Marie’s Crisis Café

As Barb mentioned, this last stop on our Saturday evening agenda is worth a blog post of its own. Barb had told us about this piano bar in the Village that she and Kent go to every time they visit New York. All we had to do was locate it. We had just finished eating in a small diner near Canal Street and we set out to find our way through the jumbled mosaic of streets north through SoHo before the familiar street grid gradually starts to take hold around the Village. The six of us on foot following the glow of the iPhone GPS must have looked like a scout troop on an orienteering exercise.

We got to Marie’s around 10:30 to find the place was packed and there was a line outside. We quickly queued up as we overheard that the place starts to thin out at 12:30. Before we had time to get discouraged and consider other options the line started moving and we were told not to worry, that we would get in. They were letting people in two or three at a time but I did not see anyone coming out. Then we finally got in and I saw that the destination was in the basement of an ancient townhouse and as we went down the stairs I saw that the place was really packed, shoulder to shoulder, and all the patrons were singing showtunes at the top of their lungs to an upright piano churning out non-stop song after song. I wondered how this was going to work. But somehow we got through to the bar in back quite easily. We all got drinks and started to take in what was before us.

This was just one small room dimly lit only by miniature Christmas lights hanging from the joists. We had a good laugh at the large sign declaring that occupancy by more than 72 people is dangerous and unlawful as there was easily more than three times that. It appeared that every Broadway singer (aspiring, wannabes, and has beens) in New York was here and they knew the words to every song.

Marie’s is a good place to go to find out if you have any phobias. This place will be certain to trigger an attack if you suffer from any fears at all. Claustro-, agora-, homo-, or about half of them on this LIST.

We did manage to secure seats at the bar just outside of the fray and observe in relative safety. We finally headed home at 12:30…it did not thin out.

Third Visitors OR What The Halal?

Today's post is our first "guest blogger" contribution.

Barb has been a friend of ours for over 35 years.

I will be back with more soon.

And now from Barb:

A couple of months ago I booked a trip to New York to attend a conference, present a case study, serve on a technology panel, and head back home. In the meantime, Bill and Toni were making their way out East with plans of finding the perfect apartment for their year in NYC. Knowing that they would be in New York made for a nice opportunity to visit but then it got even better. With a touch of serendipity, the Laverys found their perfect apartment at the corner of 53rd and 7th which just so happened to be directly across the street from the hotel I had booked. This made for a very different New York experience than I had ever had in the past.

The first night I was there, Bill had arranged some VIP tickets to see David Letterman. I knew I would like it but I had no idea just how much I would like it. First of all, being in the Ed Sullivan Theatre is an honor all by itself. I could close my eyes and see the Beatles on stage, complete with “sorry girls, he’s married” displayed on the monitors when the camera is on John. The energy of all those screaming girls is still there. While you wait to enter the Letterman show, cheerleaders rally the crowd to get everyone ready to laugh and cheer at all the right moments during the show. You get all the appropriate warnings about no pictures, no whistling, no groaning, and the most serious threat of all, if you don’t laugh really hard, Dave will revisit the script with his writers during commercial break and save his “good stuff” for another night. Once you are appropriately energized, they let you in … and then, SO VERY COOL. Paul Shaffer’s band totally rocked, Ashton Kutcher was a very entertaining guest, Dave was on his game, and I don’t think I stopped grinning through the whole thing. There was also a weird magician but he’s not worthy of a lot of blog attention.

Barb secretly snapped this elicit photo on our way out. Cameras are strictly forbidden.


As you can imagine, with that being the start of my week with the Laverys, the Letterman Show was going to be a tough act to follow. But we tried…and we did a pretty good job. There was the wonderful Indian food in Hell’s Kitchen where we stuffed ourselves and hurried home to watch the season finale of Modern Family. Then there were all the New York firsts for me…drinking wine at Bill and Toni’s dining room table, doing laundry with Toni in their building, watching TV and just living like a resident. I would finish my workday, drop my stuff in my hotel room and wander across the street to have a friendly doorman open the door and welcome me into their building. He was just like Carlton the Doorman except you could see him.

When the weekend rolled around, my husband, Kent, came to join in the fun along with a couple of other friends that happened to be coming to NYC for the weekend. The six of us made it our mission to cover the town and we did not miss much.

