Barry Joseph

My book/blog/podcast project Give Me Seltzer, as well as a number of side projects, is taking up so much of my time Noemi and I decided to put this blog on hold for now.

Perhaps one day we shall return. Until then...

Yeah, I know the photo sucks (even if you can barely see the light-saber) and this is not really only in New York (should I say Only On Earth?), but how can I avoid posting the opening night (12:01 got pushed back to 12:30 - did we really need all those previews?) of Revenge of the Sith, the best Star Wars of all time and, as Anakin was redeemed in Episode VI, the redemption of Lcuas' second trilogy.

Must also say the brilliant move (spoiler alert) of having Palpatine fight Yoda with the pieces of the Senate as he literally dismantles the architecture of the democracy was a brilliant example of "show me, don't tell me" story-telling.

Bravo, George. Bravo.

Yup, I dare to make the claim. Better than Junior's or Gem Spa. Better than the Second Ave or Carnegie deli. I decided today that Eisenberg's Sandwhich Shop makes the best Egg Cream in NYC.

In fact, I want to go beyond that statement. I felt like it was a perfect Egg Cream, as if it was the first time I had ever had a TRUE Egg Cream. As If I could now say, "Ah, so that's what they're all about."

Why would theirs be different from any one else. Everyone uses milk, seltzer, and Fox's U-bets. Maybe it's the chill of their milk. Maybe it's the force of the seltzer spigget combined with the simultaneous stirring of the extra long spoon. Maybe it's the extra dash of vanilla sauce they throw in. Whatever it is, it's magic.

Of course, don't lose focus on their magnificent meatloaf (only on days that start with the letter T) or their Pastrami on rye. Even if you don't need a meal, just sitting on a stool at this deli (that first opened in the last 1920s) to watch the guys working behind the counter is a show in and of itself.

In case you don’t know, the hole above which the Twin Towers once stood is now called, informally, the bathtub. It used to be something you looked down upon from outside a tall fence. But recently the path train was reopened. This space used to be the entry way on the Path from New Jersey to NYC. However, there is nothing else around it. It is REALLY strange.

You walk from street level down some stairs, then an escalator, to an open air train platform, surrounded by the vast, deep walls of the bathtub. It is like being on a space station surrounded by space. I mean, this is some VAST space. And it is where the towers collapsed. But it gets worse.

When you enter and exit this station by train, going to or from Jersey, the train goes out from this platform, stuck out from the street-level like the branch of a tree, winding its way around the bathtub like some macabre Disney World ride. Very odd! And of course, there is some interesting graffiti on the platform.

I loved the almost child-like simplicity of this street grafitti/philosopher:

For years I have meant to go to the Brooklyn Museum of Art. I really enjoyed my visit. Inside, I saw their regular and permenant art. However, oddly enough, my highlight was the works in storage. Instead of sticking it away like the crates at the end of Indiana Jones, they pile them up in a side room, but a room designed to show off all the items within. Nothing is spaced out, or even explained, so it feels less like a contemporary museum that an old fashioned wonder cabinet or a section at K-Mart. That allowed us, in an unanticipated way, to find out own connections with the art.

Outside we chedk out the new design and entrance way, which removed part of the lower steps and replaced it with a modern and elegant glass entrance way. By the side is the Dancing Water Foundation. I can watch those forever.

Afetrwards, we moved down the block for a quick bite at Tom's Restaurant. We ate cookies and oragnes and drank an egg cream, - and that was BEFORE being seated and for free. This classic diner from the 1930s is a blast to visit, less for the food than for the decor and the way they welcome you. The food, however, is still decent, with their wild array of pancake offerings. Make sure to say hi to Gus, Tom's son who now owns the place, and until they get more carbonated seltzer, I recommend skipping the egg cream. (p.s. This is the diner Suzanne Vega named her song after).

I thought this piece of commentary on the R line, especially given the face of the actor, was priceless.

It is always beautiful to view the start of the all too brief Cherry Blossom season at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden.

I appreciated how two words turned around this ad campaign for this exploitative tv mini-series about the "end of days."

Spring is on its way. How can you tell? People are all over Pier 45, just west of 10th street. This magnificent new green space, surrounded by the Hudson river, can only be experienced to be understood. I always find it awe-inspiring.

Today my friend Steven and I lined up outside Symphony Space for their annual Wall-to-Wall festival, which focuses on the work of one composer for twelve hours.

Well, this year they picked someone who was alive. And celebrating his birthday. And much beloved. In other words, they were completely overwhelmed.

As a result, the once-in-a-lifetime event had the contentious overtone of a viewer appeal of a Channel Thirteen broadcast, taken to a level never seen. The MC, who was otherwise excellent, would berate the audience, saying such things as "If you are still here, you are rude. You should get up now and leave. Go home. Now." It added just the right dark tone and moral struggle for a Sondheim celebration.

At the same time, they served no food to ensure people would leave. I had bought a season pass to ensure my entry, but even other members, as it turned out, waited ours to get in. The photo below shows the crowd an hour before doors opened. I also heard people in the "public" waited up to nine hours, and that was just the few they let in. So there was NO WAY we could leave. Luckily I had brought some nuts and dried bananas with me.

