Further Reports From Film Camp

Over the last few days, I've either squirreled myself away in movie theaters to watch a few films in the Tribeca Film Festival or retreated to a room to write about them. When I'm not in the theater or writing, I take long walks, and fortunately, I've needed those transitions to figure out what I want to say. I'm also an emotional mess after watching some films, so I truly need to walk them off. A film that I wrote about this week, Only When I Dance, made me cry so much that I thought I would embarrass myself in the theater.

During these interstitial walks between films, I've been taking many photos, mostly in the Tribeca neighborhood. The image here is from this morning. It's a little park below Canal that I often cut through while walking south along West Broadway. It would appear that some blue sprite or Tinkerbell-like creature lives there.

Soon, I'll share more from the walks through Tribeca. In the meantime, excerpts from two longer essays on Reframe.

• "The Longest Miracle:" A Discussion of Inherit the Wind

"On Saturday afternoon, April 25, 2009, the Tribeca Film Festival hosted a special screening of Stanley Kramer's Inherit the Wind (1960) at the SVA Theatre on W. 23rd St. Based on the play by Jerome Lawrence and Robert Edwin Lee from 1955, the film dramatizes the events of the Scopes trial of 1925, pitting two fiercely capable attorneys, William Jennings Bryan (the fictional character is named Matthew Harrison Brady, played by Fredric March) and Clarence Darrow (likewise, Henry Drummond, immortalized by Spencer Tracy) into a battle over the teaching of evolution in the school room. "

continue reading on Reframe

• Race, Class, Gender, and Ballet

"The word "moving" does not even begin to characterize Only When I Dance, a new narrative feature directed by Beadie Finzi and presented at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival in the World Documentary Competition. A real-life character drama of two aspiring teenage dancers from the poor favelas of Rio de Janeiro, Isabela Coracy and Irlan Santos da Silva, the film follows their journey through the pressures, expenses, and prejudices of the professional dance world. While the goal is the same for both dancers - to show their talent in international competition in order to launch a professional career, the conditions of their color, class, gender, and the persistence of culturally constructed ideal body types affect the perceptions of their potential in different ways. Fierce aspirations, self-imposed discipline and supportive families, while powerful, do not guarantee success. Director Finzi shows us the emotional weight of these heavy journeys. "Heartbreaking" comes closer to the film's true description."

continue reading on Reframe

Image: Tinkerbell in Tribeca. morning, April 29, 2009

WOTBA New York Events Calendar: All Parks Edition Monday, April 27 - Monday, May 4, 2009

Enjoy the blooming season, this special time to visit the parks. Head to the northern parts of Central Park to wander in the woods, or get lost in the Ramble. This calendar takes us into May. Fancy that! I have a secret to share - the summer in New York is my favorite season, and the recent warm weather makes me long for even hotter weather.

Sorry about the swine flu. The New York Times published a story today, Europe Urges Citizens to Avoid U.S. and Mexico Travel, reporting that the EU's health commissioner has urged Europeans to avoid nonessential trips to our shores. What a drag. But, isn't enjoying NY parks in bloom an essential visit? Who's going to take pictures of our squirrels?

In the spirit of nature, warm weather, and springtime, all selected events this week take place in New York City parks.

• Monday, April 27. Hanami: The Cherry Blossom Viewing Season. 8:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m. Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Brooklyn

• Monday, April 27. General Grant's Birthday Celebration. 11:00 a.m. Events will include a wreath-laying ceremony, Civil War displays, musket demonstrations, and speakers from the community and from West Point. Riverside Park. General Grant Memorial (122nd Street & Riverside Drive)

• Tuesday, April 28. Fitness Walking Programs in Fort Tryon Park. 7:30 a.m.–8:30 a.m. One hour of walking, stretching, strengthening, and body toning.The program is free but pre-registration is required. To register, email Nancy at healthwriter2@aol.com. For more information, call Linda at (212) 927-9568. Fort Tryon Park, Manhattan.

• Tuesday, April 28. Musical Puppet Show: Peter Pan & Adventures in Never Land. 12:30 p.m. A new musical marionette production in Central Park. The Swedish Cottage is located in Central Park at 79th Street and the West Drive, just south of the Delacorte Theater.

• Tuesday, April 28. Manhattan Adirondacks. 1:00 p.m. Olmsted and Vaux designed the North Woods in Central Park to replicate scenes in the Adirondack Mountains. Charles A. Dana Discovery Center, Central Park (inside the Park at 110th Street, between Fifth and Lenox avenues).

• Wednesday, April 29. Reading & Reception: Washington Square with Author John Berendt. 7 p.m. New York author John Berendt reads Henry James' Washington Square in the parlors of the Merchant's House Museum (29 East Fourth Street). In collaboration with the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation (GVSHP) and the Mercantile Library for The Big Read salute to Henry James' Washington Square. $15; $5 MHM & GVSHP members.

• Thursday, April 30. Poetry at The New York Botanical Garden. 10:00 a.m. Read poems inspired by the plant world, and create your own nature-inspired poem. Pick up a poem to share with friends and family after you leave the Garden. From 3 to 5 p.m., participate in an open poetry reading experience. New York Botanical Garden (Fordham Road at Bronx River Parkway). Bronx. Adults $20, kids $8

• Friday, May 1. Wildflower Week Botanical Walk: Hunter Island. 1:00 p.m.–2:00 p.m. Hunter Island in Pelham Bay Park is home to giant oak and tulip trees that may predate the American Revolution. Pelham Bay Park. Meet at the northeast corner of the Orchard Beach parking lot (far left corner from entry booth.). Da Bronx.

• Saturday, May 2. Early Morning Birding at 8 a.m. Weekly Ranger-led birding walk. Marine Park Salt Marsh Nature Center, Marine Park (East 33rd Street and Avenue U), Brooklyn.

• Saturday, May 2. Wildflower Week Botanical Walk: Alley Pond Park. 10 a.m. Wildflower walk around the glacial-formed Oakland Lake. Alley Pond Park. Meet at APEC 228-06 Northern Boulevard. Queens. Free for APEC members, $5 for others.

• Sunday, May 3. Biking and Birding - Prospect Park and Green-Wood Cemetary. 9:00 a.m.–1:00 p.m. To celebrate Bike Month NYC, tour Prospect Park, an important bird area, and Green-Wood Cemetery, home to nesting parrots and the highest point in Brooklyn. Bring binoculars, water, and your bicycle. Limited to 15. With NYC Audubon and Prospect Park Audubon Center. Meet at the Grand Army Plaza Arch at 8:45 a.m. -- ride leaves promptly at 9:00 a.m. Brooklyn. $20 ($18 for NYC Audubon or T.A. members)To register, go to http://www.nycaudubon.org/home/TripClass.shtml.

