Touching down in New York, I gritted my teeth against the pain of another red-eye flight. Not that I’ve experienced many, but it only takes 1 or 2 to realize the pros and cons. Jane and I got off the plane, made our way down to baggage, and called Allison. Seconds later, she drove by and we hopped into the car to make our way into Brooklyn, starting our 4-day vacation.
Much later that day, waiting at a quite cool little church called St. Paul’s Chapel, I got a chance to visit a Columbia University grad student who did a series of phone interviews with me in August. She showed Jane and I around the campus, offering bits of information left and right. What a way to spend the first evening in New York. The Columbia campus practically levitates on its intellectual energy. Walking through Teacher’s College, I felt a slight charge just knowing that somewhere in that building lessons are being taught that could make us all much better teachers than we are.
FLS
The visit to Columbia was great; the trip to Allison’s school was fun; the lunch at the French bistro (Chez Oskar, “Le Funky French Bistro,” to be exact) was tasty; standing in front of the Metropolitan Opera House, staring at the large Chagall prints, punctuated the night with a bit of culture. But Freestyle Love Supreme put the perfect end to the day.
With beats provided (exclusively, I think, no drum machines that I could tell) by human beat box Shockwave and synths filling out the audio profile, the tight sound and thinking of this 5-man troupe kept us all laughing for about 60 minutes. Improvisational rap seems too narrow a term. Freestyle Love Supreme puts flesh on well-practiced skeletons of songs with ideas provided by that night’s audience. With the exception of Jessica (the annoying high school student who commandeered the volunteer portion of the night, but had a completely boring day so was not interesting in the least to listen to), the experience was fantastic. For one section of the show, they took the name of a person, a place, and a thing, ending up with Brittney Spears, Kazakhstan, and Starbucks. From those ideas, they spun a 5-minute rap. References to The Scarlet Letter and Moby Dick stuck with me the most because they cleverly found their way into the evening, they weren’t added as a way to “sound” smart. Since 3 of the 5 guys are going on to a new off-Broadway show called “In The Heights,” this was the final performance of that configuration of FLS. So glad I got to see it (and we saw it for free due to just one in a series of Allison connections).
Inside Your Body
A little disturbing when you first think about it, but far more scientifically interesting when you’re actually there, we woke up the next day and made our way to BODIES… The Exhibition. Controversy surrounds this exhibit and I understand why. Still, this fascinating look at the way our bodies are built kept us occupied for hours. I think we wandered around in there for 3 hours, looking at and reading just about everything around us. Looking at a skeleton is one thing. Seeing the way muscles and organs work in different systems is another. From digestive to reproductive to circulatory, the preservation techniques used allowed us to see nerves, blood vessels, veins, and organs in context. This is the type of view we don’t get very often.
Fugghedaboutit
On our Saturday, after breakfast, we walked through Brooklyn Heights, home to brownstones worth well over a million dollars. Strolling on, we came to the promenade and looked out to the Statue of Liberty far in the distance. The southern tip of Manhattan stood closer to view, an impressive skyline where helicopters of the rich and famous swoop down to a landing pad, surely welcoming someone to another day of “power broking” and other things I don’t understand.
Walking across the Brooklyn Bridge, we obviously saw the famous architecture close up. Plaques and bronze plates suggest an interesting history of that bridge that I should look into later. Once on the Manhattan side of the bridge, we just wandered around for a bit and ended up walking down to the Canal Street area. Full of stalls, counterfeit merchandise, and far too many people, I couldn’t wait to get out of that area, though Pearl River Mart had some nice stuff I would buy if I lived there.
“I Told You That I’m Crazy For Those Cupcakes, Cousin.”
Not necessarily that same day, but close enough to show up next in my rambling narrative, we ended up at Magnolia Bakery at one point, shortly after a meal in Greenwich Village where the owner of the restaurant gave us a free (and our third) bottle of wine. Our nice Italian meal lead to our encounter with the bakery I first saw in that famous video. Calling these cupcakes good puts it far too mildly. A new word needs to be created to describe the taste of these creations. If you find yourself suddenly teleported to New York, before you freak out and scramble to find your way back to your home and job and loved ones, visit Magnolia Bakery. It’s that good.
So there you have it. Next year I’ll try to take more pictures in order to make this more interesting. If you have any New York stories, feel free to share them here so we can compare our trips and find even more cool places to go.