New York City – Page 9 – Bradley's Old Fashioned Weblog

Riverbank State Park at Sunset

June 30, 2014September 4, 2021 Bradley FarlessLeave a comment

Another spot I enjoy walking to and in is Riverbank State Park. The park is an elevated, artificial park that is built onto the side of Manhattan island. To get to it, you have to walk over one of two bridges, or by walking up a few flights of stairs from the Hudson River Greenway below.

Riverbank Park has a pool, a track, tennis courts, indoor basketball courts, a roller skating rink, a restaurant and I think a cultural center. Kind of hard to believe it’s all built on an artificial, elevated platform.

Walking down there is about 2.25 miles. It’s a great place to stop, use the bathroom, and take in the sights before turning around and heading back home. I don’t know that I’d want to have a picnic there, though there are certainly facilities for it. I think Fort Tryon Park is a much nicer place to go for that. But, it would be a great place to sit down and read a book for a while. The breeze there is nice, since it’s over the water.

Fort Tryon Park and the Cloisters

June 27, 2014September 4, 2021 Bradley FarlessLeave a comment

The ice cream truck. We each got a vanilla sugar cone. It was that kind of day.

A woman doing an oil painting of the scenery.

Jewish kids playing.

A view of the Hudson River.

The Cloisters.

My wife and I have been taking some time to go out for long walks while I’m not so swamped with classwork. Central Park is nice, but we live a lot closer to Fort Tryon Park, which is also an awesome place to visit. We can walk there from where we live and the park itself has some great views of the Hudson River and The Cloisters, a branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art that houses a large part of the museum’s medieval collection.

We walked around there on a Saturday afternoon. Since it was a Saturday afternoon, the park was full of Jewish people relaxing for Shabbat. We saw families sitting on benches, walking together, taking in the view, and kids playing. There were groups of people on picnic blankets and some playing games.

My wife and I would like to go back and have a picnic. Maybe we can pull that off this weekend.

Architecture of Doom

June 20, 2014 Bradley Farless2 Comments

A few months ago, or maybe half a year ago now, I came across a Tumblr blog called “Architecture of Doom“. As it’s name suggests, the blog is home to images of terribly uninspiring and depressing architecture. The effect is elevated by the clean, minimalist white blog theme that seems almost cheery by comparison.

Every time I walk past this set of four buildings in Upper Manhattan, I think of that blog:

These buildings literally straddle I-95.

That’s a highway, running below them. Is it an odd feeling, I wonder, knowing that every day thousands of vehicles roll beneath your feet, under your apartment? What would happen if there were an earthquake? Though I suppose if there were an earthquake in New York City it wouldnt’ matter if there were a highway under most of these buildings or not. They would almost all collapse anyway.

There’s something terribly depressing about this facade. It radiates poverty, depression, and despair. Whether that is true of the people that live there or not, I don’t know.

I walked past these buildings on Tuesday because I was going to the library on 179th Street. I discovered that there’s an app called Overdrive Media Console for iOS that makes checking out digital copies of the New York Public Library’s collection a snap. I hadn’t used my library card since I got it 3 years ago, so it had been canceled. Maybe they thought I was dead?

The Merchant’s House Museum

June 18, 2014September 4, 2021 Bradley FarlessLeave a comment

There’s a building on 4th Street in Lower Manhattan that is a museum. It doesn’t really look like a museum. Not when you’re standing there in front of it and mentally comparing it to the Metropolitan Museum of Art or the Guggenheim, but it was well worth the time I spent inside looking around. It takes about an hour and a half or two hours to look at everything. Maybe a bit longer if you want to just hang out and soak up the atmosphere. It’s not pricey either. 10 bucks for adults, 5 bucks if you have a student ID.

The building was built in the early 1800s and the furnishings and personal effects in the home were the property of the original owner, who bought the place in 1835. There have been a few modifications, like the addition of a fire escape for safety, bars on a few windows for security, and the removal of the outdoor latrine for sanitary purposes. Part of the garden was paved over with additional marble paving stones. Two indoor toilets were added for museum visitors. But, most everything else is authentic, like the cooking implements, clothing, hats, wash basins, and furniture. There’s even a pail of coal in the kitchen that one can pick up to experience the carrying load of a household servant or slave.

