NYC 5

Our final day in Manhattan was a rainy one.  NYC is dreary in the rain and boy did it rain.  I had to stop into a luggage store near Times Square to buy an umbrella.  The jacket that I am currently designing would have come in handy.

Subway at 23rd

I spent the late morning and early afternoon in the Garment District.  One thing about me is that I hate to look ignorant; I naturally tend to act like I know what is going on even when I don’t.  I decided to try a new tack at Mood Fabrics: instead of pretending to be an old hat I threw up my arms at a salesman and admitted that I’m out of my element and in need of some help.  The guy’s name was Noel and he walked me through everything that I needed to do.  I ended up with the edging and ribbon that I needed and also took home some good swatches.

Bummer about the rain in New York is that every coffee shop is filled to the brim with like-minded people seeking shelter from the storm.  After attempting to squeeze into a couple of Starbucks (Starbucks, by the way, has completely conquered New York) I ended up walking through Macy’s trying to dry off.  After seeing the cool boutiques in Soho Macy’s was a bit boring: racks of the same old stuff.

I went into a number of trim shops but found nothing that I couldn’t just order online, so I jumped on the subway at 34^th and headed downtown to get a coffee at Eataly.  The subway system is kind of like a rabbit hole: you go in looking at one type of landscape and come out in an entirely foreign one.  Every time I emerged from the subway stairs I had to take a five or ten seconds to orient myself.  When I came up at 23^rd, near Eataly, I popped out into a deluge, I mean a regular Typhoon, and it took me a bit longer than usual to figure out which way to go.  Unfortunately several hundred other New Yorkers and tourists had the same idea and Eataly was jam packed with dripping customers.  I did manage to get a coffee, which I drank standing up.

I met Melony back at the Ace hotel.  The lobby of the Ace is a happening spot to be sure.  It has free internet and serves food, so it seems like all the hip guys and gals stop by there to download.  The dimly lit space is perpetually awash in a fluorescent glow.  Mel and I finally found space on a couch and we whiled away an hour eating a sandwich and looking at our Windows phones.  Our plane left JFK at 7:00 and we grabbed a cab at about 3:45.  Nearly two hours later, after a scenic trip through Queens and some lessons in aggressive driving techniques, we walked into JFK.  The plane was delayed because the pilot had also been stuck in traffic.

Oh before I forget, just as we were driving into JFK I spotted the nose cone of the space shuttle Enterprise peering out of her temporary hanger.  As an aerospace engineer this was the icing on the cake of a great trip.

NYC 4



This dapper guy rolled up with a parrot on his shoulder

Forgot to mention that yesterday we strolled up Madison Ave checking out the high end shopping.  Went into Barneys; wow that was sobering.  They had a pair of $60 pants in there that some designer had “distressed” and was selling for $600.  I don’t quite understand the concept of “distressing,” which could also be called “wearing out.”  Why pay extra for worn out clothes.  Pants should be distressed by the owner, how else will they reflect the owner’s personality.

We cut across Central Park at 72^nd and popped out in the West side at the Strawberry Fields Memorial, which honors John Lennon who was shot 32 years ago just across the street at the Dakota Hotel.  We went to the Dakota but there was no plaque or any other sign of what happened there in 1980.  Maybe the owners don’t want to be known as the place where John Lennon was killed.

Last night we returned to Eataly for a light dinner.  I love that place.

Today I’m off for the Garment District looking for zippers and fabric.

NYC 3

East Village Still Life

We had a big day yesterday exploring Soho and TriBeCa.  I learned that Soho stands for “south of Houston St (not pronounced like Sam Houston but like how-ston).  We explored a lot of cool boutique shops and had some tacos at a little Mexican place.  After Soho we walked past NYU and over to Greenwich Village.  Mel’s co-worker had recommended a restaurant called The Spice Market.  Man did we walk and walk.  I right when I called it quits I saw that the place was just across the street.  Thank God for that as I was about ready to blow a gasket.  I don’t know how those NYU students get anything done with all the action going on around there.

Another cool bike

Today we went out and had coffee at Eatily.  The name sounds a bit goofy but man it is out of this world.  I’ve been to a place a like it – I think it was in London – and it is simply an Italian gourmet food fest.  It’s down by the Flatiron Building.  After that we took the subway south to the East Village.  Mel had a line on a place called the Caracas Arepa Bar.  Arepas, I have learned are a Venezuelan sandwich with meat and veggis tucked into a corn meal flat bread.  In addition to a each getting an Arepa we got some guacamole served with plantain chips and a second plantain dish served with white cheese and a cinnamon dipping sauce.  I also tried a Michelada which is a beer based cocktail with soy sauce, Tabasco, Worchester sauce and lemon.  Pretty crazy but it tasted okay.

After finishing our late lunch we walked back over to Soho where I bought a hat that I had my eye on yesterday.  We then walked back to the East Village to check out a cool bike shop called Chari and Co.  Now we are off for dinner.

