Reservoir Dog: New York's Demon-Cur of the Winter of 1893

The recent icy conditions of the city's sidewalks, roads, puddles and lakes reminded me of a late-19th century New York story I stumbled across in the archives of the NYT:

On January 30, 1893, a large crowd of predominately women and children gathered on the shores of the iced-over Reservoir in Central Park. Of interest was the phenomenon of a seemingly distraught dog circling the icy waters. The dog seemed to run the same circles and zig-zag patterns over a great swath of the reservoir, not stopping during the day nor the night for four days. Debate as to how to rescue the poor fellow grew vigorous, as the ice was thin and too treacherous for a human rescue. Some wanted to shoot the dog to put it out of its misery or to stop it from fouling of the waters, as the lake was the source of usable water for many city residents. Members of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals were on the scene to safeguard the animal. Efforts to whistle and cajole it back to shore or bribe it with offers of fresh meat failed at every turn.


"Central Park's Dog Demon" served as the headline for the account published the following day in the New York Times. The reporter described the animal as a "gaunt and famished-looking canine of the water spaniel breed" while a "a few among the women onlookers were insistent in the assertion that the vagrant quadruped was a fox." A park keeper claimed the dog's ability to stay awake and active for consecutive days and nights proved it was no ordinary mutt but a devil-dog. In a later report in the Times, some wondered "if it was not the gentleman in black himself, taking a Winter Holiday on ice for change and recreation." One park worker cajoled the dog close to the shore for a good look but didn't think much of him - "he'd never take a prize in the Westminster Kennel Club competitions, but he can do damage just the same." Women observers thought more kindly, with some claiming the dog to be their very own who ran away. One woman, described as wearing sealskin, offered a reward for its safe capture, carrying with her a slab of meat for the poor pup. The Park's superintendent gave the orders to keep the dog moving so that it would eventually tire and come ashore.

People found it strange that the dog never stopped. It ran around the ice at night, and through the whole affair no one had heard it make any sound. Another person observed that the dog was on a mission. Perhaps its owner had fallen through the ice. No one was allowed onto the ice to try to rescue the dog, but several ventured anyway. One young man made a mad dash of it with his Newfoundlander dog, and they came close to catching it. A brave skater scooted across the ice at one point but fell down in pursuit.

At 11 p.m., two young men, Thomas Ward and Joseph Smith, spotted the dog on the north side of the lake, saw that the gatekeeper had returned to his station, and they walked onto the ice in hopes to catch it. They chased the dog across the reservoir. On reaching the exhausted dog, one of the men kicked it and the other picked it up. They then carried the pup ashore. As the Times reported the next day, the woman in sealskins was on the shore at the time of the rescue, ready to give the dog meat. The rescuers took the dog to the gatehouse, gave it some milk and then some dinner. Naturally, the dog was ravenous. By the time it was rescued, the dog had been out on the ice for five days. Thomas Ward, one of the rescuers and an employee at a livery stable on E. 102nd Street, decided to keep the dog but said he was open to selling it for a bargain price of $200.


The Times reporter ended his account of the events of the day before by noting, "It is a curious fact that over 1,000 persons gathered at the reservoir bright and early yesterday morning, and were very much disappointed to learn that the dog had been caught."

I've been watching my own dogs play in the snow and ice this week. They seem to have a great time. I think that for at least one of them nothing would be more fun than to take off running across the iced-over reservoir in Central Park and to stay out as late as possible. I'll see to it that this adventure will never happen.

Forward Thinking: Walking Off the Recession One Step at a Time

I'm already bored with the recession, the one billed constantly as "the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression," so I'm developing strategies to deal with it. As we've been conditioned, things are much more fun when the economy is hopping, when the advertising industry's creation of false consumer desires actually works. When what is still known as Madison Avenue works well, I want to try that new hot restaurant in the East Village or that amazing skin cream for sale at Bloomingdale's. I'll want to get out and see the hot shows and all the general trendiness. But when it's not working, like now, I sometimes find myself in a store on the verge of making a purchase but then return the item to the shelf and then sulk home. This consumer paralysis is completely boring, but it's teaching me to distinguish once again between want and need.



It's tiresome to read words like "shuttered" and "empty" to signify buildings and restaurants that once enjoyed the labels of "trendy" or "hot." But who would use "trendy" now, except to describe the previously uncharted territory known as the New York apartment kitchen? In today's New York, like elsewhere, the grocery stores are more crowded than usual because people feel the need to save money by cooking at home. That's a pity, because my inner chef is not as talented as those cooking in our city's restaurants.

When I start feeling anxious, I walk, and the more I keep walking somewhere or anywhere the dark clouds start to lift. I can safely assert that many recent studies show a strong correlation between walking and the improvement of mood and self-esteem. I know from my own experience walking the streets of New York that this is true. I have never once regretted any spur of the moment decision to explore a new neighborhood, visit a museum, walk across the Brooklyn Bridge, discover a new cafe, or find a new path in Central Park.

After I take the long walks, the ones with the most steps (and this activity can be taken metaphorically as well), I find that I'm less afraid, less bothered by current events and more willing to take chances. I listen less to Madison Avenue, or Wall Street for that matter, and more to my own music. And, strangely enough, I'm content with what I already have, but I'm also ready to spend a little.

Image: Aboard the 6 Train, by Walking Off the Big Apple.

Lessons from the Days of the "Empty State Building"

Back in the days of the booming 1920s, the phenomenon of skyscrapers excited the popular imagination. The main proponents of the soaring buildings - the builders, architects, civic boosters, and financiers, argued that they were the symbols of business power, American pride, and the natural way to live in the age of the machine. In his book, Skyscrapers and the Men Who Build Them (1928), the powerful construction giant William A. Starrett promoted the skyscraper as "the most distinctly American thing in the world." In the 1934 book, Building to the Skies: The Romance of the Skyscraper, writer Alfred Bossom (!) argued their necessity: "It seems to me a great thing for the spirit of people that they should be able to gaze upon very high buildings, erected by their own contemporaries. The habit of looking upward is a strengthening habit."

But as the late 1920s gave way to the early 1930s and a deepening economic depression, some viewed the same skyscrapers as a symbol of all that had gone wrong with the fundamental American ideology of unfettered capitalism and individualism. In hindsight, the tall buildings seemed like a reckless undertaking. Lewis Mumford, writing in the February 12, 1930 issue of The New Republic, described the buildings as "a product of technology, credit economy, human greed, and social ineptitude." A guy called The Drifter, an anonymous writer who wrote a weekly column for The Nation, characterized the urge to build tall buildings as an adolescent pursuit. Paris, by contrast, was more sophisticated, needing only the Eiffel Tower. In a column published in late 1930 he wrote, "Only a spineless race with brains of straw will let itself be forever crowded into subways, jammed into elevators, and shot into space in order that 'modern industry' may be enabled to sell more separate brands of what might as well be the same toothpaste."

A little more than a year before, on August 29, 1929, the New York Times ran a story announcing that the world's tallest building would be built on the site of the Waldorf-Astoria on Fifth Avenue. It was to be called the Empire State Building. Less than two months later the stock market crashed. Nevertheless, the plans to build moved at a breathtaking speed. The financial backers, including the building's developer, John Jacob Raskob, and Pierre DuPont, had borrowed most of the money to pay for the project. Delaying would force them to repay higher interest rates on the loan.