• Monday, May 4. Monday Night Lecture: Brooklyn Celebrates Baseball. 7:00 p.m. With former All American Girls Professional Baseball League Pitcher Gloria Cordes-Elliott of the Racine Belles and Kalamazoo Lassies. Marine Park. Salt Marsh Nature Center, Marine Park (East 33rd Street and Avenue U).

All event information from http://www.nycgovparks.org/

Images of Central Park by Walking Off the Big Apple.

On Reframe: Screens Big and Small, and Quentin Crisp's New York

I wanted to remind readers of Walking Off the Big Apple that this week and next I'm writing about aspects of the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival (now in progress through May 3) for the website, Reframe, an online project of the Tribeca Film Institute. As I write this, I have two new posts in progress - an interview with Austrian filmmaker Gustav Deutsch about his film, FILM IST. a girl & a gun, as well as a report on a special screening of Stanley Kramer's Inherit the Wind. Look for those shortly. I've already posted two essays that may interest readers. Following is a preview, with links to the remainder of the posts on Reframe.

• The Tribeca Film Festival and Reframe: Screens Big and Small
At the opening press conference for the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival, a reporter asked Spike Lee to explain what having two of his films in the festival (Passing Strange, Kobe Doin' Work) meant for him. He responded by simply saying, "Film needs a venue." On the surface, that seems like an obvious thing to say, but the reality is that many films, old and new, still sit on the shelf. Moving images need to be seen in a place, running through a projector and projected on a screen, on a television with a DVD or digital service, or, as I’ll discuss, somewhere online. I could almost see the noted director thinking a moment after he uttered these remarks, perhaps realizing the audience members would like more on the topic. He then expanded on the idea, explaining that young people, especially graduates of film schools, desperately need a venue in order to share their work. It's the nature of the art.

continue reading

• An Anachronist in New York: Quentin Crisp, a Changing Gay Culture, and the Power of Words and Images
In an early sequence of An Englishman in New York, a film receiving its North American premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival, we see Quentin Crisp (John Hurt) walking - well, more like floating, placing one foot in front of another as a ballet dancer on a tightrope, along MacDougal Street in Greenwich Village. The year is 1981. As he turns and walks west down the charming and colorfully decorated Minetta Lane, it's possible to spot a chronological oddity in the background. In just a glimpse, a relatively new cupcake shop, opened in a small storefront in 2007 or 2008, appears on the shot of MacDougal. The shop, a cultural artifact of a later time, specifically Sex and the City, a cupcake-generating TV phenomenon of the straight girl's sexual revolution, might appear as an anachronism for some viewers.

continue reading

Image: Minetta Lane, by Walking Off the Big Apple

Mapping Out the Tribeca Film Festival

The first question someone asked me yesterday during the course of covering the first full day of this year's Tribeca Film Festival was where to get good Italian food near Union Square. Thousands of film writers, producers, and directors have converged in lower Manhattan for the festival, now through May 3, and between premieres, they're looking for a good but quick place to eat. I do my best to help, but I'm one of those types that has a hard time deciding on restaurants. When I make suggestions, I often get in trouble. While I love beautiful restaurants with accomplished chefs and well-appointed rooms, I often have low-brow cravings that lead me to other places. So, for example, when I offer a suggestion about a diner that serves good tater tots, someone may roll their eyes and think of a place with more refined fare.

Back to the subject of the film festival, my questions now usually involve the issues of getting from here to there. As I'm starting to write about the films for my blog titled Shoe Leather on the Tribeca Film Institute's Reframe site, I realize that I'll indeed be wearing down a lot of shoe leather over the next several days. How do I get from AMC Village VII (3rd Avenue) for one movie and then to the SVA (33 W. 23rd) for another soon after the first has ended? And, what's the most pleasant route from the AMC theater to Tribeca? Should subways be involved?


View An Unofficial Tribeca Film Festival 2009 Map in a larger map

To answer these questions, I have made a map listing the venues of the Tribeca Film Festival and hope that it's of some help for festival filmgoers. As the Google map is interactive and you're looking to eat, feel free to select a venue, zoom in and type in a search for the nearest nicest restaurant with your preferred cuisine. As for getting around, walking may be the most efficient way to get from one venue to another.

By the way, I recommend Trailer Park Lounge at 271 W. 23rd St., a half block away from the SVA Theater, for really good tater tots.

See my earlier post on New York-themed films in this year's festival.

For a philosophical approach to film venues in a digital age, please read my latest post on Reframe titled The Tribeca Film Festival and Reframe: Screens Big and Small.

Image: Tribeca Film Festival banner on the west side of the BMCC PAC, Chambers Street and West Side Highway.

New York Trees in Spring Bloom: Images and Links

Click this link for the 2011 updated and expanded Spring Calendar - A New York Spring Calendar.


• Citywide Blooming Calendar from New York City Department of Parks & Recreation

• Heritage Crabapple Trees. New York City Department of Parks & Recreation

• Sakura Matsuri May 2-3, 2009. 10 a.m. - 6 p.m. Rain or Shine. Celebration of Japanese culture and the blossoming of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden's 220 cherry trees. Also, see the garden's Cherry Blossom Status Map


• Website of The New York Botanical Garden, Bronx River Parkway at Fordham Road Bronx,

• Walking Off the Big Apple's favorite spring walk: Wandering in the Ramble, Central Park. The closest thing in New York to the back nine at Augusta. A favorite for birdwatching.

• 2009 NYC Grows Garden Festival Sunday, April 26, 2009. 11:00 a.m.–3:00 p.m. Union Square Park. The New York City Department of Parks & Recreation's annual NYC GROWS Garden Festival, where members of the public can come take part in activities and demonstrations that promote gardening.


• Million TreesNYC. A citywide, public-private program to plant and care for one million new trees across the City's five boroughs over the next decade.

• Honoring a Revolutionary-era white oak in Prospect Park that gave its life for its country.

• Tree: A Bistro and Garden in the East Village


• Planting Trees for Green Apple Day in Pelham Bay Park

• The book, New York Trees: A Field Guide to the Metropolitan Area, by Edward S. Barnard. Review on About.com

• The Oldest Living Thing in New York: Queens Giant, an old Tulip Poplar

Images by Walking Off the Big Apple of trees in Union Square Park from April 23, 2009 and of blossoming trees in Central Park and the area near 59th and Fifth from Saturday, April 18, 2009. Clicking on each image for viewing in a larger window.

