Big Apple Holidays

Holiday events started on Friday evening with a concert at the almost 100-year-old Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd just a few blocks away. I happened to surf in to the concert announcement on the Meetup.com site. The St. Petersburg Men’s Ensemble sang Russian classics and folk songs a cappella. They were outstanding.

Afterwards at the coffee and cake social, I met Pastor David Rommereim. We had a most interesting conversation, which I look forward to continuing.

Saturday evening was a dance concert at the renowned Joyce Theater in Chelsea. I well remember going there on a NYC trip in 2000. I was staying at the Chelsea Lodge nearby. It’s a great venue (not too large) and the Tango Fire performance was a sell out. It was interesting that the audience responded to the instrumental tango more so than the dance performers. To my surprise, the orchestra got the most rousing applause from the audience at the end of the concert.

My main interest is the dance. These stage performers are very acrobatic, ballet-trained dancers as you will see in the video. However, I much prefer the tango and milonga dancing I watch on YouTube. It’s great to see some of the sometimes-portly older folks and their smooth moves. In the coming year, I’ll find some places to see these types of amateur dancers. It will likely be a ballroom venue.

Be sure you’re over 18 before watching this video.

Christmas day turned out to be a walkathon on my creaky old knees. I went to Manhattan for not one but two walking tours, with my own solo tour in between. By the end of the day I could hardly move. I had walked in a meandering path from 49th street down to 18th street with a lot of standing in one place listening to the tour guides. That’s more stress on the knees than walking.

The Municipal Art Society sponsored the morning tour of Rockefeller Center. I’ve been on a number of MAS tours in the past and they’ve all been memorable events.

The walking tour led by Tony Robins was smack in the middle of a multi-ring circus known as Rockefeller Center on Christmas day. What a show! I could have stayed there for many hours just people watching. I kept thinking about the fact that I really do live in NY. I’m not a tourist or commuter like the old days. It was a great feeling.

After the tour I walked down to the Grand Central area and over to Bryant Park to check out the skating. Then it was a walk down to 18th street and 6th avenue for the “Ladies Mile” tour. Bernie Cohen who is also a fountain of information led it. It was a revelation to see these old department store buildings and the present occupants including The Container Store, Bed, Bath & Beyond, Burlington Mills and Home Depot among others.

This is a “shopping mall” like no other I’ve seen and I’ve seen a lot of them in the course of business and shopping in Southern California. Some may recall that I was one of the pioneers in marketing preserved palm trees. Shopping centers were prime prospects.

There are a few photos posted to Flickr with many more to come including street photography from my daily walks in Balboa Park in 2006. Posting photos with captions and description copy is a tedious job. Flickr can use up a lot of free time, that’s for sure.

Today, I’m off to The Museum of the City of New York. It’s the last day of the Glory Days of New York Baseball exhibit. I was a die-hard Dodger fan back in the late ‘40s and the 50’s until Walter O’Malley stuck a knife in Brooklyn’s heart when he moved the team to L.A.

It will be interesting to reminisce about those years, never to be repeated. Can you imagine three major league teams in NYC? Baseball was King of the Big Apple before growth hormones, steroids, gargantuan salaries and egos. The players I saw at Ebbets Field were real people among real people. I look forward to seeing some minor league baseball at Keyspan Park, home of the Brooklyn Cyclones in Coney Island. I’ll find some new “boys of summer” to root for.

Incidentally, it’s a strange feeling to walk by the site of Ebbets Field on my many trips to the Ebbets Field Middle School. It’s across the street from home plate. The site is now occupied by a large and rather ugly housing project. It’s a sad commentary on what was once there. Oh well, “ever onward and upward” as we used to say in Big Blue.

Those were the days when the Big Apple was sort of the “Big Blue Apple” with the somewhat mythical IBM “World Headquarters” at 590 Madison Avenue. I used to have this picture in my mind of Tom Watson, “the wizard”, sitting in a top floor office slowing spinning a globe of the world while pondering his next move. If he was a “corporate bastard” a term used by many treehugger boomers, he was a benevolent bastard. Many forget who paid for their college educations.

IBM sold the building but the well known atrium still exists with most of its bamboo. I made a good friend there on one of my NYC trips. I met Helen on a MAS walking tour. She lives in Northern California but perhaps one day she will be a Brooklynite again. I’ll go by 590 Madison again one of these days. It will always be the IBM Building to me.

Happy Holidays!

Merry Christmas and happy holidays to everyone. Be well and happy in the new year. Keep on truckin’. I think I’ll do it without the truck in ’08.

A light rain turned to snow for a while last evening but it was gone by this morning. Blue skies today look like no snow for Christmas. Darn!

I’m off to Rockefeller Center tomorrow for a walking tour along with checking out the tree and ice skaters. I’ll post some pics.

