Ep. 5: These Vagabond Shoes

Notes from the 6th-12th of February

Having a chance to rediscover a once familiar place in fresh light and perspective is a blessing, and it was precisely this blessing I received this week with a trip back to New York City. Feel free to skip down to that part of the article, but I wanted first to cover off on a particular point from the goings-on at Purdue this week before I jetted off.

Tuesday night brought with it my first mid-term exam for the semester, and certainly the first of many. Contrary to the Monash University format of having a heavily weighted final exam, many US colleges like Purdue have mid-terms of comparable importance to the last paper. This is a system I personally prefer, as it encourages continual revision (rather than cramming) and pushes back on creeping levels of student stress. The exam went very smoothly for the most part, and I was pleased to receive 100% on the paper. The result I really ought to have had, given that the questions on the day bore an uncanny resemblance to those on the past exams we had been sent as revision.

What did concern me however was one question that plagued me for the majority of the exam duration as I couldn't figure out how to do it, finally handing in my paper with a solution I was very skeptical about. Turns out the entire question was impossible to solve, and the professor removed it entirely from grading¹. Here is the question:

"The electric flux density everywhere is

Find the surface charge densities that are producing this electric flux density field."

The issue with the question is the lack of symmetry about the $z-$axis which is required for these sorts of surface charge densities. Anyway. One thing this particular professor Melloch does is if you've attended at least 80% of classes since the previous mid-term (or start of the semester), you can send him an email to organise a time to gain back marks on a single question from the paper. You essentially teach him the theory underlying that question and he will give you up to full marks based on how could your teaching is. This is the first time I've heard of such an approach, and I am very much unopposed to it².

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Alright, on with New York.

New York - Day One (Friday)

This was as it turned another very spontaneous trip, though less so than the one to Chicago. Another Australian exchange student (Hayley) from Newcastle had to be out of the sorority house she lives in for the weekend as they were running recruitment, and so she had booked flights out to NYC earlier. Given that I had a slightly lighter week of classes following this weekend, I wanted to go somewhere (especially since it was Super Bowl weekend). Either Philadelphia or NY were the two finalists, but Philadelphia proved a little more expensive than I wanted (again, owing to the Super Bowl) so I'll make sure to go there later in the semester.

Now, if you're wanting to save a buck on travel in the US when flying, there is only one name in the game - Spirit. If you book early enough in advance, you can get return flights to New York from Indianapolis for around US$65. Well, this doesn't include carry-on or checked-bags (either will set you back an additional US$90 or so) and it goes to Newark, New Jersey but hey, it's great buying in any case and there are easy ways around these two issues. The real kicker is the flight there is at around 5:30 AM usually, so Hayley and I caught a shuttle down to Indianapolis from Purdue on Thursday evening and stayed in a cheap hotel that night. Each room had at least two beds, so splitting the cost here was convenient.

The flight out went smoothly and we were greeted by rather warm weather (comparatively) in Newark. Getting into Manhattan from here is simply a matter of catching a $15 train ride to Penn Station (underneath Madison Square Garden). Hayley was staying with family friends and I was booked in at a hostel (both in the Queens-ish area) so we split up to find our respective accommodation. I was staying at The Local NY, which was priced fairly reasonably for New York (about US $45 a night for a 4-person dorm). My impressions were fairly positive overall. It was clean, the staff were friendly, and my roommates were great, though apparently the night before I got there there had been a shocker. The only thing was that I would have expected a bit more from my money (breakfast, etc.) and that many of the people there were doing something akin to the digital nomad beat, so the place wasn't pumping with the usual backpacker verve.

Things To See And Do In...

Perhaps the best discovery made on this weekend was an app called Atlas Obscura (from here on, AO). As the name suggests, it collates sites and locations and experiences (contributed by other users) for a particular city that are...well, obscure. As I've been lucky enough to visit NYC a few times before, I've already done most of the main attractions one would set out to on a maiden trip - The Empire State Building, Rockefeller, Times Square, Statue of Liberty, Central Park, the Brooklyn Bridge, etc., so this list of uniquities was precisely what I had in mind.

