John Lennon, Babbo, Brooklyn, and LOTS of Walking
Trip Start
Nov 29, 2005
1
5
8
Trip End
Dec 13, 2005
New York City,
New York,
United States
Friday, December 9, 2005
"We're living in a Golden Age..."
And it's difficult to feel there's much of a future for it. The things we've seen and felt in NY admittedly are a tiny slice of a much bigger scene... still, the common, everyday people you see on the street and in the subway are not by and large the patrons of the arts seen at the Philharmonic, Opera, big museums, theater. It has always been so... still, every one of the cultural behemoths was already at his height many decades ago. Are we living in the beautiful ruins?
MOMA has been remodeled and moved; and the city's been cleaned up substantially. Very little graffiti; friendly people everywhere
01 Shrine to John Lennon in Central Park
. Still, where are the newly minted mammals running around at the feet of doomed dinosaurs? Maybe in the various schools, galleries, neighborhoods, somewhere, cultural giants are growing.In 19th century Vienna the old regime was pale and failing and full of useless protocol. Under the watchful eye of secret police and the pressure of economic hardship Freud, Mahler, Klimt, Hugo Wolf, Theodor Herzl were both frustrated and moving toward their various forms of greatness. It took the concatenation of repression and paradoxical freedom, the proximity of so many intellectuals in a small city, political turmoil, shared suffering and lots of strong coffee, to kick that mess into the future. Is that happening now in the US?
We saw "Bach in Leipzig" at the NY Theater Project on 4th Street in the Lower East Side. It was a hoot... and playwright Itamar Moses is concerned with these questions... Lines about facing the wrong direction while the world moves into The Enlightenment (and these fellows fight each other for a chance to be Kappelmeister at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig (by the way, JS Bach got the job).
In the meantime the NY Public Library is much the same as when I was born in 1945; the Metropolitan Museum, MOMA, and all the rest were here, too
02 Shrine detail
. Still searching for the young giants of culture.These past couple of days have been an amazing concentration of wonderful things...
Wednesday, December 7...Starting with an early morning visit to Democracy Now in their gorgeous fire station on Lafayette downtown. Rubbed shoulders not only with the Ambassador from East Timor, but an English journalist writing on the US secret prisons around the world, plus a few words with Amy and her staff. All of them know and appreciate KZYX. Amy was broadcasting from Philo with Alice Walker waiting to be interviewed a couple of years ago during the fracas over who owns and who controls Pacifica. During the live broadcast one of the new board members took over the airwaves from Washington DC and ranted on air about D Now and other stuff. Amy soon realized she had been pre-empted, stretched her news broadcast (without ever stopping) so that by the time the rant was over she could start the interview with no interruptions.
Oh and by the way, Dec 7 was the 14th year anniversary of the massacres in East Timor, and there was footage of Amy just after surviving a beating and other life threatening moments during the army's cold blooded rioting
03 Shrine to John
. And there she was in person, making nice, and being her good old self.Great morning... chatted a bit about future possible visits by Amy and crew to Mendocino. Left with a warm feeling, two mugs, a tote bag, a bunch of bumper stickers and brochures, and the promises mutually to keep in touch.
Breakfast in the neighborhood at Balthazar, again wonderful, then up to the Empire State Building (see photos of Amy and ESB). The view from the top was properly inspiring; predictably it also was the only time we've felt like (and been treated like) dumb tourists.
Then to the gorgeous and inspiring NY Public Library (see pics), where Patience and Fortitude greeted us silently. One of them hosted a pigeon on his skull.
That night we went LATE to Babbo... the Mario Batali flagship on 101 Waverly Place just off Washington Square. Reservations with John Merryman at (gulp) 10:15. The food could hardly have been more tasty or well prepared, the service so excellent it was barely visible, but there when needed, the waitress patiently explanatory, and we were able to chat and laugh and wax nostalgic while drinking the signature-size "quartino" measures of wine..
04 Joselyn in the crowd at Strawberry Fields
. And we closed the joint, too. The manager asked how we enjoyed it; had to say, after all the deserved praise, that the damn music was too loud and too aversive. He explained, "Sorry - that is just Mario's MP3 player - he gives it to us and we play whatever is on there."We had some Bach recordings with us. They declined to utilize them.
Thursday, December 8
Today is the 25th anniversary of the shooting of John Lennon outside his apartment building, The Dakota, which is situated on 72nd Avenue and Central Park West (see pictures).
Slept late this morning, digesting. Sunny and cold outside; the snow that fell a few days ago has lingered in shady places everywhere.
This also turned into another extraordinary day.
At the Dakota the media was out in great force, plus many cops directing traffic
05 Tony, same.
. In the park across the street a very large and fast changing crowd came to lay flowers and other shamanic objects on the "Imagine" circle on the path in the area named Strawberry Fields. People were playing Beatles tunes and singing along. I saw some in tears; many just being there to soak it in. More contemplation than playfulness, more serious than not. Bright sun, very cold and crisp.On the way over I asked Joselyn if we should buy some flowers to lay on the shrine; she thought not; but if it was Paul, yes, by all means. We still have our favorites all these years on.
We trained over to Brooklyn, and walked all the way back past Soho to the play we saw tonight "Bach in Leipzig" (mentioned briefly above). On the way we took lots of pictures... Visited the new digs of the Mysterious Bookshop and met Otto Penzler, and talked with him for a while (this famous editor has his own imprint at Hougton Mifflin)... he told us stories of John Updike and Joyce Carol Oats, both close personal friends. Sure, he may be a bit puffed up, but he also deserves it. He's one of the hearts and souls of independent bookselling as well as publishing. He asked how Gallery Bookshop is doing (he's never been closer than Book Passage in Corte Madera, but knows of Mendocino) and asked about chain store competition
06 Flowers on the Dakota fence...
. His store is small but neatly packed with books on all three walls, many reached by ladders. Amazing... One wall is all mystery paperbacks; the other two are hard covers only, some quite collectible.
Joselyn chose two S.S. Van Dine mysteries to purchase. We dined across the street at a Mexican Joint named The Little Place. We continued to walk north through a resurgent Soho packed with name brand boutique stores (think Ralph Lauren, Hilfiger, that kind of thing).
Purchased a carry bag from Manhattan Portage (walked in mainly because we couldn't walk another step in the freezing wind). Now my disguise is complete. I look like a New Yawker top to bottom, until I open my California mouth.
Writing all this after midnight... recovering from another amazing, amazing day and night in the Big City.