By the time the building officially opened on May 1, 1931, three politicians were on hand for the ceremonies held on the 86th floor - former governor Al Smith, Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Mayor Jimmy Walker. Governor Roosevelt gave an uplifting speech about vision and faith. Critic Edmund Wilson blasted back in an editorial for The New Republic, calling the Empire State Building "more purposeless and superfluous than any," criticizing the skyscraper for being "advertised as a triumph in the hour when the planless competitive society, the dehumanized urban community, of which it represents the culmination, is bankrupt."

So there it stood for years during the Great Depression, the "Empty State Building" as many New Yorkers called it, a profitless pinnacle with empty offices and where workers turned on lights to give the appearance that someone worked there. While a few at the time thought that the only attraction lay in the view from the top, many city residents and architecture critics came to love the building, from a perspective far away or from the streets below.

Images of the Empire State Building, 350 Fifth Avenue, by Walking Off the Big Apple.

Walking Into the Year of the Ox

Happy New Year, again! The year of the Ox is now upon us, and so with the first new moon of the year, a new administration and new beginnings, I took a walk to Mott and Canal Street in Chinatown this afternoon to enjoy the opening festivities for the Asian lunar new year. The chasing away of evil spirits was both fun and cathartic, although in retrospect I could have worn more red. I was hypnotized by the constant beating of the drums, and I enjoyed seeing the streets filling up with confetti.

Images by Walking Off the Big Apple, January 26, 2009.

WOTBA New York Cultural Events Calendar, with Events for the Chinese New Year Celebration: January 26- February 1, 2009

What's with the loud popping sounds downtown? Happy Year of the Ox! It's the Chinese New Year, and thus, festivities shift south this week to Mott Street, the Bowery, East Broadway, Bayard Street, Elizabeth Street and Pell Street for the lunar new year.

Once again, the following list is a just a tiny fraction of the total number of cultural events in New York during any given week. I pare down the possibilities each week so I won't be overwhelmed and incapacitated by too many choices.

• CELEBRATION. Monday, January 26, 2009 11:30 a.m. - 2:30 p.m. Chinese New Year Celebration. SDR Park Soccer field at Canal and Forsyth St. Firecracker Ceremony & Cultural Festival. Performances by traditional and contemporary Asian-American singers and dancers.

• ART. Tuesday, January 27. Opening of Pierre Bonnard: The Late Interiors. Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 Fifth Avenue.

• ART. Wednesday, January 28. New Commissions: Daria Martin Minotaur and New Commissions: Mathias Poledna Crystal Palace. Both are film installations. The New Museum of Contemporary Art, 235 Bowery

• LITERARY. Thursday, January 29 6:30pm–8pm. Bicentennial of Washington Irving’s A History of New York . Presented by Elizabeth Bradley. Fraunces Tavern Museum 54 Pearl St, at Broad St, Financial District.

• MUSIC. Thursday, January 29 8 p.m. Jazz pianist Keith Jarrett. Carnegie Hall, 154 W 57th St.

• ART. Friday, January 30. Opening of The Third Mind: American Artists Contemplate Asia, 1860–1989. Guggenheim Museum, 1071 Fifth Avenue (at 89th St.)

• MUSIC. Saturday, January 31, 2009. They Might Be Giants with Spray Paint Star. 8 p.m.. Le Poisson Rouge, 158 Bleecker St. TMBG plays with a five-piece band to celebrate the release of their new album "The Else." Plus a kid show in the afternoon. Website for Le Poisson Rouge.

• CELEBRATION. Sunday, February 1. noon-3 p.m. Chinatown Lunar New Year Parade & Festival. Parade route: Mott St, Chatham Square, East Broadway, Allen St, Grand St., Chrystie St

• DANCE. Sunday, Feb. 1 at 2 pm. Meredith Monk Music @ the Whitney. Billed as "a one-day only music marathon." The Whitney Museum of American Art.

• THEATER. Opens Sunday, February 1. In previews. Puppet theater profiles the Arkansas portrait photographer Mike Disfarmer in "Disfarmer." St. Ann’s Warehouse, 38 Water Street, Dumbo, Brooklyn.

Also, check out Ben Brantley's scathing review of the revival of Hedda Gabler (starring Mary-Louise Parker) in today's New York Times and be glad you're not in the play.

Image: Market, Grand Street, Chinatown, New York.

The Curious Lines of Animals and Leaves (A Review)

Man may be the measure of all things, but what of dachshunds, blind owls and antelopes? While the drawings from the Thaw Collection currently on display at the Morgan Library & Museum feature many images of human beings - Gauguin's Breton girls, a masterly Standing Young Man from Adolph Menzel, a couple of monks walking through cloisters, and more, I was struck by the many images of animals by these master draftsmen of art. As you can guess, the delicate graphite pencil drawing of the antelope horns belongs to Georgia O'Keeffe, yet her work on Manilla paper (shades of elementary school!) is joined by Jackson Pollock's Untitled (Abstract Ram), a couple of black ink washes of birds by Robert Motherwell, Jim Dine's Blind Owl, David Hockney's sleepy dachshunds, a brown bear by a 16th-17th century Netherlandish artist, and a dog or two romping in other old master drawings. I suppose I could add Jamie Wyeth's profile drawing of Andy Warhol to this list, as Wyeth seems to regard his subject as something of a creature - it's got a wig, pockmarked face, and bird-like hands.

These eighty drawings at the Morgan, consisting of work from the Renaissance to the present, present a variety of styles, thus making for an eclectic exhibition. It's still a convincing argument for the splendors of draftsmanship. In addition to the animal imagery, I was struck by the efforts of German landscape artists of the late 18th century to master the shape of leaves. One particular drawing by Jacob Philipp Hackert, a friend of Goethe's, shows a methodical, almost obsessive repetition of the leaves on a tree, relying totally on line. His more finished landscape oil paintings show off the results of his practice. The drawing of one of his contemporaries, the Swiss artist Adrian Zingg (1734–1816), drew my attention, because the wall tag accompanying his landscape of a castle on the Elbe notes that the artist enjoyed "numerous walking tours."

One work that completely grabbed me was 18th century British artist George Romney's drawing titled "John Howard Visiting a Prison." The narrative depicts prison reformer Howard looking aghast at a group of cowering, depraved and ill-clad captives. The drawing in ink and wash is loose and sketchy, with intentional distortions in the figures. The drawing packs an emotional power, inspired by a documentary social reform impulse, and it seems wholly modern. Other works of note include two portrait drawings by Ingres and a figurative drawing of a woman by Monet.

The Thaw Collection of Master Drawings: Acquisitions Since 2002
The Morgan Library and Museum, 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street. January 23 through May 3, 2009.

On Walking Through the Long Shadows of New York's Urban Canyons in Winter

From January 2009

While walking uptown to the Morgan Library & Museum yesterday afternoon, winding my way north through University Place to Union Square and then north on Broadway to Madison Square Park and beyond, it was hard not to notice the shadows. The sun, so low in the sky in January, casts long shadows even in the afternoon. Individuals walking along the street in winter daylight project silhouettes on the pavement that seem much bigger than themselves, with the effect suggesting the mythical dimensions of soul and identity. Here, the selves are split into two - the one bundled up in jeans and leather jacket and the mysterious spectral other, elongated and flatly gray upon the sidewalk. If you want to see the dark side of the New Yorker psyche, then cast your eyes low on a winter afternoon.

