I loved New York but I didnt enjoy Times Square. It’s an overly commercialized tourist trap. It felt loud, crowded, and soulless. It reminded me of Las Vegas. (Sorry). This picture somewhat captures my anxiety and discomfort there.
Nikon Z8 120mm 1/1250 sec @ f/9.0 iso 2000
What year was this? 2005?
And yeah, I don’t think I’ve ever gone to times square on purpose in my ~20 years of living here.
The photo doesn’t give me any anxiety or discomfort, though. Maybe I’m just acclimated.
This was a few months ago in 2025. You can verify that by the advertised shows on display.
I think it’s contextual to me. I dont mind the crowd. New York felt human-centric everywhere else. I minded the atmosphere. Vendors selling cheap souvenirs, every brand imaginable on a billboard or in a store, celebrities peddling stuff, some religious band leading awful music, Spiderman, Elsa, a guy offering me a selection of illicit drugs because I “looked sad”. Blehh
We visited a few years ago, had some time before our show started, so we just walked around Times Square. I just wanted to take in the atmosphere for a few minutes. One of the most famous places on earth, thousands of people, all kinds of things going on.
I probably wouldn’t go there regularly even if I lived in the city, but occasionally it’d be fun. And my wife would want to go to a lot of Broadway shows.
There’s nothing like it in DC, for example. But then people in DC rarely visit the Smithsonian.
Oh weird. I saw the ad for “good night and good luck”, which is a 2005 movie, and assumed from that.
And yeah, times square isn’t really a fun time. I’m rarely up there.
It’s a Broadway play now.