A Stroll Through the East 60s

The walk on the Upper East Side this past Saturday, the one in which I retraced Walker Evans and his photographs of a block on E. 61st in 1938, took me on a longer stroll. Thanks to the picture-perfect weather, I also walked through the small but lovely Treadwell Farm Historic District, a neighborhood of well-preserved row houses and tree-lined streets on East 61st and East 62nd streets between Second and Third Avenues. Many of the houses were originally built in the custom Italianate and neo-Grec styles of the day but were later modified, often by stripping the large front stoops, to give them a neat, flat appearance on the street. The elegance attracted several celebrities, including Montgomery Clift, Tallulah Bankhead, and Eleanor Roosevelt, who chose to live along these blocks.


View A Walk in the East 60s in a larger map

I passed through the historic district on my way to the more prosaic block of Walker Evans and then doubled back toward the west on E. 62nd St. Near the intersection of E. 62nd and the cut-through ramp and street off the Queensboro (59th Street) Bridge, I stumbled upon the Karen Horney Clinic. We never forget that snickering moment in college when we learn her name, do we? It wasn't her name by birth, but her married name, to Oskar Horney, upon their marriage in 1909. Of course, Horney was an important psychoanalyst, and snickering aside, this place has long served the community in providing assistance to victims of trauma, including much help for those who survived and witnessed the events at the World Trade Center.

E. 62nd then picks up the aesthetics of the Treadwell district, and it's nice to stop and look at Tallulah's former residence at 230 just to imagine what went on inside. Farther west, check out the cheese shop, Cheese on 62nd, and notice the beautiful-looking fromages, including one called "Barick Obama." I must have looked hungry or curious or both, because I was invited inside to taste some cheese. Delicious samplings, and the folks there enjoy sharing their enthusiasm. Across the street is the famous Tender Buttons, the shop that specializes in buttons. Keep going west, and E. 62nd enters the Upper East Side Historic District. The mansion at 11 E. 62 St., known as the Fabbri House, was originally commissioned by Margaret Louisa Vanderbilt Shepard (eldest daughter of William H. Vanderbilt) as a gift to her daughter and son-on-law. The Beaux-Arts house is pictured here. A touching gift, yes?

Images of E. 62nd Street (between Second Avenue and Third Avenue, looking west) and the facade of 11 E. 62nd St., between Fifth Avenue and Madison Avenue), from April 18, 2009.

WOTBA New York Events Calendar: Monday, April 20 - Monday, April 27, 2009

Though the week begins with rain and patchy fog, our ever-precarious New York weather forecasts call for mostly sunny skies by the end of the week. Some flowering trees of the pinkish-rose variety look ready to unfurl their dainty petals, and with the rain, the prospects for life-as-an-Impressionist painting look good. Such was the weather this past weekend, and as you can imagine, more than a few people showed up in Central Park. On Saturday, I spent the day tracing the steps of Walker Evans as he photographed a block of E. 61st in 1938, but then after, I headed to Central Park. It's like a magnet at this time of year. I'll be posting about the walk soon. Map to be included.

Starting with this post, I plan to list the selected events for eight days, running from one Monday to the next.

• Monday, April 20. Please consult the post, New York Museums Open on Mondays and Spring 2009 Exhibitions List for several ideas.

• Tuesday, April 21. Elliott Carter and Heinz Holliger: A Musical Friendship at 92nd Street Y, 1395 Lexington Ave (at 92nd St). 8 p.m. Beginning of a two-day event, with three concerts, exploring the relationship between two musical innovators. Tickets: $38–$48, ages 35 and under $25.

• Tuesday, April 21. Opening of The Pictures Generation, 1974-1984. Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 Fifth Avenue. Through August 2, 2009. A must-see.

* Wednesday, April 22. The Tribeca Film Festival, April 22- May 3. The biggest event of the coming week is the start of the Tribeca Film Festival. Tickets go on sale today, Monday, for the general public. Online, phone and ticket outlets. Festival site.

The Apple Store in SoHo hosts many events and workshops related to the festival. On Wednesday at 7 p.m. Spike Lee makes an in-store appearance. See the Apple Store SoHo festival event page for more events.

I've written an overview of the festival, highlighting several films, for MetroTwin, as well as a list of NY-themed films on this site. Also, follow me on Tribeca Film Institute's Reframe site, where I will start covering the festival within the next day.

• Wednesday, April 22. A Tribute to George Stoney: A Love Affair with New York. Part of a month-long celebration at Anthology Film Archives to celebrate Stoney, a well-known and loved documentary filmmaker and film professor at New York University. Educated at UNC Chapel Hill, Stoney worked in the Farm Security Administration during WWII, and after started making his own films of the South and then many elsewhere. This third program highlights a sample of his films about New York. 7:30 p.m. Anthology Film Archives, 32 Second Avenue. More information about Stoney at Anthology site.

• Thursday, April 23. Unica Zürn Reading. The Drawing Center. 7 p.m. From the Dark Spring of Language: The Poetry & Prose of Unica Zürn. An evening of readings by acclaimed novelists, poets, and scholars: Mary Ann Caws, Author and Distinguished Professor at The Graduate Center, CUNY; Pierre Joris, poet, translator and professor at SUNY Albany; Jill Magi, poet and visual artist; Anna Moschovakis, poet and translator; Caroline Rupprecht, author and associate professor of Comparative Literature at Queens College, City University of New York; Frederic Tuten, novelist and Professor Emeritus, City College of New York.The Drawing Center, 35 Wooster Street.

• Friday, April 24. More innovative music. Celebration of the 45th anniversary of Terry Riley's In C, with Kronos Quartet, Terry Riley, and original In C performers Stuart Dempster, Jon Gibson, Katrina Krimsky, and Morton Subotnick. Carnegie Hall. 8 p.m. Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage.

• Sunday, April 26. Earth Day in Central Park 2009. 12:00 pm - 4:00 pm. Rain or shine. At the Bandshell (Enter the Park at East or West 72nd Street). Learn about the park's environmental programs. Free, appropriate for all ages.

• Monday, April 27. New York Pops 26th Birthday Gala. Carnegie Hall. 7 p.m. Proceeds from the gala support The New York Pops and its education programs and free Summermusic concerts throughout New York City. Tickets available from $55 - $85. Black Tie Dinner/Dance to follow at The Pierre, Fifth Avenue at 61st Street. Broadway star, Idina Menzel will be among those performing and the new musical director of the New York Pops, Steven Reineke, will be conducting. For more information: visit the Pops website. The Online Auction launches Monday, April 20 on CharityBuzz.com. To purchase tickets: www.carnegiehall.org (WOTBA readers will receive a 20% discount by entering the code PLAY7861. Exciting! )

Images of the area around 59th and Fifth Avenue from Saturday, April 18, 2009.

