Louie and I go to Canada in the Bronx and I get hostile on the M15 bus:


Another day, another school play. Except this one is in Canada:
Is this a picture of Louie and I in Canada?


Or how about this:


No, not Canada. The Bronx. Yes, the Bronx.


Here's the story of how those pictures were taken IN THE BRONX:


I told Louie to meet me at the front end of the uptown 86th St. 1/9 train platform. I was early. I took pictures of trains:


And my equipment:



Then Louie came along. He was a few minutes late, which is the first time for Louie ever. He's always been early before. And he was very honest about it. He showed me his watch:
And his banana:
And his banana bread:



Louie ate the banana on the train. He said it wasn't so good. I asked if it was from a deli. He said yes. The train continued northward.

The train passes 200th street, and then crosses the "Broadway Bridge:"
This is a view of the Harlem River from on the 1 train, which separates the upper tip of Manhattan from mainland USA... the Bronx. The tracks on the left side of the water are Metro North to Poughkeepsie. The Bronx is on the left, Manhattan on the right, barely visible. Looking East. Train train runs above Broadway. Yes, the same one that goes through Times Square. Broadway is the only avenue on Manhattan to continue straight north, beyond the island, becoming "route 9". It them continues to Canada.


But Louie and I found Canada a lot closer to home.


The end of the 1 train line is 242nd St, Van Cortlandt Park. On the left of the street is "Da Bronx." Apartment houses and gas stations looking like one would expect. And on the right side of the street, is Van Cortlandt Park... the Central Park of the Bronx. And we had a lovely walk alongside it. That how we got those photos. That is the park, and it's in the Bronx.


We then made a left, and started walking up hills. Straight up hills. And the higher we got, the less like the Bronx it looked. The homes began to look like Westchester. Tudor. Victorian. Brick and Stone exteriors. Colonial. The reflection of my Camera.


It was quite a workout pulling the equipment straight up about 300 feet of hills. Riverdale is a very high-end private school that pulls in wealthy people's kids from all over the city and surrounding counties. Some Bucks Rockers, including Amanda Quaid went there. The school sits atop a hill on a beautiful campus.


Louie and I went inside a began to set up for the 6pm snow. The snow the day before forced them to cancel their Thursday night show. Thus instead of doing one 7:30 show today (Friday), they were to do a 6pm and a 9pm. We were there to tape the 6pm:


We set up by 4:30, and went to the cafeteria to get some grub. It was really interesting to walk into a cafeteria, with high school kids there, sitting in their high school groups, doing their high school things. And Louie and I were college graduates, tempted to feel the knot in our stomach that walking into a social setting like that used to make us. But the knot did not come. We are old. For better or for worse. So we got some sandwiches and watched the kids, picking out and projecting all of our strengths and weaknesses onto all of them. Very interesting.


And then Louie made a very mature discovery:

Louie exclaimed: "Oh my! My banana bread is from the "Master Bakers!" And we thought, in our mature, post-college way, that this was very dirty and wondered if it was a joke on purpose or a very happy accident. Look at his look of disgust:
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Good times. Then we shot the play and got out of there. Going down hill, much better.


We got on the downtown 1/9 train. Richard called and wanted to get Sushi at Kura. I figured, "why not?" Louie was tired and wanted to go home. So he got off at 86th, and rode the entirety of the 1 local train to my home Rector St. station.


I was exhausted myself, but that doesn't stop a sushi trip. So Richard and I went. Downtown 1 train, one stop to the end of the line at South Ferry. This completed my journey on the ENTIRE 1 TRAIN LINE FROM END TO END IN ONE DAY. Thankyou, thankyou. We then transferred at the Ferry Terminal to an M15 bus, which comes right up to the sushi place.



Richard and I talked on the bus. A little loudly, over the engines and fans that are indicative on NYC busses. Richard was telling me about the first day on this new film shoot. He saved the day by performing micro-surgery on a vital but broken part of the film camera, saving a lot of people a lot of time and money. And he was relaying this story to me. And it was a good story. And he was telling me how he fixed the broken piece (the pull down/registration pin in the gate). And suddenly, out of nowhere, one of the two other people on the bus, a lady in a red coat, all the way in the front, turned around and said: "What did you fix?" And Richard and I looked at her, stunned into silence for a moment. My first instinct was that she was a crazy. Nobody, in their right mind, will try to involve themselves in a strangers conversation FROM THE OTHER SIDE OF THE BUS. We were sitting by the back door, she was by the front. Here's a picture:





So, I said, "It's no problem. He fixed it. There's nothing to worry about," figuring that I'm talking to someone with a few missing chromosomes here. But she asks twice more, and in such a way that I can tell she's not crazy. She's quite in her right mind. She asks again, "I can't help but overhear your conversation, so if I have to listen, I'm going to ask... what did you fix?"


I think for a moment. I assume she has nothing but the best intentions, but that she has no concept of social norms. I certainly don't want Rich to repeat the story, and I don't care whether she gets to hear the exciting ending or not, so I say, "It's between he and I. We're having a conversation. To each other." And I give her a look, like... please go back to your business. And she does.


And I think about it for a moment, and I realize by her tone and the way she phrased herself, that she was trying to "hint" in a not-so-polite way, that we were speaking too loudly. And this makes me mad. Now, most people would let it go. The moment was over. She was back to her book (which was another clue that she wanted us to pipe down). But recently, in the city, I've not been taking any shit from anybody. For example, about 2 weeks ago, a truck gave a nice long honk at a car in front of him which wasn't responding to a green light. I happened to be walking by. All of a sudden I find myself yelling to the driver of the truck, through an OPEN WINDOW, "Hey! Keep it down! People live here, you know!" Which is true. It was on my corner. I LIVE HERE. And he yelled some things back to me which I didn't understand. But he didn't honk again, even though he was still stuck. And I felt like I had done my duty.


So, I wasn't going to have it. After the few seconds of silence it took me to realize she was being weird and nasty, I piped up, (and this is exactly what I said): "If you're trying to tell us that we're speaking too loudly, then you should just say so rather than being passive-aggressive about it." Richard was silent. I don't think he likes it when I get hostile "on the streets." The woman was like, "O.k." As if to say, "Yes, be quiet." And I stared her down a little, and then left her alone. She didn't say anymore to me. And I didn't pipe down. But Richard did. Which was probably the right thing to do, but it annoyed me at the time, because I was in fighting mode. I think I need to ride my bike more and work my shit out through exercise. Being all cooped up in small spaces, during a long, cold, gloomy winter is probably getting to me. Or... perhaps its just that I've lived in the city long enough to feel like it, in part, belongs to me, and it's therefore, in part, my job to set people straight when they're not behaving properly in my city. Or perhaps a combination of both.





And so, we had sushi at Kura. And after having some sake, I took this photo:
Wow, how representative of the moment.


Then we went to Vineros where I treated myself to 3 mini raspberry tarts, my favorite. Rich had some more complicated things, and topped it off with Amaretto. Here he is, an a slightly blurry photo, trying to decide what to get (next):