New York City Blog Sept. 16 – Sept. 1 – Sept. 20

I went to the Arsenal in Central Park to the Garden and Forest Book Club to discuss Jack Nisbet’s David Douglas, a Naturalist at Work, An Illustrated Exploration Across Two Centuries in the Pacific Northwest. By a happy coincidence I had read most of the book while in Oregon and had been to the Oregon Historical Society to see a small exhibit about Douglas. Douglas (1799-1834) made a systematic collection of northwest flora and fauna, before dying at age 35. At the book club we discussed the practice of sending specimens from across the sea to another part of the world. i.e. the U. S. Northwest to Scotland. Nowadays there is controversy among gardeners and botanists about native plants and invasive (foreign) species.

Subway Stop: 5th Ave. & 59 Street
Subway Stop: 5th Ave. & 59 Street

Symphony Space is, as every New Yorker knows, on upper Broadway. I love Broadway because it refuses to be gentrified, a fate that has befallen Fourteenth Street and Alphabet City. The Thalia is housed in Symphony Space. Years ago, the original Thalia was on slightly seedy Eighth Avenue. It was a movie house and was kicked out of the downtown neighborhood for showing dirty movies. So it moved uptown.The Joyce Theatre replaced the Thalia in what is now uber gentrified Chelsea. Meanshile, back at Symphony Space’s Leonard Nimoy Thalia, we attended a jazz concert by middle eastern musicians, sponsored by Alwan. Amir ElSaffar’s Two Rivers Ensemble celebrated the release of its third CD, Crisis.With a mix of eastern and western instruments, the noted trumpeter, ElSaffar, and his ensemble expressed their anger about the current middle eastern tragedy.
I spent the weekend in Connecticut. Remember the Merritt Parkway? Think Howard Johnson Restaurants and other 1930’s icons.The Parkway has tree canopies, art deco bridges – in concrete. Don’t forget. It was built in the late 1930’s. To this day it has limited access which means  no commercial vehicles, trailers, towed vehicles, buses, or hearses. It runs from the New York state line in Greenwich, where it serves as the continuation of the Hutchinson River Parkway, to the Housatonic River in Stratford, where the Wilber Cross Parkway begins. It’s a wonderful way to begin a country weekend near Ivoryton.