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Archive for the ‘Travel’ Category

If you’ve never been to New York City before, the most you might know about the New York Pubic Library is what you gleamed from watching the 1981 comedy classic Ghostbusters.  In that film, three intrepid ghost hunters enter the library in search of poltergeists, books fly off shelves, people run, and the actors end up in a lot of protoplasmic slime.  If you’re traveling to New York, though, you’ll want to visit this famous building (and its books) — just don’t expect the ghosts to show.

You’ll find this grand library in Midtown, on Fifth Avenue between 40th and 42nd Street.  Millions each year come through these doors and about 1.8 million people carry New York library cards.  The library was built in the early part of the Twentieth Century, the cornerstone laid in 1902 and the doors opened to the public in 1911.  In the intervening nine years, architects planned, for its time, the largest marble Beaux Arts building ever tried in the United States.  The building cost nine million dollars.  That’s nine million dollars in the early part of the Twentieth Century.   The famed lion statues that sit outside the museum are made from pink Tennessee marble, which I presume came out of Knoxville (also known as the Marble City).  On that first day in 1911, if you hate crowds, you may not have wished to check out a book: Fifty thousand visitors arrived for the library’s first day of business.

Today, the library’s size is diverse holdings make this one of the best and most-praised libraries on the planet.  There are collection here in the tens of millions, and a few of the holdings are absolutely priceless in their historical value, such as a copy of the Gutenberg Bible and an actual manuscript copy of Thomas Jefferson’s first tries at would would later become known as The Declaration of Independence.  If I were traveling to New York, I’d first arrange for a suite, then head on over to the library and get some reading done!

Dallas is a wonderful city to visit.  There are plenty of opportunities to investigate interesting attractions, and plenty of things to do.  Those who like to plan everything in advance will find that the city has a lot to offer, with plenty of recommendations.  Those who like to go somewhere new, and follow their nose, will likewise find a lot to explore.  Dallas has plenty of hotels that can suit any taste and offer a remarkable hospitality that has tremendous cosmopolitan grace with a touch of Southern charm.  The city has changed remarkably in the past few decades, and has become a very lively urban center, with plenty of options for global explorers looking for adventure.

It’s a city of multiple cultures, and like all of these urban centers, also a place with many subcultures.  These are fascinating to navigate, and some are impossible to find, and there are many most people will be happier to skip altogether.  However, the culture of artists here is very much alive and well, and worth looking into.  The art culture also has subcultures, and for those looking for digital video work, Dallas has good news.  There are artists working in new media here, and it’s becoming a rather vibrant place to discover the digital.  Carola Dreidemie is one whose work is worth looking for.

She comes from Buenos Aires, and has lived in many places around the world before setting for now in Denton.  Her work has been shown in many different gallery spaces, with concentrations in Texas, across the border in México, and in Latin America.  Her work is complex, with textures and layers masterfully constructed to make video work that speaks to memory and forgetting.  The images are evocative and iconic, and pull you in to another universe that is very closely related to this one.  Deep moral and philosophical questions live in this margin, and there are no answers but only possibilities for a contemplation that hints at liberation.

The city of Boston has many different neighborhoods, each with their own flavor and personality.  One of those is the neighborhood of Cambridge which is located just along the banks of the Charles River.  This area, which is true for all of the various areas in the city, is filled with old world charm and beauty, mixed with some of the finest museums and educational institutions in the world.  Many throughout the world are familiar with Cambridge due to the fact that it is home to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University.

This holds with the theme of the entire city, a theme that is mixed with traditions and history, and modern cutting edge ideas.  This is one of the most culturally mixed neighborhoods of the city, combing students from around the globe, scientists and artists, writers and restaurant workers.  It is the heart of a city, that is the heart of the country.  While visiting this neighborhood one will find a variety of restaurants, shops, historical government buildings, book stores and hotels.  Great hotels for this district can be found at www.bostonhotel.net, which will put one in the center of it all.

