| 01-17-02 -
3:05
Celebrities are everywhere and largely left alone. This city is secure enough not to gawk. But silly enough to want to tell your friends who you saw, where you saw them, and how cool you were about it. I saw Sarah Jessica Parker on Carmine and didn’t even shriek. Economy Candy: Lower East Side candy extravaganza. Sold by the pound, you can get those strips of dots or marzipan or that gum with the comic in it. Floor to ceiling. Just Candy. Time Marches On and Yet, Stands Dead Still: This is a city steeped in tradition, and willing to bulldoze it for something bigger, better, more powerful. And completely willing to fight against it. You have the Plaza and Trump Tower. You have the Woolworth Building and the UN Building. People take risks. They sometimes fail. The Alice in Wonderland Statue in Central Park: I double-dog-dare you to go there and not smile and/or climb all over it. The Great Lawn on the First Sunny Day of Spring: A billion light-starved New Yorkers, half-naked…or naked, on blankets and towels just trying to not glow in the dark. The Summer Share Concept: Where else would a 22 year old feel deprived because she got a summer share on the Jersey Shore instead of in the Hamptons? Where else would people feel it was some god-given right to get out of the city every weekend in the summer (and many would say, good riddance)? Where else does the world stop for 2 months so you can get to the beach in time for Happy Hour? Summer Fridays: For those of you in less enlightened places. Offices in New York have different policies. Some close every Friday at 3. Some give you 5 full Fridays off. Some give you a number of half-days. But almost all companies give you some way to get out of the city early. As I noted earlier. Some of the smartest people in the world live here. The Nutcracker at Lincoln Center: I fully accept that there are performances in other places. In fact, I have seen them. But none will fill you with the same child-like wonder as a 6 year old as the New York City Ballet at Lincoln Center. Period. Illegal Movies: It’s like Russian Roulette for film. Will this one have sound? Will it have a picture? Will it be of the new release you bought or of someone’s shoe? For $5 you can play a game and maybe see a movie! The Ceiling at Grand Central: Now that it is renovated, Grand Central is, quite simply, awesome. The light show at the holidays is beautiful and the restoration work they did is stunning. Go in the afternoon when the light is shining just right. Through the hustle of the station, it is almost spiritual. Carousel in Prospect Park: A well-kept secret but for a cheap date, take him/her to ride the Free Trolley through Prospect Park, stop at the absolutely amazing Carousel, then walk over to the Brooklyn Museum. In the fall, there’s nothing like it. The Fountain at Washington Square Park: For an absolutely FREE date on a spring or summer day, go sit in/on/around the fountain and people watch. Or sun yourself. Listen to Naked Man Comedy or watch the guys who breakdance. It’s free entertainment AND you can get wet. Union Square: It’s like an upscale outdoor mall with the best food you’ll have anywhere. Working in that area was a godsend last holiday season as I could do all my shopping in one place. Chopt: It’s not just tossed and chopped salad. It’s a religious experience. Barmacy and The Beauty Bar: An old pharmacy and an old beauty parlor become trendy bars. Barmacy actually has the theoretically illegal Happy Hour along with a collection of very old and intriguing artifacts. At The Beauty Bar, you can get a manicure while you sit under a non-functioning hair dryer and drink your cosmopolitan. Gage & Tollner in Brooklyn: It’s got GAS LAMPS in it for crying out loud! And WILD GAME! And it’s in the middle of downtown Brooklyn. Just crazy. Peter Luger’s: Okay, so I’ve yet to get reservations. But I have had a piece of steak from someone at work. And yeah. Better than I’ve had anywhere else. Bodegas: Where else can you get toilet paper, beer, and a Dominican cookie for a mere $15? How Damned Hard it is to Do Anything Around Here: For example. Buying stamps. You live in the suburbs, you get in a car and drive to the post office, buy your stamps, get back in your car and go home. Here? Well. You spend a few days thinking of where the nearest post office is on your route to or from work and try to determine if you can stop in sometime at lunch. Then you forget to buy them for a week or two. Then you finally break down and buy them for 45 cents a piece at the bodega. Everything is like that. The People are like Movie Characters: I’ve got a construction worker who sings Beatles tunes at the top of his lungs every day. On the old N/R commute, I had a flute playing man who sang "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Guilianian" when we got to the City Hall stop. And this morning, a guy walked next to me singing "Hey Marianne" at the top of his lungs. Some are crazy people, some are just happy. And we all live in New York together. LOOK UP!!!!: Okay. People say you shouldn’t look up because people can then tell that you’re a tourist. Well. We can tell whether you look up or not. So you might as well do it. Only – here’s what makes it unappreciated – if you look up in awe at the size of the buildings but ignore the beautiful smaller buildings and the extraordinary architecture of the city. I looked up this morning and saw that on my building, apparently right outside my window, there are HUGE carved Greek gods. And lower on the building? Art Deco carvings painted in pistachio, yellow and peach. A slice of Coconut Grove right here in Soho. The West Village: Nooks and crannies and spacious old townhouses turned into 6 apartments and the birth of bohemia and Dylan and it’s positively west fabulous. How The Yankees End Each Game: There is NOTHING in the world