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A Saturday in NYC

September 12, 2009

It’s been a while since I’ve done a post. Actually, it’s been a while since I’ve done any significant new wandering around NYC; but today I did.

It’s cool, dreary, and overcast with occasional rainshowers. My kind of day. I got up and couldn’t figure out what I felt like doing and realized it’s been forever since I’ve wandered through Central Park. So, off I went. Without my camera (so no new pictures).

I took the bus up to East 72nd Street and started to wander over to the Park. I immediately spotted something interesting: people walking around with runner numbers over their shirts. It turned out that there had been a big fitness run in Central Park and I was getting there too late to see anything of it. Well, except for one or two hundred ex-runners wandering the streets of Manhattan. No big issue, but mixed amongst them were men in kilts! Not with runner numbers…but with musical instruments. Mostly drums. (I would have loved to see bagpipes, but didn’t notice any.) I’ve never heard of bands going along with a fitness run. I realized something else must be going on. Then I started noticing people in identical shirts. Lots of them. Lots and lots of them.

I had accidentally run into the terminus of the annual labor union parade. I don’t know when and where it started, but it was being terminated at 5th Avenue and E. 72nd Street around 11am. The cops were sending the floats in one direction and the marchers in another. The marchers were wandering off toward home (I presume). I started noticing a lot of signs promoting their unions and Democratic Party politicians. No Republicans need apply around that group. I did notice one of the politicians (I recognized him from one of the posters) hugging various marchers. I think I remember his name, but I won’t guess it here.

So I stopped to watch for a little while. There was one good band with cheerleaders, but the rest was pretty boring. No, it was actually very, very, very boring. This and the St. Patricks Day Parade have to be some of my least favorite parades. Just too “municipal government-oriented” for my taste; although I have to point out that a number of the paraders were not associated with the City government. But a whole lot were. I think that if I had stuck around, I’d have seen a very similar contingent to the St. Pat’s grouping.

I did stick around for about 45 minutes. I don’t know why.

Then I entered the Park. Ahhhh! Very pleasant. I didn’t stray too far from a beeline across, but I did get to the sailboat pond where people rent remote control sailboats. There was some sort of birthday party or story-telling going on near the Lewis Carroll statues. Only two sailboats being operated, but both were being controlled pretty well. At least up until the users started using the little engines on them and they started going very quickly and ruined the casual ambiance I was feeling.

I left there and went by the boathouse where you can rent real rowboats. I didn’t see anybody out on the lake, though. The most fun thing I’ve always noticed about that place is that when a man and woman rent the boat, the woman almost always does the rowing. I don’t know why, but that seems to be the standard.

From there I went to Bethesda Fountain and saw a wedding that was just finishing. I always see brides and grooms around there on a weekend.

I did a little more wandering and decided to head out to my favorite Manhattan Street: West 72nd. It hasn’t changed over the past year or so. At least to my eye. I found a little aquarium/tropical fish store and spent a while going through there. I was actually slightly tempted. But my place is way too small for a decent aquarium. And the dead fish smell (probably starting within days of my purchase) would be too pervasive.

I went to Broadway and saw that my old favorite open-air bookselling place is still going strong. Street vendors with used books are always there. I went up Broadway to 51st Street or so and had a hamburger at Nick’s. It wasn’t as good as I remember, but the ambiance is absolutely unchanged. It is the quintessential greasy spoon and is always jammed with stoves, tables, and people.

Afterward, I went home. It was just about a 2 hour jaunt, but very pleasant.

-H

Categories: Broadway, Central Park, Events, Manhattan, Parades

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Mary Poppins at the New Amsterdam Theatre

May 11, 2008

I don’t like the title. I think we ought to use “theater” and not “theatre”.

I recently managed to get a super-cheap ticket to see Mary Poppins at the New Amsterdam Theatre and went. (The picture above is during the day, but I did see the play at night.)

The play was fine and nicely done. It was definitely a big-bucks production with the stage set carrying a lot of the burden of the storyline. Well, there’s really no storyline at all. Just an excuse for a great stageset and lots and lots of singing.

But, I also liked the theater itself. It’s located on 42nd Street, just off Broadway.

The plaque reads “New Amsterdam Theatre. Designed by the noted theater architects, Herts & Tallant, for producers Klaw & Erlanger, the New Amersterdam opened on October 26, 1903, with a production of Shakespears “A Midsummer’s Night Dream”. The theater has one of the fiest art noveau interiors in the United States. As one of New York City’s best musical comedy houses, the New Amersterdam showcased many talented stars and was home to the Ziegfield Follies from 1913 through 1927. The theater, converted to a movie house in 1937, closed in 1985. The New Amsterdam was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. Following acquisition by the 42nd St. Devlopment Project, Inc. and the New York City Economic Development Corporation, the New Amsterdam was restored to its original splendor by the Walt Disney Company, who jointly funded the project with the Empire State Development Corporation, the New York City Economic Development Corporation, and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. The theater reopened in 1997.”

I did manage to get an inside shot of the theater.

-H

Categories: Broadway, Wanderings

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Canyon of Heroes

May 9, 2008

The start of Broadway is downtown in the Financial District. And just after Broadway starts, you run into the fabled Canyon of Heroes. This is where the ticker tape parades are held. Well, there’s no more ticker tape but I think they do a simulated version of it when they have those rare parades.

