The moment you doubt
whether you can fly,
you cease for ever to be able to do it.

"Peter Pan" 
J.M. Barrie
Photography by Denise Blasor 

FANCY FREE IN NEW YORK CITY

Freedom Tower,  NYC

New York is as electric and expensive as ever and still, there
is plenty to see that won't cost you a penny. Here's two places
worthy of a visit.

Out of a heinous event, a beautiful tribute has emerged.

The 9/11 memorial downtown is truly an amazing sight: a tree-
filled park bordering two massive fountains built out of slate gray
granite and etched with the names of the nearly 3,000 persons
who perished at ground zero on Sept. 11, 2001.

The fountains, covering the footprints of each tower, are a
powerful metaphor for death and resurrection.

As water gushes down the sides of 30-foot deep walls (26,000
gallons per minute), it is sucked into a large square hole set in
the middle of the fountain basin, as if to suggest the lives that
were snuffed during the attacks and the disappearance of the
twin towers when they collapsed.

The four-sided cascade creates a  hipnotic effect, the loud
crashing of the water operpowering all sounds, including
human voices. The evocative design adds the element of
hope that makes these twin fountains such an eloquent
monument: the continuous cycle of water falling down and
disappearing into the void helps remind visitors that life
continues even in the face of horror and nature is a great
healer through its presence and beauty.

ⓒ Wikipedia
9/11 Memorial Fountains

 The High Line is another of New York's most exciting new
additions. Part walkway and part hanging garden, this linear
park was built on a 1.45 mile section of an old disused rail
line 30 feet-above street level.

View from The High Line

To walk along its length, beginning at Gansevoort St. in
Greenwich Village all the way to 30th street, is to
experience an unparalleled perspective of New York, unlike
any other. The height of the walkway lets you take in a
close up view of whole blocks of buildings for a true,
appreciation of the wonderful play of architectural styles:
sturdy brick buildings of yore cuddle next to flashy modern
structures, some of which have been designed keeping in
mind the attention they would attract by being located near
such a popular tourist destination.

Walk The High Line and you become a voyeur, peaking
 into people's apartments and company offices, or a merry
adventurer, walking through and under buildings like the
20-story Standard Hotel which arches over the walkway.

Set on massive concrete pilotis, this elegant, sleek building
features two glass-curtain slabs slightly angled to give all
rooms  "unobstructed" views of Manhattan; the effect is
that of a gigantic open book. At night, with its lighted
rooms, the building is  quite magic.

The High Line is a little like  a fantastical movie set
and as you walk along it, you feel like a star. The plot
of this film is really quite simple: a fabulous short
walk  through a city of dreams on your way to meet
friends or perhaps, the love of your life.

All along the walkway, there is a rich array of flora,
prairie plants and grasses, flowers and trees, a profusion
of wild nature that invites people to stop and admire
their surroundings. During the winter, all that nature
will be quietly sleeping so the best time to enjoy this
aspect of The High Line is in the summer. Winter and
spring offer a different experience but not any less
exciting.

A memorial and a walkway. Two sides of New York
bound to stay in your heart forever.

Always keep Ithaca fixed in your mind
To arrive there is your ultimate goal
But do not hurry the voyage at all
It is better to let it last for long years.

"Ithaca"

C P Cavafy

☛  EYE ON PRODUCTS
Applegate naturals 
Uncured Sunday Bacon

IF you are considering making Spaghetti Carbonara, then
good bacon is of the essence.

 Like Applegate's uncured Sunday Bacon which contains
 no nitrites nor nitrates, synthetic preservatives commonly
added to cured meat in order to preserve its flavor.
(Cooking at high heat can convert nitrites into carcinogenic
substances. Nitrates used as additives also can turn into
nitrites.)

According to company information,  Applegate
Naturals sources meat from farmers who raise animals
humanely and feed them a vegetarian grain-fed diet.
Pork are raised on sustainable family farms in a stress-free
environment that promotes natural behavior and
socialization, according to the company.

In San Juan, this product can be found at Freshmart stores
for around $6.

FRESHMART

This chain of food stores that sell organic products has
locations in Carolina, Hato Rey, Guaynabo, Caguas, Condado
and Aguadilla.

Telephone number: 787.762.8300

freshmartpr.com

Photography by Denise Blasor

Walking through each day
with an open heart.

Ann O'Shaughnessy

© 2014 Lorraine Blasor  all rights reserved

IS LIFE NOT
A THOUSAND TIMES
TOO SHORT
FOR US TO BORE OURSELVES?

Nietzche

Photography by Juliette Blasor

LOIZA STREET FAIR

EVERY city has at least one well-known street that attracts
people like a magnet either because of its stores, the bussling
life teeming along its sidewalks, or its character.

In New York city, Bleeker St. is famous for its high-end stores.
London's Oxford St. bustles with businesses and throngs of
people from all parts of the world.

In San Juan there is Loiza St. which, as streets go, is
rather plain and nondescript, but what character!

Along its sidewalks, small businesses of all kinds -- from
tatto parlors and thrift stores to pizza joints and pharmacies --
operate in pleasant camaderie, street vendors sell their
products and people stand outside stores at all hours of the
day to chat with friends or walkers by. The ambience is
easy going and mellow even as the street goes through the
inevitable changes brought on by time and progress.

In recent years, businesses along this corridor connecting
two of San Juan's main tourist zones (Condado and Isla Verde)
have upgraded their facilities to present a more spiffed up image
to the public and new stores have been coming in, including
vegetarian restaurants and retail stores.

But for all the trendyness of the new arrivals, Loiza St. retains
a welcome old town charm and the sights of its more
honky tonk past are still around to remind those familiar
with the street that even as change comes along, vestiges of
the past always remain.

