NYC Then and Now

City Island - David Roth - Sunday April 1, 2012

On Sunday April 1st at 6PM, my favorite 60's folksinger for the 21st Century, David Roth, will be performing at the Uptown Coffee House underneath the Nautical Museum on City Island. I went up to City Island on Super Bowl weekend for a dry run so to speak. The Museum wasn't open on Saturday but there certainly were plenty of restaurants to choose from and the lecture at the Public Library was quite interesting.

If you would like to join me for an afternoon escape from Manhattan, email me. If anyone says yes, I'll come down to Grand Central and meet in front of the Transit Museum at 2 o'clock. If you don't email me by noon, I will leave from 86th Street. Concert tickets are 15 dollars at the door. It is too late to get the pay in advance discount.

I will be returning to Manhattan the same way after the concert so for those of you who attend, we can return as a group.

Bring a MetroCard with at least 2 fares so you can get home on the bus and subway easily. We will wander through town and pay a visit to the Nautical Museum. Bring money to eat or drink or shop wherever you choose.

I still haven't seen the movie City Island but for those of you who would like to see it before you go, you can find a copy here.

NOTE: For those of you who want to go up on your own, you might also look at the BxM8 bus as a source of transportation. For those of you who will not be in NYC for this concert, here is David Roth's performance schedule. 

Harry Belafonte Sing Your Song the Movie

I had the privilege of seeing Sing Your Song at the Brooklyn Library late last month. If you haven't seen it, it might be available on HBO on demand but there are also several independent screenings all over the country in the upcoming months. I am actually going to see it again at the Maysles Cinema in Harlem tomorrow night March 22nd. Albert Maysles and his brother David (now deceased) have been my heros ever since The Gates. At first I couldn't believe what Christo and Jeanne Claude would be doing to Central Park, but after seeing several Maysles brothers documentaries about their prior projects, I knew The Gates would be amazing. For more about Maysles documentaries you can start by looking here.

When I started reading about the Film Institute, I decided to become a member. For those of you who live downtown, the 2 and 3 subway and the M102 stop really near by. The Red Rooster and Sylvia's restaurants are also near by. 

If you are like me and loved Pete Seeger: The Power of Song and Phil Ochs: There But For Fortune, Harry Belafonte: Sing Your Song is even more amazing. And yes, these three men spent lots of time and energy in New York City.

Come on uptown and see this film March 22-25, 2012. I saw the film on March 22nd and was struck by the long list of credits at the end. For more on Harry Belafonte's life and work, click here.

 

Take a look at this interview with Harry Belafonte on Democracy Now which was first broadcast on my 60th birthday before Occupy Wall Street. Watch it to the end.

 

 

 

March (23) 25, 2012 - Triangle Shirtwaist Fire 101 Anniversary

Last year, I wrote quite a bit about the 100th Anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire here and here. This year I am having some difficulty finding information about the commemoration. The ceremonies will be on Friday March 23rd. Chalk, the writing of the names of those who perished outside the places where they lived, seems to be happening on the actual anniversary date, although a friend of mine who is writing 3 of the names is doing hers before the official ceremonies.

I would like to attend the ceremonies on Friday but I might (or might not) be in the cellphone free universe known as Federal Jury Duty. I encourage those of you who want to see another side of NY History to attend with or without me.

If/when I confirm that Chalk is actually happening on Sunday, I will be heading down to the East Village to find more of the names in the morning. If any of you wish to join me, send me an email or write a comment.

2012 - Pale Male updates

Last week, I stopped to chat with the Pale Male watchers while doing a Central Park tour for International Tourist Guide day. Pale Male and his mate Lima were then very busily mating.

Today, my tourguide and photographer friend Hans Von Rittern, alerted me to this alarming news about Lima,  that was reported in the blogs of the New York Times.

You can find more information about Pale Male in this prior post. You can read about a recent documentary called The Legend of Pale Male  here.

ING NYC Marathon - Fred Lebow - Run for Your Life

For Marathoners who want to stay off of their feet for a few hours on Saturday and locals who want to learn more about the history of the New York City Marathon, Run for Your Life, a documentary about Fred Lebow, founder of the Marathon, will be on PBS Channel 13 in NYC on Saturday and Sunday.

I saw this documentary when it premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival a couple of years ago. I have volunteered, run, and/or worked on the Marathon from 1981 until a couple of years ago. It was great to learn more about the early days.

If you miss the PBS broadcasts, you can buy or rent the DVD here.

Have a great Marathon Sunday!