Every hour we had five nuts and three banana. When they said you had to suffer for art, I never knew what they meant. Now I do. And boy, was it sweet. Twelve hours of remarkable performers singing the remarkable music of Sondheim, interspersed with panels led by amazing people like Frank Rich and, often, Sondheim himself, and songs sung often by the people who created the roles.

It was a day I will never forget. To read the full list of performances, go here.

Christo's The Gates in Central Park is... was... well, a lot of fun. Rather that describe what has already been described a thousand times, here are a few photos, followed by a few words heard during a Sunday visit.

"Let's go walk under the schmatas..."

"... Like the World's fair ..."

"Looks like laundry day in North Korea..."

[Sung] "... I'm just made about saffron. Saffron's just mad about me..."


















This one was taken a week later, after the snow storm, from a Central Park West apartment:

The United Nations is such a cool place. The tour takes you into the main assembly room, the security council, as well as various other locations andv isits to impressive donated art. Everyone should get a chance to visit these cool places at least once in their life and learn about all the things the great things the U.N. does in the world, as well as see the places where such important decisions get made.

While in the main assembly hall, imagine yourself being the designer and having to create a physical organizational model determining where to place the delegates so that the physical alignment can have ABSOLUTELY NO political or power implications. Quite a task!

Ho, boy! This was pretty nutty. In an empty space in Time Square the DEA temporarily occupied and displayed their Target America: Traffickers, Terrorists and you.

Did you know that drug traffickers were responsible for the September 11th attacks and that if you used drugs you are directly responsible for the World Trade Center rubble that they actually have the gaul to put on display? They never say it directly, but the entire exhibit, which primarily features dioramas of drug scenes (such as material from a drunk driving accident below) suggested as much.

Within the exhibit was a DEA recruitment center.

Where else can you find a vegan cooking school where you can take a class to make Seitan? At the Natural Gourmet you can.

Seitan is a wheat glutten, which I always knew but never fully understood. Take yeast, beat the crap out of it, soak it in water for a half hour, and all you are left with is the wheat gluten, a material that is sort of like silly putty. Then you work it and shock it under cold and hot water and then, before long, you have an amazing substance ready to be cooked in a flavored broth.

It was totally fun to work in teams of fellow students, not just making the seitan but cooking recipes from our teacher's book. Once we cooked all the recipes we got to eat them all. Yummy!

Peter Lugers is a very old steak house (from 18876) tucked in Williamsburg underneath the Williamsburg bridge. I tend not to trust expensive, old places like this whose name is often inflated way beyond any memory of when their food was any good. But Luger's still has it. We went and had a tremendously delicious streak meal. But my biggest surprise was that my favorite part was the onion/tomato appetizer, with Luger's special sauce. Who knew raw onions could be this tasty!

I almost don't want to mention it. This blog is designed to send people to cool things to do in NYC. But Hope and Anchor... very soon it will be colonized and become... well, something else. But I have no choice.

As a restaurant, H&A, down in deep red hook in Brooklyn, has excellent, high quality comfort food. Delicious Periogis. Chicken pot pie that is so larger you could swim in it. The best Mac and Cheese my sister ever had. (just skip the deserts - they are substandard, for some reason)

And that makes it worth one trip, but just one, to H&A. But since we first went in November we've been back numerous times. Why? Because once you take your seat, and order your food, your table is yours for the night. And from your seat you get to both watch and participate, starting at 9 pm, in the best Karaoke show in NYC.

MC'd by Kaye Cera, a grandmotherly drag queens, keeps the ball rolling, while patrons of the restaurant and bar folks step up and sing. Rock, musicals, country, children's tunes - it's a wide range.

Where else can you sing the theme song to Land of The Lost.

But the singing is just one part. The last two times we went, around midnight, the singing led to dancing, when the tunes turned disco. What a blast!

Apparently for many years now, every holiday season the main greenhouse (worth visiting any time of the year) hosts a wild Train Show. Amidst all the flowers, train tracks are laid, and run all around, overhead and underneatrh.

But the coolest part is that there are mini models of major NYC architectural sites, made ALL out of natural products, like leaves and acorns and such. They have Grand Central Station, the Brooklyn Bridge, and more. Below you will also see the Guggenheim AND the very building we were standing in.

It's a wonderfully WARM place to visit during this time of the year.

Wow! I always hated the distanced pretensions of this place. And it cost so much and it was so small.

Well, it was very exciting to visit their new Manhattan space, even at the crazy $20 a visit. The presension hasn't changed, but it has physically grown tremendously. Best of all, the new architecture (they absorbed the space of the previously adjacent building) is magnificent. The site lines are some of the most dramatic of any building in the city.





(The two images above are actually not from outside MOMA but inside, from their architectural exhibit displaying models of the space. )

To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the New York City subway system, the MTA spent a few weekends running, ont he N and R lines, retired trains from the past. Not only could you see them, but you could ride them. It's one thing to visit them in the Transit museum. It's another to ride them on current rails! The photos did not come out well but it was tremendously exciting. This train was from 1930 - a real once-in-a-lifetime experience.