The neighborhood is divided into five districts.  Porter, Kendall, Inman, Harvard and Central.  If Japanese food is what one fancies, then head to the Porter district,  which supports the largest number of shops and Japanese restaurants in the region.  Kendall Square is home to MIT, and thus, home to biotechnology and high tech industry.  The Inman district is home to many shops and unique restaurants.  Harvard Square as well, is home to shops and restaurants, a variety of choices for night life fun, and of course to the university of Harvard.  And finally, for a look at the seat of the government of Boston, Central Square is where this is located.  In all, there is much to see and experience in the entire city, but one must find their way to Cambridge, if just for one day.

My first morning in the Big Apple was spent sleeping off a hang-over, not very exciting, but a necessity. But, from then on, things got much better during my weeks stay and I hardly saw my bed at one of the better New York small hotels. 
 
I got in quite a lot of culture, mostly Broadway shows, like ‘Billy Elliot’, ‘Hair’, ‘The Lion King’ and ‘Mary Poppins’. I wish I was here in the summertime so I could see ‘Shakespeare in the Park in Central Park. I’ve heard many wonderful things about it, I’m not a big Shakespeare fan, but I think seeing any of his plays performed by famous people would make me want to see more.
 
I went to the Comic Strip where I got to see Collin Quinn and Dane Cook, I never laughed so hard. Then another night I went to a concert at Lincoln Center and saw Marianne Faithfull. It’s the Centers 50 anniversary, so it was the best time to be there.
 
I took a trip to the Guggenheim and the Empire State Building, shopped at Macy’s and took a walking tour of Greenwich Village all in one day. All in another day, took a trip on the Staten Island Ferry, took a walk through Central Park, visited Harlem, then traveled down to Soho and on to the meat-packing district.
 
I love New York and I could easily live here. It’s so perfect for me, but so of it’s not so perfect, the cost of living here, way out of my league. However, I’m so glad I can afford to visit here an get my fill of culture.
 
My last day, I had a lovely lunch at the Madison Square Park and my last evening I clubbed it at the Pink Elephant, which on my flight back to the UK I was once again nursing a hang-over.

Coming to New York is always a life-changing experience.  Especially when it’s with the intention of trying to stay for any period of time, and to make a mark on the walls of history.  Some people are simply not cut out for the city, and sometime styles come before the city is ready to accept them.  It’s a difficult path, for sure, but fortunately, for outsiders coming to visit, it’s simply exciting to be here.  An ideal weekend is to check into a luxury hotel in New York City, and enjoy all that there is to enjoy.  If your tastes run toward an Eastern European blend of punk, then there’s a lot to listen to while you’re in town.

It’s not an easy city for anyone, and for bands trying to do something different, it can be incredibly rough.  This is a testament, then, to the fortitude of the groups that have been making inroads in developing a public taste for these new kinds of music.  Gogol Bordello would, of course, be on the top of most people’s lists.  The Balkan-influenced music is as infectious as the live shows, which are part old-school punk revivals, and part shamanistic investigations into the audience’s capacity for joy.  There are other bands working in a similar vein, but the music is still very different.  Just as there are many roots for the Romany people, there are many varieties of their musical offspring.

Golem calls themselves folk-punk, and the music is raging and wild.  It is a sound that always borders somewhere between ecstasy and madness, and they play that uncomfortable space in between to make sonic bursts of manic joy.  Outernational on the other hand, is much more focused on incorporating everything in the world, and their rhythms work from some Gypsy sounds, but tend more toward a very politicized global rock with ska inflections.  These New York bands are survivors from other places, and their durability here only increases their already magnificent street cred.

In Arizona, in Phoenix’s Papago Park, there is an odd object on a hillside, visible from the city’s zoo — a white pyramid, surrounded by a black fence.  When I first saw it, somewhere around the enclosure for an Arabian Oryx (an animal that was once mistaken for unicorns, because when its seen in profile the double horns appears to be one), I was unsure what to make of the pyramid, even more unsure when I learned it was the final resting place of the first governor of Arizona, George H.P. Hunt.  I can’t imagine what travelers and visitors might make of it, glimpsing it from Arizona’s luxury hotels a few miles away, yet it remains an icon on the Phoenix landscape, a monument to one of the more interesting people in Arizona’s political scene in the first third of the 20th Century.
 
