New York City

Having blogged about New Jersey and Colorado, I suppose New York City deserves its own blog entry as well.  It’s the US city I’m most familiar with after DC/Baltimore.  My father’s side of the family comes from Brooklyn, though by now they’re all over the place.

 City.  It’s about 4 hours north of the Washington DC area, consisting of Manhattan, Bronx, Queens and Brooklyn.  Staten Island, Long Island, and upper New Jersey are part of the larger NYC metropolitan area.  The city itself has 8 million people, whereas the greater NYC metropolitan area includes 20 million.

            Brief history.  Originally settled by the Dutch, including Peter Minuit’s famous (though false) purchase of Manhattan Island from the Indians for $24.  At that time (1626) it was called New Amsterdam.  It was captured by the British in 1664 and renamed New York.  It was the first capital of the US, before Philadelphia and later Washington, DC. 

            When most people think of NYC, they think of Manhattan, of course.  Notable landmarks:

            Empire State Building.  Built in 1929-30 by Al Smith, featured in “King Kong”, and still surviving today.  I love its Art Deco interior, and the view from the top, both the 86^th floor outside observatory and the 102^nd floor indoor one, is spectacular.

            World Trade Center.  Built in the early 70s, and knocked down on 9/11/01.  We had the good fortune to check out the view from the deck in 1988, but unlike the ESB, which is centrally located at 34^th Street and 5^th Ave., the WTC was down at the southern end of the island, making much of the view not much more than lots of ocean.  Moreover, the observation deck was 20 feet away from the edge of the tower, unlike the ESB where it seemed you were right on the edge.  I preferred the ESB experience.

            Central Park.  Fairly huge, with large, green open spaces.  I never jogged in it or caught any concerts, but I have seen enough of it on various visits to appreciate it.

            Times Square.  As noted in the last blog, I’ve never been there for NYE, but I have been there before – lots of neon, much more impressive at night than the daytime.  I only recall going there on the 1988 trip.

            Grand Central Station.  An impressively large and luxuriously appointed terminal, similar to the Moscow Metro. 

            Penn Station/Madison Square Garden.  We saw AC/DC – fifth row seats! – in August 1988 at MSG, my one and only MSG experience.  The Garden is literally right on top of Penn Station, which serves as the railroad terminal for trains coming from, and going to, Washington’s Union Station; but we never simply came up by train for a concert.

            Greenwich Village.  In the 90s I’d visit here with Ken, scoping out the CD stores for bootlegs; on another night his Coven of Hate crowd went to the Bank (a club).  In June 2001 we caught Nebula at the Mercury Lounge, the last visit I made to NYC before 9/11.  St Mark’s, where the cover of Led Zeppelin’s Physical Graffiti album is located, is here.  GW has a very grimy, dirty, rundown look to it, but it’s where the hippies and stoners tend to live.

            Subway.  One of the oldest systems in the world, it opened in 1904, and the world’s largest.  The NYC subway is vast, with several different lines crisscrossing the island and extending into Brooklyn, Queens, etc.  There are high speed express trains, and locals.  I’m not aware of any other system which is operational 24/7.  The PATH train connects Manhattan with New Jersey.  I recall in the 70s, the system used tokens, the cars were dirty and covered in graffiti, and the lights went out fairly often.  My father explained the way the different lines were integrated, but to me the network was baffling.  I prefer the Paris Metro.

            Wall Street.  I went down there in 1988, only to find that the building on Wall Street so often identified as “Wall Street” with the statue of George Washington in front of it, is not the NY Stock Exchange.  The World Trade Center was down in this lower part of Manhattan.

            Coney Island.   Guess what, NYC actually has a beach, with an amusement park and a roller coaster.  My most recent visit was to see Widespread Panic.   I also love the Cyclone.  Maybe one day I'll make it back there.  Not holding my breath, though.

            Mayors.  The mayor of such a large town inevitably becomes a national figure – far more so than mayors of any other city in the US.  Now they have Bloomberg; the mayor of 9/11, Rudy Guliani; LaGuardia; but my favorite is Ed Koch. 

