Central Park Summer Stage

Last night I went to see banjo player extraordinaire Bela Fleck and Mali musician Toumani Dibate at the Central Park Summer Stage. If you've never gone to Summer Stage, you must. They have some great shows and most of them are free!

Where Did the Mob in NYC Come From?

The Mafia, "the Mob", la cosa notra, the Family -- organized crime has always intrigued New Yorkers. Whether its through The Godfather movies or "The Sopranos", New Yorkers have been fascinated with the people who live and work outside the law. They seem to do whatever they want (to whoever they want), they kill, rob, lie, deceive, extort, con, defraud, beat up, and then they finish their days eating big fancy meals at expensive restaurants with their wives or goomahs while wearing fancy suits and bling, and then drive home to their gorgeous houses in their sleek new cars.

Or at least that's what we think.

Of course while popular culture and tabloid headlines give us an idea of what the mob does, we know little of its history and how it took root here in NYC. There is a new book, however, they tells the history of the mob in NYC and how one immigrant's arrival here in 1892 was the beginning of what we know (and fear) today as "the mob."

Stout

You'd probably think that a restaurant/bar in the Penn Station/Madison Square Garden area would be a madhouse -- and you'd be right. That said, as midtown madhouses go, Stout on West 33rd street is one of the best.

Stout is big. Really big. It not only has a huge bar area but also a couple of spacious dining rooms -- separated from the bar -- where you can sit and eat comfortably. We got there at about 6:30 on a Tuesday night, at the height of the after-work bar scene, and got a table right away. There's also a really big bar area downstairs where I went to a party once, and the people weren't all jammed in together like in most bars in this town. One could drink and walk around comfortably. Also, it has a decor I really like, a non-pretentious old-time pub look.

Their selection of beers is really good too, and they even have daily special brews. I had a lager that I forget the name of but enjoyed immensely. Their food, particularly the burger and fries, is above par for bar food, and comes in sensible portions. Best of all, the service was excellent, and we had one of the friendliest and nicest waitresses that I can remember in a long time. Considering that she was working in a midtown bar at the height of happy hour and waiting on a lot of people, I was doubly impressed.

Stout even has good bathrooms. In one of them they had a hand-drier that was so intense it completely dried off and warmed my hands in about 5 seconds. I also liked that Stout had TVs everywhere so you could get your ESPN fix and the music, while loud, is not deafening like at a lot of other bars.

So if you find yourself in midtown and are looking for a place to hang with friends, you really can't do any better than Stout. Mr NYC highly recommends it.

Homeless Expats

Homelessness is a chronic problem in NYC, and it obviously gets worse when the economy is bad. For decades the city government has struggled with ways to deal with this problem, including shelters, drug rehab, subsidized apartments, you name it. Rates of homelessness rise and fall but the homeless have never entirely disappeared from our streets.

But maybe that will change.

Mayor Bloomberg has developed a program where the city tries to hook up homeless people with family members who live out of town. The city literally buys them a ticket out of New York and, in some cases, provides money to the families who have agreed to take in their homeless relatives.

So if you're homeless in NYC these days, the city will do everything it can to give you a helping hand ... to leave it.

This plan sounds both sensible and mean. Sensible: it dispatches the homeless from our streets and our shelters and reunites them with family. Mean: it basically says that the city can't and won't do anything more to help these poor souls and shifts the burden of taking care of them to others.

Sensible and mean ... so is life.

Green Day @ Madison Square Garden

t down your iPhones, put down your cameras; this is a fuckin' memory, so live it!"

Green Day played a lot of their old stuff and new stuff. They played a lot of stuff, even bizarre covers like "Earth Angel." They were on stage for almost three hours (9-12) and the music and hijinks's were non-stop. Amongst the hits: "When I Come Around", "Holiday", "20,000 Light Years Away", "Basket Case", "Boulevard of Broken Dreams", "When September Ends" and, of course "American Idiot" (during the encore. They played MUCH more stuff than that but I can't make this the longest posting ever.)

There was moshing, jumping, fist-pumping, screeching galore. It was a real rhubarb.

The show ended on a sweet note when Billie Joe, solo with a guitar, crooned "Time of Your Life." Ahhhhhhhhhhh ... It was quite a refreshing way to end it.

