Monday, November 17, 2008

NY? Yes we can! 7


Thursday

Fall foliage - early morning view, Chester, CT

And off to Chester (the town not the cat). Rather guilty now that I have taken up the offer of a visit to J+L’s place in Connecticut, because it means Lincoln taking time off to go up there with me. It’s a couple of hours out of NY. I rented a car from the local train station and we head up to this tiny town (it would be a village in the UK) right in the thick of the fall foliage season. A lovely little place of brightly coloured timber houses and old mills in a deep wooded valley. I remember my first visit to New England at this time of year with Ian and it’s every bit as spectacular as my memories. Their little house is very cosy and very real, and I can understand why they love this getaway from the city. It’s got a huge deck, completely covered today with leaf fall, looking out over a pond in the middle of woods, with ducks and beavers. Delightful. Lincoln takes me to a restaurant in the town where they specialize in local farmers’ produce and with a very classy menu. I’m really impressed with the way food has improved in the US, a bit like the ‘slow food’ movement in the UK, perhaps.

NY? Yes we can! 6


Wednesday

The newly restored G U G G E N H E I M

The culture continues, as I descend on the Met. Where do you start in this huge place? I decide you can’t do everything so I focus on taking pictures of statues – Greek, Roman, Egyptian, Renaissance, modern and even post modern (in the shape of a Koons exhibit on the roof) – it’s all here. Standing on the roof, looking out over the park on yet another beautiful day, I decide I’ve got to come back soon. It’s just too good to miss, and plenty more to see.
In the early evening I met up with another long lost friend, Kathleen, and we have a long chat in a bar by Washington Square as the dusk descends. It’s great how you can just pick up with old friends after many years and it seems like you haven’t been away – a bit like my feelings for New York right now. And to see how they are thriving.
Now it’s time for the big debate. L+L have invited A+A and another friend (the guy that knew the hair guy at Billy Elliot) and we have a great time cheering and booing the candidates in the final debate. Obama and McCain really do come over like pantomime hero and villain – Prince Charming and the Baron, Robin Hood and the Sheriff. It’s hard to remember feeling this excitement in politics – the stakes are even higher than the Blair election in 1997.

NY? yes we can! 5


Tuesday

Koons, me and a Central Park skyline

I stayed the night very comfortably in New Jersey and then it was back to Manhattan for a bit of a cultural tour. I had a wander round Chinatown and the Bowery, getting some great pictures of the fire escapes. This area was once way down there at the bottom of the heap, but there are signs of change, just like all over Manhattan. As with Hong Kong when I visited after a similar gap, everything seems to be on the up and up. Reflecting on what I’ve seen so far, there are some areas (like around Times Square) that are barely recognizable compared with my first visit 25 years ago. I suppose if I had been away from London for 7 years I would experience the same thing. Lots more green, no litter, no graffiti, and generally more prosperity – at least at this end of the island. And lots more beautiful people – the derelicts and the obese have given way to the well heeled and the well toned in this wealth and health obsessed age.
I found the New Museum for contemporary arts, a wickedly wilful and contemporary building but with a fairly uninteresting exhibit (as they say here).
Met up again with Joel for lunch (kept him waiting having got confused with the time shift – or just another senior moment?) and he took me to another NY institution, Keen’s Chop House, on W 36 St near Times Square. It has an 18th C atmosphere and claims descent from that time, with more dark oak and hundreds of clay pipes hanging from the ceiling – no doubt it was a terrible fug in here before the smoking ban – and I had a very pleasant steak and of course more lively conversation from my host.
Next up, MOMA, another Rockefeller foundation. It’s on the site of their old town house and has expanded a number of times – the latest providing some spectacular white spaces that will need some filling. There was also an outdoors exhibition of factory built homes, exploring what could be done to provide quick help to victims of disasters such as Katrina (something of a rebuke by implication to the current administration).
More food with Joel (and with Paula and Kenny). This time it’s Italian – Tony’s di Napoli, an old school family all-you-can-eat place where the pasta just keeps coming! Very tasty but I’m starting to feel like I will burst. A third Broadway show now – I took J+P to see Gypsy with Patty LuPone (another NY institution apparently!) She was born to play the lead role in this, belting out Everything’s coming up Rose’s until the roof came off to the inevitable standing ovation. It seems a little old fashioned now but still a great evening and maybe good to get a feeling of Broadway in its heyday.
After all that I managed to keep awake until 2am in a bar, Therapy, with Lincoln and a colleague of his (of ambivalent sexuality!) It’s in Hell’s Kitchen, at W52 St between 8 and 9 Ave, now the latest trendy area, which no doubt I would have been scared to visit all those years ago. Now it’s full of expensively, tastefully designed bars like this. Almost empty though on a Tuesday, and you are aware that the bar culture here is very different from London. No popping in after work for a drink in the week – everyone is down the gym. No-one seems to drink much any more in fact. And so, back for a well deserved sleep – my roomie Chester is getting used to me but I think disapproves of my night on the tiles.

