Late e-news report from NYC

Letsjust agree that Alan and Radmila are THE most generous people any of us have ever known. Thanks to their generosity, we (my husband and I) spent 10 wonderful days in NY, using their apartment as a base while they were visiting kids in Vancouver. FIRST IMPRESSION(s) While Ive been to NYC before, its been a long time, so it felt a bit like a new, fresh visit. I always say New York is not what movies and postcards portray it to be an asphalt jungle. New York is not Broadway and 5th Avenue, the busyness and crass commercialised bill-boards, the throngs of crowds. New York is beautiful, green and clean, friendly and neighbourly. It is a walkable city, easy to navigate since it is an (almost) perfect grid. Easy to fall in love with and to feel at home. WALKS We walked everywhere; literally. For 10 days. Almost non-stop. The very first day we walked to and across the Brooklyn Bridge, down Broadway, 7th Avenue Fashion District, West Village, through SoHo. Then collapsed and took a subway homeFeet throbbing and thirsty but happy. We walked through Central Park, Chinatown, Meat Packing district, Little Italy, Nolita, East Village, Upper Westside, mid-town, downtown, business district, Brooklyn and Brooklyn Heights (where the movie Moonstruck with Cher was shot), Chelsea, Greenwich, Columbia Street. Aside from Harlem, I think we walked almost through the entire city. And ON OUR WALKS WE SAW The Dakota Building at the corner of 70th and Central Park. The building where John Lennon lived and was killed; Strawberry Field in the Central Park named after his song; where there is a circle with a word IMAGINE where young people still come and bring flowerspoignant; Completely urbanized Central Park (it is a man-made after all) with fenced-off grass areas forbidden for sitting and playing on; with small lakes with rowboats that tourists treat as real lakes and real attractions; walking and running paths full of joggers, cyclists, people, dogs, yoga teachers boot-camp style personal trainers and size 0 trainees (mainly blond no offense); young families and their kidsmore so than in Vancouver; beautiful statues, and manicured flower gardens. Took some getting used to but I loved it in the end. We saw a myriad of architecturally beautiful areas; very European, very Colonial and postColonial styles; lots of Art Deco. No taller than 6-10 storeys, intricate details, inviting bay-

windows, intimate, friendly; some posh, some less so but still beautiful; quiet, green streets where you feel like people know their neighbours name; wrought iron, no bigger than meter by meter squares around each tree full of flowers and tulips in bloom; small green spaces (fenced off again, with an obligatory monument and benches) which they call Parks but cute and full of people; Small cafes, neighbourly restaurants, bars, pubs, independent shops, bakeriesunexpected corner stores; basement restaurants for no more than 10 people; We saw an incredibly clean city with not a single piece of paper, and I mean not a single one or garbage on the streets and trust me, weve been everywhere. Not even in Harlem. No graffiti (I think I saw only ONE!!) We saw some plasticised locals on Madison and 80th, whose nips and tucks left them with no ability to smile even though their perky pouts look like a perpetual smile, come and eat their salads at the local Greek slash God-knows-what-cuisine restaurant, where the owner greets them by name and asks about their time in Florida. It was a total time-warp experience but uniquely NYC with a typical NYC accent. We saw Mexican servers (both young and older and mainly male) in restaurants everywhere, even in the famous Japanese one! Go figure. We saw hordes of tourists and tried to avoid themAfter all, we pretended to be locals. We lived on the Upper West side on the Hudson River (cue in laughter)We FELT local We saw small farmers markets in the middle of downtown it was just perfect. Buying a loaf of bread and organic eggs from some Jersey or Queens farmer was perfect. It made us feel like we WERE locals and we WERE contributing to local sustainability. We saw the love, money and vision that went into building the city as we know it. The Rockefellers, the Chryslers, and the Bergdorf Goodmansspending the money for the greater good..yes, for capital too, but for the greater good. Building Libraries, Opera Houses, squares, a brilliant subway system, bridges, livable houses, public stations to marvel atBuilt for the purpose but for centuries to come, to stand, to serve and to provide beauty and add to harmonyTo be the gift of progressNowadays, there are the Trumps, the ugliness of 50-floor eye-sores, utilitarian and plain ugly. Its just about profit and a quick buck. And it is everywhere, from NYC to Vancouver to Novi Sad. Whatever happened to contribution? To beauty? To Vision? To the millionaires with a vision? We saw stray cats!!! Which I love seeing. To me, thats a sign of life, of being real, of not being too clinical, of having some rough edgesLoved it.

