On one of my bachelor weekends, I took a walk down East Broadway from around Canal Street towards City Hall. Since we know Chinatown quite well, I though it would be good to follow a different path and see if I could make some connections.
Making connections is the the next stage of our evolution from tourists to newbies to New Yorkers. Kitty and I have enjoyed exploring neighborhoods, but, as our guests can attest, many times you get off the train, explore and then hop back on at the same station to travel to the next neighborhood. Consequently, ones knowledge of the city is more like blots of ink on the map. As you get away from the center of the blot, the knowledge of a neighborhood diffuses. Lately, our travels have caused us to get to know that connective tissue between our favorite neighborhoods. We have found that it is sometimes better to just walk from one spot to another, rather than fight your way on the train (or worse... on the bus!).
Just this weekend, Kitty and I made an epic walk from snacks in Chinatown to the UCB (Upright Citizen's Brigade). We traversed SoHo, NoHo and the Village, detoured into the West Village for happy hour and then up into Chelsea. It was only about 10,000 steps, which is one days supply of healthy walking.
But I digress. Hopping off the train in the East Village, Kitty and I retraced my earlier trip down East Broadway. We discovered the Secret Chinatown Bus Burial Ground. Lines of true New Yorkers wait to pay $35 to go (round-trip) to Boston, Baltimore or Washington DC. These buses have no heat and sometimes people are moving with most of their homes with them, so seating can be cramped.
Moving south from the Burial Ground, we found a Chinese grocery store that was so authentic that there were no signs in English, no one spoke English and we were the only caucasians in the store. (yes, I count myself as a caucasian... mom is from the sub-continent.)
As we walked, I started to make connections on how to get from one neighborhood to another. By the time we got to Upright Citizen's Brigade, we had successfully connected 5 different "inkblots" of the City. More importantly, I'm starting to realize that, when it comes to Lower Manhattan, things aren't as far as one might think. The subway stations tend to be nearer to each other than expected and many times it is just quicker to hoof it!
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Monday, November 26, 2007
On the fluid nature of talent in the city
We just returned from Rochester and a lovely Thanksgiving weekend. We played it safe and drove back on Saturday, bypassing the terrible traffic. We hedged our bets further by crossing to Brooklyn via Staten Island and skipping the GW Bridge, the FDR and the Brooklyn Bridge. All in all, we shaved about 3 hours off of our trip, even with the $20 in additional tolls.
Our quiet commute is a reflection of some aspects of the City right now. The Writer's Strike has cancelled many television productions and the Stagehand's Strike has quieted the normally noisy Times Square. Last Saturday I was walking around 42nd and I had to call Kitty. "You won't believe it. It's absolutely dead here!" I get the eye from the tourists around me. They think I'm vaguely insane. "I mean, yeah... there are a lot of people, but for the most part, I'm walking along the sidewalks unimpeded! It's a genuine pleasure to walk around here!" Kitty still hasn't experienced this quiet side of the Theater District. I'll be dragging her there this coming weekend to experience this new "kinder, gentler" Times Square.
Back in 1998, I once found myself getting home from a rehearsal at about 9 p.m. on a Sunday night. I was walking to Times Square, it was pitch black and there was a torrential downpour. In that case, the streets were completely empty. No cabs were moving and even the lights of the Square had been dulled by the dark and the rain. I was entirely alone on the sidewalks and I was drenched to the bone as I ran towards the train station. Water sluiced the sidewalks and at times I was up to my ankles as I ran through the ghost town.
Thinking about the water running down the sidewalks, I'm reminded of the strikes that are going on right now. Talent seems to move away from these core areas and disperse around the city, bubbling up in the farther neighborhoods.
On Sunday night, we attended the ASSSSCAT 3000 show at The Upright Citizen's Brigade. It's an comedy improv show based on audience ideas athat has a name that is truly awesome to say and spell. For $8.90 each, Kitty and I saw Amy Poehler hosting with celebrity guests from Saturday Night Live and 30 Rock. That is one of the greatest joys of living in the city: When something goes colossally wrong (like strikes or rain or traffic), you can find adventures and an experiences unlike any other as you float around the city on the tide.
Our quiet commute is a reflection of some aspects of the City right now. The Writer's Strike has cancelled many television productions and the Stagehand's Strike has quieted the normally noisy Times Square. Last Saturday I was walking around 42nd and I had to call Kitty. "You won't believe it. It's absolutely dead here!" I get the eye from the tourists around me. They think I'm vaguely insane. "I mean, yeah... there are a lot of people, but for the most part, I'm walking along the sidewalks unimpeded! It's a genuine pleasure to walk around here!" Kitty still hasn't experienced this quiet side of the Theater District. I'll be dragging her there this coming weekend to experience this new "kinder, gentler" Times Square.
Back in 1998, I once found myself getting home from a rehearsal at about 9 p.m. on a Sunday night. I was walking to Times Square, it was pitch black and there was a torrential downpour. In that case, the streets were completely empty. No cabs were moving and even the lights of the Square had been dulled by the dark and the rain. I was entirely alone on the sidewalks and I was drenched to the bone as I ran towards the train station. Water sluiced the sidewalks and at times I was up to my ankles as I ran through the ghost town.
Thinking about the water running down the sidewalks, I'm reminded of the strikes that are going on right now. Talent seems to move away from these core areas and disperse around the city, bubbling up in the farther neighborhoods.
