off the map
Central Park is easy to love. It draws residents and tourists in with its vast green lawns, overgrown trees, pools of water and reliable people watching. But sometimes, it gathers too many people, and the city’s peaceful hideaway starts to feel like a spring break frat party.
If it’s solitude you seek, walk five blocks west to Riverside Park, which stretches like a long, green tendril along Manhattan’s west side. It kisses the docks of the Hudson River, and it hosts local soccer and rugby leagues. Whereas in Central Park, you’re likely to hear several languages and the click of camera shutters, Riverside Park feels like a neighborhood hangout. Locals and savvy tourists only.
I took a walk there recently, and was struck by the beauty of spring unfolding. It’s pathways are long and wind through tunnels below the Henry Hudson Parkway. This arch, near 79th Street and Riverside Drive, is particularly enchanting.
Peering at springtime through a tunnel….
And on the other side….
Spy Springtime Through a Tunnel April 28, 2010
Mad Men Yourself August 19, 2009
Mad Men's charming, sad and mysterious Betty and Don Draper. Photo by Frank Ockenfels 3, courtesy AMC.
The AMC series Mad Men may be about advertising’s golden age, but it’s also illustrating the power of the industry’s digital age.
It seems fitting that a show about ads should woo us with, well, ads. No marketing blitz in recent memory has been so multifaceted and successful.
Actors promoting Mad Men in Columbus Circle, NYC.
First there were Facebook promos hawking the season premier, which Tivos across the country recorded Sunday. Then, there was the viral marketing of MadMenYourself.com, a site that lets you dress up as a Mad Men character and post the illustration to your Facebook and Twitter accounts.
In New York, the show went a step further this weekend and hired actors to parade around Columbus Circle in 1960s garb. Other PR reps passed out fliers on street corners, and the Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) projected mid-century advertisements on the side of a building. Enthusiastic viewers then gathered to watch the premier together in Times Square.
I’d never had an inclination to watch the show. But all this prompted me to buy the season 1 DVDs to see what the fuss was about. For all its clever advertising, so far Mad Men has succeeded in making me mad at men. I know it’s fiction, and I tend to take my TV shows too seriously, but the unflinching look at life and, especially, sexism in 1960 makes me want to run out and reread The Feminine Mystique.
Actresses promoting Mad Men in Columbus Circle, NYC.
I’m pushing through the episodes because Donald Draper is such a mystery, and I’ve heard characters in the current season, set in 1963, will start to seek liberation after some awful events like JFK’s and MLK’s assassinations. (This New York Times article does a good job of explaining why a show about a time so antiquated is so relevant right now.)
As the show suggests, the sales department can only get you so far. In the end, viewers will stay tuned if Mad Men‘s creativity lives up to the hype.
Plant a Windowsill Garden July 27, 2009
One thing missing from my life since relocating to Manhattan is foliage. Yes, Central Park is nearby and there’s a hearty tree outside my apartment. But I have no plants to call my own, to nurture, neglect, over-water, kill, resuscitate.
But a trip to the Columbus Avenue farmers’ market at 77th Street this weekend garnered some seeds of inspiration. The market, which sported hot apple cider and a tortured pile of fingerling potatoes in winter, is bursting to life this summer. New stands are overflowing with seasonal plums, berries, tomatoes, sunflowers, lilies and herbs.
One vendor sells 14 types of basil. (Fourteen!) Lemon, cinnamon, Christmas and thai basil … you can pick up one-fourth of all known varieties right here on a lazy Sunday, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at $2 a pop.
I want to adopt a few of these plants, but where to grow them? I’ve been collecting ideas for a windowsill garden, and so far, these are my favorites:
Apartment Therapy, a go-to source for decorating small spaces, featured a vintage take on windowsill plants. The gardener punched drainage holes in the bottom of old tea canisters for a shabby chic look.