NYC Part 2



Great bike lanes in Manhattan

Just back for the first annual Mike McGuffin 10K around Central Park.  Excepting for two miles of stumbling behind my friend Stephanie following a bike ride I haven’t run since June of 2010, so it was a bit of a struggle to get going.  Once I got loosened up I got moving along okay.  It is another beautiful day here in Manhattan: sunny low eighties.  The Park was crowded with runners, walkers and bikers of all shapes and sizes; a good way to start your day.

Yesterday we went to see Porgy and Bess on Broadway, somehow we ended up with third row seating.  We were so close that we could tell if an actor had double-knotted their shoes.  It was a good show.  Don’t know how those actors turn it on every night, and twice on Saturdays and Wednesdays.

So many people here.  Also so many cops.  Melony was observing that the NYC Police are like lifeguards at a beach: they just kind of hang around looking over the crowd making sure things are moving along okay.  I can also see that the NYC Police aren’t too big on PT.  Interestingly enough I’ve seen nearly zero homeless or otherwise lost people.  Wonder why that is.

Yesterday we ate at Bobby Flay’s restaurant Costa Mesa, went to Porgy and Bess, walked through Hell’s Kitchen, went to the Central Library, Grand Central Station, Madison Square Garden (Rangers were playing) and then up to 57^th near Central Park for Pizza at Angelos.  As we were exiting the Theater District I bumped into Woodie Harrelson.  He was wearing a black suit and blue tennis shoes.

Wish I had my bike.

NYC

The only way to travel in Manhattan is via bicycle.  The island is flat as a pool table - at least as viewed with Seattle eyes - and is completely jugged up with gridlock traffic.  I was mentioning to my wife that I was itching to get on a bike and she said "are you nuts!  These drivers are crazy!" 

I liked this dude's Cinelli fixie

"Oh to the contrary" I replied, this place is so locked up that a car can't even get over 15 mph, this is so much safer than riding out on the 60 mph roads back home where a 16 year-old will take you out with one text message.  My friend Jeff experienced just such a "love tap" from a newly minted driver last week.

Manhattan is fun and full of excitement but I'm feeling a bit claustrophobic.  People and concrete on all sides.  It's hard to tell whether the sky is blue or gray.  We went to a show on Broadway last night - One Man Two Guvnors - it was a wonderful production, but coming out into Times Square at 11:00 we waded into a sea of humanity.  Kids, babies, old dames in wheelchairs, you name it we saw it.  Overwhelming for a couple of Mercer Island hicks.

Soul

Soul: some got it, some don’t.  How do you get it?  Can you get it?  Chrissie Hynde’s got it, Lady Gaga – not so much.  Bob Dylan’s always had it, Justin Bieber never will.  Companies can have soul; Pigoretti bicycles, they got soul, but Trek, whatever soul they once had is long gone.



Close up of a Pigoretti

Trek makes some of the finest bicycles on the planet, but they don’t turn my head the way that a heavier, less performance orientated Pigoretti does.  What does the Pigoretti have that the Trek doesn’t.  I think it can be summed up in one word: aesthetic.  Dario Pigoretti knows that the bicycle is more than a mere machine, that it is an extension of the rider; this knowledge enables him to make highly functional yet beautiful machines.  The engineers at Trek, on the other hand, distill out any and all beauty.  The result is a cold, sterile, highly functional, yet soulless machine.

I want my Greenlite products to be both functional and beautiful, but still that isn’t enough.  I want my products to have soul.  I know the guys who make my products, they work with a lot of skill and a lot of heart.  Are my products as good as what comes out of an Asian factory?  Yes.  Are they better?  No.  Those technically perfect garments that fill shipping containers are crisp, clean and unblemished, but they have no soul.  No heart was put into them.  When I design something I use equally my heart and my head.  I think this makes all the difference.

Be More Masai

In her book Out of Africa Karen von Blixen-Fenecke notes that the Masai weren’t taken as slaves or imprisoned because in captivity these tough nomadic warriors simply withered and died.  Those Masai were some tough buggers, they lived on blood and milk and were lean mean fight’n machines.  All things considered living under the yoke would have probably been physically easier, but the Masai would in no way compromise, they wouldn’t trade freedom for comfort.

Comfort seems to be the goal of our modern society, and with that comfort comes a modern sort of slavery.  Very few Americans live the life of financial independence: we owe bankers, we owe oil companies, we owe the auto shop, we owe the gas and electric companies; so long as you owe you ain’t free.  I owe, I know I owe – same as near everybody, but getting out on that bike gives me a chance to thumb my nose at the bankers and oil company execs, the jerks who make their own rules and laugh at how they got all us suckers buy the short hairs.  Yes I’m out in the rain.  Yes I’m out in the cold.  Yes I’m out in the wind, but I say bring it on.

Being out in the elements, huffing and puffing, sweating reminds me that I’m alive and free – sort of.