The Mundane and Sublime and random things inbetween---observations as a function of attending to daily life in NYC

10/11 and 13/10 It's been a while since I've given attention to additions to my blahg (as I am referring to it). I have the good fortune of having a connection to an up and coming director for live theatre thru my friend Darrow. His nephew, Andy Donald, works with a company Naked Angels to produce new plays. I went to a reading which was directed by Andy. It was a great opportunity to see the process of bringing a play to off broadway or Broadway. The actress in the lead role for the reading was Alison Pill, a quite talented up and coming TV and movie actress. The reading was in a very small venue allowing the audience to be very close to the actors. Heather and Luke were in town visiting and in my walk with Heather we found "little India" in east mid-town, found an amazing Indian grocery store, Kalustyan. Heather and Luke's son, Jason, and his partner, Sherwin hosted a brunch at their loft near Chinatown. It was interesting to see someone else's living space, they have about twice as much room as our place but I like our location and views better.  Sherwin's brother-in-law Adam offered to show me around Brooklyn. I plan to take him up on that, I've actually found a lot of interesting things to do in Brooklyn. It's attraction is starting to grow on me.

Bob and I went to the Museum of Modern Art on Saturday to see the Matisse exhibit which gave a progression of his work as it became increasingly more abstract. There was also a great exhibit of modern abstractionists. Rothko, Pollack, de Koning, Rousseau, Picasso (great collection showing his progression as well), etc. The Sculpture garden is really lovely, a great place to take a break when feeling "arted out."  We went to our first Carnegie Hall performance to see virtuoso violinist, Alexander Markov. He's an extraordinary performer in that he loves playing both classical and rock music, which we saw him perform both. The acoustics at Carnegie are amazing...even in the nose bleed balcony seats we were in, the clarity and beauty of the notes he played for the Tchaikovsky piece was evident even way up there.

We are giving our first dinner party this Saturday night. In Seattle, my friends eventually became Bob's friends, it may be the other way around here. It's Bob's work friends we are having over. I am looking forward to meeting new people.

10/3/10   Yesterday we walked thru Central Park and wound up on the Upper West Side (UWS). There was a streetfair going on and this had to be about as opposite of what occurs in mid-town. The booths at the UWS fair were all high end jewelry, designer artwear fashion. high art, etc. There were no food booths or booths blaring music. Bob and I were thinking that if this is how street fairs go in the UWS does the Upper East Side (UES) even have street fairs???

Bob is so mellow and uuassuming. He rode in the elevator of our building today with an academy and emmy award winning actress who is staying in the building while she is doing an off broadway show.  Bob mentioned to her that she looked familiar to him and asked whether he might know her in some way. She said that he probably recognized her because she was in movies and tv. Bob asked what her name is and she told him. He then said, oh, that's what you do for a living? She said yes. Then as she was getting off the elevator, she asked him his name and he told her and she said good bye. I am hoping that she will leave tickets for her show with the doorman in Bob's name! Such is our life here in NYC.

We explored a bit of Chinatown this afternoon, Columbus Park was really interesting. It was literally packed with older Chinese people there playing and singing very traditional music, palying card games of some sort and a game with small discs and a board similar to a checkborad but it wasn't checkers.  Some of those playing had big crowds around them and there was a lot of concentration and animation. Bob and I would like to go back and just be witness to this cultural gathering. It felt like we had been transported to another country.

9/30/10   I love the weather here at night, so balmy and fantastically windy. Even though humidity makes my hair look like Rosanne Rosannadanna's I still love it!

9/27/10  I will need to expand on these things later but just want to get them entered for now, and further expounded on 9/30/10  Finally get a chance to give a little more detail on these entries.

Lexington Avenue--a really great upper eastside street, if a dowager could be a street, she would be Lexington avenue. At least in my mind. It feels more like a real street than say Park Avenue or Madison Avenue. Those streets have been all dolled up with the outrageously expensive stores and shopping, while Lexington serves the more day to day needs of the Upper East side. It has it's share of discreet expensive shops but it also has the hardware stores, small grocery stores, butchers, etc.. It feels older, more lived in but still with a certain feeling of elegance and taste not seen in mid-town despite many of the day-to-day stores selling the same things.

Luke's Lobster on East 81st street really does have an Uber great lobster roll--it truely lives up to the hype (I suspended my vegetarianism for a day). I highly recommend it if you are a lobster lover or want to experience really good lobster for the first time. It's a very simple place, mainly does take out but has some seating as well.

