New York X: But then again, too few to mention.

 

And so, back from New York.  It seems odd to say that we had a whirlwind tour of Manhattan, given that we had almost eight full days, but it speaks volumes to say that we didn't manage to fit in everything that we had planned, even with just over a week. (Karli's sister and her family went for four days - now that's a whirlwind visit!)

 

However, even with the limitations of time, we did pretty well:  two visits to the Empire State Building (daylight and nighttime); a backstage tour of NBC Studios;  the MOMA, the Met, the Whitney and the Museum of Natural History; the 9/11 Memorial, which may or may not count as a museum at this point in time; a wonderful wander through Central Park and a walk across the Brooklyn Bridge; two Broadway shows, Wicked and Chicago; some excellent dining experiences, with particular praise for Co. Pizza, Tacombi, Ivan Ramen and PizzArte; and the endlessly entertaining experience of just walking the streets of the city.

I'd also like to thank Michelle for our ideal little AirBnB pied-à-terre in Chelsea. And, as always, my girlfriend Karli was the perfect travel companion - New York would have been dull and tedious without you, my love.

But I do have one regret from the trip: I didn't find the used science fiction bookstore of my dreams.  Given the pivotal position that New York occupies in the development of modern science fiction, combined with a general belief that if you want to buy something, it will be available in New York, I had high hopes for finding a few gems to add to my collection.

The Strand bookstore was a great location, but I obviously misunderstood their position regarding used books. They do purchase used books, but their inventory - at least the portions that I browsed - seemed to be entirely hardcover or trade paperbacks, and relatively recent ones.  I didn't browse through their Rare Books section, but I feel that used science fiction paperbacks only qualify as "rare books" in a few cases (and when they do, they become a rather expensive commodity).  Similarly, Unoppressive Non-Imperialist Bargain Books was an intriguing little spot, but not a used book venue.

I had hoped that Singularity and Co. would be that store, and all evidence on line indicates that, at one point, it would have been exactly the place I was looking for.  However, online evidence also suggests that both the store and the associated scanning endeavour came to an untimely end (to the frustration and irritation of its Kickstarter™ supporters) leaving behind nothing but an empty rental space in Brooklyn and the digital equivalent for their web site.

Further research indicates that had I broadened my search, I might have found what I was looking for in one of the surrounding boroughs, but with the exception of our brief jaunt over to DUMBO, our plans never extended to leaving Manhattan.

Ah, well...there's always next time.

- Sid

New York IX: Angels in America.

"New York, the city of a million stories. Half of them are true, the other half just haven't happened yet." 

Sam Garner:  The Angels Take Manhattan, Doctor Who

Did you know that Central Park isn't a natural phenomenon?  Until I took the Big Bus tour of Manhattan, I shared the popular impression that the Park was a little piece of wilderness that had been set aside as a common space during the growth of New York.

I was quite surprised to discover that, in fact, every tree, rock, pool and pathway in Central Park is deliberate, the result of the Greensward Plan which was drafted in 1856 by landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted and his partner Calvert Vaux.*  Olmsted and Vaux treated the park as a blank canvas - their plan called for a complete reconstruction of the 843 acre location, creating a deliberately picturesque and pastoral oasis in the centre of Manhattan. 

Regardless of its origins, Central Park has a special place in the hearts of Doctor Who fans as the location of the poignant farewell to Doctor companions Amy and Rory in the Season 8 episode The Angels Take Manhattan, filmed on location in New York.**

 

It's always interesting to visit a filming location and see how the production version compares with real life - or real geography, in this case. For example, Rory certainly covers a lot of ground on his coffee run near the start of the episode: the trio are enjoying their picnic near the southeast corner of the park, and he encounters a Weeping Angel near Bethesda Terrace, which suggests that he must have gone to the Loeb Boathouse for coffee. That would be about a solid half mile of walking, depending on exactly where he started.  On the other hand, he's just escaped from a conversation about the signs of aging on his wife's face, so he may be deliberately taking his time.

 

Subsequent action takes place throughout the city, although I'm not sure about the location of the cemetery in which the Doctor says his final farewell to Amy (not counting her appearance for Matt Smith's final episode).  We were able to find the park bench where the Doctor reads Amy's final farewell to him, though.

"Hello, old friend, and here we are. You and me, on the last page."

"I should have worn a bow tie for this, bow ties are cool."

When Karli and I visited Bethesda Fountain during one of our strolls through Central Park, I was sharply reminded of the downside of the immobile Weeping Angel lifestyle, the one that never seems to come up on the show...

...pigeons.

- Sid

* Okay, almost every.  The original plan did not include playgrounds, and the Zoo also was not part of the original plan, but was rather the result of informal donations of exotic animals to the Park, which led to the founding of an official home for the menagerie in 1864.

** Mostly on location.  They did some additional greenscreen shooting in Cardiff when they got home.

New York VIII: 18 Miles of Books.

As a bibliophile*, there was obviously no way I was going to visit New York without shopping for books.  (We also did some shoe shopping for Karli - it's important that both people in a relationship get to enjoy their interests when travelling together.)  We managed to get to three bookstores during our time in Manhattan, which between them represented almost the full spectrum of independent book retailing.

(Come to think of it, I can’t think of many chain bookstore spottings during our time in Manhattan, which probably speaks to the difficulties of maintaining a storefront in the age of internet shopping.)

On Thursday morning, we made our way to Greenwich Village via the High Line, New York's groundbreaking elevated railway-park conversion.  After an excellent lunch at the trendy Spotted Pig, and a quick photo op at Carrie Bradshaw's brownstone**, we stopped at Book Book, located on Bleecker Street in the heart of the Village.

Book Book is very much the archetypal small generalist bookstore: a little bit of everything with a focus on mainstream fiction, discounted hardcovers, and an acceptable selection of affordable remainders.  It's a well-lit space, with a good layout that makes for easy browsing.

Due to the limitations of Book Book's modest footprint, their science fiction and fantasy section is almost non-existent, restricted to five shelves at the back of the store. That being said, I have to give them credit for its comprehensive nature. If someone told me to stock five shelves with what I considered to be the best of science fiction and fantasy, I would be hard pressed to improve upon Book Book’s tiny perfect offering.

Next stop was Carmine Street and Unoppressive Non-Imperialist Bargain Books, which managed to live up to all the parts of its name - I found it lacking in both oppression and imperialistic ambitions, and it had an interesting selection of affordable reading. UNIBB and its sister store Carmine Comics each occupy about as much space as my spare bedroom, but still manage to offer interesting if somewhat cramped shopping. The store offers an eclectic range of bargain books with more of a focus on music, politics and philosophy than science fiction, but I spotted - and purchased - a hardcover copy of Give Our Regards to the Atom-smashers!, a collection of essays on comic books edited by Sean Howe, affordably priced at $7.00 after taxes.

According to Wikipedia, The Strand, New York’s best known independent book store, has about 2.5 million volumes in its four story Broadway location - or, as they prefer to put it, 18 miles of books. The problem with having that sort of inventory is, of course, finding the shelf space to display it. The Strand’s solution is relatively narrow aisles, quite high bookshelves, and a good supply of stepladders.*** This may allow them to fit everything in, but the result is that casual browsing is a bit of a challenge.

It would have been fascinating to methodically work my way through all the shelves in their Science Fiction and Fantasy section, but there are times when you just have to be realistic.  As such, I decided to let chance lead me through the stacks - and after all, it's important to keep the high cost of overweight luggage fees in mind when book shopping in another country.

I'd already picked up a reduced price copy of The Princess Bride from a display near the checkout.  My beloved die-cut cover paperback version has been due for replacement for quite some time, and it seemed like a good opportunity to take care of that.

Coincidentally, one of Karli’s friends had recommended that she read The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker, a tale of supernatural romance set in New York, which was fortuitously located at eye level and all but jumped off the shelf at me. Spaceman of Bohemia, Jaroslav Kalfar's debut novel, was a random purchase - again, just at eye level, and I was intrigued by the title. It also fit the New York theme: Kalfar emigrated from the Czech Republic to the US as a teenager, and now lives in Brooklyn.

My final selection at The Strand was more deliberate - I've been planning to buy Joe Abercrombie's Sharp Ends for some time. Abercrombie's grimdark fantasy novels are excellent: original and well written, with a wildly varied cast of detailed and believable characters. Sharp Ends is a collection of short pieces which act as grace notes for the larger episodes set in the world of his First Law novels.

Sharp Ends relies heavily on an existing knowledge of those novels, and as such isn't really a good introduction to Abercrombie's work.  For example, the first story in the book, A Beautiful Bastard, would be meaningless unless the reader is aware that the titular character survives his heroic last stand, is captured, tortured, and reduced to a broken parody of his former self, and subsequently returns to his homeland to appear as the crippled, bitter inquisitor of the First Law trilogy.

Surprisingly, Karli ended up spending more than I did during our Sunday visit to The Strand, thanks to their large selection of giftable merch such as book bags, post cards, literary pins (she generously bought me a Dune pin), t-shirts, hats, and so on.  I purchased myself a t-shirt – it’s unusual for me to buy t-shirts outside of my fandom, but I felt that supporting a book store was an acceptable indulgence. 

I was initially disappointed that I didn't get to The Strand's Books By The Foot department, until subsequent research revealed what it actually was.  Apparently, if you want to create the appearance of being a literary type by having a collection of noteworthy books, but without having to actually, you know, read the damn things or some such silliness, The Strand will cheerfully sell you literature by the foot - all you have to do is measure your bookshelves and provide them with your preferences. For example, if you were a neophyte lawyer, you might want a nice leatherbound library as a Facetime background, or your interior designer could order twenty or thirty feet of colour-coded books to match your new decor.

What a sad affectation!  I may only have about a hundred feet of books, but at least I've read them all - without ever worrying about whether or not the colours clashed with the new couch.

- Sid

* And Karli bought me a pin, see!!?

** See the comment in the first paragraph about both people enjoying their interests.

*** “This is my stepladder. Sadly, I never knew my real ladder.”