On our walks we saw Ground Zero which is a big construction zone at the moment. Didnt go in to see the memorial. Felt weird after being on the top of the Trade Centre years ago. Saw strange (strange for Vancouver) fenced-off green spaces, not quite like parks, divided into two fenced-off parts: one for humans and their children, one for humans and their dogs. They look like something youd expect to see on a Mother Ship to Marsa simulacrum of longforgotten reality. At least, they are green. Saw Wall Street barricaded and protected by a cop who was asking for an ID in order to let us in. Refused to show it and do it. It infringes on my democratic principles. Saw a 16th century breathtakingly beautiful Dutch church and cemetery in the middle of Financial District. Surreal. Saw REAL millionaires in one of the posh bars in one of the posh hotels on the 5 th Avenue. It proves my theory about people with money (born into money) looking different. It was funny to observe. I wore my tight-fitting black dress and red, high-heeled f..k me pumps (as my friend calls them), so John was teasing me that had I been a single woman, I could have found my millionaire thereWould he be able to walk? Let alone anything elseI mean, they are pretty mummified, arent they? SPEAKING OF PEOPLE They seemed friendly and helpful if you asked for direction or shared a table at the busy bakery. Butthey dont look you in the eyes, they dont smile, dont approach you first and generally mind their own business. However, they all looked relaxed; even people on the subway. Would it be easy to make friends in NY? Dont know. I think so but cant be so sure. ARCHITECTURE AND CULTURE HIGHLIGHTS As you can tell I love NYCs old architecture. The only thing that was off-putting for me is that there are practically no balconies. I am assuming there are some on the top levels, some topfloor gardens worth millions of dollars. But, no or rare balconies. And that would drive me crazy. Having said that Fell in love with Brooklyn Heights. Tucked in a lush green are, friendly, full of young families (how can they afford it???), older people who look like they just got off the boat from Italy, lacy hand-crocheted curtains, high ceilings, elegant bay windows, brown-brick 6-storey houses, some happier time, by-gone era atmosphere Chinatown can easily be given a miss.

City Hall, Court Houses, the former Police Museum which is now a private residence- stunning. Central Station worth standing there for at least 30-45 min and just taking it in. A pure splendor. Grand. The NYC Public Library beautiful on the outside, even more on the inside. Special paintings and plaster on the ceilings in their reading rooms. And YES, people still READ. Colonnades, grand staircases Frick Collection and his house (Frick was a steel magnate). Would move into this house in the blink of an eye. Does he still have eligible descendants? Elegant, relatively simple, overlooking Central Park. Inside garden. Fantastic collection of European middle ages furniture and carpets. Worth the wait. The Museum of Natural History (where Night at the Museum was filmed) was a big disappointment. I remembered it differently. I would gladly skip the dinosaurs and just spend days in the Amazonia, and the Americas sectionsLove learning about their culture, habits, food, treatment of marriage and women, seeing their artUnfortunately I was so tired at the end that I just sat there and stared. MoMa building itself is an artefact. Again, I remembered it differently. Didnt have the Frida Kahlo collection I saw last time and I was disappointed. Modern design exhibit Ive seen better in Vancouver. Loved the Cindy Sherman special exhibit and her quirky humour. Loved it. New Museum designed by a famous Japanese architect as an off-kilter stack of white boxes. Located in a seedy part of the East Village. Loved it. Uber contemporary cheeky installations, conceptual art. All my husband had to say about it was Djubre (in Serbian that means garbage). I was so happy to see a big line-up at the door. Mixed young and older generations. Real art aficionados. I had followed their progress and international bidding for a new building for years, read interviews with curators and their ED and was happy to see their dream come true. The Metropolitan Museum what to say. One can simply move in and stay there for months onWe chose highlights: John wanted to see ancient Egypt, I wanted Mesopotamian art, and so-called primitive Oceania, Central and South America, natives; furniture and glassEven with just highlights we spent more than 5 hours thereI took over 700 hundred picture while in NYC majority of which are taken in the museums and galleries. I have an endless fascination with tribal, native and aboriginal art both in Africa and in the Americas. Statues, masks, symbols, golden figurines, ornaments, rituals, daily objectseverything. Dont care anymore about gothic, about Italian Renaissance about the Frenchabout Picasso, and MirosAnd, yes, there was a special exhibit of Rembrandt and his famous self-portrait. We went to see it and checked it off the list.

