the ghosts of New York past…
My recent trip to NYC was especially memorable as I spent time with three different friends, each one from a different decade of my life and each friendship established via totally different circumstances… but all of whom came together – without actually meeting! – back in 1996.
As I mentioned, in 1995 I decided to fly to NYC to meet up with my friend David who was working in Saudi Arabia at the time. Only scientists knew how to use the internet back then (you actually needed to know things like DOS commands to use computers 🙂 so we arranged the trip via fax.
It was a roaring success so I went back the following year. In July really cool people are in the Hamptons but I am never going to be cool so was happy just to be there in my cheap sweaty midtown hotel room. My friend Sarah was working in DC at the time so came up for the weekend and we ran around in NYC imagining what it might be like to live there.
It was how I learned to love Negronis. I figured it would be fun to play at being cool so I had read about a place called Pravda somewhere. It was a bar in the emerging Nolita district of Manhattan too hip to actually have a sign so we had to wander around a bit and finally descend down a staircase and open a mysterious black door… but we found it. And I suggested we order a Negroni since
bar ngorongoro crater lodge
said they were the hot drink of summer 1996. Our cool factor may not have been really high but at least we were trying hard to not just be typical tourists…
And I really liked the Negroni! In those days, I didn’t drink cocktails so was always stumped when there wasn’t a cocktail list. So I started ordering a Negroni. It took me years to remember what was in it. It was purely accidental that I discovered it was one of those classic cocktails that gets you respect from the bartender. Ordering a Negroni almost makes me seem cool 🙂
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negroni
There have been lots of memorable Negronis over the years but it will be hard to top the one I taught the bartender how to make at the Ngorongoro Crater Lodge in Tanzania. The lodge is a bit much but it was my last night in Africa and it was so fancy I could dress up. I had forgotten though that it would be pitch black when I left the main building to go back to my Versailles-like hut so I freaked out my Masai warrior escort gingerly picking my way along the path in heels. But I told him I had the balance of an impala – and we made it there without him having to catch me in his arms. The wood was warped so the door stuck. His job was to make sure I got into my room so he had to open it – it took some effort! It had all been a delightful way to end the night – and my Serengeti adventure – so I blew him a kiss. He blew me one back. It’s not every day you have a Masai warrior blowing you a kiss 😉
http://www.ngorongorocrater.com/
I haven’t met any Masai warriors in NYC but there has been some kissing there over the years…
Including that week back in 1996… Sarah went back to DC and I was supposed to spend the next Saturday doing a bar crawl on the Upper West Side with my friend Despina. I had read about all these new bars on the upper West and I had been there before with friends so figured it was a safe neighborhood for us to wander in and maybe have a bit of adventure. But she had a new job so had to work on Saturday night to meet her Monday deadline.
It was my last night in NYC and it seemed wrong to stay in my hotel room. At that stage, I hadn’t done much wandering in NYC alone but the neighborhood seemed pretty easy and I figured I would just stay alert – and drink lots of cranberry juice in between cocktails.
It was how I discovered the pleasures of having dinner at the bar. I bonded with each bartender so I knew they had my back if I needed it. I chatted with random people who sat next to me. I eavesdropped on conversations and got a much clearer sense for the culture of the place. That was also how I met my Mr. Big 🙂
It was the last bar. I was just having a final cocktail and thought I would likely head home before it got too late. But a guy came in and sat next to me and we started talking. He was a junior investment banker. For the first few years, they work practically around the clock so he was finishing work and having a drink in a local bar before going home to bed.
What really bonded us was that he was Canadian. It seemed like fate… going on a random bar crawl alone on your last night in New York and then meeting a fellow Canadian on the Upper West Side far from other tourists just as you were both planning to go home… so we didn’t. He wondered if I wanted to go to a club in SOHO. That seemed much more fun than my hotel room and we would be in a taxi so I could just get out if I needed to…
In the end, my attempts at personal safety ended up being quite hilarious. I thought I shouldn’t let him know where I lived since I didn’t know him very well so I got out of the taxi a couple of blocks before the hotel and walked by myself at 3am on the streets of New York. At the time, I didn’t realize he had the taxi follow me to make sure I would get to my hotel safely. And that’s how apparently flowers showed up at my hotel the next day – but I had already checked out.
And – despite evidence to the contrary – he didn’t think I was completely insane and a grand, bi-coastal romance blossomed. I don’t date people unless I really like them so we have stayed friends and try to meet when I am in NYC to catch up on our lives. It’s been really wonderful to watch him change over the years. Even cocky junior investment bankers can mellow into caring dads 🙂 It’s a crazy business with a lot of questionable ethics but that chance night on the upper West has allowed me to see that not all investment bankers are evil 😉
I have known Despina the longest. Our friendship began as pen pals at age 15. When I was a teenager, I felt closer to her than most of the people in my actual community. We finally met in person in the early 90s. She is an artist so our lives have run on very different paths but we both love food and art so we incorporate that into our joint adventures.
We likely know more about each other’s romantic adventures than anyone else in our lives as we have been talking about boys since the point at which we were lamenting no one would ever ask us out on a date 🙂 What has been most interesting is the strange parallels in our intercontinental criss-crossing. We have both lived in Australia. When she was living in Paris, I was in Germany so could hop on a train and come to visit. Now she is back in New Jersey so getting together in person is easier but she is an incredible writer so we still have letters travelling back and forth – they are just electronic now. I cherish them. They are full of newsy detail and personal thoughts – far removed from a tweet – and my life is so much richer for it.
