New York – Ian Louis Harris

Food, Art & Work In New York City, 1 to 8 November 1996

Michael and I had been commissioned to do a bit of work for Bloomberg. Janie and I decided to enjoy a weekend in New York ahead of my assignment. Janie flew out with me on the Friday, returning to London on the Sunday redeye. I then joined up with Michael and we worked in New York for several days.

Janie and I stayed at the Waldorf Astoria, scoring a manageable price at that time – especially as expenses was picking up five of my seven nights.

We chose to eat at Smith & Wollensky’s (see headline picture) the first night, having read a rave review about it in one of Janie’s travel mags. What that review didn’t teach us was the extent to which a high-end steakhouse in NYC was a “jacket & tie more or less assumed” place, which I discovered only after we arrived in smart casuals.

One local asked Janie if we were Irish as he was leaving, perhaps based on Janie’s physiognomy but perhaps also our casual look. One friendly but drunk gentleman, while walking past us as he departed, stopped and asked me if I realised how expensive the restaurant was. I told him I did. Thing was, back then, an expensive New York restaurant seemed quite modest in price by London standards.

Janie and I did some culture-vulturing on the Saturday, spending quite some time at MoMA, partly looking at the excellent general galleries but also taking in some special exhibitions, e.g. a Jasper Johns retrospective.

We went on to a Nan Goldin exhibition at The Whitney, which had been much heralded on both sides of the pond:

Whitney MOMA October 1996 12 Oct 1996, Sat Daily News (New York, New York) Newspapers.com

Janie and I were especially taken with the Nan Goldin.

Tired, a little lagged even, but not dissuaded, we went on to The Guggenheim, where Ellsworth Kelly was featured.

I have found an interesting review of both the MoMA Jasper Johns and the Ellsworth Kelly on-line, which is pretty cool:

Ellsworth Kelly and Jasper Johns October 1996 New York 22 Oct 1996, Tue Daily News (New York, New York) Newspapers.com

By mid-late afternoon, we really were both wilting, so we returned to the hotel for siesta, before venturing out again, this time for dinner at the 2nd Avenue Deli:

Actually we eschewed the popular “salt beef on rye” style of deli food depicted for a more traditional Jewish deli meal, harder to come by in London, including a truly excellent cholent, which Janie, now a self-appointed aficionado of such dishes, claims to be the best she has ever tasted. I believe it was accompanied by (or perhaps we separately ordered) a kishke or helzel, which, obviously, will have helped the fatty-gooiness of the occasion make an especially strong impression. We also tried p’tcha (calves foot jelly), which is one of those mistakes people tend to only make once.

Still, it was a very special evening and I am pretty sure we slept off our endeavours/over-indulgence at length that night.

The next day we took it easy, simply strolling and finding a suitable-looking mid-town eatery for a traditional New York Sunday brunch, before I helped Janie get a cab to the airport for her “red-eye” journey home that evening.

New York cabs were still a hit-and-miss affair, probity-wise, back then. The authorities had fixed the price of a fare from Manhattan to JFK, so I gave Janie the appropriate fare plus a generous tip, explaining to her that she could and should simply exhaust her supply of dollar money on that journey. The cabbie tried to enforce some monstrous sum showing on his meter, which was the very thing the authorities had sought to prevent with the flat fare rule. Janie simply explained what had been explained to her and the initially angry cabbie relented. Janie has not sought a rapid return to New York City since.

Harvard Club Interior Marc Jacobs, CC BY-SA 4.0

I have a feeling I met up with Michael at the Harvard Club that evening. I recall having some superb sashimi with him there – for some reason (perhaps brainiacs tend to like sashimi) the place had employed a top sashimi chef at that time, which didn’t go with the decor but did go down very nicely indeed.

Then for several days it was mostly work.

I recall one midweek evening being entertained for dinner at John Aubert’s elevated apartment on the New Jersey side of the Hudson Bay with a glorious view of Manhattan.

One midweek evening comprised an early evening cocktail party at the Harvard Club, organised by Michael for his wider circle of friends and acquaintances, followed by dinner with a closer-knit small group. Very New York.

On my last night, the Thursday, Bloomberg arranged a dinner for us and several of the seniors involved in our project at a seriously up-market, kosher restaurant in mid-town. Several of the attendees had such dietary needs. It was, to date (25 years on), the one and only meal I have ever had that might be described as both haute cuisine and glatt kosher.

Michael stayed on Friday for an audience with Michael Bloomberg himself, while I took the wimps (daytime) flight back to London, arriving late evening to find that Janie had, in my absence, changed all of the carpets in Sandall Close. Let’s tread carefully around that one.

Post-Thanksgiving Saturday In New York, 25 November 1989

I’m struggling to remember much of what I did in New York on the Saturday after Thanksgiving.