THE BEST and THE MOST IMPRESIVE was the CLOISTERS (it means a monastery garden). It is a part of the Metropolitan Museums medieval collection. It was recommended by our cousins and we are thankful for that. We took a bus there, not because it was convenient (one doesnt do anything convenient when exploring a city) but because it was a perfect opportunity for sight-seeing. Upper East Side, then Harlem, then Upper West Side and a neighbourhood called Sunny Side (what a happy name!) the bus was meandering through obviously more black or more Hispanic neighbourhoods and we were able to observe people on the bus; mothers with their kids coming from school; nurses off shift; elderly; all neatly dressed and black women with their colorful hairdos and flamboyant nails. It was sunny and a perfect day. All along, the buildings and architecture stayed beautiful a tad run down but beautiful; streets clean. Full of small grocery stores, fruit and vegetable stands every 200 meters Somehow peaceful and with some higher order and meaningCloisters: its built on the top of a hill overlooking the Hudson River that is quite narrow there and calm surrounded by green hills and the sound of birds singing. It was like stepping in the different world and going back in time. Medieval time. The Building is built with the mix of some original pieces dating back to 8th-12th century and some modern cement. For example, the arches, the stained-glass windows, the original grave covers would be mixed with contemporary staircasesit was absolutely amazing. They also had a small vegetable garden shaped the way monks did in those times. I just wish we spent more time sitting in the garden, soaking in the sun and contemplatingAnd again, I felt moved by the beauty, by the human need to create, to enhance with ornaments even the most secular objectsby intricacy of details and painstaking needleworkand annoyed that our era just goes for the ugly, for the profitable, for confection, for the prefabricated, for the massproduction.They kicked us out at closing time But our next stop was COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY. Oh, to be the student again! But there. It looks like a door from a Harry Potter book. On the street side there is a deceivingly small building surrounded by the wrought iron doorsthat open to a mesmerizing world of neo-classical style columns and buildings, where one wouldnt be so surprised to see a Greek philosopher chatting with students, full of beauty and grace; students milling about; wide inner boulevards and nice old collegesall unpretentious, happy, beautiful, expansive, floating in an early evenings soft lightI could just sit there and breath The Brooklyn Museum can give it a miss. There was some interesting curatorial choices and a good temporary exhibit, but other than that- not much. Like a poor version of Met. Beautiful building though. Ellis Island Museum is a joke. Old-fashioned but at least with some honest write-ups. Couldnt stay for too long. Too close to home to be impartial. Thats the island where millions and millions of emigrants arrived for the American dream and their sorrow and uneasiness was

