The Neighborhood

There really isn’t much to report this week, mostly just working and errands and dealing with day to day issues that come up regardless where you live. We did squeeze in an hour walk through parts of Central Park, parts that we hadn’t seen before. There are so many meandering paths there I don’t think I will ever get it memorized. We also found another “keeper” restaurant called Hummus Kitchen that we liked enough to prompt Toni to write a review at Yelp. I have to agree with her.

Saturday we went to the American Folk Art Museum. This is a rather small museum right next to the MoMA that is really easy to miss as it has a rather small “store front” that almost looks like it is a side door to the MoMA. We were there specifically to the see the Henry Darger exhibit which runs through September 19th. We learned about Darger from a documentary several years ago. He lived a reclusive life in a one room apartment in Chicago where compulsively created art and wrote fantasy stories on an old typewriter. He worked as a janitor and had no friends. His creations were not known until after he died in 1973 and his apartment was being cleaned out. They found hundreds of works of art and several books he had written, one book was over 15,000 pages typed and single spaced. He is probably the best known of the so-called outsider artist world, that is artists who have created a large body of quality work without any formal art training, totally self taught.

For dinner that evening we went to Maison. This is a French restaurant right across from our apartment on Seventh Avenue. I have been reluctant to try it as we have not had the best experiences with the eateries right in our neighborhood. We are right in the midst of several large hotels and I think with all the built in traffic they aren’t worried about locals and repeat business. But Maison had just set up a rather large outdoor seating area a week before and the weather was so perfect we just could not resist. We got a great table where we could see Times Square down the street. I got a poached chicken crepe and Toni ordered a ratatouille crepe. Mine was so good that I was tempted to lick the plate. The kicker is this place is open twenty-four hours a day!! A great French restaurant that is never closed. We will be back.

Sunday was a pretty lazy day. In the afternoon Toni went off for a manicure/pedicure and I headed the other way for a quick stop at Home Depot. It was getting late and I hadn’t had lunch yet so I intended to grab something quick from the cart just outside our entrance. However, by the time I got to the street I promptly forgot all about it and turned the opposite direction and I was three blocks away by the time I remembered. I didn’t really feel like taking the time to stop at a restaurant, hmmm…. Then suddenly I saw that Madison Avenue was closed off for yet another street festival. I had no clue what the occasion was but there were blocks and blocks of booths and a fourth of them were all food. Saved. I was bad and got an Italian sausage sandwich that was smothered in grilled onions. It was delicious with just enough kick to keep it interesting. My mouth is watering again as I type this.

On Monday Toni had a late afternoon dentist appointment. The office is just a couple of blocks away, a short walk. On her way back she came down 53rd Street which happens to be the location of David Letterman’s stage door. She saw a gaggle of photographers and went up to see who their target was. It turned out to be Kyra Sedgwick, the star of “The Closer”. When she got home to tell me about she was all in a dither. The strange coincidence is that our first celebrity sighting when we were still in the hotel was an actor from the ensemble cast of this same show.

Fireworks Over The Hudson

We did not forget all about the Fourth of July. It is nearly impossible to forget when Macy’s, the sponsor for 34 years, has a full page color ad in every issue of the New York Times.

I sometimes wonder what it is that seems to fascinate us all with fireworks. Is it some primal thing that goes back to early tribes huddling around a campfire as logs popped and orange sparks spray up into the dark sky? Did some ancient Chinese chemist discover the effect could be enhanced with more colors by sprinkling different chemical compounds over the flame? Whatever it is most of us seem to be attracted to the colorful displays just as moths are drawn to a flame.

One of the great events at Lake Quivira is the annual fireworks displays from the dam. For twenty-two years we never had to think of where to be to get our fix. It was right in our back yard. Last year we opted for the view from our loft’s deck which paid off nicely as we were able to watch hundreds of displays from 180 degrees around for hours.

In New York we didn’t have to decide which display to watch as there is only one, but it is a killer. They have the launch sites all stationed on the west side along the Hudson River. There are six barges equally spaced from around 54th Street all the way down to 23rd Street and each of the locations have identical synchronized programs going simultaneously . The display lasts about a half hour during which they go through 40,000 explosives. This is a bit shy of the record 66,326 but a big display all the same.

We still had to decide where we wanted to go to view the spectacular. We didn’t know whether to head toward the river and deal with the crowds (Justin Bieber was performing somewhere over there) or to just go to our rooftop and deal with a limited view. We were weighing our options nearly up to starting time but we finally went with the rooftop. I think we would have been happy either way. Anyway, it turns out that the best vantage point is not even in Manhattan but across the river in New Jersey where you can take in the whole scene from lots of places.