It’s a cool place and I’m looking forward to going again with my wife. I went by myself on a weekday afternoon. We’re particularly interested in attending one of the summer evening lectures in the outdoor private garden.

The Bethesda Terrace and Fountain in Central Park

June 13, 2014September 4, 2021 Bradley FarlessLeave a comment

I’m really glad that this is turning into one of those months where I get to mark a lot of things off my bucket list! I’ve been meaning to visit this location for years, ever since I saw a person get killed there in an episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. If I remember right, the person was dumped into the fountain and left floating.

We got to the Terrace by walking up the Mall.

The Bethesda Terrace and Fountain are awesome places to hang out. There were a ton of tourists there.

Just beyond, on The Lake (yes, that’s it’s name and it’s capitalized on the map), people were boating.

A little ways down the road towards the west, the slope leading down to the lake was covered by people soaking up the sun.

And bordering on The Lake at Wagner Cove, the NYPD Mounted Patrol was preparing to go on patrol:

50th Annual Celebrate Israel Parade

June 11, 2014 Bradley FarlessLeave a comment

My wife and I went to the 50th annual Celebrate Israel Parade on 5th Avenue on the 1st. It was a lot of fun. I was particularly struck by the amount of pride and patriotism that the participants displayed. It stands in stark contrast to the attitude Americans seem to have about America.

We didn’t realize it at the time, but the Philippines National Day parade is held on the same day, one street over, every year. We missed out. Next year we’ll do a double-header and catch two parades in one afternoon.

We didn’t stay for the entire Celebrate Israel Parade. It runs from 11 AM until 4 PM. We were there until about 1:30 and then took a walk through Central Park before heading uptown to a nice a Indian food dinner in the neighborhood. It’s amazing how many cultures one can partake of in a single afternoon in this city!

Please check out the rest of my photos of the parade in full resolution in my Flickr Gallery: 50th Annual Israel Day Parade – 2014

The Liberato Helicopter

June 9, 2014 Bradley FarlessLeave a comment

The Liberato Helicopter

I’ve spent most of the last three days sick. Snotty, achy, fatigued sick. So, I spent almost all of this beautiful weekend either sleeping, sitting in bed, or sitting in front of my desk, trying to entertain myself with books. That was sort of hard because I was having trouble concentrating. Time Warner’s internet also went down for about 24 hours starting Saturday afternoon. That wasn’t very fun.

I would rather have been outside. It was such a nice weekend, or at least the weather app on my phone made me think it was a nice weekend.

I did manage to get out of the house for a little while this evening. I was tottering along the street. I joked to my wife that I felt like a zombie from The Walking Dead.

We were on a mission to find a mango, and I wanted a little fresh air. I also had some letters I wanted to mail and I needed to get a thank you card for a rabbi that hosted my wife and I for an evening this past Shavuot.

While we were out on this walk, looking for a mango, we went down Broadway and visited some stores we hadn’t seen before. That’s where I saw the cool helicopter mascot thing at Liberato, a small grocery store on the corner of 163rd Street.

Anyway, we wound up finding an Associated Supermarket on 161st and Broadway, which we hadn’t realized was there. I guess we never took enough time to explore the neighborhood when we moved here last year. We were always so busy. Associated had our mango. In fact, they had our mango on sale, so we got three, and it tasted great in our veggie sushi rolls.

Visiting Historic Richmond Town on Staten Island

May 26, 2014 Bradley FarlessLeave a comment

Guyon-Lake-Tysen House c. 1740 with kitchen addition in 1820s.

