A Manhattan Bookstore Closes

More than a year ago, Shakespeare & Company's store, on Broadway near 105th Street on Manhattan's Upper West Side, was closed a short time after it opened for business. I learned it was closing from an article in the weekly newspaper, The Spirit. I later went to the store to buy a couple of mystery paperbacks at a significant discount.

I think the store could have been saved if the owners had focused exclusively on LGBTQ books and merchandise (like posters, rainbow flags, key chains, and slogan buttons).

In a city with a sizable LGBTQ population, and no bookstore catering to it, I refuse to believe such a bookstore would not have been able to thrive, even in harsh economic times. LGBTQ bars seem to stay afloat no matter what.

Aside from selling books and LGBTQ-related merchandise, the store could have been used for book readings, book signings, lectures, film screenings, game nights, special events, etc. The store needed owners who could think outside the box and experiment with different ways to attract a loyal clientele.

The location, in a very busy section of town, would have been a perfect refuge for LGBTQ bibliophiles, in an area convenient to public transportation, public parks, restaurants, supermarkets, and smaller shops.

Harlem Church Tours

I could be wrong, but I believe that the hundreds of tourists visiting Harlem churches every Sunday morning come for the spectacle, the entertainment value of the services rather than for religious reasons.

Author's Note: The church, pictured above, was located on West 123rd Street, near the corner of Lenox Avenue, in Harlem. It was next door to the homophobic, anti-Obama ATLAH Missionary Church. The A.M.E. church is now occupied by a mosque called Masjid Futa Islamic Center Harlem.

Finding Free Books On The Streets Of Manhattan

Among the authors whose books I have found in free book kiosks, on street corners, and in front of apartment buildings are Harper Lee, Richard Wright, Dorothy L. Sayers, Walter Isaacson, Stephen King, James McBride, Isabel Allende, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Ed McBain,  Kurt Vonnegut, Sylvia Plath, Percival Everett, Jhumpa Lahiri, Amy Tan, Clive Cussler, John Steinbeck, Renee Rosen, and Michael Eric Dyson.

That would also include a copy of In the Life: A Black Gay Anthology, published in 1986 and edited by Joseph Beam. I was one of its contributors. (New York's Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture listed In the Life on its "100 Black Voices Schomburg Centennial Reading List." I know Joe would have been very pleased.) 

Finding free books on the street is one of the many perks of living in otherwise pricey Manhattan.

The Two Amigos

Me (on the left) and Robert Toro, my friend of nearly twenty (?) years, in his Manhattan apartment, circa Christmas 2020 or 2021.

A Ghost In Harlem

                              Harlem, West 120th Street, near Lenox Avenue.

A Masked Giraffe On Manhattan's Upper West Side

This masked giraffe (not a real one, obviously) was seen outside a liquor store on Columbus Avenue in Manhattan during the COVID-19 pandemic. Was it a subtle reminder to patrons to wear a mask before entering the store?  Recently the giraffe was seen without the mask.

Netflix Saves An Iconic Manhattan Movie House

The Paris Theatre, the last single-screen movie house in Manhattan, recently closed its doors. For a long time I'd thought about seeing a movie there but never got around to doing it. When the theatre closed, I thought my opportunity to visit was forever gone. Then I read in Time Out New York magazine (December 11-24, 2019, Issue 1177), that Netflix came to the Paris Theatre's rescue by signing a long-term lease.

Netflix, reported Time Out, will use the Paris Theatre "to stage screenings and special events." And since the Academy Awards only allows films that have had a theatrical release to be nominated for an Oscar, Netflix films will have a ready-made venue.

Now if we could just convince Netflix to take over the long-vacant Metro Cinema, located on Broadway and 99th Street, at one time a venue for art-house films. The Upper West Side was once the home to many movie houses. Now there are none. Bringing back the Metro Cinema would be a wonderful thing.

And while we're at it, maybe Netflix can also revive the Lincoln Plaza Cinemas, which was located near Lincoln Center. It closed down about two years ago.

A Memorable Slogan

I love this slogan seen on the side of a truck belonging to a porta-potty company that was parked on Saint Nicholas Avenue, near 123rd Street, in Harlem: "We're Number One In Picking Up Number Two." It's a slogan more dog owners should adopt.

Summer Events In New York, 2019

I hope everyone is enjoying the spring so far. Summer is not too far away. The Museum Mile Festival on Fifth Avenue, Wall to Wall John Coltrane at the Symphony Space Theatre (an eight-hour event), and the Stonewall 50 celebration are among the summer events I'm looking forward to.

Traveling By Bus On Dark Riverside Drive

A cautionary note: this blog post may be too New York-centric, unless you plan to visit soon and use our mass transit system.