Not only was Hunt the first governor of Arizona, but he remained the first governor for seven terms, and he co-wrote the constitution of Arizona.  Born in 1859, Hunt grew up in the Old West of movie lore, that iconic period of history that lasted for about twenty years from the 1880s to 1900.  During those years hunt would have been in his twenties and thirties.  He served in both houses of the Arizona Territorial Legislature and was even the U.S. Minister to Siam.  As time went on, Hunt weighed nearly three hundred pounds even though he was only five feet nine inches tall, and had one of those handlebar moustaches that drooped.  He was a populist of the progressive era, and in his time he supported such things as a woman’s right to vote, income tax, secret ballots and compulsory education.  He tended to be an enemy, on occasion, to mining and railroad concerns, to whom he referred to as skunks and coyotes.
 
The white pyramid was meant as a final resting place for his wife, who died three years before he did, and then himself.  If you hike up to the pyramid, you’ll find a plaque that tells you he descended from a Revolutionary War patriot, although the war patriot goes unnamed, that he let women vote in Arizona eight years before the rest of the nation, and that his election to the governor’s office seven times was a national record.  Closer, you’ll see that the pyramid gets its gleaming white color from white bathroom tiles.  Not only are he and his wife buried here, so are his in-laws, his daughter and his wife’s sister.  If you’ve been to Phoenix and haven’t seen Governor Hunt’s Pyramid,  if only from the zoo, then it’s time to go back.

When I was in New Orleans last, staying nearly a week, I rarely ventured out of the French Quarter, attracted by the restaurants and bars and jazz, by Jackson Square, and the Cafe DuMonde Coffee Stand.  For some reason, I didn’t consider heading over to the City Park New Orleans, and it’s one of the regrets I have about the visit.  The City Park was once the site of the Allard Plantation, which faced the Bayou St. John, and is comprised of 1,300 acres.  The place contains New Orleans Museum of Art as well as one of the world’s biggest collections of oak trees; the most ancient grove contains trees over six hundred years old.  It’s here, too, that jass, a musical form that was gave rise to jazz, was performed.  For that history, you’ll want to investigate Buddy Bolden.

The City Park was established in 1854, so at 156 years, it’s one of the oldest parks in the nation.  Over time, it’s expanded to its present acreage, making it one of America’s largest city parks as well.    The buildings and bridges and sculpture in the park range from Neo-Classical revival and Art Deco styles, and is a gathering spot for sports and recreation; there’s kid’s attractions, too, as well as a Botanical Garden.  There’s boat rides as well.  Almost something for anyone to do, the park entertains about an eleven million visits each year.

Once you’ve situated yourself in one of New Orlean’s hotels, then take a walk through the French Quarter and find the entrance to City Park.  You’ll discover the Botanical Garden, the Carousel Gardens Amusement Park, and the Storyland fairyland playground.   In Storyland, children can play aboard Captain Hook’s pirate ship, take a trip into a whale’s mouth with Pinocchio, and climb up Jack & Jill’s Hill (with any luck, without similar results).

My second trip to New Orleans, I’ll make the park a priority.  If it’s your first trip to New Orleans, I’d go ahead and see it now.

Please, oh please let the Broncos beat the Cowboys and remain undefeated so far in this season. Charlie almost said the words allowed, and would have if he didn’t think his thoughts were too girly sounding. He had been a huge Broncos fan since he was child and his brother was a Dallas Cowboys fan and the two of them enjoyed a healthy rivalry their entire lives. It was only fitting that Charlie would end up going to the University of Colorado Denver and his brother Matt went to the University of Texas in Dallas. Their choice of schools actually had more to do with the specific programs, and for Charlie the scholarship offer, than it did with their favorite football teams, though it certainly worked out in their favor. In addition, the boys grew up in rural Nebraska, which made their choice of football teams and colleges all the more interesting. And while their schools weren’t direct rivals, the two brothers certainly kept up their sense of competition throughout their academic careers.