            Other cities have tall buildings, of course (e.g. Paris, Dubai, Chicago – Hong Kong having the most) but none have as many all together, so densely packed.  European cities tend of have architecture of an extremely homogenous nature, especially Paris, where the buildings are the same height and style for blocks on end with few notable exceptions to prove the rule.  DC has a law preventing buildings from exceeding the height of the Washington Monument; and other cities (Baltimore, Phoenix, Richmond, Norfolk) have very small skyscraper districts only a few blocks in depth.  In Manhattan, you look down a street, in any direction, and you see a vast valley, a chasm, between towering walls.  It’s unique.

Long Island.  Often referred to simply as “The Island” (e.g. Ewan McGregor & Scarlet Johannsen).  My father’s family started out in Brooklyn, then moved to various places from there.  Twin sister aunt: Merrick (we visited them several times in the 70s, though now they live in Raleigh-Durham but keep the NY accents).  Younger brother uncle: Babylon, though he would always come to Merrick.  My buddy Dave, who I went to college with, is out on the Island, in Deer Park.  I’ve never been to the Gold Coast, though I’ve read enough about it: The Great Gatsby and two Nelson Demille books.

Coney Island.  In 1988 we visited the beach here during the summer, resulting in two rides on the Cyclone and one very nasty sunburn (just like 1984).  Coney Island dates from the turn of the century, whereas Copacabana and Ipanema, in Rio de Janeiro, were only desolate, uninhabited beaches at that time and only took their current form in the 1940s and 50s.

Bronx.  I've been over to Fordham (main campus) and the Bronx Zoo, but that's about it.

Queens.  The Mandarin Chinatown is in Flushing, which I've been to a few times now, plus the courthouse on Sutphin (?). 

Staten Island.  So far, for me, this has been the island between the Outerbridge Crossing and the Verrazano Bridge.

Early Trips.  When we were kids growing up in the DC area in the 70s, our parents would take us on several trips: NYC, Long Island, Glens Falls (to visit my father’s family); Worcester, Massachusetts (to visit my mom’s family); and Ocean City, Maryland, and King’s Dominion, for our own family vacations.  I remember NYC in the 70s, the highlights of said visits being the Empire State Building and FAO Schwartz, the famous toy store.  We would drive up the Turnpike and stay in fancy hotels in Manhattan.  It’s funny, I never recall any trip in which we went BOTH to Manhattan or Merrick, Long Island, it always seemed to be one or the other, but not both.

1988.  In the summer of 1988 we swapped apartments with a family who had a large place on 96^th and 5^th Avenue, overlooking the upper end of Central Park.  Although I was only there for about 10 days, I was able to do the following:  Empire State Building, World Trade Center, Public Library, subway, Sam Ash, Times Square, Macy’s, AC/DC concert at Madison Square Garden, and Coney Island.

Pizza.  Since pizza is, bar none, my favorite food, I can’t mention NYC without mentioning “New York style” pizza – though I’ve noticed that it’s commonly available in northern New Jersey as well.  This is pizza with wide slices and thin, soft (NOT crispy!) crust.  I have yet to find any place outside that area which successfully duplicates that type of pizza, although there are several which claim to (with pictures of Manhattan and Frank Sinatra on the walls, of course).  Chicago style?  Please – that 2 inch thick monstrosity is better labeled “cheese pie” than pizza.  NY delis are supposedly unique, but for me the pizza is really the only game in town.

Culture.  An argument can be made that NYC is the country’s #1 city – even competing with Chicago and L.A.  I can’t begin to list all the films which take place there, or the TV shows, of which “Seinfeld” and “Sex and the City” are probably the most notable in recent years.  But I don’t care for, or share in, the worship of the city.  I really can’t stand Sinatra’s “New York, New York” song, nor am I into the Broadway scene; I still haven’t seen “Spamalot”, the only musical I would have any interest in.  I don’t even like the New York City songs by AC/DC and The Cult, and I like those bands.  Oddly, KISS, who ARE from NYC, devote their “city song” to Detroit (“Detroit Rock City”).  New Yorkers have their own style and accent – and attitude.  For some reason Brooklyn has its own pride, distinct from the city itself.  John Lennon could have lived anywhere on Earth, yet he and Yoko Ono decided to make NYC their home.  I can appreciate what the city has to offer, but it falls well short of love.