Whenever I go to a new place in future, this will be the first thing I turn to. Not because all of the places it recommended to me were sensational, but above all else they were different. And different makes for the most interesting stories.

On the Case!

A collection of spots on AO caught my fancy in Tribeca, so I loosely made my way downtown. First stop was breakfast as I'd been up since about 3:30 and hadn't had a bite to eat. My intention for the weekend was to eat as much like a typical New-Yorker as possible, which in my conception meant eating almost exclusively from food trucks or, as was the case this morning, one of those deli places that makes everything from waffles to salads to burritos (my selection). The hostel was located right near a subway station on the E line which runs from Queens across to Manhattan and then all the way downtown to the World Trade Center. I got off after a few stops, and then spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon, meandering my way South and picking off spots from AO as I went.

On the way I stopped in what was the first of many libraries that I visited, most of them branches of the New York State Public Library. What I loved was that each had its own really distinct flavour and they made for some wonderful study spots or quiet corners to read. This first one was built within an old court of law, and gave it a very dated, almost gothic feel.

Next up (after a bagel) was the Ghostbusters fire station, the Aretha Franklin memorial subway station, this strange walkway between townhouses and a cool little poster shop. Some of the works here (I have no way of knowing if they were originals or remakes) were of old film posters from Soviet-era USSR and Germany.

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The highlight of this section of the tour though was The Mysterious Bookshop, which in its own words is the world's oldest crime/mystery bookstore. This place rocked. Bookcases from floor to (a very high) ceiling, each shelf was flushed with some of the greatest detective, mystery and horror novels ever written.

I felt compelled to take a souvenir with me and had to resist the temptation to take several. Given the sheer immensity of books on display, many totally unfamiliar to me, I ended up asking one of the guys working there to give me a recommendation. He ended up suggesting his favourite ever novel, Every Dead Thing by John Connolly. So far, it's been an absolute cracker, and a very nice alternative to what I had been reading prior. Such a cool place to visit, and I could have spent all day perusing the shelves. This is my version of an art museum.

We Live As We Dream...

All of the above was done as a way of passing the time until around 3pm, when the real reason I had come to Tribeca would be open - Dream House by the MELA Foundation. A sound and light environment like nothing I have really experienced before, it is one of the longest running in America I believe, with the artists having run the installation (previously in a different location until 1993) since the late '90s, though it faced dire straits during COVID due to unpaid rents.

It is most easily described as a meditative space, one which blurs the line between the waking and dreaming state in a way that is difficult to comprehend without having immersed oneself in it. Safe to say then that it attracts some of the more, well, unusual customers around town, especially because it is situated in a narrow three-story walkup with only a small piece of paper on the door to indicate its existence.

Having rung the bell and ascended the creaky stairs, you are asked by the attendant³ to remove your shoes, sign-in and make a $10 donation to the artists who live on the first floor. No photography allowed either without permission. Upon entering through the door the sensory overload is immediate. Heady incense burns from every corner of the room, and the suffusion in the strong magenta lights is jarring.

The first "exhibit" in one room is shown above, Quadrilateral Phase Angle Traversals by the artists Marian Zazeela. As is the case with the entire exhibition, there is no correct way of viewing, only to make of it what you will. Sitting lotus-style in front of this piece and gazing at it for minutes on end, the effect is startling. The combination of shadow and light combine to give this really strong red-blue stereoscopic effect as if being viewed through 3D glasses as the shapes themselves seemed to move on their own accord, pushing inwards and outwards from my field of view. The closest analogue I can think of is shown below, where moving between diffuse and directed gazes causes the cube to seemingly invert on itself.

