Thursday, November 26, 2009
Rabbi Irving J. Block Memorial Lecture at Brotherhood Synagogue
LOOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis
The Seventh Annual Irving J. Block Memorial Lecture on Sunday, November 15, at the Brotherhood Synagogue brought out a memorable group of friends of all faiths and congregants, to hear Phyllis Block speak of the founding of Brotherhood in Greenwich Village and its remarkable rebirth in the former Friend’s Meeting House on Gramercy Park.
The event was opened by Rabbi Daniel Alder, who had been, starting as a seminarian, Rabbi Block’s assistant for five years before taking over the full function in 1992. Mrs. .Block was introduced by Brotherhood’s President Debbie Pearlstein, who spoke of her Mrs. Block’s 30 years of writing the Temples monthly bulletin and preparing its publications, besides being a mother and a professional editor. Mrs. Block, who holds Hunter College undergraduate and master’s degrees in French literature, also earned a PhD at Columbia University, and, before her marriage in 1964, worked as French teacher at Columbia and Rutgers and translator in the French Embassy, with a subsequent 30 year career as writer and editor of foreign language teaching material at Holt, Rinehart and Winston. In speaking she was assisted by their son, Herbert, who at the age of 12 became active in local politics, and, while still at school, had an early career as Mayor David Dinkins’s advisor. He is a graduate of Ramaz Hebrew Day School, Columbia College and Brooklyn Law School. Now a family man himself, he is an Assistant Executive VP at the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and works on restitution of Jewish communal properties throughout Eastern Europe.
The introductions were concluded by Robert Wolfe, chair of Brotherhood’s Board of Trustees and co-chair of the landmarked former Friends Meeting House’s 150th Anniversary Committee, who announced the concluding events in the memorial celebrations. At a gala party on December 3, docents dressed as Quakers will conduct invited guests through a history walk, and, on December 18, a final commemoration on the Shabbat service on the last day of Chanukah, which coincides with the date of the first Friends’ religious service in the building, on December 18, 1859.
Mrs. Block’s presentation was equally impressive. Speaking from memory, after a lead-in by Executive Director Phillip Rothman, she held the audience spellbound with the history of the Block family – how the son of a poor Bridgeport immigrants made it to UConn, to study accountancy, with side jobs to pay the $500 tuition, and joining the US Army in 1944. Stung by mindless anti-Semitism in early youth, he resolved, in his growing process, to work for the brotherhood of people, religions and nations, and after completing his accountancy degree on the GI Bill in 1947, promptly shifted to studies of religion at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, 1947-48, and subsequently to
rabbinical studies at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute ofReligion, in New York. During his studies in Israel he joined the Hagganah
Defense League and participated in Israel's War for Independence, guarding Jerusalem at night from his lookout on the cold rocks outside the Holy City.
Rabbi Block was ordained in 1953 by the HUC/JIR, from which he subsequently received the degree of Master of Hebrew Letters, and in 1978, an honorary Doctorate of Divinity.
While serving as a student rabbi, he decided to form a synagogue that would attract alienated Jews and would emphasize the principles of interfaith
brotherhood and community service. The synagogue named for brotherhood of mankind was founded by Dr. Block and a group of like-minded
associates in 1954, and for 20 years it shared joint quarters with Rev. Dr. Jesse W. Stitt and his Village Presbyterian Church on West 13th Street. The
ideal of a community of faiths was shared by Drs Block and Stitt, and they traveled together, espousing their principles, honored with awards from many civic and religious groups, and only the death of Dr. Stitt and the appointment of an unfriendly minister terminated the sharing of the sanctuaries.
After a year of "wandering in the wilderness,” in 1975 the synagogue settled into the former Friends Meeting House at 29 Gramercy Park South, NYC. Built in 1859, reputed to have served as an "underground railroad" stop in the pre-Civil War years, and landmarked under the threat of destruction for a high-rise project, it was the perfect match of the needs of a congregation and the preservationist-minded efforts of the Gramercy Park community. The
relationship was a model of an interfaith community, and the local Christian leaders (Dr. Thomas F. Pike, Rector Emeritus of Calvary/St. George's Episcopal Parish, was at the lecture, with his successor, Rev. Gregory Brewer, and Msgr. Harry Byrne of Epiphany R. C. Parish, retired in Riverdale, sent his blessings)
formed a tight-knit ecumenical group, an example for the world. In 1982, The Brotherhood was the first Manhattan synagogue to heed the call of NYC's Mayor Edward I. Koch, asking that religious institutions establish shelters for the homeless.
When Rabbi Block retired in 1994, after 41 years of rabbinical service, his retirement coincided with the 40th anniversary of the synagogue he founded. Its mission has continued, under Rabbi Alder.
The Seventh Annual Irving J. Block Memorial Lecture on Sunday, November 15, at the Brotherhood Synagogue brought out a memorable group of friends of all faiths and congregants, to hear Phyllis Block speak of the founding of Brotherhood in Greenwich Village and its remarkable rebirth in the former Friend’s Meeting House on Gramercy Park.
The event was opened by Rabbi Daniel Alder, who had been, starting as a seminarian, Rabbi Block’s assistant for five years before taking over the full function in 1992. Mrs. .Block was introduced by Brotherhood’s President Debbie Pearlstein, who spoke of her Mrs. Block’s 30 years of writing the Temples monthly bulletin and preparing its publications, besides being a mother and a professional editor. Mrs. Block, who holds Hunter College undergraduate and master’s degrees in French literature, also earned a PhD at Columbia University, and, before her marriage in 1964, worked as French teacher at Columbia and Rutgers and translator in the French Embassy, with a subsequent 30 year career as writer and editor of foreign language teaching material at Holt, Rinehart and Winston. In speaking she was assisted by their son, Herbert, who at the age of 12 became active in local politics, and, while still at school, had an early career as Mayor David Dinkins’s advisor. He is a graduate of Ramaz Hebrew Day School, Columbia College and Brooklyn Law School. Now a family man himself, he is an Assistant Executive VP at the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and works on restitution of Jewish communal properties throughout Eastern Europe.
The introductions were concluded by Robert Wolfe, chair of Brotherhood’s Board of Trustees and co-chair of the landmarked former Friends Meeting House’s 150th Anniversary Committee, who announced the concluding events in the memorial celebrations. At a gala party on December 3, docents dressed as Quakers will conduct invited guests through a history walk, and, on December 18, a final commemoration on the Shabbat service on the last day of Chanukah, which coincides with the date of the first Friends’ religious service in the building, on December 18, 1859.
Mrs. Block’s presentation was equally impressive. Speaking from memory, after a lead-in by Executive Director Phillip Rothman, she held the audience spellbound with the history of the Block family – how the son of a poor Bridgeport immigrants made it to UConn, to study accountancy, with side jobs to pay the $500 tuition, and joining the US Army in 1944. Stung by mindless anti-Semitism in early youth, he resolved, in his growing process, to work for the brotherhood of people, religions and nations, and after completing his accountancy degree on the GI Bill in 1947, promptly shifted to studies of religion at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, 1947-48, and subsequently to
rabbinical studies at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute ofReligion, in New York. During his studies in Israel he joined the Hagganah
Defense League and participated in Israel's War for Independence, guarding Jerusalem at night from his lookout on the cold rocks outside the Holy City.
Rabbi Block was ordained in 1953 by the HUC/JIR, from which he subsequently received the degree of Master of Hebrew Letters, and in 1978, an honorary Doctorate of Divinity.
While serving as a student rabbi, he decided to form a synagogue that would attract alienated Jews and would emphasize the principles of interfaith
brotherhood and community service. The synagogue named for brotherhood of mankind was founded by Dr. Block and a group of like-minded
associates in 1954, and for 20 years it shared joint quarters with Rev. Dr. Jesse W. Stitt and his Village Presbyterian Church on West 13th Street. The
ideal of a community of faiths was shared by Drs Block and Stitt, and they traveled together, espousing their principles, honored with awards from many civic and religious groups, and only the death of Dr. Stitt and the appointment of an unfriendly minister terminated the sharing of the sanctuaries.
After a year of "wandering in the wilderness,” in 1975 the synagogue settled into the former Friends Meeting House at 29 Gramercy Park South, NYC. Built in 1859, reputed to have served as an "underground railroad" stop in the pre-Civil War years, and landmarked under the threat of destruction for a high-rise project, it was the perfect match of the needs of a congregation and the preservationist-minded efforts of the Gramercy Park community. The
relationship was a model of an interfaith community, and the local Christian leaders (Dr. Thomas F. Pike, Rector Emeritus of Calvary/St. George's Episcopal Parish, was at the lecture, with his successor, Rev. Gregory Brewer, and Msgr. Harry Byrne of Epiphany R. C. Parish, retired in Riverdale, sent his blessings)
formed a tight-knit ecumenical group, an example for the world. In 1982, The Brotherhood was the first Manhattan synagogue to heed the call of NYC's Mayor Edward I. Koch, asking that religious institutions establish shelters for the homeless.
