Lowline in Manhattan.

First there was New York's popular High Line. Now the city might get a Lowline. A park under the city. I'm such a pessimist (something I hope to change in 2015) that I have trouble imagining this working. Here's to me being wrong!

I'm sorry, but it's my opinion that they'll have to build a mighty strong fortress around these solar devices to keep them intact. They might as well have a sign that says "kick me, smash me." My son, no reservoir of optimism, disagrees with me. He says, basically, "if people aren't breaking windows on that street why would they break that?" So maybe he's right.

 

New York!

My daughter and son-in-law live in Brooklyn, so off to Brooklyn we went for a Friday through Sunday visit. As always, trips to New York give me energy and brighten my mood. Plus, I always come home with memories that seem to get stronger as the days roll by. Such is the power of that city over me.

After we got to Penn Station on Friday we walked the 15+ blocks to Rebecca's office and got a quick tour of the place (I think she prefers that I not literally name the company she works for...they're a bit private). The sculpture currently on display outside the front door is Jeff Koons' Orange Puppy, which last sold for 58 mill. I know, I know, I don't really get it either. The puppy's nose is roughly facing the ice skating rink at Rockefeller Center. At Christmas you literally can't walk around easily because of the crowds.

Rebecca was able to take the afternoon off so we hopped on the subway and went to Brooklyn to drop off our bags at the airBNB apartment we rented for the weekend. It was a spacious, funky, and perfect place for us to stay. Comfortable, quiet, good collection of books, nice wall hangings. And a wonderful fish/plant setup! Hard to describe but here it is:

The apt is a yoga studio during the day.

Then we walked to R's apartment to spend time with the grandcats, James and Robert. They are adored and pampered beyond description.

Next we had lunch at a new place in Crown Heights called Berg'n. I had a Breakfast Ramen Burger. Not exactly healthy eating but I've eaten much less healthy things. And oh was it yummy.

Then we walked a bit south to the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens. Wonderful, interesting, pretty in that nice fall'ish way I love:

Dinner that night was in the Park Slope area of Brooklyn at an Italian-Spanish-Portuguese place called Convivium Osteria.... Yum, yum.

On Saturday we got our typical late start and had brunch at R and S's favorite neighborhood restaurant Mayfield. Sort of southern American food (translation: lots of grits).

Next we subwayed into Manhattan and visited a gallery none of us has ever been to before: the Morgan Library and Museum. So many museums in DC and NYC are huge so this was a nice change of pace. And the library...oh that library!

We saw art spanning eight centuries: The Crusader Bible from around 1250, Cy Twombly art from the 1970s (meh), 19th century drawings and paintings by Theodore Rousseau, and a fascinating series of cartoons called From Here to Here: Richard McGuire Makes a Book. This drawing is from the collection: vacuuming woman in curlers is saying "the older I get the less I know." Yep.

The High Line came next. We visited the lower portion of it last year during a winter trip to the city, but we hadn't yet seen the recently completed upper portion. The guys who came up with the idea for turning an abandoned elevated railroad line into a pedestrian walkway filled with plants, benches, and great views deserve all the honors they've been given:

Sean, Becca, and Doug checking out the Hudson River.

 

 

 

After the High Line, we walked around Chelsea and the West Village before ending up at The Strand  ("Home to 18 Miles of Books") in the East Village. That's Doug walking toward the store entrance. I could have stayed for hours.

But we had to be off to the Laura Pels Theater in mid-town to see the Tom Stoppard play Indian Ink. Doug read the play this semester in his British Drama course at the Univ of MD so he was able to fill in many details about the British in India in the 1930s. Here's the stage before the show:

After the play we Ubered back to Brooklyn and had dinner at... I've forgotten where; maybe Mayfield again. Then walked back to the kids' apartment and I took a few shots from the roof. The white building near the center is the Empire State Building.