The picture above is from the north looking southward.

All along the sidewalk are these inserts. They hold a date, a name, and a description. First, November 2, 1960 when President Eisenhower and Vice President Nixon were apparently featured in such a ticker tape parade.

But, you object, 1960 was a presidential election year! Was there some sort of Republican lock on such parades. Nope, just past it is the October 19, 1960 marker for the Democratic presidential nominee, John F. Kennedy. (I guess V.P. Nixon had to share his parade with the sitting president while JFK got his own. But then, Nixon’s was closer to election day.)

Well, those are pretty prestigious individuals. It takes a lot to get a ticker tape. Well, maybe nowadays. Back on November 4, 1959, they held a ticker tape parade for Sekou Toure, the brand new president of Guinea. He was about 37 at the time and had set up a one-party system to lead Guinea after freeing it from French colonial rule. Nowadays, NYC gets a passle of presidents from other countries and I don’t see any parades for them.

Heck, you didn’t even have to be a president. Willy Brandt was the mayor of West Berlin when he got his parade on February 10, 1959. Of course, he later went on to lead West Germany so maybe it was just in anticipation…

-H

Categories: Broadway, Celebrity Points, Events, Parades, Wanderings

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Theater Row in Hell’s Kitchen…and a bit ‘o the Bard

March 17, 2008

A co-worker alerted me to a new production of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.

So, I thought I ought to go. And when I heard who was doing it, I really knew I must, absolutely must, go.

It was TBTB, the acronym for Theater Breaking Through Barriers. It used to be called the Theater for the Blind. I’ve never seen any of their productions, but I figured it would be an interesting interpretation.

And it was. It was more than that. It was terrific. I’m not that fond of the play itself (I just don’t enjoy the storyline that much), but their production was nicely done. You see, they didn’t really play off the idea of the disabilities, but their real gimmick is that they were only going to have four actors playing all of the parts. That meant that each actor would handle eight or more rolls. And, on occasion, both rolls are on stage at the same time. Talking with each other.

And you ain’t seen nothing til you’ve seen a blind actor doing quick costume changes to talk with himself…and one of “himselves” is a woman. Kudos.

The show is at Theater Row in Hell’s Kitchen, 42nd Street between 9th and 10th Avenues. It is my favorite off-off-Broadway venue. It holds a number of separate smaller theaters (kind of a live theater multiplex) and this play was in The Kirk. It holds about 100 seats.

I could only tell disabilities in two of the actors, there was only one blind guy and one who has cerebal palsy. Another great part is that there was no quarter given to them on account of the disability. The actor with CP (Gregg Mozgala) had to jump about the stage in his role as Romeo. The blind actor had to wander the stage and pick up stuff at one point and sword fight at other points.

The Kirk’s inside before the beginning.

If you look carefully, you may see the wires across the stage floor. They were used as marks for the blind actor (George Ashiotis). When he did his switching of roles, it was great. He did conversations with his off-stage self and would go back and change during it.

But the best switching was done by the lone female (Emily Young). For a long conversation between Juliet and Paris (she playing both parts), she kept walking back and forth behind a barrier (just behind the small box at the center in the picture above) and putting up her hood to show that she was Paris, or down to show that she was Juliet. And she kept them straight. I think we were all at the edge of our seats waiting for a slip, but there was none.

And I say all of this and Nicholas Viselli and Emily Young are probably amazed/amused that I didn’t spot their disabilities (if they have any). But disabilities weren’t part of the play (although I kept hearing lines about blindness and light that I hadn’t noticed before). And that was the great thing. I went to the play expecting to have them put out the lights for a large portion of it to force the audience to “see” the play the way a blind person would, but got a straight-out production of Shakespeare that ignored any limitations.

Oh, and another gimmick that I liked was the idea that they kept putting up Southern and Western accents (and occasional other ones that didn’t work quite as well) into the play. No British accents, but American ones. (Viselli’s Texan Mr. Capulet was the best accent.)

Well done.

-H

Categories: Broadway, Celebrity Points, Events

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Ankling West 72nd Street

October 26, 2007

For me, West 72nd Street is Manhattan. It’s absurd, but whenever I try to picture Manhattan into a single sort of place, this is the street for me.

I used to live in the area, and I would walk down parts of 72nd Street twice a day (to/from the subway).

And, although it’s only been 2 years since I’ve moved, it’s changing. Mostly subtle, but it’s emblematic of Manhattan that there’s a continuous creative destruction in process.

At the far east part of W. 72nd is the Dakota. One of my favorite buildings just because of its architecture. I’ve posted about it before. I’ve never been in it and never expect to be.

As I’ve commented before, I find the window air conditioners on such a hyper-expensive building to be amusing more than anything else.

Further down the street is one of those views that are so typical of the Upper West Side.

As you get to Broadway, you run into Verdi Square where the subway station is. The square is created when Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue intersect.

And once you get to West End Avenue you’re nearly at the Hudson River. Looking back toward Broadway is a view I’ve seen hundreds of times and that I really like. (Sorry that the shade is so intense on the sunny day that I took the picture.)

If you look closely, you’ll see the water tanks on some of the older buildings. The newer ones have them, too. They’re just better hidden.

-H

Categories: Broadway, Manhattan, Wanderings

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