The Chris Moeller Archives

The Gotham Recap

Sorry for my absence, I just returned from an exciting getaway weekend in the Big Apple. It was my first visit in eight years, but my visits seem to fall in bunches and I'd like nothing better than to turn around and head back tomorrow.

Here are some thoughts I jotted down about the trip and the city so nice they named it twice...


The buzz of the city can hit you before you even get there. In the terminal of the Cincinnati Airport, awaiting the connecting flight to LaGuardia, a man in a business suit on a cell phone was talking up a movie he had just seen. In it, a character was playing a cello in the marching band. I recognized the bit immediately as the quintessential New Yorker Woody Allen's in his first film "Take the Money and Run." I also witnessed the first Orthodox Jew of the trip in Cincinnati. He was awaiting the same connecting flight (presumably back) to NYC. You don't see "them kind" in Iowa now that Agriprocessors has closed. In a parallel study on the way home, we were in the Atlanta airport not two minutes before I saw a guy in a protestant minister's collar.

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During the current economic downturn, even the prices in Sky Mall magazine are falling. A five quart ice bucket sells now for only $99.50.

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While traveling by bus and subway through the borough of Queens, I can't get the mental image of Kevin James out of my head. That's why he's "the King," I guess. That got me to thinking about who would be the mental image of each of the other five boroughs. For me, Brooklyn would be Jackie Robinson (or maybe Vinny Barbarino), Staten Island is Christina Aguilera, and the Bronx is Malcolm X. Manhattan is probably Cole Porter. I'm kinda sophisticated that way.

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I've still never been to LaGuardia during the summer, but I've always been curious if you can hear the sound of the Mets game while in the terminal.

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Classic New York City moment involving the companion: We're in a shuttle bus and the driver is talking so much to the passengers (telling corny jokes) that he's got his eyes more on the back of the bus than on the road as he races down a street filled with pedestrians. "Hey, there's a person!" she shouts as the cab driver races past a near collision, completely oblivious.

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We didn't take a single taxi ride during the four days we were in the city. I'm as at home now in the New York City subway system as a fish in the ocean. I can't get enough of it-- I feel a sense of efficiency in terms of time, money, and the ecology. It's a triple threat.

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Everyone really should walk the length of, or part of, the Brooklyn Bridge. You can't take a bad picture there. They all turn out like this. Unfortunately, it would be too dangerous to Spiderman-it-down to the lower platform and snap a picture from the standpoint of the passing cars, but if you could, it would totally look like the opening sequence of the TV show "Taxi."

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The linked picture above is from the internet naturally, but the companion took about 300 digital pictures during the trip, 100 alone at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I think she's going to be marketing a calendar.

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I don't know how a modern subway commuter could live without an iPod.

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Most don't.

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No restaurant in town serves cheesecake in actual proportion to the human stomach. Perfect for police horses, though.

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The companion learned a little too slowly that you can't take a picture of a New Yorker without the subject of the photo demanding a financial contribution in return. First, it was the drummer at the subway stop in Times Square, then it was the guy in green greasepaint dressed as Lady Liberty at Battery Park.

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New York City will turn anyone into an architecture buff. I'm an art deco adherent myself. The NBC Studio tour is worth the price of admission just to see the interior of the staggeringly beautiful GE building in Rockefeller Center. We took photos in front of the Christmas tree Thursday night, and you know it doesn't look half the size it does on television. This is probably because it's dwarfed by the 70-floor building behind it.

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In case you were curious, the tree came down Saturday morning.

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Of course, the NBC Studio tour was also worth the price of admission because of its tremendous broadcast history. The "Saturday Night Live" studio, 8-H, (they did a live show the evening of the day we were there) was long ago home to the NBC Radio Orchestra, dating back to the 1930s. That had great significance to a former employee of WHO Radio in Des Moines, an NBC affiliate for more than 60 years until the mid-90s. The "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" studio on a lower floor had added significance in that it was also the home of "Late Night with David Letterman" for 12 seasons prior to Conan's occupancy, so we saw that historic stage and the off-camera locations where Dave and his gang used to conduct the hallway and elevator races. The GE pinheads are still there, and they say the place is now haunted by the ghost of Marv Albert.

We also got to see the "Late Night" studio in one of its final days. Conan leaves for Burbank and "The Tonight Show" after the February 20th taping, and a new studio is being built next door for his successor, Jimmy Fallon. I'll probably do an official obituary post for the studio at the end of the month.

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Skipped the "Today" show scene on Friday morning, but I would have liked to have seen the fourth hour with Kathie Lee Gifford.

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Spent about an hour on Wall Street Friday. The Dow lost 143 points.

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The tower at Rockefeller Center notwithstanding-- this is the most beautiful building in the city, if not the world.

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My biggest cultural shortcoming is that I equate everything with movies and television. Even in the extraordinary Natural History Museum, what I'm mostly thinking about is that this is where they shot scenes for the recent films "Election" and "The Squid and the Whale." When you get right down to it, this city of 18 million people and more than 300 square miles is really just the set of "Ghostbusters".

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The stage shows on Broadway are wonderful, but if you get a chance, take in a club performance at Birdland on 44th. It's one of the coolest evening stops in a great city. Someday I'll get to a jazz performance at Lincoln Center. I like that high-hat stuff.

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The companion couldn't resist purchasing a fake Rolex in Chinatown, and she took it for half the asking price at that. So if you see her, don't be fooled.

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I was pleased to get my picture taken with the statue of Ralph Kramden at the Port Authority Bus Terminal.

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A beautiful wet snow fell on Saturday when we were at the Natural History Museum on Central Park's west side. The scene was almost magical. You can understand why John Lennon loved the park.

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Good thing I had a notebook with me to record all the things we did and saw. Otherwise, I'd have to wait until I got my credit card statement to get this written.

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Later in the week, What's Wrong with the Airline Industry today.

posted by CM @ 8:24 PM