New Thing #362: Taking The Family To See The Tree

It's easy to do nothing. It's easier to stay at home and rationalize:

"By the time we got the kids packed up and ready…"

or, "It'll be too crowded..."

or, "We can always do it next year…"

And that's how you can live in a place for your whole life and not end up doing the kinds of things that people travel across the world to do in your home city.

There's a lot in New York that falls into that category - stuff I always think I'll get around to at some point but might never do.

That's part of why I wanted to try so many New Things this year.

But visiting the tree at Rockefeller Center is not one of those things.

We've been to the Rockefeller Center tree a bunch of times.

No trip there was more memorable than January 2, 1994. I know the date because I would have much rather stayed home that Sunday watching football (it was the day Emmitt Smith pretty much single-handedly beat the Giants on the last day of the season with what was later revealed to be a separated shoulder), but my mom arranged for all of us to go into the city, visit the tree, and go out to dinner.

There was another good trip in 2002 or 2003 - we took a family picture, including my future wife. That moment is still captured in a "Christmas in New York" ornament my mom got for us (and for her…and I think my brother and sister) that Christmas.

And four years ago my wife and my mom and my sister took my two daughters to see the tree. I was not there because my brother and my dad and I were in Indianapolis to watch a Jets game. (Such a great trip.)

All of this is to say that I've never taken my family to see the tree.

So this year, as part of our Christmas visit to New York, we included a trip to the tree. And it was great. Me, my wife, our three daughters, and my parents took the subway into Manhattan, walked over to Rockefeller Center, then back up 5th Avenue to get back on the train. It wasn't the longest visit, but it was effective - we had a great time.

I liked sharing Christmastime in the city with my kids.

And the best part of it all?

We can always do it again next year.

New Thing #316: All The Buildings In New York

Remember when I told you about 99% Invisible way back in February? Well, I still can't recommend that podcast enough - or its accompanying website, which gives some visuals to go along with the audio.

But what I'm here to tell you about today is a website one of the most recent editions of the podcast opened my eyes up to.

It's called "All The Buildings In New York", and it's one man's attempt to draw the more than one million buildings in New York City.

There are a couple of reasons, I think, that this project speaks to me.

One is that it has that element of counting things off, which is such a part of my personality and I don't quite know how to explain what that means to me other than you can see by this year's project of mine that anything that allows me to number as I go is satisfying to me. (Although the lack of numbering on this New York project makes it a little hard for me to follow…unless they're numbered somewhere that I'm just not seeing.)

The second is that it features New York City, which I love. I heard on the podcast that the drawings span all five boroughs, and I wondered exactly what "all the buildings in New York City" meant - would the artist be drawing the private houses in places like Astoria?

Well, as that picture at the top of the page indicates, it looks like he is. I was thrilled when I clicked on the "Queens" tag to see that among the very few Queens buildings he drew was this one, which, though it doesn't show up on the map he has on the site (I'm not sure he has them all recorded there, because I'm sure of what I'm about to say), is roughly five blocks from where I grew up.

There were some sentiments that the artist, James Gulliver Hancock, expressed in the podcast that hit home with me too. He referred to his project as a diary, and there have been times that's how I've felt about what I'm doing - this 365 New Things In 2013 has been kind of like a daily journal. And as he says, while mine is in words, his is in pictures.

He also said that sometimes he looks at the skyline and different buildings as he goes through the city and feels anxious, because the task is so overwhelming. He wants to spend time, he says, drawing all of the different buildings. He doesn't realistically think he'll finish, but he knows what's before him - and joked that he would pass the project down to his son so it could be completed. (I've thought that about my World Series and Super Bowl matchups chart.)

I totally know how that feels.

But I also know how it feels to get positive feedback on what you've already done - and it helps make that hopeless chase of doing everything feel that much better.

Which is why I so appreciate all of the positive feedback I've received these past 315 days on this march to 365...

..and why I'll keep checking back on 'All The Buildings In New York' to check in on the progress and to see what other buildings I recognize.

And to simply appreciate a good, fun project.

