very simple

So, I’m in full “gearing up to go home” mode now, shipped out a bunch of boxes yesterday, and I fly home on Sunday. The office had a little bon voyage (or buon viaggio, to be a little more local) party for me tonight, which was very nice, a little too much prosecco maybe, but who am I to complain about that (I mean I had a little to much to drink, not that there was literally too much wine!). I’m obviously looking forward to going home, and to add to my list of things that I’m excited to see, add the Bethesda Fountain Terrace Arcade. I’ve walked or bicycled on top of the arcade a million times – I don’t think I even knew that there was something actually underneath because it had been in disrepair since 1984 when they removed the tiles for cleaning. Well, now, 23 years later, it’s been completely restored.

Oh. And in other, weirder news, I may be getting some crazy new neighbors!

A tipster informs us that Tom Cruise is in contract for an apartment at the Dakota….

So that’s…interesting. That should make it even easier to get to the subway in the morning, because the combination of John Lennon death junkies and architecture freaks don’t make the sidewalk crowded enough (although, to be fair, most of the architecture freaks stand on the other side of the street to be able to actually see the building). Even more incentive to skip the subway and walk to work!

Although I admit that it would probably be more pleasant to actually visit in the spring.

Pictures are being uploaded now.

Here’s a breakdown of my weekend.

I landed on Saturday afternoon, and immediately upgraded my room to one with a view of the Eiffel Tower. Unfortunately, the fog was pretty thick and it made actually seeing the Tower a bit of a challenge (it shows up less well in photos than it did in real life). and took a quick walk around the Saint Germain neighborhood, down to Les Deux Magots. It’s a spot I remember from my trip ten years ago, and back in my scrapbook buried somewhere in NY (back in the dark ages before websites and digital cameras), I’ve got a photo of myself, backpack and all, standing out front. All in all, a good way to orient myself for the first day (and confirmation that my decision to stay in the same neighborhood was a good one).

Sunday morning I woke up with my grand plan to go to the Musee D’Orsay. I’ve mentioned in previous entries the trials and tribulations I’ve experienced in the past with this museum, but this time? success! The Orsay was open, and I probably took more pictures than I really needed to. Here’s the entrance, and here’s some highlights…the building itself is a work of art, having formerly been a railway station…scale models of the Opera Garnier…Degas…Monet…Van Gogh…Cezanne…Toulous-Lautrec…and Gauguin. Just for a few.

After I was done with the Orsay (and I’m pretty sure I missed stuff, but that just gives me an excuse to go back again, right?), I walked all the way over to the Eiffel Tower (starting here), passing the National Assembly, a whole bunch of bridges, Les Invalides (where Napoleon is entombed), the Tsar Alexander III Bridge and finally hitting the Tower. Once there, I picked up one of the NY Times recommended boats run by Bateaus Parisiens, and took a whole bunch more pictures, starting here, and which took me past the Louvre, Ile de la Cite, Notre Dame, and the smallest house in Paris. Exhausted, I hit dry land back at the Eiffel tower, and took a cab back to the hotel in time to actually see the light show at sunset from my balcony.

Monday was Christmas, and, not surprisingly, everything was closed. So I took another walk, this time to the Louvre grounds, and wandered through the Jardin des Tulieres, where I ate a crepe and got stalked by some seriously aggressive birds, who finally won. At the other end of the Jardin des Tulieres, is the Place de la Concorde, where they used to behead people and now there’s a ferris wheel. I’m not sure this is progress. From there, I trekked up the Champs-Elysees to the Arc d’Triomphe.

Tuesday was my departure day, but I thought I could squeeze in actually going inside the Louvre before I left. Unfortunately, the Louvre is closed on Tuesdays (I am happy to say that I did get in 10 years ago, so I’ve already seen the Mona Lisa), so I resigned myself to wandering around Saint-Germain some more (and admiring how Paris makes even the subway seem pretty). Compare the hotel I stayed in 10 years ago with the one I stayed in now!

So that’s it. I didn’t take pictures of things like the hotel bar, even though i managed to have at least one drink there every day, or the craziness that is flying EasyJet (unassigned seating by group doesn’t work so well when you all have to take the same damn bus to the airplane way out on the tarmac, yet people still all push to the front of the "line").

