Twists and Turns and Irish Catholics: NYC, 10/7/18, Day 2

The morning of my second day back in New York, I made my way from my room in Harlem all the way to one of my favorite delis, Russ and Daughters, in the East Village on Houston Street. I fell in love with Russ and Daughters on my last trip here, and I fell in love with it again on this trip. And I believe that on all my successive trips to New York, I will always visit this fantastic place. They always have such fresh selections of fish, bagels, cream cheeses, and everything else. And I was also so happy to introduce this place to Natalie, Timmy, and Kim, who also really enjoyed their visit to Russ and Daughters.

After taking a number and waiting for a bit (the wait is always worth it), I decided to have an “everything” bagel with Irish smoked salmon, dill and horseradish cream cheese, and onions, capers, and tomatoes. It was so, so good! Everyone else got variations on that (different kinds of fish, different kinds of spreads, etc.), and it was all equally good. There was a local patron in the shop who told us all about the “proper” combinations of ingredients to put on a bagel. (To my shame, I’ve already forgotten the details of what he said.) When I ordered mine, however, they got it ready without blinking. When Natalie and Kim asked for theirs, the man asked, “Are you sure?” We weren’t sure if that meant they chose a poor combination of ingredients or not, but their choices still sounded good to me. (Sorry. Can’t remember exactly what they got.)

Following Russ and Daughters, we had to dash to the subway for a somewhat lengthy train ride to Coney Island. (We ate our bagels and fish on the train to save time.) Coney Island is one of those bucket list items, something that everyone should try to see at least once, and I’m so happy to have visited this icon and crossed it off my bucket list.

I also just love traveling in October in the “off” season. Coney Island wasn’t full of people as I might’ve expected in, say, July. It was so nice to be able to take it all in without screaming children and slow-walking crowds. At the same time, the lack of people made the whole place seem a little sad: no one riding carousels, no one trying to pop balloons with darts to win a comically oversized teddy bear, no one buying Nathan’s hot dogs. All the cracks in the old paint jobs on the rides and all the unclaimed seats on the roller coasters seemed just a little bit extra sad.

That said, there was no one in line for anything, so, with essentially no standing in line at all, we were able to ride the Spook-a-Rama (one of those Halloween-themed rides where riders ride in a small cart on tracks while things like air guns, loud growls, and chintzy animatronic skeletons scare them; I highly recommend it); the Wonder Wheel (a giant Ferris wheel that allows riders fantastic views of Coney Island and the city; I also highly recommend this ride, too, even those scared of heights, like myself); and the Cyclone (a wooden roller coaster from 1927 that maximizes its use of space to provide just the right amount of drops and twists and turns to provide that exhilarating frightful feeling that impossible physics causes; I also highly recommend this one as well).

Sadly, we were still so full from Russ and Daughters that we weren’t able to fit in a Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog, but maybe next time.

After Coney Island (it was hard to leave the island, actually; it’d be possible to spend a whole afternoon here), I had to catch my second play while in town. And I had the absolute pleasure of enjoying I Hear You and Rejoice at the Irish Arts Center, featuring the very talented Mikel Murfi in a one-man show that he also wrote and directed.

And oh my goodness! What a bravura performance and an astonishing show! Murfi plays a multitude of characters that all live in a small Irish town, and he calls up football coach and florist Kitsy Rainey, her husband and mute cobbler Pat Farnon, a shop owner who sells newspapers, a family friend, priests, and several other characters including an assortment of a animals. The whole show centers around the indomitable Kitsy Rainer who has recently died, and we learn about her spiky temperament and dry and impeccable wit through flashbacks from the past and reminiscences from the present. Murfi expertly transforms his body, voice, face, and eyes into all these different characters to create a collage of a woman who touched so many people’s hearts. It’s poignant, it’s sad, it’s funny, it’s captivating! Never a dull moment! It was so, so good! And if you are either Irish or Catholic (or both), I think you’ll find this show especially tickling as Murfi tenderly pokes harmless fun of Irish culture and Catholic ceremony. Generally, though, this show was such a pleasure to enjoy! Bravo! Bravo! I want to see it again, but I have so much other stuff to do while I’m here!

Following the show, I met up with the others at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (via a walk through Central Park; always nice to visit the park to enjoy the musical performances and the living statues, look at all the people with their dogs and frisbees, admire all the rowboats on the lake). My friends had just finished a much-too-short visit of the museum on account of it closing early on Sunday (parts of this city do, indeed, sleep), and after I gushed to them about the show I just saw, we made our way to Greenwich Village to dine at a pizza shop called John’s of Bleecker Street.

And WOW! What pizza! We got three large pizzas, one with pepperoni, one with anchovies and mushrooms, and one with sausage and garlic. (I think. My memory got a little hazy on those details.) I think sometimes with pizza the sauce makes the pizza, and this sauce was so fresh and so balanced with herbs and spices that I found nothing to fault. I do highly recommend visiting John’s of Bleecker Street for some rally fine pizza.

Our evening closes with a visit to a comedy club in Brooklyn called the Knitting Factory. They happened to have a free open mic night, so we decided to take advantage of the savings. Comedy clubs can sometimes be hit or miss; you never quite know what you’ll end up with. Invariably, about half of the comics will be good and half will be mediocre. And so it was tonight. Two of the comics out of the four we saw were quite good. (We only stayed for the first half.) Kevin Yee was especially memorable, as he sang during his bit about how (and I’m paraphrasing), “No matter how hard you try you can’t get pregnant from gay sex,” to music that was impossibly peppy and, er, gay. But it was so, so funny.

Stray Observations:

1. While at Coney Island, it was also really cool to see and walk on the iconic boardwalk. However, I was a little disappointed to find out that there isn’t just one Zoltar machine, but several.

2. Coney Island also allows great views of the Atlantic coast. All the more reason to make sure to ride the Wonder Wheel.