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Midtown Hotel's Light Show May Induce Seizures

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There's a twist in our new favorite obsession, the multicolored light show beamed off the "meat" in the uptown-facing facade of West 39th Street's new hotel sandwich: the thingies on top light up as well! But that's not all, our tipster points out: "More testing tonite. Matched Empire State Building to start...but iphone couldn't catch the strobe reds and flashing purples!! I guess at this point we pretty much have no choice but to agree with the commentor that compared us to Tokyo." We always suspected Midtown was another country! Let's take a look back at how this bit of magic came into our lives.

5/20/09: First evidence of impending illumination surfaces, as our tipster (who lives in the Orion luxury condo tower a couple blocks north) files the above picture and dubs the situation "Hotel Hell." His heart-wrenching plea: "What did we do to deserve this? Please help us."

6/5/09: Our first nighttime peek, and the Empire State Building connection is revealed. A commenter makes the international connection: "I actually like these. They remind me a bit of Hong Kong or Tokyo. I'm thrilled that it's not another blue-hued glass tower." Opinions remain split. Help nowhere in sight.