’21 Sep: New York New York

This was my first plane ride since covid and I think it went very well. The airport was not crowded (at 5am..) and in both the airport and on the plane mask compliance was 100%.

I’m settled here in the Lower East Side in a most curious hotel and a different kind of neighborhood. The dotted line shows the 8 minute walk from the hotel to the most useful metro stop, one of the downsides to this hotel. I think it will be fine though, I think the 8 minutes will dissolve into the many hours of walking to come.

What the hotel says about itself: The Sanctuary NYC mission is to provide a ‘retreat for the soul’, a respite from the usual non-spiritual accommodations available to travelers who journey to New York. As Sanctuary NYC is part of St. Christophers Interfaith Community/Dharma in Action, we live by the credo that taking care of guests is our intrinsic dharmic duty, as St. Christopher was the patron saint of travelers.

Pictures from google street. There are about 100 restaurants between the metro and the hotel and these mini-marts on every corner. I got a very nice salad at Wholesome Foods for dinner and then fell into a deep sleep, waking up at 3:30am NY time. I’m typing this at 4am. Let’s see how I do with the time change..since I never know what time it is anyway!

When I was getting my salad at Wholesome Foods the guy, who appeared from his demeanor to be the owner, said it’s your first time here, right? and I said yes, that’s right! and he said why don’t you pick another ingredient, it’s on me. Opinion affirmed: people in New York are perfectly lovely.

Not having been to NY in 15 years so many sites are new to me, for example The Tenement Museum, which is awesome.

What makes a building a tenement? What our guide said, and may I note that we had a private guide, which was wonderful: 1) 4-5 floors walk-up 2) shared by at least three unrelated families 3) each with their own kitchen.

They have fitted out one floor to represent a few exact families (we learn their individual stories), from the 19th and 20th centuries, that lived in this building. Below are some samples of the rooms from the internet since no photos were allowed. You can choose among several tours from different eras. I recommend you chose one related to your own background. You will be amazed. My grandparents definitely lived here!

Here we are, too cute, right?!

Following are a few pictures from my street. Soon Ingalill will arrive and we’ll head out for a walk across the Brooklyn Bridge. Oh Goodie, I’ve never walked across the Brooklyn Bridge before.

I very likely would not have done this were it not for Lill, her youth and get-up-and-go. After her arrival in late afternoon we took the train over to the base of the bridge. This is not a cut and paste but rather Night Sight that certainly could have done a better job.

Starting from the beginning, here’s the Chambers Street Station.

We’re heading into Brooklyn around 6:15pm.

From Wikipedia: The Brooklyn Bridge is a hybrid cable-stayed/suspension bridge, spanning the East River between Manhattan and Brooklyn. Opened on May 24, 1883, the Brooklyn Bridge was the first fixed crossing of the East River. It was also the longest suspension bridge in the world at the time of its opening…Its stone towers are neo-Gothic, with characteristic pointed arches...the city, in 2021, installed a two-way protected bike path on the Manhattan-bound roadway, allowing the existing promenade to be used exclusively by pedestrians.

We did a quick buzz into Central Park. Central Park is big, we probably missed your favorite place, but we did what we wanted to do.

I wanted to see Alice in Wonderland and make a picture for Rome. Here it is babe!

Check out the buildings above, the ones in the distance. Notice you can’t see the top of the building on the left. This will play into the second part of our day.

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Now it’s time to talk about The Frick, currently known as The Frick Madison. Briefly, The Frick Collection has been housed in the mansion of the late Henry Clay Frick who passed in 1919. The mansion and the fabulous collection has been open to the public since 1935. In March 2021, the Collection temporarily relocated to Frick Madison, at the Marcel Breuer-designed building at 945 Madison Avenue, during the renovation of its historic building. I heard that The Frick has a 2 year lease.

All this doesn’t fully express what a monumental change the new building brought to the exhibition of The Frick’s collection. If you have the least interest at all in museums I promise you will want to click on this link to an: article from the NY Times.

No photos allowed, I got this from the NY Times article referenced above, the picture in it’s home of 80+ years and how it looked on moving day. You might think NOOO you might think YESSS but you won’t be indifferent. Do read the article before you decide.

The fire station across the street from ground zero.

Every time I see a skyline picture with the Twin Towers I’m re-awakened to how totally they dominated the views. I remember the towers were very controversial at first and how over time I think we just got used to it.

And then they were gone.

The pools are situated on the footprint of the towers. The lighter building is the museum. The city has given up real estate where, on a typical weekday, an estimated 50,000 people worked in the towers and another 140,000 passed through as visitors, for the sake of this memorial.

The winged building is Oculus btw.

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Little Island is a vanity project of Barry Diller (from Bloomberg.com) While it may be Barry Diller’s ideal park, it doesn’t line up with the needs or expectations (or budget) of most of the 8 million plus New Yorkers, many of whom don’t have access to private outdoor space and need room to walk, play, party and sprawl. This is a pretty harsh review. Many reviewers are delighted with the space. My personal impression was dominated by ‘wow, this feels expensive’.

from Wikipedia: The High Line is a 1.45-mile-long elevated linear park, greenway, and rail trail created on a former New York Central Railroad spur… The abandoned spur has been redesigned as a “living system” drawing from multiple disciplines which include landscape architecture, urban design, and ecology. Since opening in June 2009, the High Line has become an icon of contemporary landscape architecture.

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Our traditional reflect-o and more of the natural foliage from the railroad tracks.

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We did what needed to be done: ‘All ferry ticketing is run through Statue Cruises, which is the only vendor authorized to provide tickets and transportation to Liberty and Ellis Islands.’

