I
(heart) New York!: The 2010 Book Expo, Lower East Side &
Gaza
28 May 2010By Jane Stillwater
New York is absolutely throbbing with energy and
excitement! When I get back to Berkeley, I'm gonna
have to hide under the bed for WEEKS just to recover
from this trip. The very first thing that you do after
landing at JFK is to get lost on the subway at least
twice. Then I stayed at the Gershwin Hotel's
conveniently-priced youth hostel -- with three Swedish
girls and an Argentine science major. None of them
snored. And just TRY to get hooked up to the free
wi-fi at McDonalds. Not happening. No.
I really wanted to get an internet connection so I
could find out what's happening to my friends who are
sailing to Gaza with hundreds of tons of humanitarian
relief stuffed into a bunch of cargo ships. They were
supposed to sail on Saturday. And then Tuesday. What
is happening? Have they sailed yet? Or not.
Finally, around 10 pm last night, I located an
internet cafe. Nope, they haven't sailed yet. But they
had better do it soon if they plan to get there any
time soon. The Israeli navy has already promised to
give them a Warm Reception -- and it might be impolite
of them to miss that. Joe Meadors, a survivor of the
USS Liberty disaster, is also on board the same ship
as my friends. Perhaps he is hoping to do one of those
veterans' reminiscence thingies and relive another
Israeli attack? Let us sincerely hope that THAT
doesn't happen!
Anyway, bright and early this morning I ran, er,
hurried up to the Jacob Javits center to get my Barbra
Streisand ticket. Score! And there's a photo of her on
the ticket, all in blue velvet and sitting on a blue
velvet couch next to a fluffy little white dog. Her
new book is called, "My Passion for Design". I hope
they give out free copies. My apartment could really
use a face-lift.
Here's a quote from Barbra's editor at Viking: "She
devoted as much time to this project as to anything
else she's done in her life. You can really hear
Streisand's voice when reading it. It's as much fun to
read as it is to look at."
I'll report back to you later, after I've seen her
speech. No photographs are allowed, however. Rats.
Now for the fun stuff. After registering and checking
in at the Book Expo, I jumped on the crosstown bus and
transferred to the Second Avenue bus down to the Lower
East Side. I used to live on the Lower East Side! Back
in 1965. B&H Dairy is still there, still selling rice
pudding.
Then I went to see my old neighbor, Ben Treuhaft. He
has a piano repair shop down on Ridge Street, down
past Orchard Street. And, boy, has Orchard Street
changed too. Insead of all those old funky stalls and
pushcarts, it is now officially New York's "Bargain
District". And Alphabet City, which used to be a
notorious junkie heaven where you took your life in
your hands just to walk down the street past 8 pm, is
now all co-op apartments, Yuppie daycare centers and
designer boutiques.
I was almost raped on the corner of Houston and
Second, back in the day. My, times have changed.
Anyway, it's just no longer "Second-hand Rose, from
Second Avenue...."
Ben, my ex-neighbor, caught me up to speed fast. "I've
married and had two children since I saw you last...."
That long ago?
"What about your Piana to Havana program?" Ben used to
collect hundreds of used American pianos and ship them
off to Cuba so that school children could take lessons
on them.
"I'm not so involved in that any more. And besides,
I'm leaving for Japan in four days." His wife Olga, a
biologist, will be working on a brain-study program
over there for a few years.
"Wow! That's exciting!" Then I volunteered to let his
wife study MY brain too -- free of charge. Anything to
have an excuse to go visit Japan.
Then I asked Ben if he knew anything about how the
huge oil spill disaster was effecting Cuba, but he
didn't know. However, he did say that Cubans are
highly innovative in matters like that and could
probably have the equipment and know-how to plug the
leak ASAP. But we all know that asking Cuba for help
just isn't going to happen -- just like what happened
in Haiti, all that cutting-off-one's-nose kind of
stuff.
Then I jumped onto the Chambers subway line at Essex
Street and scooted back up to the Javits Center again,
to see if they were handing out any more free books.
No luck so far but the Book Expo doesn't officially
kick o until tomorrow.
I just love New York!
©
EsinIslam.Com
Add Comments