Sunday, December 9, 2007
Justin's, Blue Bar, Bar Louis and Kerouac!
This is not an "fpr," it is a Kerouac self-portrait as a boy. One of the many neat artifacts at the exhibit at the main branch of the NYPL "Beatific Soul: Jack Kerouac on the Road." Image courtesy of the NYPL website.
New York City is a hell of a long way to go for a couple of drinks. But go I did, and there I was.
Earlier, around 11ish, I had breakfast with a friend at a local eatery...the company was good, but the service horrendous. Then around 11:30 a.m., I kicked off my trip to NYC with a Manhattan at Justins. A very good Manhattan, followed by a cigar and a walk down Madison and across the Dunn Bridge to the train station.
I always get some kind of electric charge...some rush of adrenaline...some kind of beat in my head to which I keep a fast walking pace and again I found that pace and bopped up 6th, then 5th Avenue, and decided not to go to the suitcase exhibit...why depress myself. Instead, almost miraculously, I found myself at the NYPL main branch and a huge banner advertising a Jack Kerouac exhibit. The exhibit had paintings, drafts of texts, notebooks, codes for real people and their fictional names, paintings, sketches and charts of his fantasy baseball leagues, and yes...The Scroll.
Sixty feet unrolled of his original typewritten draft of "On the Road," written in a 3 week period in early 1950s. The scroll had been on the road itself for a while, and quite accidentally, after wishing to see it...there it was before me. As a writer and a bit of a sentimentalist, it was quite a sight...I cannot even describe how it felt to see this artifact of 20th Century literary history. It is probably close to the same feeling that devout Catholics feel when they visit a shrine of their particular Saint...or when a patriot...a real patriot...feels when she or he sees the Declaration of Independence at the National Archives.
Afterwards, I meandered to the Blue Bar, which was very crowded, for my drink with a young and beautiful lady who is also a writer...and a very good one (the writer was good, the drink was Guiness, which is always good). We had a nice time and a great discussion, and I gave her a copy of "Antietam," from one writer to anotheer, and then around 8:30 p.m., walked her to the subway.
Then I met up with a friend of mine from college, who just celebrated her 40th, down at a bar on 9th Street...Bar Louis. It was a nice little no-cover jazz bar near Avenue C. My friend and I talked for a while...mostly about turning 40 and love and relationships, then cabbed up to drop her sound equipment for her Sunday singing gig and then walked up to Penn Station.
It was kind of funny...we had the slowest, most cautious cab driver ever. He was a nice guy, but he was so cautious and so hesitant on the streets, stopping way ahead of time to let pedestrians cross, not changing lanes to pass left-turning vehicles...it was quite an experience in NYC.
I slept intermittenly on the 11:45 p.m. train, got in at 2:15 a.m. and walked from the train station back to Elm Street.
Not a bad excursion.
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1 comment:
Not a bad excursion indeed. It was great to meet you!
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