The Good, the Bad and the Utterly Absurd -- a Tour of NYC

Dreams DO come true!

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Elaine
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Halloween

Post by Elaine »

In honor of "Masques," let's take a look at Halloween in NYC.

The biggest Halloween event each year is the Halloween Parade in the Village (and if you don't know what the Village is, you skipped part of the tour -- go back!)

For a glimpse of what Catherine meant when she said that New York was 'the good, the bad and the utterly absurd,' you can take a look at some of the pictures from this year's parade.

http://www.halloween-nyc.com/index.php

And for other Halloween happenings:
http://gonyc.about.com/od/halloween/Hal ... _Guide.htm

Boo!
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jecris27
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Post by jecris27 »

Message topic renamed at Elaine's request.
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Elaine
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Chinatown

Post by Elaine »

Chinatown -- A "good flick" starring Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway -- and the New York home of yet another pair of star-crossed lovers. If you'd like to know more about the neighborhood where Henry and Lin lived before they had to flee to the tunnels, you can go to these sites:

http://www.chinatown-online.com/

http://www.explorechinatown.com/Gui/Exp ... town2.aspx

http://www.nyctourist.com/chinatown1.htm

http://www.nychinatown.org/
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Elaine
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Fashion Law

Post by Elaine »

We know that Catherine's friends used to joke that she was majoring in "Fashion Law," but actually she went to Columbia Law School. Apparently everybody but Joe was connected to Columbia in some way -- Professor Hughes in No Way Down and Alexander Ross in Dark Spirit both taught there.

If you're interested in enrolling in Columbia Law School:

http://www.law.columbia.edu/

If you're more interested in fashion, you might want to attend:

F.I.T. - The Fashion Institute of Technology
http://www.fitnyc.edu/html/dynamic.html

or Fashion Week:
http://nymag.com/fashion/fashionshows/

But if you really want to emulate Cathy, why not get a French manicure?
http://www.videojug.com/film/how-to-giv ... h-manicure
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Elaine
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Lady Liberty

Post by Elaine »

The Statue of Liberty stands guard over New York harbor and is one of our most recognizable symbols. We see her in many of the establishing shots in BatB -- and it makes perfect sense. Show the Lady and you know you're in New York.

Find out more about her at:

http://www.nps.gov/archive/stli/prod02.htm

and

http://www.nyctourist.com/liberty1.htm

There's supposed to be a webcam on her at this site -- but I couldn't make it work. Maybe you'll have better luck:

http://www.libertycam.com

Tomorrow -- Ellis Island!
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Elaine
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Ellis Island

Post by Elaine »

Back before airplanes, people coming to New York came by boat -- and more than 12 million immigrants passed through Ellis Island -- where they were screened for entry into the United States.

Remember Dmitri in "Ashes, Ashes?" Had Ellis Island been open for business in 1987 as it had been earlier in the century -- it's quite likely he would have been screened out and never would have brought the plague to the tunnels.

To tour Ellis Island online:
http://www.history.com/minisites/ellisisland/
http://www.ellisisland.com/
http://www.nps.gov/elis/

If you'd like to search the passenger manifests and see if you can find any of your ancesters, try this link:
http://www.ellisisland.org/

Happy Hunting!
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Elaine
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Music in New York

Post by Elaine »

Music

There are musicians on every street corner, it seems -- from the teenage percussionists pounding out driving rhythms on upturned plastic buckets to the homeless harmonica player in the subway to the orchestra pits on Broadway.

Catherine and Vincent have a particular love for classical music. If you share their taste, you can check out:

The Metropolitan Opera
http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/index.aspx

City Opera
http://www.nycopera.com/

or -- do you know the old joke?

Tourist: How do you get to Carnegie Hall?
New Yorker: Practice, practice, practice!

Virtually speaking, you can get there online with a lot less work:
http://www.carnegiehall.org/jsps/intro.jsp

If classical isn't your favorite, there's always Radio City:
http://www.radiocity.com/eventcalendar/home

For jazz, try the Blue Note:
http://www.bluenote.net/newyork/index.shtml

Prefer the blues? There's B.B. King's:
http://www.bbkingblues.com/

Or do you want to stay closer to the tunnels? Music Under New York is an arts program run by the Metropolitan Transit Authority
http://www.mta.info/mta/aft/muny/

And, of course -- finally and always -- there are the concerts in Central Park. If you go, remember who might be sitting under your feet.
http://www.centralpark.com/pages/attrac ... shell.html

But leave them alone, won't you? They get so little time to themselves.
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Elaine
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Light

Post by Elaine »

Lights -- the first thing you see when you fly into New York City at night and one of the true joys of having an apartment with a view (to say nothing of a balcony!)

Lights in New York come in many shapes and sizes.