Walker Evans, a Block on E. 61st Street in 1938, and a Visit in April of 2009

Walker Evans (1903-1975), a documentary photographer best known for his depictions of southern sharecroppers during the Great Depression, store signs and street signs in cities and towns, and the whole of American vernacular, spent a morning in the summer of 1938 taking photographs, for reasons not entirely clear, of a street block on E. 61st Street in New York. By the time he took this stroll and shot these pictures, now housed in the FSA-OWI photo collection of the Library of Congress, Evans had already left the Resettlement Administration and the Farm Security Administration, under whose employ he had famously photographed the plight of southern farm workers. He was back living in New York, preparing for an exhibit of his photographs and working, along with James Agee, on the upcoming Let Us Now Praise Famous Men (1941). Apparently, he was also in need of income that summer of '38, and letters indicate that Evans worked out something with his former government boss, Roy Stryker, for a short assignment for the Farm Security Administration. According to the text accompanying Evans' photographs on the Library of Congress website, "These photographs taken in New York City probably represent the outcome of the matter, although nothing in the agency's files explains the selection of the subject, if Evans was paid, or whether he and Stryker were satisfied with the pictures."

Hmmm. At least we have the pictures. These black and white photographs of tenement buildings, children sitting on stoops, the street life and store signs along E. 61st Street between 1st and 2nd Avenue constitute just one visual fragment of the era, the Great Depression, as well as the specifics of place - New York rental apartments of three of four bedrooms, shared bath facilities and the vibrant street life of a growing neighborhood. As LOC indicates, the block of this southern Yorkville neighborhood in the 1930s was largely composed of people of Italian heritage, with Irish and Poles living nearby.

We're not sure exactly what lured Evans to this block on E. 61st that Tuesday morning of August 23, 1938. We know he shot four rolls of film, and as the library presents them in sequence, there's evidence he must have gone up and down the block a few times. The summer light is strong and clear. He could have been hurrying to finish the Stryker assignment, thinking this block would tell the story, but I don't personally buy into the assertion that he found the block convenient because of its proximity to his E. 92nd Street apartment. It's not that close. The block to the west was, and still is, more conventionally beautiful, part of what is now the Treadwell Farm Historic District, but that block would be too pretty for a Stryker assignment. As Evans gazed down the street that morning, the block between 1st and 2nd Avenues must have come alive for him in some way.



I didn't find any answers to these questions when I revisited the block, although I immersed myself as fully as possible in understanding the street of my own day, as Evans did, through the eye of my camera. During my stroll up and down the street, I found several of the buildings Evans photographed still intact, providing points of reference for my images. Yet, much had changed over seventy years - no extended families conversing on the stoop or laundry hanging to dry outside of windows and fire escapes. A dry cleaners now occupies 326 E. 61st, and outdoor street sports have given way to a sports club. Air conditioning units sit in windows once routinely opened. Today, flowering trees soften the hard facades of the older 19th century buildings and the more modern ones that have filled in as replacements. The street, like others across the American landscape, now mostly functions as the egress for human struggles carried on in private spaces indoors, replacing the warm theater and open windows of the public street drama.

Images: Walker Evans photographs in the collection of the Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, FSA-OWI Collection, top to bottom:
New York, New York. 61st Street between 1st and 3rd Avenues. Children playing in the street. LC-USF3301-006714-M1 DLC (b&w film dup. neg.)
New York, New York. 61st Street between 1st and 3rd Avenues. A sign offering apartments for rent. LC-USF3301-006718-M3 DLC (b&w film dup. neg.)
New York, New York. 61st Street between 1st and 3rd Avenues. House fronts. LC-USF3301-006715-M5 DLC (b&w film dup. neg.)

Images in slideshow by Walking Off the Big Apple from the morning of April 18, 2009. A follow-up post of the longer stroll is posted here.

For more on Walker Evans, see the exhibit of his enormous postcard collection, Walker Evans and the Picture Postcard, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art through May 25, 2009. In 1994 the Estate of Walker Evans gave its holdings to the Met. Walker Evans images under the auspices of the RA and the FSA are in the public domain.

While we're on the subject, please visit the website of my graduate school mentor, Bill Stott, the author of the landmark Documentary Expression and Thirties America, who taught me how to think and write like this.

Literary DUMBO: An Afternoon Walk Under the Bridges in Search of Books

Along with the possibilities of ice cream, chocolate, drinks at reBar, lying down on green grass and views of two bridges and Manhattan, this book-oriented walk has added perks. Throw in a beautiful day, and I can't think of a better quick escape than a jaunt to this area of waterfront Brooklyn. A photogenic neighborhood comprised of converted warehouses and new construction, DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass) also appeals to fans of heavy infrastructure and engineering. These bridges look tough from underneath, and you definitely hope they are.

My blogger friend Rob (see his terrific book-loving site, RobAroundBooks) clued me to the existence of Melville House, a publisher of quality books that is now housed on Plymouth Street at the intersection with Pearl in DUMBO, and I've been wanting to get over there for a long time. Rob, who is based in Scotland and knows about quality literature, had written about their line of novellas, one of my favorite literary genres, so I took advantage of the nice weather to visit the bookstore and to explore nearby attractions.


View Literary DUMBO in a larger map

After leaving the F train at the York stop, I headed down Jay Street to Plymouth Street, turned left and soon found Melville House and its books. I'm not accustomed to so much natural light in a bookstore, so it took a few minutes to adjust my eyes. Their books are indeed lovely objects to hold in the hand, and their novellas, most all by well-known authors and designed with clean vibrant colors, are nicely chosen. I decided on a Joseph Conrad tale, "Freya of the Seven Isles," partially because the proximity of the water had me yearning for a tale of the high seas.

Later on the walk, I came across The powerHouse Arena, a sprawling space devoted to quality photography and art books, special exhibitions, and other printed objects that was stunningly awash in light. Another stop in DUMBO for book lovers, especially those interested in art books and rare finds, is the P.S. Bookshop.

By all means, head to the Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park to hang out, admire the bridges and look back at Manhattan. Everything about DUMBO suggests genres of photography - landscape, industrial, or in the case of the park, the wide-screen panorama. Nearby are well-known landmarks such as the exquisite Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory and one of the best-known pizzas in the city (or world) with Grimaldi's. On Front Street, find one of the coolest bar/coffee/gastropubs you'll ever see at reBar, a multi-level affair that welcomes single types with their laptops as well as more boisterous groups.

The walk is only about one mile.

