Here’s a great image I found here of benches in Prospect Park Brooklyn- my local park where I go to have brilliant thoughts.

Big winter storm is on its way.

Every New Yorker knows to appreciate the snow as it falls, and in that first morning when the city looks clean. Before rush hour transforms the white blanket into black sludge.

Unfortunately, my snow boots are still in storage. The trick to walking in heels through slush and crowds without falling is to lift the knees and do not multi-task. Resist buying that morning cup of coffee. I have yet to master walking on ice while tilting my head up to take a sip, without sliding.

Worst comes to worst, position yourself within grabbing distance of another. Strangers make great posts to catch your balance. If it doesn’t go your way, however, and stranger falls, help them up.

I believe this quote is from This Side of Paradise, but I’m not sure.

“…away from great condensed NY, and the sense of people expelling great quantities of breath into a little space.”

Regardless of where it’s from, coming across this quote just now is appropriate. It’s turbo tourist season now. Every week night I intend to take a walk and appreciate the tree at Rockefeller and the dressed up windows. I love the gold flags around the ice rink, and nothing beats watching the Zamboni clear the ice for another round.

But instead of doing these things I love to do, the people in the streets, with their arms loaded with shopping bags, send me flying home to my apartment- to later regret not making myself walk the 6 blocks to Rockefeller. This cycle must be broken.

So as always for the ensuing weeks of Christmas downtown and Brooklyn will be a haven. And in January, great quantities of breath expelled will once again belong to the millions of people who can walk down the street without stopping for pictures at every corner, talking too loudly on the subway, or stopping me for directions to the nearest Olive Garden.

This isn’t meant to be staight from the mouth of complainistein. I like people. But I am also a card-carrying curmudgeon.

Playing three shows in three days at three different venues. Someone couldn’t make up their mind?

Hailing from Seattle, this band has been around for a long time. If you don’t know who they are, hang your head. Do it.

I was lucky enough to see them about a year ago at the Knitting Factory. They were so good. (This is the band that inspired some of the big grunge sounds, like Nirvana’s.)

I’ll let my more musically-informed colleague go into the details of their sound – Raj?

Friday 12/1 – Maxwell’s (Hoboken, NJ) – anyone know anything about his venue?

Saturday 12/2 – Williamsburg Music Hall – Brooklyn

Sunday 12/3 -Bowery Ballroom -Manhattan (best sound)

Holiday markets are sprouting up throughout the city. Most stay open till the 24th.

Me, I always go to the markets at Union Square and Bryant Park. I’ve found some of my most unique gifts at the market, including a ginormous change purse with a hologram on it – $7.

For the most part, hand-crafted novelties at these markets are in my opinion over-priced. I leave with a hat for myself, debating if my sister really needs a $40 mini-motorcycle carved from wood–feeling like a shopping failure.

But it’s still a lovely way to get some fresh air.

The Bryant Park market is a must, but not because of the chocolate covered strawberries. Located behind the 42nd street research library, the market in Bryant Park wraps around an ice skating rink – FREE. As you can imagine, it gets quite busy on the ice, but if you get there early you’ll find room to skate and breathe. And if you’re there at night, it’s beautiful and there’s plenty of places to sit and watch people stumble ungracefully.

 I’ve never watched the Thanksgiving parade in person because I go to Jersey or PA every year for Turkey Day.

However, I do hike up to the Upper West Side the night before Thanksgiving and catch some of the gigantic parade balloons being blown up. And I’m not alone. Thousands of New Yorkers head to the upper west 70’s and check out Charlie Brown’s head inflating slowly. So so slowly.

It is quite a thrill. Don’t ask me why. 

Your music taste is questionable if a bartender returns your money on your jukebox picks, pressing that magic stop button to end your pre-paid marathon of bad jazz on a Saturday night. Yes, such a button does exist.

 Unfortunately, magic button’s life span is short. -Thanks to over-enthusiastic trigger fingers and mass insistence on hearing ‘Achy Breaky’ one more time.

While in theory older juke boxes are good indications of a bar with character, i.e. delicious grit on every glass, make sure you have a fall back in case some fool gets the urge to express his funk.

Now that internet jukeboxes are starting to appear in my some of my places, it bares repeating:

Do not download Achy Breaky Heart on a jukebox unless you are willing to buy the whole bar a round and beg forgiveness.

Other songs not to download include:

Tears in Heaven

Macarena

that Delilah song

Lights dimmed on Broadway November 10th. Broadway’s stage hands form the local one union. 350-500 members of Local One are striking against 600 theatre owners, producers and presenters. I won’t bore you with the details.
Eight shows are still running on Broadway: Cymbeline, Mary Poppins, Mauritius, Pygmalion, The Ritz, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Xanadu and Young Frankenstein.

Why this is awesome: people are in the city with refunded ticket moola, and feeling like trying something different. Comedy clubs are slamming, downtown restaurants and bars are hopping, and even puppet shows are seeing a tourist trickle.

I wish I had a show to peddle.

Here’s some great off-broadway venues that you can walk into any night and see something interesting. My favorites include:

Performance Space 122

St. Anne’s Warehouse

La MaMa

You could see 5 off-Broadway shows for the price of one Broadway ticket. That’s a good deal.

Thank you for writing.

One of the first living writers I idolized, Norman Mailer passed November 10th at the age of 84. Founder of the Village Voice, Pulitzer Prize winner, and bursting with ego, Norman Mailer transcended the mess he immersed his stories in. To this day, ‘The Executioner’s Song’ remains one of my favorites.

There’s no limit to the respect and praise due to his life and work, but Gore Vidal, quoted in the New York Times obituary, wrote it best: “…I retain the greatest affection for Norman as a force and as an artist. He is a man whose faults, though many, add to rather than subtract from the sum of his natural achievements.”

Once upon a time, on a rainy New York day, I saw governor Spitzer walk in a parade. As he passed, I looked him straight in the eye and thought to him, “You’re not going to let the MTA raise fares again, are you?”

To which he thought, “No way, dude.”

I thought we had an understanding. But apparently by ‘No’ he meant ‘Yes’.

Like many NYers, I remember purchasing subway tokens with 6 quarters.  Now the MTA may have the green light to raise fares come February 08′ to $2.25- that’s 9 quarters / ride. That’s a load of laundry.

The only reason I don’t ride my bike everywhere already, besides laziness, is that I don’t know how to turn right on my bike without falling over (don’t judge me), and my backwards reflexes steer me towards cars. Besides that, I’m qualified to ride two wheels into city traffic no problem.

Most of us depend on the subway to get to work and live our lives. I didn’t attend the public hearings in Brooklyn. This Tuesday, November 13th, public hearings will be held in Staten Island and the Bronx.

In the mean time, I will be thinking some strongly worded thoughts to Mr. Spitzer and the rich people working at the MTA.

I’m very excited about this festival. Even though it’s been going on for years this is my first chance to catch it. In particular, I’m excited about a series of shorts running tomorrow at the Loews AMC Empire on 19th and Broadway.

I’m most interested in the short/docs #4 “Inside the Kalari” about a type of martial arts that originated in Kerala – can’t say I’ve ever seen anything on Indian martial arts before.

-r