New Thing #291: Going To The Brooklyn Bridge

The Brooklyn Bridge, as a tourist attraction, is one of those things for most people that if you live in New York, you don't really visit it as a tourist. So it may or may not surprise you to know that I've only ever been to the bridge twice in my life.

And I've never walked all the way across it.

Actually, I'm not sure I've even ever driven across it. It's just not a route we took all that much - first as a family, and later as a driver myself.

But the two times I've now been to the bridge have both been in adulthood - first, with my wife (who was then my girlfriend), probably about ten years ago, and the second with my dad just last week, after reading The Great Bridge.

Know this about me and bridges: I'm not a very engineering-minded person.

There are certain structures that are near-impossible for me to figure out.

You want to frustrate me? Give me one of those assignments where you get 20 pieces of paper, a couple of pieces of tape, and tell me to build a self-standing structure. Something like that. I just can't do it. (I remember one day in sixth grade or so where that happened. Not a good day at school.)

So a bridge? To me a bridge is a structural miracle.

I appreciate the beauty of the Brooklyn Bridge. The first time I visited it, with my wife, was about the view of the bridge, the views from the bridge. The second time, with my dad, was about understanding. How exactly does a bridge work?

We didn't make it far out on the bridge. (It turns out, maybe I was wrong before - either more New Yorkers than I thought treat the Brooklyn Bridge as a tourist attraction - ate least on Sundays - or there are a lot of people out for exercise on the bridge on Sundays. Or, at least, on this particular holiday Sunday.) It was crowded, and I was pushing up against the time I was supposed to be watching football, so we cut our bridge visit short.

But I got a good look at the trusses, the cables, and the wires I read about in the book - all important structural elements. I think.

See, I'm still learning. Some day I'll go back and take a closer look at the towers. And maybe I'll walk all the way across the bridge.

I'll never be able to design or build a bridge, whether it's out of steel or stone or popsicle sticks and paper.

But I'm working really hard to understand them.

New Thing #290: The Great Bridge

I've been working on this New Thing for a while. I bought The Great Bridge: The Epic Story of the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge, by David McCullough, a couple of years ago. I tried reading it then, but barely 50 pages in I realized I wasn't ready to give it the necessary attention.

This summer - June, probably - I started it again. I had hoped to finish before school started, because I knew once September hit my already slow non-fiction reading pace would slow down even more.

I didn't finish before August was over and sure enough, it took another month-and-a-half before I finished the book.

But I finished it this week, and though it wasn't as interesting to me as McCullough's John Adams biography, it had its moments.

For a while I thought the book wasn't grabbing me because the Brooklyn Bridge just didn't have all that interesting a history. But then there was some corruption in the finances and some danger for the workers and the story appeared juicy enough. It might just be I don't find non-fiction about a bridge as interesting as non-fiction about a person. (Or maybe in the 30 years between writing this book and the John Adams book David McCullough became a much better writer.)

Here's one undercurrent of the book that I found interesting and that I'd like to learn more about: 19th century New York City. I don't have a full understanding of Tammany Hall and Boss Tweed and the goings-on in New York City government at that time, but I know there was a lot of corruption and I feel like it's something I should look into more. The end of the Boss Tweed ring coincided with the building of the Brooklyn Bridge, and there was a pretty significant crossover between those two pieces of New York history.

Probably the piece of the bridge building that I found the most interesting was the sinking of the caissons. I still don't know that I completely understand exactly how it all happened, but I had a fortuitous coincidence as I read that section of the book. In August or so and within a week or two of me reading about the caissons, Stuff You Should Know, one of my favorite podcasts, did an episode on diving bells. As an example they talked about how you can trap air in a cup when you turn it upside down and push it to the bottom of a bunch of water, like if you're in the tub. (I know I did that when I was younger.) Anyway, they also mentioned this happened with the building of the bridge. It was a serendipitous moment for me, helping me understand how people went down in these structures to dig into the earth without oxygen tanks or something like that.

The end of the book was the fastest read for me. I liked reading about the celebratory atmosphere in New York leading up to the opening of the bridge - for some reason this part was much more interesting to me than the rest of the book. (I especially liked the description of an image on display in May of 1883, when the Bridge opened, depicting how the bridge looked then and how it might look in 1983 on its 100th anniversary. I'd love to find that in some kind of New York City archival something-or-other.)