Though yesterday proved to be one of the warmer days of late, I was still chasing the warmth of the sun, switching to walking the side of the street with the most light. This was especially true as I moved into midtown, as the tall buildings plunged the urban canyon floor into pockets of darkness. If New York hadn't enacted the 1916 Zoning Resolution, the measure that required setbacks and took its main shape with the Art Deco zigzag building designs of the 1920s and 1930s, we would all be moving in darkness at 2:30 in the afternoon.

The winter days in New York invite an exercise in drawing light and shadows, either with a stick of charcoal on a piece of paper or with a camera obscura.


Images: Top, along University Place; middle, Empire State Building (the sign seems to point correctly to the building's location); bottom, Madison Avenue. All from January 23, 2009. Walking from Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village to the Morgan Library and Museum (Madison @ 36th Street) in Murray Hill is a distance of about 2.25 miles and takes about 45 minutes, more or less.

See a slideshow of more images from the walk at Flickr WOTBA.

The Flâneur's Sketchbook and Camera

I've been spending the morning contemplating what to do with this nice day, but after reading about the openings of the two big drawing exhibitions at the Met and the Morgan, I've decided that drawing shall be the theme of the weekend. I plan to visit these public showings and report back, including notes of whatever transpires on the walks to and from the museums.

As the weather brightens, I'm thinking like a flâneur again, as opposed to the couch potato who has spent the last five days watching HDTV. Drawing as an expressive art form appeals to me as a stroller of the streets. As I've come to discover, many artists, especially in the flâneur's heyday of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, were fond of walking the streets and countryside. I'm particularly thinking about Seurat, Kirchner and Van Gogh, all of whom I've written about. What better way to observe the world than to walk through the environment and sketch what one sees? Drawing requires thought, focus, and concentration and what an artist friend of mine calls "a lot of eye-hand coordination." It's a fun pastime, but many people chicken out.

The flâneur, as both a participant and observer of street life, should always have some tools handy to record his or her strolling experiences. The portable camera is certainly one of these instruments. While the flâneur is understood to be highly perceptive, and more so than the passive consumerist tourist, we should expect higher standards of photography from these artist-strollers than from the simple recording of a tourist experience. Indeed, street photography and flâneurie enjoy a close relationship, born out in the work of Garry Winogrand, Diane Arbus, Henri Cartier Bresson, Robert Frank, Eugene Atget, and many more. That said, the advent of fancy digital cameras give even the most disengaged of tourists the wherewithal to snap some nice images.

The flâneur has earned a reputation as being something of a dilettante, a person with some light interest in the arts. Sketching seems particularly suited for people in my line of work. Bringing along a small sketchbook on a stroll seems a perfect way to record observations in both words and images. As dilettantes, we don't feel pressured to attempt the well-executed drawing once we're back home. This is particularly true for those of us with large television sets. Cell phones are to be avoided on strolls and used only in case of an emergency.

This morning, I discovered a terrific link to artist's sketchbooks online. Many belong to famous artists, including Leonardo da Vinci, Jacques-Louis David, David Hockney, and Vincent Van Gogh, but many of the books represented are the work of contemporary artists of demonstrated skill and imagination.

Here are the details of the two drawing exhibitions opening in NY this week:

Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 Fifth Avenue:
Raphael to Renoir: Drawings from the Collection of Jean Bonna
January 21, 2009–April 26, 2009

Morgan Library & Museum, 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street:
The Thaw Collection of Master Drawings: Acquisitions Since 2002
January 23 - May 3, 2009

Images: Sketch of legs and feet aboard the A train, from my sketchbook; and photo of Caffe Dante, 79 Macdougal St., Greenwich Village, U.S.A. Cafés are a flâneur's best friend.

Walking Off the (Current) New York State of Mind

In "When the Action Moves On," an essay published in the January 18 Sunday New York Times, author Alex Williams reports on a sentiment sometimes expressed these days that New York seems somehow over. Washington, this week for sure, is where the action is. As evidence of Gotham's demise as a world power, he cites the anecdote of a guy who walked over to a usually-busy midtown intersection and found it not crowded. But then the author presents us with several pronouncements made over the decades about the decline of New York. So, apparently, every so often, influential writers declare the end of the city, much like the perennial announcements about the theater. At the end of the essay, everything seems to be totally okay with New York. The reason? The writer Joan Didion, though she said New York was over a few decades ago and then abandoned the city for sunny California, can be found living on the Upper East Side.

I am tempted to say New York is over, too, because I can pull out my own anecdotes. I can look out the window on many mornings and find empty parking places on the streets of the Village. Holiday shopping at Macy's seemed easy this year, and I hear it's not impossible to obtain a table at a desirable restaurant. I certainly am not arguing that the recession hasn't played a role in all this. And I can also imagine how Washington, D.C. looks pretty shiny these days in comparison to the sad grays of New York. After all, D.C. has a bright new administration, where here we can only look at the former Masters of the Universe on Wall Street and a criminal under house arrest in a fancy Upper East Side apartment who must bear some considerable burden for the worst crisis since the Great Depression.

New York may be in a funky mood, as the essay asserts, but let's ponder the advantages of funk. A city that is less crowded, more green, slower in pace, and less status-conscious, yet still filled with marvelous buildings, great avenues, and spirited people (with fast, do-gooder reflexes, as demonstrated recently in the rescue on the Hudson), may find a new life with a different - let me say "strolling" - stride. As Walter Benjamin, in a writing from 1935, proclaimed Paris to be the capital of the 19th century, New York could arguably be called the capital of the 20th century. Nothing wrong with that. People still long to visit Paris. And so they will with New York.

Image: View of LaGuardia Place, between 3rd and Bleecker Streets, in snow. The statue is of Fiorello LaGuardia, the mayor of New York City from 1934 to 1945, shown in mid-stride. Image from January 2009. One of the reasons New York seems less crowded these days is not because we're all depressed. It's because it's been too friggin' cold. Watch people hit the streets again as soon as it warms up.

A Stroll Down Pennsylvania Avenue

From January 2009

He really had to get out and walk, you know. After weighing all the security nightmares, you have to show that it's okay to be who you are and to not be afraid. After the turmoil of the last few years and the economic times at hand - the potential loss of jobs, the insecurity of professions, the devaluation of material things you once held dear, you have to show you're not afraid.

Riding in an expensive car driven by a hired hand is for a privileged person in a private world, but walking down the street is the ways and means of the common citizen of the public space. There's an inherent risk and vulnerability in every act of getting out in the world and walking down the street. For some, the risk is greater. But the only way to make progress, however, is to connect with others who may be walking there and to help one another move forward.

Image: Televised image of the inaugural parade of President Barack Obama, January 20, 2009, Washington, D.C. by Walking Off the Big Apple.

WOTBA New York Cultural Events Calendar, with Events for MLK Day and the Inauguration: January 19-25, 2009

• CELEBRATION. 23rd Annual Brooklyn Tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Mon, Jan 19 at 10:30am. BAM Howard Gilman Opera House. BAM, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, and Medgar Evers College of The City University of New York present New York City’s largest public celebration in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Keynote speaker Minnijean Brown Trickey, part of the "Little Rock Nine," and performances by James Hall Worship & Praise and by Brian Jackson. Free. First come, first seated. (Note: One ticket per person. No groups.)

