"Inexhaustible variety of life"
Living next to this park is like winning the entertainment lottery and having a little piece of Paris right at your fingertips...
I'm taking full advantage of these next two months living in this location and taking in as much of WSP and its people as I possibly can. With the opportunity and privilege to spend a chunk of my time at WSP everyday, I would like to share with you my personal observations. On Sunday I met Lily in Washington Square, where we were entertained by the crazy piano guy who rolled out a baby grand and performed Rhapsody In Blue (twice as requested by princess Lily, as he called her.) He also performed Claire de Lune by Claude Debussy with a very special commentary (which I loved), I caught it on my iPhone.
I adore how he screams, "Yay!!!", after everything he plays. Colin literally would push this piano through the streets of NY to get it to the park, now apparently he uses a Uhaul, but I like to believe that he pushes the piano everywhere he goes. It seems more whimsical that way. Also, can we please push another baby grand into the park and invite the crazy piano lady, Annamaria Mottola, to show him how its done. I don't think I can rest until I see AM playing a baby grand in WSP. PLEASE!! Crazy Piano showdown!!
Lily and I, per usual, made a scene in the middle of the park as we hugged and jumped up and down in each others arms, which lead an NYU orthodontist student to tell Lily that she has the most "infectious smile he's ever seen." That's one of the reasons I opted for adult braces, so that I can have a smile more like Lily's :-)
Yesterday morning I was walking through WSP on my way to Soul Cycle and all of a sudden I found myself in the middle of a Pharrell Williams Happy flash mob, everyday should start exactly like that. It made me smile. That's not the first time I'v seen New Yorkers on the street dancing to Happy, a few days earlier a woman was dancing and belting out the viral tune in Hudson River Park. I love seeing people so happy that they feel the need to break out into song and dance. Which brings me to the throughly entraining scene outside my front window on Saturday night, who needs a TV when you have a huge Juilet balcony that opens onto a bustling West Village Street? It was a warm one so you can just imagine how happy people were, literally every other person walking down my street was singing or humming a tune, groups of people singing together, it made me happy!!
An hour later I was walking through the park to get home and bumped into my new friend Dusty, who I had met a few days earlier. He had walked up to me in the park while I was taking in the varieties of life and asked me if I could call his friend for him, since his phone ran out of minutes/batteries.
Dusty is strictly a street musician, he plays tenor sax, so of course I helped him out! We chatted with his friend on speaker phone, and at the same exact time there was a man teaching a group of teens how to get a pigeon to land on their head...
This time I finally had the opportunity to hear him play. I sat on the steps of the statue as he serenaded me. Dusty insisted I bring my clarinet next time to so that we can jam together. And then right beside us...
Later that day I came back through the park for a third time and it was the most packed I had ever seen it, of course it was, its the warmest day of the year so far AND it's still light out at 5pm, which = pure unadulterated New York joy. I sat and watched...
The students. more specifically the girl next to me that was sitting with her mother we must have been visiting with her thick southern accent. The Asian man with a shaved head, headphones in and pad in hand sitting with his legs crossed with perfect posture, taking notes every few moments. Eventually he puts his pen behind his ear, puts his bag over his shoulder and walks away with intent, wearing all brown. Analyzing him made me feel like I should sit up straighter. Maybe he realized that I was taking notes of him taking notes. Pen to paper. And then there's the man walking briskly, wearing a teal V neck sweater, holding a thick novel and talking to himself.
Followed by the old Rabbi with his grey curls and his endearing walk that’s really more of a side to side movement than a forward motion. Straight ahead there are two young men, born agains, walking around the circle with their yellow sign that reads, "Why are we here?" And as if timed perfectly the skater boys come out and start doing their tricks, as a little boy so desperately tries to emulate them but keeps falling and getting back up, falling and getting up.
Just as i'm watching the little boy my ear is drawn to the right corner of the park where a man begins playing bag pipe, glad I wore my all tartan outfit today! By this point I was feeling as though I had enough amusement for one day and I got up and started to leave… and was instantly drawn in again by the sound of classical guitar and the sight of a man that I recognized rolling a glass globe beautifully from one arm to the other in sync with the strumming of the strings.
" The following day it was rainy and cold and as I walked through the park I felt the stark difference and lack of life that made a statement almost as powerful as when the park is completely over taken by people. I stood in the middle of the park with not so much as a sole insight and it was profound, where there was music there was silence, where there was motion, stillness. Its emptiness made it seem larger than life. The love bubble had been washed away as if it had never been. I looked around on the exact benches and grassy patches where there was so much noise and movement,and there was nothing..." - S