They even went so far as to compete for the most girlfriends, which their youngest brother Jerry ended up demonstrating was a ridiculous endeavor when he married his high school sweetheart, and the only girl he dated from his sophomore year on. Jerry and Denise seemed to be absolutely meant for each other, which helped to ridicule the competitive older brothers. And appropriately, Charlie and Matt had money waged on this game. Well, it wasn’t exactly money so much as the looser had to pay for a weekend hotel stay in the winner’s city so that their parents could come for a visit. This was typical of the competitive, yet good nature of the brothers and their bets. And of course it turned out that Matt had to pay for his parents’ stay in one of the hotels Colorado when the Broncos were able to hold onto their lead and win the game. Of course afterward he joked to Charlie that he was the won who lost as he would have to spend a weekend with their parents.

We were going to meet for a quick drink, because we hit it off in an elevator, of all places. I think it was something about socks, where she liked my socks, and I asked about hers. I’m not creative, I just repeat stuff. I like repetition, so much that I repeat things that have already been repeated just for the sake of repetition. I like it. There’s something about a date that never ends, though, that teaches you some essential things about repetition when other people are involved. You can’t stay in one place forever, for example, and you can’t drink the same drink too often, at least not forever.

She likes repetition, too, apparently, because she said she always stays in Manhattan business hotels whenever she’s in town. I imagine they’re lovely, but right now I’m enjoying a lovely memory about Chumley’s. This bar in the Village has seen a number of famous writers, and they’ve left some of their book jackets here for the patrons to look at. It’s also been falling apart for a number of years, and I hear that it’s closed right now, but on the verge of a re-opening.

That’s good news for a lot of people in the city, because it’s a favorite watering hole for the living as well as some ghosts who’ve taken to pursuing their absolutely last drink here. Chumley’s has memories for everyone, and now it holds one of mine. Our conversation picked up with socks, and soon moved to hats. No one wears hats anymore, she said, and this lead to a long conversation about fedora’s. All the while, she kept staring into the whites of my eyes, and said she liked it that I looked haunted. I was actually becoming haunted by her, and for once, this was a singular incident that felt better than any repetition. And I like repetition.

I’ve been awake for almost 24 hours, I arrived in the Big Apple very late in the evening. This was the last leg of my journey and I’ll be joined by my friend Kathy, a reporter for a TV station in Australia. Kathy managed to get to NY in advance of me and she was waiting for me in the lobby of one of the better NY hotels. The hotel was close to Times Square, so we took a walk over there on our way for a very late dinner. While walking, I found myself in awe of this great city.

The next morning, we hit the sidewalk running. Kathy had been here before, so she became my tour guide. There was so much to see in a small amount of time, I only have two days here, that Kathy first took me to Ground Zero; this was Kathy’s first time seeing Ground Zero herself, she was here before 9/11. I was hoping for a few platforms to look out and then below where the construction was taking place, but it was all fenced up, which made it hard to see anything of interest. I did like the area where there were photographs and small tributes to all the people who died. I was haunting in a way, I got goose bumps and was very moved.

We then went to Wall Street and to the Stock Exchange. I couldn’t believe all the security, we couldn’t even walk up to the building, it’s all fenced off and there were even sniffer dogs on patrols. So much for the Stock Exchange. So, it was off to Grand Central Station and to Central Park. We ended up walking through the park for hours, much longer than anticipated, because I really came here to shop! But, that didn’t happen because we had tickets to see ‘The Producers’ on Broadway. The play was good, but I really would have preferred to see the original cast: Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane. We had a full day and a full night.

The next and my final day, we headed to check out the ‘Today Show’ at Rockefeller Plaza. We didn’t get a chance to see inside the studio, so we were alongside all the other people crowded around trying to get on TV. We did get to be up close and almost personal with Meredith Vieira when she was making her way back to the studio. She was so nice! She let people take pictures with her. That’s all I had time for in New York, but it was all good, every single New York minute!