Today is the last full day in New York of this visit, and Barbie needs to spend it resting in bed. We got her some room service eggs and toast, and we are hoping that she will feel better for tomorrow's flight.
In the meantime... I got invited to lunch at the "second best burger place in Manhattan" and after that I need to run an errand. The burger is with the Barrys, which means walking a half block from the Ritz to the Plaza to hop into a cab with them.
I sat in the front seat next to the cabbie, which I do not mind. The Barrys (father, mother, child, nanny) definitely filled the back seat, and when I sit up front with the cabbie I enjoy peering into that little world. You see all the things on the front seat and floor that are normally completely private to said cabbie.
This picture is
hilarious. To me. It is probably not even funny to you. There is no reason for it to be funny to you, because you have not walked around the East Village and Williamsburg with the Barrys like I have.
By the way, you probably can sense by the amount of sunlight that it isa beautiful day in New York. Instead of being 35 degrees, it has warmed up to the high 40's. And, amazingly, even when you are from California, after you endure under 40 weather for a week and then suddenly it is 47, you find your body is saying, "Jacket? We don't need a jacket. It's warmer." And that is my California body. I imagine to the New Yorkers it feels like the Caribbean today.
The Upper West Side Shake Shack.
I love how neighborhoods where nobody would want to eat at, say, Burger King, end up embracing the
gourmet burger and fries under the auspices that more expensive beef and potatoes are somehow unlike the fare eaten by the rest of America, even though it is still a greasy, fatty, salty mess. Good burger, by the way.
My peanut butter chocolate shake being held up to the back of American Museum of Natural History. This restaurant was chosen so that the Barrys could continue to the nearby Children's Museum while I head off on my day, Little do we know that this location choice will have a deep impact.
Deep impact coming soon!
The Barrys post lunch. Note the accidental triangular composition of the family, suggesting the child at the family triangle's apex while the parents make up the foundation. Sure, you can look at this and see a shot of a family at a burger joint. But then you would be missing the subtleties of the art of photography and would hate yourself.
This is what can happen to a tray of food when a small child is involved.
Lunch is over. We get our coats and head to the door. But we are
trapped. Literally caged. Why? Why can we not leave? Because the
President of the United States of America, whose Birth Certificate I have
seen thank you very much, is about to visit the American Museum of Natural History across the street.
Everyone stood and stared in that direction until we saw the President's car.
Can you see it? I shall assist you.
A crop is a zoom and arrows help, too. Our President sits in that vehicle. You know, I tend to be nonchalant about most everything. I did not care too much about the Hollywood superagent next to me on the plane, or the movie star who I sold running shoes to in High School, but the President? I am not nonchalant about our President.
There stands the NYC cop who made sure that nobody inside the burger joint came running outside with bad ideas. I am literally not typing the jokes that could go here because I am fully aware that humor is lost within data mining. Maybe I should delete
data mining while I am at it.
With the President safely inside the museum, we were allowed back onto the streets. The Barrys headed to the Childrens Museum while I headed to the subway to his the East Village.
This shot was taken because Barbie loves churches, and I am not sure if my lovely wife who is lying in bed recovering from stomach illness has ever seen this corner church.
NYC Subway Station Candid. March 2011.
This is no big deal for New Yorkers, but it filled me with joy that I totally knew how to hop onto the 1 train, switch to the E train at Columbus Circle, and then jump to the L train at 14th street, taking the L across the island of Manhattan and getting off at 1st Ave to hit the East Village.
Anytime an Angeleno truly understands another city's mass transit, said Angeleno is filled with both a sense of pride in himself and a sense of sadness that Los Angeles totally lacks decent mass transit.
I did not go black and white for this shot of bicyclists by Tompkins Square Park. The point is not that it is a candid, but that 47 degrees is so comparatively warm to recent temperatures that it is absolutely a day for biking. And, since I skipped the black and white here, I actually pushed the color saturation about as far as it can go. You cannot tell, but I can.
Why the treck down to the East Village? My unofficial son was going to have his roomies Fed Ex his San Francisco Giants clothing to Los Angeles for him to wear to the season opener between the Giants and Dodgers, and I offered to save them the trouble and stop by to pick the stuff up.
Yours truly with Nate's NYC Crew. The only one I know is Mia, to the far right. Let us just say that if Mia had been the one who came to our spare room in L.A. instead of Nate, I would be as happy as Barbie is right now. Decipher that at your leisure.
There is a genius named David Cross who does comedy. In his comedy, he speaks of living in NYC and always coming across used condoms in the street. I suspect that this one is not used, but it was still in the street and out of its wrapping. The David Cross NYC Condom Theory has photographic support on the Waste.
NYC Subway Candid. March 2011.
After arriving back at the hotel and finding Barbie still alive but not well, I hung out in the room until Mister Jesse stopped by to hang out at the Ritz lounge. Little did he know that I planned to bring him up to the private Club Lounge.
Mister Jesse checking his phone in the Club Lounge, allowing me an opportunity to take a picture of his cursedly perfect hair.
Room service dinner for those with a stomach virus, a shared plain hamburger patty, steamed broccoli and white rice.
Honestly, I could eat like that every night and be perfectly happy, though I would probably sub in a turkey burger. I do not need all these fancy meals. I am a simple man at heart.
Closing time in the hotel room. The day is coming that I can use the iPhone's HDR setting to manipulate pictures that have light and dark elements within them. Lacking that ability, I chose to balance the light to the feet.
Tomorrow we fly home. Definitely looking forward to it.
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