Egg Rolls and Egg Creams Block Party

This section of the Lower East Side, Eldridge Street between Canal and Division, was once the home of a thriving community of Eastern European Jews. In 1887, they constructed the jewel of their block – the Eldridge Street Synagogue, an imposing Moorish-style building with a vaulted ceiling, stained glass windows, ornate brass fixtures, hand-painted murals and a velvet-lined ark.

Over time, the center of New York Jewish life moved elsewhere and the area began to fill with immigrants from other areas, primarily China. The Synagogue’s congregation dwindled, the operating budget became smaller and the building fell into disrepair. As a tiny group of worshippers hung on, the roof caved in, the walls crumbled and the entire structure neared collapse. Then, in the late 1980s, historians and community activitists “discovered” the building and formed the Eldridge Street Project, Inc., determined to restore and preserve this landmark.

Today, with the restoration project well underway, the Eldridge Street Project is sponsoring the 4th Annual Egg Rolls and Egg Creams Block Party. This unique event celebrates the evolving culture and traditions of this densely-packed community with nods to both its Jewish heritage and its Chinese present.

The block party features the language, arts, music, dance and foods of both cultures, including mah jong lessons, a Chinese calligrapher and a Jewish scribe, arts and crafts, performances in Yiddish and Chinese, and, of course, delicious home made kosher egg rolls (a fried variation of the classic Chinese spring roll which contains no egg) and egg creams (a traditional New York soda fountain drink which contains no egg).

How to Make an Egg Cream according to Fox’s U-Bet Chocolate Syrup

1. Take a tall, chilled, straight-sided, 8 oz. glass.
2. Spoon 1 inch of U-Bet Chocolate Syrup into glass.
3. Add 1 inch whole milk.
4. Tilt the glass and spray seltzer (from a pressurized cylinder only) off a spoon to make a big chocolate head.
5. Stir, drink, enjoy.

Making egg creams for an eager crowd

Master egg cream maker

Mah jong on the sidewalk

Calligrapher, scribe and the tools of their trades

Restoration in progress

Selling kosher eggrolls

The yarmulke is a present for Daddy

Her first yarmulke; she made it herself

Eldridge Street Project

Eldridge Street synagogue Tour

New York Architecture: Eldridge Street Synagogue

Fox’s U-Bet Chocolate Syrup

Mysteries of Manhattan: Romance and Anti-romance

Two mysterious, brief encounters near the main branch of the New York Public Library today left me wondering about romance in this city.

First, on the 42nd Street side of the library was a scene that should have been in a movie – an old Checker cab was parked in the right lane, blocking traffic, while a photographer hurriedly shot images of a gloriously gorgeous newlywed couple. At first glance they appeared to be models posing for (perhaps) a bridal magazine, but the scene lacked all the accoutrements of a professional photo shoot; there were no stylists, no makeup artists, no assistants – just a perfectly beautiful pair in a perfectly dramatic setting on a perfectly beautiful day.

Secondly, a sign pasted inside a phone booth on the 5th Avenue side of the library. As I passed the booth, I caught a glimpse, took a few more steps and stopped. Had I really seen that? I went back for a photo of what is possibly the most anti-romantic image ever.

So … is New York one of the most romantic cities in the world or the one of the least? How do this sign and this couple exist on the same block? In the same city? In the same universe?

Stopping traffic on 42nd Street

A big clinch

Sign pasted inside phone booth (WARNING: not for the queasy).

New York Public Library

Checker Taxi Stand

A Trip to Lake Woebegone

For years, friends earnestly urged me to listen to public radio and for years, I ignored their suggestions. I suspected that the programs on something called “public radio” would be either educational (translation: dull and dry) or political (translation: dull and irritating).

Then, one night, someone turned the radio dial and I heard a deep voice intone, “Welcome to Lake Woebegone, where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average.” I was enthralled by the quirky variety show that followed and the exotic Midwestern culture it portrayed. Fascinated by the program, A Prairie Home Companion, and its tales of Norwegian bachelors, lutefisk suppers, deer hunting and ice-fishing, I’ve kept the radio tuned to that station ever since.

