There are streets in the Village that are quiet, with little traffic noise. I know it’s expensive, world famous, not a cutting edge neighborhood, like say, Red Hook in Brooklyn. It’s hard to find your way around with the eccentric streets but it is — a village, and there are streets like this that are cool and quiet.
Wrapping it up this morning, am at Grounded Coffee in West Village with latte/double shot and bowl of oatmeal. Getting picked up by Supershuttle around noon, thence to Newark and flying the friendly skies, albeit in the cattle car section this flight. The business class via frequent flier miles getting here was a dream, but not enough miles for the return…I’ve got to say, I really like United — service, airplanes, it’s an intelligent giant. Plus the United terminal at SFO is as good as it gets. Fast wi-fi, recharging stations, great art exhibit.
New camera I bought a Panasonic Lumix DSC-ZS100 at BH Photo Wednesday,. It’s small (carrying it in my fanny pack). It has a 1″ sensor and a 25-250 mm zoom, an extraordinary range for such a small camera (about the same size as the Sony Cybershot RX-100). Kevin Kelly has been using Lumix’s for years, and I’ve long been attracted to the zoom features. So I’m trying it out. Here are a few pics shot at maximum zoom.
Farm fresh food Last night I had dinner at Rosemary’s in the West Village, (after watching the Warriors at The Blind Tiger pub). “Farm fresh,” they don’t take reservations, super popular, usually long lines, but last night, Sunday, rainy, a bit cold (temp drop of 30 degrees from previous day, lots of tables, I sat at the bar. Good food, not as expensive as you’d think, They have a garden on the roof.
Getting around in the city:
(1) Uber works well, although the pool rides are sketchy. The drivers all seem personable compared to today’s cabbies, who seem a sour lot. Almost all Uber drivers use the app Waze to navigate; I downloaded it (free) and it’s really good for city navigation (for cars, not pedestrians).
(2) The blue CitiBikes are a huge success for going from point to point. No need to lock up at yr. destination, you use your phone to find drop-off point.
(3) Subways are in one sense a miracle, that you travel so fast under the city, but many of NYC’s lines are in dire shape.
(4) On foot: I probably walked 3-4 miles a day, using the app Citymapper, which is brilliant.
Friendliness of natives: I can’t get over it. I got into conversations with a ton of people in bars, restaurants, park benches. I invariably give people one of our mini books — a great conversation starter.
Venues: The Village Voice is gone, and Time Out magazine has morphed into a free and lame advertising mag, so it’s really hard to find music, among other arts. My friend Kim turned me on to Pollstar online, and it seems to be the best thing, but nothing like the The Village Voice was (or SFWeekly still is in SFO).
Photos: NYC is a photo wonderland for me. I’ll post some in the following days.
Yesterday had an early dinner at EAK Ramen (thanks, Mark), 469 6th Ave., rich ramen along with Kawaba Sunrise Ale. This morning I took the subway to the East Village and went to Abraco, thanks to tip from my friend Doug. Unique coffee shop, great coffee and pastries, long lines that never abated, no stinkin laptops allowed, wonderful place, good vibes, latte as good as it gets. When I left, I gave the manager, a cool guy who was moving around with alacrity and humor, a mini-copy of Tiny Homes. When I was out in the street, he ran out and said: “Lloyd, this is brilliant.” So good when people get it.
I walked around the corner, and there was Do Kham, a Tibetan shop with elegant things in the window. Serendipity at work. I went in, and everything was just right. The owner, Phelgye Kelden, is a former Tibetan monk, who has assembled a shop of totally wonderful things. His specialty is Tibetan hats, which he designs, and which have been featured in Vanity Fair, Elle, and other major fashion magazines:
I had vowed not to buy anything on this trip, but, ahem…a beautiful wool scarf, a necklace of prayer beads, a rock carved with Om Mani Padme Hum: “Tibetan Buddhists believe that saying the mantra (prayer), Om Mani Padme Hum, out loud or silently to oneself, invokes the powerful benevolent attention and blessings of Chenrezig, the embodiment of compassion.” So as I walk around today, I’m chanting it to myself.
It’s been hot and muggy this week here, like it usually is in August. (Global warming is a hoax, right? )Walking along St. Mark’s place, I spied St. Dymphna’s Pub, and it looked authentic, cool (in both senses), and I went in and had a pint of Guiness and talked to the bartender and the guy next to me, a director of plays, and a native of Philly about a variety of subjects as we watched Serena Williams in the French Open. A good restaurant? They recommended Cafe Mogador, across the street, Moroccan, and crowded, and good.
I’ve finally learned to overcome shyness when traveling and ask-ask-ask. I think 90% of the places I’ve eaten, visited, or had coffee at on this trip were by following recommendations of friends and strangers.
