NYC

Just back from a couple of days in Manhattan. Always a sublime rush.

Highlights in chronological order-

1- the very cool hotel at 30 E. 30th St. http://www.thirtythirty-nyc.com

2- the 3 thuggy looking guys on the subway who, when the doors closed, yelled, "IT'S SHOWTIME, FOLKS!" and had my girls cowering, expecting gunfire and not a totally respectable doo-wop version of Under the Boardwalk.

I gave them 3 bucks, it was so good.

3- the corner bodega/deli short-order cooks who hate how non-New Yorkers (especially Canadians) order- “Oh, gosh, it all looks so good…Is the bacon really salty? I don’t know… Trevor, what are you going to have?” New Yorker (actual order)- “Sesame seed roll, no butter, egg white omelet, provolone on top. Quick. Thank you!”

http://www.lewrockwell.com/callahan/callahan138.html

4- walking down designer knock-off central, Canal St. and hearing the constant murmur “Prada, Gucci, Chanel” and how that chant magically and instantly disappears when I leave my 3 female companions.

5- leaving my 3 female companions to stroll around the Lower East Side, http://www.tenement.org/Virtual_Tour/index_virtual.html boyhood home to many of my idols- George & Ira Gershwin, The Marx Brothers, Irving Berlin, etc… while listening to scratchy old 78s, ironically, on my ipod.

6- discovering that the amazing Eddie Gomez http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obDxgY6T10Q&mode=related&search

will be playing with the Larry Willis Quintet at Jazz Standard http://www.jazzstandard.net/red/index.html just two blocks from our hotel in about 2 hours.

7- listening to this incredible quintet and adding one more reason to my already long list of reasons why I could never share a bandstand with the likes of these guys- I can’t keep a straight face that long. I have terrible “game-face”.

8- checking out the Annex’s antique and fleamarkets Sunday morning alongside Manhattan’s Sunday morning eccentrics. (Hear in the Hammer we can only afford to call them crazies)

http://www.hellskitchenfleamarket.com/index.html

9- the trip out of the city and up through the beautiful, green Poconos back to my big comfy house surrounded by trees, knowing that I’m actually living a New Yorker’s dream.