I know I spent much of the Friday with Mara at the Lincoln Center and then about the place:

Zubin Mehta & The New York Philharmonic Orchestra & Moose, Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center, New York, 24 November 1989

I probabaly spent some time on the Saturday clearing up the W77th Street apartment and preparing to leave.

I also sense, from the photos, that I took another long walk at some point quite early in the day:

New York was well thawing by the Saturday

I am prety sure I went on a bit of a shopping spree downtown that day too. I had been told about post-Thanksgiving sales and but was also was keen to buy some second hand records of the kind I might not find in England so easily.

I did buy some second hand records, although I recall thinking that the selction in Notting Hill Gate beat anything I could find in New York in most departments.

I do recall buying a copy of Mish Mosh by Mickey Katz and his Kosher Jammers for my dad, who was a bit of a fan. I have inherited that record back since, so have it in my collection now. Below is a sample some other fan has kindly uploaded to YouTube:

But Mickey Katz and his Kosher Jammers was not the soundtrack of my visit to New York in late 1989…

…no no no. The song that was absolutely stuck in my head, playing regularly while I was in New York, was Pump Up The Jam by Technotronic:

I bought a copy of that single while I was in New York and recall talking to my half-Belgian friend/colleague Daniel Scordel about the record soon after my return to London. I described it as a quintessentially New York sound, to which Daniel replied:

Actually I think that group is Belgian. Actually that’s a quintessentially “Europeans trying to sound like New York” sound.

I thought Daniel was joking, but Mr Google informs me that Daniel was correct. The lipsynching model/dancer is Congolese, just to add to the geographical confusion.

Still a good record and still quintessentially MY visit to New York.

I think the dinner with Becca Simmons might have been that Saturday evening, but perhaps I had dinner with her before Thanksgiving weekend. She might remember.

Alternatively, this might have been the evening that I attempted to follow American football in a bar/diner, based on Bob Blake’s tutorial earlier in my stay, discovering that I hadn’t really taken much in from Bob’s instruction.

The above twwo paragraphs make more sense if you have read Part One of my New York trip:

My First Visit To The USA Part One: New York, c19 to 22 November 1989

Zubin Mehta & The New York Philharmonic Orchestra & Moose, Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center, New York, 24 November 1989

The background to my 1989 sojourn to the USA is provided in an earlier piece – click here or below:

My First Visit To The USA Part One: New York, c19 to 22 November 1989

But while I lack a travel log for this holiday, I can fall back on my theatres and concerts log for the centrepiece of this day, the day after Thanksgiving – now known as Black Friday -was that “a thing” back then – I don’t recall hearing the term. Anyway, my log says:

Great gig on a Friday afternoon. Only 12 days after I met Rita. Moose had spent a couple of days schlepping around New York with me, so I treated her to this concert by way of a thank you.

I have described the evening I met Rita Frank in this piece – click here or below:

An Unexpected Evening At The Barbican During Which I Heard Sibelius, Met Rita Frank & Experienced Driving In Dense London Fog, 12 November 1989

I have also described Rita’s daughter, Mara Frank’s, informal New York tour guide role in the “Part One” piece linked above. All that remains to explain is that Mara was known as Moose back then. Possibly still is. I’ll try and find out, as I have managed to track her down and we are communicating over these pieces.

Anyway, point is…well, exactly the point I made on the log. I wanted to see stuff at the Lincoln Centre before I left New York and spotted that there was good availability of tickets over that holiday weekend.

The chance to see Zubin Mehta and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra in New York seemed too good to miss. I thought Mara (Moose) might enjoy seeing them too.

Here is a recording of Zubin Mehta & The New York Philharmonic Orchestra playing the very Vivaldi piece we heard in the very Lincoln Centre in which we heard it – albeit the recording has sightly more high falutin’ soloisti:

It was a super concert that afternoon and I think Moose enjoyed it. But possibly she didn’t – she’d have been far too polite to say if she hadn’t liked it. Mara, if by any chance you remember, you can tell me truthfully now.

Subsequently, when she came to live in London, I discovered that Mara was a keen fan of Dr Demento. Moose and I spent many happy, silly hours listening to her Dr Demento tapes. But Moose is probably blissfully unaware of my own massive novelty song canon, as I think she had returned to the USA before my NewsRevue writing career started, in 1992. NewsRevue is explained in the anniversary piece – click here or below:

NewsRevue 40th Anniversary Party, Show & Smoker, Canal Cafe Theatre, 18 August 2019

Moose might like the following one of mine, for example, just one of several hundred such ditties:

White House, NewsRevue Lyric, 8 November 1992

But Dr Demento (and Newsrevue) stuff is a far cry from Zubin Mehta and the New York Phil…but then, I like all sorts of music – Moose might also like both. In fact, now I come to think of it, John Random is a doyen of NewsRevue writers/lyricists and he is an avid fan of Zubin Mehta.