Tonight, the man behind that voice and show, Garrison Keillor, appeared at the Barnes and Noble bookstore in Union Square. He described his experiences making the new feature film based on his radio broadcasts, fielded questions, offered advice and autographed books and CDs for the wistful New Yorkers who hope to spend their summer vacations on the shores of beautiful Lake Woebegone.

Garrison Keillor speaking

Signing a book for a fan

Barnes & Noble

A Prairie Home Companion: radio program

A Prairie Home Companion: 25th Anniversary Collection

A Prairie Home Companion Movie

Minnesota Public Radio: ‘Prairie Home’ Movie

The Writer’s Almanac

Erev Shabbos in Borough Park

This is a sunny day in one of the world’s largest cities. It isn’t a legal holiday; there isn’t an emergency; the authorities haven’t evacuated the neighborhood. Yet the shops are shuttered, the businesses are closed and the streets are empty of traffic.

Question: What is going on and where is everybody?

Answer: It’s just another Friday afternoon in Borough Park.

Borough Park (also spelled Boro Park), a somewhat run-down, working-class area of Brooklyn, is home to one of the largest Orthodox Jewish communities in the world. Many of the residents here follow the teachings of Yisrael Ben Eliezer, known as The Baal Shem Tov (The Master of the Good Name).

The Baal Shem Tov, who died in the Ukraine in 1760, was the founder of the Hassidic Jewish movement. He taught that God is best served and worshipped through singing and dancing, and instructed his followers to meditate, so they could connect with the “holy sparks of the Glory of God” that dwell in “all that is in the world.”

The male followers of The Baal Shem Tov are easily recognized by their distinctive appearance. Bearded, they wear garments modeled after those of their spiritual leader, including a beskeshe (a suit with long tailored jacket), a fringed prayer shawl called a tallit or talles, a skullcap known as a kippah or yarmulke and, on Shabbos and other holidays, a circular fur hat called a shtreimel. Hasidic women can dress in mainstream styles but are limited to suitably modest items. They are free to wear makeup, jewelry and other fashionable adornments, but once married, the women cover their hair with wigs, scarves or hats.

While they have always considered children a blessing, many modern Hasidim are committed to having as many children as possible, believing that they must replace the 6 million Jews murdered in the Holocaust. Consequently, the neighborhood has the highest birth rate in the city.

On Friday afternoon, around 2:00 p.m., the entire neighborhood shuts down, allowing the Hasidim to go home and prepare for Shabbos, the Jewish Sabbath. It is Erev Shabbos (the evening the Sabbath begins), when, dressed in their finest garb, large families hurry through the streets to the services where they welcome their day of rest. Come Sunday morning, the normal workweek will resume; the restaurants and stores will open again, the sidewalks will overflow with bustling shoppers and the streets will be filled with roaring, honking traffic.

Posters on a lamppost

Sign on a construction site.

Holding his shtreimel and tallit (talles)

Retrieving a curious (and fast-moving) toddler

A chubby little scholar

Taking a break

Mazel Tov Bubbies & Mommies – ad on a 13th Avenue bus shelter

Kosher Submarine, locked until Sunday

A yeshiva school bus stands empty

A family of seven (one inside Mom)

No place to spend a dime

A row of shuttered stores

Sisters in matching dresses

The main street of Borough Park, 13th Avenue, at 2:30 p.m.

Not a soul in sight on New Utrecht Avenue

Nothing in this direction, either

Wikipedia: Borough Park

Village Voice: Close-Up on Borough Park

Boychiks in the Hood: Travels in the Hasidic Underground

Etude: At Work in the Fields of the Lord

Baal Shem Tov Foundation

A Trip on the Staten Island Ferry

Let The River Run
We’re coming to the edge
Running on the water
Coming through the fog
Your sons and daughtersLet the river run
Let all the dreamers
Wake the nation
Come, the New Jerusalem

Silver cities rise
The morning lights
The streets that lead them
And sirens call them on with a song

It’s asking for the taking
Trembling, shaking
Oh, my heart is aching

— Carly Simon, 1989

Staten Island is one of the five boroughs of the city of New York (the others are Brooklyn, The Bronx, Manhattan and Queens). It is located southwest of Manhattan Island, cut off from the rest of the city by a 5.2 mile stretch of New York Bay (also known as New York Harbor).