Before this month I’d never heard of Historic Richmond Town on Staten Island. The place isn’t heavily advertised and the carpenter in the recreated shop there told us that he wasn’t surprised, because a lot of people that live there in Staten Island have never heard of the place either. You almost wouldn’t know it was there if you rode by on the bus or in in a car. Maybe that says more about the quality of buildings on Staten Island in general than it does about the site, though, that it’s hard to tell buildings that are almost 300 years old apart from the rest of what Staten Island has to offer.

Getting to Richmond Town from Upper Manhattan was a little bit of a struggle. The A train kept stopping in the tunnel and then went local below 59th Street. I know they’ve been doing some construction on the tunnels during the week, at night, but it would be nice if the city could keep the trains running on time when they’re not doing work on the tracks, otherwise what’s the point of the new construction schedule the city pushed? The ferry ride was nice, at least. I always enjoy the views of the city from the boat. The bus ride from the ferry to the town was about 25 minutes, which isn’t too bad.

When we got to Richmond Town we were afraid it was closed because the place was so quiet and empty. I guessed that it was because this is Memorial Day weekend and most people probably stayed home to relax or went out of town for barbecues. When we got to the ticket counter in the gift shop, the clerk there said that Memorial Day weekend is usually really quiet and cited the same reasons I suggested. I didn’t really care that the place was empty of people. Getting away from the crowds in New York City, seeing some trees, grass, fresh air and open spaces was just fine with me.

The fact that most of the buildings were closed was a problem, though. No one there was in costume. When we went on the 3:30 tour, our guide used a set of keys to open up each building we went into and had to take time to open the shutters so there would be light inside. She kept mentioning that the buildings saw regular, period-style use during the week. I wonder who has time to go out there during the week? I’m going to have to do some research and make some phone calls to find out if we can go back on another weekend and see the place completely up and running.

That being said, the tour was really good and our guide knew quite a bit about the houses she was showing us. She was also ready to answer random questions about the facilities and other buildings we were walking by. I was not disappointed at all. It was a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

Here are some of my favorite photos from the place:

Street leading up to the 3rd County Courthouse 1837

Recreation of an 1830-1860 rural carpenter’s workshop.

Interior of the carpenter’s shop.

A horse hitch. Below this is a big stone that passengers alighting from carriages would step on to avoid falling or stepping in mud.

Guyon Store/Tavern c. 1865

A dairy delivery cart.

Lincoln Logs

Puppets

Guyon Store/Tavern c. 1865

Guyon-Lake-Tysen House c. 1740 with kitchen addition in 1820s.

Left to right: popcorn maker, toaster, waffle iron, iron. Back: meat roaster.

Guyon-Lake-Tysen House c. 1740 with kitchen addition in 1820s.

General Store c. 1840, with later additions.

Colon Store/Tinsmith Shop

Better quality images and more details can be found in my Historic Richmond Town Flickr gallery.

A Dance Parade, Protesters, Painters & People Stealing Garbage

May 17, 2014 Bradley FarlessLeave a comment

People protesting something going on in Turkey.

A crazy guy dancing with a toilet seat. He usually does this by the large black cube at Astor Place. — A crazy guy dancing with the molding from a van window, I think. He usually does this by the large black cube at Astor Place.

This guy was taking a break from dancing to the tune of a nearby Buddhist meditation group. Shortly after this, he took a bag of trash from the public bin and walked away with it.

This is Francis Virella. He wants to make it big as an artist.

Today, there were all sorts of things going on in Union Square. We just happened to be walking through and saw a crazy guy dancing, another crazy guy stealing a bag of garbage from a public trash can, had a conversation with a guy that wants to make it big as an artist, and then wandered into a dance parade. It was a lot of fun, and the random, amazingly entertaining things that you can just stumble into is one of the reasons I love New York City.

You can see the rest of the parade photos, in a higher resolution in my Flickr gallery by clicking HERE.

Yeshiva University

May 9, 2014 Bradley FarlessLeave a comment

I can see this place from the end of my block but I rarely have a reason to come this far uptown. I was on 181 this morning dropping off an Amazon return and snapped this photo while waiting on the bus. I wonder if there are any kosher or Israeli restaurants around here?