On my way home from grocery shopping at the Target store in East Harlem on January 19, I took the crosstown M116 bus that travels along 116th Street to the West Side, where I live. The bus had a video screen mounted to the roof that faced the passengers and announced all of the stops both visually and by automated voice (female) as well as what buses and subways to transfer to.

I was hoping that the M5 bus, which I take often and that goes up Riverside Drive, would have similar screens installed.Some of these buses had roof-attached screens but they did not display transit and stop information;others didn't have the screens at all.The ones that did only featured info that told riders about bus etiquette such as not putting one's feet on the seats or not talking too loudly on their cell phone.

The thing that concerns me the most is that the street corners on the Riverside Drive route is so dark it's hard to read street signs from inside the bus. And since the drivers frequently fail to announce the stops, the on board message screens would be a big remedy to this problem.

Another remedy would be placing lighted cross street-name signs on Riverside Drive like the ones in the 34th Street/Herald Square area. Maybe the people who live in the buildings along Riverside Drive are too hoity-toity to have such signs on street corners.

Whose Harlem Is It?

"Around 123rd Street, an enormous luxury high-rise is going up. The people of the neighborhood have scrawled, in white paint, on the walls of the construction site: Where will we live? For Harlem is an exceedingly valuable chunk of real estate and the state and the city and the real-estate interests are reclaiming the land and urban renewalizing--or gentrifying--the niggers out of it."--James Baldwin, "Whose Harlem Is This, Anyway?" (1986), published in Essence magazine (November 1996), quoted in Whose Harlem Is This, Anyway?: Community Politics and Grassroots Activism During the New Negro Era by Shannon King (New York University Press, 2015), page 1 (Introduction).

Now that gentrification has firmly taken root in Harlem, Baldwin's comments are still timely and relevant in the 21st century.

Some New York Observations

Seen on 125th Street, Harlem: A young black man wearing a T-shirt with the word "Loser" on the front and over the letter "S" is a big red "V," changing "Loser" to "Lover."
(Originally posted on Twitter and Facebook on July 28, 2018.)
                                                       

While riding the New York City subway system, I sometimes feel like I'm part of a traveling circus:
panhandlers, a man covered in gold paint and glitter posing as a statue, homeless people asleep on the benches, people talking to themselves, young break dancers/gymnasts performing to rap music, musicians on the trains and platforms playing every kind of music you can imagine, et al.

One day I'll probably see on the subway a snake charmer or a magician or a palm reader. Scenes out of a Fellini movie.
(Originally posted on Facebook on September 24, 2018.)


When I see the name "Herald Square," I think of the long-gone Woolworth's even though it's the name of the area around 34th Street (formerly the home of the now-defunct New York Herald newspaper). "Herald Square" was the name Woolworth's gave to its line of stationery items (envelopes, writing pads, index cards, etc.).


Three days ago, I saw a barefoot middle-aged black man on 116th Street. He brought to mind the Barefoot Prophet, who walked the streets of Harlem in the 1920s in all kinds of weather reciting scripture.
(Originally posted on Twitter on August 30, 2018.)

Truman Capote And The Secrets Of The Affluent

One book that should be optioned for a motion picture, if it hasn't already, is The Swans of Fifth Avenue by Melanie Benjamin (Delacorte Press, 2016). This page-turner, which gives the reader a fly-on-the-wall view of events, is a fictionalized account of Truman Capote's befriending and betrayal of five wealthy Upper East Side women-- he called them his swans-- including Barbara "Babe" Paley, the wife of William Paley, the founder of the CBS broadcast network, and the swan with whom Capote had the closest relationship.

Capote wrote  a short story called " La Cote Basque, 1965" that was published in 1975 in Esquire magazine. The story revealed the secrets of the aforementioned women. These secrets were told to him with the belief that he would keep them confidential. When he didn't, they felt hurt and betrayed and as a result they shut him out of their lives. Capote never recovered from this ostracism.

It's too bad the late Philip Seymour Hoffman isn't around to reprise his portrayal of Capote in a possible film adaptation of The Swans of Fifth Avenue.

Note: The New York Times ran a story by Joseph Berger with the headline, "Cote Basque, A Society Temple, Is Closing" (September 18, 2003) that described the restaurant as "the high-society temple of classic French cuisine [located in Manhattan] that became the setting of a catty and thinly veiled excerpt from an unfinished novel by Truman Capote...."

Saving New York From Rising Sea Water

Donald Trump, our 45th president, is more concerned about building a wall along the southern border than he is building a sea wall in New York harbor to keep rising sea water from flooding lower Manhattan and other low-lying areas of the city. The wrath of Hurricane Sandy in 2012 should have been a wake-up call.

Note: I posted the above comment on Facebook on April 7, 2018.

Tomorrow is Earth Day.

Movies Are More Important Than Upscale Amenities

Especially since the advent of television, movie theatres have tried all kinds of gimmicks to attract audiences--3-D, CinemaScope, Surround sound, Sensurround, etc. In today's super-saturated media culture, theatres are even more determined to draw audiences away from all of these distractions.

