Coney Island Queen

Today it was over one hundred degrees in Manhattan, so my roommate and I decided to hit the beach. I've been meaning to go to Coney Island since I got here, so I was glad the hot weather gave me the excuse. We took the N train to its last stop. It took about an hour. As soon as we got over the bridge and out of Manhattan we started going by trees. I said to Ashleigh, "It looks like a jungle!" It was really just some straggling plants under freeways and along the tracks, but Manhattan has no wild growth like that. It was nice to get out of  the city for a day. I realized how much the Seattlite in me misses trees. Coney Island was hot and crowded. We put our feet in the Atlantic, walked along the boardwalk and out on the pier, and we even went on a ride called the slingshot. It was like a mini-vacation. Here are some pictures!

So many people in the water!

The beach with the Ferris Wheel in the background.

Strangers getting strapped into the Slingshot! That ball is attached to bungee cords and it gets flung into the sky. It bounces up and down and spins around. We got to watch a video of our faces when it was over. Unfortunately it was expensive to buy the video, but both of us screamed a lot. You can imagine.

Waiting in line for the Slingshot.

Post-slingshot drinks.
Drink up me hearties, yo-ho!

Now, bring me that horizon.

Independence Day

Like the rest of New York, we had the Fourth of July off. I haven't seen the streets of NYC as quiet as they were that morning. It was nice. Later in the day, my friend Sasha and I wandered out to find fireworks and ended up on a stranger's rooftop. I was connected to her (the rooftop provider) by about four degrees, but I was glad to achieve my goal of getting on a rooftop in this city. Here are the degrees, in case you are interested. I know Sasha, who is friends with Eric from the Columbia publishing program, who knows Rizzo since she is also in the Columbia program, who went to high-school with Rachel, who is staying in her sister's apartment near Union Square and has access to the roof. Rachel was very nice and welcomed us warmly to her building's roof. She even provided sushi, watermelon, and beer. It worked out well, considering Sasha and I were just planning on bar-hopping over to the west side to see the fireworks with the rest of the lowly Manhattanites who do not have rooftops. The fireworks were explosive and well executed (unlike San Diego's, I hear) and view of the city was breath-taking. I actually did feel pretty patriotic. Sweet land of liberty! 

Macy's Fireworks. We were kind of far, but up high enough to see the entire spectacular show.

Perfect Day

Today was one of the more perfect days I've had in New York so far! And that's no easy feat, since there have been pretty much no bad days (although there have been some long ones). 


Our "class" today consisted of going to two different bookstores. First we went to NYU's bookstore where I bought a window sticker to put on my car to prove that I went here. But, the coolest thing was that we got to witness a print-on-demand machine made by Xerox! As my roommate pointed out, it's a glorified copy machine, but it is so cool. It is called an espresso machine because you can walk in, order a book that is not on the shelf, and they will print and bind it for you in the same amount of time it would take to wait for a cup of espresso. We watched it do just that! Although they are expensive at the moment (she wouldn't tell us the price, but said it had gone down by $50k) they could be a huge player in the changing plane of book-buying. It could save the indie bookstore, as well as provide easy and cheap ways to self-publish. According to the Xerox representative, there are currently 81 of these machines leased all over the world. There is even one in Seattle and one in Portland, so I'm excited. The NYU bookstore staff seemed most excited to print student work and student anthologies. They said professors had already expressed interest in using the machine to print and bind anthologies of the papers their graduate students will write.

The Espresso Book Machine. The body is clear and you can watch the book being bound. It spits out a  complete book in the chute at the bottom left of the photo.

One of my classmates checking out the book we watched being made! It's a manual about the machine. How ironic. Anyway, it was literally hot off the press. 

After NYU I took the train to Central Park and bought coffee and cherries along the way. It was a hot sunny day here in New York, and Central Park is a good place to get away from all the hot traffic. I sat on the grass and ate the cherries, which were delicious. Then I went to Rizzoli Books. It is an old, beautiful independent bookstore in the city, right near MOMA. An employee talked to us about the store, being part of an Italian publishing company, and independent bookstores in general. The coolest thing I learned was that the building the store occupies now has only had two tenets ever. Before Rizzoli moved in in 1985 it was a piano store (Carnegie Hall is nearby). I thought that was a cool fact. Rizzoli carries a lot of beautiful art books of all sizes (we joked that some of the coffee table books would break most coffee tables). It was a pleasure to just wander through the three stories of great books. 

Inside Rizzoli. Looking up to the second floor from first
floor lobby.

Front of Rizzoli

But, it was too nice to spend all day indoors! I went back to Central Park to read my book and lay in the grass. A middle-aged firefighter named John came over to me while I was sitting on a bench to talk about radio, 9/11, and working on Broadway. He was very nice and he grew up in the city, so it was fun to hear his stories. He did most of the talking and went on his way after suggesting some jazz venues. Eventually I walked all the way up to the Met., then headed for the subway home to do some homework. While doing homework research I stumbled upon this amazing blog! It is called Underground New York Public Library and the author posts photos of people reading on the subway.I thought I should share it with you. Enjoy!