So, needless to say at this point, it wasn't my favorite book ever. But it was still a decent read. And it inspired me to take a trip down to the bridge itself.

More on that tomorrow.

New Thing #288: Eleven Hours In New York...To Watch Football

I've done quick trips down to New York City before. Once, in college, a friend of mine convinced me to take a 7am Greyhound, spend a Saturday in the city, and then be on a 7pm bus back to Boston.

Then, in the past few years, I've done round trips in a car (or on a train) to go to a Jets game.

For years, though, I've been trying to figure out a way to get down to New York just to watch football with some friends.

And this year, Columbus Day weekend provided the best opportunity yet for that.

A couple of things came together to allow me to do it:

One is that my wife was able to clear her weekend of tutoring, which is usually a slight impediment to my football watching on Sundays. Another is that for the first time in my life I had a weekend where I could have gone to the Jets game - they were home against the Steelers - but my dad no longer has the season tickets. And the last is that I had friends who were available and willing to sit in a bar for seven hours-plus.

I took the LimoLiner into the city - it's great because it picks up in Framingham, 5 minutes from my house, and I could leave for a bus at 6:30 on Sunday morning without disturbing my family. That got me into the city at a little before 10.

I was able to do a few things in the city before I met up with my friends (more on that later this week), and then we sat and watched football from about 12:30 until the end of the Patriots game, at about 7:30.

I was not the only person who had the Sunday round-trip idea. (And it was successful enough that it won't be the last time I do it.) On the trip back I saw a couple of other familiar faces from the trip down earlier that morning.

But there were also some frustrating co-travelers.

I have to admit - it wasn't the best day of football. While I loved seeing and talking to my friends (and the fact that the football was not great certainly contributed to me being a better social presence because I paid less attention to the games), the Jets lost, I did not have a great day with my picks for my pool, and my fantasy league performance was not good either.

So I guess my patience was thin when it came to some of the other people on the evening bus.

A group of older ladies had the first couple of rows - they were clearly returning from a ladies day out type of thing. When an older gentleman walked on in a Patriots hat, they made a comment about the Pats game. "Good game," or something like that. (It's an interesting sports dynamic on a bus between New York and Boston. I was probably the only one heading to New York that morning exclusively for football reasons, but I never felt like the only Jets fan. Not that it came up. But on the way back, going to Boston, there was more of a "New York sports fan feeling like an outsider" vibe going for me.)

Anyway, the guy kind of rolled his eyes at the ladies and did kind of a guffaw or something. (I now realize maybe he thought they were New Yorkers teasing him.) I realized he didn't believe them. They repeated themselves, and he tried to convince them he saw the game and knew how it ended. "Brady threw an interception," he said, showing that was the last part of the game he saw. So the guy he was traveling with looked at me, and I said, "Brady threw a touchdown pass with 5 seconds left."

In a blatant show of gender bias, the second older guy turned to the hat-wearing guy and said, "No, they won. This guy says they got a touchdown with 5 seconds left." The male knows football.

So we've established these were clearly Boston fans who were not all that diehard. This was further proven when the attendant taking care of us on the bus, approaching the Massachusetts Turnpike, offered to turn the DirecTV on the bus to FOX.

"Don't bother," one of the women with the Patriots hat guy said. "They're getting killed."

I popped on my phone, expecting to see an 11-0 or 11-1 score in favor of the Tigers. It was 5-1.

As you probably know by now, that very inning the Red Sox rallied to tie the game, which they later won.

It was a great day for Boston sports fans...not a great day for this Jets fan.

But I'm proud of this: I didn't give up on the Jets at any point on Sunday. Heck. I haven't given up on them in 35 mostly terrible years.

New Thing #221: Running By The East River

The house where I grew up (and where my parents still live) is in Astoria, Queens, a mile-and-a-half from the East River. Or the West River, as we called it where I grew up. (Not true. But maybe we should have.)

I know it's a mile-and-a-half because I checked my Nike app when I ran there from my parents' house last Friday and it was just about exactly that distance.

It had been a long time since I spent any time down by the River...but it's as beautiful as it ever was.

