A day off in Blackwood, South New Jersey, so we decided to drive to New York City and hang with Hannah (our bassist) and Jeanne (our friend). As it happened, we had to drive right past Jeanne’s house to get into Manhattan via the Holland Tunnel, so we picked her up in Jersey City and drove into New York. We were heading for Strand Books on 12th, but first, we had to find a park. Luckily it was Sunday so we had fewer parking restrictions, but it’s still Manhattan and when a parking place revealed itself two blocks from the Strand we couldn’t believe our luck. We got out and discovered that the beautiful day with the blue sky was accompanied by a biting cold wind, so we got into the shop as quickly as possible. It was absolutely packed, funny how the cold suddenly makes so many people avid readers.
I found great books, a 1972 hardback of August Strindberg’s Fair Haven and Foul Strand, an out-of-print hardback of Camus’ The First Man, two Ian McEwan hardbacks, Black Dogs and Amsterdam, and four Cees Nooteboom books, one of which was the classic In The Dutch Mountains. A perfect day for me in New York always starts with time in Strand Books. From there we braved the cold and walked towards the West Village across Washington Square Park and into MacDougal Street where my favourite New York café, Caffe Reggio, lies. It was packed, but somehow we got a table right away. We sucked in the atmosphere of the place, it’s been there since 1927 and I don’t think they’ve changed the decor since (whilst there, I upgraded my T-shirt).
We left and went across the road to the Belgian Fries shop for Olivia’s desire – fries with wasabi sauce. There, Hannah joined us until we left for Generation Records in Thompson Street, two blocks away. I wanted to buy three second-hand CDs for the drive home, so I did, Elton John – Captain Fantastic (1975), Deep Purple – Machine Head (1972) and The Best of Syd Barrett (2001). I also picked up two Traffic compilations and Nosferatu (1979), a project I hadn’t heard of before, but it featured Hugh Cornwell from The Stranglers and Robert Williams, drummer from Captain Beefheart’s band – it’s an imaginary soundtrack to the film – weird.
From there we walked towards the Empire State Building, its glowing blue hypodermic piercing the now darkness. Earlier we’d seen the New World Trade Center in the distance, such tragic and rich histories and it didn’t stop there as we were going to eat under the long shadow of the Flatiron Building. It was a lovely dinner with friends, but time was telling us to walk back to the car for the two-hour drive back to Blackwood. The parking space was perfectly in the middle between Caffe Reggio and dinner. We said goodbye to Hannah and drove Jeanne back home to Jersey City before hitting the highway with our three CDs. Great day.
Music today has been The United States of America (1968). It’s quite a successful experimental sixties band that stays on the right side of odd and normal.