Every day, 65,000 people travel between the Northernmost point of Staten Island and the Southern tip of Manhattan via the free-of-charge Staten Island Ferry. On a steamy hot day, the temptation of a free boat ride was irresistible.

If you begin the trip in Manhattan, as I did, you’ll board at the Whitehall Ferry Terminal. Completed in 2004, it replaced a structure identical to the century-old Battery Martime Terminal that still stands next door.

Approximately 25 minutes later you’ll arrive at the St. George Ferry Terminal on Staten Island, where the tourists and residents immediately part ways; the natives rush off to work, play and home, while the visitors simply turn around and catch the next ferry back to Manhattan.

Foreground, Battery Maritime Terminal (c. 1904), background, Whitehall Ferry Terminal (c. 2004)

Waiting for the ferry

Passing another ferry; background: Governor’s Island

Catching a breeze near the statue

Approaching Staten Island

Pulling into the terminal

Staten Island: hazy, hot & humid

Outside the terminal

Exterior of Terminal

Running to the Manhattan-bound boat

The Statue of Liberty

Sailing on

Manhattan coming into view

Carly Simon called it “the New Jerusalem”

Terminal on the left, Brooklyn Bridge on the right

Pulling in to the terminal

The view from inside

Inside Whitehall Terminal

Staten Island Ferry

NYC Department of Transportation

Carly Simon: The New Jerusalem

Seeing “Together” Together

Tonight, in the offices of a small, local non-profit group, I attended the special invitation-only screening of a new film. In middle of a large, loft-like room, screens were erected, folding chairs arranged, a projector set up, and long tables covered with movie-fan-appropriate food (popcorn, soda, candy bars).

Friends, fans and family of the cast and crew filled the seats and watched the sort of, kind of, semi-official premiere of “Together,” a quirky romantic comedy set among geeks and artists in New York.

From the film’s Web site: Together was written in the summer of 2005 by Jason Hammonds and Mike Murphy. Murphy is a law student and writer at the University of Michigan and he and Hammonds have collaborated solely via the internet and phone on this project. Much credit to Emmanuel Ording, Nick McIntyre and Chad Jenkins for helpful edits and insites [sic] along the way.

The film was shot in October/November of 2005. Together takes a look inside of [the] reality and fidelity of a single man, living in NYC [and] running a business from his cramped apartment. It is a comedy with a darker side that speaks to the slightly tempestuous situations that most of us face in the course of our lives.

Smattered with characters that are just pure funny, this tragic comedy is something that everyone can relate to. The story unravels around decisions about getting married wrapped with reflections on what brought the two main characters to where they currently sit (literally at a dinner table).

This little film is low budget, but definitely not low talent.

Together: On the lake

Together: Central Park

Together: Friends talking

Together

Together credits

Open Door Productions

Zoe Hunter

Alex Emanuel

Emily Fletcher

Blue Angels over Brooklyn

Yesterday marked the beginning of Fleet Week, when thousands of Sailors, Marines and Coast Guardsmen from around the world descend on New York City in a celebration of all things nautical. This morning, the Blue Angels, the U.S. Navy’s aerobatic flight squadron, flew over and around the city as part of the Fleet Week festivities.

Unfortunately, their flight received little advance publicity. Many people in lower Manhattan and Brooklyn heard the jet engines overhead and, feeling as though they were in a replay of September 11, 2001, braced themselves, waiting for the sounds and smells of an enormous crash.

As the jets continued to roar above, New Yorkers called each other, switched on the news and rushed to the rooftops to see what was happening. Once we knew that we were safe, many of us ran downstairs and grabbed cameras. These images were shot from my rooftop.

Blue Angels over the Brooklyn Piers 

Blue Angels circling above the river 

Plane speeding overhead 

Blue Angels at the Statue of Liberty 

Blue Angels heading north 

Blue Angels Official Web site

Fleet Week

Welcome to 7 WTC

The first tenant moved in yesterday, but the grand opening of the building at 7 World Trade Center was delayed until noon today. The usual dignitaries spoke, a blue ribbon was cut, cameras flashed, reporters took notes and then the real welcome began with a free concert featuring what was billed as “seven downtown artists.”