Friday afternoon I had my last presentation at the conference, which ended at 5:30 or so. With the freedom of knowing that work was over the week, it was time to get serious about this whole New York thing. Our group hiked over to Lexington Avenue and caught a bus and it was no time at all before we were enjoying a delicious dinner in Chinatown. We followed that up with a stroll through Little Italy. It was a beautiful night and we took advantage of that by eating desserts in a “backyard garden” that did not entirely seem to be in a backyard. But the atmosphere was lovely…I don’t know if it was the healthy pours of Grandpa Cha Cha’s red wine or the accordion player that did the hard sell for a tip by refusing to leave the table until his needs were met.

On Saturday, we saw many of the sights from a cruise ship on a three-hour tour, yes, a three-hour tour around the island. This was a fun way to orient ourselves and see a lot of points of interest that we didn’t plan to see up close. Once we left the ship, we covered a lot of ground seeing everything from Battery Park and a distant view of Ground Zero to dinner at Jerry’s Café in Soho ending our evening on a bar stool in the very, very crowded Marie’s Crisis Café in Greenwich Village listening to Broadway caliber piano bar sing-alongs. Stories from Marie’s could make an entire blog entry all its own.

On Sunday, Kent and I made our way to our favorite breakfast spot, Moonstruck, and enjoyed a tasty meal then strolled down 5th avenue before heading over to Broadway to find the obligatory I heart NYC t-shirts for our grandchildren. We met up with our cohorts and Bill and Toni treated us to a cultural delight at the MoMA where we ooed and ahhed over the expansive Abstract Expressionist collections. A performance art exhibit was in progress and it looked a lot like the childhood game where two people stare at each other and see who blinks first. I always blinked.

Before we could head back home, there was still one more “must do.” The Halal cart. Now this is not just any Halal cart, but the one with the long line and yellow bags; the good one. We walked over to the cart on 6th avenue, across from the Hilton, and committed to the long line. We had to. It was the good cart….or was it? Bill’s keen eye spied that there were no yellow bags on this cart. The cart across the street, however, was sporting yellow bags. Nice save, Bill. We darted across the street where there was no waiting, as the imposters had fooled all the others who stayed in the long line, and we ordered our meals. Again, enjoying the benefits of having friends who live down the street, we took our savory treat back to Toni and Bill’s place and ate our $3 meals in comfort.

Thanks Toni and Bill for asking me to be a guest blogger, but thanks so much more for opening your home to us and letting me experience New York as a resident….or should I say a Townie.

Ninth Avenue Eat Out

Last Saturday we went to the 37th Annual Ninth Avenue Food Festival. For two days they close off 9th Avenue from 42nd Street all the way to 57th Street from 9:30 AM to 6:30 PM. This is a mile long stretch with the avenue being 100 feet wide. They say that this is attended by one million people over the weekend. I don’t doubt that number. The avenue is lined on both sides with hundreds of food tents and crafts vendors. This is the heart of Hell’s Kitchen so the emphasis is on the ethnic foods that are found in this continuous stretch of small owner operated restaurants.

We had skipped breakfast to come hungry and it worked. We zeroed in on a wonderful Mexican tent and each ordered a small combo plate, chicken, rice, beans, lettuce, for $4. There was nothing small about it and we could have easily split this.

Toni found some silver earrings and a silver ring at another tent and a little wallet at another. She was happy. We were good and had a big cup of fresh pineapple for dessert before heading home.

As the dinner hour approached we both knew what we had to do. Yes, we went back for seconds. We chose our respective tents, lobster roll for Toni, pulled pork sandwich for me, roasted corn on the cob for our veggie and then we settled in at a bar tent for some adult beverages as we watched the crowd slowly thin out.

The Hippest Diner On Earth…

The Empire Diner lost their lease and closed last weekend after 34 years in business at their location in Chelsea. We managed to get there Friday before the last ring of the cash register. It was a short bus ride down 9th Avenue on the M6. If it looks familiar to you it may be because it has been used as the setting for many of the opening segments on Saturday Night Live over the years. The place is very photogenic. We both opted for the Blue Plate Special, which was served on a blue plate. Grilled chicken with green salad, broccoli and a huge serving of macaroni and cheese. It was all great and had that made at home taste. We were eating at the sidewalk tables and had just finished when we got a little late evening pop up shower and we scurried inside to pay the bill. The place is all gleaming chrome and stainless steel and looks like it just opened rather than its final day.

