Photos NYC #3

May 30, 2013 at 9:28 pm

From top: Barefoot & Flying, excellent cajun band in subway; great doo wop group outside Metropolitan museum; an ain’t-it-the-truth book title from Chronicle Books, more turn-of-century subway station tile work

Photos NYC #2

May 29, 2013 at 1:50 pm

I’m just going to throw photos out there. Monday was a pleasant 70 degrees. Yesterday it poured rain at times. When rains come, vendors pop up on the corners with $5 folding umbrellas and $5 clear plastic ponchos. At bottom: tile work in subway station, probably from early 1900’s. See here.

Photos NYC #1

May 29, 2013 at 1:34 pm

The city has just enacted a huge bike system. You pay $95 a year (or $25 for a week) and pick up and drop off these bikes all over the city.

“NYC Launches Largest Bike Share Program in the Nation — The privately funded Citi Bike bike-share program is launching with 6,000 bikes at 330 docking stations in Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn” Click here.

Manhattan Monday

May 28, 2013 at 1:27 pm

Got to my hotel around 8AM Sunday, no room available, so I walked over to the Le Pain Quotidien bakery/ cafe (wonderful chain with farm tables, country kitchen ambience), had a Belgian waffle and latte, then took off on foot for the Museum of Natural History.

25 years of trail running has given me certain mobility skills negotiating busy streets and crowded sidewalks. I think of it as ballet. I jaywalk at every opportunity (which most pedestrians do not, surprisingly, do here in Manhattan). If I have to rush to get across an intersection and have my backpack on, I do a sort of shuffling run.

The city is in a good mood. This organism that is Manhattan definitely has its moods, depending on weather, world affairs, planetary influence, and other intangibles. Check out this lovely little park on the Lower East Side; birds were singing loudly in the trees:

Houston Hall, 200 block on West Houston

“Homeless” tiny home city reality:

All his gear in cart at right. The guy was inside the darker blue tarp.

Could hear him talking. Privacy.

What ingenuity!

Laird Hamilton on Huge Teahupoo Wave

May 28, 2013 at 12:30 pm

This video is way old now, but it still takes my breath away. Check out the clip starting at 4 min. 17 sec.

Whale Exhibit at Museum of Natural History

May 27, 2013 at 3:59 pm

I love this museum. I get dizzy after a little while in most museums, but I could spend days here. The whale exhibit had special meaning for me because in the last year I watch the disintegration of a 47′ fin whale on a California beach. The size of the skeletons is stunning. Below is the fin of the larger skeleton on exhibit. Note similarity to human hand.

Longboard Skateboarders in Park

May 27, 2013 at 3:51 pm

Were these guys hot! I thought California boys had the fancy stuff all locked up, but these guys were busting one move after the other. One of them skidded his board into a 360 and kept going. I didn’t know there was a downhill in Manhattan, but this was maybe a 500′ run, in a paved section in the park adjacent to Central Park West between 72nd and 74th. No cars.

They meet up through Meetup.com, Longboarding NYC here.

Central Park is Verdant/John Lennon: Imagine

May 27, 2013 at 3:36 pm

After the dryness of California, the greenness of New York is vivid. Flying in, everything looked so green. Weather perfect here. The park was — voluptuous, if you will. What an incredible park. The bridges, stonework, lakes slabs of granite, green meadows. Half the city must have been there. Here’s the memorial to John.