Metropolitan Museum tours are so worth the time -- makes a huge difference to know what you are looking at and why it's a masterpiece and deserves to be seen by millions.  I took the museum highlights tour that takes you through 5000 years of art landmarks. The docent was an older woman who was rail thin and very simply but elegantly dressed. Made me think of the saying "You can never be too thin or too rich." She seemed so nervous talking but managed to get the info out in a very accessible explanation. It was so helpful to have this intro to the artwork at this world famous museum. The Met offers about 10 different tours, most specializing in a particular art period or type of art. I plan to eventually take all 10 tours, I've always only experienced art on a visceral level so to understand it on an intellectual level will so enrich my experience.

Next to Normal--Broadway musical depicting significant mental illness and family dysfunction--topic is handled realistically and respectfully. This is a play that several friends have recommended and I am so glad we went to see it. It does a good job of depicting the impact of severe mental illness on the individual and their family and truthfully, coming from someone in the business, there are truly humorous moments that occur within what can be a devestating life course. The song lyrics were so spot on. Highly recommend it if you get a chance to see it.

Completely inundated with reading material, between the weekly New Yorker, New York magazine, Friday, Saturday and Sunday New York times and different editions of Edible Manhattan, Brooklyn and East End. I totally over did with subscriptions!!! There is just no way I am keeping up with all the reading I signed up for plus on the email announcements for the god knows how many various NYC related websites I signed up for. At some point I am thinking the info will just repeat itself and I won't feel so bad about not reading every article on everything happening in this city. For now, I am taking it at a topographic level, getting the terrain of the land before getting too immersed in the details. I've started tearing out pages of magazines and the newspaper and putting them in a big folder labeled "THINGS I WANT TO DO BEFORE WE LEAVE NYC"  better yet, I hope to do a lot of these things when friends and family are visiting.

Perhaps once the novelty wears off or the weather gets just awful, I will finally be able to read a list of books I've wanted to read for a very long time. Right now, it just doesn't seem possible. It's kind of silly how I use to do so much when I was working a lot of hours and now that I am not working, I feel like I absolutely do not have enough time in the day to get done all the things I want to do. I am joking with Bob that I don't think I will have time to work for a long time!!  Or really perhaps if I did work, I might actually be more productive with my time. It's a strange life I am living now.........

The Nanny pick up scene at an elementary school on the upper east side--I felt like I was witness to a classic New York moment. I'd like to give the benefit of the doubt that these were the kids' mothers but it's kind of hard to do that when all the ladies there picking up kids are of very distinct ethnicities while the kids showed not even a hint of biracial or biethnic appearance. There were lines and lines and lines of nannies--so interesting.  It was rather endearing to see all these little ones so happy to see their nannies and walking off hand in hand to the nearby ice cream truck. There was the occasional parent there to pick up their child and one conversation I overheard was a boy asking his dad if he had time to have a piece of pizza with him before going back to the office and then whether he would see him before bedtime. The dad was sweet and answered yes they could have a piece of pizza together before he headed back to the office but he couldn't be as definitive about seeing him before bedtime. 

I thought it would be kind of fun to see how the other half of .01 percent lives so went to the designer shoe floor at Saks Fifth Avenue (it has its own zipcode). The Prada shoes at Saks are absolutely beautiful, practically works of art, I can definitely see the appeal and had to watch that my drool didn't touch the shoes for fear of being made to pay for them. The price tag for a pair of anklet boots was close to $2000, and on a Thursday late morning, this section of the store is full of people--lots with foreign accents. Between checking out the high end stores and perusing the New York Times ads, it's seems that the recession just hasn't touched some people.

9/20/10  Last Friday night I went to a free concert at Bryant Park, it was a 90 minute performance by the Black Rock Coalition Orchestra.  They did a really fabulous review of WAR songs and the lead singers were amazing. It was so much fun and people of all dimensions of diversity were having a very good time of it all.