We thought from there we would head east on 23rd Street, one of the major cross streets, pop in for an adult beverage somewhere, and catch another bus back north on 6th Avenue to get home. The sky had cleared leaving us with a beautiful night for a walk. For some reason the major cross streets seem to have retained more of the old character than the north/south avenues and it is easier imagine them as they might have looked in earlier eras. Along this way we saw some of the old movie houses that are still operating with first run movies. We also came upon the famous Chelsea Hotel. You can hardly go more than a block or two here without stumbling upon some iconic landmark like this.

We reached 6th Avenue, made the turn, and we started to look for a watering hole in earnest. Suddenly we started getting particular as one place was deemed too busy, another was too fancy, and so on. Before too long we found ourselves at Bryant Park at 42nd Street. It was now dark but the park was bustling. We wound our way around to the outdoor restaurant next to the library and a small table and settled in with a couple of glasses of wine. I was glad that we were picky about where to stop. This is one of my favorite spots in the city and perhaps one of the reasons I moved here.

From this point it no longer made sense to get a bus or taxi to get home as we now within striking distance.

Here is a short slide show I put together. All of these photos were taken by me and most of them are from this one evening walk. I know it is very corny and a bit embarrassing but I couldn’t help myself and Toni was a good sport in allowing me to use her photo. Don't put off watching this as she may have a change of heart.

Second Visitors

Wednesday we enjoyed the company of our second visitors and our first at the apartment. They are left to right, Julie Dornbush, her sister CeCe, and Susan Summerlin. We had a great time catching up and the time really flew by. They are professional New York visitors as this is their 18th time here together and we expect to see them again next year. Julie is an old friend from high school in the early 1970s and we first met Susan in the 1980s when we first opened Village Records. She was one of our first regular customers. It was only a few years ago that we learned that Julie and Susan were friends, they all met at KU in the 1970s where Susan and CeCe were roommates.

New York Does Kansas City

Just a quick one here. I posted this link from the New York Times on Facebook but it is here as well for you who don't take part there. I found it to right on the money and really shines a favorable light on Kansas City. I think you will enjoy reading about your hometown.

36 Hours In Kansas City from the NYT.

The Witching Hour

Turning Cabs Into Pumpkins

We were out and about one afternoon recently and we decided we would use a cab to get back home. We were on 9th Avenue and it was early rush hour. Imagine four lanes of yellow cabs in a logjam all bobbing and weaving and angling for their break. We did our usual hand up to hail a cab, which we now are able do confidently. But almost immediately we noticed something was amiss. Nobody was stopping to pick us up. All of the cabs already had customers or were off duty. All of them! There were so many cabs right there so we continued hailing just in case there was one on duty and we just didn’t see it. A couple of them stopped, rolled down their window and asked us where we are going. In each case the same response, “No, sorry” and they sped off.

Now we were really puzzled. Then it struck me. It was the dreaded shift change. I had heard of this before but I dismissed it as I could not relate to it, after all I was never going to be living in New York. Well let me tell that it is real and there is not much you can do about it.

There are roughly 13,000 cabs here and they all work twelve hour shifts, basically a day shift and an evening shift. There is more money to be made working the day shift so they do a couple of things to make the evening shift desirable and equitable for the drivers. One is that they charge an extra fee, I think one dollar, for evening rides. The other thing is that they time the shift change so that both shifts get the benefit of one rush hour included. Everyday from 4:00 PM to 5:00 PM all 13,000 cabs are required to return to their garage immediately after they drop off their last fare. In a sense they all really do turn into pumpkins as they are no longer functioning as cabs.

What we witnessed was all of these drivers getting off work at the same time. The few who stopped for us were trying to grab some extra cash on the way back but only if the destination was exactly along their route. No leeway on that. For each of these cabs there is another driver waiting to start his shift as soon as possible to catch his share of rush hour bounty. Think about it, these cars are driven 24 hours a day!

So, if you should find yourself in a similar situation in Manhattan don’t get frustrated. Instead just take a look around you. There will be a dozen restaurants or bars at your feet. Go sit down and relax until the shift change is complete.

