Class notes from Composting 101: In this week's adventures, our wiser and greener elders share the storied history of composting in New York City.

This fall artists have turned Times Square into an urban jungle with 185 tree-themed banners designed with political, environmental, and social issues in mind. The Urban Forest Project will flap in New York City's skyline through October 31st. The beautiful banners speak in pictures and words. One reads, "Trees can't afford to live here." Another simply states the word "mother" under an image of a pinecone. After the exhibit, the banners will be recycled into hip tote bags and auctioned off with proceeds going to students and scholarships of the visual arts. Mark Randall, principal of WorldStudio, and Tim Tompkins, president of the Times Square Alliance, planted the seeds for the exhibit.

If a tree can grow in Brooklyn, can a forest can grow in Manhattan's bustling Times Square?

The Urban Forest Project, a new public art exhibit, has blanketed Times Square with trees — metaphoric kind.

Leslie Hoffman, executive director of Earth Pledge in an Ethical Market, discussion about green architecture. She focuses on energy efficient workspaces and dwellings of urban real estate developers; and features a look at New York City's first aggressively engineered energy efficient green rooftop.

Starting Thursday, a diverse group of musicians and performers come together to hoist a huge new Earth Day festival upon New York City, and hopefully inspire newfound passions for a healthy planet along the way. Confirmed talent for the inaugural Green Apple Music and Arts Festival includes such odd bedfellows as Blues Traveler, Dresden Dolls, GhostFace, Joe Satriani, Richie Havens, and the New York Philharmonic. Also committed to perform are tap dance superstar Savion Glover, singer/songwriter Amy Correia, dance funk nightclub darlings Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra, post-bluegrass banjo ensemble Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, jazz-influenced hip-hop artist DJ Logic, 70s rock icon Peter Frampton, and neo-lounge act Nouvelle Vague.

New York City’s Rockefeller Center has recently re-opened revamped viewing decks on the 67th to 70th floors, called Top of the Rock. For those seeking a balancing respite from the clang and crowds of urban life, this is a perfect, new, still semi-secret idyll.

Last night we arrived in the crystal-chandeliered basement-level canyon at 10:30 pm, gave our tickets to a smiling woman (I bought ours online a week before—they’re open from 8:30 am to midnight) and were whisked into a shiny, chic elevator, got off to more smiling people, and had the friendliest (and perhaps most thorough) security check I’ve ever had. Then we saw a cheesy, very short film about the building before being ushered into another elevator. It took a second to realize the elevator was glass-topped. We watched through blinking lights as we ascended up and up, away and away. We reached a maze of quartz crystal-laden hallways (really! They have some sort of deal with Swarovski) and then: magic. A velvety, twinkling, far-away sea of lights. There was a tall glass barrier that didn’t interfere with the view. And after ascending another level––no glass, nothing but a low fence leaving you and the city breath-to-breath. It was cold and stunning. With rivers shimmering through the lights. It made me want to fly like Lois, over the only dark patch—Central Park. Low and steady, over the trees, the reservoir, the city’s green heart.