In Manhattan today
Rainy but perfect Manhattan day.
---The pedestrian tunnel between the main subway station at 42nd/Time Square and the west side subways is something that should be on every Michelin guide. Being a walker, it was new to me after almost 30 years here, but rain made underground the choice. Rainy and rush hour, almost a half mile walk packed with people of every nationality going both ways, with African American, Korean, and Trinidadian Indian preachers shouting about Jesus into the crowd every hundred paces, thousands of people marching in either direction, some crippled, some too overweight to move at any normal pace, some just not mentally there, but everyone trying to get from one side to the other, from the 1, 2, or 3, to the A, C, or E. It was just amazing and in my mind could perhaps have been in any major world city, maybe only in New York, a walk that should be on every tourist map, one that would be remembered, that no postcard could capture. Bruegel New York Live.
---Went to New French, a restaurant in the West Village that gestaltwise is our kind of place. Reviews are spotty because the service is so casual for a place with such good food. All you need to do is speak up. Where else could a slinky hipster waitress chunk your spouse on the shoulder in agreement about a comment on the artist whose painting covers one wall. Great window seat on Hudson, just a wonderful meal, and dripping wet in the most casual clothes you're at home.
---Lucked upon busker Mush Hosotani in Penn Station, it's been a long time, and the hard core Japanese blues guitarist with the "boogie shoes" was hitting his stride. With the steel tipped heels and toes on his boots he is a complete rhythm section pounding away, a cultural mystery maybe, a complete joy.
And then the trek home.
---The pedestrian tunnel between the main subway station at 42nd/Time Square and the west side subways is something that should be on every Michelin guide. Being a walker, it was new to me after almost 30 years here, but rain made underground the choice. Rainy and rush hour, almost a half mile walk packed with people of every nationality going both ways, with African American, Korean, and Trinidadian Indian preachers shouting about Jesus into the crowd every hundred paces, thousands of people marching in either direction, some crippled, some too overweight to move at any normal pace, some just not mentally there, but everyone trying to get from one side to the other, from the 1, 2, or 3, to the A, C, or E. It was just amazing and in my mind could perhaps have been in any major world city, maybe only in New York, a walk that should be on every tourist map, one that would be remembered, that no postcard could capture. Bruegel New York Live.
---Went to New French, a restaurant in the West Village that gestaltwise is our kind of place. Reviews are spotty because the service is so casual for a place with such good food. All you need to do is speak up. Where else could a slinky hipster waitress chunk your spouse on the shoulder in agreement about a comment on the artist whose painting covers one wall. Great window seat on Hudson, just a wonderful meal, and dripping wet in the most casual clothes you're at home.
---Lucked upon busker Mush Hosotani in Penn Station, it's been a long time, and the hard core Japanese blues guitarist with the "boogie shoes" was hitting his stride. With the steel tipped heels and toes on his boots he is a complete rhythm section pounding away, a cultural mystery maybe, a complete joy.
And then the trek home.
posted by John Borden at 10:28 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home