NY? Yes we can! 4


Monday

'How ya doin'?' 'Marvellous!'

Another day, another treat with different friends. I met up with Joel, my old childhood pen pal, in the morning for a long walk around Wall Street, across Brooklyn Bridge to Brooklyn Heights and back. Joel is always in good form and feels like the ultimate NY guy. (Running joke: Joel: How ya doin'? Me: Marvellous!)
Though he has never walked across the bridge, so I had one up on him!
I still remember the address he wrote from all those years ago, 1342-43 Street. He has never been back there and I think the memories are not happy ones. But we both still remember when he came over to the UK at the age of 16 and I think it made a real difference to his life. I’m glad we got in touch again about 10 years ago.
Later he drove us through the tunnel to NJ to their home and I met Paula again and their family, Howard Amy and their baby. They dote on her like crazy – but I guess that’s what grandparents are meant to do. They have a huge and very comfortable house on a new retirement estate, where they seem to have a bunch of good neighbours. They threw a party in my honour – to see this strange English guy that no doubt Joel has talked about before, and the house was filled with conversation – everyone talking at once and having a great time.

NY? - yes we can! 3



Sunday

A Manhattan Sunday brunch - Lincoln, Angelo, Andrew, James


Sunday brunch is a NY institution, and nowhere is apparently better than l’Artésanale over near Andrew’s. I take L+J over to meet Andrew and Angelo and they got on very well, especially as it turned out that James and Angelo share a very similar Italian American upbringing and were soon swapping anecdotes about their families (Angelo being the only one in his family likely to vote for Obama). This café is one of the few where you can get decent cheese in the US: they just don’t ‘get’ cheese somehow – but here they have a cheese larder with that classic delicious smell wafting out.
Then back to Times Square with A+A to see Equus with Daniel Radcliffe and Richard Griffiths. Another great treat as I had not been able to get tickets when it was on in London. (Text from Y just before it started: ‘Enjoy Harry Potter’s willy you perv!’)
I never really rated DR in the movies but reports were good, and I was very pleasantly surprised. He put in an amazingly good performance in this intense production and with Griffiths really held the play together. The set was also spectacular, part Stonehenge, part circles of heaven looking down on the boy’s horse-god fantasies. The climax, even though I knew what was coming, was still shocking enough to make you shudder.
Later to the Algonquin for cocktails – another great NY institution.

