Back in NYC

I just wrapped up a long weekend trip to New York. The ostensible reason was to pick up the vitals that I had in storage at my parents' place: table saw, miter saw, single malt collection, etc. But more importantly, I got to spend the weekend hanging out with Perlick and Jess (among others) in the city. I spent my last day out on the Island; my time there was made more bearable by the fact that my mom got DSL (whoah!), so I'm taking care of some tech support issues before leaving. I have the wireless network up and running now, and I'm running repeated Windows Updates on my sister's computer.


As warning, this will be a long-winded list-full post, like a previous NY visit, but hey, at least there are pictures.

Hanging out in the city rocked; I definitely need to get down there more than twice a year. The first evening was a Moroccan (?) dinner in the East Village, followed by beers at Burp Castle, which serves a variety of Belgian beers (see this series of photos in somebody's blog description). The bartenders put on the role of being "brewist monks," and shush people who are talking too loud. It was a definite keeper--good beer, and there's no music playing, so you can actually hold a conversation without yelling. There was an older crowd there, which made me feel a bit more at home (vs. sitting next to college boys doing Budweiser tallboys and Jaegermeister shots). However, I have to admit that the murals veered in the direction of adolescent boy D&D fantasies, in contrast to the classy dark wood paneled decor (e.g., check out this one--doesn't it make you think "conversion van?"). As a side note, a slightly amusing set of stickers at the men's room sink:


The next morning, we took a walk to H&H Bagels on the West Side, and came back along the Hudson River. On the walk, we came across these large windowless buildings that seemed like they were being made into condos. We were at a loss--ferry terminal? Power plant?


Back on Long Island, I started my infrastructure geekery research. I first started searching for "Helmsley Condo," but that was absolutely useless. Then I started with Google Maps, to see if I could get an address. Wait... it's sitting right on top of the Lincoln Tunnel!


Yep, it's a ventilation building for the tunnel. There is another matching one on the Jersey side--I realized I caught it in the background of my photos.

This was followed by bagels and cream cheese on the roof deck of Perlick's building. Not a bad morning.


We met Woody in Tribeca for lunch, where he was wrapping up some weekend work in the city. He is doing well; he and Robin are expecting kid #2 later this year (September?). As we wandered around the neighborhood, we passed one designer store after another that was air conditioning with the front door open (to entice customers, etc.) This is a clear sign that energy is still far too cheap.


Next was browsing at a used bookstore/cafe in Soho that is run to raise funds for a housing nonprofit organization, followed by picking up Jess' sister at the Chinatown bus and carrying her bags.

That night, a bunch of us went to the avant-garde music festival Bang on a Can--26 straight hours of new music at the World Financial Center. We only stayed for 2-3 hours; there were good and not so good pieces. Perlick raved about the string quartet Ethel, and I thought they were great--Marcelo Zarvos: Arrival and Memory (from Nepomuk’s Dances). Incidentally, Zarvos composed the score for the film The Good Shepherd (a strong recommendation). Another piece was performed by a quintet of brass players, playing from opposite balconies in the large atrium space... the resonant effect worked well with the textures of the piece. But the music itself was a bunch of overlapping slides... I have to admit it reminded me mostly of whale recordings (I noted, "Man, if I was a humpback, I'd probably have a raging hardon now.") The last piece we heard was Franco Donatoni's Arpege, played by eighth blackbird. It was an amorphous atonal piece; my reaction was, "Goddammit, didn't we get this motherfuckin' Pierre Boulez Marteau sans Maitre-style bullshit out of our systems already? Can't we just acknowledge that we went through that phase, it's over, and we don't have to do it again?" Maybe I'm just grumpy in my modern music views--anything to add, Perlick?

Sunday morning was dim sum with Logger in Chinatown... dim sum always rocks--try doing a search in my blog for the term, and you'll see it comes up pretty often. Had pork buns, sesame buns, short ribs, sticky rice... all of the favorites.

The afternoon was spent at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, on the upper West side. The special exhibit (Design for the Other 90%, about design in non-first world countries) was unfortunately closed. But the rest of the museum was thoroughly engrossing. Everything from 19th-century French staircase models to iPods to submersibles to this lamp below ("dear ingo" by ron gilad). Very clever... I liked it.


A walk across Central Park, south of the reservoir, some pastries on the Upper West Side, and then back to Long Island.

Yeah, a good visit. The problem is that every time I go to the City, my list of things to do ends up getting longer, not shorter.