New York Story, Part 2

Posted on March 4, 2005
Filed Under Blather, art, dining, music, photography, the written word, wide world of vacation | Leave a Comment

So back to our story…

The next morning we woke up a little late. Ezra had to deal with some work issues, so I got ready in the meantime. We had to split our stay between two rooms at the guest house, so after moving our stuff to our new room (whose fake tiger-skin rugs continued the dead animal theme), we set out in search of nourishment. We ended up back at ’snice, where I enjoyed some of the best ever oatmeal with dried fruit and a glass of yummy chai. Then we set off for the Museum of Modern Art.

Even for a Wednesday, it was quite busy. There were tour groups, students, other tourists, etc. The slate floor in the lobby looks about the same as the floor from the old building, but most other elements of the building feel new. It’s much more open, and much bigger. I was afraid I wouldn’t like the new building, but I do. I feel like I should mention the guy whose job it is to herd people through the coat check. He is firm, yet pretty friendly. He smiled while yelling at all us stupid cattle. Very efficient.

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We saw so many things at the museum–it’s hard to know where to begin. They were showing some of Andy Warhol’s screen tests–3 screens side by side–in one room, along with a few other good little films. I watched a bit and saw Gerard Malanga (who basically just looks into the camera and licks his lips a few times), Dennis Hopper (who starts out just looking into the camera but ends up all over the place–he is the original ADHD patient), and several others. The drawing, printmaking, and photography exhibits were all excellent, and Ezra and I were both really pleased to discover that we like some recently acquired pieces by new artists. All is not lost in the realm of contemporary art! Huzzah! A few names that stand out in my mind are Jeff Wall, Charles LeDray (don’t think I like all of this stuff, but this is what we saw at MOMA, and it’s impressive), Josiah McElheny, and Philip-Lorca DiCorcia. And we discovered (or rediscovered) some other artists like Jacques-Henri Lartigue, Tina Modotti, Robert Frank (we saw a bunch of his works before–Ezra thinks maybe at the Art Institute in Chicago, and I love Elevator - Miami Beach), and El Lissitzky. Everytime I visit the Museum of Modern Art, I feel like I rediscover Paul Klee. It’s like his work is genius in that setting. And we saw many other good works by Calder, Warhol, Mackintosh, Miro, Cindy Sherman, Lautrec, Redon, Richter, and many many others. Ez and I were both filled to the brim with art, and we pooped out before going through the top floor. Didn’t even make it to the gift shop this time. The museum is bigger now!

So we were wiped out and filled up with art, and needing to refuel. We hit an Au Bon (unexciting, but we were too pooped to hunt down something more interesting) on 6th Avenue for a drink and snack and then slowly wandered back to our room. After resting for a bit and spiffing ourselves up, we headed out to an early dinner before the show. We were hoping for a Thai place, but it looked sketchy, so we ended up going for another Italian spot. I opted not to overdo it with the pre-show drinks this time…

radio city

Back at Radio City, we almost immediately felt that the crowd was different for the second show. It seemed older or something… maybe a little more clued in. Ezra easily managed to get his camera through the door, and we took a handful of pictures of the place and the show.

Blonde Redhead sounded a bit better on the 2nd, though they still only played four songs. It seemed like there were actually more people at the show on the 2nd who might have come out to see them, or who at least know and like them. Unfortunately for me, right before Interpol hit the stage, a big round guy planted himself in the aisle seat next to me, and a tall skinny kid took the seat in front of me. So I was surrounded, which was a bit of a disappointment, I have to say. I tried to get over it, though. The show was good–much much better than the first night. The setlist felt a lot more energetic, the band seemed more on top of things, the crowd responded better, the light show seemed bigger, the sound even seemed better. They played several live favorites, including “Length of Love,” “Say Hello to the Angels,” “Take You on a Cruise,” and of course the usual suspects like “Evil,” “NYC,” and “Obstacle 1.” I was glad they played “Hands Away” again. It’s also really good live. At one point someone actually skateboarded across the stage. Ezra says he saw this, but I missed it (probably because my view was so obscured the whole time… grrrrr). I’ve heard it was actually Blasco, the guy who plays keyboards at their live shows. I did see a kid run across the stage, press a CD into Paul’s hand, and get chased off the other side and thrown back into the crowd by security. Crazy. When did the stage jumping thing start at Interpol shows?