Images: Melville House (interior, top), powerHouse (exterior, middle), and the Manhattan Bridge (below), from April 16, 2009 by Walking Off the Big Apple. See many more images from the walk in a set at Flickr WOTBA.

Related Post (nearby):
A Walk in Willowtown to the Future Brooklyn Bridge Park

Starring New York: New York Films at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival

For those who enjoy depictions of New York on film, several movies in this year's Tribeca Film Festival (April 22-May 3, 2009) give New York a featured role. Though not surprising for a festival that was created to reinvigorate lower Manhattan in the wake of 9/11, the festival's New York-centered films sprawl out across the five boroughs. Glamorous Manhattan is still the backdrop for Steven Soderberg's The Girlfriend Experience, and Wall Street and the East and West Villages get their star turns. But other films include City Island, set in the Bronx, The Exploding Girl and Off and Running, set in Brooklyn, and Entre Nos, with Queens as the setting. And yes, Staten Island features in a spooky real-life tale with the film Cropsey.

Features

• Blank City. Encounters. Feature Documentary, 2009, 106 min. Directed by: Celine Danhier. East Village art scene of the 1970s with everything-goes film movements such as "No Wave Cinema" and "Cinema of Transgression."

• Burning Down the House: The Story of CBGB. Discovery. Feature Documentary, 2009, 90 min
Directed by: Mandy Stein. The "Country Bluegrass Blues" club on the Bowery, founded by Hilly Kristal, becomes a punk, new wave heaven. Vintage performances by Patti Smith, Talking Heads, Television, Bad Brains, and The Ramones.

• City Island. Encounters. Feature Narrative, 2009, 100 min. Directed by: Raymond De Felitta. Story of a dysfunctional family living on a little-known island in the Bronx

• Con Artist. Discovery. Feature Documentary, 2009, 80 min. Directed by: Michael Sládek. Traces the rise and hard gall of Mark Kostabi, a star during the 1980s New York art world. A docu-comedy.

• Cropsey. Midnight. Feature Documentary, 2008, 84 min. Directed by: Barbara Brancaccio and Joshua Zeman. A spooky Staten Island tale of missing children and a real-life bogeyman.

• An Englishman in New York. Encounters. Narrative. 74 min. With John Hurt as the aging Quentin Crisp, living in New York. Also a portrait of a new sensibility as the gay community in the early 1980s first confronts AIDS.

• Entre nos. Discovery. Feature Narrative, 2009, 80 min. Directed by: Paola Mendoza and Gloria La Morte. After her husband abandons her, a mother must fend for herself and care for her children in the unfamiliar new world of Queens, New York. She finds a future in the city's recycling program.

• The Exploding Girl. World Narrative Feature Competition. Feature Narrative, 2009, 79 min. Directed by: Bradley Rust Gray. A maturation story of a college student returning home to Brooklyn for summer break with her longtime guy friend.

• The Girlfriend Experience. Spotlight. Feature Narrative, 2009, 77 min. Directed by: Steven Soderbergh. Five days in the life of a $2,000-an-hour Manhattan call girl, with adult film star Sasha Grey in the lead. Filmed with advanced digital technology.

• The Good Guy. Encounters. Feature Narrative, 2009, 90 min. Directed by: Julio DePietro. Story of a Wall Street star, his budding romance, and his mentoring of a new guy in the ways of "the street."

• Here and There. World Narrative Feature Competition. Feature Narrative, 2009, 90 min. Directed by: Darko Lungulov. A story of the competing cultures and climate of his home country of Serbia and his adopted New York.

• Off and Running. Discovery. Feature Documentary, 2009, 78 min. Directed by: Nicole Opper. Story of Avery, a typical Brooklyn teen, adopted by white Jewish lesbians, with a younger Korean brother and an older brother is mixed-race. Avery is black and grows curious about her biological African-American roots.

• P-Star Rising. Discovery. Feature Documentary, 2009, 83 min. Directed by: Gabriel Noble. Jesse Diaz, a rising star in the hip-hop world in the '80s, finds himself a broke single father in Harlem with two children to support. He puts his faith in his nine-year-old daughter, a talented rapper.

• Partly Private. World Documentary Feature Competition. Feature Documentary, 2009, 84 min. Directed by: Danae Elon. Circumcision story features locations around the world, including New York.

• Variety. Restored/Rediscovered. Feature Narrative, 1984, 97 min. Directed by: Bette Gordon. Bette Gordon's pioneering indie narrative about a young woman working as a ticket taker in a porn theater. A product of the downtown artist scene from the early 1980s, Variety credits include composer John Lurie, cinematographer Tom DeCillo, writer Kathy Acker, photographer Nan Goldin, and actor Spalding Gray. Shot on location in New York City at the lost landmarks of the Variety Theatre, Fulton Fish Market, Yankee Stadium, and a funkier Times Square. Preservation by Women's Film Preservation Fund of NYWIFT.

• Whatever Works. Feature Narrative, 2009, 92 min. Directed by: Woody Allen. The film will have its world premiere on the opening night of the film festival, April 22. New Yorker played by Larry David - not that there's anything wrong with that - abandons his upper-class life - hmmm - for bohemia - welcome to Greenwich Village. He meets a young girl from the South - uh-oh - and her family - double uh-oh. A Woody Allen movie, with many scenes filmed on location in bohemia, i.e. Greenwich Village, USA.

Shorts

• Camera Roll (for Taylor). Shorts in Competition: Documentary. Short Documentary, 2008, 3 min. Directed by: Joel Schlemowitz and Joel Schlemowitz. A city cine-poem, filmed in Brooklyn in the vicinity of the Gowanus Canal, shot on a single roll of 16mm film.

• Deadline. Shorts in Competition: Narrative. Short Narrative, 2008, 17 min. Directed by: Joseph Bakhash. A psychological drama of a tortured ex-convict meeting his prison guard in a diner.

• Nueva York. Shorts in Competition: Narrative. Short Narrative, 2008, 8 min. Directed by: Manolo Celi. Multiple stories of Latino life in New York.

Images from Empire Fulton Ferry State Park on April 16, 2009 by Walking Off the Big Apple. Starting next week look for my coverage of the Tribeca Film Festival on Reframe, a project of the Tribeca Film Institute.

Walking the Street, and the Rhythms of New York City

Dutch artist Piet Mondrian spent the last four years of his life in New York City, and several of his last paintings, like Broadway Boogie Woogie (1942-1943) (inset), respond to the frenetic pace of the city and its danceable sounds. Boogie-woogie, a piano-centric twelve-bar blues form, migrated from Southern honky-tonks to 57th Street's Carnegie Hall in the late 1930s, when a series of concerts introduced a range of musical styles to the big city. The music still matches the pace of Broadway, the city's great avenue that boogies down a great swath of Manhattan.

