A whirlwind few days in New York! First time in the city since 1988, and it sure has changed! It feels like a much friendlier, greener, more livable city - but less like New York. While other cities have at the same time become more like New York - you'll see just as many weird and wonderful things and people in, for instance, Toronto's Kensington district as in the East Village or Greenwich Village nowadays!
There are new buildings going up (somehow they find a place to put them) and there are construction projects under way all over the city. There are parks and green areas where there were none - such as the
High Line, an elevated railway line built in 1934 to transport goods to and from Manhattan's industrial district, closed in 1980 and converted into a public park between 2009 and 2014.
 |
| The High Line |
 |
| The High Line |
Next to the High Line is the Whitney Museum, in a spanking new building designed by Genova's own Renzo Piano. This was my first destination in New York, to seek out a number of paintings by Edward Hopper - the subject of study and discussion in my book club back home.
On my second morning in New York I spent some time wandering around the South Seaport area, the most historic and oldest part of what was originally "New Amsterdam", and around the financial district in a chilly drizzle that didn't feel at all like June.
 |
| South Seaport |
 |
| Wall Street - The New York Stock Exchange |
 |
| The now ominous Trump Building |
This part of the Financial District has not changed, but nearby is something that wasn't there before, marking the absence of something that was: the 9/11 memorial. When I arrived in the morning, an employee was placing white roses by the names of the people whose birthdays would have been that day, June 6th, making the vision even more powerful.
 |
| The 9/11 Memorial |
 |
| The 9/11 Memorial |
 |
| The 9/11 Memorial Museum |
 |
The Oculus - a weird and wonderful thing.
Not sure what it's for really, but like most things nowadays, it has shops in it |
 |
| The new World Trade Center and part of the Oculus |
 |
| The Oculus and the Lower Manhattan skyline |
I decided to spend the rest of this cold, rainy day at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. There's plenty to see in there for several rainy days! Unable to take in all of the museum's highly various collections in a day, but I randomly sampled them - an ancient Egyptian temple, some art deco stained glass, a room full of 14th and 15th century Sienese paintings including several by Sano di Pietro, in whom I have a particular interest, great masterpieces of European art ranging from Rembrandt to Renoir - until, overcome by museum fatigue, I searched in vain for an exit, only to find myself in a room surrounded by El Grecos! Turning a corner and thinking 'Now I really must go', I stumbled into a wall covered with Goyas! - and so on.
Then it occurred to me that there might be a few Hopper paintings hidden among this museum's collections too, and a quick search in Google revealled that they were in room 609, way over on the opposite side in the Modern Art Wing. I managed to find them just as the guards were beginning to herd everyone toward the exits!
Back across Central Park, also much quieter and tamer, cleaner and greener than it used to be - though that may not be surprising on a rainy day during working hours. Then onto the subway and down to Times Square and the theatre district!
Earlier in the day I had managed to pick up half-price tickets from
TKTS for
The Phantom of the Opera for myself and a friend who happened to be in town. What a show! The costumes and special effects were amazing, as well as the quality of the music and dancing. A show about a show, with curtains and theatre sets one inside another. And what tickets! We had seats A1 and A3: the chandelier swung over our heads, and when flames roared up on the stage at a particularly dramatic point, we were so close we could feel the searing heat on our faces!
And so I managed to experience an awful lot of art and entertainment in my short time in New York, as well as catch up with a friend I hadn't seen for 28 years - even longer than the friends I visited in Toronto! Last time I saw Anisa I was just starting out in my career, and she was studying art in Italy. Now she is a successful interior designer, artist, singer and mother of a very intelligent and articulate little girl - who was so kind as to share her bedroom with me. The morning commute along the Henry Hudson Parkway, a scenic riverside drive, from uptown into Lower Manhattan for school and work in the morning gave us time to chat and catch up on some of what has been going on over the past 28 years; surprisingly, there was no more traffic than in any ordinary big city, in fact less traffic than many cities I've been to! Participating in Anisa's everyday life for a couple of days gave me an insight into what it's like to actually live in New York and not just visit.
 |
| With my gracious hostess in New York! |
On my last morning in New York we had breakfast in a café together before Anisa went to her office and I took a stroll around the East Village and along St. Mark's Place, which seemed like a pretty ordinary residential street, a nice place to live - whereas in the '80s it was a place where it was impossible to sleep, there were people constantly out on the street and in the bars and restaurants at all times of day and night!
 |
| St. Mark's Place |
 |
| East Village streets |
 |
| East Village streets |
 |
| East Village street |
The sun came out, rather timidly, and too late to make a difference; most of my pictures show New York looking grey and misty and not at all like June!
In any case, it was time for me to say goodbye to New York and head on to Philadelphia!
But that is another story!
 |
| Bolt Bus to Philadelphia: $9 fare |
No comments:
Post a Comment