palpable to me even after all this time. The building is beautiful but sad, sad, sadNever mind that it took genocide and an ethnic cleansing to populate modern USA This leads me to the Museum of American Indians situated on the southernmost tip of Manhattan in an old, but still active Customs Building. It was small-ish but with some excellent, provocative writing by the Natives. It was mainly concerned with Hopi and Zuni Indians and I was moved to tears. There were pieces on the Inuit too, Ive never seen before. We walked every day by the Julliard.and I was touching its walls. Couldnt see any of the ballet shows because the NY City Ballet had no performances at the time. Admired their students. Mainly Asians. Loved Lincoln Centrefelt right at home. Rubin Museum of Art an absolute gem. Its about Tibetan, Nepal and Indian Buddhist art dating back to 6th to 15th centuries. They even have an original shrine from a Nepalese temple! The security guard was chasing me threatening to confiscate my camera if I continued to take picturescouldnt help itthe building is even designed to invoke enlightenment. FROM ENLIGHTENMENT TOFASHION I was disappointed in the way NY-ers were dressed. Aside from 3 people (2 of whom were men and likely gay) I did not see anybody particularly well dressed. Not even at BergdorfThere was a woman (mind you a foreigner) who came to look for shoes at Ferragamos, who was elegant the rest was just plain blah.Mind you, we did not go to posh, posh places in the evening, and I only stuck my nose at the Spaces Market (remember the scene from Sex in the City it was this restaurant) which is a star-spotting place - but it was only at 4pm Liked a promo I saw on the subway: We (New Yorkers) accept your beliefs, but judge your shoes! or something like thatIt was hot while we were in NYC and the people mainly wore flip-flops. Hate that. Also, the Meat Packing District is supposed to be the coolest, trendiest neighbourhood for designerswent to McQueen, Stella McCartney, Ports, Boss.nothing, but blah Loved the Kate Spade store in SoHo. Loved, loved itEye-candy. Didnt dare go to the Paul Smith store in SoHo for I knew I wouldnt be able to leave plus I couldnt really afford anything there Paid my tribute to big name designers on 5th Ave. Bowed to shoes. Took some pictures for my Fashion File as I was there document.The weather was changing for the worst so it was good to be inside. And John indulged me.

WAS IT A COINCIDENCE OR WAS IT THE UNIVERSE?. Riding on the subway to Brooklyn we accidentally met a young woman who turned out to be from Vancouver and a former student of Johns long-time-no-see musician friend. The woman gave us his contact information and we had lunch with him the next day. It turned out, he plays the first violin in the Broadway musical Evita. Guess what show we went to see that evening? Hint, Ricky Martin is a lead singer in it FOOD FOR THOUGHT AND TUMMIES. Restaurants, no matter the level, are expensive. Waay more expensive than in Vancouver and dare I say not as good as in Vancouver. I know, I know We are really spoiled here. Our restaurants serve fresh, local, organic, sometimes strange infusions with a twist and imaginationand are not too expensive. There, alcohol in the restaurants is very expensive, while extremely cheap in grocery stores or liquor stores. In Canada, we practically have prohibitionGo figure. Had some good experiences though. Cook Shop in Chelsea was an unexpected gem fresh, unexpected, creative, good service. My kind a thing Touted as the best Japanese ramen restaurant outside Japan, and highly recommended by a foodie from Vancouver, a certain restaurant that should remain nameless, was actually a disappointment. The wait was too long and I almost got drunk sipping a yummy cocktail. The food had better ramen in downtown Vancouver. East Village restaurant recommend by a friend excellent. Young. Funky. The best halibut I ever had! Can you believe that? Kafana a Serbian restaurant in the East Village. Good food but I never care too much about the food I can make at homeand better. My husband loved his Karadjordjeva. Eh. But my food highlights are actually bakeries. Particularly Levain bakery in the Upper West side. Yum! We were regulars thereCheck it out in the May issue of InStyle magazine as a special recommendation by Debra Messing. And they are everywhere just follow the smell of good coffee. We were even in the one in Little Italy where episodes of The Sopranos were filmed. Ah, Cosa Nostra.

SERVICE It has to be some rant, hasnt it? We arrived at JFK early in the morning and were surprised with the disorganization, bad service or better said the lack of it. The signage was either nonexistent or misleading and there were no people working behind their desks. So, the line up became longer, and longer. And longer. Not a great start for a cranky person who just got off ared-eye flight and was sleep deprived. But, once all of that was done the cab ride to the Hudson River was smooth. Service, even by New Yorkers standards, and trust me, I talked to them about it, sucks. In some places is a bit better, but generally it sucks. And I am not talking about the sugary, phony hiiii, how areee youuu; my name is Meeeegan and I am going to be your server type. I am talking about basics. Looking me in the eyes, or at least my face; or at least in general direction of where my body stands. But, that is the only beef I have about NYC. At the end of our 10-day stay the heavens were crying because we were leaving. It was a downpour. I felt like crying too. Hope to be back soon. And hope I havent bored you too much with my impressions