Tuning in to New York's largest music scene

From 10am to 10pm on Saturday June 21st, Make Music New York returned to the city for its summer solstice program.  Musicians of all ages turned over 400 public areas across New York into their own performance spaces.

I had a look at the website during the week but had no idea how I was going to make sense of a 1,300-concert program.  Should I confine myself to one particular neighbourhood or genre of music, or should I seek out the participatory gigs, the ones where I could actually join in and contribute to the noise?

Ultimately the event website made my decision for me, suggesting a "World Tour: By Sea" itinerary, with performers dotted along the East River Ferry route from Midtown Manhattan, across to Queens and Brooklyn, and then concluding in Lower Manhattan.  I could have done a different tour by land, of course, but Saturday's bright sunshine just seemed to lend itself perfectly to a self-guided East River cruise.

After a delicious diner breakfast back in my old Midtown hood, I wandered over to the East River Ferry terminal at 34th Street.  The queue for the ticket machine was already really long, but I could see the first band of the day playing for the small but appreciative crowd.  I couldn't exactly hear the band of course, owing to the jackhammers and construction activity across the street from the ferry.  But once I'd got hold of my ferry ticket, I came in for a closer look and listen.  Pangean Orchestra are a global ensemble based in New York that play instruments from all over the world, and they perform folk songs and traditional music.  Their rendition of "This Little Light of Mine" was a fun and bouncy start to my Make Music New York experience.

The first stop on our ferry tour was Long Island City in Queens.  I think South African performer Toya Delazy had the best backdrop of all, as she played her set in front of the sprawling Midtown Manhattan skyline.  The ferry terminal in Long Island City has a great little cafe and lots of seating right along the riverfront.  I have never disembarked the ferry in LIC before, and even though I was only here to listen to Toya's performance, I think it's definitely worth a visit back to look around (beyond the high-rise apartments going up).

Back on the ferry, we headed to Williamsburg in Brooklyn, where Jarana Beat had set up in the East River State Park next to Smorgasburg.  The band's Mexican tunes were lively, and upbeat - perfect for the young crowd, and somewhat of a subliminal influence on my dining choices (the beef and pork tacos were spicy and amazing).  As much as I like the diversity of the giant Smorgasburg food market, there isn't much in the way of shade there.  And with the Saturday sun at its hottest, I was more content to head back to the ferry and press on with the tour.

What a treat to pull up to the Fulton Ferry Landing in Brooklyn Bridge Park!  There were people everywhere, but unlike the congestion of Williamsburg, this crowd had more room to move and we were all taking full advance of the riverfront walkways, playgrounds, dining areas and some people were even having a go at canoeing.  But of course I was here for music, and so I peeked in at the unique Bargemusic venue to hear some classical music.  Known as "New York's floating music venue", Bargemusic really is just that: a barge that sways with the movement of the East River.  Throughout the year, the venue hosts a bunch of music concerts - mostly classical - and their Summer Concert series offers free concerts on Saturday afternoons at 3pm in June, July and August (though the catch is, you don't know what the concert will be until you get there).  I hardly think it matters though, because a free concert in a great venue like that, coupled with a refreshing glass of sparkling rose at the nearby Brooklyn Bridge Garden Bar will get your summer weekend off to an amazing start.

We weren't as pressed for time by this stage in the day, so I might have squeezed in a couple of glasses of sparkling rose in the shadow of the Brooklyn Bridge.  I am not sorry for it.

But Manhattan beckoned, and we took the ferry over to Pier 11 (Wall Street) and the short walk to South Street Seaport for the final music performance on our itinerary.  The seaport took a real battering after Super Storm Sandy and things are taking time to return to normal.  But events like the Make Music New York Festival are a great way to attract people back to the area and keep the businesses bustling.  We arrived at the seaport just as Gamelan Dharma Swara was taking its break, but we had a great time watching young kids from the crowd jump in and have a go at playing gamelan (Balinese percussion instruments).  The noise was about as deafening and uncoordinated as you'd imagine.

Feeling very proud that we managed to tick off all the performances on our suggested itinerary without getting lost once, we rewarded ourselves with a few beers and some dinner The Beekman pub.  The Irish bar has been open in the Financial District since 1936, and the bartender was playing a great 1970s playlist so clearly we were not going anywhere else.  It was a lovely way to finish up our music-filled sunny day.

The Make Music New York winter solstice program will take place on December 21st, when a similar 12-hour line up will be organised.  I will be in Australia that day, otherwise I know I would be braving the cold to hear some more great tunes.  But if you're going to be in NY then, try and get along to some of the gigs.  You definitely won't regret it.

The photos on this page are just a small selection of the ones I took during the day.  You can see the whole album by clicking here.

Peanuts and crackerjacks

When I moved to Chicago in October 2005, the Chicago White Sox won the World Series and the city just erupted.  I watched all the games in that Series, and notwithstanding the fact I had no idea what was going on, I totally got swept up in baseball fever.

Inspired though I was by the Sox victory, I could see Wrigley Field from my house, so I ended up adopting the Chicago Cubs as my team.  I remember spending many happy afternoons and evenings cheering them on, not that it ever helped much.  But I reckon when you're new to the US and you have no idea what is going on in baseball, the Cubs are the perfect team to support.  They win some, they lose some (ok, they lose most), but the atmosphere at the hallowed Wrigley Field is totally electric and that alone kept me coming back for years.

You'd therefore be forgiven for thinking I'm quite the baseball fanatic these days, but that's hardly the case.  I mean, up until tonight I hadn't been to a game in nearly 5 years.  But when a friend invited me to come up to Citi Field ballpark in Queens to see the New York Mets take on the Pittsburgh Pirates, I was totally on board.  As the 7th inning stretch song goes, let me root, root, root for the home team, right?  I had my game face on all day.

Are grey skies gonna clear up?

If you look on a New York subway map, you might think that the journey to Citi Field will take you forever, but it's actually a very easy (and direct) ride on the Number 7 subway from Grand Central Station.

Express trains obviously don't stop everywhere, but they take about 25 minutes from Grand Central - or else there is the local train that takes about 45 minutes.  And once you get to the Mets/Willets Point subway station (the second-to-last stop on the line), you just follow the signs to the stadium - it's right there.  Even I couldn't get lost.

Zeppole by any other name...

The ballpark is still pretty new too - it was only completed in 2009.  It has seating for nearly 42,000 people but it also has heaps of food stalls and refreshment stands to cater to your every deep-fried and calorific whim.

There is something quite nice about ballpark hotdogs and beers - but the fried dough (zeppole) would have been a bit of a stretch, even for me.  Plus the hotdogs come from Nathan's (the famous hot dog place at Coney Island) so I had to represent.

Our tickets were up in the nosebleed section, and I think the grey skies kept a lot of people away tonight.  But it didn't matter to us in the least because we had a birds-eye view of all the action, and the big screen/jumbotron was nearby, so we could see and hear everything.

Trying to decipher all the baseball statistics was a waste of time, so we just watched the players and remarked on their excellent throwing arms and thwarted attempts to steal bases.

It was a pretty close game throughout, but it was a really slow one too, and the seventh inning stretch took forever to come.  When it finally did, I leapt to my feet and joined the crowd to sing "Take Me Out To The Ballgame".  I tend to start that song really strongly, get a bit fuzzy in the middle, and then belt out the ending.  But this time, the lyrics were on the jumbotron, so I gave it my all throughout.

With storm clouds growing about as fast as our fatigue, we called it quits before the end of the game.  Unfortunately we missed the Mets victory (4-2), but I definitely had a great time back at the ballpark, and I reckon I'm ready to tackle Yankee Stadium next.