• FILM. American Politics at MoMA. MoMA's film department opens up the archives to present ten noteworthy films about American politics. Just one example: On January 19, 2009, 6:00 p.m., Theater 1, T1. Primary (1960, USA.) Produced and directed by Robert Drew. Photographed and edited by Richard Leacock, Albert Maysles, D. A. Pennebaker. With Robert Drew, Hubert Humphrey, Jacqueline Kennedy, John F. Kennedy. An early example of cinema vérité following the 1960 Democratic primary in Wisconsin between Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey. 60 min.

• INAUGURATION 10:00am - 2:00pm. Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway at 95th Street. Symphony Space opens its doors for free starting at 10 am to the public and invites everyone in to watch the day's festivities on the big screen.

• INAUGURATION TELEVISION in TIMES SQUARE. Fox News Channel will broadcast the inauguration on the Astrovision screen in Times Square.

• INAUGURATION CEREMONY: Here's a link to the schedule and order of the ceremonies from the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies

READ NYT'S CITY ROOM POST HERE FOR WHERE TO WATCH THE INAUGURATION IN NEW YORK.

Selected List of Other Events in New York for the Next Week:

• ART. Opening January 21: Raphael to Renoir: Drawings from the The Met: Collection of Jean Bonna. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

• ART. Opening on at the Morgan on Friday, January 23: On the Money: Cartoons for The New Yorker and The Thaw Collection of Master Drawings: Acquisitions Since 2002. The Morgan Library and Museum.

• DANCE. Miami City Ballet (Wednesday and Thursday) Edward Villella’s troupe with works by George Balanchine and Twyla Tharp. (Through Jan. 25.) At 8 p.m., City Center, 131 West 55th Street, Manhattan, (212) 581-1212, $25 to $110.

• MUSIC. JACOFEST: A Tribute to Jaco Pastorius (Jan. 20-22, Tuesday through Thursday) Tribute, T.M Stephens, bass; Gerald Veasley, bass; Joe Sinaguglia, bass; Kenwood Dennard, drums; Lew Soloff, trumpet; David Gilmore, guitar; Delmar Brown, keyboards; Robert Sheps, saxophone; David Bargeron, trombone/tuba; Eddie Bobe, percussion; Lou Marini, saxophone. At 8 and 10:30 p.m., Blue Note, 131 West Third Street, West Village, (212) 475-8592, ; cover, $25 at tables, $15 at the bar, with a $5 minimum.* (see comment correcting original post)

• THEATER. Ibsen's Hedda Gabler. In previews; opens on Jan. 25. Mary-Louise Parker stars in title role; play adapted by Christopher Shinn (2:20). American Airlines Theater, 227 West 42nd Street, Manhattan, (212) 719-1300. Hola.

• THEATER. The Connection by Jack Gelber. 50th anniversary production staged by Judith Malina herself. The Living Theater, 19 Clinton Street, Lower East Side, (212) 352-3101.

• MUSIC. Joshua Redman Double Trio with Brian Blade, Larry Grenadier, Gregory Hutchinson and Reuben Rogers. January 20 and 21. Concert starts @ 8PM, Doors open @ 6 PM. Tickets $25.00 in advance, $30.00 day of show. Highline Ballroom. 431 W 16th St between 9th and 10th Ave.

IMAGE: The Washington Square Arch served to commemorate the Centennial of Washington's Inauguration, an event that took place downtown. The pier statues were added later -"Washington at War" on the left of the arch by Herman MacNeil in 1916 and "Washington at Peace" on the right (shown here) by Alexander Stirling Calder in 1918. Yes, Calder was the father of the famous mobile artist, Alexander Calder.

William Eggleston and Alexander Calder at the Whitney

A body of sustained and consistent work over a lifetime separates real artists from poseurs. Real artists make art because they can't help it. It's a fever, an obsession, often the only way they know to express themselves. Sometimes, artists make work that is less thrilling and successful than their other work, but usually it's because they're trying to get through a phase, often with sloppy results. Real artists move on, even when they know that their fans and critics want them to cling to their successes. This is all in contrast to me, because I have a ton of art supplies piled up on a shelf in a corner, and they sit there until I am sometimes moved to make a couple of sketches every other month.

William Eggleston, pointing a camera on colorful subjects in the South, and Alexander Calder, who bent metal into fanciful kinetic sculptures in Paris and elsewhere, are both real artists that meet the criteria listed above. As such, anyone pretending to be a photographer or a sculptor or any kind of artist in general, should make a point of visiting the Whitney and seeing what these two are all about.

William Eggleston

I visited the Whitney during the Christmas holiday just to see the Eggleston photos, as I'm a big fan. I was familiar with many of the images already - the old guy sitting on the side of the bed holding a gun pointed down to the mattress, the big tricycle shot from a low angle in front of the suburban tract houses, that smoking older woman in the jazzy dress sitting on the floral printed swinging sofa in her garden in Jackson, and others, but it turned out I didn't know the half of it. In the Whitney retrospective, I got a clearer sense of Eggleston's experiments with the dye-transfer process, his developing relationships with fringe art players (he dated Viva, one of Andy's superstars), and of his flirtation with video. One of the highlights of the exhibit is the screening of "Stranded in Canton," a type of home movie that brings home the artist as a cool dude, one who's comfortable with boozing eccentrics in dive bars. So, he's not just your regular southern guy with color film stock. And a big "Hallelujah" for this. It's about time to recognize that the phrase "avant-garde South" doesn't have to be an oxymoron.

Alexander Calder

But wait! I liked the Calder exhibit even more than Eggleston's. Why? First is that "aura" thing - the oft-cited distinction, most famously made by Walter Benjamin in his 1936 essay "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction," between an original, material, and singular object versus a work that is reproduced. While these Eggleston prints are beautiful and made as an end of themselves, the textures and dimensionality of the objects in the Calder exhibit exuded the aura of Paris in the twenties. What delightful work, these wire portraits of many notable Parisians, the miniature Circus, the early mobiles. There's so much of it, as if Calder himself was the busiest kinetic sculpture of them all.

Before leaving New York, where he studied with John Sloan and George Luks, Calder showed his talent in line drawing, especially sketches of animals based on his visits to the Central Park and Bronx Zoos (originally as newspaper illustrations and published as Animal Sketches in 1926). Moving to Paris, he lived cheaply and well, befriended Miro, Leger, and Duchamp, became a huge Josephine Baker fan, got a gig making wooden toys for a company back in Oshkosh, and became the impresario of his own miniature circus, among many other things. By exploring a portrait of the artist as a young man, this rich exhibit (the Whitney has more Calder than any other museum) serves to enhance the charms of Paris in the twenties as well as to heighten the appreciation for one of the most well-known and loved sculptors of the twentieth century.

William Eggleston: Democratic Camera, Photographs and Video 1961-2008, through January 25, 2009; and Alexander Calder: The Paris Years 1926-1933, through February 15, 2009. Whitney Museum of American Art, 945 Madison Avenue. See museum website. Photo by WOTBA.

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Madison Square Park: When the Cold Weather Offers Advantages

From January 2009

I took this picture at 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday at Shake Shack in Madison Square Park, and yes, while the day was nicer, weather-wise, than other days this week, you will notice the lack of a line at the popular hamburger stand. Cold weather provides opportunities for those wily coyotes like myself who would normally make fun of people standing in long lines at Shake Shack. No line? I reached into my backpack, found all of $4, and that's all I needed for a normal hamburger.

