New York City Park Life

Image: Battery Park Gardens: a city oasis

If there is one thing I’ve noticed on this trip that did not make a major impression on me during my 2008 trip, it is the way New Yorkers love their parks. This could be because back then I visited during early spring, and the weather was not exactly conducive to the type of activities that one sees over the summer months.

I have no idea of the number of parks across New York City. Even the official government parks website states: “This is not an entirely exhaustive list of Park Properties. If you see something missing or have a suggestion of how we can improve this list, please contact us.”

Certainly thousands of parks must be listed on the site. I did make a half-hearted attempt to count the actual number, but decided I had better things to do with my life and my limited time in the city!

Image: Basketball courts found in almost every city park

While not all parks offer the same services or activities, I present here a partial list of some of the leisure activities I’ve seen taking place in New York City parks: table tennis, pentanque, billiards (on metal tables), tennis, handball, soccer games, basketball competitions, dog parks, children’s playgrounds, chess tables, walking groups and tours, family picnics, July 4th celebrations, dance classes, jogging and inline skating, film screenings, poetry readings, author talks, classical music concerts, theatre performances, rock concerts, Little League baseball, Ti Chi and yoga classes, sunbathing, swimming (a number of parks have swimming pools), boating and kayaking, bike hire/riding, and on and on.

I think it is fair to say that New York City parks are, in many ways, at the heart of community life in this amazing metropolis.

Image: Park water features are very popular, especially in summer

New York parks are filled with a multitude of colourful plants and flowers; trees of all shapes, colours and sizes; large lakes and water features (which might double as ice-skating rinks during winter months); huge swathes of well kept lawn areas and good walking and bicycle paths; and numerous statutes and examples of public art. Some have extensive botanic gardens and zoos; others house world famous museums and galleries; and all are well patronized and filled with activity, often late into the evening.

Of course you will also find restaurants, cafés, and small mobile food and drink stalls throughout the parks, along with the ubiquitous mobile ice-cream vendors that seem to appear in every city over summer.

Image: Anyone for chess? Public art and concrete games boards.

Shooting New York City

Image: Elevated platform on the corner of Broadway and 125th Street

As anyone who goes to the movies regularly, or who watches even a modest amount of television will tell you – New York City is a favourite location for movie directors everywhere. In America, Los Angeles is the only other city that probably comes close to New York – and maybe even surpasses it as a movie location. I’m musing about this today, because yesterday, I happened upon two separate film locations during my rambles around Manhattan.

I spotted the first movie shoot as a rode the M4 bus from Washington Heights down to Harlem. I was bussing it because I knew the M4 passed alongside a massive elevated railway platform for the 1 (One) Train which surfaces from its subterranean depths between 135th Street and 122nd Street (see image above). By the time the train passes over 125th Street it is probably six floors above street level, and I wanted to take some photographs of the massive steel structure towering high over pedestrians, motor vehicles and shops on the street.

Image: Film crew playing the ‘waiting game’ on location in New York City

Folks, if you want to know why modern movies cost 200 or 300 million dollars to make, it’s because dozens of crew members, and acting ‘extras’ literally sit around for hour after hour waiting for the shot to be set up, the sun to come out (or go behind a cloud), the rain to stop, or any one of a thousand other reasons before the director calls, “Action”.

I stood around for over an hour waiting to see what would take place, and just when I thought I might as well move on, I noticed a buzz of activity as walkie-talkie’s crackled into life, and things began to happen. The chase car moved into place. A stunt man mounted his bicycle, and a dozen or so vehicles which had been parked by the curb, suddenly roared into life; swung into position; paused for a moment like Formula 1 cars on a starting grid; and as the director called ‘Action’ the chase scene got underway – and was over before I had time to focus my camera!

I hate to think how many thousands of dollars were expended during the 90 minutes I had been hanging around on the edge of the shoot, let alone during the hours the crew must have been on location. I’m sure the chase scene will look great in the final movie, but quite frankly, standing around watching movies being made is pretty dull when all is said and done.

