At the year’s end, one last 2019 travel adventure

Once upon a time, the beloved and respected American actor Alan Alda suggested that you have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. “What you’ll discover,” he said “will be wonderful. What you’ll discover is yourself.”

As we begin the New Year, 2020, no matter where we may be or reside in the world, it’s worth a moment of our time to consider the meaning of Alda’s words.

Last Sunday, my wife and I returned from a brief but eventful five-day holiday visit to New York City, our fourth trip there during 2019. Each time we go – and it’s only a 3 1/2-hour trip via the Amtrak Northeast Regional – we try to see a different part of what is arguably one of the greatest cities in the world. Our post-Christmas, pre-New Year’s visit rewarded us with a wonderful opportunity to discover new things – and, this time, from a Lower East Side perspective. It was worth it.

Our visit began with theater – we saw the much anticipated “David Byrne’s American Utopia” at the intimate Hudson Theatre (once home to NBC’s “Tonight Show” back in the early 1950s Steve Allen era), featuring a tour de force performance by the Talking Heads superstar that was part TED talk, part rock concert, and very much a bare-footed dance spectacle. There were crowd-favorite hits newly arranged by Byrne like “Once in a Lifetime” and “Burning Down the House,” that complemented songs covering the 67-year-old’s post-Heads solo career. All together, they wove a narrative in which Byrne tried to help his audience find a sense of happiness in these troubled times we all live in.

Our visit included shopping, from loading up on mouth-watering Lindt chocolates to finding new fashion at Uniqlo’s expansive Fifth Avenue headquarters near the Museum of Modern Art just above Rockefeller Plaza, where there was plenty of activity centering around its colorful, larger-than-life Christmas tree and popular skating rink.

We enjoyed a satisfying, educational day visiting two of the city’s finest museums – the newly re-opened MOMA, where we braved the crowds hovering around Van Gogh’s “The Starry Night” and Monet’s “Water Lillies,” and a hidden gem in the Tenement Museum, located at the corner of Orchard and Delaney streets in the Lower East Side, about a five-minute walk from the Hotel Indigo, where we lodged during our stay.

All along our journey in New York City, which the cast of Hamilton describes it as “the greatest city in the world,” there was plenty of wonderful food awaiting us, from the delicious dim sum at Nom Wah Tea Parlor in Chinatown on Christmas Evening (very much worth the 75-minute wait just to get a table); to a pre fixe epicurean delight at Butter in Midtown; to late night posh doughnuts at the Donut Pub in Chelsea; and, finally, deli delights at Russ & Daughters Appetizers (bagels with cream cheese) and Katz’s (cheese blintzes).

New York City is a place in which I could never see myself getting bored. There’s always plenty of interesting things to explore and admire – and to be curious about – any time of the day or night.

As I learned once again, it’s easy to get caught up in the city’s history. I was reminded of this when I learned about late 19th/early 20th-century shop life at 97 Orchard Street while visiting the Tenement Museum. I was reminded of this through the art I saw at MOMA; as well as in the Puerto Rican-infused jazz music I heard at Jazz at Lincoln Center. Also, in the theater I enjoyed on Broadway with “David Byrne’s American Utopia,” and from the tremendous choice of food – where, if you think about it, there’s every imaginable ethnic cuisine to be discovered and eaten.

There’s plenty to explore in New York City. I know I’ll be back, again, soon.

In the meantime, I look forward to 2020 and the New Year that awaits. Hopefully, it will be a year full of new discoveries and new travel adventures. It is truly my hope that yours will be filled with new discoveries and new travel adventures, too.

Safe travels and Happy New Year!

Photographs: Michael Dickens, © 2020.

“Stop Making Sense”: Same as it ever was ...

David Byrne once said that the goal of the Talking Heads’ 1984 documentary film Stop Making Sense was “to show how a concert gets made” even as it’s taking place. With an eye toward going to see the famous Talking Heads frontman star in David Byrne’s American Utopia on Broadway next month, I re-watched the 35-year-old, Stop Making Sense in its 88-minute entirety earlier this week. I’m happy to say that not only did this seminal movie directed by Jonathan Demme seem so quaint, but it perfectly captured the band’s enormous and joyous energy and multicultural sound.

For the uninitiated, the Talking Heads were a 1980s American rock band band that evolved from East Coast new wave and avant-garde to a funk and world music sensibility as their sound gained popularity and their clean-cut image became a part of our aural and visual comfort zone. As one critic once suggested, the Talking Heads sound “dissolved barriers between disco and rock, conceptual art and dance pop.” They were one of the most popular bands when I was a university student in the Upper Midwest and many of their songs were indeed staples on my college radio show’s playlists back in the day.

At the beginning of Stop Making Sense, from the moment Byrne walks out onto a bare Pantages Theater stage in Los Angeles wearing a grey suit and white docksider sneakers – slinging an acoustic guitar over his shoulder and toting a boombox – and says “Hi. I got a tape I want to play,” everything comes to life as he launches into a solo version of “Psycho Killer.” Then, song by song, the concert builds as additional members of the Talking Heads – bassist Tina Weymouth, drummer Chris Franz and guitarist/keyboardist Jerry Harrison – come out on stage, one at a time. Later, they are joined in the mix by guitarist Alex Weir, percussionist Steven Scales, keyboardist Bernie Worrell, and vocalists Ednah Holt and Lynn Mabry, all who contribute to the excitement of watching this great music documentary unfold and build to a delightful crescendo. Through it all, Byrne’s wide-eyed enthusiasm and his staccato-like dance moves – his appreciation for live performance art – are nothing short of memorable.

Stop Making Sense is a groundbreaking concert film that not only is packed with 16 of the Talking Heads’ most memorable songs (their excellent cover of Al Green’s “Take Me to the River,” “Life During Wartime,” “Heaven,” and “Burning Down the House” among many), but thanks to the wall-to-wall sound, wonderful cinematography and Byrne’s quirky and bodaciously-boxy “Big Suit,” it adds up to one of the best rock movies ever filmed.

I remember seeing Stop Making Sense for the first time shortly after it was released in the fall of 1984 in a downtown Minneapolis movie theater. Mind you, this was long before the internet and social media came along. However, if either had existed like today, no doubt I would have taken to Facebook or Twitter to share positive thoughts about Stop Making Sense and my word-of-mouth excitement. It’s still a timely reminder of music that sounds so good.