The songs were interrupted by the band's various gags. This usually meant that BJA brought people on stage (usually very young people) to jam with the band (although at one point he performed a mock exorcism on a young boy. I guess he thought it was funny). At one point another young man was playing Tre Cool's drums under the watchful eyes of Monsieur Cool himself. If it had been me, I would have froze but this young drummer drummed admirably.

Also, when one of the girls selected from the audience got onto the stage, she literally assaulted Mr. Armstrong, hugging and kissing him and practically throwing him on the floor. "Ah," he must have been thinking, "'tis good to be a rock star."

MTA Danger!

Early yesterday evening I traveled from Queens to Manhattan. The N train crawled ... and crawled ... and crawled ... at a snail's pace through the tunnel between Queensboro Plaza and Lexington Avenue. A subway train stopping and starting and going slow through a tunnel is nothing new. Usually there's a signal malfunction or congestion that causes the problem. But this was something different.

Very different.

Just before the train picked up speed again, I saw, through the window, four or five track workers standing right outside the train. They were face-to-face with the window, only inches separating them from the train. You could see that they were petrified, quaking under their orange vests and hardhats. Considering what a hot day it was and what they were wearing, this must have been pure torture for them.

Something clearly was very wrong.

Clearly someone goofed. These men were not given enough time to clear out of the tunnel before the train came. It was a miscommunication of some sorts or just downright imcompetence. The result was a very dangerous situation.

How could this happen? After all the track workers who have been killed in the line of duty, how could such a situation be allowed to arise again?

I cannot imagine that this was business as usual. This was clearly a highly, highly unsafe situation and I'm sure the Transport Workers Union would never agree to let their members labor in such unsafe conditions.

But at this moment I was thankful, not for the MTA which is run by a bunch of hacks, but the subway workers who literally give their lives so that we can get around this town. They have brutally tough job and they should be protected at all times.

I hope something like this never happens again.

Philly Follow-up

My post about my recent visit to Philadelphia invited a comment from someone named Caroline at gophila.com who wrote:

"Wow - you saw a lot of great things here in Philadelphia and really hit on why it's a great city.

Next time, come back, see the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Liberty Bell (and the rest of the Historic Philadelphia) and sleep over in a hotel to see even more the next day!

Thanks for sharing your travels."

My pleasure and I hope to see all that -- and more -- next time.

Mr NYC in Philadelphia

Recently I took a day-trip to Philadelphia or Philly, "the city of brotherly love", home of the cheese steak and current best team in the American league.

Some people also call it the sixth borough of New York City but I won't wade into that debate.

That said, I had a nice time during my brief visit to Philly and discovered a few cool things.

First, like NYC, Philly is a great city for walkers; the streets are wide and clean and the architecture is beautiful so there's lots to see. The area around Independence Hall is really beautiful and there's also a gorgeous park nearby.

Second, we went through the cool Italian market on 9th Street between Wharton and Fitzwater. Like a farmer's market, this is an outdoor area that sells like of fresh pasta, cheeses, sausages, etc. and has a real old-world feel. If you're in the mood and have the time for some Italian eats, it's definitely worth checking out.

Third, you MUST visit the Eastern State Penitentiary. This is one of the oldest prisons in America and the first "supermax" facility where all the inmates stayed in solitary confinement. Al Capone was a resident there once and they even filmed part of "12 Monkeys" there. You really get a sense of what prison life was like back then.

Fourth, we went to Independence Hall where, on July 4, 1776, we declared our independence from Great Britain. While great to see, the tour only lasts about 15 minutes and the tour guide's explanations of everything is less than overwhelming. Still, it's free, you just have to get tickets ahead of time.

Fifth, we had a GREAT dinner at a place called Southwark. The service was friendly, the food wonderful, the atmosphere old-timey but not stuffy. If you ever find yourself in Philly and want dinner at a classy place, I can't recommend this more highly.

I'm afraid I didn't get to see the Liberty Bell or go to the Museum of Art but I still felt that I great trip.
So Philadelphia is a great place to go. And it doesn't and shouldn't exist in NYC's shadow. It's a great city with a wonderful culture and an interesting history all its own.

Walter Cronkite's Funeral

Like this is a big surprise ...

Further Delays Possible for Second Avenue Subway

Electing a black man president of the USA has turned out to be easier than getting this desperately needed subway line built. If it happens in my lifetime, I'll be amazed. Maybe my grandkids -- or great grandkids -- will get to ride on it one day.