Through My Window

“Through My Window” is the name of a photography series on the Apartment Therapy blog. These are a couple of shots through my window recently. I may submit one of the pastel sky shots.

When I first looked at the apartment, David Todd commented that the view was good because it was unobstructed by other buildings. I remember his comment, but it didn’t really register until I moved in and lived here for a while. Now I understand. I got it David!

I lived with two interesting views in San Diego. I could see sunsets over the ocean in Carlsbad but it didn’t take long for them to become boring. Nothing ever happened other than a sail boat once in a while. Some will remember the little cottage on West Walnut with its neat view of San Diego Harbor and the aircraft carriers berthed across the way on Coronado. It was much more interesting because of harbor activity. I’ll always remember the flight of la paloma coming up the canyon in the mornings.

Unexpectedly, I believe this is the best view ever. I certainly wasn’t looking for a “view apartment” in the places I could afford to live in Brooklyn. Not every day, but many days the view is like a painters canvas. This gets my vote for the best morning sky since moving in. In the expanded view you can see some birds in the sky and the contrail of a jet flying over JFK which is only about 15 miles as the crow flies.

Times passes. Same window. What the hell is that white stuff? “It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas”. Incidentally I’ve discovered that my 100% Finnish DNA is standing me in good stead. The cold may be bothering my knees, but not me. I’ve stood waiting for a bus in cold windy weather without flinching. It may not be fun, but it’s no big deal. It’s not weather I live, it’s whether I live.

A Voice in the Night

Make that an ominous voice in the night. A couple of hours after I did some stir-frying on the stove for the first time last night there was a voice from overhead saying “Warning…carbon monoxide, Warning…carbon monoxide”. Whoa! It was coming from the ceiling detector.

Earlier I had noticed a slight smell coming from the stove but passed it off as an odor caused by using it for the first time. Wrong! It had a gas leak.

On to the web I went and found an emergency number for Keyspan (the gas company). I have a portable fan, moved it into the kitchen, and opened all the windows. In the frantic rush to set the fan up in the kitchen, I stood up and banged my head on a cupboard corner (an awkward design btw) and split my scalp open. So, there I am holding a paper towel over the wound while adjusting the fan, which is sliding around due to vibration. What fun!

Within a half hour, the tech from Keyspan was here (about 11 pm) with his detection meter. Yup, the stove was leaking gas. I’m still confused about the leak, since carbon monoxide is odorless. The gas guy gave me somewhat of a hard time about what I had reported on the phone (re: carbon monoxide vs gas). He definitely had an attitude…which I just ignored.

This morning I called Ann the apartment building manager who leased me the apartment. Within an hour, there was a hubbub of activity in my kitchen, Ann, Elvis (the super) and the stove maestro. The stove and I got a lot of TLC. Just another day in the big city.

Storage Central

Well here it all is…the chaotic results of U-Haul moving day. The Studio is now Storage Central. What a day it was from start to finish. Thank god for Sambou and Jesse.

Day begins…outta bed, Road Runner web connection is down…fiddled with modem, rebooted, etc, etc…no luck…phone rings…Sambou is already at U-Haul earlier than expected…out the door to the R train…it is cold outside…Metrocard doesn’t work after several swipes…attendant checks it…”Sorry but it expired on 11/22”…where the hell did that month go?…there’s an R train in the station…i’m moving as fast as I can but my knees are already hurting…doors close before I can get on the platform…doors open again…yeah!…maybe luck has changed…finally get to U-Haul…meet Sambou…get on line for truck…line moves slower than molasses in the winter…Jesse arrives…finally start moving stuff out of the locker and wheeling it down the long corridor to the truck…I help some, but can’t do much…can you hear Paul Robeson singing in the background “Body all aching and racked with pain”…did I mention that I had one of my back episodes during the week to go along with my aching knees…I sit in the truck cab frequently…about noon the truck is loaded…down 4th Avenue we go with me at the wheel…there’s space at the fire hydrant out front but a car parked at the corner…Jesse takes the wheel and adeptly maneuvers the truck at an angle into the space and up on to the wide sidewalk…ramp down…and into the lobby we go…while moving stuff into the lobby, an impromptu meeting evolves by the elevator door, including Ann (who rented the apartment to me), Elvis (the bldg super who I finally meet) and a number of senior tenants…all complaining about the lack of heat (that’s another story)…this is sitcom stuff…time for some food…off to Happy Garden, a block away on 3rd (aka “restaurant row”) for some Chinese take-out…whoa!…this is damn good wokery…I’ve eaten in many good Chinese restaurants and done a lot of stir frying, but this is top notch…good, fresh ingredients, stir fried by someone who knows what they’re doing…this is not Panda Express stuff…I’ll be back many times…finally everything is in the studio…back to the U-Haul barn we go with Jesse at the wheel…I’ve learned that he has had some significant experience with truck driving and moving…he and Sambou were a pleasure to work with…neat guys…back on the R train and home…the day is done…at last!…p.s. I find that Road Runner is running again! Whoopee!

