The weather was fine and I decided to take a little trip through Central Park and perhaps run an errand or two. I wanted to see if any more of the “Frozen Zone” was freeing up, but was disappointed to find it unchanged from yesterday. Well….actually the news isn’t even that good. I was walking on 3rd Avenue and found construction crews setting up concrete barriers on both sides of the street. They’re the standard 3 or 3.5 foot high barriers you see on major construction areas and it seems to portend poorly for the future. I have no proof they’ve anything to do with the steampipe explosion, but I imagine they do. They look like they’re going to be around for a while.
I took the subway up to East 77th Street and wandered over to the Park (the picture above is a view southward from Park Avenue). I had no real destination in mind, but today I really just didn’t want to go into “The Ramble”. I guess I was just a little more lethargic than I expected at the beginning. This time, though, it seemed that the paths kept trying to get me up into it; an offer I refused at least three times. I just kept pushing westward.
The only really memorable event while I was in the Park was during one of those “avoidance” manuevers. I was walking and heard a saxaphone player playing “Take Five”, which has to be one of my favorite jazz standards. He was playing under a stone bridge and I made a quick turn to go and listen to him. The acoustics were amazing, of course. Actually, I’ve heard the guy playing a number of times but his stuff usually is a lot more pedestrian and of no particular interest to me. But this was very nice. He didn’t play it well, and it really suffered for not having an accompaniment (it really needs some drums playing softly in the background); but he gets kudos for giving it his all. I listened for a couple of minutes and when he finished I told him that I had enjoyed it and gave him a buck. He then started playing something not to my taste and I moved on.
I continued and knew I was getting into an area I have some fondness for. Below’s a picture of the Museum of Natural History on the West Side of Central Park.
It’s in this general area that “That Guitar Man” (http://www.thatguitarman.com/) plays every Saturday. I just sort of listened and started following the sound of his music. I once took my cousin Cathy to hear him and I have fond memories of that afternoon’s concert.
I listened for a while. He’s really good and I always enjoy it, but I tend to prefer his covers more than his original stuff. They aren’t bad, but I guess I’m just showing my pedestrian taste for the music of my youth.
I listened for a while and then moved on.
A picture of the area he plays:
When I exited the Park, I did so at 72nd Street and saw one of my favorite buildings: The Dakota. I always am amazed at the window air conditioners. They are prevalent even in the most august buildings.
As I left the Park, I did my big “errand” for the day. I needed to get some money from the bank. I normally use a branch right next to my office; but it is in the Frozen Zone so “no go” for using it for a while. I know there are lots of branches, but since I was in the area I thought I’d go to one I used to occasionally use near my old stomping grounds. While there, I ended up going to “Nick’s” which is a famous greasy spoon sort of place with wonderful hamburgers. Actually, their menu is about 20 pages long and they have only about 15 tables for eating. It was very, very good.
I wandered around a bit more. That part of town always has a lot of book vendors on the sidewalks. They seem to buy books at estate sales and the like and then sell them on the sidewalks on the weekends.
-H
(from DrudgeReport) 