Interpol

So I’m looking forward to seeing them this coming Wednesday in Boston. My seats at the Orpheum look decent, and I feel like the Radio City shows, as good as they were (esp. the second night), were sort of like teasers. Maybe it was being in New York, or the bigger venue, or a combination of lots of factors, but I kept fighting off the feeling that the first two times I saw them were just a little more fun because they were more intimate. But I hate to complain.

After the show we headed back to our room. We thought about getting a coffee, but nothing good presented itself and it was quite cold.

retrievers

On Thursday morning we had breakfast at a cute diner called the Bus Stop Cafe. The food was OK–not great–and the service was insanely fast. I barely had time to figure out what I wanted before it was in front of me. I do not exaggerate. On the walk to the diner we passed a setup for a movie shoot on the corner. There were no signs of any stars that I could see, but there were a bunch of photographers with crazy massive lenses, and we overheard one guy say something like, “I’m not chasing after Lucy Liu.” Hm…

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Our plan was to walk over to 6th Ave. and check out a board game store, but we couldn’t find it. I did have fun wandering through an art supply store near The New School. Then we got on the subway to find B&H, which was recommended to me as the place to go for camera equipment. Mainly, I wanted to see what they could tell me about the new smaller Canon Digital Rebel that’s coming out (not much). It was cool just to go there, though. It’s massive–covers a large corner of a city block. They sell all kinds of electronics. Apparently, it’s Jewish owned and largely Jewish operated. The store is closed Friday afternoons, Saturdays, and Jewish holidays, and I’d say about 80 percent of the staff were wearing yarmulkes. The place is set up almost like a Service Merchandise or something. You tell a sales person what you want, after looking at the display samples, and they send an order back into the stockroom. Your items are placed in a bin which travels on a conveyor overhead through the store and up to the pick-up area in the front. After you pay, you can pick up your purchase. Ez found a new case for his camera and we set off again.

gw bridge

Suddenly we realized our trip was drawing to a close. What to do in our last few hours there? We did a lot of walking in the cold, again looking for the elusive non-Starbucks coffee shop and again having no luck. We ended up at Gotham Book Mart. They’ve just moved to a wood-filled location on 46th Street, just a block or two over from their old location. There were people treating the wood upstairs, so a scent of some semi-toxic wood cleaner/polish filled the place. I have just purchased so many books, so I forced myself to hold back, but Ezra found a few that look very good. The same woman was working the desk this time as the last time we visited New York in September 2003.

…And then it was a rush to grab lunch, get back to the guest house to grab our bags, and then get up to the bus station. We got there just in time, and here we are… back in Boston!

I think the visit energized me overall. I like to be somewhat busy. I really like being around art and creativity. There are still things about the pace in New York that I don’t like, but part of it might be the fact that I am always rushing when I’m there because I never know when I’ll be back. Hopefully, we can get down there again when the weather gets a little warmer, so we can walk around more. Of course, then everyone else will be thinking the same thing and the streets will be packed. Alas.

New York Story, Part 1

Posted on March 4, 2005
Filed Under Blather, dining, music, wide world of vacation | 1 Comment

So, we’re back. Where to begin my story of our trip?

I was a bit nervous that we wouldn’t make it down there on Tuesday because of the snow, but travel by bus was no problem. Our bus arrived as planned, wiggling through the streets of Harlem and into midtown as a light snow fell. That first day we settled into our “guest house” in the West Village. The location was great and the room pretty cozy, though I could have done without the two looming cow skulls on the walls. After depositing our packs in our room, we ventured out to get some lunch, and found a great vegetarian cafe called ’snice right down the street. I had an unchicken salad sandwich and sparkling pear juice. MMMMmmmmm.

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After lunch, we decided to walk our way across the village, stopping at various record and CD shops along the way. We poked into Subterranean, which seemed to have lots of interesting stuff, but which is one of those places where room to move is sacrificed for piles of records and cds. If we’d had loads of time, and/or maybe if we wanted to befriend the owner or something, we might have been in business, but the urge to do more grabbed us and we moved on. Next stop was Kim’s on St Mark’s. I found a few CDs there. Unfortunately, they had a bunch of records that were interesting, but not what I was looking for. I did grab a sizable handful of promo postcards for the Interpol shows at Radio City, and Ez took a picture of a little flyer posted on the street near there as well. Then we backtracked a little to Other Music. Some of our Boston/Cambridge friends might remember when Other Music had a shop in Harvard Square. The New York shop is very similar. Ez and I both had luck there. Sometimes it’s fun to go there just to see where they’ve filed things!

