Cid Wymann Tour
Penn Station 11am
Dr. Digby’s English (American Literature) class of 10 from CWPost LIU was on tour with me yesterday through New York City’s Chelsea neighborhood circa 1940. We pretended and the city Obliged.
We started at Penn station at 11am and ended at the Mason’s building on 6th avenue and 23rd, around the corner from Cid’s Gotham Fencing Club at 3pm.
The Highline – The Old Rail to the Meat Packing District
On the way we visited the Highline to imagine what the waterfront looked like (crowded with boats bringing goods from all over the world to NYC and lined with factories and warehouses), what the elevated trains to the meat-packing district smelled like (like a slaughterhouse), and why this part of Chelsea was called the wild wild west (longshoremen, sailors, saloons, prostitutes, factories, and Italian/Irish/Greek immigrant rivalry). We could imagine the Irish bar where Lefty brings Cid to teach him what choreography is by getting into a fight with a giant longshoreman.
Lunch at Uncle Nicks 29th and 8th
Lunch at Uncle Nicks (Greek) was awesome.
Blade Fencing Shop on 29th ‘tween 7th and 8th
We stopped at Blade (one of the few fencing retailers left in the city) where all twelve of us crowded into the tiny retail space filled with swords – both competitive and theatrical, masks, bags, pants, sneakers, socks, and jackets. I don’t think the store has every been that crowded before. The owner just watched and smiled as I talked about the difference between foil, sabre, and épée.
The Fencers Club on 28th
The Fencers Club (where foil, sabre, and épée were all being demonstrated with great physicality) was next. The salle was packed. The manager, Jonas, was kind enough to come over and give us all some background on the sport and the club while everyone sat on the wall benches looking past him to gaze at the action on the strips. Four students left with club brochures. I overheard them making plans to come back and try the sport out. “You won’t regret it,” I said. Outside of rugby, it’s about the greatest sport/martial art ever created.
Reading the Avenue
Then we snuck into the Hotel Chelsea (it’s under renovation but we made it into the bare lobby for all of fifteen seconds before we were shooed out.
The Patisserie Macaroon on 23rd near 6th Avenue was another nice break (who can resist their 20+ savory flavors?) and a quick look at the Mason’s Building and their high tiled ceilings, marble floors, large murals, all built in 1931 and stunning. We didn’t get to look at the creepy amphitheatres (there are 12 and I’ve seen three of them) because you have to go on the building tour to see them (I just work in the building so we had access). We all imagined the Gotham Fencer’s Club around the corner where Cid meets Tomik and Edward Farthings once again.
I stopped after all had left at Madison Park, only an avenue away, to look at my favorite views, north to the Empire State Building and south to the Flatiron Building.
Where are we again?
I never tire of it.
Zen Dad-dito Post
I’ll be posting a bit on my Zen Dad-dito blog the rest of this month and into August so take a look. Here’s the link. It’s my blog on fatherhood and all things Dad-dito.
Wizard 101
It is summer.
We’re at my in-laws home in Rockaway recovering from yesterdays annual block party. My son is playing wizards 101 on his aunt’s PC. We only have Macs at home.
My son goes away to sleep-away camp in 7 days. He’ll be gone for two weeks. Can you hear my silent scream? It’s in Connecticut so only a couple of hours away. We’ve never been away from him for more than a day. Well, my wife hasn’t. I travel for work so I’ve been away, but I’ve always known he was with her. I’m having a hard time with it. I can’t imagine what it will be like when he goes to college. Thankfully he’s only 10.
Recently my wife asked my son if he wanted me to run a small writing workshop for him and two of his friends who also like to read and write. My son said no. It works that way sometimes. There are some things he doesn’t want me to teach him. He lets me read his work. That will have to be enough for now.
Sometimes, when we cross streets together and are talking (about a book he’s reading or a book he wants to write one day) we reach for each other’s hand and hold as we cross. Sometimes he doesn’t pull away and we walk that way for a block or so before our hands part ways again.
Now he’s going to sleep-away camp for two weeks. 7 days and counting.
A Gunslinger Walks Into a Bar…
I’ve got a guest post up on Gotteenfiction today on facing the blank page – a feelings perspective.
Once I was conducting a training of trainers in Dallas on a Cultural Proficiency Course for court and treatment practitioners and a judge got fed up with me asking the process questions, “How did that exercise make you feel?” and “What did you notice about yourself during the exercise?” When I asked, yet again, after another experiential exercise that needed processing these same two questions, he stood up, slapped his hand onto his table, and said, “I don’t care how I feel. I don’t care how you feel. And I’m sick and tired of you asking us that question. And… I noticed that I’m getting more and more irritated when you ask.”
Now he was a judge.
And I was in Dallas.
And let’s remember, I’m a New York, non-practicing Jew.
“So,” I said. “You’ve got some feelings about that.”
Chop, Chop, Burn…
I’ve been reading a lot.
I read a lot normally but I especially enjoy reading when my day job gets me down. Grant writing, something I have to do to keep my day job, does indeed, gets me down. But it pays the bills so I do it. It’s a particularly stressful and challenging writing exercise that is usually done in some kind of collaborative trance amidst the silent screams of those engaged to tango.
I do not enjoy them, Sam I am, I do not like green grants and ham.
So to keep my sanity I read and write. Because I work so much during these time periods, the writing gets sidelined much of the time but… nobody takes away my subway reading time – that’s gold. Here’s what I’ve read in the last couple of months.
|
The Drowned Cities, by Paolo Bacigalupi – This is a novel not to be taken lightly. There are severed fingers, death and destruction on a cosmic scale and the re-emergence of a favorite character from Bacigalupi’s award winner Ship Breaker, a dog-face named Tool. This book is an incredibly brutal war story where children are the warriors and children are trained and taught to kill children. It is palpably haunting and way too disturbing for my son to read. Sorry, Max. This one you have to wait on. It’s a book that provides me with reason to screen some of my sons book selections – even though the selections are stellar. For anyone else with a strong stomach, this is a beautifully written winner that you will not easily forget.
Furnace (Lockdown book I, Solitary book II, and Death Sentence book III) by Alexander Gordon Smith – There are five books in the series and seriously, how could you not pick this series up? I found it while I was in the Andrew Smith section. I just happened to see books by an Alexander Smith about a prison named furnace that seemed incredibly hellish and was filled with boys and – it looked terrific. What I will say about this series – which I have stopped reading in the middle of book III – is that it is compelling and fascinating and bloody, and brutal. What I will also say is that I didn’t care so much about the main character and that made it hard to read on. By the middle of book III I just didn’t like him any more. And so Furnace has gone the way of The Game of Thrones, put down because I didn’t want to read about the main character(s) anymore. I think I’m more likely to come back to Furnace though, because I see where Smith is going, I just don’t want to go there right now. I’ll leave this one up to you. If you’ve read the books, let me know what you thought.
I just finished Steve Jobs. I’ve talked about Jobs before, though, and that’s probably enough for the time being. Firm thumbs up on the biography.
|
My son bought me the first book in The Rangers Apprentice Series by John Flanagan and I have to say it’s shaping up to be a fine fantasy read. Only a few chapters in and I’m totally engaged with the two main characters. I’m a sucker for swords and bows, long knives and shields – though not particularly in that order. More to come when I’m finished.
More book talk later in the week. There’s another one my son swears by and I always read what he thinks is good just as he does with me. I’ve got him reading The Bartimaeus Series by Jonathan Stroud. One of my personal favorites. He’s ripping though the second book as I write this and the moon rises over Jackson Heights.
Lunievicz 