The ambient sounds of the city inspired John Cage, a non-traditional composer, to compose 49 Waltzes for the Five Boroughs, an ode consisting of simultaneous "happenings" across the vast metropolis - from a cobblestone street in the West Village to the Long Island Expressway. The choreography of the streets can be found in Leonard Bernstein's On the Town and West Side Story, in John Kander and Fred Ebb's song "New York, New York," the city's anthem, in Rent and In the Heights, in "Living for the City" by Stevie Wonder and in "Livin' La Vida Loca" by Ricky Martin. The ambient sounds of the city have inspired a few more songs as well.

Most everyone thinks that New York is a fast-moving city, but the diverse neighborhoods within the boroughs imply a variety of rhythms. Midtown, with densely-concentrated high-rise office buildings, shows off the fastest tempo. Greenwich Village, with its winding streets, small shops and outdoor cafes, prefers a slower jazz rhythm or the plaintiff blues-folk of the late, great Odetta.

People, too, have their own rhythms - in moving, talking, sleeping, walking, even in sleepwalking. For example, I most often feel like a waltz, with one down beat and two upbeats. Knowing your personal repertory of beats is an important form of self-awareness and a way to understand the role you play in the city symphony.

I love Brenda Russell's way of walking in her video for "Walking in New York." Let's have a look at that now, shall we?

WOTBA New York Events Calendar: Monday, April 13 - Sunday, April 19, 2009

I'm a little preoccupied with tax preparations today. For some reason, I thought April 15 was next weekend, not Wednesday.

• I NEED TO STAY HOME AND DO TAXES BUT OTHERS CAN GO TO THIS. Monday, April 13. An Evening with Jeff Koons, Strand Bookstore, 828 Broadway (at 12th St.). 7 p.m. Free

• THEY PROBABLY HAVE HELP WITH THEIRS. Monday, April 13. Isabel Allende and Can Xue. 92nd Street Y, 1395 Lexington Ave (at 92nd St) 8 p.m. $19.

• SHE HAS PAID LOTS OF TAXES OVER HER LIFETIME, I WOULD GUESS. Tuesday, April 14. Sing Into Spring Festival: Marian McPartland. 7:30pm, 9:30 p.m. Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola (at Frederick P. Rose Hall) Broadway at 60th St. Tickets: $30–$35 and $10 minimum at tables, $5 minimum at bar.

• MAYBE THEY KEEP BETTER RECEIPTS THAN ME. Tenor Nights with Joel Frahm. Ongoing Tuesdays 9pm–11:30pm The Bar Next Door (downstairs at La Lanterna di Vittorio), 129 MacDougal St. Tickets: $5 plus one-drink minimum

• I WOULD GO BUT I'LL BE DOING TAXES AND IT'S UPTOWN. Tuesday, April 14. 110th on 110th Program in celebration of Duke Ellington's 110th birthday. Central Park North. Harlem Meer Social Hour: Meet the Jazz Museum in Harlem Allstars (at the Charles A. Dana Discovery Center, inside the Park at 110th Street between Fifth and Lenox Avenues). 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm. Free. Website at Central Park Conservancy.

• I SHOULD HAVE STARTED MY TAXES EARLIER. Wednesday, April 15. Tax forms due.

• LIKE IN THE MIDDLE AGES. Wednesday, April 15. Chanticleer. Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 Fifth Ave. in the Temple of Dendur 8 p.m. Tickets: $70

• RIGHTEOUS SISTERS WHO PROBABLY HAD SOMEONE DO THEIR TAXES FOR THEM AND MAILED THEM EARLY. Wednesday, April 15. Indigo Girls and Lucy Wainwright Roche. Highline Ballroom, 431 W 16th St. 8 p.m. $45.

• MAYBE HE DOES THEM HIMSELF HE IS SO TALENTED. Thursday, April 16. "Nearly Ninety." Merce Cunningham Dance Company. BAM Howard Gilman Opera House, 30 Lafayette Ave. Also Fri–Sat 7:30pm , Apr 19 3pm. Cunningham's 90th birthday in Thursday. Tickets: $25–$75

• THEY MAY HAVE FOUND EXEMPTIONS I DON'T KNOW ABOUT. Friday, April 17. Masters of Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar & Hula: Keola & Moana Beamer. Symphony Space. 8 pm • Peter Jay Sharp Theatre. $28; Members $24; Students $18

• TAX COLLECTION WAS DIFFERENT FOR HIM. Saturday, April 18. Opening of exhibition Georg Ehret: The Greatest Botanical Artist of the 1700s. The New York Botanical Garden, 200th St. & Kazimiroff Boulevard, Bronx. Through July 19. See their pretty website on spring events here.

• TICKET PRICES ARE OK FOR THIS, EVEN IF I HAVE TO WRITE A CHECK TO THE IRS. Sunday, April 19. Peter Serkin, piano. 2 pm. Town Hall, 123 West 43rd Street. $10, $12, and $18 for reserved seating.

Image: MacDougal Street, after a rain, April 11, 2009.

A Day in the Village and on Fifth Avenue

Early this morning I walked around the Village with my dogs, returned them to the apartment, went back out, bought some hot cross buns at Bruno Bakery, and then checked out why a large contingent of firetrucks were arriving near Bleecker and Thompson. No one seemed to know the exact problem. Neighbors gathering at the scene passed on rumors of hot spots in a couple of places. I haven't had a chance to go back to find out what happened.



Later in the morning, I went to church on Fifth Avenue for Good Friday services, but not before I walked a few blocks north to see what was happening at Fifth and 13th Street (image directly above). I learned via Twitter that New School students had taken over one of the university buildings and that police were posed for arrests. Earlier this spring semester, I had watched a similar occupation at NYU, but this protest seemed more advanced, and the police response proved more intense. By the time I arrived, it was mostly over. I walked back to church where I sat in a rear pew and joined in part of the solemn three-hour service for Good Friday.



Upon leaving the church, I wandered west on 11th Street to Sixth Avenue. I started seeing many flowering white trees lighting up the streets with brilliant spring blossoms, and I promised myself to get out more this weekend and look around. I stopped into Citarella, a gourmet food shop, to pick out items for the day, and then I continued back to the park and toward home.

Going home, I passed by the arch. The Washington Square Arch (top image) could be my most important personal reference for living in the city. Through seasons that symbolize death, resurrection, or student occupation, or through times that seem only marked by rapid change, a marble arch, though needing occasional restoration, symbolizes in its material structure notions of permanence and eternity. An arch also implies movement, a passage, a gateway.