The main display was the environmental composition by Jung Hee Choi. The largest wall in the room was draped floor to ceiling with this shimmering tapestry that seemed at times to resemble a human form, at other times a floating Buddha, at other times a constellation in the night sky. To accompany this, there were these two massive speakers blasting a loud, droning sound, pulsing and ebbing in harmony with the tapestry. As with everything in the room, the form of the sounds were at once allusive and elusive, constantly morphing when under closer scrutiny yet at the same time appearing almost unchanging and inexorable. I sat in front of this screen for some 45 minutes by my count before leaving, exhausted.

The Variety Show

I am pleased to report that the rest of Friday was far more...normal. I stopped over at Hall Des Lumières for the Gustav Klimt exhibition. Not knowing much about the artist or man, it was interesting to learn about his works, and some of the light shows (accompanied by the Gustav Mahler) were fairly impressive. I would have to say that at the cost of the admission, I felt a little underwhelmed by the whole thing.

From here, I ticked off a fairly eclectic mix of buildings that I could find in the general vicinity where I was, passing the time before the sunset and a new New York emerged.

Went in search of the famous abandoned City Hall subway station. There are official tours you can do of the place, however I wasn't interested in paying the money for them. Travel guides tell you that if you get on the penultimate stop on the 6th line heading downtown and just don't get off at the final station, remaining onboard (out of sight) will be followed by the train taking a U-turn to head back uptown and it is on this route that it passes by the abandoned station. Following the instructions precisely, I can confirm the U-turn was taken but the dusty windows, lack of lighting of the station and speed of the moving train meant little of interest was to be seen.

New York has its own version of The Bean apparently. It is even more underwhelming than the actual one in Chicago, but as always makes for some interesting photo opportunities

In the middle of Tribeca is the Long Lines Building, aptly named for its tower-of-doom-esque, windowless architecture. It turns out this building is an NSA spyscraper, and is impossible to get into (unless of course you work there). It really does make for the strangest of sights, nestled in amongst some beautiful buildings and arthouses.

In the basement floor of a building that houses a high-end restaurant is a facility called Farm One, a vertical-farming complex researching new and innovative agricultural techniques for producing fresh produce in an economic and clean fashion. Though I did indeed find this facility, it had as of only a few months ago been vacated and moved over to Brooklyn. I did meet a person who worked there (who had asked me if I was lost, which indeed I kind of was) and she told me about the work they do, as well as the children's magic garden in Brooklyn that she works at.

I walked past a girl who was sitting there, lost in thought. I got to chatting with her and it turns out she was waiting for her mold to dry that she was taking of the subway manhole cover. It was part of a larger project she was doing in her free time to document the different covers around the city. I felt a bit bad for her seeing as she had to (voluntarily I guess) sit out in the onsetting cold as the sun faded below the horizon.

Humans of New York

The spot I'd had my eye on for the night was Roxy's Hotel⁴, right near Dream House. So after I had loitered around for long enough, and darkness encroached I headed in to take in the atmosphere. It gave off a very Roaring Twenties vibe, and had a jazz club/restaurant (Django's) down below which I wanted to check out. Not sure of what I was doing there, standing aimlessly in the lobby, I was shortly saved by a young guy playing pool asking me if I wanted to join. Well, I spent the next 90 minutes playing with him, talking about life and work.

His name was Joe and he'd just started working as an investment banker, focusing particularly on companies enterprising in cleaner forms of energy production. A lot of our conversation actually centered around college tuition. He had studied philosophy and something else at college and his final thesis had been on Purdue of all places as the first US college to offer an equity model for paying university fees. Essentially instead of taking out a government loan or paying up front, the government acquires a percentage of ownership in your future earnings, similar in many senses to the HECS (or whatever it's called now) scheme in Australia. He has maintained a strong interest in philanthropy in particular helping black students through college, and told me a crazy story about his brother's graduation. Upon attending the ceremony (at Morehouse college), the speaker, a billionaire from the area, paid off in grand style the debts of all students present. He spoke about how this gesture resonated at the deepest level with him (as it should), inspiring him to pursue ways of redirecting funds from the wealthiest like this man to those in need.