I have embedded a nice video taken from the Jersey side showing the last seven minutes of the show. I recommend you view it in full screen mode (go to this LINK at youtube and click on the button with four arrows).

If you want to experience it like we did simply take your left hand and block half of one display and take your right hand and block half of the display next to it. This is a rough approximation of our view between the buildings. It was not perfect but our primal needs have been met for another year.

Sixth Visitors And Seventh Visitors

During the last week of June we had the pleasure of two sets of visitors from Kansas City. First there was Eva Foster and her daughter Lauren who we know from when we lived at Lake Quivira. They had built a beautiful house in the mid-1990s on the street just south of our house and through mutual lake friends we got to know the Foster family. After the Fosters' visit, Rita Reilly and her husband Tim were in Newburg, NY visiting the Reilly clan, and decided to spend Friday in the City with us. We each knew Rita separately in high school actually before Bill and I met. She was also the Maid of Honor at our wedding almost 34 years ago.


Tuesday after work we met Eva and Lauren on the corner of 53rd and 9th Ave which was exactly the halfway point between our apartment and their hotel. It was great to see them after all these many months away from KC. We ate at a tiny Indian restaurant a couple blocks down where the food is delicious and very reasonable. Afterwards we walked back to our apartment to show them our new lifestyle and enjoy a glass of wine. The next morning Eva phoned to say she had procured tickets at a deep discount price to see "Promises, Promises" starring Sean Hayes and Kristin Chenoweth that night. So again we made plans to get together after work. We met up at the same corner as the night before, except this time we walked further down 9th to one of the best Thai restaurants, Room Service. Everything we ordered was fantastic. We then walked to the storied Broadway Theatre. This theatre has been the venue for all or part of the first New York runs for shows like Funny Girl, West Side Story, South Pacific, Music Man, My Fair Lady, and many more. While we girls saw a terrific show Bill chose to enjoy the sunset and some impromptu piano music at Central Park.

We really enjoyed the show and afterwards bid them farewell. Eva and Lauren were able to see another show the following day, “La Cage Aux Folles" again at bargain basement prices, and later enjoyed the delicacy of the Halal cart that we had highly recommended.

On Friday, the Reillys arrived from Grand Central Station via subway in front of our apartment around 11:30. After a joyous reunion we walked to the Brooklyn Diner, which despite its name is in Manhattan on 57th between 7th Ave and Broadway for lunch. The place is not as reasonably priced as the dives we like to frequent on 9th Avenue, but the atmosphere is great and the food is fantastic. If you get a sandwich or entree salad each serving can be almost four servings so you do get your money's worth. After lunch we went to the apartment for a quick rooftop tour then back to work for Bill and me while they went to the MoMA and Central Park. They returned to our apartment at 4:30 where several glasses of wine were consumed while catching up. We headed to dinner, where else, but 9th Avenue. We were in the mood for Mexican food and found a place that looked interesting at about 49th Street, El Deportivo. We opened the menus but we didn't recognize anything and realized after confirming with the waitress we were in for Puerto Rican food, not Mexican. The big thing that made it something different for all of us was the side orders of green and yellow fried plantains. Once again, it was delicious and affordable. We walked off the meal by heading toward Time Square taking 46th street back over to 7th Ave. We discovered a whole new set of little restaurants during that walk to keep in mind for the next outing. At Times Square we marveled at the lights and got some great snapshots of all of us with the Jumbo-Trons in the background.

It didn’t take long until we couldn't take the crowds anymore and we turned at 42nd Street to Bryant Park at 5th Avenue. We were hoping to enjoy a drink at the outdoor restaurant there, but time was getting away from us, so after a short rest at the Park, we continued down 42nd street to Park Avenue to Grand Central Station. During that stretch of the walk the Chrysler Building was always in front of us, lit up so beautifully against the dark sky.

We had not been inside of Grand Central so that was a real treat to see it. Tim, who grew up in New York State, was pleased to see us enjoy one of the city's finest architectural icons as much as he did. After a long goodbye, we saw the Reillys off at their train back to Newburg.

During these two visits we found out Rita, a court reporter at the Johnson County Courthouse, has been a colleague and friend of Eva's brother-in-law, Tom Foster, who is a Johnson County Judge at the courthouse. Small world, but not surprising as both Eva and Rita know just about everybody back in KC one way or another. What is surprising is they have never met each other.

The week went fast and we cannot say we didn't experience a little home sickness after our visitors left. We used the long holiday weekend to reflect, relax and catch up.