All in all, I admit to only seeing a fraction of the city, but it was a good fraction. I enjoyed myself, drank some champagne, saw some pretty things, and managed to make that first trip (oh so many years ago) a bit of nostalgia rather than the city-souring experience it had previously been in my head. I’d definitely go back. But next time I’d go in the spring, when the trees and gardens are blooming. That would only make it better.

[Update 2015] In an effort to reduce the number of holdover pages on the blog, I am slowly (very slowly) integrating these albums into the appropriate historical posts on the blog itself. As such, all photos now appear directly below.

We had a four-day weekend last weekend, thanks to it being Milan’s patron saint’s day (Saint Ambrose, for those of you who were wondering). I, however, did manage to go to work for three out of four of those days. Of course, just coming off of a two-week vacation back in the US, I couldn’t really complain. I also realized that if I had planned a bit better, I could have gotten my work done in about a day, but rolling out of bed at 11 or noon, then going to lunch, and only then going to the office certainly shortens the available work hours!

BUT!

I did actually manage to remember to bring my camera with me when I left my apartment. Since my office is in the center of town, it’s a pretty easy walk to see some of the more photo-worthy sights in Milan. Compared to the rest of Italy, Milan is probably a bit less…photogenic (I’m sure you all want to see tons of photos of banks).

So on Thursday, when I went to the office, I took the bus to the Duomo instead, figuring I’d walk through. (Fun fact: next to the Duomo is the entrance to the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. Now, VEII was the guy who unified all of the disparate nation-states on the Italian peninsula into what we currently think of as “Italy”. He’s basically the Italian George Washington. In Rome, this rather officious looking structure, planted smack in the middle of the forum, is the monument to VEII. In Milan? Well, in Milan, they built a mall…). Of course, it was raining the first day (as it does on many days), so things are a bit grey…

I promise to have more exciting stuff soon. I’m thinking about booking a last-minute trip to Paris for the four-day christmas weekend, so I’ll be sure to take some photos there!

aahhh. The Tappan Zee Bridge. The bridge of my childhood. Spanning from Rockland (where I grew up) to Westchester (where everyone assumes I grew up), the Tappan Zee loomed large in my youth. Going to visit my grandparents in the Bronx? went across the bridge. Wanting to go to the "good" mall in high school? went across the bridge. The GW too far away (and way too intense) for drivers’ ed? why, go across the Tappan Zee! Want a quick way to explain where you grew up to someone who had never heard of Rockland county? Just point out that it was the "other" side of the Tappan Zee from Westchester (which no one ever had a problem finding on the map)…and no, it’s not New Jersey (no offense, my friends from the Garden State – it just gets a bit irritating when you have to pay New York taxes yet you keep getting disowned through ignorance).

Well. The good old bridge has reached the end of its "useful life". As in, it was only built to last for 50 years and that 50 years is up. The article goes into the political infighting that appears to be making getting a new bridge that much more difficult, but it just made me a bit nostalgic.

They called the bridge ugly (built during the Korean War, it was done on the cheap), but as a child, crossing the bridge almost daily to stay with my grandparents while my folks went to work in the city, I was fascinated by the way the steel framing of the suspended section would flicker past like a strobe light. I would stare out the window mesmerized. And the bridge itself crossed the widest part of the Hudson. Which meant that you spent a wonderfully decadent amount of time staring outward at the sailboats and barges that would pass underneath. Particularly if you were stuck in traffic.

I don’t often have a reason to cross the bridge anymore. None of my friends still live in Rockland, and it’s a quicker drive to take the GW to the Palisades from where I am on the rare occasion that I go to see my semi-family during the jewish holidays. The bridge doesn’t make sense for commuting into the city – it was really only a commuter link for folks to get from Rockland to the Metro North trains on the east side of the river (Don’t get me wrong – that’s a whole lot of people).

