February 24
...serving up your daily dish.
A brand new party room for rent, with a pristine view of Manhattan. Bet you can’t guess where…
University Hall opened in January at Montclair State University. It’s a 500-person conference and banquet center located on the seventh floor of the College of Education.
Will they also charge for parking, on that campus with vast tracts of land?
Posted by: Confused Citizen | Feb 24, 2006 12:15:20 PM
Okay, so will you have the next Baristanet party there? Maybe you could sponsor a two-evening seminar on verbal intimidation. (I know we could find several keynote speakers amongst the tribe.) Or perhaps an open and frank discussion on why Democrats are just better than Republicans (or vice-versa). That would be quiet evening ... check your leaf blowers (and Uzis) at the door.
Posted by: Conan the Grammarian | Feb 24, 2006 12:15:36 PM
That building is ridiculous. If you have not seen it I think you should just go in and explore, the sheer size of the place will make you wet yourself. Also, about parking. If you do not go to the school and you get a ticket, do not pay it. The tickets they give out are not enforced by officers of the law, it's just a made up parking system that MSU has to rip the students off. Students have to pay because they cannot register for classes or graduate if they have any pretend tickets the school may give them. I like how it's called University Hall cause no one cared enough to donate money and have their name put on it.
Posted by: katie | Feb 24, 2006 12:41:31 PM
I can't believe the pictures on this site for the building, they are all computerized, the place is nice and all but it doesn't look like that YET (there is one picture where it has all this greenery, etc) I wonder if that picture was even taken in the building (I bet it wasn't). You can't see the city that clear from MSU, maybe you all knew this already and I'm just not paying attention.
Posted by: katie | Feb 24, 2006 1:04:59 PM
http://www.montclair.edu/conferencecenter/index.html
Not an actual view, unless the building resides on the banks of the Hudson River in Weehawkin. Is it so difficult to allow a photographer to capture the skyline view at night from the actual location?
Posted by: Jim | Feb 24, 2006 1:05:45 PM
Katie,
I must have imagined that my license got suspended because I didn't pay those "fake tickets" when I was a student there. I assure you they are very real!
Posted by: AH | Feb 24, 2006 1:14:35 PM
I assure you I have friends who have gotten over $300 in tickets and that was over 3 years ago. I can assure that now, they are not real. Unless you were parking in handicap spots or fire zones, then the police will write tickets. What they have now is "parking services" a group of people with actual authority.
Posted by: katie | Feb 24, 2006 1:42:45 PM
I'm no Stephen King, of course, but Uncle Tonoose Hall does have a ring to it.
Oh. Wait, I was kicked out of the editing class there in 1990.
Maybe the Uncle Tonoose Rest Stop on the old Morris Canal?
Posted by: Uncle Tonoose | Feb 24, 2006 1:44:59 PM
I'v got better views of NYC, too!
http://www.harborsidenj.com/jc_ship.html
Posted by: Uncle Tonoose | Feb 24, 2006 1:46:48 PM
When I went to that school, it was anything but NORMAL.
I minored in standing in line.
Computers in those days were as big as an elementary school.
Sorry, but these flashbacks overtook me!
Posted by: Uncle Tonoose | Feb 24, 2006 1:48:52 PM
It always starts with, "I have friends..." I'm speaking from personal experience and graduated undegrad there in 1998 and grad in 2001 and at that time there wasn't parking services but the campus police who wrote them. Maybe it did change when the parking service came in...but I know for certain it wasn't fire zone or handicapped parking.
Posted by: AH | Feb 24, 2006 3:39:29 PM
Regarding the photo of the campus, I took it and it was taken from campus with a 200 mm lens on a 35mm camera, which is not a very long focal length in the great grand scheme of things. This view of the city is accurate and exactly what you see from campus, just a bit closer than what your eye would see so it wouldn't appear as a string of pin dots on the horizon. As a matter of fact, a stock photo shot from Jersey City was proposed, but I suggested it be re-taken from campus for the sake of accuracy.