Saturday, November 15, 2008

back to new york? yes we can 2


Saturday

Lincoln and James at Kykuit on a glorious autumn day

It’s an early start as Lincoln has arranged a tour of the Rockefeller mansion up at Tarrytown, a pleasant train ride up the Hudson Valley on a brilliantly clear and sunny morning. Kykuit is built on a bluff overlooking a beautiful bend in the river (beautiful because, we are told by the guide, the family bought up the opposite 40 miles of bank and gave it to the nation as a state park, to preserve their view). The house is very tasteful, in French chateau style, built by John D Rockefeller and lived in by three generations of the family before being handed over to the National Trust. It’s cleverly designed inside, and has a homely, intimate feel, despite its size. There’s also a superb modern art collection developed by Nelson Rockefeller. The gardens are extensive and elaborate, making good use of the changing levels and in many different styles. The many Rockefeller descendants still live on the estate in many houses spread over 4000 acres, and can be glimpsed on their private golf course. JDR was a Baptist and devoted his later years to giving away much of his Standard Oil fortune. He and his family created many of the cultural centres around the US, as well as buying up land for national and state parks. On our three hour tour the guide was one of the best I’ve had, giving real insight into the life of the family.
The trip is turning into a Rockefeller homage, as when we get back to Manhattan, Lincoln and I go up to the Top of the Rock(effeler Center), one of the best vantage points on the island, with huge panoramic views uptown over Central Park, and downtown with the Empire State Building centre stage and the rest of the cast clustering round. Of course, the twin towers of the World Trade Center would have been just behind once upon a time, and I’m reminded that I was in a similar vantage point on top of them just a few weeks before Sept 11th, on my last visit here in 2001. The centre was built in the depths of the depression to help stimulate the economy – a bit of altruism by JDR that I’m sure has paid off well in the long term. It’s a great bit of urban planning, the first real precinct in NY, spreading cleverly across three city blocks and centred on a public plaza, where they are already ice skating despite the unseasonal warm weather.
Later I drop into Andrew and Angelo’s apartment downtown. It’s my first visit though I’ve had many reports, and it lives up to its reputation as a meticulously detailed jewel of a flat. The view from the roof is stunning (even though the Empire State is now only peeking from behind a banal building that’s just sprung up) but it’s a great little oasis in the intense urbanism of the mid 30s – and looking out you can see many such little escape valves sprinkled across the roof tops, between the water tanks and lift overruns. Andrew was away but it was good to see Andrew again and chat over a Moroccan tagine – he’s starting to get more time but still very busy in his work.
Later I walk to Times Square, busier and buzzier than ever, and look for the Billy Elliot marquee. Yes, another treat – the previews of the Broadway production have just started and this was one of the spurs for my visit. (Really getting one up on Ian and Yasser!) I’m treating Lincoln and James and they (and the rest of the audience) love it, even though there are a couple of major glitches with the machinery that bring the show to a shuddering halt – and they cut the curtain call number. They have introduced quite a raft of small changes, and one or two substantial restaging in the second half, but it’s still very close to the original, with all the songs and dance numbers, and a brilliant cast (including Hayden Gwynne from the London production. The kids are as fantastic as any cast I have seen (I think I’ve seen 6 London Billys!) and the accents surprisingly authentic to my ear anyway. Then Lincoln springs a surprise – a friend of a friend is doing the hair and wigs and he sneaks us backstage to have a look. Later we meet up with them for a drink – really delightful and welcoming guys and classic gay New York boys. The hair guy is stunning and says he was a Billy Elliot himself, training in dance and no doubt hoping to get up on the stage one day. I’m flagging by the end – it’s hard to believe I’ve only been here 36 hours or so.

back to new york - yes we can! 1


Friday 10 October 2008

After a beautiful afternoon in Central Park, it’s hard to remember why it’s taken me so long to come back to New York. My last visit with Yasser was in August 2001 – the end of a 4 week trip. Since then, I’ve been reluctant to come back – blame it on Bush!
And if there’s anyone to thank for me coming now – apart of course from all my friends – thank Barack Obama and Billy Elliot.
The weather is just about perfect as I wander arund, people watching and taking in the buskers. Everyone is making the most of this Indian summer. (A friend later insists this is an American term dating from the days of the pilgrim fathers – whereas I always thought it came from the Raj.) Lots of people with prams, old ladies in wheelchairs with their latino maids, kids playing ball, people just lounging on the Great Lawn and grabbing the last chance to top up their tan. I walked for miles and sat by the lake: leaves just starting to turn and the sky a spectacular Wedgwood blue. It’s a beautiful park, New York’s jewel in the crown.

I’m staying at Lincoln and James’ apartment at 88th and Lexington, just in from the Guggenheim. Really great location and so kind of them to let me stay. It’s a comfortable place and good for the subway on the main uptown/downtown lines. The first evening they take me to a neighbourhood Italian restaurant, Spigolo on 2nd Avenue, where, sitting outside, it feels like a balmy Mediterranean night, which the food suits perfectly. We have a long chat about NY and the election. Obama mania is everywhere – posters, canvassers on the streets, and he’s on the cover of every magazine. By midnight I’m ready to collapse having been up since 2am EST, and bed down in their study with my roomie, Chester – a blind ex-stray cat long haired, very skinny under the longest hair, and with a well established routine that probably means I’m getting in the way – ut he’s friendly enough.