I went to Selected Shorts at Symphony Space in the evening (I believe we wrote about an earlier visit to Selected Shorts where we heard Leonard Nemoy read). Each evening has a theme. Tonight's was Objects of Desire- about things that people become obsessive about. Four good readers read, which included Amy Ryan (I remember her from Gone Baby Gone, where she played the mother of the kidnapped child. She also appeared in 20 episodes of The Office) and Kirsten Vangsness (who is the computer geek in Criminal Minds). Amy read a story called "Dusk" by James Salter. It was very beautiful and sad (I don't know why they chose to end the evening with such a sad story). Kirsten read a story called "The Pony Problem," by Sloane Crosley. About a young woman who asked a few times if the gift she was getting was pony, and now has a huge collection of toy ponies to deal with.
It is so pleasant to have a story read to you. I recommend Selected Shorts. I down load their pod casts, but don't know where to hear it on local radio.
Since it was a quilt day, we are posting some pictures of our building (we will get into the apartment one day when it is clean).
Our building was originally called the Shively Sanitary Tenement, which is a much more interesting name than The Cherokee. Mr. Vanderbuilt had an idea in 1906 to build a complex of apartments for low income families where at least 1 person had TB. At that time, the treatment for TB was clean country air- and,of course, poor people couldn't afford to move to the country. The complex was designed in 4 connecting building (the design reminds me of a 4-leaf clover). Each building has 6 walk-up floors, and an its own inner courtyard. There are stairs in each corner of the courtyard, and 4 units on each landing. The design was intended to assure that there would be windows on both sides of each unit (our bedroom window is into the courtyard; we have 2 floor-to-ceiling windows in the living room, which look out on the building behind us) so that there would be lots of fresh air. They chose a location 1 block from the East River.
The experiment was not successful because people couldn't afford the rent, and one year after opening, it became a cooperative building. It is an historical building, and is on a neighborhood tour this weekend (just the outside).
I especially like this building, first, because it is on a tree-lined, dead end, one-way street, so there is little traffic. The courtyard has bushes in large pots, and containers of hanging ivy hang down from the corners. It is very quiet and calming to come into after being in busy parts of the City. The large windows give us the feeling of having at least 350 sq.ft. instead of the 325 sq. ft. we actually have.
More of our stairs and courtyard.
The courtyard and stiars from our landing.
Looking up the stairs from the bottom.
Looking from the entry to the complex. The first courtyard is where we live. You can see throught to the other building and the entrance on the next street.
We will try to catch up on Thursday and Friday this weekend. Al had a very frustrating experience with Google, so we are a bit behind.
Sally
I tried to go to Queens Rotary. I checked the RI website and found the location and time of the meeting. I looked at their website to see if there was any change to the meeting and none was stated. So, I took an hour and half train and bus ride to their meeting. They were meeting that evening.
But, it was an interesting neighborhood, so I enjoyed walking around. One of my goals in New York it to see a lot of neighborhoods. This neighborhood has a Sikh temple a block from the restaurant. There were several Sikhs in the neighborhood and many Indian restaurants. I found a grocery store that was more like one in Minnesota. The grocery stores in Manhattan are on the ground floor of multi-story buildings, so they have big pillars in the middle and tend to be like rabbit warrens. You have to search around to find things. That evening I was going to go to taiko, but time got away from me so I just went for a nice long walk. In the process, I found a bike repair shop. So I can bring my bike in. The rear wheel is seriously out of true. I think Amtrak stacked in on its side with a heavy thing on top of it, because the wheel is seriously bent. I also found a sunken area in Gracy park that is free from the constant hum of traffic in the neighborhood. It was a fun place to sit and read for a while. Sally had the camera, so no pictures. Maybe in the future.
I am enjoying just walking around New York and seeing the different neighborhoods.
Al
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