Check out the lighthouses in New York Harbor:
http://www.lighthousemuseum.org/harbor.htm

Learn what the different colors of the lights on the Empire State Building mean (and take a virtual tour of the ESB while you're at it):
http://www.esbnyc.com/tourism/tourism_l ... hedule.cfm

See the lights of the Great White Way through the Times Square webcams:
http://www.earthcam.com/usa/newyork/timessquare/

And see some of the beautiful holiday displays:
http://nymag.com/guides/holidays/lights/index.html

Candles are good -- but the lights Above can be pretty spectacular.
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Elaine
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Libraries

Post by Elaine »

Although the Bennett Historical Library, where Catherine found the information on Seaman's Safe Haven in Terrible Savior, doesn't really exist, you can find at least one other library here where Catherine and Vincent conducted some nocturnal research into a particular doctor's appearance before HUAC.

The New York Public Library is a magnificent Beaux-Arts building, guarded by two marble lions known as Patience and Fortitude. They were given those names by Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia in the 1930s as representing two qualities New Yorkers would need to get through the depression. (That's the official story but it's my belief those are just the qualities any New Yorker needs to get through the day.)

The NYPL's home page is here:
http://www.nypl.org/

You can see highlights from the collection of another famous library, the Morgan, here:
http://www.morganlibrary.org/

And Catherine, in the course of her investigations, may very well have spent a lot of time at the City Hall Library (the website has some interesting photo collections on display):
http://www.nyc.gov/html/records/html/ab ... rary.shtml
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222333
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Thank you!

Post by 222333 »

*
Thank you, Elaine, all this is absolutely great!

I look forward to the installment treating the literary works about NYC... (hint, hint... )

S
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Elaine
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Speaking of the utterly absurd. . .

Post by Elaine »

I bet some of you on the gutter wish Vincent would have participated in this.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10982612/
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Elaine
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Re: Thank you.

Post by Elaine »

You're very welcome. And that's a great idea about the literary works! Let me have a few days to put it together. Coming soon. . . .
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jecris27
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Post by jecris27 »

I bet some of you on the gutter wish Vincent would have participated in this.
ROFL! "Chaos and joy" - I love it! :-D
MissyK
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My favorite NYC website

Post by MissyK »

Hi, everyone--

I'm new here, but when I was browsing the posts and came across this one I couldn't help wanting to share my favorite site about NYC, called "Forgotten New York".

http://www.forgotten-ny.com/index.html

I didn't see this one on any of the other posts; if I missed it and it has already been posted, then I apologize! I'll confess that I lived in Ohio for many years, and now live in Florida, have only been to NYC twice in my life--and yet I love this site, and check back on it regularly to see what's been added.

I can almost imagine Catherine, Joe, or even Vincent noticing some of these things about their city, and smiling a little. And it has a whole section on subway tunnels, with some information on abandoned lines and closed subway stations, with gorgeous pictures!

Missy
"If you didn't want them asking questions, you should never have given them library cards."
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Elaine
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Literary New York

Post by Elaine »

New York is and has been home to lots of writers and has been written about by a lot more than actually live here.

To start our tour of Literary New York we might want to have lunch at the Algonquin -- home of the legendary Round Table where Dorothy Parker and Alexander Woolcott and Robert Benchley used to meet.
http://www.algonquinhotel.com/

For a list of books that are set in New York, you can go here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_bo ... _York_City

It's a long list -- so I'll make some recommendations:

First, "The Great Gatsby," of course, by F. Scott Fitzgerald -- because it shows up in "A Distant Shore" - although it's not one of my favorites.

There are a lot of good books on this list (and a lot I've never read) but I can recommend these three at least:

"A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" by Betty Smith - a truly beautiful coming-of-age story about a young girl in the early 20th Century

"My Sister Eileen" by Ruth McKenney -- very funny short stories about two girls living in Greenwich Village

"From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler" by E. L. Konigsburg -- a children's story about two kids who go to live in the Metropolitan Museum of Art -- but fun for grown-ups too.

A couple of good New York books that aren't on the list:

Any of the Mr. & Mrs. North murder mysteries by Francis and Richard Lockridge -- Pam and Jerry North have fun and solve crime in 1930s and 40s NYC (and they have cats!) Extremely well-written and a lot of fun. They may be out of print but libraries have them and a couple were re-released in paperback just a few years back.

The Matthew Scudder mysteries by Lawrence Block who is a brilliant writer. Be warned -- they sometimes get a bit gorey and gruesome.

"Apple of My Eye" by Helene Hanff -- a really fun book about touring NYC by a New York native. In case you don't know, Helene Hanff is also the author of "84 Charing Cross Road" -- which is only partially set in New York but is also a lovely book.

Anyway, with a list like this Vincent and Catherine will have a lot to read to each other for a long time to come -- if they can't find anything better to do.
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