Facts, Coffee Talk, Hurrah! Feminism and Another Musician...

Tonight my friend Cat and I met up for a belated-lated birthday evening. We met up at Washington Square (remember those 25,000 dead bodies?). We stalked some historic sites... First, the archway at Washington Square...

Standing on dead bodies! Also, the well that provided the water to 5th avenue residents was exactly where the fountain today stands. 

Couldn't decide which to use. Mom... input? 

So today is the transgender memorial day? Someone made those birds out of paper. Each one represents a transgendered person martyred for their gender. Underneath each bird is a name and a bit about who they are and how they died. It's nearly 6pm and none of the birds have been stolen. New York, I am impressed. 

Facts...

In 1911 the triangle shirtwaist fire was started when a sewing machine ignited. At that time the area near Washington Square was a garment district. Where the bottom floor was the shop and the upper floors were sweatshops. During the fire, women, trapped by the flames jumped out the window to their deaths. Because of this fire there were changes in fire safety regulations, worker regulations (not locking people in their work space) and the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union was created.

McSorley's Old Ale House 

And my personal favorite... "at 15 E. 7th st. you'll find McSorley's Old Ale House, the last of New York's "men only" pubs, until it was liberated by Gloria Steinem, an action successfully defended in court by the National Organization for Women in 1970. Today McSorley's welcomes men and women patrons."

Coffee Talk
While waiting for Cat to arrive (my habitual earliness will die when I do), I ordered coffee and got to put some words down. So ermm...  here is my rusty prose.

She makes a stink face. 

     But we gotta let go! 

These small offenses unwittingly performed 

         by strangers are not a just cause 

     for loss of faith in humanity. 

            Rather our vehement & animalistic responses 

            are those that should elicit disdain. 

She makes a stink face? 

     Or maybe she just looks that way. 

Greenwich Village is immersed in shops whose very bricks are steeped in culture and revolution. 

It must emanate. It has been an hour and I haven't seen one iPhone. Rather, long-haired, genderless bohemians - reading magazines, writing in composition books & leaning in too closely to each other while conversing. 

These lives they lead, stimuli. I am green. This educational and social scape. My 20-something self licks it's malnourished, creaking neurons. 

Beans, barnwood floor, vintage shoes, Whitman haunts, reading over shoulders about a different kind of leaves of grass. 

Feminism 

So Cat showed up... and we flexed our right to go to McSorley's. 1970... That is ridiculously late in the civil rights movement to get with the program and let women into your establishment. So, Thank YOU, Gloria Steinem.

It was such a cool place. Sawdust on the floor. Every inch of the walls was covered with framed articles, old photos, pen-knife carved fraternity symbols and lots of dust. We sat in the back, near the kitchen and the unlit fireplace.

This one is for the ladies! 

At McSorley's Ale House, you can order beer. They have a couple different types on tap, namely, Dark or Light. They also have an exhaustive menu including Soup. Sandwich (tuna, ham & cheese, or Liverwurst), Burger and fries or the daily special. I got the burger. Cat got the sandwich.

The food is survival food. Like the kind you read about in books. Take a day-long journey on a horse and buggy. Better pack a hunk of bread, a bit of cheese and some meat. Survival food. Food made for sustenance and just that.

We found the wishbones that were hung by boys and men who went off to WWII. What happened was, they hung the wishbone before they left. And when they returned, they took the wishbone down. Well... There are still quite a few wishbones hanging from the wire. I can't help but wish to be there when the next one gets taken down... if ever. 

Another Music Video

This is a lovely little trio that was playing the L train on Tuesday midday. I always feel sheepish blatantly recording people... so... that's my skirt and the floor. 

This was a strange flute and cello duet. They were just picking up and getting started. It was too dark to get better view... and my phone was too dying to get more.