Summer of '88

As the snow falls early this year, I’m reminded of…summer. Particularly, another special summer, 1988.


Background. I had finished sophomore year at University of Maryland, and was taking 4 summer classes in order to get into the business school in fall. This meant staying on campus over the summer instead of returning home to Paris. Fortunately my best friend Phil was around, and one of my top friends at UMCP, Baron, was also taking summer classes, even staying in the apartment next door.


Classes. I took Accounting I, Accounting II, Calculus and Statistics. The accounting I professor was a Chinese woman with an impenetrable accent. Calculus was an easy A, as it was less challenging than the calculus class I’d already taken in high school. Statistics was dull, but it was a night class. Although the summer schedule meant classes 5 days a week, they were at noon or 2 p.m. so I could sleep late every day. I had no idea summer school was this laid back.


Apartment. I was in an on-campus apartment with Dave – a Diamondback photographer – and Jeff, a Texan from Houston studying urban studies. In July my brother came down from NYC, and then my Dad came down, and we all went up to NYC when my summer session ended.


Car. I had been saving up for a late 70’s Trans Am, but just as I was about to buy one, my parents bought me an ’84 Chevrolet Cavalier. Excellent gas mileage, if not particularly reliable, but it had A/C, automatic transmission, 4 doors, and a tape deck; and it could fit the 4 cubic foot fridge I was using.
I had gotten my drivers’ license in summer ’86 as a 17 year old, but without a car to drive consistently, my skills were almost nonexistent. The MVA test was “parallel park behind the MVA building”, not a very good indication of highway driving. I knew I’d have to teach myself how to drive.
Fortunately, UMCP has a small “city” worth of roads, and during summer the campus is virtually deserted, allowing me to drive around and teach myself. From there I ventured forth into traffic on Route 1, then brief trips along the Beltway. When I first drove all the way around the Beltway to Fairfax, to visit my friend Phil, it was like crossing the ocean. From there I learned to drive at night, a completely different experience. I even had my first accident: a minor scrape with a UMCP utility pickup truck. The crew said not to worry about it, they wouldn’t even file their own claim.


Music. The big deal was that (A) I got a CD player (er…borrowed my brother’s over the summer) and (B) got into early Scorpions, mainly Fly to the Rainbow and Lonesome Crow. I managed to jam with my friend Ken in Columbia.


Concerts. This was a great year for concerts.

1. Pink Floyd at RFK, the Momentary Lapse of Reason tour. Baron and his buddy Rob sold Floyd pictures Baron had taken at the Philadelphia show. I guarded the stash while reading Ayn Rand books. Our seats were in section 300,000 something.
2. Van Halen’s Monsters of Rock. Also at RFK, this time with Phil. Kingdom Come, Metallica, Dokken, Scorpions, and Van Halen (with Sammy Hagar) on the OU812 Tour. The fans set fire to the seats during VH’s set, forcing them to turn on the house lights. Sammy Hagar wasn’t sure whether to be impressed or amused.
3. Iron Maiden, at the Cap Center, with my brother. This was the Seventh Son tour. I got great tickets at the Stamp Union, “camping out” with minimal competition. A great show!
4. Judas Priest, at the Cap Center, with my brother. This was the Ram it Down Tour. More awesome seats! Not quite “Heavy Metal Parking Lot”, but close. This was the first time I’d ever seen Priest in concert.
5. AC/DC at Madison Square Garden, with my brother. I scored 5^th row seats buying them at the box office a week before the show. White Lion opened. Another great show, even if the album they were touring, Blow Up Your Video, totally sucked.
   

NYC. Every other year we went back to the US for home leave in summer. In ’88, my parents decided to swap places again, but unlike ’84, when we got Bag End, this time we scored a huge apartment on 5^th Avenue & 96^th Street in Manhattan. We went to the Empire State Building, the World Trade Center, the guitar stores, the subway, Central Park, the library, and even walked all the way from 34^th Street back to 96^th. The AC/DC concert I mentioned above. Finally, we rode the Cyclone at Coney Island.

In 1998 I visited our relatives in Glens Falls, New York, only vaguely aware that France won the World Cup (“o que aconteceu????"). I have to wonder what summer 2008 has in store for us.