Day 87- August 7

Music, Trash, Knitting, and Basements

By Al

I visited the Chinatown Rotary Club today.  Good food as usual.  The people were as welcoming as usual.  There had two other interesting guests.  One was a Rotarian from Bali.  She talked about how Bali generates a large amount of income for Indonesia because of the tourism, but all of the tax money gained goes to the government in Jakarta.  Very little of it makes its way back to Bali.  She also talked about all of the good works that her club is doing.  You can read about it at their website, www.rotarycanggu.org.
The other guest was a high school student from Brooklyn.  She was representing the Interact club at her high school.  She talked about a project at http://www.restorationofhope.blogspot.com/ to help girls in Uganda. 

That evening I went to a concert in Central Park. WQXR was sponsoring Lara St. John, Pablo Ziegler & Friends in Central Park. Pablo Ziegler was the pianist for Argentine tango master Astor Piazzolla. Mr. Piazzolla was a pioneer in Nuevo Tango, a combination of tango, classical, and jazz. He played the bandoneón. The bandoneón is much like an accordion. In 1987, he gave a concert in Central Park. Today was the 25th anniversary.   Pablo Ziegler has kept the Piazzolla tradition alive.   I have long been a fan of Astor Piazzolla, so I was excited to be able to hear Nuevo Tango.  About 1,000 people were also excited to hear this music. 

The band shell at Central Park.
The music lived up to expectations.  I really enjoyed the concert.  Just another wonderful thing about living in New York.

Sally's Day
Rather a quiet day.  I went to a knitting meetup in Brooklyn.  And spent the evening at home.

 

Here's something I will NOT  miss about NYC.  Many of the small stores have metal doors to their basements, and the doors are on the sidewalk.  The one on the left is closed. When they are open, they typically do not have the orange cones and ropes around them.  I have not heard of anyone falling into an open door.  They are QUITE noisy when you walk over them going down the sidewalk.

 

Here's another thing I will not miss- bags of garbage on the sidewalk.  This is a small group.  The pile outside of our building on Monday morning is at least 20 bags plus another 10 bags of recycling.  When it is hot, it smells.  A problem of not having alleys.

Front window of the yarn shop where I go to knitting group.

The window display is an underwater theme- knitted shells, fish, starfish.  Quite fun.

 

A wonderful buscar (sp?) playing classical violin.  What a treat- to come down the stairs into the hot waiting area for the subway, and hear some good music.  More than worth the $1 put in her collection box.

 

Sally