Moving Day Tomorrow

I have no idea who this is, but it looks like he’s wishing good luck for my big move tomorrow. He’s running in the 2007 NYC Marathon and the photo just happens to be in front of the U-Haul truck rental and storage building on 4th Avenue at 6th Street. That’s where I’ll meet Sambou, another helper and pick up the truck tomorrow morning. All my earthly possessions will then travel down 4th Avenue to my apartment. Hooray!

How did I find this photo you ask. Serendipity strikes again! I was reading a most interesting blog named The Gowanus Lounge by RSGuskind, a Brooklyn writer/photographer. I clicked on to his Flickr account where he has many photos of this year’s NYC Marathon. He was taking them on 4th Avenue. So there you have it.

As an added serendipitous kick, did you notice OP Finland? Now how many Finns were running and he happened to be in this photo? Not many is my guess. I thought many times when I was still running about running the NYC Marathon. That will have to wait till the next lifetime. But, I sure will be watching next year.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I’m thankful to be alive and to be here at last.

It may just be Thursday this year but “wait ’til next year!”. Only old Brooklyn Dodger fans would understand the meaning of that.

Pandora Perfecto

Have you heard of Pandora.com? In my view, it provides the best music listening on the web. You can create “radio stations” that suit your particular tastes in music. You can do a “thumbs up” on selections you like and a “thumbs down” on those you don’t. How cool is that? Pandora has struggled to survive because of the licensing mess but it deserves to. It is a high quality service.

There was a Pandora message in my inbox today. They have just launched classical music. How neat! Check it out. If you have an ear for good music, you’ll be glad you did. I’m not sure how the links below will work if you’re not a member. So sign up! It’s free!

New on Pandora: Classical Music

Since we launched Pandora 2 years ago, our most common request from listeners has been that we add Classical music. We’re excited to announce that Classical music is now available on Pandora. Enjoy, and please let us know if you have any feedback. The Classical Genome is a work in progress and we’d love to hear any of your suggestions on how to improve it.

If you’re new to Classical music, here are a few stations we created to help you get started:

* Symphonic, Classical Period Listen Now
* Symphonic, Romantic Period Listen Now
* Piano Concerti, Classical Period Listen Now
* Opera, Romantic Period Listen Now
* Chamber, Baroque Period Listen Now

Alternatively, you can create a station by typing in the name of your favorite composer:

Elvis is in the House

Did I mention that my apartment building superintendent’s name is Elvis? Maybe it figures.

Back in 2000, I went on a Municipal Art Society bus tour of the Brooklyn waterfront. It was simply fabulous. I’ll never forget it. We drove through the Bush Terminal area and went inside the Brooklyn Army Terminal building. Cass Gilbert, a skyscraper pioneer who also designed The Woolworth Building, designed it.

We drove by the building in the van ride down 2nd Avenue (becomes Ridge Boulevard in Bay Ridge) on the way home from Costco the other day. Check the satellite view to see the building. It’s enourmous. Zoom in and you can see the inner atrium where the train came into the building.

Probably few remember that Elvis was in the BAT house also. It was one of the few times he rode on a train. BTW, Bush Terminal is on the waterfront in Sunset Park, down the hill from where I was born on 43rd Street (close to the entrance to Sunset Park and the pool).

I have photos of Nana’s brownstone on my Dell (in U-Haul storage). Now that would have been a great inheritance if it were still in the family. My mom and sister Signe sold it long ago before the Brooklyn renaissance for about $6,000. What’s it worth now? Don’t ask.

Sunrise, Sunset

This was the view this morning. I haven’t seen Tevye yet but I know he’s out there somewhere. I can’t see the sunset, but of the two views I’ll take this one.

(Tevye)
Is this the little girl I carried?
Is this the little boy at play?

(Golde)
I don’t remember growing older
When did they?

(Tevye)
When did she get to be a beauty?
When did he get to be so tall?

(Golde)
Wasn’t it yesterday
When they were small?

(Men)
Sunrise, sunset
Sunrise, sunset
Swiftly flow the days
Seedlings turn overnight to sunflowers
Blossoming even as we gaze

(Women)
Sunrise, sunset
Sunrise, sunset
Swiftly fly the years
One season following another
Laden with happiness and tears

(Tevye)
What words of wisdom can I give them?
How can I help to ease their way?

(Tevye)
Now they must learn from one another
Day by day

(Perchik)
They look so natural together

(Hodel)
Just like two newlyweds should be

(Perchik & Hodel)
Is there a canopy in store for me?

(All)
Sunrise, sunset
Sunrise, sunset
Swiftly flow the days
Seedlings turn overnight to sunflowers
Blossoming even as we gaze

Sunrise, sunset
Sunrise, sunset
Swiftly fly the years
One season following another
Laden with happiness and tears