On Sunday night, we attended the ASSSSCAT 3000 show at The Upright Citizen's Brigade. It's an comedy improv show based on audience ideas athat has a name that is truly awesome to say and spell. For $8.90 each, Kitty and I saw Amy Poehler hosting with celebrity guests from Saturday Night Live and 30 Rock. That is one of the greatest joys of living in the city: When something goes colossally wrong (like strikes or rain or traffic), you can find adventures and an experiences unlike any other as you float around the city on the tide.
Thursday, November 01, 2007
Halloween, 2007. Lessons on Life in NYC.
In between auditions, I've been helping out at the American Red Cross of Greater New York. I'm assisting the senior management and it is fun to hobnob with CEOs and the like.
As an extra duty, I was asked to organize a table to give candy and information to trick-or-treaters. One youth volunteer showed up at about 4 p.m. and we headed down to the corner of 48th and 10th Avenue. Not a lot of kids in costume, but the ones that did show up got candy. Some people asked for candy, but most didn't even notice us.
NYC Halloween- a fact sheet compiled from my conversations with the high school volunteers:
1. Kids don't go to residences, just businesses. It's the only safe way to do it here.
2. Most kids stop at about age 12 and then they start going to parties/clubs/etc.
3. When you give out candy here, you give out a large handful or two to each kid. (didn't we just get one piece per house?)
4. Costumes vary widely and it seems like the poorer the family, the more fantastic the costume. Also, parents will dress up infants to "trick-or-treat" and score free snacks. The infants had the most incredible costumes as they were pushed around in their strollers. Ann Geddes would have had a field day with all the insects, bunnies and arachnids being pushed around the West Side.
5. At our local grocery store I saw a bunch of kids run in with their VERY ghetto mom. She comes out 5 seconds later saying, "What the $%#$??? They gots a store full a food and they ain't givin' out nutt'n..."
Most of the time we were there, a cop was parked in his little traffic rickshaw on 10th avenue. He gave out tickets to drivers, flagging them down as they raced up the avenue and we were happy to see him since the neighborhood is a bit far afield from "nice".
After about an hour, our police officer friend went up one block to 49th to grab a snack at the convenience store and immediately we were approached by a very drunk, possibly mentally ill man with a cut on his forehead. He started yelling at me not to look at him and then he started to tell me about how nobody protects the neighborhood but him. I try to disuade him from staying around and he continued to escalate. I start moving away from my volunteers to distract him and it works for a couple of minutes. When he starts heading back to our little table, I come back and join my volunteers. He starts to get angry and he raises his hand and I see the little rickshaw pull up to the curb going the wrong way down 10th Avenue, "PABLO.... What are you doing?" yells the cop. "Are you bothering these people? Aww, come on man, you've hurt yourself. Let's get you to a hospital." The uniform makes Pablo step back. I get the girls to pack up and we head back to the office to drop off our supplies.
This might have been the second time that I felt unsafe in NYC. I guess that isn't too bad and once again, the NYPD showed up exactly when I needed them.
As an extra duty, I was asked to organize a table to give candy and information to trick-or-treaters. One youth volunteer showed up at about 4 p.m. and we headed down to the corner of 48th and 10th Avenue. Not a lot of kids in costume, but the ones that did show up got candy. Some people asked for candy, but most didn't even notice us.
NYC Halloween- a fact sheet compiled from my conversations with the high school volunteers:
1. Kids don't go to residences, just businesses. It's the only safe way to do it here.
2. Most kids stop at about age 12 and then they start going to parties/clubs/etc.
3. When you give out candy here, you give out a large handful or two to each kid. (didn't we just get one piece per house?)
4. Costumes vary widely and it seems like the poorer the family, the more fantastic the costume. Also, parents will dress up infants to "trick-or-treat" and score free snacks. The infants had the most incredible costumes as they were pushed around in their strollers. Ann Geddes would have had a field day with all the insects, bunnies and arachnids being pushed around the West Side.
5. At our local grocery store I saw a bunch of kids run in with their VERY ghetto mom. She comes out 5 seconds later saying, "What the $%#$??? They gots a store full a food and they ain't givin' out nutt'n..."
Most of the time we were there, a cop was parked in his little traffic rickshaw on 10th avenue. He gave out tickets to drivers, flagging them down as they raced up the avenue and we were happy to see him since the neighborhood is a bit far afield from "nice".
After about an hour, our police officer friend went up one block to 49th to grab a snack at the convenience store and immediately we were approached by a very drunk, possibly mentally ill man with a cut on his forehead. He started yelling at me not to look at him and then he started to tell me about how nobody protects the neighborhood but him. I try to disuade him from staying around and he continued to escalate. I start moving away from my volunteers to distract him and it works for a couple of minutes. When he starts heading back to our little table, I come back and join my volunteers. He starts to get angry and he raises his hand and I see the little rickshaw pull up to the curb going the wrong way down 10th Avenue, "PABLO.... What are you doing?" yells the cop. "Are you bothering these people? Aww, come on man, you've hurt yourself. Let's get you to a hospital." The uniform makes Pablo step back. I get the girls to pack up and we head back to the office to drop off our supplies.
This might have been the second time that I felt unsafe in NYC. I guess that isn't too bad and once again, the NYPD showed up exactly when I needed them.
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