November 1, 2007 - Receipt #9 – "Curtains"

November 1, 2007 - Receipt #9 – "Curtains"

In recalling four days in Manhattan earlier this year through the receipts I collected during the stay, I’ve arrived at the ninth one, which was acquired during the middle of a day of walking through midtown with no other goal than to get some exercise and experience the city on its first weekend day. It's Saturday morning May 19th and most of the Manhattan’s weekday workers have abandoned their jobs and those living in the city have started enjoying themselves. Mayor Bloomberg or someone in the city’s bureaucracy had issued a permit that turned 6th Avenue from 56th Street south for a good 15 blocks or more—we didn’t walk the entire length—into a street fair. We stumble upon the festival after leaving our room at the Buckingham Hotel and walking out into the now overcast Saturday morning south on 6th Avenue.

At 56th Street, NYPD-blue painted wooden horses with white lettering blaring “POLICE LINE DO NOT CROSS” blocked southbound vehicular traffic on 6th Avenue. Once behind the police line, we joined pedestrians filling the center of the avenue. On either side of the wide thoroughfare along the curb stood a line of mostly white tents, each occupying a 10-foot square space. Supporting each were four poles, one at each corner holding aloft a four-sided pyramid top. Beneath each top, vendors offer everything imaginable for sale: ethnic foods, tee shirts—lots of tee shirts, Big Apple souvenirs, etc. As we walk, a blue- or green-topped tent intermittently disrupts the uniform pattern of white. And nearly every block has its flat, square-topped, red or yellow tent with huge “Gyro” sign painted on each side of the square. As we walk, a loud speaker somewhere to our right blares out entreaties to “step right up for a free sample of fresh made kettle corn.”

As we reach Radio City Music Hall, we see one vendor who has broken the uniform mold of his conformist neighbors. He has constructed a complete emporium of ladies decorative shirts hanging from pipes within his unusual tent. This structure is unique in that the pipes supporting each 12 ft tall sidewall form the shape of the Greek letter pi. At the top of the tent, a pipe running between the two pi-shaped structures at the front and at the back keeps the sides upright. A large blue tarp drapes over the top and hangs down both sides. Hangers on the pipes contain the large variety of women apparel being offered for sale.

Next to this large tent in a simpler one with a shallow inverted “V” tent top and no sides. It has a huge “OILS” sign hanging in the front. Next to it is a red tent the size of the white ones we’ve passed along the way. It carries a large sign reading “psychic”. In the center of 6th Avenue between 49th and 50th street is a smoke stack twelve foot high or more and about a foot in diameter painted the familiar alternating bands of international orange and white, with smoke or steam wafting up. You see them in the video intro to “Saturday Night Live.” Is this why 6th Avenue was converted into a street faire so that New York City Public Works could perform maintenance without the distraction of traffic?

At 45th Street we leave the faire and head west toward Times Square. Before I left the room this morning, I had gone on line and purchased theatre tickets to “Curtains” at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre for a matinee performance on Sunday. We made our way toward the theatre, which sits at the corner of 8th Avenue and 45th Street, to claim the tickets waiting for us at the will-call window. The overcast that had begun the day persisted casting a somber atmosphere to an otherwise upbeat, frenetic one.

Each time we pass through Times Square I’m reminded of earlier visits to Manhattan and the appearance of the place at that time compared to now. The last time was the spring before the September 11th attack. Back then NBC had a hit program entitled “The Weakest Link” hosted by Anne Robinson, and her image towered above Times Square. On this visit corporate brands had replaced the pop star. Sony was promoting its screen super hero, Spider-Man.

We found the theatre and collected our tickets at 2:55 PM, a grand total of $223.00 including a restoration fee of $3.00 and unspecified expense by Telecharge.com for processing the order. The cost of live theater like that of every other good and service we purchase has gone up.