Better Homes and Gardens suggests cutting plants like angelwood begonias, gardenias and Swedish ivy, and rooting them in water. You could collect an assortment of glass vases from antique shops and flea markets to create this chic look.
And IKEA, a reliable standby for such dilemmas, stocks cute pots and planters (as well as exotic plants). These simple, modern planters would dangle nicely in front of a window.
After I figure out the vessel, I plan to consult these tips for keeping an indoor herb garden alive. Afterall, my green thumb is a little rusty.
Get Your Money’s Worth in Central Park June 16, 2009
As Manhattan’s weather warms up, I’m realizing the advantage of living one block from Central Park. In winter it was an icy tangle of trees with no activity. Now it’s the center of city life.
Because I like surprises and saving money, strolling through the park can be the most fruitful way to spend an afternoon. Say you accompanied me last Sunday, your adventure would look like this:
1:30 p.m.
Buy an Americano and toasted chicken chipotle wrap at New World Coffee.
1:40
Pass classically trained cellist as you enter the park at 79th Street and Central Park West.
1:45
Check out what’s playing at Shakespeare in the Park. Twelfth Night, featuring Anne Hathaway, is sold out today. Plan to go another time.
1:49
Find an outcropping of smooth rocks beneath a canopy of trees near the Great Lawn. Flat-backed, study the clouds. Listen to banjo player pick away on a nearby bench. Observe old gentleman pick a bag of edible grass in a field beside you.
2:20
Notice the roar of a crowd. Investigate.
2:30
Near the Met, get swept up in the National Puerto Rican Day Parade. Admire flag-waving patriots dressed in red, white and blue.
2:33
Though you are Dutch, imagine you are Puerto Rican. Drink the fervor. Push your way through crowds and dance to Latin music. Chant any Spanish phrase you know, even if it’s “Donde esta el bano!”
2:40
Calm down. Ask a mounted park ranger to open the barricade. Exit parade.
2:45
Take the 72nd Street path west and find tap dancers doing time steps on sheets of wood. Old school. Gene Kelly style. Give them a dollar and say “you’ve got talent!”
2:50
Stop at Bethesda Terrace to watch “Lenny Hoops,” who plays loud music and teaches kids to hula hoop. Marvel at the 2-year-old drummer in Lenny’s house band. Walk on. You only brought one dollar today.
2:55
Happen upon a New Orleans-style zydeco band and remember your last visit to the French Quarter. Note the man with the miniature trumpet; the skinny white guy who could sing a Zatarain’s commercial; the park employees congregating, quietly applauding.
3:12
Arrive home. Don’t mind the small square-footage so much. Thank the gods for location. For summer.
In the stream of Puerto Rican Day Paraders.
Tap dancers earn their tips.
Lenny Hoops shows you how it's done.
Future Larry Mullen Jr.
New Orleans-style jazz.
Consider Your Career Options May 17, 2009
New York fosters entire professions that just don’t exist in most cities. Take book editing, for example, or financial researching, double-decker bus driving, subway mopping, Central Park mowing, trading, and this…
This weekend, these models promoted the May 22 release of the movie Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian. Caveman, for one, was adept at looking confused and hairy, while Amelia Earhart offered a peppy wave to passersby. Sacajawea scored lower on the believability scale, often rummaging through her designer bag and drinking bottled water.
The trio attracted a lot of attention inside a display case at AMC Loews Lincoln Square 13, which is worth a trip for its soaring ceilings and one of three IMAX screens in Manhattan. When I start missing Arizona, I go there, complain about the weather and stretch out my legs on the seats, a luxury most NY theaters can’t offer.
At any rate, I wonder what the successful resume looks like?
*Comfortable in confined spaces.
*Enjoy being photographed by tourists.
*Willing to wear loincloth.
*No allergies or aversions to fur.
*Shave semi-weekly.
*Biggest strength: Own a spear.
*Biggest weakness: Pasty, pasty white.
AMC Loews Lincoln Square 13
1998 Broadway at 68th Street
212-336-5000