There is a lot of skateboarding on city streets, a lot more than last year. Both motorized and foot-pumped, very few guys wearing safety equipment. They all look so graceful — and fearless. Weaving in and out of traffic. Spectacular. Also a bunch of those one-wheel handle-less motorized Segways and Segway knock-offs, requiring, according to a reviewer, a “fearless mind-set.”…The Jane Hotel, where I’m staying is in the West Village, was built as a hotel for sailors in 1906 and—factoid: was used to house the survivors of the sinking of The Titanic in 1912. It’s a great place…If you’re willing to put up with a small room, with bathroom down the hall, rates are like $115 per night, and this is NYC!… On Wednesday I borrowed one of the hotel’s free bikes (Schwinn one-speeds, took a while to get used to using foot brakes again)—and pedaled along the river down to the Javits Center, where I’m attending Book Expo America, in about 5 minutes…Went to see the play “Travesties” last night, got ticket for $39; it was brilliant, hard to describe…NYTimes reviewer Ben Brantley wrote: “Senility is a joy ride in the exultant, London-born revival of Tom Stoppard’s ‘Travesties’…This account of a clash of three cultural titans — James Joyce, Vladimir Lenin and the Dadaist poet Tristan Tzara — in Zurich during World War I is related decades later by an ancient witness (one Henry Carr, of the British Consulate). His recollection is, to put it kindly, capricious.…”…Watched the Warriors pull it out of their hats last night on the screen at the Blind Tiger Ale House in the village with a pint of Greenpoint Harbor Other Side and a decidedly pro-Cavs, but friendly young crowd…
Then the best sushi I’ve ever had at Blue Ribbon Sushi on Sullivan Street in Soho…I’m now at Stumptown Coffee Roasters, 30 West 8th Street, it’s 10AM and I’m heading over to the book convention, which has already been incredibly productive for me, hanging out with brother and sister book lovers…
I took the R train on the subway to Brooklyn and it was a horror show. Creaking, dirty, stopping mid-tunnel continually, it’s on its last legs. In contrast to the 1, 2, and 3 lines. It took an hour to get remotely near Bay Ridge, where the parade was. I had to get some air, so got out and Uber’d it the rest of the way.
I got there at the end of the parade, and ran about a mile to catch up. As it was, the only good thing was a high school marching band, some 100-strong. I’ll never forget in the 90s, I was in NYC (returning from the Frankfurt Book fair) and by chance hit the Columbus day parade. Boy! A dozen high school marching bands, and they had it together. We don’t have anything like that in the San Francisco area. And the police drum corps — wow! Maybe I have some martial memories in my genes, but I love the rat-a-tat-tat of the drums and the brass: trumpets, trombones and especially the tubas.
That night I went to Whiskey Blue and had a couple of shots of 16 year old Lagavullin, quesadillas, and watched the Warriors get their mojo back in the 3rd quarter.
Got in to Newark about 6AM yesterday, there was almost no traffic coming into the city. Manhattan likewise was deserted, like a science fiction movie after the apocalypse. Quiet. I guess everyone is out on Memorial Day.
The Jane Hotel is quirky, funky, old, good-feeling. Kind of like I imagine The Chelsea Hotel used to be. I’ve got a room on the 5th floor looking out at the Hudson river (and the West Side Highway — I pretend the traffic noise is the ocean) and this was the view last night.
Walked over to Cafe Reggio, it’s like a time capsule. I was first there 60 — yes, 60 — years ago when I lived in a rented room in the village for a month during a hot summer and worked on the night shift at a shredded coconut factory in Queens while waiting to take a boat to Europe. Still good vibes, Vivaldi violin concerto, latte and breakfast, then took off for Brooklyn on the R train — ugh — it’s falling apart, numerous stops, creaks groans, took an hour to get to farther reaches of Brooklyn. What a contrast to the Paris Metro or the spiffy Hong Kong subway system.
Got to the parade area late (with Uber help the last few miles) after coming up for air from the creepy underground.
Gotta run, will finish this later…
Just landed in Newark. I got a business class ticket with United frequent flier miles. So this is how the rich and mighty travel. Boy! Priority check in, Boeing 757, seat that reclines to flat position. So comfortable.
I watched “The Post,” about the Pentagon Papers, the stories in the New York Times and Washington Post in 1971 that revealed the lies of the Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon/Kissinger administrations about the Vietnam war.
The press prevailed when the Supreme Court voted 6-3 in favor of freedom of the press. I felt great sadness thinking that the good guys prevailed back then, and that we are in the midst of this horrible nightmare right now with just about every decent thing bering unravelled by this corrupt, bigoted administration. I try to stay away from politics in this blog, but every once in a while, it comes bubbling up. Believe me, I refrain a lot; I bite my tongue. I dread reading the paper each morning.
Onward: Then I watched “Bending it for Beckham,” a happy, feel-good film, which ended just as we touched down (and just after this sunrise).
I come to NYC once a year, partially for Book Expo America and maybe largely because I love the city. This was the red-eye flight, landing at 5:30 AM. I can never sleep on airplanes, and my M.O. is to not nap, stay up until nighttime east coast time. That plus some vigorous walking (or running) eliminates jet lag. Today being Memorial Day, I’ll drop off my luggage (Super Shuttle $25) get some coffee in the Village, and head out to Brooklyn for the King’s County Memorial day Parade in Bay Ridge (in its i51st year). I do love parades.
Stay tuned for the adventures of the west coast boy in the east coast metropolis. I am excited!
This home is in Pacific Heights in San Francisco.