Not Quite Live from New York

Wrote this in early October 2007 during our short New York city visit.

Big Apple, here we are! Boy, it’s been years since either of us was here. We’re here to visit our friend James, who moved to NYC from LA this summer. He’s taking to the city in a big way, finding it friendly and fascinating. My memories of New York include a lot of crowds, grime, honking and attitude. It’s come a long way.

After a relatively painless set of flights arriving at La Guardia, we snared a cab to our hotel in Chelsea. We got hungry for a snack and took a walk out on 7th Avenue. Surprisingly, the restaurants were shutting down – it was only 11PM – so we found ourselves limited to the hotdog joints. But, hey, there’s joy in an authentic dog every once in a while.

Meeting up with James for breakfast, we were introduced to Balthazar, a fantastic restaurant in the Village. I could come here again and again. Great café au lait, and the best quiche I have had in years. The street is full of shops with original names, unique items, and a lot of local character. Greenwich Village has a history of resisting authority and “progress”, making it a holdout against the grid system in place in the rest of the city. The streets are small and misaligned, full of historic brick buildings and remnants of centuries of finely crafted stone, brick and iron.

After breakfast, we strolled around, poking into any shop that looked intriguing. Of all, the Ingo Maurer gallery was the most interesting. Ingo is a creator of fabulous and flighty lighting art. His work includes a hurricane lamp that shares only its name with the old fashioned glass funnels designed to keep the wind from snuffing the candle. Ingo creates a tornado in liquid (using the prosaic magnetic stirring device from science labs) with a bulb spotlighting it. Another is a birdcage-like metal maze with rubber rats trapped inside. And the bare fixture with wings attached. Many, many amazing lights. See more at www.ingo-maurer.com. Not in my budget, however… only $4100 for the hurricane lamp.

James is a fan of Ted Baker clothing, where he’s found a line of shirts that fit him well. They had great and original women’s clothing as well.

We toured an enormous sporting goods store that also featured just about every variety of shoe imaginable. With some of the shoes, I was reminded me of the orange patent leather flats that I bought in the late 60’s. I loved those shoes and wore them a surprising number of times. Orange and pink were my favorite combination for 1968.

Strolled along the Hudson River park, Chelsea docks with golf, Law and Order studios (Criminal Intent or SVU – I forget which.) It was a hot day – 80’s.

We planned for dinner at Crispo, a trendy restaurant in the up-and-coming meatpacking district, recommended by our friend Allen, who lived in NYC for several years. There are all kinds of new shops, lofts and restaurants cropping up in the old industrial buildings. Lots of charm and wonderful food.

I had to see a musical while we were here. Being a fan of Monty Python and the Search for the Holy Grail, it had to be SPAMALOT. Laughed the whole way through. Afterwards, we had to stroll around Times Square. This is much more the NY that I’m used to seeing: crowds, noise, and hawkers. The new trend is Disney-fication. Taking a cue from Las Vegas, New York is trying to make itself more family friendly. Hence the hi-def screens blanketing the walls of Times Square with images of Bee Movie, Legally Blonde, and the M&M store and Hershey Store battling for choco-market-share across the boulevard from one another. Impressive, but not very inspiring.

Earlier in the day, we met James’ girlfriend, Jessica, and the four of us
Dinner at Nero – my dinner was a scrumptious lamb dish. Went to the bar “Employees Only”, where Jessica was instrumental in getting us past the bouncer.

Saturday AM, took short walk to a dinuh. (Translation: diner) Bagel, lox and cream cheese for me! Took the afternoon W tour from Pier 78. Our tour guide, Michael, did a great job weaving together history, geography, humor, philosophy into a rapid fire monologue as we toured the East River (not actually a river) viewed the Statue of Liberty and learned a few important cultural nuggets. Like why Jersey is called the “State of Confusion”. Like why the area along the Jersey coastline was called the DUMBO area. It seems that the area just across the bridge is Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass. These are the same people who delight in naming neighborhoods with acronyms – SOHO and NOHO being South and North of Houston street, and TriBeca, the Triangle Below Canal Street, and some new ones we haven’t parsed out yet.

Either the day before that or after, we also toured the Natural History Museum. It’s a very impressive building, inside and out. (Having watched the movie “Night at the Museum”, I appreciated the statue of Teddy Roosevelt outside, and the various dioramas.) We only scratched the surface, viewing the celestial show in the planetarium and just a few exhibits. Well worth seeing, and spending a lot more time there!

Afterwards, we went to the site of the World Trade Centers. Both of us had been in the Towers years before their destruction. I remember an early visit to Windows on the World – the incredible restaurant on the top with views for miles. Now that so much of the demolition is complete, it’s hard to get a feel for the horrific event without reaching back to our emotions at the time we viewed it on television. It’s hard to see anything but a huge construction project in the pits that are now there. But the models of the mall and Freedom Tower that will replace the Towers are impressive.

Saturday evening, we ate at the Blue Ribbon Bakery, which had more resemblance to a wine café than a bakery. I guess for dinner, that’s a good thing.

So that was all the time we had, just 3 full days. Back home to our usual haunts and hobbies.

Parenthetically, I need to add to this blog all of our summer activities, which include a lot of beach time. After moving to Cardiff this spring, we find ourselves at the beach, in the surf with kayaks, in the coves with snorkels, and just on the sand walking the dog. Maybe when we get some rain, I’ll get around to writing that up. Oh, and meanwhile, off to some family events and then New Zealand for 3 weeks!

One more footnote: the recent wildfires affected us only in small and peripheral ways. I’m glad to report that while a number of our friends evacuated their homes, none that we are aware of lost their homes. Our thoughts go out to everyone with losses from the fires. And our thanks go to our wonderful firefighting and emergency response crews who keep us all safe.