When Rabbi Block retired in 1994, after 41 years of rabbinical service, his retirement coincided with the 40th anniversary of the synagogue he founded. Its mission has continued, under Rabbi Alder.
Sunday, November 22, 2009
A quiet condo in the Keys, rent for Christmas or New Year 2009
Ground floor, steps away from the pool and marina, park outside your windows, private deck and garden, food and restaurants nearby... and Internet access!!
To view our condo in MoonBay colony, Key Largo, open (or paste into your browser) http://www.floridakeysrentalsandsales.com/VacationRentalsCondos.htm#Weekly%20There are Condos to view in the entire MoonBay . Click on Vacation Rentals, then MoonBay, then Unit B101, then pictures. Some unique aspects of this unit: note private garden, easy ground-floor access to private parking space, pool, tennis, and an easy walk to the marina (fabulous sunsets from the tiki hut). The unit particularly suitable for people with children and those with walking difficulties. A restaurant 300 yards away,two more 200 yards farther, also a nearby supermarket (one mile) and diving/snorkeling the John Pennekamp State park coral reefs (three miles).
For general and rental info call Barbara Wodka at Florida Keys Rentals & Sales Corp, 1-888-451-1050
"A CONDO IN THE KEYS" - series, see my blog.....
To view our condo in MoonBay colony, Key Largo, open (or paste into your browser) http://www.floridakeysrentalsandsales.com/VacationRentalsCondos.htm#Weekly%20There are Condos to view in the entire MoonBay . Click on Vacation Rentals, then MoonBay, then Unit B101, then pictures. Some unique aspects of this unit: note private garden, easy ground-floor access to private parking space, pool, tennis, and an easy walk to the marina (fabulous sunsets from the tiki hut). The unit particularly suitable for people with children and those with walking difficulties. A restaurant 300 yards away,two more 200 yards farther, also a nearby supermarket (one mile) and diving/snorkeling the John Pennekamp State park coral reefs (three miles).
For general and rental info call Barbara Wodka at Florida Keys Rentals & Sales Corp, 1-888-451-1050
"A CONDO IN THE KEYS" - series, see my blog.....
Labels: A condo in the Keys
Harvest in the Square 2009, our County Fair
LOOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis
While the world was waiting for thunder and lightning at the UN, with Presidents Hugo Chavez, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi having preannounced their words of anger to descend on the proceedings, the people of Union Square had more immediate concerns, about forecasts of a heavy rainfall potentially disrupting the 14th Annual Harvest in the Square, our Midtown Manhattan County Fair, on Thursday, September 24. But the clouds turned away, and another sweet and perfect September day greeted our proceedings. Some 1,200 New Yorkers gathered in the white tent that had sprung up overnight at the west edge of the Union Square Park, to taste the best farm-fresh ingredients in the best dishes assembled - and donated to the cause of the Park’s renewal - by the best chefs of Manhattan’s “best-tasting community.” That is a quote from the late Eugene McGrath, former head of the 14th Street-Union Square BID/LDC, now Union Square Partnership, host of the Harvest celebration. It is a joyful event, a giving of thanks for the bounties of the season.
The joys began at the entrance, when Mionetto Prosecco people greeted arrivals with flutes of their Italian sparkling wine, and servers of L. A. Burdick Chocolate Company (New Hampshire, available in East Coast shops) walked around with platters of bonbons, truffles and small chocolate tarts sprinkled with honey-lavender Anglaise and bee pollen, while Jack[‘s] Bistro offered mango-glazed skewered shrimp.
The buffet ambiance was crowded but friendly. Restaurants had tables of food, both in the center and lining the walls of the long tent, the small servings on plastic plates being constantly replenished by chefs from their backup hot tables and cold hampers. The 58 participating restaurant food tables were interspersed with stands of wine from 22 vineries, and beverage displays from Dallis Coffee Company, Fiji Water, GuS Grown Up Soda and Heartland Brewery.
Visitors, were cheerful, many darting between tables, tasting and exchanging impressions. The more sedate filled their plates and found a table and chairs for a leisurely picnic, at the ends and along the sides of the tent.
In the choice of favorite dishes, this was a year of basics. My hardly scientific poll shows that beef and pork predominated. The restaurant receiving the most kudos was BLT Prime, serving slices of American Vagyu (Texan version of the Japanese Kobe buttery beef), cut from flatiron (shoulder steak), with bacon chimichuri (Argentine green parsley/oil sauce). Primehouse had grilled filet mignon with bleu cheese fondue, while Angelo and Maxie’s Steakhouse version was served on sandwiches, with sauteed onions. Fans praised T-bone steaks from Knickerbocker Bar & Grill, Blue Smoke’s Texas style beef ribs, Barbounia’s lamb kebab, with tahini, and Hill Country’s smoked pork spare riblets. Pork sliders from Wildwood BBQ (with chipotle sauce) and Big Daddy’s (“fully loaded”), and pulled pork from Casa Mono/Café Jamon added a new meat favorite, to compete with the beef varieties. In the world of sea-food, Black Duck, a four restaurant operation, had oysters on the half-shell, with tomato-jalopeno granite (a whoopee horseradish/sour cream concoction), Café Spice offered pepper shrimp with tamarind rice, Almond, soon celebrating its 1st year here, offered house-smoked bluefish with dill and goat yogurt. The big B. R. Guest flagship, Blue Water Grill (14 restaurants in the empire, eight in NYC), had bacon-wrapped lobster sausage avec fennel pollen aioli {garlic mayonnaise baste, from Provence).
In what the Partnership calls the veggie category, Danny Meyers’s flagships excelled, Union Square Café with its zucchini in scapece (marinated Amalfi style), and Gramercy Tavern, souffleed crackers with zucchini, reported to melt on your tongue (I only write what they say.) Tamarind had nilgiri korma (Hyderabad curry dish), Lady Mendl’s Tea Salon at Irving Place had sliced apple with brie and cranberry chutney on seven-grain bread, but the added attractions were Harvestini martinis from her Cibar Bar. Of the unsung heroes, City Crab had good crab cakes, Cat ‘n’ Chew featured pulled shrimp tacos, BLT Fish served tuna with aioli, and Eric Peterson’s Coffee Shop offered roasted chicken tamale with salsa verde. Our restaurants still have magic.
Not forgetting the soups and desserts, Back Forty featured cold corn soup, National Arts Club served chili, and Tocqueville chilled some tomato consommé. Ciao Bella Gelato also had sorbets, Stand served a toasted marshmallow milkshake, and Todd English’s Olives featured flavored sno-cones inspired by the Union Square Greenmarket (also an exhibitor, featured in several restaurant offerings).
In wine, North Fork LI vineyards predominated, with Lieb Cellars, Shinn Estate, Marta Clara and Paumanok offering merlots, and viogniers. Finger Lakes had riesling from Ravines Cellars, Standing Stone and Dr Constantin Frank Wine Cellars. Hudson Valley was represented by Brotherhood’s Rieslings and Millbrook chardonnays (still the most popular varietals). Vina Casas Patronales from Chile offered sauvignon blanc and carmenere, and there were vouvrays and sancerres from Loire Valley (JC&CH Pichot, Vincent Delaporte). The locals, Southern Wine & Spirits and Union Square Wine & Spirits, had some of each.
The Harvest was successful, thanks are due to the givers, sponsors, partners, organizers – Matthew Hughes (Blue Water Grill), Gary Tornberg (Southern Wine), Danny Meyers, Eric Peterson, the 30 local and 9 ex-officio members of the USP board, and to Jennifer Falk and her USP staff.
The proceeds of the Harvest In The Square will be put towards the renewal of Union Square North End Project. A pamphlet by that title, printed May 2008, states that the new huge playground will be on a single elevation , and that the rehabilitated Pavilion ‘s upper level will accommodate a seasonal concession and off-season community space, with access by elevator for the disabled, and US Parks Dept office space below. If the two above statements are current, they should go a long way in settling the years-long strife between USP/NYCDPR on one side and CB5/USCC/BP Stringer on the other. On the positive side – let’s hope those words are correct; Union Square economics are up (18 new businesses). And the UN did not erupt, a good sign.
While the world was waiting for thunder and lightning at the UN, with Presidents Hugo Chavez, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi having preannounced their words of anger to descend on the proceedings, the people of Union Square had more immediate concerns, about forecasts of a heavy rainfall potentially disrupting the 14th Annual Harvest in the Square, our Midtown Manhattan County Fair, on Thursday, September 24. But the clouds turned away, and another sweet and perfect September day greeted our proceedings. Some 1,200 New Yorkers gathered in the white tent that had sprung up overnight at the west edge of the Union Square Park, to taste the best farm-fresh ingredients in the best dishes assembled - and donated to the cause of the Park’s renewal - by the best chefs of Manhattan’s “best-tasting community.” That is a quote from the late Eugene McGrath, former head of the 14th Street-Union Square BID/LDC, now Union Square Partnership, host of the Harvest celebration. It is a joyful event, a giving of thanks for the bounties of the season.