Carrie Rodriguez Again

You might recall that we saw Carrie at a venue here in April and I wrote a little bit about that show. Well all of you in Kansas City will have your chance to her plus a couple of other top notch acts in your own back yard. It is a work night but that is no excuse to miss this show.

Carrie Rodriguez performs Sunday night at Knuckleheads, 2715 Rochester in the East Bottoms. Jim Lauderdale and Tim Easton are also on the bill. Show time is 8 p.m. Advance tickets are $15. 816-483-1456

Tim Finn has written a nice article on her at the Kansas City Star.

Home Sweet Home

Although we have been in NYC for about 6 weeks now, it was just this past week when we have finally felt residency was established. First, boxes we had packed of clothes, office supplies, and tools arrived from KC. Next, a 2 pack of chairs arrived from Costco, one for the living room and one for the bedroom. After a couple of weeks of never living with a dry hand towel, additional towel racks arrived and were hung perfectly by Bill in the bathroom. A visit to the NYDMV located across from Macy's flagship store led to a temporary driver's license, with the real one to arrive in the mail in early June. After a month of waiting for the correct color of TV console to be back in stock at IKEA, it arrived at the door Friday evening but only after 20 gradually escalating phone calls (the last and most effective made by Bill, my hero) to customer service. Getting the TV, cable box, telephone, Bose sound system, and DVD off the floor and the plethora of wiring hidden from view made for one of the happiest occasions here so far, promptly celebrated with wine AFTER four hours assembling it ourselves (Bill did the hard parts, I was just the helper). I lied, there was a glass drunk while waiting for the delivery. Yesterday, a 4th shopping trip to good old Bed, Bath, and Beyond across from Lincoln Center produced a mirror for the dresser purchased, delivered, and hung. So you know we haven't gone too sparse in our taste when you view these photos, a couple of pieces of art for the walls are now on order and a couple more need to be ordered, but other than that, we have completed our nest. You can see our progress HERE.




With those tedious but important steps completed, our minds are finally free to think of the more pleasant side of adjusting to a new city. In the free time I had this weekend I spent in a detailed exploration of all services available to us within 6th and 7th Avenues and 3 blocks north of our building. I found a fantastic nail spa, with long hours and no appointments necessary, so today I got a sorely needed mani and pedi which both included 10 minutes of reflexology, and a 10 minute chair massage for the back. Then across the street, I found a new grocery store that had everything we would ever want or need, and of course they deliver. We now have subway and bus maps on the coffle table to study once a day. We are gradually memorizing the routes that will take us in 15 minutes or less from our building or one square block from it, to the East Village, Chinatown, Brooklyn Bridge, Soho, Chelsea, Queens, Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, etc., etc. We know when we have graduated this self imposed, self paced public transportation course when we master the art of the transfer. For now, I look upon with envy a rider getting off a bus and walking down to the subway for his next leg of his trip, while thinking "one day that will be me". That will be the day I can call the city my home, not just my apartment.

Tim Burton Exhibit

I have fallen a little behind. We went to the Museum of Modern Art almost two weeks ago and I haven’t written about it yet.

We were lucky enough to catch the final weekend of the Tim Burton exhibit. It opened in November and has enjoyed a successful five month run, I imagine exceeding expectations. It would up with over 800,000 visitors coming in third behind a 1980 Picasso exhibit and one for Matisse in 1992. I read that one-third of the visitors had never been to a museum before. I can attest first hand that this was a younger crowd and they were five people deep at every piece.

I thought it would be somewhat interesting and focus on some film artifacts but I was really surprised how extensive the show was. There were over 700 pieces on display going all the way back to his teenage years. There were drawings, sketches, models, sculptures, movie props and costumes, short films, and videos. Some of the items were torn out of spiral books and still had the ragged edges. He had saved everything. I did not realize that essentially all the creativity in his movies originated with him and his skewed mind. I was really impressed at the body of work. I had forgotten some of the films he has made between Pee Wee's Big Adventure and Alice in Wonderland. There is definitely a very heavy Charles Addams influence.

As we were nearing the end of the exhibit Toni and I both noticed that several patrons had dressed in black and white stripes recalling the Beetlejuice costume. We had a good laugh because Toni was wearing a jacket of black and white stripes as well but in her case it was unintentional.