"I've seen your flag on the marble arch
Love is not a victory march
It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah."
-Leonard Cohen, Hallelujah

Images by Walking Off the Big Apple, April 10, 2009

"You Got the Wrong Broadway, Mister:" Exploring the Other Broadways, East and West

In lower Manhattan, in order to trap visitors into staying longer and spending tourist dollars in our shops and cafes, we have added two additional streets called Broadway to confuse everyone. On several occasions I have seen a group of visitors standing on a corner somewhere on W. Broadway, and they've got that unmistakable look of being lost. People who get confused just sort of stand around, and their eyes wander off in despair. Someone will pull out a map, and then the whole group looks over the person's shoulder. Of course, these people want to be on plain old Broadway, which is conveniently east of West Broadway, but us wily Villager types have entrapped them into spending time in our world. I try to help these lost souls, because they look pitiful.

West Broadway doesn't make too much intuitive sense either. Unlike a numbered street labeled West, like West 26th, West Broadway runs south by southwest. It goes all the way down to the World Trade Center site. I wouldn't take West Broadway to go west, but I like to take it when walking south. I wouldn't take West 4th to go west, but that's another story. North of Houston, the street is not even called West Broadway. For the blocks just south of Washington Square Park, West Broadway is LaGuardia Place. Isn't that so very clear?!?

People who find themselves mistakenly on W. Broadway should know that they've found a cool street anyway. As I live up near the park, I'll frequently walk south on W. Broadway to get to Tribeca or to Battery Park City. The street runs through tony sections of lower Manhattan and is lined with art galleries, boutiques, and several fine restaurants. The blocks south of Canal are particularly charming, with many restaurants offering sidewalk seating. There's much French-ness.


View Larger Map

People looking for Broadway but who end up on East Broadway must possess a poor sense of direction. East Broadway stretches from a wacky confluence of streets (Bowery, Worth, Park Row, and more) on the west to Grand Street on the east. Strangely, East Broadway runs east (or east by northeast), and though far shorter than West Broadway, is entertaining in its own fashion. Nestled in the lower parts of the Lower East Side, E. Broadway shows Chinese and Jewish cultural influences. Broadway East, a fine restaurant, exemplifies a new interest in this neighborhood. I've written before about the Forward Building, the imposing Beaux Arts structure that was home to the Yiddish socialist newspaper before it became condos.

A note to visitors: Even if West or East Broadway was not originally what you were looking for, stroll these Broadways awhile, and you'll get a fuller sense of the city. On this map, I've even made a note of hotels along these streets.

Images: Top: West Broadway; Below: East Broadway.

The Lomo/Leica Walk

LOMO: Several years ago, around the spring of 2005, I got caught up in the Lomography craze. I bought one of the Colorsplash cameras, took a bunch of fun images with the interchangeable filters, and took the film (yes- FILM!) to the developers. I enjoyed the counter-aesthetic of the company, the "rules" that encouraged shooting from the hip, making the plastic camera part of one's adventurous life, and indeed, ignoring the rules. Lomos defied the hegemony of some members of the photo establishment that insisted, among the other things, that you had to focus and divide the image up into three parts.

But then, one day, the rewind button on my Lomo just snapped off, and I was emotionally crushed. I carefully buried it in my memorial photo box of fallen cameras, letting it rest in peace alongside two Yashica Electro 35s, a Canon Elph, a Polaroid, and my recently-departed Nikon CoolPix. My interest waned in Lomos, content just to remember the good times with a few snapshots.

My interest has been rekindled with the opening of the Lomography Store at 41 W. 8th St. I walked through the store the other day, browsed the big wall gallery of hyper-colorful New York images, picked up and examined the many kinds of adorable plastic cameras, and I almost bought a Diana model. I wasn't ready to commit, so I settled for a blue flash Lomolito, a single use camera. The store offers developing services, a critical feature that may lure me back for more.

Lomography Store
41 W. 8th St
Monday through Saturday from 10:30am to 9pm; Sunday from 11am to 7pm.
Website



View Larger Map

LEICA: As I'm interested in cameras and the history of photography, I decided it would be fun to walk from the Lomo store to the Leica Gallery on Broadway for a little ying/yang photo experience. Where the Lomo is self-aware and proud of its cheap fun, the Leica is the all-knowing and powerful god of cameras. While Kodak had introduced snapshot photography to the amateur world, the "serious" photo world founded what it was looking for with the Leica, a small-format 35mm camera. The precision and speed of the lens made it possible to shoot in all kinds of situations. The Leica quickly became a favorite among photojournalists, including Robert Capa and Henri Cartier-Bresson.

Photographer Erich Lessing, born in Vienna in 1923, became the tenth member of Magnum Photos, the agency that Capa and Cartier-Bresson founded along with George Rodger and David "Chim" Seymour after World War II. The current exhibit at the Leica Gallery features Lessing's photographs of the talented and handsome music conductor, Herbert von Karajan. A few beautiful images of pianist Glenn Gould are tucked into the exhibit. Lessing often used a 1950's era Leica M3. See several images of this black and white series dating from 1957 at the gallery's website. My favorite is the one of von Karajan peeking into the cockpit of a plane. The exhibit continues through April 18, 2009.

Leica Gallery
670 Broadway
Tues-Sat 12-6

Of relevant interest: Across the street from the Leica Gallery, at the corner of Broadway and Bleecker, the Corner Cafe occupies the site of one of Mathew Brady's studios.

Images: Digital images of the Lomography store and the Leica Gallery made with WOTBA's Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ8, an entry-level camera with a Leica lens, and a Lomo photograph of a chubby terrier made with a now-deceased Lomo Colorsplash 35mm camera.

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WOTBA New York Events Calendar: Monday, April 6 - Sunday, April 12, 2009

Passover and Easter will be celebrated this week, and in New York, it's one of the richest times of the year, spiritually and culturally. The city starts springing to new steps. The culmination of the week is Easter Sunday, a delightful day of celebrations of every kind, including flâneurie with Easter bonnets on Fifth Avenue. Selecting the events was hard this week, but I've included several music events across the spectrum of musical genres.

• LITERARY ENVIRONMENTALISM. Monday, April 6. Bruce Hood and Peter Matthiessen. Rubin Museum of Art, 150 W 17th St (at Seventh Ave.) 7pm. See website for more information. Tickets: $20.

• THE RIDE OF THE VALKYRIES. Monday, April 6. Richard Wagner's Die Walküre. Metropolitan Opera House (at Lincoln Center). Tickets: $15–$375. Try not to think of the helicopter scene in APOCALYPSE NOW.