The temporary installation of tree huts by artist Tadashi Kawamata is particularly effective, especially for this time of year. Obviously, without foliage in the trees, the huts stand out and are noticeable. When I first saw them, and I could see many stretched out at once over the whole park, I was thrilled with the sight and in awe. They're not especially fine art objects as individual huts, but as a collection they're quite provocative. I thought many things looking at them. I thought about the tree houses I once enjoyed as a child and the types of nests that birds build and how much they're like this, and I also thought about the kinds of places people without homes end up constructing themselves. I thought about the nature of wood and how we build our dwellings out of trees, and I thought about how so many people in New York live way up high, way beyond the height of the tree line. I thought about the view from up there and how one could feel sheltered in such a place. I thought how just the presumption of the huts implied the presence of people inside them.

Tree Huts by Tadashi Kawamata on view to February 15, 2009. More info at the Madison Square Park Conservancy website.

Images of Madison Square Park by Walking Off the Big Apple, January 2009.

Writer's Note: This is the 600th post of Walking Off the Big Apple. Hard to believe.

More on Chester Arthur's Curry-Loving Neighborhood, and A Map

Following up on yesterday's post about President Chester A. Arthur, I wanted to spell out some of the attractions of the neighborhood in the form of a walk. There's not a specific itinerary, just a map. I recommend knocking around this part of south Midtown/Murray Hill/Madison Square Park to check out the many restaurants and interesting buildings.


View Larger Map

As I suggested, please stop into Kalustyan's to shop for exotic spices or to grab a bite to eat. Bring a shopping list, because when I visited I wish I had already prepared a grocery list for some spice-heavy dishes. Several of the nearby restaurants have garnered many loyal fans, and I can imagine that students, faculty, and staff at nearby Baruch College must feel lucky to have so many choices of Hyderabad biryani, masala, tandoori and curry. I like the looks of the Afghan restaurant, Bamiyan, at the corner of 26th and 3rd Avenue (pictured, above, exterior painted in orange and purple), and I hear that the food is good, too. La Delice Pastry Shop on 3rd Ave. and 27th. is quite sweet.

DUALITIES: I write a lot about history on this website, because I think that walking around the city becomes a richer experience when one knows the stories behind some of the buildings. Being aware of the fact that Kalustyan's and Chester Arthur's house occupies the same location at 123 Lexington does not make you a better person, just a deeper one, the kind with a soul. That said, this site is geared toward people making their own fun in the present, and in that spirit, I encourage people to walk wherever they want and with whatever amount of historical knowledge they choose to carry around in their heads. BUT, you have to know that the 69th Regiment Armory, the massive medieval-looking fortress in this neighborhood, the one you can't miss that takes up much of the space between 25th and 26th Streets and Lexington and Park, still functions as a training center for the National Guard AND is the very same armory of the famed Armory Show in 1913 that introduced modern art to the country.

More about the Armory Show in this related WOTBA post.

Chester A. Arthur's Neighborhood, and A Hint of Vindaloo Masala

While walking through the northern section of Madison Square Park, you may have encountered the striking statue of Chester A. Arthur (1830-1886), the 21st President. The VP in James Garfield's administration, Arthur assumed office upon the tragic death of the incumbent. An attorney named Charles Julius Guiteau (displaying a nutty flamboyance while later on trial) assassinated Garfield on July 2, 1881 at the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Station by shooting the President in the back. Because of sorry medical care at the time, Garfield suffered for several months before dying. At that point, Arthur took the oath of office. He did so over at his house at 123 Lexington, an area in Midtown south. The park sculpture of Arthur is by George Edwin Bissell (1839-1920), but the tree hut depicted above, the one in the tree to the left of Arthur, is the work of contemporary artist Tadashi Kawamata.

Arthur did some good things. A native of Vermont, he moved to New York in 1853 and opened up a law practice. An abolitionist, he assumed civil rights cases, including representing Elizabeth Jennings Graham, a woman who was denied seating on a streetcar because of her race. During the Civil War he was in charge of providing clothing and supplies for Union troops in the area. After the war, however, he got mixed up with the spoils system, and as the powerful customs collector, he was charged with counts of corruption. President Hayes asked him to leave his post. Later, as President, he ran a clean administration, signing the Civil Service Reform Act of 1883, and he vetoed a bill that would have limited the immigration of Chinese laborers.

For most of his life in New York, Arthur lived at 123 Lexington, near the intersection of E. 28th Street, and walking over to see this National Historic Landmark on an unassuming stretch of Lexington is worth one's time, because the air smells so good. Many of the businesses in this neighborhood south of Murray Hill are Indian restaurants, although restaurants of other national cuisines are plentiful. There's nothing much Chester Arthur-related at this address, except for a plaque in the window, but you have to go inside. Kalustyan's, the business that occupies the site, as far as I know, is the best spice store in the entire world. See the store website here. No joke that they carry over 4,000 varieties of spices, herbs, etc., because as soon as I walked into the store I forgot all about the fact that Arthur took the oath of office at this very address. I was fixated on different types of peppers and chutneys and chocolate-covered orange peels and hot sauces and what I was going to cook for dinner.

Image of Tadashi Kawamata, Tree Huts, and Chester A. Arthur statue, Madison Square Park; 123 Lexington, Chester A. Arthur National Historic Landmark and Kalustyan's. For more about Tree Huts, visit this website. More about the walk in this neighborhood will follow in a future post.

This walk is the fifth in a series of Presidential-themed walks exploring the role of U. S. Presidents in New York City and in celebration of the upcoming inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States.

JFK: The Presidential Candidate from the Bronx, and Other NYC Sites Associated with the Kennedy Family

"Ladies and gentlemen: I said up the street that I was a former resident of the Bronx. Nobody believes that but it is true. I went to school in the Bronx. Now, Riverdale is part of the Bronx, and I lived there for 5 or 6 years. [Laughter and applause.] No other candidate for the Presidency can make that statement. [Laughter.] In fact, I do not know the last time that a candidate from the Bronx ran for the Presidency, but I am here to ask your help. I don't think we are going to run all right in Riverdale, but we will be here."
- Remarks of Senator John F. Kennedy, Concourse Plaza Hotel, Bronx, NY
November 5, 1960 from the website, The American Presidency Project

In September of 1927, powerful Boston patriarch Joseph Patrick "Joe" Kennedy, Sr. moved his growing family from Boston, Massachusetts to Riverdale, an affluent neighborhood in the Bronx. Two years later the family moved to Bronxville five miles to the north. The houses in each place (the first in map below at 5040 Independence Avenue, just across from Wave Hill*) sported some twenty rooms, sprawling comfortable mansions perfect for indoor and outdoor sports. John Kennedy, the future President, attended Riverdale Country School from 5th through 7th grade. When he wasn't spending the summer in Hyannisport, Massachusetts or Christmas or Easter in Palm Beach, Jack was in the Bronx. On Saturdays, his father took the kids into the city. Let's call JFK a New Yorker. Middle school makes the man.


View Larger Map

What follows now is a random assortment of places of interest for the Kennedy family in New York:

• In that very same 1927, Caffe Reggio opened on Macdougal Street in Greenwich Village. Thirty three years later, Presidential hopeful John F. Kennedy made a speech outside the coffee shop. The cafe is still hopping.

• Check out this Life Magazine picture of presidential candidate JFK walking through the corridor of the ultra-groovy Time-Life Building (1271 Avenue of the Americas) with Luce and company, August 5, 1960.

