Sunday May 29th, I took the 12:05 to NYC to meet up with Jackie, hoping for a couple of good photos and a few good meals. Mission accomplished.
The forecast was against me. The weatherman predicted torrential rains from a storm working its way up the coast and thankfully, they were wrong (for a change). Warm, sunny and a perfect day for ambling.
Made my way down to the lower east side and SOHO, where I feel most at home in the city these days and started walking down Rivington Street toward the Bowery Walked this way often in the past, most recently with Gaye Applebaum in search of Morgenstern's, but for some reason never noticed Freeman Alley, a little 12 foot wide access way between two buildings, until today that is, when the sun seemed to be shining in just the right way and my eye caught this cute little piece of wall art which seems to be popping up all over the city in one form or another...
graffiti by Thomas Allen
And this one taken few years ago on the corner of Grand and Ludlow, graffiti by Nik Walker...
After a few very bad years when Mayors Giuliani and Bloomberg went on a rampage, sandblasting and sterilizing NYC of all the wall art and graffiti they could find, somehow thanks to Banksy who became something of a phenomena and led to the re-legitimization of wall art and Mayor DiBlasi's laissez faire attitude about urban self expression, the walls of NYC are again coming alive. There's art everywhere, if you know where to look for it.
And lately, you don't even have to look too far, which is just as well because my feet have been giving me trouble.
Finally, on the subject of not having to look too far for street art, on the corner of 5th Ave and 54th St., there was this one...
which I like to call "Humans of New York, or are they bugs" after a book of almost the same name. Not bad for 24 hrs in NYC and with stops at Yonah Schimmel, Russ and Daughters, 2nd Ave. Deli for some pretty darn good stuffed cabbage, and finally Jackie, Geri, and I had dinner at Ben's on the way to Penn Station.
Talking about food, although I didn't eat there, this seems like a good spot to reprise my photo of Katz's Deli on Houston and Ludlow taken 11/15. Things seem to get lost in the archives of prior postings.
Pablo