And Sarah now lives in NYC! She has made good on our wild imaginings about what it might be like to live in NYC. It’s not what we would have imagined back then. She is married with children now – and the cool factor has migrated beyond Nolita to the Lower East Side. She’s brilliant and insightful so it was fascinating to hear her initial impressions of life in one of the most famous cities on earth.
And it will make it easier to visit her! As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, most of my friendships have an unusual genesis. Sarah and I became friends because she was my roommate for 6 weeks in Calgary during the summer of 1983. I was living in the University of Calgary student dorm so the facilities were pretty limited and her sister lived in town so I barely saw her but our few chats really intrigued me so I made sure we exchanged contact information. Neither of us has ever had much free time and it’s a bit incredible our paper correspondence survived before the internet. She is a scientist so she was my first email! There have been many since. And some live encounters to supplement the flow of bytes.
The message? You never know what life has in store for you. And how random people in your life might align and create new adventures. If you meet someone you find interesting, be sure to get some contact info – and then just see what happens… All three of them opened up my world and changed my life – for the better.
p.s. one final restaurant recommendation that didn’t fit into the stream of consciousness… Nomad (from the brilliant guys at Eleven Madison Park)
life on planetm 
Thanks, Mayor Bloomberg! :)
It certainly seems like Michael Bloomberg has done a lot of good things for New York City. And the world at large. But I also owe him personally since my friend Sarah’s Bloomberg connections got us free access to some wonderful art exhibitions on this trip.
I am a big fan – and small supporter – of the arts. But Bloomberg sponsorship of the arts – and the vision of making the arts more accessible to a wider audience – is definitely something to celebrate. You may not realize but your free audio guides at the Guggenheim are courtesy of his generosity.
You will likely have to pay for the shows but I do think they are worth the price of admission. To make sure my visit involved more than shoe shopping and gluttony, Sarah and I went to a couple of current shows at some of the temples to art that are a large part of the New York experience.
chrysler building on a sunny day!
I know I think I slagged Picasso a little bit in an earlier post. And he apparently produced 50,000 art works. He didn’t seem to be a particularly great guy to have a relationship with. And I’m not quite sure he didn’t court fame a little more than a proper Englishman would consider dignified… but, hey, the dude was a great artist.
I’m not convinced everything Picasso signed his name to is a masterpiece but he certainly produced a lot of them. And this show was fascinating as it is only works in black and white. Apparently Picasso did not believe colour was fundamental to the art.
My friend Sarah said I had to see it as lots of these works are privately held and this was a once in a lifetime chance to see them. As a huge fan of Kandinsky – who thought colour evokes moods and used it as symbolism – I wasn’t quite sure what I was going to think about black and white…
But it likely won me over as a much greater fan of Picasso. Not all the works really “spoke” to me but many did. And it was incredible to see what he could do with such a limited palette. It was also interesting to see how he used that limited palette to create many different types of work as he was influenced by the world events of which he was part and the women he decided to sleep with…
If you can, definitely go and check it out.
http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/exhibitions/on-view/picasso-black-and-white
mom at the guggenheim
We also went to the Met to see the current Matisse exhibit. Sarah is a big fan of Matisse. I wasn’t so sure. I think I saw too many Matisse posters in dorm rooms in my youth. But he is an important artist. And I love art. And am always open minded 🙂
And it was a great exhibit, even if you aren’t a huge fan. It is focused on Matisse’s love of drawing – and his penchant for reworking the same motif in different ways. They have gathered multiple works of art for many of the famous pieces you might have seen in a major gallery somewhere in the world.
What engages you is that you see the same painting essentially from multiple points of view and it helps the non-artist to better understand the choices that the artist makes in composing the final product.
http://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2012/Matisse
It also helps to see the process of modern abstract art, where the artist might start with a composition that is quite realistic and almost photographic. But then they will distort details – or apply unnatural colours – or just simplify lines to create an essence of the subject matter rather than a true representation. We weren’t always sure we would have chosen the final product based on the options, which made us wonder what the artist was thinking and how his process worked.
Art is meant to provoke us. To make us question things. To make us see the world in a new way. To make us question ourselves and maybe evolve in new ways. As a very analytical person, I am attracted to art for its fluid and non-linear qualities.
Humans seem to need to make art. It happens in the poorest and most primitive societies. I am a big advocate of science and the scientific method. But I think really great societies engage their citizens in all ways and encourage them to work both sides of their brain.
Art has always offered me an emotional connection even my super analytical brain could not properly explain. Art has provoked me and expanded my questioning and understanding of the society in which I live. Art has disturbed me. Art has made me smile.
It’s important. It is one of the elements that create a civilization – and civil citizens. So I salute Mayor Bloomberg and the efforts he has made to make art available to all.
I also have to thank him for the wonderful profile I saw on Bloomberg TV while I was in New York. I am watching The Daily Show as I type this – and it is reminding me of the segment they did on Jon Stewart. Given my mega-crush, it was fascinating to have more information on his early career and the genesis of The Daily Show. They just talked to the cast of The Newsroom in their sketch, questioning whether the only investigative journalism on the air anymore is fictional… It’s like Stephen Colbert singing with Harry Belafonte. Some moments in life are just pure gold 😉
http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes/mon-january-14-2013-roger-waters
http://www.thecomedynetwork.ca/Shows/TheDailyShow?videoPackage=129456 (for Canadians – Jan 14, 2013 episode)
http://www.hbo.com/the-newsroom/index.html
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artsy stuff, shining examples, social commentary, travel stories
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