• One of President John F. Kennedy's most awesome speeches concerned the topic of the presidency and the press, namely about the role of secrecy. He delivered the speech at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel on New York City, April 27, 1961. From the Internet Archive:



• The President's future wife, Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, was born in East Hampton, Long Island, but the Bouvier family kept an apartment at 765 Park Avenue near 72d Street. After JFK's death she moved to 1040 Fifth Avenue, close to her daughter Caroline's school, the Convent of the Sacred Heart at 91st Street and Fifth Avenue. The apartment had great views of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In her latter New York years, Jackie worked as an editor at Doubleday, eschewing publicity, and she fought for the preservation of Grand Central Terminal. The Reservoir in Central Park is named the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir.

• New York International Airport (formerly known as Idlewild Airport) was renamed John F. Kennedy International Airport on December 24, 1963.

• After the assassination, JFK's brother, Robert, left his post as Attorney General in LBJ's Cabinet to run for Senator from New York. After establishing New York residency, RFK was elected in 1964.

• JFK's son, John, Jr., at the time of his early tragic death in 1999, was living at 20 North Moore Street in Tribeca. Read this article from the NYT about Tribeca's reaction to the news that John's plane had gone missing.

• After her father's death, Caroline lived with her mother at the aforementioned Fifth Avenue address. She attended Radcliffe and then worked at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a pretty typical pattern for privileged young women from the Upper East Side. While at the Met, she met her future husband, Edwin Schlossberg, an exhibits designer. She received a law degree from Columbia University. She now resides at 888 Park Avenue with her husband and children. As we know, Caroline has expressed interest in being appointed to Senator Hillary Clinton's vacated Senate seat. Some people feel she shouldn't be given the post, mostly because of these issues of legacy and entitlement. There is no question, however, about her long connection to New York. Her ties are much longer than Hillary's, after all. What would help her, I think, would be to move her family out of the Upper East Side and to the South Bronx. * (See UPDATE below)

* I recommend shifting into Street View and pretending to stroll the pretty Riverdale neighborhood.

This walk is the fourth in a series of Presidential-themed walks exploring the role of U. S. Presidents in New York City and in celebration of the upcoming inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States.

UPDATE 1/22/2009. Caroline Kennedy has withdrawn her name from consideration, citing personal reasons.

Image of the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir in Central Park by Walking Off the Big Apple.

UPDATE: See this New York Post story on how Caroline is wooing the Bronx.

Museums in New York Open on Tuesdays

American Folk Art Museum, 45 W. 53rd St.

Asia Society and Museum, 725 Park Avenue (at 70th Street)

Guggenheim Museum, 1071 Fifth Avenue (at 89th St.) Pictured left

International Center of Photography, 1133 Avenue of the Americas at 43rd Street

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 Fifth Avenue

The Morgan Library & Museum, 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street

Museum of the City of New York, 1220 Fifth Avenue

New York University, Grey Art Gallery, 100 Washington Square East


Mondays and Tuesdays are the hardest days to remember which museums are open. See the list for NY museums open on Mondays here.

WOTBA New York Cultural Events Calendar: January 11-18, 2009

Occasional readers of this site are a practical bunch, visiting WOTBA for recommendations for affordable hotels, museums to visit on Mondays (and soon to be posted, museums to visit on Tuesdays, just as perplexing), places to walk in parks, or where to score upscale chocolate. Regular readers, on the other hand, are inquisitive and deep, willing to slosh through posts on the recession and dead Presidents.

Speaking of perplexing - it's daunting to scan the event pages in newspapers, magazines or websites for stuff to do in New York. Too many good choices, one finds, and it's so overwhelming that it's painfully easy to make the decision to stay home. Let's have none of this. Staying home in New York breeds guilt, so who not try to find at least a handful of cultural events to enjoy in New York each month? Otherwise, I don't really understand the point of living in a crowded city with talented people. I might as well live in the wilderness with foxes, coyotes, and bears. Charming as that sounds, there's a dearth of wild animals capable of playing Brahms.

10 Selected Events in New York for January 11 through 18:

• MUSIC. Fabulous Thunderbirds, January 16-18. Iridium Jazz Club, 1650 Broadway @ 51st St. www.iridiumjazzclub.com.
• THEATER. Under the Radar Festival, a festival for new theater. Through January 18, at the Public Theater and other partner locations. All tix $15. undertheradarfestival
• THEATER. Anton Checkov's The Cherry Orchard, directed by Sam Mendes, with a cast including Simon Russell Beale, Sinead Cusack, Richard Easton, and Ethan Hawke. In preview, opening January 14. BAM, 301 Lafayette Avenue.
• FILM. Craig Baldwin's Mock Up on Mu, NY Theatrical Premiere Run, January 14-20 at 7:00 and (;15 p.m. nightly. Anthology Film Archives. www.anthologyfilmarchives.org.
• MUSIC. Steve Winwood, January 15 at 8 p.m. United Palace Theater, 4140 Broadway @175th Street. bowerypresents.com.
• MUSIC. Al Di Meola and World Sinfonia, January 17 at 8.p. New York Society for Ethical Culture, 2 West 64th Street, 212-277-7179. $45.
• MUSIC. Bargemusic, Brahms's two String Sextets. With all four members of Shanghai string Quartet, cellist Clive Greensmith, and violinist Mark Peskanov. January 17 at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m. Fulton Ferry Landing. bargemusic.org. $40; $25 for students.
• LITERATURE: Louise Erdrich talks about her new book of stories, The Red Convertible: Selected and New Stories, 1978-2008, with Amy Goodman. Symphony Space. Wed, Jan 14 at 7:30 pm $22; Members $18
• ART. Frankenthaler at Eighty: Six Decades. Nine large works from Helen Frankenthaler's personal collection. Knoedler & Company, 19 East 70th St. knoedlergallery.com
• ART. Opening January 16: Edward Steichen: In High Fashion, The Condé Nast Years, 1923–1937. International Center of Photography, 1133 Avenue of the Americas at 43rd Street, icp.org. Through May 3, 2009.

Image: Flatiron Building by Walking Off the Big Apple.
Bundle up! It's going to get colder this week.
This list is somewhat whimsical and totally subjective, based on my own cultural tastes. Even so, I may try to post a weekly list each Sunday, because others may find such an event calendar somewhat useful.

Walking Broadway with Abraham Lincoln: The Visit to New York for the Cooper Union Speech

Anyone who has ever traveled to a large unfamiliar city for the purpose of an important job interview and who might be a little anxious about the big job talk itself and what to wear and meeting new people should be able to imagine themselves in Abraham Lincoln's shoes as he strolled up Broadway on the afternoon of February 27, 1860. Imagine, too, if you look a little different than most people, tall and gangly in this case, a tad nervous about your appearance and somewhat concerned that you'll come off as a little too country in a crowded city of sophisticates. And add to this, a forecast of rain and snow in a city of already filthy and slushy streets. I actually experienced this very thing myself a few years ago, but I wasn't trying to impress people that I might make a good candidate for the Presidency of the United States of America.

Lincoln, who was relatively unknown to New Yorkers at this time and not yet the official nominee of the young Republican Party, worked hard finishing his speech, the one he was to deliver that night at Cooper Union. He arrived in New York two days before, finding his way by himself to Astor House, John Jacob Astor's hotel on Broadway between Vesey and Barclay Streets. The hotel, just across the street from City Hall, was a beautiful five-story Greek Revival building with gaslights and bathing facilities on each floor. On Sunday morning, Lincoln took the ferry over to Brooklyn to Plymouth Church to hear Henry Ward Beecher preach from the pulpit. Though invited to visit with locals after the service, he explained he needed to go back to the hotel and work on his speech.

