Sunday, July 6, 2008

On the Island Where I Was Born

.
A long day in Manhattan, that unique island where I arrived into the world, with my wife, my nephew Michael and the incomparable Ming the Merciless of NYC City Daily Photoblog. We started the day at South Street Seaport for a half-hour boat tour of the New York City Waterfalls Project, more about which later.

Then a hike past City Hall and the NYC Municipal Building into Chinatown for dim sum brunch at the huge, crazy and delicious Jing Fong Restaurant. More walking up Mulberry Street into through Little Italy, NoLiTa, SoHo and into the East Village.
We walked through the Union Square Greenmarket where we met Joseph Ades, pictured above, who sits at the northwest corner of the square selling stainless steel, Swiss-made vegetable peelers. This English gentlemen slices and dices with more aplomb than Ron Popeil could ever manage. He's a New York institution.

From there we took the subway uptown to Central Park after visiting the Apple Cube at 59th Street and Fifth Avenue. The striking entrance leads to a cavernous underground store. The young man in the second photo, standing outside the entrance, may be examining his new iPhone. The group trekked through the park to Bethesda Fountain and on to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where we nearly collapsed with exhaustion. It was a wonderful day plunging back into the places I loved as a boy and adolescent. Ming could not have been more generous with his time.

TOMORROW: One last picture from New York - the other side

7 comments:

Ming the Merciless said...

I love how you captured the face of Mr Ades ans the boy standing in front of the Apple Cube. I was too busy yakking away.
It was great meeting you guys. After I got home last night, I had to nap from 7:00 - 9:00 PM before I had the energy to go out to dinner at the Greek diner for mousaka.

Virginia said...

OOOHHHH, I love seeing the innards of the Apple Cube! I call ours "Apple Land" - Like a Disney World for geeks! Great portrait shot of Mr. Ades as well. Sounds like you all had a great time together. What fun.

Anonymous said...

That first photo is just fantastic - I love the juxtaposition of the skull image on the T-shirt of the passer-by with Mr Ades' face. Perfectly timed!

Knoxville Girl said...

The portrait is great - that face has seen some life! But what really makes it memorable for me is that skull - they're both smiling.

Pat said...

Hi! Love your NYC photos. I too posted two beer ones in the past few days!

Ming the Merciless said...

I just posted a painting of Mr Joseph Ades, the guy who sells Swiss-made veggie peelers at Union Square.

BTW, does the veggie peeler work as well as it's supposed to be?

Chuck Pefley said...

What an interesting face he has ... and juxtaposed with that t-shirt. Wonderful composition!