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captainsblogStrange it is, that I'd run my first-ever commute from New Jersey to Manhattan out of a station named for my almost great-great uncle.
T-Alv married my father's great-aunt's sister. At least one member of my family worked for Edison around the turn of the 20th. Sadly, Mary died before his electric empire really got going. But one of his legacies is the name of this small Jersey town, not far from the Menlo Park lab that housed so many successes and failures.
Today for me, though, it was no more than a staging ground for a longer and happier mission. An hour after leaving Edison, I was back in Penn Station and, soon, meeting a longtime LJ friend and her husband on their first-ever trip to New York.
They saw Hedwig last night while I was dodging short-range pucks, and I met them at their Herald Square hotel, barely a block from ours of last month.
They were interested in good food and good reads. We found both near Union Square.
In the square proper was a hipster-aplenty farmer's market:
Just past it, we could see the banner for the bookstore, along with a perfect choice for foodage:
Oddly, we had very little actual chorklit here- just the atmosphere full of it was plenty:
We had an odd moment where the server brought us the check quite a bit before we were finished- someone else's check, and said someone's credit card. Oops. We later saw a psychic reader on West 14th and wondered if SHE had been in on that.
From there, books. First at the Strand- that iconic indy that needs no coffee bar, comfy chairs or Wifi to bring in the readers. I scored gift books for Eleanor and Em, and the Gaiman/Pratchett book Good Omens, to mark Sir Terry's passing. He had a big display inside and a Broadway window with his Times obit. Here, we were among his people- and ours.
Two doors down, just as much so. Forbidden Planet is basically a permanent sci-fi con dealer's room, and Kristin found books she wanted that even the Strand didn't have.
Then back to retrace a route Emily and I took last month, in much warmer weather. We wandered through Chelsea Market, and headed up for 10 blocks or so of High Line. Though warmer, there was fog today and we couldn't see much more than a few blocks over.
Some final false starts and an A train detour later, we said goodbye in Penn... and this time I made the damn train.
----
I'm now in Hudson, a bit southeast of Albany, where Lucy Kaplansky will be playing tonight, along with her latest band incarnation. And Billy Joel's Vienna is on the pre-show audio. He's in the Garden, in the rafters of the Coliseum, on my car stereo. You just can't get the Long Island away from me;)
It's perfect to see Lucy tonight, since it's Pi Day, and at both of her previous shows I've been to, she's sung her mathematician father's whimsical "Song about Pi."
That story, and final pictures, when I'm home:-)
T-Alv married my father's great-aunt's sister. At least one member of my family worked for Edison around the turn of the 20th. Sadly, Mary died before his electric empire really got going. But one of his legacies is the name of this small Jersey town, not far from the Menlo Park lab that housed so many successes and failures.
Today for me, though, it was no more than a staging ground for a longer and happier mission. An hour after leaving Edison, I was back in Penn Station and, soon, meeting a longtime LJ friend and her husband on their first-ever trip to New York.
They saw Hedwig last night while I was dodging short-range pucks, and I met them at their Herald Square hotel, barely a block from ours of last month.
They were interested in good food and good reads. We found both near Union Square.
In the square proper was a hipster-aplenty farmer's market:
Just past it, we could see the banner for the bookstore, along with a perfect choice for foodage:
Oddly, we had very little actual chorklit here- just the atmosphere full of it was plenty:
We had an odd moment where the server brought us the check quite a bit before we were finished- someone else's check, and said someone's credit card. Oops. We later saw a psychic reader on West 14th and wondered if SHE had been in on that.
From there, books. First at the Strand- that iconic indy that needs no coffee bar, comfy chairs or Wifi to bring in the readers. I scored gift books for Eleanor and Em, and the Gaiman/Pratchett book Good Omens, to mark Sir Terry's passing. He had a big display inside and a Broadway window with his Times obit. Here, we were among his people- and ours.
Two doors down, just as much so. Forbidden Planet is basically a permanent sci-fi con dealer's room, and Kristin found books she wanted that even the Strand didn't have.
Then back to retrace a route Emily and I took last month, in much warmer weather. We wandered through Chelsea Market, and headed up for 10 blocks or so of High Line. Though warmer, there was fog today and we couldn't see much more than a few blocks over.
Some final false starts and an A train detour later, we said goodbye in Penn... and this time I made the damn train.
----
I'm now in Hudson, a bit southeast of Albany, where Lucy Kaplansky will be playing tonight, along with her latest band incarnation. And Billy Joel's Vienna is on the pre-show audio. He's in the Garden, in the rafters of the Coliseum, on my car stereo. You just can't get the Long Island away from me;)
It's perfect to see Lucy tonight, since it's Pi Day, and at both of her previous shows I've been to, she's sung her mathematician father's whimsical "Song about Pi."
That story, and final pictures, when I'm home:-)