Fantasy Island

Lower Manhattan as seen from Governor's Island.

Last Saturday we did something that most New Yorkers haven’t done yet. We went to Governor’s Island. For over 200 years this has been a military installation of one sort or another, most recently occupied by the Coast Guard, and off limits to civilians. A few years ago it was deeded to the city to be operated as a park and historical landmark. The ferry ride from the very tip of Lower Manhattan is free and only takes four minutes once you are underway. I wasn’t really expecting much more than a commanding view of the skyline on a pretty sunny day. The army barracks and quarters for the top brass are still there, everything is pretty much as it was when it served to protect the harbor. Today the island is open to the public six months a year and is generally used for bicycling and picnics.

When we got off of the ferry we started to notice things were just a bit askew. We could hear something like tribal drumming in the distance and a few people were in brightly colored costumes. As we moved further into the island more and more unusual sights unfolded before us. Without knowing it we had stumbled on to the annual Figment Arts Festival. This is a three day event of 150 or so interactive sculptures, exhibits, and installations, scattered across the island and all taking place simultaneously. It is practically impossible to describe the scene. It is part Midsummer Night’s Dream, Renaissance Festival, Volker Fountain in the 1970s, Fairyland Park, Zardoz, Peter Pan, all rolled into one big Hippie-fest. All this is juxtaposed against the backdrop of the abandoned military cannons and you have a very surreal scene of the patients taking over the asylum or some post apocalyptic movie.

Here is a list of the installations, a map of all the places to see them, some photos and even some videos.

Full Circle

We were back at the Iridium Jazz Club Thursday night to see Jorma Kaukonen perform. Some of you may not recognize the name, he was a founding member of Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna. The club gave me a free pass simply for entering the lottery for the Jeff Beck show. The place has practically no presence at the street. Its storefront is only about eight or ten feet wide wedged between a Broadway theatre showing Mamma Mia! and Stardust, a restaurant that touts its singing wait staff. Once in the door you see there is only a small landing and a long staircase to the basement club. There are probably a lot of house concerts that have more space than this. They require a $10 purchase drink or food per set which is easy to meet as beers are $7 and wine is $12. We opted for a couple of entrees, a smoked salmon dinner salad and a roasted chicken breast. We both agreed that they might have been the best meals we have had the whole time we have been here. Jorma took the stage exactly as our happy plates were whisked away.

The show was great and incredibly intimate. The place seats about 200 I figure, cabaret style. It was an all acoustic set, Jorma, another guitarist, and mandolin/banjo player all seated for the whole show. I think they were primarily bluegrass players but they were so well rehearsed they must play with Jorma regularly. He had good stage patter and was pretty funny adlibbing with the audience callouts. The sound was identical to his last three albums with extended solos in every song generating applause sometimes three times on each song. Needless to say the audience seemed to be filled with guitarists.

The sound was perfect too. I guess Les Paul had a lot of input on the system put in there so that is to be expected.

I got to thinking when I last Jorma live. It was when he was in Jefferson Airplane at Memorial Hall in 1969 which was also my very first concert…forty-one years ago.

Star Struck

Jeff Beck emerges from the Gibson Guitar bus.

Toni contributes today:

I have been a little disappointed in not experiencing the amount of celebrity sightings I had hoped for in NYC. To remedy that we chose to attend a red carpet event at the Iridium Jazz Club which is located just a couple of blocks away from our apartment towards Time Square. Jeff Beck was performing with Imelda May and her band for two nights as a tribute to Les Paul in memory of what would have been his 95th birthday. The event was sponsored by Gibson, the maker of the famous guitar named for Les Paul. The shows were by invitation only as the club was configured to seat just 120 people. We entered a lottery to get tickets for one of the shows but lost since all but 50 of the seats were distributed for VIPs to attend. We knew there was little hope that our entry would be picked but there was nothing to lose by trying. As a consolation prize we were invited to view the stars walking through the door for the second night performance.

We were up for some excitement on Wednesday night as we ventured out into the light rain. The weather was on our side as it kept this event's crowd from being large, enabling us to secure spots right by the velvet ropes and we were able to watch from within a couple of arm lengths away as the following people strolled slowly by and were interviewed and photographed by the press:

Nils Lofgren (Springsteen)

Steven Van Zandt (Springsteen, Sopranos)

Paul Shaffer (Letterman Late Show Band Leader)

Anton Fig (Letterman Late Show Drummer)

Meat Loaf (Rocky Horror, Singer)

Kirk Hammett (Metallica)

Zakk Wylde (Ozzy Osborne, Black Label Society)

Jennifer Batten (Jeff Beck, Michael Jackson)

Ace Frehley (Kiss)

Allen Toussaint (Songwriter extraordinaire)

Suzanne Somers (3's Company)

Brian Setzer (Stray Cats, Brian Setzer Orchestra)

Imelda May (Singer)

Warren Haynes (Allman Bros., Gov't Mule)

Steve Miller (Steve Miller Band)

Jeff Beck (Yardbirds, solo legend)

As each celebrity passed I felt the teenage adrenaline rush tempered with my own life's business experience. I got the sense their celebrity was like a cloak of armor to protect their real identity. The more famous they were the more they were a commodity. The pressure to remain in the limelight as they aged was reflected in their plastic surgeries, heavy makeup, and overly processed hair. I walked away hoping they were having the genuine musical experience they deserved for working so hard, for so many years keeping their fans entertained.

