Category: Travel, places

Chicken Dudes of Rockefeller Center

chicken cart 51st and sixth avenue

On weekend nights the guys at 53rd and Sixth have a line stretching down the block while the chicken dudes a block or two away have nobody. You can pretty much make your own dish yourself. I’m usually vegetarian and don’t eat this crap but I tell you from days when I sampled the street chicken, there is little difference between any of them. (Several also serve falafel.) If you’re standing in line for chicken at 4 am, you’re more of an idiot than I thought.

Ghost Town movie, opening shot, Sixth Avenue

Opening shot of Ghost Town, looking down Sixth Avenue, included here mostly as sauce.

Blue Lights Means It’s Not City Center

55th Street the other night…

A pot dealer was murdered here about 10 years ago. 55th and 7th.

A pot dealer was famously murdered in this building in May, 2001.

Dream Hotel, 55th and Broadway

There’s a gimcrack roof bar on top of the Dream Hotel which also has an aquarium that takes up a fourth of the lobby.

City Center Theater at night, NYC

The City Center Theater repeats much of the same tried and true calendar year after year. That’s not necessarily bad.

Doing What I Can for Saturday Summer Streets

bikes for rent on Governor's Island

These two pics show bikes for rent on Governor’s Island.

more bikes for rent on Governor's Island

New York is doing this “open streets” event, Summer Streets, for three Saturdays in a row (8/8, 8/15, 8/22) but whoever’s in charge of publicizing it, is doing a strange job of it. Is it for people who have never ridden a bike to work? Is it for bike activists? What happens at the stations on the map? Besides being hard to find, the website is vague on all this.

Here’s the gist: NO CARS ON PARK AVENUE, some free bikes to use (although most people will bring their own), some exercise classes, some vendors, and some entertainers. Do the whole circuit on the map and see what happens.

Oak Hill Respite

oak hill backyard

I spent the weekend in Oak Hill which was a little subdued because half the family is under the weather and the weather is a little under itself. Spring comes two or three weeks later up here than in the city. It was my friends’ daughter’s fourth birthday and they had a swim party at a YMCA which was fun even though it’s really hard not to snark at basting and swimming in Clorox®.

We missed a wedding at the Twelve Tribes compound. The ceremony is said to be full of ritual reverance and divinity. Couples in the Tribe are not allowed to even kiss before they get married there although they may hold hands. I would hope they have elaborate forms of handsies and arm wrestling to go with the sweaty palms. The honeymoon suite near the creek gets lots of spring and summer action.

I’m going to try and come up to the Grey Fox bluegrass festival again this year. There’s an Irish music festival in nearby East Durham at the same time. The hills will ring of droney folk music while the people dance like chickens.

oak hill cow

New York City Fire Escapes

Many of us have these tiny balconies to hang out on on a nice day but we usually don’t. Why is that? What if a fireman sees you? Is it against the law? (Most people know you can’t grow your garden on your fire escape or use it for any other storage because whatever it is might block your escape from a fire. It’s in your lease.) Because you can see through them, being on them creates vertigo whether you are susceptible to vertigo or not. They usually look and feel flimsy. You wouldn’t jump up and down on them no matter what. Adding to the stigma, some people have thrown parties on fire escapes and the excess weight and crumbling construction has caused them to collapse (although a google search turned up nothing recent). Finally, you’re an exhibitionist if you hang out on your fire escape. The whole neighborhood can see you letting it all hang out when maybe they’re just used to blurry glimpses of you naked every few months. Are you cool with that?

Before air conditioners, people would sleep on them on the hot humid summer nights as seen in Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window. Also famously, Nick uses the fire escape to visit his neighbor Murray in A Thousand Clowns, while Murray uses it as his soap box. “Everybody out in the street for calisthenics and volleyball!” Something like that.

I have a misremembered memory of Batman talking to the citizens of Gotham (Sammy Davis in German here; Lurch here) on fire escapes as he climbed up the sides of buildings but then climbing up a fire escape would’ve been too easy for Batman.

Please enjoy these fire escape portfolios and essays.

Ding Dong Deluge

dingdongwaterdamage

I arrived at the Ding Dong Lounge last night to discover a fire truck parked out front and a dozen patrons milling around with New York’s Bravest. Not seeing any smoke, I looked into the bar and saw a waterfall pouring from the ceiling. Chet told me it had subsided quite a bit and earlier the lights had been flickering and from the outside the bar appeared to be collapsing in on itself. He was worried if he had done the right thing by calling fire department. Anyway, the firemen turned the water in the building off and tore up some of the damaged ceiling to let the rest of the water out. We threw ice in the toilets and a fine time was had by all. It turned out the overflowing sink or tub was in one of the top apartments so there’s obviously damage in at least two more apartments between the culprit and the bar.

Once a girlfriend took a bath in my tub and splashed a bit and the overflow drain was rusted and water damage occurred in the apartment below me. My landlord told me if it ever happened again, I would be responsible for the repairs. Doesn’t the landlord have to repair the overflow drain before making such a threat?

Update: The cause at the Ding Dong was determined to be a burst pipe, something the building insurance will have to pay for. The building probably needs an entire plumbing overhaul.

* * *

Beforehand, I’d gone for a walk with a friend through Riverside Park and was surprised to find the 79th Street Boat Basin Café or whatever it’s called already open for business. Some trees are already blooming! Get out there when the rain stops. Spring is here, folks.