The show started with famed Irish tenor Ronan Tynan, who performed in front of the new fountain with a choir of neighborhood school-children, then climbed onstage and sang solo, ending with the words “God bless America.”

He was followed by Americana-gospel hybrid Ollabelle, the legendary Lou Reed (who sang his classic Sweet Jane), folk troupe Pharaoh’s Daughter, singer-songwriter Citizen Cope (who gave me one of his CDs), singer-songwriter Suzanne Vega (who sang her hits Luka and Tom’s Diner), electronica quartet the Brazilian Girls and the jazz of Bill Ware & Vibes.

An extra treat was provided the Soda Shop, an old-fashioned soda fountain situated on Chambers Street, a few blocks north of 7 WTC, which dished up free snacks of pure comfort New York food – egg creams, lime rickeys, pretzels, macaroni & cheese, miniature hot dogs and tiny pastel-buttercream frosted cupcakes.

Hanging a banner on the facade 

Ronan Tynan performs 

Member of Ollabelle performing 

Lou Reed performing 

Lou Reed performs 

Pharaoh’s Daughter performs 

Citizen Cope performs 

Suzanne Vega performs

Brazilian Girls perform 

Bill Ware performing 

Elaine Amherd of Bill Ware & Vibes 

Ollabelle signing autographs  

Lou Reed signing an autograph 

Taking an order for an egg cream 

Fountain with Balloon Flower by Jeff Koons 

7 World Trade Center

Newsday: 7 World Trade Center Opens

Soda Shop

Ronan Tynan

Ollabelle

Lou Reed

Pharaoh’s Daughter

Citizen Cope

Suzanne Vega

Brazilian Girls

Bill Ware & Vibes

AIDS Walk New York

In 1986 the Gay Men’s Health Crisis held the first AIDS Walk in New York and 4,500 walkers raised $710,000. Today, the 21st AIDS Walk New York saw 47,000 walkers raise an estimated $6.47 million.

The 10-kilometer walk began and ended at Fifth Avenue and 59th Street in Central Park, looping around the park and overflowing the streets. Three checkpoints along the route, staffed by volunteers, provided walkers with refreshments, toilet facilities and cheers.

Waiting for tables at Checkpoint 3 

Setting up trash bins at Checkpoint 3 

Young walkers on Riverside Drive 

Offering drinks to the walkers 

Providing drinks … and more. 

Checkpoint 3 getting busy 

Walking family 

Walking in memory of a lost sister 

Walkers from Community Service Club  

Crocheting while walking 

Walking while looking glamorous 

Young walkers reaching Checkpoint 3 

We miss you; RIP Mom 

In loving memory of Raymond John Helm 

Walking (not hopping) bunny  

Volunteers working at Checkpoint 3 

A young walker 

Volunteers sweeping up at Checkpoint 3 

The rain waited until the walk ended 

AIDS Walk

AIDS Walk New York Volunteers

Gay Men’s Health Crisis

New Apple Store in the Big Apple

Today, at 6 p.m., the Apple Store at 767 Fifth Avenue & 58th Street had its grand opening. The sole part of the store visible from the street is the entrance, a 32 foot glass cube marked only with the Apple logo. The interior, which is below ground level, can be reached via a glass elevator or a glass spiral staircase (similar to I.M. Pei’s pyramid entrance to the Louvre museum).

One young man was so determined to be the first customer that he arrived Wednesday night and camped out in the street, underterred by three days of thunderstorms. By Thursday night he was joined by several other Apple fans and on Friday, the hordes arrived; thousands of people formed a queue that eventually went all the way around the block, across the street and up three blocks, ending somewhere around Madison Avenue and 60th Street.

Employees flanked the entrance, applauding and high-fiveing each new customer. The first 2,500 to enter the store recieved special commemorative t-shirts packed in white boxes (similar to the packaging of Apple products) and an entry ticket to a series of drawings for free MacBooks, Apple’s newest laptops. Each MacBook slated for the giveaway was wrapped in a banner saying “We know what your next blog entry will be.”