Here is a short interview with Burton. I think it would be good for any parent or grandparent to watch this and encourage the creative younger ones we encounter. They also show some of the pieces from the exhibit in this video.

Unfortunately this exhibit is headed for Melbourne for most of the year and then it will be in Toronto in late November into 2011. A fourth destination has not been announced yet. I don’t know if there are further plans.

The MoMA is just one avenue away so we plan be regulars there.

Weekend Update

Today is the day after the Times Square attempted car bombing. We got up early and went out for breakfast at a chic diner called "Moonstruck" located at 38th and Madison. Some of our KC friends had given us a gift certificate there as a going away present, and we finally had the time use it. We had a delicious, relaxing meal eaten while we read the New York Times arts and leisure section (we left the real news at home). Afterwards, I went to the more upscale, but not higher priced, Duane Reade drug store on 5th Ave and 45th St. then strolled by Rockefeller Plaza towards home with a bottle of Tide Free in one hand, and a nice handled shopping bag in the other full of goodies like shower gel. It was great to see, life was normal and no one was going to stay off the streets because of what happened the night before. That is the NYC attitude and I love it.

Yesterday, we took in a free concert sponsored by Carnegie Hall. The venue was up in Harlem at the Schomberg Center for Research in Black Culture and it is very intimate seating around 200. It resembles a small school auditorium. The Carolina Chocolate Drops, a string jug band, performed and more than met my expectations. At times it sounded like a Ken Burns soundtrack, spanning music history from the 17th to the 20th centuries. These three versatile musicians all took turns playing fiddle, banjo, dobro, and more. A couple of them danced, one in bare feet. One played the bones while dancing and used them just like a flamenco dancer with castanets. In between songs, we learned the origin and role of each song in history. Here are a couple of tracks from their latest CD: LISTEN

During one of these song break talks, the topic of southern style food came up. Earlier in the day before the concert one of the musicians ventured down the street for lunch. He told us about an authentic southern food kitchen he highly recommended we all try. He specifically praised the macaroni and cheese as it tasted just like his momma made. We knew this was a good tip, after all we were in Harlem, and he was from Carolina. After the show the group was out in the lobby to meet with fans. I caught him unoccupied for a moment and got directions to the restaurant.

We are not inclined to ignore a good restaurant recommendation so we promptly walked a block and a half to Miss Maude's. We selected our seats and saw that many others who had been in the audience also had taken him up on the recommendation. We enjoyed homemade mac and cheese, BBQ chicken, string beans, gumbo, and hot freshly baked cornbread. All were perfection. Our first Harlem experience was complete.

After we ate, we noticed there were no taxis in sight so we decided to do something we had been quietly putting off trying. We took a bus home. It is just too easy to justify taking a cab instead of a bus. Normally we would have painfully planned this initial bus ride out to avoid all surprises but we had no way to do this now. Our first attempt to board was quickly aborted when we learned we could not use paper bills, coins only, so we had to get off, regroup, and go scrounge around get our currency changed. With that done, we successfully boarded the next bus and tried to look like we knew what we were doing. We really had no idea what the route was for this bus, only that it was going South and we figured we would hop off when it got within striking distance of our apartment and we could catch a cab for the last short leg. We rode from 136th street and Lenox Blvd. (aka Malcolm X Blvd.) to 54th and 7th Ave. Call it beginner’s luck because this bus came within fifty feet of our destination. We got a great little tour of upper Manhattan for $2.25 each. We got off shortly after 6 PM and walked to 53rd Street and around the corner to home.

A few minutes later after getting settled in, I looked out the window and said to Bill, "that's weird, there is no traffic or people on 7th Ave.", then went about business as usual. Keep in mind, that just that same morning I looked out the same window and saw 40,000 people participating in the Revlon Run/Walk packed curb to curb on 7th Avenue going toward Central Park.

A couple of hours later, we turned on the TV and got the explanation for the deserted street as we learned about the car bomb and watched as the story unfolded before our eyes. We were not in shock or disbelief as there had been talk something like this could happen after the attempted subway bombing trials had ended a week or two ago. Knowing the police here are well prepared, and they did do such a fantastic job, we feel safe. We fell asleep soundly just after 11:30 because we had such a fine day, and like the long time New Yorkers, we are resolved to not let any terrorist ruin it for us.