Thursday, July 9, 2009

What we did on our trip to NYC

Danielle and I went on a little vacation in New York last week, which is why I wasn't blogging. What were the most noteworthy things we did in the city? Here's our list.

1. Live music — classical
a. New York City Opera performing a variety of crowd pleasers on Pier 17 (free)
b. Escher Quartet playing Brahms, Bartok, and Haydn at Barge Music in Brooklyn (free chamber music every Sunday at 3 pm)

2. Live music — jazz
a. Anat Cohen paying homage to Benny Goodman at the Village Vanguard [UPDATE: Here's what it was like.]
b. random free jazz shows around town

Washington Square Park

(Part of a jazz group playing in Washington Square Park.)

3. Parks
a. The High Line (opened just last month, running along 10th Ave. from about 12th St. to 20th St.)
b. Washington Square Park
c. Socrates Sculpture Park (Astoria, Queens)

4. Cafes with good food
a. Cafe Brama (East Village)
b. Dumbo General Store (Brooklyn) [UPDATE: Both of those cafes have now gone out of business]

Brooklyn - Dumbo General Store

(Dumbo General Store.)

5. Bars
a. Lillie's (just opened last year on 17th St.)
b. 5 Ninth (West Village)
c. Lolita (Lower East Side)

Cafe Brama in the East Village, NYC

(Danielle at Cafe Brama.)

6. Movie: Away We Go at Clearview Cinema in Chelsea [UPDATE: Here's what we thought of it.]

7. Bookstores
a. Strand* (the beloved institution on Broadway at 12th St.)
b. Three Lives (West Village)
c. The Powerhouse Arena in the Dumbo neighborhood of Brooklyn (emphasis on photography)
d. Rocketship on Smith St. in Brooklyn (alternative comics)

* I originally wrote "The Strand" but changed it following some discussion in the comments.

Brooklyn, Dumbo General Store

(Me at the Dumbo General Store.)

8. Chelsea galleries
a. DJT Gallery
b. Basil Wolverton exhibit at the Gladstone Gallery (more images here) (till Aug. 14) [UPDATE: I respond to the New York Times' response to the exhibit.]

9. Bronx Zoo

Socrates Sculpture Park in Astoria

(Socrates Sculpture Park. All photos in this post are by me, except the one of me, which is by Danielle Pouliot.)

UPDATE: See the comments over here for more NYC ideas. People are going wild over Wolverton!

4 comments:

Ann Althouse said...

Beautiful.

And... oh, I missed the Basil Wolverton!!!!

John Althouse Cohen said...

You still have time to catch Basil!

Unknown said...

it's just strand

John Althouse Cohen said...

Matthew: Oh yeah, you're right. But if you click the link to the Yelp reviews (on the word "beloved" in the post), and repeatedly search for the word "Strand," you'll see that people refer to it as "the Strand" much more often than as "Strand." (Note that it doesn't count when it's used as an adjective, e.g. "Strand employees.") So it depends on whether you prioritize official correctness or popular usage. Also, saying "We went to Strand" sounds weird. (I would expect people familiar with the bookstore to have to think for a second, then ask for clarification: "Oh, you mean the Strand?")

Jason: We didn't really like the Bronx Zoo either. Originally I was going to introduce the list as "the best things we did in NYC," but I wanted to include the Bronx Zoo, and Danielle said we shouldn't put that under "best." Hence the change to "the most noteworthy things..."