NYC Sunday

This place looks so much smaller than I remember it! This is what Scott says as he is looking around Washington Square Park. As a young Jersey kid, he used to take the train to Penn Station and then subway to Greenwich Village to hang out. Scott is six years older than I am, so this was in the late sixties and early seventies. Old pictures of him from when he was in high school crack me up. He has the perfect thick, shiny, black hair – the kind that feathered perfectly -- platform shoes and those crazy wide-collared shirts. He's got a well earned touch of grey now, but back then, he could have been a poster boy for Saturday Night Fever. He looked just like Al Pacino.

It’s Sunday morning around 9:30 or 10:00 and the streets are still pretty quiet. The lone walkers we see are all carrying cardboard containers of coffee in one hand and either a cell phone or a dog leash in the other. We find an Italian café/wine bar and stop in for lattes and I order a croissant while we people-watch through the front window. People down here are dressed much more casually than they are uptown.

We wander the east village, then head toward Broadway. Parts of the street around 12^th are blocked off and street vendors are everywhere. Strand Books comes into view and we’re drawn in like moths to a porch light. 18 Miles of Books is their catch phrase. There are rare and collectable books, new books, used books, literally books by the foot for those decorating or creating movie sets and an entire bottom floor dedicated to 50% off “Review Books”. Scott and I part ways just inside the door and I don’t see him again for over an hour. He’s in the art books upstairs and I’m rummaging through fiction and the Review Books. I do not need a single thing, but have never managed to leave a bookstore empty handed. By the time I'm ready to check out, I’ve collected The Female of the Species, by Joyce Carol Oates (at 50% off), Where I’m Calling From, by Raymond Carver, and The Dubliners, by James Joyce. I read On Becoming a Novelist, by John Gardner and I’m charged up to read more literary fiction, despite the towering height of the TBR pile on my bedside table. I've never read any Joyce Carol Oates or Raymond Carver and I'm ready to take another run at James Joyce.

Music draws us to Union Square where some kind of celebration is going on. There are two different Asian bands playing and there is a group with one of those huge dragons. The dragon is dancing and undulating, balloons are floating, flowers are blooming in the beds and it’s a beautiful May day.

We hail a cab and head for Arcadia Fine Arts in SoHo. Arcadia is a great gallery with some of the finest representational artists in the country. Scott wants to check out a couple of them in particular. Two of my favorites are Ron Hicks, a wonderful Denver artist and Jeremy Lipking, who is, in my opinion one of the finest living figurative artists -- after Scott.

The cab drops us at 5^th and E77th and we mosey back into the Park, find a sunny bench within view of the model boat pond, unpack our treasures from Strand Books and enjoy the rest of the sunny afternoon.

Later on, we arrive at Elaine’s for dinner. I've begged Scott to wear a suit, and he looks very handsome. I've got on new shoes, a new purse and a wrap around dress. New York stage and book memorabilia hangs everywhere we look. We’re early again, so early that we're the only ones in the restaurant. Laughing at ourselves, we order a bottle of Chateauneuf du Pape and consider the menu. Scott’s amused that I’m dragging my feet and killing time making menu selections. I’m playing with my food, stalling, with the hope that some huge literary figure might walk in between the beef carpaccio and my linguini with clam sauce. As we work our way toward dessert, we are a little buzzed from the wine and now everything is pretty funny. People slowly start trickling in; some are obviously out-of-towners like us and some definitely look like regulars. By now we’re imagining that everyone is someone famous and we realize Saul Bellow or Philip Roth or a Broadway star could walk in and sit right at our table and we wouldn’t recognize them anyway. We crack ourselves up. It’s all been great fun anyway and we head back to our E76th Street home away from home.

Day One of My Manhattan Fantasy Vacation

Scott and I just returned from our four days and three nights in Manhattan – my first trip there since my mother took me to see Santa at Macy’s when I was five – and I’m delighted to report that it was everything and more that I’d hoped.

Before we left Denver, I was shoe shopping until the last minute. I’m not a fashion maven by any stretch, but New York City is unlike anywhere else in the country when it comes to clothes. It’s intimidating. I travel quite a bit and never give a second thought to what I’ve packed, beyond whether or not it’s appropriate for the climate. I would never try to keep up with New Yorkers, but I also didn’t want to look like a bumpkin. Scott was mindful of his packing too and completed the same sentence earlier with the word “douche” – maybe more along the lines of how I didn’t want to feel.

We got into LaGuardia on Saturday at a little after five. When we arrived at the Hotel Surrey on E76th between Madison and 5^th Avenues I was delighted to find that we were only steps away from Central Park off of 5^th and we were diagonally across from the Carlyle Hotel on Madison. The Surrey Hotel was originally an apartment building and was converted to a hotel a couple of years ago, according to our accommodating bellman, Coco. Our one bedroom “superior suite” was on the 15^th floor, just below the Penthouse and it was a corner unit, looking down on E76th and Madison. The suite had two large rooms, but the bathroom was a constant reminder that we were in an old building. It was tiny! The Surrey is also a very small hotel, so every time we left the room or returned, the people at the front desk and in the lobby knew exactly who we were. That helped me to imagine it was still an apartment building and we lived there, which was not hard to do since most of the other buildings on that small stretch of E76th are permanent residences.

I noticed two things about Manhattan right away that dispelled previous ideas I’d had.

It was much smaller than I’d imagined it to be, which was wonderful. No wonder people walk so much.