Image: Film crew setting up under elevated railway on Broadway, New York City

Of course you want to know what the movie is called, and who the lead actors are. All the crew woman I spoke to told me was that it was called Premium Rush. However, a 15 second search on the Internet Movie Database provided the following information: Directed by David Koepp, Premium Rush is described as "An action story set in New York City, where a bike messenger picks up a package at Columbia University and subsequently catches the attention of a dirty cop."

Aha. That explains the 20 second chase sequence between a camera car and the stunt man on the bicycle.

Image: Camera car rigged for chase sequence on Broadway, New York City

Just for the record, the film stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt (currently appearing with Leonardo DiCaprio in Inception), and Jamie Chung (who despite the masculine sounding name is female, and who seems to have done mostly television but is now branching out into feature length movies). Maybe it's just me, but from time to time Gordon-Levitt bears an uncanny resemblance to the late Heath Ledger!

Later in the day, I was heading towards the South Street Seaport and saw three or four film company semi-trailers parked off Broad Street, with a couple of crew members setting up a lighting rig for an evening shoot.

As usual, you can find information online about daily shooting schedules and locations for movies and television shows being filmed around New York. The best site for I have found for that is the On Location Vacations website here…

The Laundry (Reading) List

~ Image: Bookcase in basement of Washington Heights apartment

It is my understanding that most, if not all apartment blocks in New York City have shared laundry facilities located in their basements, and the apartment block I am staying in is no exception. However, I don’t know if all basement laundries have a shared bookcase stuffed with books for apartment residents to read, and contribute to.

The image on the left is of the bookcase in the laundry of the apartment I am staying in, where I estimate there are probably 200+ books.

In amongst the usual suspects (Mary Higgins Clark, V.C. Andrews, John Grisham), you will also find outdated text books and computer manuals (Windows 2000, anyone?); and discarded travel guides for San Francisco, Arizona and Savannah, Georgia. Then there are books representing the abandoned hopes of dreams of budding actors and thespians, as indicated by the grandly named Actor’s Book of Contemporary Stage Monologues, and The Actor’s Scenebook, along with a copy of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting For Godot (I wonder if every New York apartment laundry has a copy of that one?).

Of course, you will also find a selection of ‘bringing up baby’ books, starting with books on pregnancy, before moving on to baby’s first year, and so on up the age range.

But just in case you think the bookshelf is filled with such fare, be assured that amongst the dross there are also some great titles, including The Pesthouse by one of my favourite authors, Jim Crace. Here is a partial list of some other great reads: Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness; Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman; and Beneath The Wheel by Herman Hesse (Wot? No Siddhartha?). Sorry, no, maybe someone has borrowed it. There is a copy of Ernest Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast; a couple by Tom Wolfe, I Am Charlotte Simmons, and Bonfire of The Vanities; The Muslim Discovery of Europe by Bernard Lewis, and Arundharti Roy’s The God of Small Things.

Clearly there are some well-read residents here.

But the piece de resistance is Kathleen Meyer’s 1989 book (in its 2nd Revised Edition, no less), called How To Shit In The Woods. Seriously. Billed as “An environmentally sound approach to a lost art,” (I think it’s probably safe to assume that few New York apartment laundries have copies of this book), Kathleen outlines the best way to deal with the perennial problem facing hikers, travelers, campers, and road warriors of all types; and that is, How do you dispose of your body’s most precious waste products in a safe, healthy and environmentally friendly way?

Fascinating stuff, this. I don’t know if it ever made it to the top of the New York Times best seller lists, but it certainly deserved to. There’s even a chapter called, For Women Only, How Not to Pee in Your Boots.

Did I read it? Does a bear shit in the woods? Of course, I read it. While her advice to women to practice peeing standing up has some merit, I suspect that if she was writing the book today, she would also recommend women pack a Shenis with them.

What is a Shenis? I’m glad you asked

I think.

The Shenis was invented by a woman (of course) and looks like a 12 inch pe… Well, you don’t need me to describe it when you can visit the Shenis website and check it out for yourself...

Of course, YouTube was not around either in 1989, when the book was published. Today if you search for “Shenis” on YouTube, not only will you find numerous examples of women putting the product to use, but also videos of women successfully peeing standing up!

Who would have thought a trip to the laundry could be so interesting?