The joys began at the entrance, when Mionetto Prosecco people greeted arrivals with flutes of their Italian sparkling wine, and servers of L. A. Burdick Chocolate Company (New Hampshire, available in East Coast shops) walked around with platters of bonbons, truffles and small chocolate tarts sprinkled with honey-lavender Anglaise and bee pollen, while Jack[‘s] Bistro offered mango-glazed skewered shrimp.
The buffet ambiance was crowded but friendly. Restaurants had tables of food, both in the center and lining the walls of the long tent, the small servings on plastic plates being constantly replenished by chefs from their backup hot tables and cold hampers. The 58 participating restaurant food tables were interspersed with stands of wine from 22 vineries, and beverage displays from Dallis Coffee Company, Fiji Water, GuS Grown Up Soda and Heartland Brewery.
Visitors, were cheerful, many darting between tables, tasting and exchanging impressions. The more sedate filled their plates and found a table and chairs for a leisurely picnic, at the ends and along the sides of the tent.
In the choice of favorite dishes, this was a year of basics. My hardly scientific poll shows that beef and pork predominated. The restaurant receiving the most kudos was BLT Prime, serving slices of American Vagyu (Texan version of the Japanese Kobe buttery beef), cut from flatiron (shoulder steak), with bacon chimichuri (Argentine green parsley/oil sauce). Primehouse had grilled filet mignon with bleu cheese fondue, while Angelo and Maxie’s Steakhouse version was served on sandwiches, with sauteed onions. Fans praised T-bone steaks from Knickerbocker Bar & Grill, Blue Smoke’s Texas style beef ribs, Barbounia’s lamb kebab, with tahini, and Hill Country’s smoked pork spare riblets. Pork sliders from Wildwood BBQ (with chipotle sauce) and Big Daddy’s (“fully loaded”), and pulled pork from Casa Mono/Café Jamon added a new meat favorite, to compete with the beef varieties. In the world of sea-food, Black Duck, a four restaurant operation, had oysters on the half-shell, with tomato-jalopeno granite (a whoopee horseradish/sour cream concoction), Café Spice offered pepper shrimp with tamarind rice, Almond, soon celebrating its 1st year here, offered house-smoked bluefish with dill and goat yogurt. The big B. R. Guest flagship, Blue Water Grill (14 restaurants in the empire, eight in NYC), had bacon-wrapped lobster sausage avec fennel pollen aioli {garlic mayonnaise baste, from Provence).
In what the Partnership calls the veggie category, Danny Meyers’s flagships excelled, Union Square Café with its zucchini in scapece (marinated Amalfi style), and Gramercy Tavern, souffleed crackers with zucchini, reported to melt on your tongue (I only write what they say.) Tamarind had nilgiri korma (Hyderabad curry dish), Lady Mendl’s Tea Salon at Irving Place had sliced apple with brie and cranberry chutney on seven-grain bread, but the added attractions were Harvestini martinis from her Cibar Bar. Of the unsung heroes, City Crab had good crab cakes, Cat ‘n’ Chew featured pulled shrimp tacos, BLT Fish served tuna with aioli, and Eric Peterson’s Coffee Shop offered roasted chicken tamale with salsa verde. Our restaurants still have magic.
Not forgetting the soups and desserts, Back Forty featured cold corn soup, National Arts Club served chili, and Tocqueville chilled some tomato consommé. Ciao Bella Gelato also had sorbets, Stand served a toasted marshmallow milkshake, and Todd English’s Olives featured flavored sno-cones inspired by the Union Square Greenmarket (also an exhibitor, featured in several restaurant offerings).
In wine, North Fork LI vineyards predominated, with Lieb Cellars, Shinn Estate, Marta Clara and Paumanok offering merlots, and viogniers. Finger Lakes had riesling from Ravines Cellars, Standing Stone and Dr Constantin Frank Wine Cellars. Hudson Valley was represented by Brotherhood’s Rieslings and Millbrook chardonnays (still the most popular varietals). Vina Casas Patronales from Chile offered sauvignon blanc and carmenere, and there were vouvrays and sancerres from Loire Valley (JC&CH Pichot, Vincent Delaporte). The locals, Southern Wine & Spirits and Union Square Wine & Spirits, had some of each.
The Harvest was successful, thanks are due to the givers, sponsors, partners, organizers – Matthew Hughes (Blue Water Grill), Gary Tornberg (Southern Wine), Danny Meyers, Eric Peterson, the 30 local and 9 ex-officio members of the USP board, and to Jennifer Falk and her USP staff.
The proceeds of the Harvest In The Square will be put towards the renewal of Union Square North End Project. A pamphlet by that title, printed May 2008, states that the new huge playground will be on a single elevation , and that the rehabilitated Pavilion ‘s upper level will accommodate a seasonal concession and off-season community space, with access by elevator for the disabled, and US Parks Dept office space below. If the two above statements are current, they should go a long way in settling the years-long strife between USP/NYCDPR on one side and CB5/USCC/BP Stringer on the other. On the positive side – let’s hope those words are correct; Union Square economics are up (18 new businesses). And the UN did not erupt, a good sign.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
New Yorkers celebrate Yankee World Series victory, and other miracles
LOOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis
A-Rod owes me $100 and then some, in lost pay. Or maybe it is Matsui or Derek Jeter, but I don't care. It was worth it, to have another New York World Series parade, even though it took me two extra hours to arrive at work, for a late appointment.
Just getting on the Lexington Ave express was an event, the crush was beyond belief. Yankee tribute apparel predominated on men and women, even middle-aged ones, with many dressed in Yankee navy-blue jackets, or white shirts with black stripes and numbers. Nos. 13 and 2 were easy to identify, those are Alex Rodriguez’s and Jeter’s, but 51? When the man turned around, I saw it was a Williams’ shirt. Bernie Williams 16 seasons a Yankee, gone but not forgotten. Maybe it was in memory of the 26th victory, the 2000 World Series, last previous Yankee triumph, or those of 1998 and 1999, or the miracle of 1996, when, thanks to Al Leyritz’s bat, the Yanks won 4-2 against Atlanta, after disastrously losing the first two home games.
As the train neared Brooklyn Bridge, the conductor announced that the immediate subsequent stop at Fulton St. would be skipped, and Wall St. would be next. The great crowd erupted in a roar, but left peacefully. When the rest of passengers got to Wall Street it became evident that the lower part of Manhattan, from the Battery to the NY Stock Exchange on Broad, was in danger of sinking into the ocean, there were so many of us. On the subway platform a dozen policemen, the big ones imported from the boroughs, had closed off the three stairways to Broadway. They herded us into the basement passages of 71 Broadway and the other adjacent street-through buildings, leading west towards Hudson River and away from Broadway. But we did not go peacefully. Suddenly a warlike chant of USA! USA! from a gang of tall guys (Yankee Stadium regulars, my guess) started reverberating in the passageway, but that could not speed up our progress, and the shouters turned it down to a milder Yankee! Yankee! invocation. Eventually we all trickled out on Trinity and Washington Streets, towards the west river docks. Rector Street and other cross passages were blocked off, empty, except for police cars for emergency use, and, if lucky enough to be next to the barricade, one could watch the beginnings of the parade and the passing trucks of people as though through a long tube, or use the miraculous long zooms of modern cameras.
The police were of no help - advising us ID card waving office-bounds to “wait 45 minutes and you'll get through, across Broadway," advice that sounded well-meant but not well informed (as it turned out, it would take three hours to make that crossing). This was the point at which I decided to outflank the parade and get to my Water Street objective on the east side by going south to the Battery and then hooking left. A friendly three-star let me through, after checking my picture ID, and I was on my way south, pushing through people waving A Proud New Yorker posters supplied by the City and media sources, no sign of largesse from such as Goldman Sachs who were in the process of quietly spooking through a $23 billion (that’s with nine zeroes) bonus package to their staff speculators. That was their reward for using our TARP money in scooping up bear-market-shriveled stock shares dumped by panicking individuals, funds and banks, and boosting the numbers, miraculously. Is Goldman the secret government? Why not, didn’t they sink their competitor, Lehman? It can be done; didn’t Bloomberg buy NYC, just now?
But I digress. By now I had reached South Street, which separates the city from the green Battery Park, where I found out from another friendly uniformed officer that crossing State Street to get to the Battery Park was not only a no-no but also physically out, the barricades were locked together so tightly. It finally occurred to me that Commissioner Ray Kelly was really worrying about the Alley of Heroes being a perfect place for the al-Qaeda terrorists, using the parade to shock us once more.So I had to walk west, passing the Highlander marchers, high school bands, and bagpipers, and trucks of Yankee-jacketed fans with bandoleers, all staged on State Street. That took me practically to Newark, but eventually I was able to cross State and proceed east along the park.