The cabdrivers were not stereotypically chatty. Without exception, they were all on cell phones throughout most, or the entire ride; no chance of running into any Mel Gibson-like conspiracy theorists this trip!

We had no scheduled plans Saturday night and I was dying to see Central Park. It was in the high sixties on Saturday and just gorgeous. We unpacked, walked outside and headed to the E76th Street entrance to Central Park. We were less than a minute into the park and we ran right into the Alice in Wonderland sculpture. Holy cow! If you haven’t figured this out by now, I am excited whenever I see something I’ve only seen in movies and books. The sun was still shining and tiny green leaves were floating down all around us like confetti. Moms with strollers, kids on rollerblades, young and old couples, and people just out for a stroll with their dogs were everywhere.

From there, we continued on and came to the model boathouse. I’m told that the recent release of the movie Stuart Little showed the scene with Stuart on one of the model boats out in the little pond. I’ve not seen the movie, but since I loved the book as a child, I remember the illustrations in E.B. White’s book. The remote controlled sailboats were zipping this way and that across the pond and children and adults alike were mesmerized – me included.

I didn’t expect to see the Loeb Boathouse the very first night, but after we left the model boathouse, we came to it immediately and Scott suggested we have dinner. Again, my out of town anxiety started to kick in and I worried about even asking if we could get a table on a Saturday with no reservation. My concerns were laughable since it wasn’t much after six and real New Yorkers wouldn’t be going to dinner for hours. We got a lovely table and were able to watch the couples in rented rowboats while the sun was just beginning to set.

A bottle of Riesling, a full meal and a port after dinner for Scott later and we were on our way back to the Surrey in the dark. Helen Keller surely had a better sense of direction than both Scott and I put together and several minutes later, as we headed toward the sound of traffic I was ready to claim victory. Ha! I had gotten us back to 76^th – only it was W76th.

We hailed a cab in front of the Natural History Museum and found the Surrey once again. All in all, it was a wonderful first day in the mystical Upper East Side of Manhattan.

My Fascination With Woody Allen

He’s given me a completely romantic picture of New York. Between Woody Allen and Sex and the City, I’m a sucker for the Upper East Side. I’ve never been there, but that’s going to change soon. Scott and I are going to New York for a couple of days in May. We’ve built the trip around going to dinner at the legendary Café Carlyle on May 14^th. We’ve got reservations and premium seating to see Woody Allen and the Eddy Davis New Orleans Jazz Band. This is a big thrill for me. I’ve seen the interior of the Café Carlyle and Bemelman’s Bar dozens of times on film. If Bobby Short were still alive, the fantasy would be complete. We’ll be staying at the Surrey Hotel on East 76^th Street; just a short stroll from Central Park and yes, there will be a carriage ride involved. Despite the pronouncement in The Big Chill that Elaine’s is dead, the trip would not be complete if we didn’t have dinner there once. If I could be invited to a dinner party at the apartment used for Hannah and Her Sisters and spend an evening with those characters, I’d be in heaven. All my youthful ideas about a romantic New York City life have been built around interiors like the ones in every Woody Allen movie. They’re never anything fancy and they always have floor to ceiling bookshelves filled with interesting titles.

I have a fascination with Woody Allen movies. I won’t say every film is a classic, but I can say there’s something about all of them I love. He’s released a new movie almost every year since 1969 and there’s something about that kind of prolific creativity and work ethic I admire. I love that he remains a New York film maker, totally outside the Hollywood machine. Every movie has something a little different about it from the last. He’s made slapstick comedies, romantic comedies, black and white films, mockumentaries, dramas, an homage to Ingmar Bergman, a parody of a Greek tragedy and even a musical. The list of major actors who have been in Woody Allen films over the years, despite the legendary low pay for doing so is amazing.

More than anything else, he’s a master at dialogue. When I started to collect Woody Allen’s movies on DVD, I realized these really are movies I can watch over and over and it’s the dialogue that keeps my attention. It’s funny and it’s philosophical, which is why I tend to like his movies more with repeated viewings. But I guess it’s no surprise that someone who loves words as much as I do would love Woody Allen’s movies.

A small (and potentially disturbing) piece of personal information about me: I own all but two of these titles and those are on order so my collection will be complete. I’ve asterisked my absolute favorites.

Films Directed by Woody Allen

What's Up, Tiger Lily? (1966)

Take the Money and Run (1969)

Bananas (1971)

Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex (But Were Afraid to Ask) (1972)

Sleeper (1973)

Love and Death (1975)

*Annie Hall (1977)

Interiors (1978)

*Manhattan (1979)

Stardust Memories (1980)

A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy (1982)

Zelig (1983)

Broadway Danny Rose (1984)

The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985)

*Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)

*Radio Days (1987)

September (1987)

Another Woman (1988)

New York Stories (1989)

*Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989)

Alice (1990)

*Shadows and Fog (1992)

*Husbands and Wives (1992)

*Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993)

Bullets Over Broadway (1994)

Don't Drink the Water (1994)

*Mighty Aphrodite (1995)

*Everyone Says I Love You (1996)

*Deconstructing Harry (1997)

Celebrity (1998)

Sweet and Lowdown (1999)

Small Time Crooks (2000)

The Curse of the Jade Scorpion (2001)

Hollywood Ending (2002)

*Anything Else (2003)

Melinda and Melinda (2004)

Match Point (2005)

Scoop (2006)

Cassandra's Dream (2007) - Not yet released

Woody Allen Spanish Project (2008) – Definitely not yet released