Silvio

Fourth Visitors

Bill, Brent, Jennifer, Michael, Toni at Heartland Brewery Midtown

Wednesday we got to see another familiar face. Our good friend, Brent Searing, was here to see Jeff Beck perform at the Iridium Jazz Club (more on that later). Brent is from Kansas City but he has been living in Washington DC for the last ten years or so. He has been with the US Marines a number of years and it has turned out to be a career for him. He was a jet pilot and had actually left the Marines and had secured a job as a commercial airline pilot. He was scheduled to start the middle of September 2001. After the attacks on the 11th the airline cut him before he even started and in turn he went back to the Marines. He has been working in various capacities at the Pentagon since then. His current job is to facilitate identification and recovery of soldiers’ remains from past wars. As Casualty Liaison Officer, this has taken him to Eastern Europe and Japan many times and he has helped many families find answers to decades old questions.


click on the article to enlarge it

He is also a big music fan and in particular an avid fan of Jeff Beck. So much so that in the late nineties he managed to meet him a couple of times and they hit it off. Since then they have become good friends and Brent is able to spend time with his hero before and after concerts.
We met up at a brewpub a couple of blocks away from our apartment. He introduced us his friend, Jennifer Batten, and her friend, Michael. The two of them had come in from Portland, Oregon to join Brent in DC for Beck’s show there. Jennifer is also a professional guitarist and she played on a couple of Jeff Beck albums and tours and also played with Michael Jackson on three tours and his Super Bowl appearance.

Brent has invited us to DC and promised us a grand tour of the city including a behind the scenes tour of the Pentagon. It is only a three hour train ride so we will probably take him up on that after the summer.

Here is a video of Jennifer playing with Jeff Beck playing a Jan Hammer tune:

Without A Net

Last Saturday was a free day, a clean slate. One of the first days that we have had off and didn’t have a list of errands. Only one simple task before me, that was to go pick up some sandals being repaired. They weren’t ready, as promised, so they offered to deliver them to our apartment that evening. We readily accepted and got out as fast as we could as the chemical fumes there were starting to get us goofy.

The day before I had mentioned I would like to see the Guggenheim Museum soon so this seemed like a good time. We headed toward Madison Avenue to catch a northbound bus to get us to 89th Street. Along the way we ran into 6th Avenue which was closed for a street festival. We hardly slowed to look, are we becoming blasé? I hope not. The museum was busy but not so much to hinder our enjoyment. The main exhibition was very avant-garde and it was interesting but not terribly exciting. However, the Frank Lloyd Wright designed building was a thrill to experience. It almost moves around you as you go through it and looks stunning from every conceivable angle.

After we exhausted the Guggenheim we went across the street to the east edge of Central Park to stop and take in the exterior of the building from the vantage point most photographers use for it. When I was here last it was getting a major face lift and was clad with scaffolding from top to bottom. Now it looks good inside and out.

For our next act we decided to head down to Greenwich Village again and grab a drink or two at a very small bar aptly called the Cubby Hole on 12th Street in the West Village. This place is no bigger than our apartment but it has a nice atmosphere, a good jukebox at a reasonable volume, and most important decent drink prices. Margaritas were only $2 but we opted for the $4 wines and each successive round was filled a half inch higher than the one before. They only have one bartender until 7:00 and when she would step out for a smoke break she would just have a patron (who only knew how to draw beer and took no money) keep shop until she came back. Needless to say it is a pretty friendly neighborhood place. This is strictly a bar, there is no food served except for some of the best popcorn I have ever had. Toni noticed a sign: Ask to see our take out menus. The bartender reached under the bar and pulled out this expandable file folder that was as thick as a Bible. Each food type had a pocket. Toni resisted the urge to reorganize it and picked out a couple out of the Mexican section. We made our choices, she went outside with her cell phone and twenty minutes later we had hot burritos at the bar. We had a couple more rounds before heading back.

What I liked about this day was that we had not planned anything ahead of time, took several buses all over Manhattan without maps in hand and got home without needing directions from anyone. We keep expanding our comfort zone a little at a time and it really feels good.

Pit Stops

On Memorial Day the plan was to head straight to Macy’s and each get a little shopping done and from there head over to Les Halles, a French restaurant on Park Avenue, to use a gift certificate. Macy’s turned out to be an ordeal. They not only had the added holiday business but it was also Fleet Week here and the store was as busy as Christmastime. We completed our purchases and headed east on 34th Street. It was a bit early for dinner and we were ready for a break so at 5th Avenue we decided to pop into a microbrewery, Heartland Brewery, for a little liquid refreshment. It turns out that this brew pub is in the base of the Empire State Building with the restaurant on the ground floor and the brewery in the basement. Who knew? I went through the lobby and got some nice photos of the Art Deco marble and brass halls. Refreshed we continued on to dinner.

The day earlier the plan was equally mundane. Our agenda was simply to go to Bed Bath and Beyond on the Upper West Side and pick out curtains and rods for the apartment. This was easily accomplished and we arranged for everything to be delivered in an hour and struck out back toward the apartment. The most direct route goes through Columbus Circle at the southwest corner of the Central Park. It was a beautiful day and we had time for a break on the way home so we went to one of the kiosks that operate at the edge of the park. We grabbed a juice and coffee and snagged a table in the shade. There is a certain magic that takes place when you step across the line into the park, passing through an invisible curtain. I get the same feelings I had as a kid at a picnic. I don’t know if it is the sounds, smells, or what, but I am transported to another place and time.

You see, the things I love the most about New York City are the unplanned things that seem to happen between the planned things.

Watching Paint Dry

She started this performance art piece two weeks before we arrived in New York and it just ended on Monday. A pretty boring gig but at least she got to hang out with Lou Reed and Marisa Tomei for awhile. We saw this taking place each time we have been to the museum but we resisted any temptation to take part.

Art - Marina Abramovic’s Silent Sitting at MoMA Reaches Finale - NYTimes.com