If you call that proceeding. The crowd got thicker, watching the orchestras and trucks full of people - and no Mr. Johns in sight. I refused to dwell on sanitation strategies for overflow parades, and managed to reach Water Street, two hours late for my appointment. But the financial world was mellow that day, the weather was mild, and working late was no pain. Besides, today Yankees, tomorrow the health program and Afghanistan soon thereafter, let’s hope we are on a roll. It is a time of miracles, didn’t we just find water on the Moon, and what about the stock market prices defying gravity, and the admirer who spent thousands of dollars for Bernie Madoff’s old satin Yankee jacket?
A-Rod owes me $100 and then some, in lost pay. Or maybe it is Matsui or Derek Jeter, but I don't care. It was worth it, to have another New York World Series parade, even though it took me two extra hours to arrive at work, for a late appointment.
Just getting on the Lexington Ave express was an event, the crush was beyond belief. Yankee tribute apparel predominated on men and women, even middle-aged ones, with many dressed in Yankee navy-blue jackets, or white shirts with black stripes and numbers. Nos. 13 and 2 were easy to identify, those are Alex Rodriguez’s and Jeter’s, but 51? When the man turned around, I saw it was a Williams’ shirt. Bernie Williams 16 seasons a Yankee, gone but not forgotten. Maybe it was in memory of the 26th victory, the 2000 World Series, last previous Yankee triumph, or those of 1998 and 1999, or the miracle of 1996, when, thanks to Al Leyritz’s bat, the Yanks won 4-2 against Atlanta, after disastrously losing the first two home games.
As the train neared Brooklyn Bridge, the conductor announced that the immediate subsequent stop at Fulton St. would be skipped, and Wall St. would be next. The great crowd erupted in a roar, but left peacefully. When the rest of passengers got to Wall Street it became evident that the lower part of Manhattan, from the Battery to the NY Stock Exchange on Broad, was in danger of sinking into the ocean, there were so many of us. On the subway platform a dozen policemen, the big ones imported from the boroughs, had closed off the three stairways to Broadway. They herded us into the basement passages of 71 Broadway and the other adjacent street-through buildings, leading west towards Hudson River and away from Broadway. But we did not go peacefully. Suddenly a warlike chant of USA! USA! from a gang of tall guys (Yankee Stadium regulars, my guess) started reverberating in the passageway, but that could not speed up our progress, and the shouters turned it down to a milder Yankee! Yankee! invocation. Eventually we all trickled out on Trinity and Washington Streets, towards the west river docks. Rector Street and other cross passages were blocked off, empty, except for police cars for emergency use, and, if lucky enough to be next to the barricade, one could watch the beginnings of the parade and the passing trucks of people as though through a long tube, or use the miraculous long zooms of modern cameras.
The police were of no help - advising us ID card waving office-bounds to “wait 45 minutes and you'll get through, across Broadway," advice that sounded well-meant but not well informed (as it turned out, it would take three hours to make that crossing). This was the point at which I decided to outflank the parade and get to my Water Street objective on the east side by going south to the Battery and then hooking left. A friendly three-star let me through, after checking my picture ID, and I was on my way south, pushing through people waving A Proud New Yorker posters supplied by the City and media sources, no sign of largesse from such as Goldman Sachs who were in the process of quietly spooking through a $23 billion (that’s with nine zeroes) bonus package to their staff speculators. That was their reward for using our TARP money in scooping up bear-market-shriveled stock shares dumped by panicking individuals, funds and banks, and boosting the numbers, miraculously. Is Goldman the secret government? Why not, didn’t they sink their competitor, Lehman? It can be done; didn’t Bloomberg buy NYC, just now?
But I digress. By now I had reached South Street, which separates the city from the green Battery Park, where I found out from another friendly uniformed officer that crossing State Street to get to the Battery Park was not only a no-no but also physically out, the barricades were locked together so tightly. It finally occurred to me that Commissioner Ray Kelly was really worrying about the Alley of Heroes being a perfect place for the al-Qaeda terrorists, using the parade to shock us once more.So I had to walk west, passing the Highlander marchers, high school bands, and bagpipers, and trucks of Yankee-jacketed fans with bandoleers, all staged on State Street. That took me practically to Newark, but eventually I was able to cross State and proceed east along the park.
If you call that proceeding. The crowd got thicker, watching the orchestras and trucks full of people - and no Mr. Johns in sight. I refused to dwell on sanitation strategies for overflow parades, and managed to reach Water Street, two hours late for my appointment. But the financial world was mellow that day, the weather was mild, and working late was no pain. Besides, today Yankees, tomorrow the health program and Afghanistan soon thereafter, let’s hope we are on a roll. It is a time of miracles, didn’t we just find water on the Moon, and what about the stock market prices defying gravity, and the admirer who spent thousands of dollars for Bernie Madoff’s old satin Yankee jacket?
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Harvest Festival on Union Square, our County Fair
LOOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis
While the world was waiting for thunder and lightning at the UN, with Presidents Hugo Chavez, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi having preannounced their words of anger to descend on the proceedings, the people of Union Square had more immediate concerns, about forecasts of a heavy rainfall potentially disrupting the 14th Annual Harvest in the Square, our Midtown Manhattan County Fair, on Thursday, September 24. But the clouds turned away, and another sweet and perfect September day greeted our proceedings. Some 1,200 New Yorkers gathered in the white tent that had sprung up overnight at the west edge of the Union Square Park, to taste the best farm-fresh ingredients in the best dishes assembled - and donated to the cause of the Park’s renewal - by the best chefs of Manhattan’s “best-tasting community.” That is a quote from the late Eugene McGrath, former head of the 14th Street-Union Square BID/LDC, now Union Square Partnership, host of the Harvest celebration. It is a joyful event, a giving of thanks for the bounties of the season.
The joys began at the entrance, when Mionetto Prosecco people greeted arrivals with flutes of their Italian sparkling wine, and servers of L. A. Burdick Chocolate Company (New Hampshire, available in East Coast shops) walked around with platters of bonbons, truffles and small chocolate tarts sprinkled with honey-lavender Anglaise and bee pollen, while Jack[‘s] Bistro offered mango-glazed skewered shrimp.
The buffet ambiance was crowded but friendly. Restaurants had tables of food, both in the center and lining the walls of the long tent, the small servings on plastic plates being constantly replenished by chefs from their backup hot tables and cold hampers. The 58 participating restaurant food tables were interspersed with stands of wine from 22 vineries, and beverage displays from Dallis Coffee Company, Fiji Water, GuS Grown Up Soda and Heartland Brewery.
Visitors, were cheerful, many darting between tables, tasting and exchanging impressions. The more sedate filled their plates and found a table and chairs for a leisurely picnic, at the ends and along the sides of the tent.
In the choice of favorite dishes, this was a year of basics. My hardly scientific poll shows that beef and pork predominated. The restaurant receiving the most kudos was BLT Prime, serving slices of American Vagyu (Texan version of the Japanese Kobe buttery beef), cut from flatiron (shoulder steak), with bacon chimichuri (Argentine green parsley/oil sauce). Primehouse had grilled filet mignon with bleu cheese fondue, while Angelo and Maxie’s Steakhouse version was served on sandwiches, with sauteed onions. Fans praised T-bone steaks from Knickerbocker Bar & Grill, Blue Smoke’s Texas style beef ribs, Barbounia’s lamb kebab, with tahini, and Hill Country’s smoked pork spare riblets. Pork sliders from Wildwood BBQ (with chipotle sauce) and Big Daddy’s (“fully loaded”), and pulled pork from Casa Mono/Café Jamon added a new meat favorite, to compete with the beef varieties. In the world of sea-food, Black Duck, a four restaurant operation, had oysters on the half-shell, with tomato-jalopeno granite (a whoopee horseradish/sour cream concoction), Café Spice offered pepper shrimp with tamarind rice, Almond, soon celebrating its 1st year here, offered house-smoked bluefish with dill and goat yogurt. The big B. R. Guest flagship, Blue Water Grill (14 restaurants in the empire, eight in NYC), had bacon-wrapped lobster sausage avec fennel pollen aioli {garlic mayonnaise baste, from Provence).
In what the Partnership calls the veggie category, Danny Meyers’s flagships excelled, Union Square Café with its zucchini in scapece (marinated Amalfi style), and Gramercy Tavern, souffleed crackers with zucchini, reported to melt on your tongue (I only write what they say.) Tamarind had nilgiri korma (Hyderabad curry dish), Lady Mendl’s Tea Salon at Irving Place had sliced apple with brie and cranberry chutney on seven-grain bread, but the added attractions were Harvestini martinis from her Cibar Bar. Of the unsung heroes, City Crab had good crab cakes, Cat ‘n’ Chew featured pulled shrimp tacos, BLT Fish served tuna with aioli, and Eric Peterson’s Coffee Shop offered roasted chicken tamale with salsa verde. Our restaurants still have magic.
Not forgetting the soups and desserts, Back Forty featured cold corn soup, National Arts Club served chili, and Tocqueville chilled some tomato consommé. Ciao Bella Gelato also had sorbets, Stand served a toasted marshmallow milkshake, and Todd English’s Olives featured flavored sno-cones inspired by the Union Square Greenmarket (also an exhibitor, featured in several restaurant offerings).