On Monday, some supporters greeted Lincoln at the hotel and persuaded him to come along for a stroll up Broadway. Among the establishments he visited was the Know Great Hat and Cap Establishment at Broad and Fulton Street, and according to George Haven Putnam, a contemporary writer, there he received a free silk top hat. Afterward, the entourage took Lincoln to Mathew Brady's gallery on Broadway near the corner of Bleecker to get his picture taken. The handsome three-quarter-length picture, showing an almost painfully thin (look at those sunken cheekbones!) Lincoln, became a favorite collectible carte de visite and is known, even by Abe himself, to have contributed to the Illinois politician's popularity.

The speech later that night went well. The vast hall of Cooper Union, constructed just the year before, was filled with 1500 people, each paying twenty-five cents, although the hall wasn't full. Lincoln gave a nuanced historical speech about the intention of the Founding Fathers regarding the extension of slavery into the territories. In the hour-long speech that's mostly dull and unquotable, he argued that most of the framers of the Constitution supported the right of Congress to regulate slavery in the territories. The audience members, many of them influential in the press, thought Lincoln, although very awkward in appearance and speech, was onto something. The New York Times ran the text of the speech on its front page the next day.

After the speech, two members of the Young Men's Central Republican Union escorted Lincoln to their club, the Athenaeum (on the site of the present-day building at 110 Fifth Avenue) for an informal supper. After dinner, he and Charles C. Nott set out on foot for the long walk down Broadway to the hotel. Nott noticed that Lincoln was having difficulty walking and asked him, "Are you lame, Mr. Lincoln?" Lincoln replied that he had on new boots and that they hurt him. They then boarded a street car. Nott got off at the stop near his house, leaving Lincoln to ride alone back to Astor House.

"The impression left on his companion's mind as he gave a last glance at him in the street car was that he seemed sad and lonely and when it was too late, when the car was beyond call, he blamed himself for not accompanying Mr. Lincoln to the Astor House — not because he was a distinguished stranger, but because he seemed a sad and lonely man." *

When you find yourself walking on lower Broadway and your shoes hurt, you may want to keep this story in mind.

* cited in George Haven Putnam, Abraham Lincoln: The People’s Leader in the Struggle for National Existence, p. 217 (Account of Charles Nott). I've cobbled together this account from a variety of sources, including the excellent website, Mr. Lincoln and New York, and from Harold Holzer's informative account in Lincoln at Cooper Union: The Speech That Made Abraham Lincoln President.

Images of Cooper Union (East 7th St. to Astor Place) and lower Broadway by Walking Off the Big Apple. Picture of Abraham Lincoln by Mathew Brady. A few days later, Brady's portrait was published on the cover of Harper’s Bazaar with the caption, “Hon. Abram [sic] Lincoln, of Illinois, Republican Candidate for President.”

This walk is the third in a series of Presidential-themed walks exploring the role of U. S. Presidents in New York City and in celebration of the upcoming inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States.

"Froze Right to the Bone:" A Musical Interlude with Bob Dylan

A little interlude while I prepare the next walk in the pre-Inauguration series. The references to the freezing cold in Greenwich Village seem particularly relevant right now. The song is "Talkin' New York," the second on Dylan's first album. A nice homage here to the time and place by a fellow on You Tube.

Walking the Village and listening to Dylan - a series coming to Walking Off the Big Apple in February.

Theodore Roosevelt, the Boy, on E. 20th Street

I read with interest Jim Dwyer's article today in the NYT, "Courthouse Mystery as One Rough Rider Replaces Another" about Senator Charles Schumer's quest for more Theodore Roosevelt love. Seems like our senator (we functionally have only one right now) wants more attention to be paid to the only U.S. President to be born in New York, and in this spirit he appeared in downtown Brooklyn last week to announce that a new courthouse there would be named for TR. This caught my attention, because just yesterday I visited TR's boyhood home here in the city, the existence of which was not even mentioned in the article. We have plentiful TR love right here, just north of Union Square and near Gramercy Park.

My visit yesterday to 28 East 20th Street, a recreated house that the National Park Service operates to illustrate the boyhood of Theodore Roosevelt, was not the first place I've visited that commemorates the life of the flamboyant U.S. President. My first encounter with the ghost of TR was at the splendid Menger Hotel (Historic Hotels site) in downtown San Antonio, Texas, the place where Teddy rounded up his Rough Riders.

As a westerner myself, or at least of the Texas flavor, I tend to think of President Roosevelt as a Wild West convert, happiest when shooting exotic animals (a few on display in the house here), camping in Yellowstone, wielding big sticks in an imperialist fashion and riding a big horse. My visit to his home in New York reminded me of another TR - the young and privileged near-sighted boy of the East, raised by a doting, powerful and wealthy Knickerbocker father, one who instilled in him the important value of fairness, and to a lesser extent, by a beautiful Georgia peach of a mom, a woman who bore sympathies with the Confederate South.

As our informative docent led us on a tour of the handsome house that stands in for the original (torn down after Roosevelt's death and then built anew by Roosevelt women and their friends), it was easy to understand young TR's aspirations and the expectations placed on him, but it was also easy to visualize the atmosphere surrounding his sickly childhood. The docent encouraged us to keep our coats on as the place was drafty. I'd get sick there, too. Walking through the five period rooms, with many of the original pieces of furniture on site, gives a good sense of the bustling life of the Roosevelt clan and their wealth, but it's also easy to imagine how someone could get wanderlust and want out.

The house and the tour was much more than I expected. Two large full galleries provide a wealth of TR memorabilia, not just from his youth but from the whole of his colorful career. As the docent explained, my visit yesterday happened to correspond with the 90th anniversary of Theodore Roosevelt's death.

Christopher Gray, the Streetscapes writer for the NYT, and the go-to guy on all things about NY streets and architecture, wrote about the house in this article from 2005.

Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace National Historic Site is open Tuesday-Saturday, 9:00am-5:00pm. The period rooms can only be seen by guided tours, available on the hour.

The house is still situated among the affluent. If you have some Roosevelt-type money, enjoy lunch or dinner at nearby Gramercy Tavern or a glass of champagne at Flute. That may be a swell way to toast the memory of everyone's favorite Republican/Bull Moose Progressive.

Images by Walking Off the Big Apple. This walk is the second in a series of Presidential-themed walks exploring the role of U. S. Presidents in New York City and in celebration of the upcoming inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States. See also A Walk to Grant's Tomb and Morningside Heights.

Documentaries on the Academy's Shortlist: A Program at Tribeca Cinemas This Week

One of the most thrilling experiences for me last year was attending the Tribeca Film Festival in late April and early May, meeting talented filmmakers and seeing their extraordinary films. I write a regular blog titled "Shoe Leather" for the website Reframe, a project of the Tribeca Film Institute, and I've been increasingly drawn to the genre of documentaries. One of the best films I saw at the festival was "Man on Wire," a dramatic recounting of Philippe Petit's tightrope walk between the towers of the World Trade Center in August of 1974. (Official site) I highly recommend seeing it.

This past November the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced the 15 films in the Documentary Feature category that will advance in the voting process for the Oscars. According to the Academy's announcement, "a record 94 pictures had originally qualified in the category."