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After a few games (and catching a movie called Storytelling in the hotel cinema), I caught the subway back to the hostel. I'd had many people come up to me and ask for money or food by this point, and so wasn't surprised when another gentleman sidled up beside me whilst I was waiting for the train. I couldn't offer him anything, but we got to talking and he had one of those very moving stories to tell.

His name was Kevin and he'd left all of his family behind in Detroit many moons ago to come find something for himself in NYC. All by himself, he got into painting to give back to one of his nieces and makes these very colourful acrylic paints to sell around the city. As I boarded the train, I felt myself again wondering about what comes of these people, the ones whose paths intersect with yours for only the briefest flashes before being flung apart from one another again forever more.

New York - Day Two (Saturday)

The first port of call for the day was to visit Roosevelt Island. A place I had never visited before in previous trips, it was home to one particular sight that had caught my eye on AO - the abandoned Smallpox Hospital. It looks really eery.

The island has some great views of Manhattan across the East River, and I took it all in at the South tip of the island at Roosevelt Park. Getting to and from the island can be done by subway, but the faster and more stylish way is to take the tramway that runs along the Queensboro bridge. At no cost either if you have the 7-day unlimited Metro travel card like I had!

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Next up was Tannen's Magic Store, the oldest magic shop in America. It had previously been housed at larger premises through the later parts of the 20th century, but was moved to new quarters in central Manhattan a few decades ago. Now it is situated on the 6th floor of a building near Central Park, sandwiched between residential apartment suits and company offices. Tannen's also used to be home to a magic society, which was presided over for a long period of time by none other than Harry Houdini⁵.

I picked up a few little bits and pieces from the store, including a limited edition set of Bicycle playing cards, my personal favourite brand. The guys working the shop also put on free shows and demonstrations of the kits and sets they had on sale which was pretty neat.

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Later in the afternoon I met up with Hayley to wander around for the rest of the day. Started off by getting a few slices of Joe's pizza before we made our way over to the Brooklyn bridge. It amused me many years ago and it amused me this time to see the line of stands and food trucks that line both entrances to the bridge, each selling almost identical items that one is left wondering how any of them survive. The new addition since I'd last been were countless stations set up to take a revolving video of you and others with Empire State of Mind playing on loop in the background. I swear to God I am happy not hearing that song for another 5 years after this trip! The bridge is, of course, a terrific place to stop and take photos, and I found a guy to snap a few pictures of Hayley and I. He started off taking some nice pictures of us side by side, then at one point telling us to look into each other's eyes...I'd obviously not mentioned the part that we were just travelling together and that was all. You can see that moment played out below.

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We wandered around in Brooklyn near the riverbank for a bit before heading back across with the intention of catching the sunset from one of the piers in Manhattan. We didn't time the run very well but it was an absolutely stunning sunset and the city looked about as beautiful as I've ever seen it before, the glowing embers of the fading sun against the silhouette of skyscrapers.

To wrap up the day we headed into Times Square to catch some of the street performers along with the wild and zany individuals that are to be found there. My favourite has always been the guy on the budget microphone yelling at people about the coming of Satan and the end of the world. I was working with some slower shutter speeds here whilst tracking the preacher to add some streakiness to the shots, I think it looks kind of cool.

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Hayley and I split at this point and I headed back to the hostel. I ended up sitting at the bar for a few hours chatting with some people. First, there was Sienna from Oregon who had recently finished college there and had come to New York to sample out the city before she moved here for work. Then there was Enrico, a freshly-accredited pilot from Brazil who was stopping in town for a few nights before his next scheduled flight. Within an hour of talking to Enrico, we'd both made plans to stay in touch and if the one ever visited the other's home country to link up again. These sorts of sparked interactions are the ones you can really only get in places like hostels.