Our walking on Tuesday took us through the Washington Square Park/NYU area, among others. It was really nice to be there on a regular weekday, with the snow, in a world that didn’t feel too touristed.

interpol, radio city show poster

After our record shopping extravaganza, we headed back to our room to tidy up and deposit our purchases. Then we set off for Radio City. I feel like I read somewhere that the line might move slowly due to security, so I wanted to get there early. Well, there was hardly anybody around when we got there around 6:30. The security guys outside were really nice. They asked us who Interpol and Blonde Redhead were and recommended places for us to get a bite to eat (not in Radio City, they said–too expensive!).

So we walked over to 8th Ave. and found a red-checked tablecloth Italian place, Rino’s Trattoria, which ended up being quite good for our purposes. The food was blissfully hot, the wine was tasty, and the service was prompt. Not too expensive, either.

Back at Radio City, we cruised on in. There was hardly a line at all. I was sort of surprised at how easy it was to get through security and at how late a lot of people showed up. I guess that’s the effect of assigned seating and cold weather. Radio City is a pretty place, though from movies and anecdotes I somehow expected it to be larger than life. It’s not as expansive as I thought it would be. The bathrooms were fantastic! There were 20’s style circular mirrors and old-fashioned air hand dryers that you operate using a foot pedal. We got a drink from the bar and made our way up to our seats. Both of our options for the 1st show (since I wasn’t able to sell my extra pair of tickets after all) were pretty good, but not fantastic. We stuck with the seats in row PP, over to the left on the aisle. It was great to be on the aisle because I had lots of room to dance and no one directly blocking my view.

The crowd on the 1st seemed pretty young. Blonde Redhead came on to very little fanfare and played only four songs. Their mini-set didn’t do much to wake up the crowd. When Interpol took the stage, people actually sat through “Next Exit.” I couldn’t do it, and when they started into “Slow Hands” I stood up. One kid in particular sitting across the aisle from me gets my props for dancing his heart out, despite being on crutches. He was pounding his crutch on the floor to the beat. I don’t know if it was the band or the crowd or what, but it seemed to take four or five songs for the guys to get going. “Slow Hands” seemed pretty blah. “Narc” followed, and that was better, but then they played the most blah version of “Stella” I’ve ever heard. I hate to complain–it ended up being a good show–but I have seen them play much better. I did get to hear several songs live for the first time that night, including “A Time to Be So Small,” “Take You on a Cruise,” and “Specialist.” All sounded quite good, especially “Take You on a Cruise.” Overall, I felt like the setlist didn’t work that well. They didn’t start strong enough. For any major enthusiasts out there… the band did more between-song fiddling around with drums, feedback, etc. than I’ve seen in the past. Paul wore a sweater and no hat, and Carlos was in his black suit. Daniel did a lot of head shaking, and Paul said what an honor it was to play Radio City. Of course, he said that the second night, too.

Afterward, I wanted a coffee, but it was cold and we couldn’t find a place open, so we went to a spot called Artbar near our guest house and ended up having a drink and some late night veg dumplings and curly fries. I was a bit on the plastered side after that and went quickly to bed.

Need to do a little work, so to be continued…

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Rhapsody in Tweed cabled pullover for Ezra! using Tahki Donegal Tweed in Forest, from Fall 2004 Interweave Knits. I've just picked this one up again, so it's moving up in the queue!

Sweater with Cable Patterns pullover using Araucania Nature Wool Chunky in Mauve, from Rebecca Magazine Number 28

Heather Pullover using Classic Elite Wings in Larkspur, from Rowan’s A Season’s Tale... This needs the knit doctor. I'm going to have to frog back a little bit and redo the shoulder area. Long story.

Hush Pullover using Jo Sharp DK wool in Wine, from Rowan’s Calmer Collection

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In the Groove boatneck pullover using Manos del Uruguay in Black and Cheek (pale pink), from Fall 2006 issue of knitscene. SWEATER IS DONE!

Stash Stealer Scarf for me, using delicious yarn that darling Amy let me raid from her stash. I made up the pattern--a couple of wide ribs rimmed in moss stitch. It's soft and fuzzy and DONE!

Moss Stitch Jacket with Collar for Hope using Classic Elite Wool Bam Boo in Ivy, from Quick Baby Knits by Debbie Bliss. JACKET IS DONE!

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Brompton cardigan using Noro Cash Iroha in Jewel Green (my name for shade #100)

Eyelet Yoke Pullover using Debbie Bliss Merino Aran

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