Here's the list of the 2008 documentaries that made the cut:

“At the Death House Door”
“The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)”
“Blessed Is the Match: The Life and Death of Hannah Senesh”
“Encounters at the End of the World”
“Fuel”
“The Garden”
“Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts”
“I.O.U.S.A.”
“In a Dream”
“Made in America”
“Man on Wire”
“Pray the Devil Back to Hell”
“Standard Operating Procedure”
“They Killed Sister Dorothy”
“Trouble the Water”

Those who missed "Man on Wire" at its screenings about town have another chance to see the film this week, along with other five other worthy candidates for best Documentary Feature. A special program at Tribeca Cinemas on January 8th and 10th, GUCCI TRIBECA DOCUMENTARY FUND PRESENTS: DOCS ON THE SHORTLIST, celebrates six of the films that enjoy ties to the Tribeca Film Festival - At the Death House Door, The Garden, I.O.U.S.A., Man on Wire, Pray the Devil Back to Hell, and They Killed Sister Dorothy. Filmmakers will be on hand to discuss their films.

This past Saturday the National Society of Film Critics selected "Man on Wire" as best nonfiction film of 2008.

Ticket Prices and Information:
Tickets for each film screening is $8.00 regular tickets; $5.00 for members of the Guilds, members of BAFTA East Coast, DocuClub, IDA, IFP, and/or Shooting People, and full-time students with current I.D.; free for Academy Members.

All screenings will be held at Tribeca Cinemas, 54 Varick Street (corner of Laight), New York, NY 10013
For more information call 212.941.2001 or follow the link here.

A Walk to Grant's Tomb and Morningside Heights

Sunday afternoon looked clear and beautiful, and though chilly, seemed perfect for a winter's walk. I wanted to start the new year with fresh eyes and with a vow to act on newly-made resolutions, foremost among these the promise to myself (and to readers) to get out of the neighborhood. I could write about MacDougal Street and Washington Square Park all day long (and sometimes have done so).

So, Grant's Tomb. When was the last time you visited the final resting place for Civil War General and U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant and his lovely wife, Julia Dent Grant? For me, I had a hard time remembering, and still won't say, the year I last visited, but I think I was about seven years old.

I took the 1 train from W. 4th St. to 116th St., a trip that lasted twenty minutes or so, and as I left the station, I walked to Riverside Park and then north to Grant's Tomb. What a pretty day! There was some sort of convocation of unicyclists in front of the monument. As I walked into the mausoleum, the low winter light cast a rather sacred-looking pall over the tombs of Ulysses and Julia. I was moved upon seeing their resting places, even as I was silently telling myself the punchline to "Who's buried in Grant's Tomb?"*


View Larger Map

The General Grant National Memorial is pleasant to visit, especially for those interested in the Civil War. Confederate sympathizers, however, may not care for it, as the whole deal comes off as pro-Union. From the old-school type of exhibits (no digital interactions, light shows, or such), I learned many things about the 18th President of the United States. Because I've been distracted this week by the swarm of earthquakes under Yellowstone Lake, I found it interesting that President Grant signed the bill that created Yellowstone National Park as America's first National Park on March 1, 1872. I also learned about Richard T. Greener, the first African-American graduate of Harvard (1870), who was head of the fundraising efforts for the memorial. I also learned from the park ranger that the Grants had been living on Fifth Avenue and 66th Street, and the site of the memorial (although originally out in the middle of nowhere on the Hudson) proved convenient.

From Grant's Tomb, I strolled around the neighborhood, taking in Riverside Church, Columbia University, the view from Morningside Heights Park, and then the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. After spending some time looking at the tombs of Ulysses and Julia and then visiting the churches, I began to think of this stroll as the Death, Reconstruction, and Resurrection Walk. Given that visiting Grant's Tomb is a little like visiting Napoleon's and that the churches resemble Chartres and Notre Dame, the stroll comes off as a little French.

Images: above, interior and exterior, General Grant National Memorial; below, nave, Riverside Church.

* The answer is "No one. They are entombed, not buried."

This walk is the first in a series of Presidential-themed walks exploring the role of U. S. Presidents in New York City and in celebration of the upcoming inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States.

Many more images of the walk at Flickr WOTBA.

The Strolling Year in Review 2008: Favorite Cafes, Restaurants, Bars, and Bakeries

I often think I don't eat out much, but when I look over a list like this, I realize it's completely untrue. What follows is an eclectic set of restaurants, bars, cafes, and bakeries that I frequent. Modest and reliable places dominate this list, though some restaurants are reserved for special occasions. While I still plan to eat out in 2009, with each passing day in the recession, more fine dining (Hoppin' John and sparkling wine, for example) takes place in the home.

Enjoy! You can always walk it off (or maybe not - be sure to consult the chart following the list):

Rhong Tiam (541 LaGuardia Place): Good Thai; now take-out choice #1 chez moi
Gemma (335 Bowery): warm and inviting trattoria visited multiple times in 2008
Marumi (546 LaGuardia Place): consistently good Sushi
Temple Bar (332 Lafayette): the best martini in a dark, mysterious bar
Prime Burger (5 E. 51st St.): (image inset) burgers and fries, and much more, in a nostalgic setting. Across the street from the side entrance to St. Patrick's Cathedral; very near Rock Center. Leave the crowds and sneak into Prime Burger.
Jane (100 W. Houston St.): everyday fine dining downtown
Bellavitae (24 Minetta Lane): beautiful food at this cozy wine bar.
Cornelia Street Cafe (29 Cornelia St.): comfort cooking
Square Diner (33 Leonard St.): comfort food to the max in Tribeca
Pegu Club (77 W. Houston): cocktails as cultural history.
Snack Taverna (63 Bedford St.): Greek-French
Payard's Patisserie & Bistro (1032 Lexington): Old New York feel with French comfort food.
Po (31 Cornelia St.): affordable, consistent Italian tablecloth restaurant
Patisserie Claude (187 W. 4th St.): no one makes croissants like this
Blue Ribbon Bakery (35 Downing St.): whatever bread they're selling
Moishe's Kosher Bakery (504 Grand St.): old-fashioned Jewish Bakery with delicious babka
Caffe Reggio (119 Macdougal St.): what a Village cafe should be.
The Boathouse Central Park (E. 72nd St. & Park Drive North): The perfect place for a cocktail after getting lost in the Ramble
MarieBelle Cafe (484 Broome St.): Take a friend out for a hot cocoa
71 Irving Place Coffee and Tea Bar (71 Irving Place): cozy cafe for writing a great short story
Ed's Lobster Bar (222 Lafayette St.): Yes, the lobster roll, to be sure, but we also liked the drinks.

And, now in the spirit of post-holiday diet anxiety - WOTBA'S CHART!

Distance needed to walk off common New York foods for a 140-pound person walking at a moderate pace (approx.):

slice pepperoni pizza (200 cal) = 1.9 miles
cafe latte grande (260 cal) = 2.5 miles
bagel (320 cal) = 3 miles
chocolate croissant (340 cal) = 3.25 miles
pad thai (380 cal) = 3.5 miles
black and white cookie (430 cal) = 4 miles
NY cheesecake (480 cal) = 4.5 miles
cupcake (557 cal) = 5.0984 miles
pastrami sandwich (1010 cal) = 9.5 miles

Image: Prime Burger, 5 E. 51st St.