But back to Black Friday 1989: that was an afternoon concert and I’m pretty sure Mara and I spent at least the early part of the evening together too. This might have been the occasion when she insisted on buying me Godiva chocolates (mentioned in the Part One piece).

I also recall being scammed by a fast-talking sob-story merchant. It’s hard to imagine falling for one of those, but we didn’t have them in London back then (or at least young folk like me didn’t encounter them) so I fell for the “just need my train fare” story and gave him a couple of bucks.

He’ll be a junky and the bucks will be spent on drugs, not transport…

…said Mara.

I don’t fall for those any more.

I think Mara and I had a bite to eat together and I think this was the last I saw of her until she came to London for her placement the following year. But I’m happy to stand corrected if my memory has missed or confused these details.

As a musical aside, I remember thinking the concert an ideal choice for Moose, as it had some Sibelius in it and Sibelius had been the centre-piece of the concert at which I had met Rita.

I cannot find Zubin Mehta conducting Sibelius, but I have found one of the first ever filmed concerts at the Lincoln Centre, from the early 1960’s, with Leonard Bernstein conducting Finlandia, the very piece of Sibelius we heard. It is actually a very fine performance and also a rather splendid piece of historic concert filming:

Dreaming Of A White Thanksgiving, New York, 23 November 1989

I have described the background to my USA trip and my first few days in New York in an earlier piece – click here or below:

My First Visit To The USA Part One: New York, c19 to 22 November 1989

When I woke up on Thanksgiving morning, there was a thick coat of snow over New York. At the time, I had no idea how rare an event this was – I only found out 30 years later, while writing up this event, that 1989 was the first “proper” white Thanksgiving (i.e. more than just a flurry of snow) for over 50 years and that it hasn’t happened since.

A white Thanksgiving it was – reported excitedly in the New York Times – click here or below.

Even The Los Angeles Times reported the freak East Coast weather.

So I didn’t think, “freak weather”, I merely thought, “photo opportunity before I head off to Westchester County”. So I went for a long walk around Central Park and beyond. Lots of pictures, just a few are shown below to illustrate:

I had been warned that the East Coast can be chilly at that time of year, so I would have taken warm clothes, but I’m sure I didn’t anticipate snow so my walk for sure would have been shod in quite basic sneakers. But I suppose 5 inches of virgin snow on a quiet morning is not so dangerous.

On the matter of danger, I do recall that the Barst family were concerned about me taking the train from Grand Central Station up to Westchester County to join them for a traditional Thanksgiving family gathering. At that time, they considered Grand Central to be a dangerous place, populated by hoodlums, hustlers, halfway housers and the like. They warned me to walk with purpose and only ask directions of a uniformed offical.

Bravely, I stopped to take this picture near Grand Central Station

In truth, it felt little different from Notting Hill to me, but I suppose, back then, Notting Hill was also considered a bit edgy. The mean streets of Notting Hill…the mean streets of Manhatten…

Anyway, the journey was incident and travel problem free, despite the unseasonal weather…

…hard to imagine an absence of travel disruption in similar “overnight snow before a public holiday” circumstances in the UK.

When I got to Frank and Maurie’s place, I was welcomed into the warmth of a traditional family Thanksgiving.

Patriarch Norman (left) – with daughter “hostess with the mostess” Maurie (right)

Hal (left), Bob (centre) and Jen (right). The knees (front left) are unidentified.

Hal and Joanie, who lived near me in London for a while during my early time in Clanricarde

Family and cake taking centre stage at this point in the proceedings

I especially remember Norman’s fascination with my accent – he took me around to speak with everyone (which was a good way to meet the whole clan) and kept asking me to speak just so that people could hear my…

…incredible English accent. Did you hear that? Listen to that accent! Say that again, Ian…please say that again…

I also remember Norman’s fascination with Frank and Maurie’s house, because it was a 19th century dwelling.

Just think, Ian, your Queen Victoria was on the throne when this house was built…

…to which Joanie said, with feeling…

Oh, Daddy, that’s not going to impress Ian – he lives in a Victorian house too – everybody in London does…

…well, not quite everyone, Joanie. But you did…and so do I!

It was a wonderful experience for me to join a proper family Thanksgiving during my short stay in the USA that time. A happy accident of timing combined with a generious invitation.

It was a very warm and cosy family gathering, just as I had imagined family gatherings at Thanksgiving to be.

I remember telling Grandma Jenny (Norman’s cousin) all about it when I got home; she wanted me to spare her no small detail about that aspect of my trip. By that time she was pretty much blind, so I couldn’t really show her the photos, although I did talk her through them all, in meticulous detail.

Ever since, of course, I have been dreaming of a white Thanksgving, just like the one and only Thanksgiving I used to know…

…little knowing, until just now, that such weather in that part of the world at that time of year is so very, very rare indeed.

A truly memorable day.

There are more photos – about 40 in total including those extracted above – from Thanksgiving day 1989 – click here or the Flickr picture link below.

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: