Globe Corner Blogs

Daffodils - photo by Llalan

After a stint in New York City, I have moved back to Ohio – a part of Ohio that New Yorkers would call rural. Last night I heard muffled bumping and scuffling on the porch. I opened the door to find three raccoons looking up at me over nearly empty bowls of cat food, left out for the strays. Before I stomped my feet and yelled nonsense at them, I paused. They really are beautiful creatures with their full tails, sharp black masks, and delicate paws.

Every Ohioan I meet says, “New York, eh? Must be quite some culture shock for you here,” poking gentle fun at our small town. They are right to an extent. A few weeks ago I was walking down the street in my bright red wool coat. Several women crossed my path and stared. Perhaps it was the herringbone scarf. My hair stylist asked where I was from, because of my accent.

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I was lucky to have absolutely gorgeous weather this past weekend when I was visiting my brother in New York City. After a few dark, cold, and drizzly days in Boston, I prepared for much of the same down in New York. I pessimistically made a list of museums to visit and packed an umbrella for the trip. But I was pleasantly surprised to encounter clear skies the whole weekend – a bright, late-October sun and a warm, caressing breeze.

Instead of spending a day at the Met, we walked from neighborhood to neighborhood and borough to borough. We wandered through the Lower East Side, Chinatown, and the area surrounding NYU (where my brother is currently an undergraduate), we went over the Manhattan Bridge, explored DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass), and then doubled back over the Brooklyn Bridge. By that time it was already sunset, and the many-storied buildings of lower Manhattan and Midtown reflected back to us in hues of pink, orange, and blue. We watched night gradually transform a rosy fairytale island city into an elegant, glittering metropolis. Continue Reading »

Brooklyn Sunset--photo by Llalan

My new apartment in Brooklyn is not in the nicest part of town. There are no coffee shops or beer bars or trees. It is predominantly Caribbean, and I am occasionally called “Snowflake.” The soul record shop is next to a Christian bookstore that has a TV in the window, so all day long Al Green battles a bellowing reverend on the outdoor speakers.

Under the Brooklyn Bridge--photo by Llalan

It is not Somerville, Massachusetts, for sure, and sometimes I do feel as though I’m traveling in a foreign country. I’m afraid of the food: a whole restaurant devoted to brisket? I don’t speak the language: what is a “weave” exactly? I get lost a lot: damn you bus drivers and your mumbled announcements! I stick out like a sore thumb: my camel hair coat and red scarf do nothing to camouflage my skin. And sometimes I really want to go home. Continue Reading »

New York Pride Parade: photo by Betsy

While I always expect a little madness when I visit New York City, I did not realize, getting off the five hour bus ride from Boston to New York, that this particular Sunday was the culminating event of Gay Pride week: the Pride Parade. This alone would, under normal circumstances, have the already hot, crowded city buzzing a bit louder than usual, but the middle of the World Cup (Germany vs. England and Argentina vs. Mexico) also fell on this weekend. This meant that both admittedly rowdy crowds would be celebrating and I would be going along for the ride.

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Whenever I search for budget accommodations in New York City, I am constantly shocked at the prices. Recently The Pod Hotel in Midtown Manhattan started popping up as a possibility, but I always rejected it. The name kind of scared me and I was just a bit hesitant. For my latest short jaunt to The Big Apple, however, the relative bargain price was just too good to pass up and I booked a single room with a shared bathroom for two nights.

It was great! Highly recommended! What a deal! The Pod Hotel is conveniently located at 230 East 51st Street right next to a wine bar Le Bateau Ivre and is a close walk to the subway. It was easy to find, check-in was a breeze, and most of the elevators worked. When I opened the door to my “pod” I did have a bit of deja-vu as it looked quite a bit like one of the claustrophobic cabins I have shared while traveling by ferries. However this room was bright, spotlessly clean, equipped with a lot of storage space for such a small place, and quiet. Everything that I needed except for a bathroom. Continue Reading »

Brooklyn EIPA - photo by Llalan

New Yorkers. They love their city, they love their Yankees, and by God, they love their beer. They have German beer bars, Belgian beer bars, American craft beer bars – whatever your thirsty little heart desires.

I wanted to get in on the love fest. Realizing that drinking at all of New York’s beer halls would take weeks and be hazardous to our health, my friend and I tackled a few in Williamsburg over a weekend.

First on the official tour: Spuyten Duyvil. (Don’t ask how it’s pronounced – I forget.) The tag line to the bar’s name is “rare and obscure,” and that it is. While I sipped an Oktoberfest on cask, my friend delicately held a tiny tulip of mead. For as powerful as the honey-heavy drink was, it sure didn’t come in a manly glass. He stuck out a pinky and muscled through.

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Netherland - by Joseph O'Neill

So, apparently President Obama is reading Netherland. This is great news for Joseph O’Neill, the novel’s author.

Netherland, just out in paperback, was long-listed for the Man Booker Prize and, much to my surprise, cut from the short list.  It was also one of the New York Times 10 Best Books of 2008.

When I told a friend I was reading Netherland, he responded by asking if it was a book set “back in the day.” It’s not, but it was a fair question. The title is enigmatic and elusive: Netherland refers to the protagonist’s birth country (the Netherlands) and to the primary setting of the novel, New York City, once called New Amsterdam (“back in the day” of course). And going further, the title, read as nether-land, evokes images of some sort of underworld, a hidden realm that exists below the surface of the what’s most apparently visible, a nether world I understand to be the psyche of New Yorkers living in a post 9/11 world and struggling to make sense of life in a city that is often too immense, too overwhelming. Continue Reading »

Mini Rough Guide New York City

I took a day trip to New York City this weekend for Monster Track–the alley cat bike race in which you ride to different checkpoints throughout the city and the first one to finish wins.  The race is easiest for those who live in New York and know the streets well, but my friend and I just went to experience the brutality of it all.  What is unique about this race is that it is on the streets in full traffic – there is no closed course – and the only rule is no brakes allowed.

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NFT New York City 2009

I think it’s safe to say that traveling to a new city is quite different than moving to one. Visiting a new city is pure excitement: in every direction new cuisines to try, parks to explore, streets to meander through and maybe even a new language to listen to. But when actually relocating, whether for two months or two decades, unadulterated excitement is accompanied by the mundane: coffee? laundry? groceries? bank? Enter Not For Tourists (NFT) Guides.

As a new resident of Brooklyn, or Crooklyn as Spike Lee called it in 1994 and as I now call it to amuse myself, I’ve come to appreciate the NFT guide. It has a great fold-out bus and subway map and has lots of general information about theaters, museums, and parks.

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Theodore Roosevelt's Birthplace --photo by Lisa

If you happen to find yourself wandering around Union Square in New York City with an extra hour to spare, might I suggest popping into the Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace National Historic Site for an informative tour.  One-hundred-fifty years ago (and one month, his birthday was on October 26th), Theodore Roosevelt was born in a beautiful townhouse at 28 East 20th Street. Apparently, I missed the Birthday Block Party this year, but they still had commemorative Theodore Roosevelt Birthday mugs for sale in the gift shop.

The current house is a reconstruction and was built by the Woman’s Roosevelt Memorial Association in 1923 as a memorial for our 26th President. There is a really interesting gallery of Roosevelt memorabilia showcasing his toys, political cartoons, campaign buttons and the hat that he wore in the Spanish-American War.  Guided tours are offered almost every hour and are preceded by a short film about Roosevelt’s youth.  All of this for only three dollars!

(The Blue Guide to New York was a great source for finding interesting smaller museums to see in New York City so I could escape the cold weather!)