Read this quote the other day: resonated…The fact that there’s a highway to hell and only a staircase to heaven, says a lot about anticipated traffic numbers.
[unattributed]
Mezzrow & Smalls – Newsletter and Schedule
Jazz in the Village is alive and well and the only way to spend time on music. This letter is from Mezzrow & Smalls on 10th Street. Is it great or what!!
Dear Friends:
“The Dept. of Health and Mental Hygiene” – that’s the actual full title of the New York City branch that investigates all bars and restaurants and doles out the fines, the “A”‘s and “B”s etc. I understand the health part but the “mental hygiene” never made sense to me until the other night.
It was a packed house at Smalls for Ken Salters group. Of course, it’s only when a business is in full swing do they send the inspectors – never when it’s convenient. Our most pressing issue has been Minnow, the jazz cat that lives in our club and defends us from mice and large water-bugs. We have a pretty good system down with grabbing her and skirting her out the back way as soon as we see an inspector show up. This time, we weren’t so lucky as there she was sitting in Mitch’s lap just as he arrived. This was a new guy, someone we hadn’t seen at Smalls before. He came down the steps and just stood there for a second – kind of bewildered. It definitely wasn’t what he was expecting to see – a jazz club in full swing, a cat, folks everywhere. Mitch tossed the cat and started to explain but the guy didn’t really seem to notice her. He walked in. Looking at the band and the crowd, he turned and said; “wow, they’re playing real instruments!” – Mitch smiled, maybe we had a chance. We took him behind the bar and showed him our thermometers, hand wash signs, all the things we knew had to be there but he hardly seemed interested. Then Tivon Pennicott started to take a solo on the tenor and the guy just stood there and smiled. He was in utter disbelief! He took it all in, like it was some kind of dream and just smiled. A real music lover. After about 15 minutes, he came back from behind the bar and went to Mitch. “You guys pass, I love this place!” – and then handed us our “A”, a clean bill of health – the scene is clean, as they say. It seems that in this case our “mental hygiene” was grade-A, what could be better for the mentality than a nice does of real jazz music, a great crowd and a good vibe? Cat? What, cat?
Regards,
Spike
So Is Life
Or, Life is not fair. The snow has been falling since early afternoon, and now at 6 pm it is still snowing, only now the snow is wetter and the outside atmosphere dark and cold. I look out my window at the diminished traffic and see a bicyclist in the middle of the road, peddling his bike with a plastic crate strapped on his back. In the crate is a delivery of ‘ordered take out food’. He, who is at the bottom of the economic ladder, is delivery food to someone who can afford to have it ‘served up’. The latter does not have to risk limb and life to forage to feed himself, while the bicyclist has to risk all to make a living.
Happy Chinese New Year
Wednesday, the eve of New Year’s Day, was in Chinatown and it was bustling! People buying special cakes and fish and fruits and flowers. The sun was bright, though the air was chill and the wind gusted now and then. But the sunshine added such a festive note to the goings-on. And it seemed indeed that there were more mothers and daughters out and about than is usual. The year of the goat.
Pennsylvania Station at 31st Street
The link below is worth the time to paste it to your browser. It is tragic that such a beautiful building fell to greed and ignorance. It sat across from the main Post Office and mirrored the architecture of that building. The demolition was prior to the City having laws in place to prevent destruction of historic buildings. The present Penn Station is squeezed under and next to the Madison Square Garden complex. It is one and all adverts on the outside and inside it is a low-ceiling squat place that is the unattractive home to Amtrak. What a shame.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/incredibly-upsetting-pictures-of-penn-station-then#.iuAOQ1v3X
Is that Good or What!
Surprise
One day on the way home from the Apple store, I looked up and there on top of this building was this painted water tower. Delightful
Inventions Made in the City
Toilet paper in 1857 J C Gayetty – clean hemp rather than shreds of used newpaper
Air propelled train – 1870 A E Beach- first subway
Teddy Bear – 1902 – because Roosevelt would not shoot a bear, candy store owners Morris and Rose Michtom sewed and displayed a plush bear as “Teddy’s Bear in their window. It was so popular, they closed the candy store and made the bear
Scrabble – 1931 A M Butts an out of work architect – game has since sold 150 million worldwide.
Remote Control – 1898 – N Tesla
Sweet’n Low – early 1960 B Eisenstadt
Credit Cards -1946 J Biggins devised a way his bank customers could use cards at local merchants in Brooklyn. Merchants would deposit sales slips at the bank, bank would bill cardholders.
Air-Co – 1902 W Carrier did it to control humidity at a printing plant for the warping of the papar, the side benefits to the works was not a priority.
Mr. Potato Head – 1952 G. Lerner sold the idea to Hasbro and sold one million units in the first year.
ATM’s -1939 L.G. Simijan – talked early Citibank into trying it for six months. Use was discontinued due to clientele of gamblers and sex workers.
courtsey of TimeOut/ Joseph Alexiou
Cab Driver has What it Takes
Last evening, coming out of the venue, it was about 5 degrees F but supposedly felt like -15. I had only a couple of long blocks to walk to catch the subway… and was dressed for the weather. But when I got to the end of the first block, decided I had no history to write and would hail a cab. Before I knew it, a cab – with light on- stopped in front of me. I thanked him and got in. He said and I quote ” I was on my way home, and then I saw you. I thought there is an old person and it is too cold for them to be out in the weather, so I turned my light on.” If he had not been so young, his accent so prevalent, and the thought endearing, I would have bopped him with my cane.
Peyton Place on Perry Street
Not really… rather Sex and the City. Should have posted this years ago, because as I walk by this address, most certainly once a week there is always a gathering of ‘tourists’ there, each taking pictures of the other and generally hanging out. The folks that live there… have apparently done everything to minimize the inconvenience to their lives… but not to much avail. There is a chain, a real metal, fit-to-pull-a-speedboat-out-of-the-water-link sized chain across the bottom step. Hanging on the chain is a ‘Do Not Do Something sign – for as many times as I’ve passed it, all I remember is the red circle. Next to the chain’s hook on the left side is a 10″x 3″ container asking for donations to save dogs/animals as a thank you for making the facade available for a picture. This photo taking is right up there with asking for an autograph: you do what with it, when you return home? Oh right, FB it!
