Day Twelve - International Center for Photography

Got the train down to Bower to go the International Center for Photography, but first - of course - coffee. Today’s courtesy of the Lazy Llama (72 E 1st St). 10/10 Really, really good coffee.

The walk from the coffee shop to the ICP was chock full of street art.

We finally found the ICP. Great photos by Arbus, Parks, etc.

“Cornell Capa founded ICP in 1974 to preserve the legacy of “concerned photography”—the creation of socially and politically minded images that have the potential to educate and change the world—and the center’s mission endures today, even as the photographic medium and imagemaking practices have evolved. Through its exhibitions, school, public programs, and community outreach, ICP offers an open forum for dialogue about the role that photographs, videos, and new media play in our society. To date, it has presented more than 700 exhibitions and offered thousands of classes at every level. ”

— https://www.icp.org/about

Day Ten - Top of the Rock

For reasons which escape me, the owners have scheduled two appointments to view where we’re staying today so Jane took one for the team and stayed back.

I met Max and Jack at Grand Central before heading over to the Rockefeller Center, where Jack and me went to the observatory. It’s pretty hard to take a back photo from that high and with that view.

Kids were protesting loudly about climate change which is good, I guess, but it’s pretty ineffectual.

Food out at an Italian wine bar up the road. Food was very good.

Home by 8pm. Come 830pm there was a storm with lots of lightning but no thunder or rain. [Edit, as I was typing this the thunder and rain arrived - in abundance].

Day Six - Food in the sky

Two big trucks arrived for the Divorce shoot at the end of the road. A show with Sarah Jessica Parker, apparently.

The plan was to go to MoMA but then we decided to go and have lunch on top of One World Tower down at the World Trade Center site. Below is the WTC Memorial.

Had a 10/10 coffee from a chain called “Joe”. You can read about them on their website over at; https://joecoffeecompany.com

We bought the tickets for the observatory before having a wander round.

See below for the obligatory photo of the Empire State Building.

After the taking of way too many photos we went to have lunch on the floor above the observatory. I had pork chops and Coney Island Mermaid Pilsner (if you were wondering).

Day Five - The Day It Rained

Woke to heavy, icy rain. I foraged for coffee in the downpour. It’s not for me to say I’m a champion (I’m a champion). I mad a sausage sandwich and set the smoke detector off (diminishing my champion status).

My right leg tendon (probably) is still quite painful. No idea what I did. Tiger balm, painkillers and a bit of a rest during the morning.

I was looking into where we could get some morning pancakes and saw an Ethiopian restaurant that is close by. I was looking through their beer list thinking that Victory Golden Monkey sounds like the best beer name ever, but then I saw that next to it was a beer called Smuttynose Old Brown Dog . I now can’t live my life without a bottle of Smuttynose.

A late start to the day because the pain in my leg. We decided to go to the Museum of Modern Art. On the way a bookstore was spied, and a bookstore should never not be looked into.

As you walk through the city you see a lot of signs telling you not to park because of upcoming filming days. Within a five minute stretch of walking there were three. “Blue Bloods”, “Millions” and “The Undoing”.

Had a late breakfast/early lunch at Nectar on Madison Avenue. The coffee was a n

Due to a confusing sign (okay, it wasn’t the sign - it was me) we ended up the Met instead of MoMA.

A beer at a place called “Radio Amsterdam” but mainly because my leg was really hurting and I wanted to sit down.

Passed a “Banksy” on the way back covered by perspex to protect it. I’m not wholly convinced it is a Banksy. What do you think?

Day Four - Coffee Hunt

I get the feeling that New York thinks it’s good at coffee. That they’ve totally nailed it. New York you really, really haven’t. So many shops offering every variety of coffee and all of it insipid. Do you want to know the best coffee I’ve had in the last few days? Starbucks. Cheap, couple of bucks, freshly-brewed Starbucks. You probably didn’t want to read that. I sure as anything didn’t want to type it, but there we are. A plan for the day is to find some passable coffee. Also, to find some to bring back to the house. Back here there’s a jar of Nescafe instant which is undrinkable and some filter stuff which is so weak it makes water taste strong.

With such much coffee being bad I can (almost) see why so many people have guns here. At the morning shop I picked up some Bustelo. Nope, still not good. I tried it black. Better, but not great. If it kills me I WILL find some good coffee.

I shall put the question to Facebook and see which coffee people suggest.

In the meantime I had a Dunkin’ Donuts Coffee (Yes, I know). 2/10. The staff had t-shirts on the back of which was written: “Dunkin’ Girl Scouts” which feels like it could have benefited from better phrasing.

A morning of walking round the local area of Hamilton Heights.

The train down the Ghostbuster’s HQ (aka Ladder 8) because, you know, it ‘d be rude not to.

Grabbed a slice of 99 cents pizza. Bargain.

We then ambled over to Greenwich Village and had a coffee at a juice bar - whatever a juice bar is. The Coffee was 7/10 (I think you want to know).

Max wandered off to look at clothes and we went to the Mysterious Bookshop which sounded interesting. As much as it was a cool bookshop, it was dedicated to the mystery genre. I mean there was a clue in the name, and for all the detective novels in there I wasn’t obviously wasn’t one..

We met back up with Max at the World Trade Centre. An impressive place. We went home, and he went to pick up Jack from the airport.

A failure to read

Whenever a long plane ride looms I think it’ll be a good time to plough into the ever-growing book pile. It never happens though. I watch a movie, stare out of the window, sleep. Anything but read. But THIS TIME.

So, I’ve picked a small pile of books to read

New York

We pretty much seemed to go New York every year and after a while I think we just felt we should start to go different places.  But Max really wanted to go back so we'll take him and his girlfriend over in April (probably) next year.  So, that'll be fun.