like being at Yankee Stadium after a game when they play "New York, New York". That opening tune. Those lyrics. Makes you want to run around the city dancing on light posts. And shouting "I MADE IT HERE!!!!" You can kick your way down from the cheap seats and sing at the top of your lungs. Pretend you’re Frank. Pretend you’re Liza. You can own it all. Adam Sandler was born in Brooklyn. The Upper East Side: Because you don’t HAVE to live there, but you could. In fact, that is the real glory of New York Real Estate. There is a place for everyone. As long as you have some form of money. There’s a place ideally suited for you.The Birthplace of RAP!!!!: Don’t GET me started on East Coast Vs. West Coast. It was born here. It may have grown and evolved in other places (and it did!) but it was BORN HERE. The American Birthplace of Punk: Or, where punk came to life in the states. Velvet Underground, Blondie, The Ramones…New York’s Musical Finest. Street Fairs & Green Markets: Every weekend, you can be guaranteed that there will be at least one somewhere. And the stuff they sell is GREAT. Sesame Street: It takes place in New York. It’s filmed here. It’s smart, it’s entertaining, and it forever made me want to live in an apartment in New York. Subway Challenge: The subway system is so freaking complicated, that once one has mastered it, travelling in any other city on the planet is a breeze. Madison Square Garden: Anything you see there is bigger than life. I don’t know why that is. It’s not better than the old Boston Garden, it’s not as new and chic as Where Else Can You Get Frito Pie, Sushi, Thai, and Ethiopian food all in one block? So Many Lights! So Many Lights! (That’s for my mom) Express Trains: How in the world can you possibly get from Brooklyn to the Bronx in less time than it takes to get from Brooklyn to the Lower East Side? Only the MTA knows. The Promenade: It had (and still has) one of the best views possible of lower Manhattan. You can see everything, framed in the Statue of Liberty and the Brooklyn Bridge. The F Train in Brooklyn: When it is above ground, you get a great view of the Statue of Liberty. I like subway lines that allow you to see monuments. Rudy Giuliani: When he told me to go to work after 9/11, I did. When he told me to stay home, I did. When he told me to spend money, I did. He’s like Papa New York. Holidays – Nobody celebrates them like New York. You got your Christmas decorations in every lobby, your 40 foot menorahs, your Halloween parade, Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, unparalleled fireworks. And people get INTO it here. They LOVE holidays, dressing up and so forth. Sports fans call the players bums. Loudly. In the middle of games. They complain about salaries and whether or not they are getting their money worth. It’s glorious. All the cool bands that came out of New York. I can’t begin to name them all but you love them too, trust me.Subway Musicians – you ain’t heard nothing til you have heard Hava Nagila played by a saxamophone, fiddle, cello trio followed by a "Useta Be My Girl". You can get anyone to do anything if you pay them enough. And usually it’s not that much. Today we ordered sandwiches from Katz’s and paid for the cab both ways. Granted. My previously $14.00 pastrami sandwich will now be a $22.00 sammich – but see above where I mention how great Katz’s pastrami is. The Yankees have so much class. The new Yankee, Jason Giambi, did the sweetest thing for a boy who lost his father in the World Trade Center involving asking him if he would mind rooting for him even though Giambi replaced the kid’s favorite player. People express their feelings here and don’t seem to let things fester. I know this comes off badly outside the city. But I feel much better when I say to someone "I haven’t got all day" than when I would stand in line behind someone who took forever to get money out. I see less road rage behavior here and often wonder if it is because in small ways we can express frustration and irritation. Being pregnant here has taught me that I will be entirely capable of being a parent. Let me explain. It goes back to the item about life being really fucking hard here. You don’t know from hard until you’ve been in your first trimester and battling this city every day. Therapy – New Yorkers believe in therapy like Canadians believe in massage therapy. It’s standard stuff. I love that people will just start talking about their last therapy session like it is nothing to be ashamed of. I think everyone can use a little therapy. Luckily, here, we acknowledge that freely. No NASCAR covers on TV Guide. We lived in Arizona. They have NASCAR covers about every other month. And articles. I know people care. But I don’t. Therefore, I prefer to live someplace where I don’t have to see that filth. The East River: There is always the possibility of throwing things into it. Want to get rid of a dead fichus? The East River is perfect for that. Want to get rid of a particularly annoying friend? Lock her in a box and throw her in. I know you’re not SUPPOSED to trash it. But it’s really nice to know it is there just in case. There is Magic in New York: Whether it is the way a setting sun bounces off the windows of the buildings downtown (creating these bizarre reflections in alley ways), the glitter of the Fulton Fish Market against the East River, or those lovely puffs of steam that come out of the street, this city has magic everywhere if you know how to look for it. And you can’t live here if you can’t see it. Because all of the difficulties, all of the challenges, all of the day-to-day stress and harshness? It’s all worth it when you see that magic. If you live here and you’ve forgotten it, go look for it. It’s still here. Because I Wake Up Every Day Thankful That I am Lucky Enough to Live Here.
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