Sept 11 Reading

This is my last Sept 11th post for a really long time, I hope. There are far too many Sept 11 books to mention them all here. My short list includes books I've mentioned in other posts.

For background, start with The Island at the Center of the World by Robert Shorto first mentioned here.

For the 1760s until Sept 12  read Forever (fiction) by Pete Hamill or Downtown a non-fiction much shorter essay. For a sense of the feelings of a diverse group of NYC (non?) fictional characters now during a 24 hour period at the end of a paper Tabloid newspaper, Tabloid City is an interesting read.

While I had verbally heard the story from a guard who was working at the Tweed Court House on Sept 11th when the Museum of the City of New York was having its first board meeting there, you might want to read board member Pete Hamill's account that was published in the Daily News this year.

Mayor Bloomberg recently suggested that we drop the term Ground Zero and look to the future but there are two books that do capture the time when the term had real meaning. I have already mentioned Joel Meyerowitz's Aftermath  for a visual archive. For a literary history, I recommend American Ground the unbuilding of the World Trade Center .

On to wonderful happenings this fall in NYC. 

Sept 11 2011 - (back to Ground Zero)

I worked on Sept 11th for the first time in 10 years. I wasn't home to hear some of the reading of the names. In fact, I went uptown twice. It was a relief not to have passengers who would be disappointed because we did not pass "ground zero". I could point out the cultural institutions that were having special exhibits related to the 10th anniversary and I will list them in a separate post.

I never found the time to organize a Central Park walk but I did find the time to make some charitable donations.

That evening, I broke a rule of mine and paid to hear an author of a book speak at the 92nd Street Y. (Maybe I am finally beginning to get over the fact that the Y dismantled their 30,000 volume library of extraordinarily ordinary books. Many were written by the authors who have spoken at the Y for the last 130 odd years).

The speaker was Joel Meyerowitz and the book was Aftermath:World Trade Center Archive 2011 edition. I had seen many of the large scale photos at an exhibition many years ago and two years ago, large scale prints from the Legacy: The Preservation of Wilderness in New York City Parks project were on display at the Museum of the City of NY. Those prints became my escape from winter. I invited my high school friend to come since she had provided the hospitality 10 years ago.

Joel Meyerowitz is an extraordinary speaker as well as an amazing photographer. I can accept his use of the term Ground Zero. The name was totally appropriate during the entire recovery effort. I have already stated my own feelings about the term here.

I returned home in time to listen to the NY Philharmonic play Mahler's Second Symphony to honor those lost on Sept 11th on PBS. This was not the first time the Philharmonic chose Mahler's Second as an uplifting piece of music in the wake of an international tragedy. Leonard Bernstein made the same choice a few days after President John F Kennedy was assassinated. I posted Leonard Bernstein's justification of his choice on this post last year.

Sept 11, 2009 - North End of Central Park - Storm Damage

President Obama had declared Sept 11th to be a day of service and it seemed like a good idea to me. Friday was a day off.  I always tried not to work on the day. Central Park was an important place for people to reconnect, to mourn, and just be after September 11th. In August 2009, a freak storm caused massive damage in the North End of Central Park. 500 trees were lost. 1000 more had to be pruned. Light Poles were down. This massive storm cleanup was not really in the Park's budget. 

My idea was to raise a lot of awareness and hopefully some money for the cleanup effort by organizing a fundraising walking tour of the North End. (This was before this blog). I wrote up an entry for the Day of Service website. I let the powers that be at Central Park (Doug Blonsky President) know about the plan and asked if someone from the Conservancy who knew the details could meet us. I went to my day job.

The copyright on this Central Park North End postcard is 1905.

A few hours later I received a call from Suzanne Ma at the Associated Press who was doing an article about Day of Service projects and she liked mine. I sent an email to tour guide friend and mentor Justin Ferate who certainly raised awareness by forwarding my information to his mailing list. I know my efforts raised funds. I will never know how much.

Only a handful of us showed up for the walk on that rainy Friday, but Regina Alvarez, the director of Horticulture and Woodland Management, gave us an amazing overview of the damage and plans for the future.

The day after, Suzanne Ma's article appeared in newspapers all over the world. My parents read about me in Tucson before I had a chance to tell them. Here is a link to the article in the Huffington Post. Unfortunately, there was no direct link for donations listed. Fortunately, the money was raised and this is what the area was like before some more storm damage from hurricane Irene.

For those of you who live here and consider Central Park your backyard and for those of you who visit, there are many ways to keep Central Park alive and Central to New York for generations to come.

