if you are coming to the city for the first time. It comes with maps and space to record your journey. Best of all, it requires no batteries AND it fits in your pocket.
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Here's a birds-eye view of today's ramble.
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Monday, November 3, 2008
Music to my ears
One of my favorite things about wandering New York ... and anywhere people gather, for that matter ... is the music they make as they rub their collective body parts together (figuratively).
All those voices melding, and serving as counterpoints, with each other; all those accents dancing in and out; all those fragmented conversations intertwined in a 300-square mile tapestry of sound makes me wish I composed grand, vast symphonic works.
Sometimes the voices are just crickets in a distance. Other times they cicada in the trees above me.
The other day in the glen everything fell eerily silent, and one note broke free and soared into my head.
It was a man's voice ... Queens, probably, but maybe Brooklyn, possibly on the cusp of both ... a little on edge, not at all happy.
"No, Bro, you don't get it! I fuckin' lost Jimmy in Times Square! ... I don't fuckin' know ..."
That was all I got. It floated in the air for a second and then was swallowed by the rest of the crickets as they brought their legs together and started critching again.
I don't know if the mook ever found Jimmy or if Jimmy really wanted to be found, but I wanted to thank both men publicly for adding a single golden thread to my sonic wall-hanging.
Thanks, guys.
All those voices melding, and serving as counterpoints, with each other; all those accents dancing in and out; all those fragmented conversations intertwined in a 300-square mile tapestry of sound makes me wish I composed grand, vast symphonic works.
Sometimes the voices are just crickets in a distance. Other times they cicada in the trees above me.
The other day in the glen everything fell eerily silent, and one note broke free and soared into my head.
It was a man's voice ... Queens, probably, but maybe Brooklyn, possibly on the cusp of both ... a little on edge, not at all happy.
"No, Bro, you don't get it! I fuckin' lost Jimmy in Times Square! ... I don't fuckin' know ..."
That was all I got. It floated in the air for a second and then was swallowed by the rest of the crickets as they brought their legs together and started critching again.
I don't know if the mook ever found Jimmy or if Jimmy really wanted to be found, but I wanted to thank both men publicly for adding a single golden thread to my sonic wall-hanging.
Thanks, guys.
Number 1 reason my mom needs to visit New York City
If my mom ever comes to visit AND if she brings her heart pills, I'm going to take her to only one place, a place where every Asian piece of crap ever imported into our beautiful country can be found in a single Chinatown big-box store.
Pearl River Mart (447 Broadway, in Soho) is the Wal-Mart of Asian crap. … Three floors of Buddhas, beaded curtains, Chinese dragons, tacky clothing, silly shoes, free-standing screens, paper lanterns, Samurai swords, incense holders, cookware and other stuff my mom LOVES.
If your thing is, like my mom's, cheap, Eastern and in one place this is a must do-do.
I love you ma, and I'm kidding. I'll also take you to the wholesale bead stores around Penn Station ... but that's it! You are getting kinda old and I worry that you'll over do it.
Pearl River Mart (447 Broadway, in Soho) is the Wal-Mart of Asian crap. … Three floors of Buddhas, beaded curtains, Chinese dragons, tacky clothing, silly shoes, free-standing screens, paper lanterns, Samurai swords, incense holders, cookware and other stuff my mom LOVES.
If your thing is, like my mom's, cheap, Eastern and in one place this is a must do-do.
I love you ma, and I'm kidding. I'll also take you to the wholesale bead stores around Penn Station ... but that's it! You are getting kinda old and I worry that you'll over do it.
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