Category: Friends

Kang & Soto (and Pam)

Tuesday, September 12th, 2006 | All Things, Friends, Music

Attended a lunchtime concert by The Julliard School’s Kang & Soto Duo: Judy Kang (Violin) and Josu de Solaun Soto (Piano). The performance took place in the glass atrium of 180 Maiden, formerly known as the Continental Center, just south of South Street Seaport. It was built for the Continental Insurance Company by The Rockefeller Group in 1983 at a cost of $115 million. In August 2004, the building was sold to The Moinian Group for $355 million.

A blurry shot of the performance in progess (after which I asked to put the camera away.)

Kang and Soto

I’d taken a different view of this building from the anniversary cruise last month, and it’s clear how the glass tower rises above its surroundings (here, the leftmost building, behind Pier 17):

Continental Center

The tower was enabled by the transfer of unused air rights from the low-rises in the South Street Seaport historic district. Air rights allow developers to build taller towers than the zoning ordinarily allows by buying the space over low-scale buildings and transferring it (on paper, if not in reality) to spaces over adjacent buildings. From wikipedia, an explanation of how Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) works:

EXAMPLE: A historic building is surrounded by skyscrapers. The building is only three stories high, but each building in the area has the right to thirty-five stories of airspace. The community doesn’t want the historic building to be destroyed. The owners of the historic building could make a great deal of money by selling their building and allowing a thirty-five story office building to be built in its place. But if they sell their air rights to someone developing an office building nearby, they can make almost as much money, if not more, without demolishing the historic building. And the person who purchases their air rights can now build a sixty-seven story office building.

TDR makes it possible for there to be a free exchange (buying and selling) of development rights without having to sell land. Critics of this model argue that the plan rarely generates much money for historic low-rise properties, and is more often used as a real estate scheme to undermine zoning protections.

Group dinner at Pam Real Thai — second time there this week. JS, who spent a year in Thailand after college, did the ordering, which worked out well for everyone; we shared an abundance of tasty dishes, including the tangy sliced squid salad and the deep-fried whole snapper with lime dressing and shreds of fresh mango. So good! He and I agreed on this point: Pam’s has the best Thai food in Manhattan. The original Wondee Siam is a close second — though some on the Chowhound boards would have you believe the reverse. I really have to make it out to Sripraphai in Woodside, Queens one of these days…

Afterwards, AC, CS, CC and I walked over to the Time Out New York Lounge which opened two weeks ago in Worldwide Plaza. Sort of an odd expansion of the “Time Out” brand (Jossip likened it to Jimmy Buffett bars or Teen Vogue television) but at least the lounge was low key enough to allow for audible conversation. The subterranean space that was once home to the Cineplex Odeon $2.00 (then $2.50, and just before closing: $3.00) second-run movie theater complex now houses New World Stages and its five Off-Broadway theaters.

From the lounge, we could hear the thumping beats from a television industry fête in full swing around the corner in the lower-lower level (former movie theater) space. It was tempting to crash the party — and in fact, we had some half-hearted discussions about making the attempt — but ultimately decided against infiltrating. Just as well: the party was breaking up just as we were leaving around midnight anyway.

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Real Life Entertaining

Wednesday, September 6th, 2006 | All Things, Books, Classes, Events, Friends

SN and I met up after work so we could attend together NYU’s Open House/information session being held at the nearby Woolworth Building. The lobby is one of the most beautiful interior spaces in New York City. Sadly, like so many other public spaces, it too was closed off for security reasons after September 11. We were required to come into the building through the Barclay Street entrance, completely bypassing the grand, high arches I remember from those pre-2001 days.

SYB was already there, considering the offerings at the School of Continuing and Professional Studies. After a quick tour among the tables, I spied IG, the superstar of our Russian I class, by the refreshments table. After some quick catching up, I left her with SN to discuss course registration strategy. I hope to see them both again in two weeks, when Russian II starts up for the Fall. NYU requires a minimum enrollment of six people to hold the class; after tonight, we’re already halfway there. Fingers crossed…

SYB was leaving the event also, so I invited him to tag along to the book party for Jennifer Rubell’s Real Life Entertaining. (SYB is all about the real life entertaining, after all.) We took the subway uptown to The Conran Shop, in Bridgemarket, tucked in the shadow of the Queensboro Bridge. This design-conscious home furnishings store opened in 1999, but I’d never had an occasion to make the special trip out there until now.

Conran Shop

According to last week’s New York Times profile about The Conran Shop, the foot-traffic unfriendly location results in the cavernous, bi-level glass and steel space remaining empty most of the time. Technically, the store may have been open for shopping, but almost everyone there tonight seemed to be there for the party.

Jennifer Rubell is the niece of nightlife kingpin Steve Rubell, who co-founded the legendary Studio 54. Professional entertaining is her legacy: her family runs three Miami-area hotels (The Beach House, The Greenview and The Albion) and The Rubell Family Collection, a museum housing the world’s largest private family collection of contemporary art.