Here it is below, Ingalill herself, circa 1987.

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The arrival building at Ellis Island.

When talking about Ellis Island we mostly hear numbers, how many passed through this hall, from where, how long did it take, how many were turned back, and how many were sent to the hospital. The displays here tried to personalize at every turn. We saw images of individuals, the things they brought, the clothes they wore, pictures of their families back home.

And for $10 you could use their computer for 30 minutes to try to find your relatives. Is this my grandfather? We thought he came in 1910, we thought he was 17, we thought he came from Ukraine but then google has never heard of Hamentz, Russia.

We three sisters remember the story differently so I’m going to tell my version! Grandpa told me that when he was coming to America, when he first caught sight of the Statue of Liberty he jumped off the ship and swam the rest of the way straight to New York City. But then he was the kind of guy who might very well make up a city to be from…

Inside our 30 minutes I couldn’t remember the first and last name of my other grandparents, all immigrants who would have come through Ellis Island. Lill couldn’t remember the full names of any of her relatives that came during the time frame (1892-1954) either! I think this resource is available online and you might not even have to pay the 10 bucks.

The below is a photo from the screen.

UPDATE Sep 26!

You can see to the curvature of the earth..or so it seems anyway. Above are three of the four bridges to the east, from the top, the Williamsburg, then the Manhattan, and then the Brooklyn Bridge.

Lill’s last morning and we’re out for a 4-5 mile stroll. Oh my we have been walking a lot. I knew I’d have the afternoon free when at last I would spend many many hours not taking even one step so ok, let’s go. We walked around the East Village and then down to the East River Park.

Above, according to 6sqft.com: with 39 community gardens blooming between 14th Street and East Houston Street, the East Village is the Emerald City. The neighborhood boasts the highest concentration of community gardens in the country thanks to a proud history of grassroots activism that has helped transform once-abandoned lots into community oases.

Feelin’ it for the ‘hood.

This is Scarr’s Pizza where I had two pieces of pizza, one glass of wine, and one bottle of water. Wanna guess the cost? I’ll tell you: Thirty Five Dollars. Shocking! The outside seating was full too. But was it good? I wanted to have the topping on the square piece put on the thin-crust triangle piece, but no, not possible unless you get the whole pie, which ok, I can understand.

I’m traveling tomorrow to Boston and might have time to get a few pictures together to tell the story of this day. Here’s the main thing though, if you are a museum person you have to buy a ticket to New York. After all this time of looking at our walls imagine how it feels to look at objects that make your heart beat fast.

Now it’s the day after tomorrow and I haven’t got to this last day yet, but I WILL when I get home!

Above is the hot dog stand I have never yet missed when visiting New York.

COPIED from the The Morgan Library and Museum website, so I won’t forget the glory of the “Shahzia Sikander: Extraordinary Realities” exhibit and be reminded of the unfathomable vocabulary of art-speak. (I also enjoyed the original building, the library, and the gorgeous display of early bookbinding.)

“Born and raised in Pakistan, Shahzia Sikander (b. 1969) gained international recognition in the 1990s for her pioneering role in bringing painting traditions from South and Central Asia into dialogue with contemporary practices. Her work interrogates cultural identity, racial narratives, colonial and postcolonial histories, and issues of gender and sexuality. Through multivalent narratives layered across time, geography, and tradition, she shatters established hierarchies, norms, and stereotypes, using her imagination and playfulness to conjure extraordinary realities.

“This exhibition explores the first fifteen years of Sikander’s career, from her formal training in manuscript painting as a student at the National College of Arts in Lahore, Pakistan, where she enrolled in 1987, to her early years in the United States. Sikander moved to Providence in 1993 to study at the Rhode Island School of Design. She then lived in Houston for two years before settling in New York in 1997. Her work during this period reflects a new openness in the United States toward artists working outside of commonly accepted models as well as a dramatic shift in the perception of Muslims following the events of 9/11. The potent vocabulary of Sikander’s early work continues to permeate her oeuvre today, and the subjects she confronted then have only become more relevant to contemporary discourse.”

And COPIED from wikipedia.

“As an undergraduate student in Lahore, Shahzia Sikander studied the techniques of Persian and Mughal miniature painting, often integrating traditional forms of Mughal (Islamic) and Rajput (Hindu) styles and culture The traditional form of miniature painting requires equal measures of discipline, gesture and expression in order to execute a careful layering of color and detail. Compositionally, miniature paintings exhibit an extensive display of colorful imagery including, human forms, animals, patterns, shapes, dots and connecting lines. Miniature paintings often engage in contextual complexities such as, religious narrative, scenes of battles and court life. Sikander has integrated the techniques and forms of traditional miniature painting, relying on the layering of images and metaphor to drive her work. Her forms and figures exhibit a quality of continual morphing as transparent imagery is layered, providing a complexity with endless shifts in perception. Sikander’s complex compositions “dismantle hierarchical assumptions and subverts the very notion of a singular, fixed identity of figures and forms.” The increasing approach of continual morphing explains Sikander’s relationship to an ever-changing world where opposing societies coalescently interact.”

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Paul joined me for a visit to MoMA, the highlight being acres and Acres and ACRES of Cezanne drawings. SO many rooms of drawings. I hadn’t been in this version of MoMA’s life with yet another expansion, everything moved around, and more more rooms, it was disconcerting actually. I think I’d have to visit several more times before my longtime affection will return.

It was entertaining to turn the corner and exclaim “More!” at the Cezanne exhibit, and I did hunt down Matisse’s “Dance” and stroll through the rooms of Greatest Hits, so yeah, they’re still there, YAY.