On Sunday we had another pleasingly late start -- 11 AM. Had coffee at R and S's apartment, and then walked from Crown Heights to Clinton to visit the new bakery of R's good friend Anna. Anna has been in Brooklyn for about 4 years, same as R, and in that span of time she created a cookie business from scratch (ha). In her small Brooklyn apartment kitchen, she started making Dutch cookies called stroopwafels (her newish husband Steve is Dutch) and selling them at street fairs and festivals. She then quit her day job and rented space in an existing bakery, continuing to get new business and expanding into ice cream sandwiches. In September, she opened her own bakery, The Good Batch, on Fulton Street. Can you tell I'm impressed? Local Girl Makes Good in Brooklyn Cookie Biz! Here are Doug, Anna, and Rebecca in the kitchen:

We had another great brunch at a place called Three Letters a few doors down from The Good Batch. I was taken by that picture near the kitchen door. Andre the Giant? I forgot to check.

So that's pretty much the trip. Many great memories. And it's always good for me to leave my comfort zone, as they say. My comfort zone is my couch, which I love almost as much as my new iPhone.

One last shot of the newlyweds walking through mid-town. Aren't they cute?

Patti Smith: A parody. A loving parody.

 

I just finished reading Just Kids by Patti Smith. I loved it, which I wasn't expecting. I've never been a fan or a non-fan of hers. The only thoughts I've had about her for the past 45 years or so involved the one song of hers I know well, Because the Night, that she wrote with Bruce Springsteen, and a brief encounter Doug and a friend had with her many years ago. They were in a coffee shop/sandwich shop in Georgetown in the early(?) 70s and she was there too. Our friend feels he stared her down. Maybe yes, maybe no. For some odd reason, that meaningless little anecdote has always stayed in my brain.

I think my admiration for this memoir is related to my age -- Patti is 3 months older than me -- and also because my very first New York City experiences were in the late 60s and early 70s, exactly the years she covers in the book. I spent many weekends in the city and those brief trips made a permanent mark on me. Even back then, when the city wasn't at its peak -- higher crime rate, near bankruptcy, frequent strikes by sanitation workers, I fell in love with the place. I liked (and still do) the hustle, the attitude, the grit, the eccentricity of the people and architecture, the sense of optimism.

Another person who liked the book posted this parody on Goodreads.com. I thought it was hilarious, right on the mark, and I hope Patti reads it too because I think it will make her laugh.

"I was crossing Tompkins Square Park when I ran into a young man wearing a gabardine vest. He smiled at me and called me "Sister." It was a young George Carlin. Robert hated him because he frequently had flakes of rye bread in his beard, but I loved how he could make me laugh with his impressions of Mick Jagger. On this morning, though, we wept together at the news that Paul McCartney would have to sell his house in Cannes. It was a sort of paradise for us, even though we'd never been. George gave me a feather to put in my hair, and I took it home and pressed it between two pieces of crepe de chine, where it left a ghostly impression. Robert insisted on using it in a construction, and finally I relented, though I knew I'd never get it back. It was a sacrifice to art, the sort of thing Rimbaud would've done."

Full review here.

More about that New York City trip.

The day we arrived it was snowy and brisk, but not exactly blustery.

 

Downtown Brooklyn, which means sort of in the northwest part of the borough.

The young couple at a Mexican place near their apartment.

A block from their apartment, which is in, sort of, central Brooklyn, on the northeast corner of Prospect Park.

Sean and Doug in downtown Brooklyn.

 

 

 

Shots of their apartment, featuring Robert, left, and James.

New York's High Line in mid-December.

Above: Doug (left) and Rebecca walking south on the High Line. We started at the north end and walked down to Sean's office at West 22nd.

 

 

A report on Hurricane Sandy.

We were so very lucky. Hurricane Sandy came through the DC area with a lot of rain and bluster but did surprisingly little damage. I was totally prepared for a week without power.

But my daughter and sister, who live in quite different locations, didn't fare as well and are in for some Sandy-related inconvenience and loss of income, at least in my daughter's situation.

She lives in Brooklyn, works in Manhattan, and depends totally on the NYC subways, pictured above (photo from inhabitat.com).  Who knows when the unprecedented damage will be repaired. I've always been amazed at how NYC keeps itself functioning but this is a brand-new challenge.  Daughter is otherwise safe and has power, so that's the good news.

Sister lives in Western MD and telecommutes but she lost power last night and at 10 AM was looking out her windows at a foot of snow, with another foot predicted.  [The snow picture is from her front porch but was taken in Nov 2008.] Also, she had not yet heard a single snow plow, which in those parts is unusual. 

I know they're luckier than others in Sandy's path but I want everything to get back to normal for both of them. Soon.