Thanks to the bureaucratic morass that is the New York State transportation authority, it’ll be around for a while longer, but I’ll miss it when it’s gone.

that took forever edition…

• More news on the High Line renovations, including pictures! (wed jun 15 2005 11:41 am)
• Getting home today should be fun…Snapple attempts massive stupid stunt in Union Square (tue jun 21 2005 5:23 pm)
• Oh my god. There’s going to be another film adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. And it’s not going to be a modern reinterpretation or anything. It’s going to be period. Look. It’s one of my favorite stories of all time, but why on earth would they try to improve upon the quintessential period version starring Colin Firth? Why? (wed jun 22 2005 11:29 am)
• A windowless concrete cube reaching 20 stories into the air is not exactly what I think of when I hear the word "freedom" (thu jun 30 2005 11:08 am)
• Perfect timing. Since I’m not getting a landline in my new apartment, I was actually looking for something exactly like this. (thu jul 21 2005 6:01 pm)

So it looks like the west side stadium is dead in the water, and with it, NYC’s chances to host the 2012 games. I get that no one wants a massive stadium in their backyard, but it’s not like what’s there now (a bunch of below-street level railroad sidings) is particularly appealing. It’s not like they planned on tearing down, you know, a major cultural and architectural gem to build their sports complex (yeah, Comcast, owners of that "rabbit-warren" MSG, I’m talking to you). And Silver’s complaints about preserving lower manhattan ring particularly false, since (a) it’s his district, so he’s clearly playing neighborhood favorites, (b) they can’t find any tenants for the buildings that are already in lower manhattan, so there’s nothing to really "take away", and (c) no one likes working in lower manhattan – between the crazy security, the lack of good restaurants (particularly for lunch), and, essentially, a second commute for anyone coming in from the ‘burbs (read: law firm partners, investment bank managers, etc.), it’s the least-liked business location in the city. There’s a reason that price per square foot downtown is less than half of what it is in midtown.

I’m not saying I wanted a stadium. Not being a sports fan (and certainly not a Jets fan at that!), I wasn’t looking forward to thousands of tailgaters looking for parking spots on 9th Avenue, and the Olympics in NYC is nice, in theory, but everyone who actually lives here would actually take the two weeks off and flee like it was the largest memorial day weekend in history. And frankly, the lack of a backup plan for the Olympics rests solely on Doctoroff’s shoulders – he’s no Robert Moses. Moses, of course, being the man who, when wanting to tear down Castle Clinton (and a good portion of lower manhattan) in order to build a Brooklyn-Battery Bridge (rather than the now existing tunnel), could only be stopped by FDR sending in the Navy to form a blockade. In lower Manhattan. During World War II.

I think the thing I have the biggest problem with is the way that the state and the city relate to each other. NYC residents send, on average, $3 BILLION in taxes, per year, to the state that we never see again, but we’re constantly treated like either an afterthought or a parasite on the rest of the state. The city spent years on this proposal, and to have it held up by a three-person appointed commission and a clearly biased competing sports complex with deep pockets? annoys me to no end. That being said, I’m sure that the city thought that it could force through the proposal by shouting "olympic bid! olympic bid!" over and over again.

What is it they say? the enemy of my enemy is my friend? I didn’t like the stadium, but I don’t like the other guys even more.

One of the really awesome things about living in an urban area is watching people come up with creative, even radical, ideas for old spaces. One of the premier examples of this is the development of the high line.

Essentially a defunct railroad siding that travelled through (as in "inside") the meatpacking plants and other factories on the far west side (made defunct, obviously, by trucks), it’s being turned into a unique, elevated public park space. One that will still travel through some of the older buildings in the neighborhood.

Now, if they could just get the meatpacking district to, you know, stop smelling like the meatpacking district (I know it’s somewhat amazing in this, the 21st century, but they do still have working plants in the neighborhood!), it might be a great place to have a picnic (hey, if they could move the Fulton Fish Market to the Bronx, anything’s possible!).

Last fall, some friends of mine and I tried to go visit the high line during Open House New York, (where historical, but not normally open to the public sites are, well, open to the public) but we were somewhat spastic and decided to run all of our errands and get lunch before we went over, meaning that by the time we got there, there were so many people waiting that they were no longer allowing people to even join the line.

I live in the Union Square/Flatiron neighborhood, and was always fascinated by the building that houses (housed?) the Odd-Job (particularly after it was featured in a photo exhibit at the Urban League put together a few years back by my parent’s friends), and I had absolutely no idea that it was going to be torn down. I always thought it was a bit of a shame that it housed a discount store, but it was a pretty prominent example of mid-century modern architecture, and with better neighbors (rather than the low-rent canal street wannabe that is 14th street between University and 5th), it could even have been a neighborhood gem. Well, no more. They’ll probably replace it with yet another boxy NYU dorm.

It’s times like this that the thought of my possible moving to the Upper West Side gets just a little bit more promising.