We took the car out on Saturday to get it tested for the emissions and safety standards required by NY and of course got stuck with a major bill in the process since they "found" a bunch of things wrong with the car.  Some of the stuff I suppose is legitimate since I've not really had much service done to my car in the 8 years I've had it but some was a rip off for sure (I have my ways of knowing).  Anyway, it's done now and hopefully it won't need any more work on it for a while. While we had the car out of the parking garage, we decided to check out the South Bronx Food Coop since I am still yearning for a PCC type of place to grocery shop.  Anyway, going to the Bronx was a real eye opener.  I now have a much better understanding of why it has the reputation that it does. People have to be tough there for a reason. Much of it has to do with how run down it all looks and feels and there is very little relief as you drive through the streets. I don't think I could live there despite my previous statements elsewhere that at least right now, I prefered the grittiness of mid-town to the upper west side. The Bronx makes mid-town seem like the upper west side. It was quite an important experience in really getting to know NYC as a whole and not just Manhattan. The SBXFC was a bust as far as what I was looking for but I have to give them tons of KUDOS for successfully pulling off what they do have in the neighborhood it's located in. They have my total respect if not my business.....ultimately though, even if it had been a great place to shop, it was way too out of the way to have been able to go with any regularity.

I think our only other forays into the Bronx will be to see a baseball game at Yankee Stadium and to go the NY Botanaical Gardens......supposedly the gardens are one of the most beautiful in the world. We are going for my birthday next weekend.

Later that night we went to the West Village to see a wonderful play at the New School Cherry Pit Theater called the Awesome Dance. The Director and Lighting person are very good friends with our very good friend Paul so that was a cool connection.  The village is such a lovely neighborhood, everytime we are there for whatever reason, it stimulates fantansies of someday owning a flat there. It feels very European. On Sunday we had every intention to explore Chinatown but there was a MILE long street fair going on just outside our apartment running the length of 8th Avenue from 42nd street to 58th Street on both sides. The city shuts down the main avenue and leaves the cross streets open to traffic. These street fairs happen a lot in Manhattan, I had not been to one yet despite their frequency and because this one was literally right out the front door of our apartment building (well okay at the corner) we decided to DO the street fair instead.  It's pretty fun for people watching and eating but there is so much repetition of the booths selling the same t-shirts, dresses, hats, REAL bug key chains, big chunky glass pendants (these were literally about every 100 feet or so), and selling lots of the same food. Every once in a while you would come across a booth selling more unique/original wares. I have to say that the Carribean/Reggie CD booths are a lot of fun to hang out at. The guys who are selling the CDs are really having fun with the music and customers, dancing and singing, and making their very special sales deals JUST FOR YOU!! I liked those booths the very best. We were looking for a good street fair deal (supposedly, the street fair deal is THE cheapest deal you can get) on the NY Times and signed up for the weekend plan for less that $4 a week, that's pretty good considering that just the Sunday edition runs five bucks at the newstands. We even got a NY Times t-shirt and water bottle for signing up. Christmas gifts for the lucky few!

One more thing.........shopping at Macy's at Herald Square (home to the Miracle on 34th Street movie) is crazy.....that place has more deals and discounts than seems possible. They must make a profit on sheer volume of sales because it never seems that you ever pay full price for anything. I never shopped at Macy's in Seattle but it is such an institution here, seems like you just can't not shop at the one here.

I've gotten some important feedback on my blog.....ADD PHOTOS!! Will do as soon as I can figure that out and have the equipment.  BTW almost switched from Blackberry to an IPhone but just couldn't go thru with it........too many fees and added yearly costs. Despite the coolness factor, just couldn't justify it.

I think the diners in NYC are way over rated..........still looking for one with stand out quality....they all just seem pretty much the same despite being voted or touted as THE BEST DINER!!! The search goes on.

9/17/10  Okay, I have to say that I am getting more and more comfortable with not working.....there I admitted it. Now maybe I can start to let go of so much of the guilt I feel knowing only too well how hard my friends and former colleagues are working. I don't expect my unemployed status to last forever but I am finally settling into in a bit more each day for what it has to offer.  I still try to be productive with at least a few things every day be that wrapping up work tasks, errands for Bob, doing things for the apartment, attending to details in getting us settled on all fronts, etc. But the thing I like best about not being so pressed for time and having more energy is that I can finally be a nicer and kinder person. I finally have the time and energy to make positive notice of people's efforts, to be more friendly with people, to say hello and please and thank you more consistently, to be less irritated or actually quite okay if things take longer than I thought they would, to not feel I always have to make a beeline to wherever I am going and instead can stop and cross the street to look at something if it interests me or go completely out of my way on a whim. I've not had that sense of freedom from workaday pressure in so long. I'm sleeping a lot better these days too. I know other people who do all these things even though they work really hard, I just wasn't able to be one of those people. I have a one trackedness about my behavior which can be really good in some ways and not so good in other ways. Anyway, I am learning some important life lessons right now, quite a luxury indeed and I am very thankful for this opportunity.

