourists from all around the world as well. Since the Observatory on the 86th floor opened to the public in 1931, almost 110 million visitors have thrilled to the view of the city beneath them. Each year over 3.5 million people are whisked to the 86th floor to be where Cary Grant waited in vain for Deborah Kerr in an “Affair to Remember”, while Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan had their fateful meeting in the movie “Sleepless in Seattle.” Also, there are two restaurants, a sushi bar, three coffee shops, a drug store, a Hallmark card shop, a post office and two banks, in addition to the plethora of restaurants and nightlife activities in the surrounding area. A simulated helicopter ride and virtual-reality movie theater are also available as well as several art exhibits for all to view in the lobby.
This colossal represents New York City at its fullest. From the ones who fell in love, to the business men who consider it their second home due to the long hours they spent in it.

When thinking of New York a lot of images come to mind. One can think of the Statue of Liberty, the fallen but not forgotten Twin Towers, the Empire State Building, and even the famous apple that represents the city. However, none of these notorious icons represent the city better than Times Square. There is so much history and fame behind this area that is almost inevitable for New Yorkers and tourists to pay Times Square a visit.

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7:25-9:05am

It is a cold Wednesday morning and I just came out of my music class to start my report on my experience of walking around New York City. All I can say is that, even though it is cold and early, the embrace of the city makes it all go away. I really do not know exactly what it is about it but it’s just a different experience.

I particularly like the area of Times Square. Broadway’s huge number of animated neon and television-style signage have long made it one of New York‘s iconic symbols. Just seeing all these buildings, and stores, and the different people I encounter makes this city different that any of the other counties like Queens, or the Bronx, or any other city for that matter. Even in the morning when there are not that many lights on, this city is exceptional. A lot of people like the summer to walk, but I really prefer the cold. I don’t know, maybe that’s what I’ve always thought of New York, a cold city and everybody wearing their long and expensive jackets.

It’s funny to see all these people running around. Some serious, some laughing, some happy, or sad, those who are dressed up and wondering where they just came from, and those who are so casual and wonder what they are doing. Those dressed up and wearing sneakers running to catch the train, bus, or cab. The diversity of the city is great.

Now, of course I had to come back at night. All the lights are on, like the ones of the M&M’s store and, of course the gigantic Panasonic screen. I usually come at night with my girlfriend because I think the city makes walking romantic. Just walking and holding hands makes that experience unique. Of course I can walk and hold hands anywhere else, but the embrace of the city makes it much better. Like I said before, I really do not know what it is but the city makes it different. No cars, no cabs. Just the train to get to the city, and then walk. There is not even the need to shop to feel like walking in the city has a purpose. Though, if it is too cold then we would stop for a cup of coffee at Starbucks, which are located on every corner and only New York City has them. But of course, before buying that coffee, we are forced to play football. We have to spin to evade the stampede of fast walkers.

As we kept walking towards the Virgin store, signs that announce Broadway shows, like The Lion King, or people giving out pamphlets to encourage walkers to attend these one-of-a-kind plays, bring you one step closer to being part of an event that millions travel from around the world to enjoy, and millions more simply dream about. Past the Virgin store and only a few blocks away we see the recruiting station of the Armed Forces. I really do not understand why something that has nothing to do with the bright lights, stores, shows and screens is in the middle of Times Square.

As we head to where the lights dim, we realize that in ten minutes we saw from sneaker stores, to restaurants, to Broadway plays and the army. Where else can you find this but in New York City? The whole island is a new world to me, but Times Square is the heart of it.