I really love it down there. It's called "Shore Boulevard" now...I think when I was growing up it was just 18th or 17th Street or whatever number it actually is.

When I was old enough to drive it was a destination to show people from out of town. And it's not like I spent a whole lot of time there, so I'd build it up in my mind as the best thing ever, and I'd forget about whether or not it lived up to expectations between visits.

It does live up to expectations. I love the sightline - there's the Hell Gate Bridge, the Triboro (sorry...I mean RFK) Bridge, and midtown Manhattan is visible down a ways.

Now they've also repaved it so there's a bike path and a running path where there used to be just a railing and some sidewalk.

I've never actually exercised down there. I ran on the Boulevard once - but further north, on 20th Avenue, I think. It was for a 5K I ran, probably when I was at the end of high school or home for summer from college. I was not in tremendous shape. I had a donut that morning before the run. The only thing I remember distinctly about that run is when I threw up the donut at the corner of Shore Boulevard and 20th Avenue.

And that was my last memory of running down there before last week. I'm in pretty good shape right now. (I don't want to brag, but I've really worked - and succeeded -  this summer at increasing my stamina.) So I was able to take in the view, and appreciate the fact that I wasn't gasping for air a little less than two miles into my run.

I ran down 21st Avenue to the river, then cut back through Astoria Park and ran back on Ditmars Boulevard. It was nice for a couple of reasons: One is that it was a very different route for me than the streets of Framingham - which is always a big thing for me to spice up a run - and two is that I just love being able to do these things in New York. I miss that city.

Oh. And there was a bonus good thing about this run:

I didn't even throw up.

New Thing #182: Despair by Yeah Yeah Yeahs

As you can tell by the picture, this week features another Starbucks free download. But that's not why I'm featuring it today.

I'd been holding onto it for a while, just because I hadn't pulled the trigger yet on listening to the song.

I figured I'd get to it eventually.

Then I came across a tweet from The AV Club about the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' video for their song Despair - it was the first video shot at the top of the Empire State Building.

That caught my attention.

OK. First, let's clear up a couple of things.

I'm pretty sure I've heard of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs before this. Why? I don't know. But enough so that I absolutely confuse them with the Ting Tings. (Why do I know the Ting Tings? I'm not sure if there's any other reason than the fact that they sing this birthday song from Yo! Gabba Gabba...but whenever my mind wonders who sings that song, it automatically answers the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. I guess it's the repetition of the names.)

Secondly, I was shocked to read about this being the first music video filmed atop the Empire State Building. How is it that it happens with Despair and not something iconic like Billy Joel's New York State of Mind? My guess is there were some big hoops to go through - but then again, it's not like there weren't movies being filmed up there. (For what it's worth, I read that the Yeah Yeah Yeahs are a New York band.)

Anyway, it surprised me to learn that. Here's The AV Club article about the video. The song's not bad. (Interestingly, the video is longer than the song I downloaded - it starts with about 2 minutes of acoustic singing, and then the 4:30 song as recorded.) But it's not like the song itself was the big draw this week - I liked the story more than anything else.

And the parts of the video that take place on the Empire State Building's observation deck are pretty cool - definitely worth whatever hoops the band had to jump through to get that video filmed there.

But nothing beats that last shot, which I assume is from a helicopter. That has to be one of the coolest music video shots I've ever seen. Here's the video:

New Thing #156: Brooklyn Water Bagels

A new bagel place opened up in town. We knew it was coming for a little while, and I for one was pretty excited about it.

I don't like to be a New York snob all that much (OK, yes I do), but you really can't find good bagels in Massachusetts.

Dunkin' Donuts bagels are kind of like fast food bagels. (But the bacon and eggs and steak and eggs and stuff they put in them make up for the sub-par bagels.)

Other bagels? There's always some kind of flaw.

*Sigh* Not like the bagels I used to have at home.

But that's why this new place was so encouraging to me - it's called "Brooklyn Water Bagels". Brooklyn! That's New York! They make great bagels there!

And I've heard this before - but what supposedly makes New York bagels better than elsewhere is the water.

So, it's no surprise that Brooklyn Water Bagels goes by the slogan, "It's All About The Water!"