Celebrities attending the opening included Spike Lee, James Woods, singer John Legend, the “Fab 5” from Queer Eye for The Straight Guy, Kevin Bacon and most of the cast of Saturday Night Live.

The store illuminated (I did not shoot this photo) 

Apple Store Fifth Avenue

Gothamist: Apple Store Opening

Cnet: Meet Apple’s Version of Deadheads

Wired: Fans Storm Apple’s 5th Ave Store

The Louvre

Queer Eye For the Straight Guy

Saturday Night Live

Another Reason Why I Love Brooklyn

What Wine Goes with That?

Customer: I’m not really much of a meat eater. What would you recommend?

Waiter: Another restaurant.

— Overheard in Peter Luger Steakhouse, Brooklyn

Overheard in New York

Peter Luger Steakhouse

5th Annual Tribeca Film Festival

“Created by Jane Rosenthal and Robert De Niro, the mission of the Tribeca Film Festival is to enable the international film community and the general public to experience the power of film by redefining the film festival experience. The Tribeca Film Festival was founded to celebrate New York City as a major filmmaking center and to contribute to the long-term recovery of lower Manhattan”.

The Tribeca Film Festival grows larger every year. This spring, for the fifth anniversary, the Festival broke all records: 274 films from 40 countries were screened at locations around Manhattan. Banners advertising the festival flapped from lampposts, posters appeared in shop windows, and information booths and free popcorn stands were erected in strategic downtown locations. For two weeks the city celebrated film, filmmakers and filmgoers.

“The response to this year’s volunteer recruitment drive has been amazing. At present we have received our full quota of applications for our Volunteer Pool … [and] have begun a Standby List. While we can give you no assurance that you will be assigned to a volunteer shift if you are on our Standby List, you are welcome to send in an application to volunteer. Without the volunteers, the Festival could not operate.”

While most Festival volunteers have (or wish to have) some connection with the film industry, many are simply passionate about the movies. Volunteers received t-shirts, sports bags, badges, a voucher for a free burrito and access to certain screenings – often without any information about which film they would see. The Festival ran from April 25 to May 7 and I viewed an average of one film per day.

Air Guitar Nation 

Blood of My Brother 

Choking Man 

Dorothy Day: Don’t Call Me a Saint 

East Broadway 

Encounter Point 

Fat Girls 

I Am You Are 

Kiss Me Again 

Long Time Listener 

loudQUIETloud 

Middletown 

Mission Impossible III 

Tell Me Do You Miss Me 

The Treatment 

Wordplay 

Air Guitar Nation

The Blood of My Brother: A Story of Death in Iraq

Choking Man

Dorothy Day: Don’t Call Me a Saint

East Broadway

Encounter Point

Fat Girls

I Am You Are

Kiss Me Again

Long-Time Listener

loudQUIETloud: A Film About the Pixies

Middletown

Mission Impossible III

Tell Me Do You Miss Me

The Treatment

Wordplay

Tribeca Film Festival

Chipotle Mexican Grill

Pink and lavender clouds of joy

This weekend, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden is celebrating Sakura Matsuri, the annual Cherry Blossom Festival. The Garden’s collection of cherry trees (200 trees, 42 species and varieties) is unmatched outside of Japan.

Every tree in the collection is covered with lush, gorgeous cherry blossoms and the superb lilac grove is at its peak. The blooms have filled this corner of Brooklyn – and the hearts of those fortunate enough to linger here — with sweetly fragrant pink and lavender clouds of joy.

Cascades of wisteria 

Purple lilacs 

Lilac 

Musician inside tent 

Musicians inside tent 

Buying bento boxes 

Festival goers playing “go” 

Festival goers 

Festival goers taking photos 

In the Japanese Garden 

Waterfall in the Japanese Garden 

Young festival goer  

Festival goer 

Under a cherry blossom ceiling 

Brooklyn Botanic Garden

Sakura Matsuri

Children of Uganda

Children of Uganda, a performing troupe that tours the world every two years, is currently appearing at the Joyce Theatre. The company is comprised of African children whose lives have been affected by AIDS; most are orphans and many have lost aunts, uncles, siblings and cousins, too.