There is much to celebrate about Loiza St. and a group of
residents last year kicked off a festival to do just that.
Hundreds of people and families with children flocked to
the street in what turned to be a mellow day of fun and
community celebration.

The festival is back on this year and will be held August 3.

On that Sunday, Loiza St. will be closed to traffic but only
the small section that runs from San Jorge St. to Cordero St.

There will be workshops, street vendors, booths providing
information on any number of city initiatives, a book fair,
guided tours to the area's historical buildings, and plenty of
music and art.

The musical entertainment includes Juan Castillo and his
group of typical Puerto Rican music, Los Chinchillos del
Caribe, Lado Vé de Velcro and Viento de Agua with a
special presentation of Mima.

The festival kicks off at 2 p.m. and ends at 10 p.m

Photography by Denise Blasor

"There could be no healing without pain,
no cauterizing of the wound
without telltale scarring."
Myriam Chancy
 "The Loneliness of Angels."

TAPAS & THE CITY

New York City -- Spain may be on the other side of the Atlantic
but for eight days, starting today, one of that country's most
popular culinary traditions will be part of the New York experience:
"el tapeo."

Tapas are those delightful aperitifs that Spaniards like to enjoy
ahead of or in lieu of dinner.  "Ir de tapas" or "tapeo" is simply
the custom of stopping by one or more bars on the way to a
restaurant to snack on a tapa or two (or more).

And to entice New Yorkers and tourists to try out this unique
custom a group of Spanish restaurants in the city have joined
forces in Spain's Tapas Trail: New York's Walk of Spain.

As part of the activity, more than 20 of the city's best Spanish
restaurants will be offering one special "tapa" and a glass of
Spanish wine for only $10.

This is the second year the activity is held under the lead
of Foods & Wines from Spain, a NY city-based agency that
promotes Spanish food products and wines to businesses and
consumers across the U.S.

So if you are in New York between July 14 and July 21, enjoy
a tapa. Participating restaurants include: El Cid, La Paella, Melibea,
Cadaques, Andanada, Toro, El Born, Bikinis, Cafe Riazon,
Donostia, El Colmado, El Porron, Solera, La Churreria, 100
Montaditos, El Quinto Pino, La Nacional, Marbella, Socarrat
East and Socarrat Nolitas.

http://tapastrailnyc.com

Photography by Denise Blasor

Love is a trap, when it appears
we only see its light not its shadows.

Paulo Coelho

  ⓒ 2014 by Lorraine Blasor all rights reserved✎

Downtown New York
Photograph by Tony Baragona



                              

                    THE THRILL OF THE HIGH LINE

IN the city that never sleeps, there are plenty of material dreams within grasp of the person of means: luxury real estate, expensive art, fashionable clothing, glittering baubles. But the gifts that New York bestows on its denizens and visitors alike often embody dreams of a more ethereal kind and best of all, can be had for a song or practically nothing at all. 

SUCH is the case of The High Line, the city's latest sensation. Soaring 20 feet above 10th Avenue, on the lower West Side, this elevated park built on a former industrial railway track has captured the public imagination by serving up 360 degree views of the moveable feast that is New York.

THE High Line takes in the urban landscape of lower Manhattan and turns it into high teater. In the short distance that it covers, barely half a mile, it wends its way alongside and through buildings thrusting pedestrians into the heart of a movie set unlike any other. All around is the city in all its play of scale, proportions and architectural styles; above, the wide open sky. The theatricality of this unusual park is reinforced at one point by a neat conceit. As the High Line rounds a bend on a ramp above 10th Avenue, it bifurcates with one side dipping to create an open air amphitheatre with wide wood benches that invite pedestrians to stop and enjoy the running show, there for all to see through a panoramic glass window: the ebb and flow of vehicular traffic on 10th Avenue. Watching traffic was never this much fun; this is one hell of a hit.

FOR all its operatic grandness, the High Line can be oddly intimate as when it crosses the base of  The Standard hotel or sidles up next to a building at such close range that one can peek inside the interior of glamorous offices. All along its length, the walkway is enlived by subtle touches like the way the ribbon-like strips of cement that make up the pavement flare up from the ground to create cantilevered benches of wood and metal. Throughout the course, sections of the old tracks create a running motif linking past and present while interwoven pockets of flora with grasses, plants and small trees, await the first spell of warm weather to burst into life. Here and there, blue and yellow crocuses peek out of the ground.

COME summer, an additional half mile extension will carry the High Line further north to West 30th. The dream of two enterprising young men, realized at a cost of $150 million in private and public funds, has now become New York's grand communal dream.

The first section of the High Line runs from Gansevoort Street, in the Meatpacking District, to West 20th Street, in Chelsea, between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues.

TOP  NEW YORK ATTRACTIONS THAT WON'T COST YOU A PENNY:

The Staten Island Ferry (Take a 20-minute sea voyage to Staten Island)

The Greenmarket at Union Square (Monday, Wednesday, Friday & Saturday)

Bryant Park, behind the New York Public Library in midtown Manhattan, between 40th & 42nd Streets & Fifth & Sixth Avenues (sit beneath the splendid plane trees and watch the world go by)

Museum of Modern Art (free on Fridays after 5 p.m, courtesy of Target)

Barnes & Noble at Union Square (books galore, clean bathrooms, and moderately priced food )

Photograph by Denise Blasor

 Trees are happy for no reason; they are not going to become prime ministers or presidents and they are not going to become rich and they will never have any bank balance.  Look at the flowers - for no reason.  It is simply unbelievable how happy flowers are.  ~Osho

Copyright 2011 Lorraine Blasor All Rights Reserved