Whatever they do, it works. These bagels were pretty close to the good bagels from back home.

But while we're on the subject, let me tell you about a similarly named place back home that has the best bagels you'll ever have in your life. It's called "Brooklyn Bagel and Coffee Company". (But we people in the know just call it 'Brooklyn Bagel'.) If you're ever in Astoria - it's worth checking out. (Hm. I just now realized that the only locations of Brooklyn Bagel that I know about are in Queens and Manhattan. Not Brooklyn.)

My brother reported recently that they just opened a new location in midtown Manhattan, near his work. So you have some options. And if you're reading this in New York, appreciate what you have.

Good bagels are truly hard to find.

New Thing #135: A Rangers-Bruins Playoff Matchup

There have been a lot of high-profile New York-Boston matchups in my time in the greater Boston area. Of course, Yankees-Red Sox happened in the playoffs for the first time in a long time, I think, in 1999...then happened a lot through 2004.

But I didn't care all that much.

Then the Celtics and Knicks matched up a couple of times in the playoffs.

I cared slightly less.

The Jets and Patriots were high stakes - and there was a big win in there for my team.

But until now there had not been a Rangers-Bruins matchup in the playoffs...and it might end up being the most exciting of them all.

I texted with my friend Justin Monday night about the fact that I didn't think there had been a Rangers-Bruins playoff matchup since our college days...and he dug a little deeper to find it hadn't even happened in our lifetimes. 1973 was the last time the Rangers and Bruins met in the post-season. That kind of seems impossible.

But it makes this year's matchup a definitive New Thing.

And it'll be a good one - the past few years have featured a lot of tight games between the two teams...and they've both played a number of heart-stoppers in the post-season the past few years against other teams.

So I expect a lot of nail-biters in the series. Which is not something I am particularly looking forward to.

There's a whole lot that's troublesome about this matchup, in fact - if the Rangers lose I can expect to hear it from all sides (there is a very passionate Bruins fan base in Boston, which I acknowledge...but let's just say that since they won the Cup that fan base has spread wider and been more vocal), if the Rangers win I will only feel quiet satisfaction, and no matter what, I think the series will cause me some late nights and some more white hair.

I'll look on the bright side - the Rangers won their Game 7 against the Capitals Monday night. That means they have this second round series to play. For me that means that I have another week-plus of hockey that I care about. That helps me inch ever closer to the end of the school year - Rangers playoff hockey helps mark time through the month of May.

And it sure beats those years when they missed the playoffs.

And...who knows? Maybe I'll end up getting a ticket to a game in Boston.

New Thing #61: Fantasy Baseball Draft In New York

One of the highlights of my year is the fantasy baseball draft. Quick background: It's a 4-team league. Me and three of my closest friends. Because of the small number of players, we stick to only the teams in the American League East and National League East. This is great because the 4 of us are Mets, Yankees, and Red Sox fans, so we can pick players we like to root for, avoid players we hate rooting for, and it allows us to use a clever league name: East Coast Bias.

Usually this draft takes place in the Boston area - we all went to Boston University, so it serves as the centerpiece of a sort-of annual reunion.

Now, as it turns out, I'm the only one of the 4 remaining in the Boston area.

This year, as it turns out, our get-together will take place in New York.

And so will the draft.

Truth be told, I've proposed a New York get-together on more than one occasion. I look for any extra opportunity to get a weekend in there. But I understand the draw of Boston, and I enjoy hosting when able. (Read: when my wife is not about to give birth. This happened in 2011. It was crazy.)

And though this year is going to be a short weekend for me, for a variety of reasons, it's going to be great.

Especially because my parents were generous enough to host the draft.

Not that it involves a ton of effort - they'll just be providing us with food and beverage, most likely, in addition to the space for our draft. But it means a ton to me. It means my friends can visit with my wife and daughters without us having to pack everyone up and head into the city...not to mention taking time away from time they could be spending with their grandparents.

I don't know what else the weekend holds. I hope it results in a couple of more New Things. All I know is that as you read this sometime on Saturday, I'll be participating in a fantasy baseball draft in my parents' living room in Queens.

I couldn't be happier.

Unless I also get to draft David Wright.