While their mission — preserving the traditions and beliefs of their East African homeland — is serious, these talented performers sing, dance and play with unbridled energy, exuberance and joy. The youngest member of the company, 6 year old Miriam Namala, absolutely stole the show. Radiant, she dominates every scene in which she appears.

Unlike earlier tours, this season there is no discussion of AIDS or its affects on Uganda; that information is confined to the performers’ biographies in the Playbill and printed materials that are available in the lobby. This time, the focus is simply on songs, drums, and dance, dance, dance.

2006 Tour Poster 

Children of Uganda

New York Times review of Children of Uganda

Joyce Theatre

Children of Uganda Study Guide

A nation of immigrants

Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me:
I lift my lamp beside the golden door. – Emma Lazarus, “The New Colossus,” 1883. Engraved on a plaque at the base of the Statue of Liberty.

This morning a motley crowd carrying banners and waving flags gathered on Cadman Plaza. In a procession more than a mile long, they walked across the Brooklyn Bridge and into lower Manhattan to protest a bill currently before the U.S. Congress. The proposed legislation, known as H.R.4437, would radically change immigration policies.

America has long been a nation of immigrants. The laws governing who can enter, who may live and work and go to school within our borders, and who is entitled to social services continually change as the political winds blow.

H.R. 4437, also known as the Border Security Bill, would (among other provisions) require construction of a 700 mile long fence (1120 km) along the Mexican border and would oblige the federal government to imprison non-citizens who are in the U.S. without the proper immigration paperwork.

Legalizacion Para Todos Los Inmigrantes

Gathering on Cadman Plaza

On the Bridge

Crossing to Manhattan

Supporters waiting in front of City Hall

Rest in pieces HR 4437

Heading up Broadway

Sisters from Honduras

On daddy’s shoulders

In Foley Square

Protesting pooch

Library of Congress: H.R.4437

CBS News

Snowy Sunday leads to Mountainous Monday

Yesterday brought a record-breaking snowfall. According to Mayor Bloomberg, “New York City has just experienced the biggest blizzard in its history. The 26.9 inches that the National Weather Service measured in Central Park just beat the record of 26.4 inches, set almost 60 years ago in December of 1947.”

The Sanitation Department responded to the storm swiftly and cleared most of the major streets for traffic before the day ended. This morning New Yorkers woke to a bright, sunny day and the rare joys of newly-formed (and quickly melting) sparkling mountains of snow.

In a city where few people own private automobiles and well-stocked stores are on nearly every street corner, this bountiful blizzard is more of an occasion for celebration than an inconvenience. Time to skip work and school and break out the skis! Grab something to use as a sled! Find your hat and mittens! It snowed!

Sledding in Central Park 

Skiing across Central Park 

Grownups play in the snow, too 

A snowman and friends 

Dogs walking warily through the snow 

The Mayor’s Statement

The Year of the Dog

Last Sunday, January 29, was the first day of the Chinese Lunar New Year. Today New York City celebrated with the 7th Annual Chinatown New Year Parade.

The unusually warm and sunny day drew throngs of spectators and marchers and, in honor of the Year of the Dog, the parade included a contingent of colorfully costumed canines. Gung Hay Fat Choy!

Banging the gong

Red and yellow balloons

Preserve and build affordable housing

Riding a float

Spectators

Green coat

Back of dragon

Dragon

Colored paper fills the air

Red brocade coat

Blue brocade coat

Happy new year

Happy new year

Happy new year

Happy new year

By morning, it will all be gone

Chinatown New York City

China Institute

Chinese New Year

A New York State of Mind

No matter where he goes or what he does, New Yorkers will always think of Billy Joel as a native son, a hometown boy who made good. As he nears his sixth decade, the singing, songwriting Piano Man has achieved a phenomenal measure of success: a member of the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, he has sold well over 100 million albums worldwide.

This month Billy Joel launched his first solo concert tour in years. Within days, ticket sales at his New York venue, Madison Square Garden, set a record for the most sold-out shows ever.

During tonight’s performance, the star of the show proved that he knows how to give his most devoted fans exactly what they want. From his opening, “Hello, New York!” to his closing comment, “Good Night New York! Don’t take any shit from anybody!,” every moment was calculated to please the hometown crowd, and, as he played a set filled with musical references to his hometown and the Long Island region in which he grew up, Billy Joel made it clear that he remains in a New York state of mind.