88 x 60 = 5000 Fingers

Play Me I'm Yours has hit New York City. A British artist has "installed" 60 pianos around New York City in all five boroughs, 32 of them in Manhattan. They are all brightly colored and difficult to miss positioned prominently in parks and public places. This one is at Merchant's Gate next to Columbus Circle. As I watched one by one individuals came up to play a song or two to a nice round of applause. One player would finish and immediately another replacement would emerge from the audience for a steady stream of music. There were some performers who were so little they could barely get up on the bench to play. This pleasant diversion will be here for one more week after which the pianos will be donated to schools. If you go to the link you can see all the photos and videos that individuals have uploaded to share. Several people are attempting to play on every one of them.

If you click on the photo it will enlarge and you can better see that in the background there is a 'statue' of Marie Antoinette taking a break and making a cell phone call.

Saturday Shopping

Toni steps in again today.



No matter how simple you try to live you still need to clean, eat, communicate, be entertained and pay bills. That begets computers, TVs, receipts, checks, charge cards, groceries, swifters, vacuum cleaners, etc. My closets and drawers are all being used now, but I'll be damned if they won't stay organized. So after a luxurious morning of sleeping in, I went to Staples and bought several desk organizers to hold all the crap. Then to the MoMA store where they have great, cheap drawer dividers and small plastic bottles. I use the bottles for the shower so the big bottles of soaps and shampoos can be stored away. Why a museum store would have such minutiae is a mystery, but I suspect it is because they also carry expensive designer brief cases and travel bags and you are supposed to put these little things in them.



After such a successful shopping trip I treated myself to Blue Point oysters at Rosie O'Grady's before I went home. It was my first encounter with raw oysters and now I am addicted. It was also my first time at this restaurant which is directly across the street calling to me everyday. It is a lot like Houston's in Kansas City, not a place you would go everyday.



I returned home and organized with a vengeance. Those of you that know me well, I have just described in these two paragraphs the makings of Toni's perfect day.



My shopping luck today was just too good so I went back out. If I go two blocks in any direction from my apartment, I can shop at a Duane Reade drug store. Unfortunately, the DR has limited selections of most products that keep me allergy free and age ambiguous so my list of needed items was growing. There was no alternative but to venture to Walgreen's ten blocks South down 7th Avenue. A drug store with escalators just has to have everything you need and it does.


I know a lot of you would love to take this stroll just for the thrill of being in Times Square, so I equipped myself with that attitude and headed out in the late Saturday afternoon heat. I made my way through the throngs of people, dodging smokers and bumping into gawkers who stop suddenly. Instead of being irritated by the crowd and the climate I enjoyed reading the theater marquees and jumbo-trons as I walked through. I entered the Walgreen's at 42nd and Broadway and proceeded to obtain every item on the list from all three floors of the store. I remembered to bring my slightly used MoMA shopping bags that were the perfect size for my booty. Sad to leave the air conditioning, I ventured home the way I came, a shopping bag slung over each arm.


However, what once was merely a crowded sidewalk was now overflowing with people. With each block the bags were heavier and the heat more oppressing, but I was still in heaven thinking how lucky I am to be in one of the most exciting places in the world, even if I was just buying shampoo and shaving cream.

Fifth Visitor

Another good friend was here last week. I have known Mike Webber since he was working at Capers Corner when he was still in his teens. He wound up working at most of the independent record stores in Kansas City and Lawrence over the years. He wisely chose to get into another line of work. Today Mike owns Webber Air Cargo, a consulting firm, which takes him to airports around the globe.

Since he was here on business that kept him outside of Manhattan most of the time so we only got to spend Friday afternoon with him. He finished his luncheon speech and Q & A in lower Manhattan and took the train to our place to stow his bags and change. We had a nice long leisurely lunch at our favorite diner across the street.

Mike and Toni just outside the deli with Times Square in the background.

Puerto Rican Day Parade

This is just a quick post today to share some photos I took from last Sunday's parade. They say that two million people attend this every year. They close off Fifth Avenue for forty blocks or so and put up barricades that take one full lane on each side of the street and in effect incorporate those lanes into the sidewalk. This year they shortened the parade from seven hours to five hours. These photos were taken about four hours into the parade and it didn't seem to be winding down, although it was probably a little louder earlier based on the spent aerosol noise makers in the curb.

I have been asked several times if it was like the Seinfeld episode. They did a pretty good job depicting the noise and excitement and the buzz. The city does block off the cross streets most of the time, occasionally letting cars through between floats but it is really easy to avoid getting caught up in the traffic and most of it runs along the eastern edge of Central Park which is closed to weekend traffic anyway.

I do have to say that an episode of Seinfeld does come to mind almost every day I am here. I step out to the sidewalk and see things that George would say, "That's an episode."