Learn about donating money or volunteering time here. Support the Conservancy by buying from the Gift Shop!

Here is a great video about one of the Secrets of the North End of Central Park.

 

September 2011 (not 9/11/11)

September will be starting very soon. Events that cross over from August include the US Open and the World Police and Fire Olympics which were mentioned in my August post. 

The start of the Met Opera's FREE HD festival would have been 8/26 but Irene got in the way. Performances start on Monday Aug 29th and continue through Labor Day weekend. Come hang out at Lincoln Center and listen to beautiful music. The Philharmonic will be accompanying a newly restored digitally remastered HD version of West Side Story on Sept 7th and 8th. I mentioned this earlier this summer and the performances are pretty much sold out.

Although the Cooper Hewitt is closed for renovations, the garden and the gift shop will be open through September.

The Cone Sisters Exhibit is a must see at the Jewish Museum through September 25th.

The Lee Ufan and Hans-Peter Feldmann exhibits at the Guggenheim are a great reason to get off of the bus and visit one of my favorite buildings. In the Guggenheim, it is more than the art, it is how the art interacts with the people and the building.

Fashion's Night Out is Sept 8th this year. Lincoln Center, Vanity Fair and the Museum of Art and Design are presenting a Fashion in Film festival from Sept 8th to 11th. The Fashion of Film Noir is on view at the Library of the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center. More fashion at the Museum of FIT.

The Fringe Encores Series begins September 9th. Some of my favorites are on the list.

Sept13-16 brings Barilla and Italian food to Central Park.

The UN General Assembly sessions will create major traffic September 13-22.

A major de Kooning retrospective begins at MOMA on Sept 18th and Talk to Me is still on. A few years ago, the public library did an exhibit on the Internet in the context of the history of communication. Talk to Me is an amazing logical extension to that exhibit.

Doyle's will be auctioning stuff from the estate of Douglas Fairbanks Junior on Sept 13th and the estate of Elaine Kaufman, owner of Elaine's restaurant on Sept 20th.

There will be several new exhibits at the Met including a retrospective in honor of the 100th birthday of Romare Bearden.

The Lower East Side History Project Saturday Mafia tour ends on Sept 24th. Eric Ferrara, the tour guide and historian, recently published the Manhattan Mafia Guide.

The National Academy Museum will re open on Sept 16th with an exhibit about Will Barnet. Admission will be Free All weekend.

The fall exhibit of the Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition in Red Hook opens Sept 17th. This is also a great excuse to take the Ferry to IKEA and have lunch at Fairway or visit some of the fun bars and restaurants in Red Hook.

September starts tomorrow. Feel free to add to this list in the comments section. Will cover Sept 11th related events in a separate post.

 

Final NYC Fringe Festival Reviews - Looking forward to Encores

Was a little too focused on Irene to write until now.

Leonard Cohen...This musical group is carrying the torch for Leonard Cohen's songs and poetry. The lead singer certainly has a better voice than Cohen and the backup group is talented. I love the Poisson Rouge space and hope to get back there soon. Low points - making the last 30 seconds of Suzanne last for what seemed like 15 minutes. When the backup is let loose, the words disappear.

The Bardy Bunch...FUN even though I never watched the Brady Bunch or the Partridge Family. Great use of the Bard's words! Shakespeare is still meaningful after all these years. Hope this one gets a life off-Broadway.

Calling Mr Robeson..When I was a kid, we played Paul Robeson's Ballad for Americans on my grandfather's wind up 78 record player. Back in those days, side 2 was on the same record as side 1 and each side would end with "Do you know who I am...NO who are you?" and then we turned the record over. I expected a lot and Mr Aluko's words and performance did not disappoint. He will repeat his performance at Zankel Hall in Carnegie Hall February 12, 2012.

Hard Travelin...sadly, I missed this performance about the life and music of Woody Guthrie for a variety of reasons. I hope it gets a future life so I can see it. If you wander around my blog you will see posts about Pete Seeger, Phil Ochs and David Roth so I was really looking forward to this one.

Cucina di Pesca...Managed an early bird special meal at a restaurant I used to go to with my parents when we were seeing Off Broadway shows on East 4th Street. Still here, reliably good and inexpensive.

I saw friends and met many new people while standing in the lines prior to performances. The Reidenbergs later sent me links to their websites. Marcus's website has some great photos of New York City.  June's painting website is here.

The Encores Schedule for September has just been announced.

I'm looking forward to next year. Just a reminder Theatre Development Fund's Off Off Broadway vouchers can be used for cutting edge theatre in New York City all year round!