By the time we made our way past the clipboarded name-checkers, the cooking demonstration had already started downstairs. Rubell seemed to be about five minutes into the preparation of her quick and easy “Summer Tuna Spectacular,” featuring seared tuna with diced olives, tomatoes and capers. She talked the audience through the demonstration, offering creative ideas and helpful tips. (“Always cut meat against the grain for maximum tenderness!”) Though she probably caters to a similar demographic, I found Rubell far, far less grating than Rachael Ray.

Fair warning: any comments which include the terms “E.V.O.O.” and/or “Yum-o” will be deleted — no exceptions. Violators will be scorned.

Jennifer Rubell

One of the party sponsors was Rose’s Cocktail Infusions: purveyors of multi-colored fruit-flavored drink mixers. After Rubell’s segment, a bartender came up front to demonstrate the recipes a couple of prettily-hued specialty drinks featuring Rose’s mixer, both of which were also being served up at the bar stations around the floor.

Watermelon, Cranberry, Mango, Apple, and Blue Raspberry. I’m sure I do not understand the reasoning behind this quiz, but you can take it anyway to find out which Rose’s Cocktail Infusion suits your personal style. I’m a “Watermelon Trendsetter!”

Roses Infusions

After the two demos, there was plenty of time to wander among the cool Conran stock as the trays of hors d’oeuvres circulated. I actually found quite a few items I liked… if I had at least thrice the space and ten times the money I do now.

Conran Lighting

Dinner at English pub Baker Street, and then we crossed town to meet CS at our long-neglected local watering hole. Things there got pretty interesting, despite the absence of our friend, Bartender Paul (who is only on duty Mondays, Tuesdays and Saturdays.)

At one point in the evening I approached the bar to request a glass of water, and two men (both named Rob) sitting nearby began to strike up a conversation with me. One seemed vaguely familiar-looking, and as he and I continued to chat, a few details began to emerge from the haze of my memory. Yes, Riverside Drive, Morgan Stanley, Canadian…. Finally, after a pause, Rob commented, “You know… uh, we’ve met before.”

“Oh? Hmm, I thought so…”

“Yes. The last time, you were here with your lesbian friend.”

Ah. I should note here that “the last time” was well over a year and a half ago, and that although this was the first occasion she has been referred to me as such, I immediately recognized that the woman Rob was talking about was M. Dear M – from here on, known as my lesbian friend, haha! M(LF) and I were at Peter’s that late night so long ago, no doubt post-morteming our respective love life disasters.

Needless to say, she must have made quite the impression.

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Good bye, Pluto. Hello, Kryptonite.

Tuesday, August 29th, 2006 | All Things, Film, Friends

Back at the apartment, I had a run-in with the super, and as a result, the work I had arranged to have done in the apartment this afternoon got postponed to tomorrow morning. So I guess I won’t be going back to the office until Thursday. Gotta love co-op living.

B, RS and JS were planning a trip into Manhattan, and joining them on their continuing tour of New York seemed vastly preferable to sitting at home sulking over my own thwarted plans. We met at the movie theatre and headed uptown to The American Museum of Natural History. (We were about to to hit the MoMA, until SYB reminded us that the museum is closed on Tuesdays. Good looking out!)

We entered the Rose Center for Earth and Space first, recalling to mind that the last time I set foot inside, a year and a half ago, it was 4:00AM on a pitch black and icy, mid-January morning. SYB, B and I (and a couple hundred other hardy/crazy souls) had made the trek there to witness the live feed of the Huygens spacecraft touching down on Titan, the largest of Saturn’s moons. When those first black, white and flaming orange grainy images started flitting across the screens before our bleary eyes, it was a sight to behold. The excitement at the Center was palpable, and well worth losing the few hours sleep.

Today, at a far more reasonable hour, we zipped among the fleets of Maclarens through the spiral walkway with the timeline of the universe (Big Bang to present): 13 billion years of cosmic evolution in ten minutes! I always liked the Scales of the Universe upper walkway feature, offering size comparisons ranging from the known universe to subatomic particles by using the 87-foot Hayden Sphere in the center as a reference.

As for the scaled model of the solar system inside: there is no Pluto. Never was, from the time the Center opened in 2000. A display for the model notes that “Beyond the outer planets is the Kuiper Belt of comets, a disk of small, icy worlds including Pluto.” A controversal concept at the time, now widely accepted.

No field trip to the Museum is complete without checking out the dinosaurs:

Skeleton

And while we were there…

Skeleton Skeleton

We were out of there in record time, opting for a leisurely dinner of New York pizzas with the visitors before the IMAX screening of Superman Returns… in 3-D! We were handed giant plastic glasses at the door to don for four film sequences (and the trailers, which were also projected in 3-D.) Actually, though, it was three film sequences and an approximately ten second long clip of the Man of Steel flying around just before the closing credits rolled. Still, pretty cool!

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