In wine, North Fork LI vineyards predominated, with Lieb Cellars, Shinn Estate, Marta Clara and Paumanok offering merlots, and viogniers. Finger Lakes had riesling from Ravines Cellars, Standing Stone and Dr Constantin Frank Wine Cellars. Hudson Valley was represented by Brotherhood’s Rieslings and Millbrook chardonnays (still the most popular varietals). Vina Casas Patronales from Chile offered sauvignon blanc and carmenere, and there were vouvrays and sancerres from Loire Valley (JC&CH Pichot, Vincent Delaporte). The locals, Southern Wine & Spirits and Union Square Wine & Spirits, had some of each.
The Harvest was successful, thanks are due to the givers, sponsors, partners, organizers – Matthew Hughes (Blue Water Grill), Gary Tornberg (Southern Wine), Danny Meyers, Eric Peterson, the 30 local and 9 ex-officio members of the USP board, and to Jennifer Falk and her USP staff.
The proceeds of the Harvest In The Square will be put towards the renewal of Union Square North End Project. A pamphlet by that title, printed May 2008, states that the new huge playground will be on a single elevation , and that the rehabilitated Pavilion ‘s upper level will accommodate a seasonal concession and off-season community space, with access by elevator for the disabled, and US Parks Dept office space below. If the two above statements are current, they should go a long way in settling the years-long strife between USP/NYCDPR on one side and CB5/USCC/BP Stringer on the other. On the positive side – let’s hope those words are correct; Union Square economics are up (18 new businesses). And the UN did not erupt, a good sign.
While the world was waiting for thunder and lightning at the UN, with Presidents Hugo Chavez, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi having preannounced their words of anger to descend on the proceedings, the people of Union Square had more immediate concerns, about forecasts of a heavy rainfall potentially disrupting the 14th Annual Harvest in the Square, our Midtown Manhattan County Fair, on Thursday, September 24. But the clouds turned away, and another sweet and perfect September day greeted our proceedings. Some 1,200 New Yorkers gathered in the white tent that had sprung up overnight at the west edge of the Union Square Park, to taste the best farm-fresh ingredients in the best dishes assembled - and donated to the cause of the Park’s renewal - by the best chefs of Manhattan’s “best-tasting community.” That is a quote from the late Eugene McGrath, former head of the 14th Street-Union Square BID/LDC, now Union Square Partnership, host of the Harvest celebration. It is a joyful event, a giving of thanks for the bounties of the season.
The joys began at the entrance, when Mionetto Prosecco people greeted arrivals with flutes of their Italian sparkling wine, and servers of L. A. Burdick Chocolate Company (New Hampshire, available in East Coast shops) walked around with platters of bonbons, truffles and small chocolate tarts sprinkled with honey-lavender Anglaise and bee pollen, while Jack[‘s] Bistro offered mango-glazed skewered shrimp.
The buffet ambiance was crowded but friendly. Restaurants had tables of food, both in the center and lining the walls of the long tent, the small servings on plastic plates being constantly replenished by chefs from their backup hot tables and cold hampers. The 58 participating restaurant food tables were interspersed with stands of wine from 22 vineries, and beverage displays from Dallis Coffee Company, Fiji Water, GuS Grown Up Soda and Heartland Brewery.
Visitors, were cheerful, many darting between tables, tasting and exchanging impressions. The more sedate filled their plates and found a table and chairs for a leisurely picnic, at the ends and along the sides of the tent.
In the choice of favorite dishes, this was a year of basics. My hardly scientific poll shows that beef and pork predominated. The restaurant receiving the most kudos was BLT Prime, serving slices of American Vagyu (Texan version of the Japanese Kobe buttery beef), cut from flatiron (shoulder steak), with bacon chimichuri (Argentine green parsley/oil sauce). Primehouse had grilled filet mignon with bleu cheese fondue, while Angelo and Maxie’s Steakhouse version was served on sandwiches, with sauteed onions. Fans praised T-bone steaks from Knickerbocker Bar & Grill, Blue Smoke’s Texas style beef ribs, Barbounia’s lamb kebab, with tahini, and Hill Country’s smoked pork spare riblets. Pork sliders from Wildwood BBQ (with chipotle sauce) and Big Daddy’s (“fully loaded”), and pulled pork from Casa Mono/Café Jamon added a new meat favorite, to compete with the beef varieties. In the world of sea-food, Black Duck, a four restaurant operation, had oysters on the half-shell, with tomato-jalopeno granite (a whoopee horseradish/sour cream concoction), Café Spice offered pepper shrimp with tamarind rice, Almond, soon celebrating its 1st year here, offered house-smoked bluefish with dill and goat yogurt. The big B. R. Guest flagship, Blue Water Grill (14 restaurants in the empire, eight in NYC), had bacon-wrapped lobster sausage avec fennel pollen aioli {garlic mayonnaise baste, from Provence).
In what the Partnership calls the veggie category, Danny Meyers’s flagships excelled, Union Square Café with its zucchini in scapece (marinated Amalfi style), and Gramercy Tavern, souffleed crackers with zucchini, reported to melt on your tongue (I only write what they say.) Tamarind had nilgiri korma (Hyderabad curry dish), Lady Mendl’s Tea Salon at Irving Place had sliced apple with brie and cranberry chutney on seven-grain bread, but the added attractions were Harvestini martinis from her Cibar Bar. Of the unsung heroes, City Crab had good crab cakes, Cat ‘n’ Chew featured pulled shrimp tacos, BLT Fish served tuna with aioli, and Eric Peterson’s Coffee Shop offered roasted chicken tamale with salsa verde. Our restaurants still have magic.
Not forgetting the soups and desserts, Back Forty featured cold corn soup, National Arts Club served chili, and Tocqueville chilled some tomato consommé. Ciao Bella Gelato also had sorbets, Stand served a toasted marshmallow milkshake, and Todd English’s Olives featured flavored sno-cones inspired by the Union Square Greenmarket (also an exhibitor, featured in several restaurant offerings).
In wine, North Fork LI vineyards predominated, with Lieb Cellars, Shinn Estate, Marta Clara and Paumanok offering merlots, and viogniers. Finger Lakes had riesling from Ravines Cellars, Standing Stone and Dr Constantin Frank Wine Cellars. Hudson Valley was represented by Brotherhood’s Rieslings and Millbrook chardonnays (still the most popular varietals). Vina Casas Patronales from Chile offered sauvignon blanc and carmenere, and there were vouvrays and sancerres from Loire Valley (JC&CH Pichot, Vincent Delaporte). The locals, Southern Wine & Spirits and Union Square Wine & Spirits, had some of each.
The Harvest was successful, thanks are due to the givers, sponsors, partners, organizers – Matthew Hughes (Blue Water Grill), Gary Tornberg (Southern Wine), Danny Meyers, Eric Peterson, the 30 local and 9 ex-officio members of the USP board, and to Jennifer Falk and her USP staff.
The proceeds of the Harvest In The Square will be put towards the renewal of Union Square North End Project. A pamphlet by that title, printed May 2008, states that the new huge playground will be on a single elevation , and that the rehabilitated Pavilion ‘s upper level will accommodate a seasonal concession and off-season community space, with access by elevator for the disabled, and US Parks Dept office space below. If the two above statements are current, they should go a long way in settling the years-long strife between USP/NYCDPR on one side and CB5/USCC/BP Stringer on the other. On the positive side – let’s hope those words are correct; Union Square economics are up (18 new businesses). And the UN did not erupt, a good sign.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Visit NYC's newest neighborhood park, High Line
LOOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis
People of New York’s park community, we have the means to banish gloom and doom from our daily lives – go out and enjoy our environment, while the weather is good. Now a new treasure has become available to cheer us up, the High Line park, a former elevated railroad yard, way west, near the Hudson. Take the M14 bus line as far as you can , to 10th Avenue. Looking forward, you will see a superstructure like a bridge, crossing your field of vision, with people walking on it. To join them, trot along 10th Avenue to 16th Street, turn east and you will be at the elevator entrance (other walkup steps are at 20th, 18th, 14th and Gansewoort (appx. 12th) Streets.
Once up, you will be surprised to be on a cement sidewalk with 5 ft. tall grass growing right through it, along the sides, in slots cut near-parallel to the walkway. Beyond the slots, to the edge of the former right-of-way, fenced with strong railings, the tall grass grows freely, interspersed with clumps of yellow Susans, purple rudbeckia, chunks of asters and small oaks, like a wall-to-wall meadow run wild. The walkway is crowded, as thick as 14th Street by the Whole Foods, grownup people, with toddlers in strollers, little kids running wild in surprise, (no dogs allowed) , gawkers on benches, observing the passing scene. The benches are works of art, built of 2x6 or 2x2 wood, freestanding or bolstered by cement buttresses, all different.
Walking north, admiring the view of the city – look, there is a misshapen building, or is that the IAC skyscraper by Frank Gehry? (yes, and his wife, Diane von Furstenburg, has a boutique down on 14th ). At 17th Street, where the rails cross 10th Avenue, there’s a Roman forum terraced with benches to view the traffic, seemingly open–ended at the bottom (a deception, an invisible glass wall protects the kids from dropping on top of the cars); you can view the golden Met insurance spire, and at 18th there is a view of a rooftop park, atop a restaurant aptly mamed The Park. Want to see the Statue of Liberty? At the charming little maple or plane tree grove , also near 18th, there is a sighting to the south, through the leaves . An ocean liner ? The huge Norvegian Spirit just happens to be passing, past the xx dock. A strange wire cage reaching up, high over the river? That’s the golf driving range of Chelsea Piers.
Let’s go back to the Gehry IAC building, which is sort of focal to the whole organized madness concept one senses here. Gehry’s 30 year breakthrough into the world of New York’s glass boxes, it houses Barry Diller’s InterActive Corporation, a media and internet empire. Try to define it? The IAC website flashes a page of cute corporate names, never stopping for a clos view. By adding the excel columns and multiplying by lines, you surmise there are 54 companies, more or less, named Ask.com, Citysearch, evite, bustedtees, CollegeHumor, Zwonky, vimeo, Kazulah, excite, pronto, showbug.com, Won; the mind boggles. It all adds to billions of dollars’ worth of flimflam, none ever splashed in the scandal pages of NYTimes business section. Are thet really more solid than banks? (Scratch that question– everything is.)
Anyway, this mirage fits in with the HighLine concept, created by the architectural firm of Diller Scofidio + Renfro (stet), led by James Corner Field Operations. DS+R gained fame with its 2006 ICA building (confuse not, that’s Institute of Contemporary Art) and its surrounds, in Boston’s Back Bay waterfront milieu, a prototype to NYC’s marvel of grass growing through concrete.
The walk ends soon after 20th street stairs, with a gate, beyond which you see a continuation, cement only, as of now, with a little nursery of plants for the Chelsea Grasslands (an unobtrusive sign someplace proclaims the meadows to be a gift of the Tiffany Foundation).
More experiences on the way back. There’s the jnteresting block of dark red brick mid-19th Century brownstones around a church at 20th Street; a glass wlll structure with white and blue windowshades that shies brightly when the sun comes out,contrasted with sinister warehouses visible down the path. All colors of New York, in a nutshell.ng 14th street steps we enter a covered passageway through a mysterious building in construction , then a long walk leading through a multi-story glass slab with floor to ceiling windows, which turns out to be Andre Balazs’ new Standard Hotel building, 337 rooms, a year old. What a view from there. Oh, yeah? I heard from a cynic, upon return, that exhibitionists rent rooms there and strip buck naked for show (the proud Balazs pastes some fig leaves on the pix and shows them on his web site, anything for a buck. Very a bad taste, man).
The path then continues to another little grove of trees, at the Gansewoort (12th Street) staircase. We return to fashionable 14th Street, no kidding, rich in boutiques, from Hugo Boss to Carlos Mole, with a DWR Design store, where kiddies jump around in Wilberforce Eames’ plastic chairs, still a great design after 50 years. We catch the M14 bus down on 9th Avenue, where an elegant midstreet mall breaks up traffic, just like at Madison Square Park. A day well spent.
People of New York’s park community, we have the means to banish gloom and doom from our daily lives – go out and enjoy our environment, while the weather is good. Now a new treasure has become available to cheer us up, the High Line park, a former elevated railroad yard, way west, near the Hudson. Take the M14 bus line as far as you can , to 10th Avenue. Looking forward, you will see a superstructure like a bridge, crossing your field of vision, with people walking on it. To join them, trot along 10th Avenue to 16th Street, turn east and you will be at the elevator entrance (other walkup steps are at 20th, 18th, 14th and Gansewoort (appx. 12th) Streets.
Once up, you will be surprised to be on a cement sidewalk with 5 ft. tall grass growing right through it, along the sides, in slots cut near-parallel to the walkway. Beyond the slots, to the edge of the former right-of-way, fenced with strong railings, the tall grass grows freely, interspersed with clumps of yellow Susans, purple rudbeckia, chunks of asters and small oaks, like a wall-to-wall meadow run wild. The walkway is crowded, as thick as 14th Street by the Whole Foods, grownup people, with toddlers in strollers, little kids running wild in surprise, (no dogs allowed) , gawkers on benches, observing the passing scene. The benches are works of art, built of 2x6 or 2x2 wood, freestanding or bolstered by cement buttresses, all different.
Walking north, admiring the view of the city – look, there is a misshapen building, or is that the IAC skyscraper by Frank Gehry? (yes, and his wife, Diane von Furstenburg, has a boutique down on 14th ). At 17th Street, where the rails cross 10th Avenue, there’s a Roman forum terraced with benches to view the traffic, seemingly open–ended at the bottom (a deception, an invisible glass wall protects the kids from dropping on top of the cars); you can view the golden Met insurance spire, and at 18th there is a view of a rooftop park, atop a restaurant aptly mamed The Park. Want to see the Statue of Liberty? At the charming little maple or plane tree grove , also near 18th, there is a sighting to the south, through the leaves . An ocean liner ? The huge Norvegian Spirit just happens to be passing, past the xx dock. A strange wire cage reaching up, high over the river? That’s the golf driving range of Chelsea Piers.
Let’s go back to the Gehry IAC building, which is sort of focal to the whole organized madness concept one senses here. Gehry’s 30 year breakthrough into the world of New York’s glass boxes, it houses Barry Diller’s InterActive Corporation, a media and internet empire. Try to define it? The IAC website flashes a page of cute corporate names, never stopping for a clos view. By adding the excel columns and multiplying by lines, you surmise there are 54 companies, more or less, named Ask.com, Citysearch, evite, bustedtees, CollegeHumor, Zwonky, vimeo, Kazulah, excite, pronto, showbug.com, Won; the mind boggles. It all adds to billions of dollars’ worth of flimflam, none ever splashed in the scandal pages of NYTimes business section. Are thet really more solid than banks? (Scratch that question– everything is.)
Anyway, this mirage fits in with the HighLine concept, created by the architectural firm of Diller Scofidio + Renfro (stet), led by James Corner Field Operations. DS+R gained fame with its 2006 ICA building (confuse not, that’s Institute of Contemporary Art) and its surrounds, in Boston’s Back Bay waterfront milieu, a prototype to NYC’s marvel of grass growing through concrete.
The walk ends soon after 20th street stairs, with a gate, beyond which you see a continuation, cement only, as of now, with a little nursery of plants for the Chelsea Grasslands (an unobtrusive sign someplace proclaims the meadows to be a gift of the Tiffany Foundation).
More experiences on the way back. There’s the jnteresting block of dark red brick mid-19th Century brownstones around a church at 20th Street; a glass wlll structure with white and blue windowshades that shies brightly when the sun comes out,contrasted with sinister warehouses visible down the path. All colors of New York, in a nutshell.ng 14th street steps we enter a covered passageway through a mysterious building in construction , then a long walk leading through a multi-story glass slab with floor to ceiling windows, which turns out to be Andre Balazs’ new Standard Hotel building, 337 rooms, a year old. What a view from there. Oh, yeah? I heard from a cynic, upon return, that exhibitionists rent rooms there and strip buck naked for show (the proud Balazs pastes some fig leaves on the pix and shows them on his web site, anything for a buck. Very a bad taste, man).
The path then continues to another little grove of trees, at the Gansewoort (12th Street) staircase. We return to fashionable 14th Street, no kidding, rich in boutiques, from Hugo Boss to Carlos Mole, with a DWR Design store, where kiddies jump around in Wilberforce Eames’ plastic chairs, still a great design after 50 years. We catch the M14 bus down on 9th Avenue, where an elegant midstreet mall breaks up traffic, just like at Madison Square Park. A day well spent.
Monday, November 09, 2009
Dr Paranoia celebrates Yankee victory and other miracles
LOOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis
New Yorkers celebrate Yankee victory, and other miracles
Dr. Paranoia, a frequent contributor, sends this e-mail:
A-Rod owes me $100 and then some, in lost pay. Or maybe it is Matsui or Derek Jeter, but I don't care. It was worth it, to have another New York World Series parade, even though it took me two extra hours to arrive at work, for a late appointment.
Just getting on the Lexington Ave express was an event, the crush was beyond belief. Yankee tribute apparel predominated on men and women, even middle-aged ones, with many dressed in Yankee navy-blue jackets, or white shirts with black stripes and numbers. Nos. 13 and 2 were easy to identify, those are Alex Rodriguez’s and Jeter’s, but 51? When the man turned around, I saw it was a Williams’ shirt. Bernie Williams 16 seasons a Yankee, gone but not forgotten. Maybe it was in memory of the 26th victory, the 2000 World Series, last previous Yankee triumph, or those of 1998 and 1999, or the miracle of 1996, when, thanks to Al Leyritz’s bat, the Yanks won 4-2 against Atlanta, after disastrously losing the first two home games.
As the train neared Brooklyn Bridge, the conductor announced that the immediate subsequent stop at Fulton St. would be skipped, and Wall St. would be next. The great crowd erupted in a roar, but left peacefully. When the rest of passengers got to Wall Street it became evident that the lower part of Manhattan, from the Battery to the NY Stock Exchange on Broad, was in danger of sinking into the ocean, there were so many of us. On the subway platform a dozen policemen, the big ones imported from the boroughs, had closed off the three stairways to Broadway. They herded us into the basement passages of 71 Broadway and the other adjacent street-through buildings, leading west towards Hudson River and away from Broadway. But we did not go peacefully. Suddenly a warlike chant of USA! USA! from a gang of tall guys (Yankee Stadium regulars, my guess) started reverberating in the passageway, but that could not speed up our progress, and the shouters turned it down to a milder Yankee! Yankee! invocation. Eventually we all trickled out on Trinity and Washington Streets, towards the west river docks. Rector Street and other cross passages were blocked off, empty, except for police cars for emergency use, and, if lucky enough to be next to the barricade, one could watch the beginnings of the parade and the passing trucks of people as though through a long tube, or use the miraculous long zooms of modern cameras.
The police were of no help - advising us ID card waving office-bounds to “wait 45 minutes and you'll get through, across Broadway," advice that sounded well-meant but not well informed (as it turned out, it would take three hours to make that crossing). This was the point at which I decided to outflank the parade and get to my Water Street objective on the east side by going south to the Battery and then hooking left. A friendly three-star let me through, after checking my picture ID, and I was on my way south, pushing through people waving A Proud New Yorker posters supplied by the City and media sources, no sign of largesse from such as Goldman Sachs who were in the process of quietly spooking through a $23 billion (that’s with nine zeroes) bonus package to their staff speculators. That was their reward for using our TARP money in scooping up bear-market-shriveled stock shares dumped by panicking individuals, funds and banks, and boosting the numbers, miraculously. Is Goldman the secret government? Why not, didn’t they sink their competitor, Lehman? It can be done; didn’t Bloomberg buy NYC, just now?Or is it just the banality of money-grubbing, as Hannah Arendt might say?
But I digress. By now I had reached State Street, which separates the city from the green Battery Park, where I found out from another friendly uniformed officer that crossing State Street to get to the Battery Park was not only a no-no but also physically out, the barricades were locked together so tightly. It finally occurred to me that Commissioner Ray Kelly was really worrying about the Alley of Heroes being a perfect place for the al-Qaeda terrorists, using the parade to shock us once more.So I had to walk west, passing the Highlander marchers, high school bands, and bagpipers, and trucks of Yankee-jacketed fans with bandoleers, all staged on State Street. That took me practically to Newark, but eventually I was able to cross State and proceed east along the park.
If you call that proceeding. The crowd got thicker, watching the orchestras and trucks full of people - and no Mr. Johns in sight. I refused to dwell on sanitation strategies for overflow parades, and managed to reach Water Street, two hours late for my appointment. But the financial world was mellow that day, the weather was mild, and working late was no pain. Besides, today Yankees, tomorrow the health program and Afghanistan soon thereafter, let’s hope we are on a roll. It is a time of miracles, didn’t we just find water on the Moon, and what about the stock market prices defying gravity, and the admirer who spent thousands of dollars for Bernie Madoff’s old satin Yankee jacket?
New Yorkers celebrate Yankee victory, and other miracles
Dr. Paranoia, a frequent contributor, sends this e-mail:
A-Rod owes me $100 and then some, in lost pay. Or maybe it is Matsui or Derek Jeter, but I don't care. It was worth it, to have another New York World Series parade, even though it took me two extra hours to arrive at work, for a late appointment.
Just getting on the Lexington Ave express was an event, the crush was beyond belief. Yankee tribute apparel predominated on men and women, even middle-aged ones, with many dressed in Yankee navy-blue jackets, or white shirts with black stripes and numbers. Nos. 13 and 2 were easy to identify, those are Alex Rodriguez’s and Jeter’s, but 51? When the man turned around, I saw it was a Williams’ shirt. Bernie Williams 16 seasons a Yankee, gone but not forgotten. Maybe it was in memory of the 26th victory, the 2000 World Series, last previous Yankee triumph, or those of 1998 and 1999, or the miracle of 1996, when, thanks to Al Leyritz’s bat, the Yanks won 4-2 against Atlanta, after disastrously losing the first two home games.
As the train neared Brooklyn Bridge, the conductor announced that the immediate subsequent stop at Fulton St. would be skipped, and Wall St. would be next. The great crowd erupted in a roar, but left peacefully. When the rest of passengers got to Wall Street it became evident that the lower part of Manhattan, from the Battery to the NY Stock Exchange on Broad, was in danger of sinking into the ocean, there were so many of us. On the subway platform a dozen policemen, the big ones imported from the boroughs, had closed off the three stairways to Broadway. They herded us into the basement passages of 71 Broadway and the other adjacent street-through buildings, leading west towards Hudson River and away from Broadway. But we did not go peacefully. Suddenly a warlike chant of USA! USA! from a gang of tall guys (Yankee Stadium regulars, my guess) started reverberating in the passageway, but that could not speed up our progress, and the shouters turned it down to a milder Yankee! Yankee! invocation. Eventually we all trickled out on Trinity and Washington Streets, towards the west river docks. Rector Street and other cross passages were blocked off, empty, except for police cars for emergency use, and, if lucky enough to be next to the barricade, one could watch the beginnings of the parade and the passing trucks of people as though through a long tube, or use the miraculous long zooms of modern cameras.
The police were of no help - advising us ID card waving office-bounds to “wait 45 minutes and you'll get through, across Broadway," advice that sounded well-meant but not well informed (as it turned out, it would take three hours to make that crossing). This was the point at which I decided to outflank the parade and get to my Water Street objective on the east side by going south to the Battery and then hooking left. A friendly three-star let me through, after checking my picture ID, and I was on my way south, pushing through people waving A Proud New Yorker posters supplied by the City and media sources, no sign of largesse from such as Goldman Sachs who were in the process of quietly spooking through a $23 billion (that’s with nine zeroes) bonus package to their staff speculators. That was their reward for using our TARP money in scooping up bear-market-shriveled stock shares dumped by panicking individuals, funds and banks, and boosting the numbers, miraculously. Is Goldman the secret government? Why not, didn’t they sink their competitor, Lehman? It can be done; didn’t Bloomberg buy NYC, just now?Or is it just the banality of money-grubbing, as Hannah Arendt might say?
But I digress. By now I had reached State Street, which separates the city from the green Battery Park, where I found out from another friendly uniformed officer that crossing State Street to get to the Battery Park was not only a no-no but also physically out, the barricades were locked together so tightly. It finally occurred to me that Commissioner Ray Kelly was really worrying about the Alley of Heroes being a perfect place for the al-Qaeda terrorists, using the parade to shock us once more.So I had to walk west, passing the Highlander marchers, high school bands, and bagpipers, and trucks of Yankee-jacketed fans with bandoleers, all staged on State Street. That took me practically to Newark, but eventually I was able to cross State and proceed east along the park.
If you call that proceeding. The crowd got thicker, watching the orchestras and trucks full of people - and no Mr. Johns in sight. I refused to dwell on sanitation strategies for overflow parades, and managed to reach Water Street, two hours late for my appointment. But the financial world was mellow that day, the weather was mild, and working late was no pain. Besides, today Yankees, tomorrow the health program and Afghanistan soon thereafter, let’s hope we are on a roll. It is a time of miracles, didn’t we just find water on the Moon, and what about the stock market prices defying gravity, and the admirer who spent thousands of dollars for Bernie Madoff’s old satin Yankee jacket?
Thursday, November 05, 2009
Peoples’ Symphony Concerts are calling you
LOOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis
A heads-up call from Eadie Shanker of the Tilden Democratic Club brought on this column. She is the chair of Tilden's gift committee, directing the distribution of $1,400 a year from the proceeds of their annual Street Fair, the money going to some eight local civic groups. [This is also done by other clubs and such organizations as SPNA , the Stuyvesant Park Neighborhood Association, guardians of the well-being of the eponymous park. If my message be construed as a general "wake up and join your neighborhood preservation organizations" call, so be it.]
Back to Eadie, who is concerned with the continued well-being of Peoples' Symphony Concerts, our best people-oriented neighborhood music organizations, also the city's oldest concert series, founded in 1900 by Franz X. Arens, a German immigrant from Michigan, where at 15 he played the organ and led music in his church. He studied conducting in Europe, and returned to New York determined to bring concerts at affordable prices to students, teachers and workers . The first series in 1900 featured five orchestral programs at Cooper Union , the ticket prices ranging from five cents to 25 cents. Orchestra members worked for $9 (covering rehearsals and performance), soloists for $25. Cooper Union rental was $25 for performance (Carnegie Hall, used sometimes in later years, then cost $250), and each of the five concerts during the first year cost $430, guaranteed by Arens, who earned a living as a music coach. Soon wealthy givers came on board, including Salomon Guggenheim, William K. Vanderbilt, Isaac Seligman, Henry Clay Frick, and their ladies, Mrss. James Speyer and Otto Kahn. During the Great Depression PSC survived with the donations from attorney Severo Mullet-Prevost and a $50,000 bequest from contralto Annie Louise Carey Raymond. Since those early years hundreds of thousands of Peoples' Symphony Concert series' audience members have heard the world's foremost concert artists and ensembles, attending their performances at the lowest admission prices of any major series in the country.
What makes PSC such a unique institution is the generosity of the artists who play for a fraction of their normal fees, and an audience that truly communicates its love of music to the musicians. At the time my family joined, decades ago, subscriptions were unavailable, and we had to go on a waiting list. It worked out, and we were enraptured to hear, over the years, the performances of Gidon Kremer, Isaac Stern, Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zukerman, Nathan Millstein and Gil Shahan, to mention the violinists alone. We heard them performing in the auditorium of the Washington Irving High School, Irving Place & 17th Street, home of the PSC since 1913.
Arens retired after WWI, and eventually in 1925 , a violinist, Joseph Mann, took over the management, succeeding in attracting even more musicians, followed by concert manager Frank Solomon in 1973, who continues, undaunted by recessions. The quality continues also; during the recent years I recall hearing the Guarneri String Quartet, Juilliard Quartet, the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio and Music from Marlboro, the Tokyo and Orion String Quartets, almost yearly. Going a bit further back, there were pianists Garrick Ohlsson, Peter Serkin, and Emanuel Ax sometimes accompanying cellist Yo-Yo Ma; Janos Starker on cello; the clarinetist Richard Stoltzman, and James Galway, flute. Other legends heard of or seen were violinists Efrem Zimbalist, and Joseph Szigeti accompanied by Mieczyslaw Horoszowski, Wanda Landowska on the harpsichord, and pianist Daniel Barenboim .
Which brings us to current days. Whether through aging population or economics, PSC has subscriptions available . The PSC founding motto – bringing the best music to students and workers at minimum prices - remains at the heart of their mission. The orchestra seats on a six-performance series are still $32, or $5.33 a seat (unreserved), and young people, in particular, are encouraged to join. .
There are two series, all Saturday nights, 8PM, at the Washington Irving High School:
The Mann series:
17 Oct. Borealis String Quartet; 31 Oct. Juilliard String Quartet; 31 Jan. Musicians from Vermont
27 March Johannes String Quartet; 3 Apr. Yefim Bronfman, piano; 8 May Eighth Blackbird .
The Arens Series:
10 Oct. Parnas-Serkin Trio; 7 Nov. Musicians from Marlboro; 19 Dec. Goldstein-Peled-Fitterstein Trio; 6 Feb. Aleksej Gorlatch, piano; 24 Apr. Belcea Quartet; 1 May Richard Goode, piano.
Even though two of the six concerts have passed, buying the series is a value, at $32, since four individual concert admissions would cost $10. apiece, or $40.
There’s also a Festival Series, at Town Hall, , 23 West 43 Street, near B’way, Sundays 2:00 PM:
21 Feb. Takacs Quartet; 28 Feb. Artemis Quartet; 14 Mar. Leon Fleisher w/ Katherine Jacobson Fleisher; American String Quartet w/ Menahem Pressler; 18 Apr. Augustin Hadelich, violin;
9 May Ingrid Fliter, piano. Prices for this series are $56.for center and $37 for side rows (reserved).
Purchase tickets via www.pscny.org, or mail order to Peoples’ Symphony Concerts, 121 West 27 St, Suite 703, NY, NY 10001-6262., or telephone 212-586-4680, calls limited to Mo, We, Fri 11:00 AM-1:00PM (PSC must keep costs low). Send extra money; tax-free donations are matched by a foundation.
Fall in NYC is beautiful. Go check out the leaf bounty in Stuyvesant Square and other parks!
A heads-up call from Eadie Shanker of the Tilden Democratic Club brought on this column. She is the chair of Tilden's gift committee, directing the distribution of $1,400 a year from the proceeds of their annual Street Fair, the money going to some eight local civic groups. [This is also done by other clubs and such organizations as SPNA , the Stuyvesant Park Neighborhood Association, guardians of the well-being of the eponymous park. If my message be construed as a general "wake up and join your neighborhood preservation organizations" call, so be it.]
Back to Eadie, who is concerned with the continued well-being of Peoples' Symphony Concerts, our best people-oriented neighborhood music organizations, also the city's oldest concert series, founded in 1900 by Franz X. Arens, a German immigrant from Michigan, where at 15 he played the organ and led music in his church. He studied conducting in Europe, and returned to New York determined to bring concerts at affordable prices to students, teachers and workers . The first series in 1900 featured five orchestral programs at Cooper Union , the ticket prices ranging from five cents to 25 cents. Orchestra members worked for $9 (covering rehearsals and performance), soloists for $25. Cooper Union rental was $25 for performance (Carnegie Hall, used sometimes in later years, then cost $250), and each of the five concerts during the first year cost $430, guaranteed by Arens, who earned a living as a music coach. Soon wealthy givers came on board, including Salomon Guggenheim, William K. Vanderbilt, Isaac Seligman, Henry Clay Frick, and their ladies, Mrss. James Speyer and Otto Kahn. During the Great Depression PSC survived with the donations from attorney Severo Mullet-Prevost and a $50,000 bequest from contralto Annie Louise Carey Raymond. Since those early years hundreds of thousands of Peoples' Symphony Concert series' audience members have heard the world's foremost concert artists and ensembles, attending their performances at the lowest admission prices of any major series in the country.
What makes PSC such a unique institution is the generosity of the artists who play for a fraction of their normal fees, and an audience that truly communicates its love of music to the musicians. At the time my family joined, decades ago, subscriptions were unavailable, and we had to go on a waiting list. It worked out, and we were enraptured to hear, over the years, the performances of Gidon Kremer, Isaac Stern, Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zukerman, Nathan Millstein and Gil Shahan, to mention the violinists alone. We heard them performing in the auditorium of the Washington Irving High School, Irving Place & 17th Street, home of the PSC since 1913.
Arens retired after WWI, and eventually in 1925 , a violinist, Joseph Mann, took over the management, succeeding in attracting even more musicians, followed by concert manager Frank Solomon in 1973, who continues, undaunted by recessions. The quality continues also; during the recent years I recall hearing the Guarneri String Quartet, Juilliard Quartet, the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio and Music from Marlboro, the Tokyo and Orion String Quartets, almost yearly. Going a bit further back, there were pianists Garrick Ohlsson, Peter Serkin, and Emanuel Ax sometimes accompanying cellist Yo-Yo Ma; Janos Starker on cello; the clarinetist Richard Stoltzman, and James Galway, flute. Other legends heard of or seen were violinists Efrem Zimbalist, and Joseph Szigeti accompanied by Mieczyslaw Horoszowski, Wanda Landowska on the harpsichord, and pianist Daniel Barenboim .
Which brings us to current days. Whether through aging population or economics, PSC has subscriptions available . The PSC founding motto – bringing the best music to students and workers at minimum prices - remains at the heart of their mission. The orchestra seats on a six-performance series are still $32, or $5.33 a seat (unreserved), and young people, in particular, are encouraged to join. .
There are two series, all Saturday nights, 8PM, at the Washington Irving High School:
The Mann series:
17 Oct. Borealis String Quartet; 31 Oct. Juilliard String Quartet; 31 Jan. Musicians from Vermont
27 March Johannes String Quartet; 3 Apr. Yefim Bronfman, piano; 8 May Eighth Blackbird .
The Arens Series:
10 Oct. Parnas-Serkin Trio; 7 Nov. Musicians from Marlboro; 19 Dec. Goldstein-Peled-Fitterstein Trio; 6 Feb. Aleksej Gorlatch, piano; 24 Apr. Belcea Quartet; 1 May Richard Goode, piano.
Even though two of the six concerts have passed, buying the series is a value, at $32, since four individual concert admissions would cost $10. apiece, or $40.
There’s also a Festival Series, at Town Hall, , 23 West 43 Street, near B’way, Sundays 2:00 PM:
21 Feb. Takacs Quartet; 28 Feb. Artemis Quartet; 14 Mar. Leon Fleisher w/ Katherine Jacobson Fleisher; American String Quartet w/ Menahem Pressler; 18 Apr. Augustin Hadelich, violin;
9 May Ingrid Fliter, piano. Prices for this series are $56.for center and $37 for side rows (reserved).
Purchase tickets via www.pscny.org, or mail order to Peoples’ Symphony Concerts, 121 West 27 St, Suite 703, NY, NY 10001-6262., or telephone 212-586-4680, calls limited to Mo, We, Fri 11:00 AM-1:00PM (PSC must keep costs low). Send extra money; tax-free donations are matched by a foundation.
Fall in NYC is beautiful. Go check out the leaf bounty in Stuyvesant Square and other parks!