9/15/10  A wise man told me today that life is a series of iterations.....hmmmm, still wondering what my end result is supposed to be with this iteration

I am already developing a love for the Hudson River. It's one hard working river and even from my apartment window, I see barges, ferries, cruise ships, and the like traversing in one direction or another throughout the day. I know it provides the water source for all that great farming up and down the Hudson River Valley. It helps soothe my view as it forms the backdrop to the skyscrapers and traffic in the forefront. The Hudson Riverwalk is pretty fantastic and we will soon rent bikes to ride along side the Hudson the full north to south Manhattan trek.  Hudson is a really good name for Dave and Jean's son.... I more fully get it now.

One other very fun find that I will also list below in the Things to do in Manhattan section is from the book Darrow gave us, The Back Stage Guide to Broadway by Robert Viagas. It mentioned Shubert Alley situated between West 44th and 45th Streets and Broadway and 8th Ave.  It's hardly an alley as many of us think of alleys...it's really a very cool (and very clean and airy) passage way which is lined with fabulous full sheet posters of most of the plays currently showing on Broadway.  I don't think I would have found it on my own very easily.

Bob and I have really been enjoying the proximity of where we live, work, and play. It makes it very easy to have a date night.  We joined up at Bryant Park last night for the free performance, walked over to check out Shubert Alley and were both quite charmed by it, then headed to dinner at Zen Palate, a good and relatively inexpensive vegetarian restaurant, and then to Amy's Bakery across the street. Amy's is Bob's FAVORITE bakery after having tried probably close to at least half a dozen other bakeries. He's got an internal radar for that place.

9/15/10  During my many walks, I've noticed that the street people tend to be, in general, well read.  I often see them reading a variety of newspapers and having rather indepth conversations with those who stop and chat with them. I may have a  biased view of street people in Seattle because I mainly was exposed to homeless youth on the Ave who were not reading or having indepth conversations.

The other thing that Bob and I have yet to understand is why New Yorkers have such a negative reputation for being rude or cold.  We've not found either to be true at all. People here are, as a whole, very helpful, social, and kind. We had the same experience when travelling in France......we found the French also very warm and friendly and eager to make our experience of travel there a pleasant one. I would say the only time we've found people to be rather aloof and cool and not interested in being helpful is in the big stores like Home Depot, Best Buy, etc.  Customer service is just not a priority in these places while I would say the opposite for Seattle--at least the part about finding help in big stores. Okay, I'm kind of getting my sections a bit blurred now.......it's hard to keep them separate.

9/14/10  Why is it that in Manhattan, I do not have any issue with walking anywhere from 1 to 4 miles to take care of an errand or get to an activity, yet would not have even thought of doing that in Seattle?  I think that walking in Manhattan is really reinforcing because you feel like you are always making so much progress as the numbered streets just keep whizzing by and you are constantly being given feedback on your progress to reaching your goal. I like it! I think too that there is so much stimulation and visual distraction that it's easy to get caught up in the sights and be at your destination before you know it.  Walking here is as much process oriented as it is goal directed.

9/11/10  On Saturday while out succumbing to the many temptations NYC has to offer and trying desperately to keep the indulgences down to only 2 a day, I saw a young boy, maybe only 4 or 5 years old at the most, singing rather loudly but very much in tune with the song Empire State of Mind--the part that Alicia Keys sings as the refrain that was being played in a shoe store.  It was really great--he was so into it, already a true New Yorker, born and bred!  He had found his theme song.

Major concerning observation--money flies out of your pocket at incredible speed! It's like the streets have a magnetic force and vacuum sucking power unknown to me before. It's always best to leave with the apartment with no credit card, no debit card, and only 20 bucks and a metro card!

9/13/10  Yikes!  I've only been really living here for less than a week and I already have a pet peeve!  When I am out taking my granny cart for whirl to get groceries or whatever, it really bugs me when there are two or more people standing right at the corner curb with clearly no intention to cross in either direction. They've just decided to plant themselves there and chat it up while taking up precious passing space or access to the curb ramp for easy rolling up and down the curb when crossing streets.  What's up with that? (I hope, some of you at least, are now free associating to the SNL skit with that line being the center piece---I love that series of skits).

Also I think there should be separate lanes on all the sidewalks, one for people who live in the city and want to get to places in a timely fashion and the other for people who are just making a day for themselves getting to know NYC.  I would certainly be a high user of each depending on the day and activity.