• SASSY "ONE OF THE BOYS" MUSIC. Monday, April 6-8. 7 p.m. Katy Perry. Fillmore New York at Irving Plaza. Tickets: $18. Venue website.

• FINE ENSEMBLE MUSIC. Tuesday, April 7. Juilliard String Quartet. 8 pm. Alice Tully Hall (at Lincoln Center) The Quartet performs the New York premiere of Richard Wernick's Quartet No. 7; Mendelssohn's Quartet in E-flat, Op. 12; and Beethoven's Quartet in E-flat, Op. 127. Limited FREE tickets are available at the Janet and Leonard Kramer Box Office at Juilliard, located at 155 West 65th Street.

• ABSURDIST THEATER. Eugene Ionesco's Exit the King, in a 14-week run at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre, 243 W. 47th Street. With Geoffrey Rush, Susan Sarandon, Lauren Ambrose, and Andre Martin. Broadway production website.

• ART THAT WILL LIKELY UPSET YOUR VISITING GRANDPARENTS. Wednesday, April 8. Opening of exhibition, The Generational: Younger Than Jesus atThe New Museum of Contemporary Art, 235 Bowery. The New Museum's first triennial with 50 artists born after 1976 from 25 countries and with a slightly offensive title. Through June 14.

• AUSTIN MUSIC. Thursday, April 9. The Flatlanders, B.B. King Blues Club & Grill, 237 W 42nd St. Tickets: advance $27.50, day of show $32. Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Butch Hancock and Joe Ely. More than the necessary weekly mention of an Austin something, these guys define the very meaning of Austin singer-songwriting.

• MUSIC FOR YOUR EYES. Visual Music Marathon. Saturday, April 11. The 2009 Visual Music Marathon will be held at the Visual Arts Theatre, 333 West 23rd Street, New York City.10 a.m. - 10 p.m. 120 works by contemporary digital artists and composers from around the world. Visual music combines animation and musical composition. Presented by Northeastern University, School of Visual Arts' MFA Computer Art. and NYDS (New York Digital Salon). Much more on the all-day event here and here.

• WOMEN FILMS. Saturday, April 11. FUSION 2009 Film Competition Finalists Showcase. Women filmmakers at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. All films in competition are either directed by women or shot by women. 92YTribeca, 200 Hudson Street. 7 p.m. Tickets: $8

• ANDY'S GIRL FILM. Saturday, April 11. Anthology Film Archives. 7:45 p.m. THE CHELSEA GIRLS by Andy Warhol, 1966, ca. 210 minutes, 16mm double-projection. With Nico, Ondine, Marie Menken, Mary Woronov, Gerard Malanga, International Velvet, Ingrid Superstar, Mario Montez, Eric Emerson, and Brigid Berlin. Also Sunday, April 12 at 5 p.m. You have to see this once in your life.

• EASTER. Sunday, April 12. From 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. Fifth Avenue, 49th to 57th Streets. During these hours, the avenue is closed for traffic in these blocks, allowing for strolling in Easter bonnets and Easter finery. Open to everyone. Nearby church services at 5th Avenue Presbyterian Church, St. Thomas Church, and St. Patrick's Cathedral.

A NOTE ON WALKING OFF THE BIG APPLE'S APRIL: Though I consider Walking Off the Big Apple to be the definitive strolling guide to New York, this website is nevertheless a hobby. At certain times of the year, I need to devote more time to other projects with which I'm involved, such as this and this and that. So, while I have several walks in the works, do not be surprised if the posts are less frequent over the next six weeks. You may have already sensed this, and remember this was the case last year. Not to worry. I usually come back into full gear by mid-May. In the meantime, I welcome you to browse the archives.

Image: Window in SoHo, last night, April 4, 2009. That girl needs a big Easter bonnet.

Winston Churchill in New York: Sir Winston Churchill Square, New York's Downing Street, With a Note on the Opening of Topshop

For children growing up in postwar America, the real-life British action figure known as Winston Churchill looms large. We knew him on this side of the pond as a portly and clever world leader who smoked cigars and saved his country (that we got to know in lit classes) from Nazis. Even little Texas kids like me knew by heart some of the "We shall fight on the beaches" speech from June 4, 1940. Librarians and teachers encouraged young Boomers to read one of the many biographies of Churchill written for young people. He wrote books of formidable size on many different subjects, and he would have been the ideal uncle to any of our Jack and Jills or Tom and Hucks. We could imitate his accent and flip the V sign. Winnie.

While shopping on the foodie blocks of Bleecker, I frequently like to stop and sit in the charming Winston Churchill Square (NYC Parks page) near the meeting of Bleecker Street, Downing Street and Avenue of the Americas. When I was there yesterday, I realized that I had also recently visited the bookstore specializing in Churchilliana, Chartwell's, in midtown within the Park Avenue Plaza. This little park in the Village, across the street from the Minettas, borders Downing Street, and it doesn't take a genius to realize that, of course, Churchill once resided at London's 10 Downing Street. The park is often frequented by a group of older citizens who like to smoke, gossip, and curse. I like to imagine they've been hanging out there since 1943.

Winnie grew up with at least a half New York state of mind, because his mother, Lady Randolph Churchill, was born Jennie Jerome in Brooklyn. She was a beauty, married three times, conducted numerous extramarital affairs, opposed women's suffrage, and she was rumored to have a tattoo of a snake wrapped around her wrist. When Winnie visited New York in the 1890s, he stayed at the home of a New York Irish-born politician, William Bourke Cockran, who served as host and role model for the future PM.

Churchill had a terrible accident in New York on December 13, 1931. He had taken a taxi from the Waldorf-Astoria to Bernard Baruch's house on Fifth Avenue. While crossing Fifth Avenue, he apparently mixed up traffic directions, being British and all, and was hit by a car. He was in Lenox Hill Hospital for a week. Winnie sent a telegram to an Oxford friend inquiring about the force of the impact, and his friend wired back to tell him that since Churchill was so chubby, it could have been worse.

The Winston Churchill Foundation of the United States, located on Madison Avenue, was founded by American friends of Churchill to support the Churchill Scholars, young American graduate students attending Churchill College at the University of Cambridge.

This post on Churchill in New York happens to correspond with the week that all eyes are on London for the G20 summit and less importantly, the day that a popular British clothing store, Topshop, opens on Broadway and Broome. WOTBA's got some swag, thanks to the little Topshop truck that's been tooling around the streets. For more British invasion themes, visit this additional WOTBA walk that opens on supplementary pages.

"If you're going through hell, keep going." - Winston Churchill

Images: Top. Prime Minister Winston Churchill of Great Britain. LOC. Office of War Information. 1942?. Below: Winston Churchill Square, New York.