From a town known as Oysterbay, Long Island
Rode a boy with a six-pack in his hand
And his daring life of crime made him a legend in his time
East and west of the Rio Grande
– The Ballad of Billy The Kid

Sergeant O’Leary is walkin’ the beat
At night he becomes a bartender
He works at Mister Cacciatore’s
Down on Sullivan Street
Across from the Medical Center
– Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song)

I’ve been stranded in the combat zone
I walked through Bedford Stuy alone
Even rode my motorcycle in the rain
And you told me not to drive
But I made it home alive
So you said that only proves that I’m insane
– You May Be Right

We took on diesel back in Montauk yesterday
And left this morning from the bell in Gardiner’s Bay
Like all the locals here I’ve had to sell my home
Too proud to leave I worked my fingers to the bone
– The Downeaster ‘Alexa’

I cruise from Houston to Canal street
A misfit and a rebel
I see the winos talking to themselves
And I can understand
Why is it everytime I go out
I always seem to get in trouble
I guess I made an impression on somebody
North of Hester and south of Grand
– Big Man On Mulberry Street

I’ve seen the lights go out on Broadway
I saw the Empire State laid low.
And life went on beyond the Palisades,
They all bought Cadillacs
And left there long ago.
– Miami 2017 (Seen The Lights Go Out On Broadway)

It comes down to reality
And it’s fine with me ’cause I’ve let it slide
Don’t care if it’s Chinatown or on Riverside
I don’t have any reasons
I’ve left them all behind
I’m in a New York state of mind
– New York State of Mind

Not an empty seat in the house

Just the man in the spotlight

Billy Joel

New York Times review

Rock & Roll Hall of Fame on Billy Joel

Songwriters Hall of Fame on Billy Joel

Slava’s Snowshow

Slava Polunin is a clown. Not a screeching, menacing, kid-scaring clown, but a brilliant, innovative artist in the tradition of Marcel Marceau and Charlie Chaplin. Born in rural Russian in 1979, Slava established a successful studio and theatre company in Leningrad. After nearly four decades of touring in Europe, Slava assembled the highlights of his performances into the award-winning Snowshow, currently at New York’s Union Square Theatre.

Starring Slava and members of his company, the program is a unique, enchanting, puzzling, ultimately beautifully overwhelming spectacle. The show culminates in the sensory overload of a full-scale blizzard inside the theatre. Tons of “Slava’s snow”(actually shreds of thin paper and silver mylar) pour from the ceiling and are blown about by fans, filling air, seats, hair, pockets, purses and open mouths.

Theatregoers emerge into Union Square brushing bits of snow from their hats and jackets. For days afterward, they leave a trail around the city as pieces of Slava’s snow slowly work themselves out shoes, hats and cuffs.

Slava’s Snowshow (photo not shot by me)

Slava’s Snowshow

Slava’s Snowshow

New York Times Review: Slava’s Snowshow

The transit strike arrived at 4:00 a.m.

This morning New Yorkers woke up to the news that the city’s entire public transportation system has been shut down by an illegal strike. Millions of people scrambled to find ways to get to school, work, etc. Despite their best efforts, many were unsuccessful.

Only a few days before Christmas and Hanukkah, chefs and waiters struggled to reach restaurants where they waited in vain for diners to arrive. Bartenders hiked to work only to spend the day time drumming their fingers and polishing glasses as one holiday party after another was cancelled.

Doctors and nurses were unable to arrive in operating rooms. Defendants didn’t show up in court. Teachers were unable to get to their classrooms.

Of course, those who suffered the most were the lowest-paid workers; those teetering on the edge of poverty, those who don’t receive any benefits or union protection, those who don’t have the options of working from home or simply taking the day off. For them, this was a day of frustration and lost wages.

It took me nearly five hours to reach work this morning and nearly three hours – and $20 in cab fares – to get home. An exhausting day for many people, for many reasons. I hope, for all our sakes, that the strike is settled soon.

The prevailing mood

You can’t get there from here