Here Hare Here: A Face in the Crowd

It never feels like NYC until you see the ESB

Gateway to one of the greatest avenues in the world; it's always a bit of a thrill to walk from Washington Sq to Central Park down Fifth

Where you went before Amazon

Getting newer

Despite the fact that we were both hugely fatigued, we had arrived in NYC and as such left our bags and embarked on a trek immediately. We took the subway downtown, then walked the West Village, Greenwich Village, and took lunch in a nice French bistro. Afterwards over towards NYU, Washington Square, Union Square, and all the way up Fifth Avenue to midtown. I think at least a 12 km walk. I was more than ready for a siesta.

For dinner we took the subway down to the East Village. I remember the EV in 1981 being a haunted house; it was riddled with graffiti and drug addicts and you never knew what you would encounter around the next corner. It was actually terrifying on the dimly lit side-streets after dark. Now it’s rather tame. We went to Calliope, a place we’d read about in the New Yorker, on East 4^th north of Houston. We didn’t have a reservation and they were booked but they gave us a place at the bar. We got there early, around seven (two hours earlier than south American dinner time!) and the place packed out fast. By eight every table was booked, there were people waiting, and it was two deep at the bar. Incredible dinner: A lovely salad to start, gorgeous poached halibut in beurre blanc, a spectacular rabbit stuffed with leeks, carrot and wrapped in bacon on a lentil stew, and a rhubarb tart to finish. Amazing. I told the chef he should serve the rabbit dish with a straw.

Exquisite: Rabbit stuffed with carrot and leek, wrapped in bacon, on a lentil stew

Halibut poached in beurre blanc

Although we both could have crashed then and there NYC is too exciting to give in, so we took the subway back to midtown then walked in and around Times Square before returning to the hotel.

Lights on Broadway

Up early and out the door Friday and it was, yes, raining. Not sprinkling, good old fashioned Vancouver pouring rain. With wind. Any remnant of my tan peeled off immediately. We decided given the weather to visit the MOMA; it's been about 20 years since I was there and of course it's had a complete reno. We arrived to find every tourist in midtown was doing the same. We lined up, and lined up, and lined up.

Line-up, from halfway down the block in the rain, to buy tickets to get in

Mandatory coat-check line; I put my hotel umbrella in a public box and hoped for the best

Line up for the cafe

Lining up to look at, and take a picture of, Starry Night

Brown Thrasher with its young; photo from 1941

Inspiration to many

The Jackson Pollock no one was looking at

Model for a pavillion in Seville

Rem Koolhaas' (author of Delirious New York, the most stolen book at U of T in the 1980s) design for a Dutch house

1937 photo of a Northumbrian miner taking dinner

Dots. From a distance they made the shape of a face. Art, as Warhol said, is what you can get away with.

We were just there.

After the museum and lunch we popped into the Bloomingdale's flagship on Lexington and 59th then went downtown to window shop. The rain had turned to a sprinkle, so all was not lost.