The City that Never Sleeps: New York

 

New York has been such a formative psyche shaper for me ever since Buz and I drove there in the 1960s in his Yellow Karmann Ghia. 

Darryl and I had such brilliant times there. Our very first trip together in January of 1991 was to New York on the train with a stopover in Washington, DC. Teacher that I always am, I had to share every painting in the Metropolitan Museum that I love. We looked at every Post-Impressionist painting, the Picassos, and enjoyed a display of the art of Gilbert and George. 

Naturally, we also had to go to Cafe Reggio and Greenwich Village, old haunts of mine from the 1970s. No doubt Darryl had to roll his eyes at all the things I wanted to share. But this trip set the stage (so to speak) for so many visits to this high energy city for theater, art, tennis at the U.S. Open, calmly crossing the Brooklyn Bridge, eating wonderful dinners at the fabulous restaurants, and seeing shows in the Oak Room of the Algonquin, our favorite hotel.  

 

Of course, on our first trip to NYC, Darryl's experience of the Brooklyn Bridge was not so calm. After an exciting night at CBGB, Darryl was swept up by a protest march against the Iraq War. Some fell from the bridge when police cars pushed into the crowd. Darryl phoned me at 4 AM (we didn't have cell phones then) to tell me he would take a taxi back to our hotel. 

New York is so exciting in the winter. Here is Darryl walking on the Avenue, 5th Avenue, along Central Park which was so gorgeous in the snow: We even watched ice skaters gracefully enjoying the cold

Here is another fabulous stay we had there:

https://zonetotal.blogspot.com/2008/09/lights-were-bright.html

And another:

https://zonetotal.blogspot.com/2005/07/recalling-jamie-cullum-and-algonquin.html

We were always so engaged with New York, comfortable in its parks, enjoying gallery openings, one where I introduced Darryl to Allen Ginsberg who was showing his photographs, too comfortable at a club watching the Academy Awards when Brokeback Mountain won best director but lost best film. We took the subway everywhere, including the U.S. Open, enjoying every season, going to venues Darryl introduced me to, such as the Oak Room. Darryl often knew everything that was happening in the city, taking us to see the profound two parts of Angels in America on Broadway. 

Darryl even flew alone to New York a few weeks after September 11 (9-11) to see Strindberg's =Dance of Death= with Ian McKellen and Helen Mirren. Intellectually, and in the art world, New York was Darryl's Theater. 

 Darryl in Central Park