NYC October 07

Saturday, 10.6.07

This was the day we'd planned around. The reason we'd booked the trip. Out on Randall's Island, a rock and roll show to beat all rock and roll shows would occupy us from afternoon til late in the night. The Arcade Fire headlined, with LCD Soundsystem, Blonde Redhead, Les Savy Fav, and Wild Light supporting.

The day started a bit slowly, as we took our time getting out of bed and going. Soon enough we were on the subway to Harlem, this time the 1, as the A shut down at midnight Friday for a weekend of maintenance. We'd planned to meet up with Harlan and Kristin (friends from Austin) and Cara and Jesper (friends from Boise now in Portland, Maine) at the M
&G Diner on 125th at Broadway. We'd heard this was a no-frills soul-food diner that Bill Clinton called one of his favorites, and we were excited.

The joint looked just like I thought it would: long and narrow, a formica counter running the distance, a jukebox on the near wall next to a table crammed into the window corner, chocolate cake on the counter, grease in the air. The staff, all middle-aged black women, were in scrubs. We grabbed seats at the counter and waited for the others to arrive. Harlan and Kristin got there first, and as both are vegetarians to differing degrees, this place didn't exactly excite them. She had milk, he had chocolate cake. Sheezus.

Cathy and I, on the other hand, went after it: Chicken and waffles, coffee for me and coke for her. Hell yeah. And man, the food was as good as the help was surly. Not 10 words passed between us and the waitresses, but that chicken, perfectly tender and juicy inside with a thin and crispy skin, and that waffle, all big and fat and fluffy and golden brown slightly hinting at cinnamon when you bit into it. Pure heaven.

Cara and Jesper showed up as we finished, and we all strolled down 125th St. toward the river and the Triborough Bridge. It was a long walk, weaving slowly along the sidewalk through the pedestrians and tourists and locals with their folding tables hawking incense and sandals and t-shirts and music and philosophy and anything else you might think of.

Harlan got his when a black man with long braids, dressed as some sort of space commander, flanked by three men dressed similarly, who had been conducting a nonstop stream of urgent and belligerent preaching about something, pointed into Harlan's face and announced that the white man was a bum and a vagabond.

Guess he told your ass, I said.

We walked on.

Many blocks later, we found the intersection we were after, and shortly we were on a bus headed over to the island. We were early, and that meant we had to wait around on the grass before standing and rushing to the front to wait packed together and standing, while other people who arrived later just strolled right in, but hey, we were early.

The show, though, would soon erase whatever we endured to get to it. Jump on over to the Range Life and read all about it.

NYC October 07

Friday, 1.5.07

Friday morning, after coffee and pumpkin bread at the apartment, we headed to the A Train for a ride to Columbus Circle. We got off early to walk through Times Square, a big noisy spectacle whose most memorable features included a singing Naked Cowboy and a tasty potato knish.

The other side of Times Square we reboarded the subway and took it down to the NYU area to Washington Square Park. We roamed the streets for a while, which would become a theme of this trip, before Cathy let me loose in The Strand bookstore. I forget how much I miss having access to good book stores until I'm in one. She left me for about an hour before I got a call asking if I was almost finished. A stack of books under my arm, I realized sadly that I'd never got farther than the fiction section. But, I bought my share and headed out. Great store.

We walked a bit more before stopping for a light lunch snack at Spice Cafe, an Indian place in the area. We had a few appetizers, as we decided our policy for the day would be to eat a little bit, often. The chutneys were outstanding, the roasted chicken very sweet and tasty, and the beer expectedly mediocre.

After this we walked some more, first stopping off at Other Music, a tiny tiny store packed with amazing music. I did some damage to the wallet there, too, before leaving the NYU area and heading to the East Village area.

Cathy took her turn shopping here, though not buying much, and we stopped at Guss' Pickles for some salty snacks to bring back to the apartment before giving in to our impulse to grab a table at Inoteca Wine Bar for another snack. We started with a glass of white each, small wedges of 3 types of cheese, a big bowl full of olives, and crusty bread. It was perfect.