New York - Day Three (Sunday)

Superbowl Sunday. That meant that my day was free up until about 5pm or so. I started off for whatever reason catching the subway all the way down to the World Trade Center. A place I'd been a few times before, the size of the memorial fountains there always has an impact on me. Though I took the memorial tour back in 2014 with my family when we went, it is worth pointing out that it is easily worth the price of admission and perhaps the best tour of this sort I've ever gone on, made 10-fold better by the tour guide we had at the time, an aspiring Broadway actor who was able to impute an immense gravity and weight to the stories of 9/11.

I then took in a few smaller sights along my way to the Lower East Side where my big appointment for the morning was: the Angel Orensanz Foundation. The oldest surviving synagogue of New York, it has been around since the late 20th-century as an anchor of both the Jewish and artistic communities, hosting a variety of galleries, shows and performances. The slightly dilapidated exterior gives way to a very stunning interior, with each wall interlaced by stained-glass and and vaulting pillars. As my bad luck would have it, I was in NYC for New York Fashion Week and the Foundation was to play host to a runway show later that day. Hence I had to navigate around lighting crews, po-up bars and far too many people dressed in expensive clothes to take in the building.

There is also a really famous Knish Bakery (the Yonah Shimmel) right nearby, and I stopped and got a few for lunch. The savoury one was really quite excellent and the sweet one (chocolate filled) was delightful for the first few bites until I was fully overwhelmed by the rich heaviness of it.

The night before in Times Square I had enquired under the red steps at the ticket booth whether there were any discounted/last-minute seats available for a few plays. Fortunately for me, there was a pretty good deal to go see the matinee performance of The Book of Mormon on Sunday afternoon, so I made my way from NOHO to the Eugene O'Neil Theatre to take in the performance.

Having been a massive fan of South Park growing up⁶, it was never a question of whether I would enjoy the musical, but just a matter of how much. In short, it was absolutely fan-bloody-tastic. The numbers were all high-energy hits, and there were some hilarious bits. I am certainly not putting out a niche opinion here given how long the show has been out for, but you should definitely go and see it if your in a city that is running it.

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I had made plans earlier in the day with a roommate of mine, George, to try and find a bar to watch the game at together for a real authentic American experience. So I spent the better part of the late afternoon after the show wandering around from pub to pub, trying to find somewhere where (a) there was a good atmosphere and (b) it wasn't already full or entirely reserved. I ended up finding a decent enough spot, Connolly's on E 47th St. The place was a little bit dead but we had a good time of it. George is from Norway and knew nothing about gridiron, so I spent most of the game explaining the rules to him which was fun. The other oddity about the game was that the video on the screens was lagging persistently behind the audio by about a second or two, meaning for long passes down the field you kind of knew ahead of time whether it was a catch or not.

New York - Day Four (Monday)

Well, as it was in Chicago, so it was again in NYC. I set out with the intention of a big run and was left with another half-marathon to show for it. This one, however, hurt a hell of a lot more, mostly because I wasn't stopping every couple of minutes to look for directions or to take a picture. Running across Queensboro bridge at an early hour of the morning was just stunning, and Central Park was full of fellow runners and exercisers which was cool. My only annoyance with the run was that in heading downtown, I had to stop fairly frequently to cross over each block, though once you left the main buzz of the morning traffic behind there were some continuous bike lanes I made use of. The best and perhaps worst thing about New York traffic is that the lights are paid very little regard which led to both a more unbroken run when I was the one jaywalking and a few close calls when taxi drivers and the like wanted to make a break for it when there was clearly oncoming foot traffic.

By the time I got back to the hostel and had breakfast, the morning was up and I had to checkout. I had many hours to kill before I needed to head back out to Newark for the return flight, so I spent most of it sitting on the steps outside Madison Square Garden, just watching life pass me by. Finally it was time to head back and it was very much a story of undoing the steps I had made what seemed like forever ago on Friday morning. My flight was thankfully on schedule, but I was exhausted by the time the shuttle rolled back into Purdue, half stumbling my way in a delirious slumber to my room...

...to wake up the next morning to the joys of catching up on homework and study!

Footnotes