Posted by: mike | Feb 24, 2006 3:44:32 PM
RE: Regarding the skyline photo...
If you'd like to see the original image that was used, you can see it here in all it's uncropped glory:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikepeters/103916350/
Posted by: mike | Feb 24, 2006 4:23:48 PM
Hey Mike: You took a great picture. You always do. You go!!!! Guess who?
Posted by: murphyeyes | Feb 24, 2006 4:23:59 PM
Mike,
Quite a clever combination of window panes and photography.
I never noticed the Citibank building was green.
Now, you should go to the Top of the Rock and shoot MSC (M-U!)
Posted by: Uncle Tonoose | Feb 24, 2006 4:56:28 PM
Actually the campus police do have authority. They are a state school, the officers are hired off of the NJ Department of Personnel's test, and submit ticket info to the State MVC if they are unpaid. Your friend must just be lucky if they didn't hear anything about unpaid parking tickets from the school...either that or they're lying.
Posted by: Rob | Feb 25, 2006 1:00:28 AM
I'm not saying that the campus police don't have authority and I know they are real police (but without guns). I'm saying that the parking services do not. The campus police do not give out tickets unless it's an illegal parking situation (such as handicap parking without a permit). I started at MSU in 2002 so I'm guessing that's when parking services was created, so therefore the person saying they got tickets from the campus police received real tickets. BUT now they come in a little red envelope and they are nothing but parking services tickets (they do the same thing at Rutgers). Parking services is not in anyway related to anything with the campus police. So now, when you get a ticket and call the campus police they will direct you to parking services because they no longer take care of that area. So, let me restate once again that they are not real tickets.
Posted by: katie | Feb 25, 2006 3:23:09 AM
Mike: while I understand the technical difficulty of capturing the panoramic view with a camera lens, I think a better solution would have been to go with a photo-illustration, like the kind you see in USA Today, something that shows the panorama landscape to the East, an out-of-body view perhaps just West of University Hall, with a West wall cutaway to show the interior of the conference room and the sense of largeness of the view. I'm not a photo illustrator, but my art director hat can imagine a more effective visual. Maybe MSU's communications director can look into this?
Posted by: Jim | Feb 25, 2006 9:33:56 AM
Jim, no difficulty in capturing the image. The cut out of the windows is to suggest that if you look out of the window you will see the NYC skyline, if the atmosphere allows of course. Is it closer than in reality? Yes, but it is what is there and what most people will actually perceive that they are seeing. As far as the concept for the illustration, that there are lots of people who have lots of ideas. I'm sure that this design was chosen because of its simplicity and effectiveness at conveying the message. And, let me assure you that MSU's Communications director did and does look at and approve all that is produced by our department.
Posted by: mike | Feb 25, 2006 7:40:56 PM
So in other words, the picture is "accurate" and "what you would see from campus", but it's just not what the normal human eye would see, due to the actual distance. On the other hand it is "what is there" and people will actually percieve themselves to be seeing that.
No they won't. The view's going to look what it truly is - a "string of dots on the horizon" - nothing more. False advertising.
Posted by: barnum | Feb 26, 2006 12:58:06 PM
Barnum - When has there ever been truth in advertising? Is truth absolute or relative? Relatively speaking the image is not false, but it would be nice if they handed out binoculars. Maybe they can install those viewing devices that are on top of the Empire State Building. Maybe we should plan a baristanet field trip and see for ourselves?
Posted by: gonzo | Feb 27, 2006 1:10:20 PM
Beautiful skyline shot on flickr.com; that's what you should have put in the windows. What's there now is misleading and dishonest. You might as well have Photoshopped the ghost of Jimmy Hoffa in the window, to show what one person might have perceived they were seeing.
Posted by: joeyz | Feb 27, 2006 5:04:19 PM