Stephen Field's column in the March 2018 issue of W42ST magazine underscores that fact. "I haven't been in a movie theater in NYC for quite a while," he admits,"and had never been to an upscale cinema before" until he discovered The Landmark at 57 West theatre in Manhattan.

Field describes the concession fare as being "a fair amount of the expected junk," but then points out the more upscale fare available such as "Two Boots pizza slices, Eisenberg Gourmet Beef Franks, and Bronx Pretzels."

He concludes the item by saying how comfortable the leather reclining seats were and that "I can't see myself ever going back to a typical movie theater again after being spoiled like this."

A true cinema buff doesn't go to the movies to be spoiled by any amenities offered by a theatre. It's what's on the big screen that matters. (It's very revealing that nowhere in the item does he mention what movie he saw.)

I've never been to The Landmark at 57 West. It is on my list of theatres to visit one day. But when I do decide to go, it won't be because of the amenities. My main concerns are that the theatre be comfortable but within reason and that it uses the best audio-visual equipment available when films are screened.

 And no amount of luxuries will dissuade me from going to "a typical movie theater." I love movies too much to ever let that happen.

More Movie Theatres Are Needed In Upper Manhattan

Sad to say, I never got the chance to see any movies at the Lincoln Plaza Cinemas on the Upper West Side of Manhattan or the Sunshine Cinema farther downtown. Both theatres closed permanently about ten days apart in January of this year.

Since there is a dearth of movie theatres, especially on the Upper West Side and Harlem, maybe someone will decide to re-open the Metro Cinema on Broadway at 99th Street and the Victoria 5 Theatre on 125th Street. Both of those theatres have stood vacant for several years.

In fact, there are more film crews shooting on the streets of the Upper West Side and Harlem than there are theatres in which to show those movies. With the exception of the AMC Magic Johnson Theatres in Harlem, this part of town,unfortunately, has largely become a movie theatre desert.

Turning Church Property Into Condos

According to the New York Daily News (February 4, 2017), two churches in Harlem that merged  years ago--Mount Calvary United Methodist Church and St. Mark's Methodist Church--sold Mount Calvary's former (and now rarely used) worship site to a developer for the hefty sum of $7.5 million.

Pastor John Carrington stated in the paper that selling the building, located at Edgecombe Avenue and 140th Street, "enables the church to have money to do more service for the community, as well as for itself."

Here's the problem: the developer plans to turn the church building into condos instead of affordable housing, something urgently needed in Harlem, which is becoming more and more gentrified.

The pastor may want to use the money "to do more service for the community," but if all the churches in Harlem sold their properties to developers, there won't be a community for them to serve.



Happy Valentine's Day!

Working The Polls In Upper Manhattan

Yesterday I worked as a New York City Board of Elections poll worker for 17 and a half hours. We started one hour before the polls opened at 6 am and finished an hour and a half after the polls closed at 9 pm. The polling site where I was assigned, in a heavily Hispanic neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, was non-stop busy. Fortunately we had two one-hour breaks.

New York's Museum Mile Festival

I'm looking forward to the annual Museum Mile Festival when all the museums along Fifth Avenue in Manhattan are free (for one day), from 6 pm until 9 pm.

On that day, Fifth Avenue, between 82nd and 106th Streets, is closed to traffic, making the street pedestrian-friendly.

 This year will mark my 9th year attending the festival, which takes place on Tuesday, June 14, rain or shine.

 I usually start my tour at the Museum of the City of New York and end at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, my favorite museum. If there is enough time left, I visit one of the other museums, like the Jewish Museum. Unfortunately, there is only so much that can be seen in three hours.

 As I walked down Fifth Avenue during past festivals, I encountered many pleasant sights and sounds: outdoor musicians, food vendors, magicians, adults and children writing messages on the street in colored chalk.

I hope this year's festival will bring with it good weather. One year it rained, preventing any outdoor activity which is part of the fun of attending the festival.

William F. Buckley's Aboveground Bike Lane Proposal

Conservative pundit and National Review founder and editor William F. Buckley, Jr. unsuccessfully ran for mayor of New York City in 1965. Kevin M. Schultz in his riveting book, Buckley and Mailer: The Difficult Friendship That Shaped the Sixties (W.W. Norton, 2015), writes that Buckley "proposed cutting down traffic by building a huge aerial bike lane twenty feet above the ground and twenty feet wide, above Second Avenue from First Street all the way to One Hundred Twenty-Fifth. All this biking would cut down traffic and get New Yorkers healthy."

Today there are bike lanes throughout the five boroughs as well as bike rentals made available via CitiBikes. So Buckley was about fifty years ahead of his time. The proposed aerial bike lane on Second Avenue, however, seems a bit preposterous.