Cathy spotted a shoe store across the street, and I decided I'd rather enjoy a glass of red and the rest of the olives than brave a frantic and pushy looking shoe sale. So I did.

From there we headed to Tompkins Square Park to meet up with Heidi at the dog run there. Quite the busy little patch of dirt that dog park is, divided into big dog land and little dog land, both sections jumping with furry activity.

The three of us walked from the park through Little Italy toward Chinatown, where we planned to meet Michael for dinner. It was a nice walk on a warm night, the streets busy but not terribly crowded or hurried, post-work traffic turning to going-out traffic, restaurants and sidewalks filling with people.

We stopped in Little Italy at a sidewalk cafe for a beer for me and a glass of wine for them, then headed just up the street to The Great New York Noodle, a suspectly-named joint that according to our hosts had amazing and cheap food.



The Noodle did not disappoint. Michael got there and we went in, ushered quickly to a table and asked if we were ready to order almost within seconds. Turnover is life at this place, so we got to it. We got mei fun, some Singapore street noodle dish, along with a fish porridge, a stir-fried snow-pea leaves, barbecued duck with rice, and stir-fried salt-fish with vegetables. And beer.

Man, what a meal. The porridge was the big surprise hit, a creamy and not-too-dense stew of fish and soft veggies, somewhere between gravy and tapioca in consistency, and absolutely loaded with fresh fish flavor. The snow pea leaves were bright and delicious, holding some crunch, and the salt fish was also outstanding. The duck was better than any Chinese barbecue I'd had, moist meat bursting with lightly smoky and sweet flavors.


After dinner we walked a bit, through Chinatown and Little Italy (which I was surprised to see meet at a cross street and butt directly up against one another), and stopped at a coffee shop for some dessert before boarding the A Train for home.

The train ride home was a long one, probably about an hour and a quarter, which explains why the days here would become marathon sessions: leave early in the morning, stay out all day, through dinner and just beyond, before heading northward to Upstate Manhattan, as they called it, for the night.

New York City, October 2007

Thursday, 10.4.07

First off, I've never been to New York. I feel like this admission excuses any ill-formed impressions or factual errors or god forbid misidentification of a neighborhood.

Anyhoo.

New York! What an amazing city. I went in with high expectations, and the Big Apple met and surpassed them--and this without even laying eyes on the Statue of Liberty. The excuse for the trip was an amazing rock show on Randall's Island on Saturday 10.6 (Arcade Fire, LCD Soundsystem, Les Savy Fav, Blonde Redhead, yeah I know I know!), but Cathy and I had been wanting to visit for a while anyway. We planned a long weekend (almost a week) around the show, and we stayed with friends Heidi and Michael up in Inwood, the northernmost area of Manhattan.

We flew in to LaGuardia on Thursday afternoon. We hopped a bus at the airport and took the bus to 125th (in Harlem) where we switched to a subway. The A Train took us all the way to 207th, where we got off.

It was moving toward evening, and we were hungry, so good thing right out of the subway entrance and across the street from our friends' apartment was Grandpa's Pizza, where we scored a slice of fresh mozz and basil before we even got rid of our bags.

Great pizza. It wouldn't be the last time we ate there.

Michael let us up; their apartment was downright spacious from everything I've heard about housing in New York, with a full bedroom off in the back, a decent galley kitchen, and a large room divided into office space and dining space, connected by French doors at the rear to another room, which housed another desk, a futon, the tv, and more books. We spent the rest of the evening chatting over cocktails. I'd never met Michael before, but he's a gracious host and an interesting and funny guy. He's the librarian for The Cloisters, which is the medieval arm of the Met. Built by a Rockefeller in the early part of the century, the building houses, among other art and artifacts, the Unicorn Tapestries.

We were all hungry, so we ordered a whole pie from Grandpa's, this time with mushrooms on half. Again, outstanding, and it still wouldn't be the last time we ate there.

Heidi, a friend from Austin who stood up for Cathy in our wedding, got home from class late that evening and we talked a while longer before heading to bed. We'd be up early the next day, eager to explore the city.

NYC Report Coming Soon

Hi there. I'm working on a blog entry for our recent week in New York. Check back.