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.

At the year’s end, one last 2018 travel adventure

A view from St. James’s Park in London.

Alan Alda, one of America’s most beloved and respected actors, once 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 awake to the beginning of 2019, 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 Friday, my wife and I returned from a 10-day holiday visit to London, our first time being British since 2007. Each time we’ve been to England – three times in all since 2005 – there have been new discoveries awaiting us, and this trip provided a wonderful opportunity to rediscover old things from a different perspective.

Upon arrival, we found ourselves in the thick of Christmas holiday revelry as we lodged in a charming, one-bedroom apartment on quiet Lamb’s Passage, an equal walking distance in either direction to the Barbican and Moorgate Underground stations. Within minutes, thanks to the efficiency of the Underground tube, we were able to arrive at a variety of destinations around London: Borough Market, the Tate Modern, St. Paul’s Cathedral, Leicester Square, Oxford Street and Westminster Abbey, to name just a few that we visited.

Our visit began with theater – we saw a wonderful performance of “Company” at the Sir John Gielgud Theatre, in which we met the musical’s star, Rosalie Craig, afterward, and showered her with praise. We followed it with our second Hamilton experience of the year (and third overall), a matinee at the Victoria Palace that we did on the spur of the moment.

We got a feel for British shopping during our excursion to Oxford Street, which included buying music CDs at HMV, clothes at Uniqlo and in perusing holiday merchandise at the elegant Selfridges. Nearby, we enjoyed a charming lunch at the Monocle Cafe in Marylebone. We made time for seeing the new “Mary Poppins Returns” film at the lovely Barbican Centre Cinema.

There were days spent at museums, such as the Queen’s Gallery near Buckingham Palace and the British Museum, which is one of the great museums devoted to human history and culture.

We also enjoyed a lovely walk through St. James’s Park, where we were welcomed by ducks, geese and pelicans.

Finally, we experienced the Holy Trinity of Anglican Church worship experiences, at St. Martin in the Fields, in Westminster Abbey and St. Paul’s Cathedral.

Each Anglican Eucharist was special in its own way. I’ll fondly remember the beautiful four-part choir performing throughout much of the early-afternoon Eucharist at St. Martin in Fields on our first full day in London. Then, there was sitting in the Quire next to the Choir of Men and Boys during Sunday morning Eucharist at Westminster Abbey, a holy shrine steeped deep in British and Anglican history. Finally, there was Midnight Eucharist on Christmas Eve in the venerable and cavernous St. Paul’s Cathedral, where we were the only American couple seated in a row among Germans and Austrians and British worshipers – and feeling at home in our surroundings.

We returned to Westminster Abbey near the end of our stay and it was a pleasure to stand in Poet’s Corner as well as to see the new David Hockney “Queen’s Window” stained glass window.

London is a city in which I could never see myself getting bored. There’s always plenty of interesting things to explore and admire and be curious about.

It’s easy enough to get caught up in the city’s history, its art, its architecture, the Royal Family.

There’s plenty to explore. I know we’ll be back, again.

In the meantime, I look forward to 2019 and the New Year that awaits. Hopefully, it will be a year full of new discoveries and travel adventures. It is truly my hope that yours will be filled with new discoveries, too.

Safe travels and Happy New Year!

At the year's end, one last 2017 travel adventure

St. Patrick's Cathedral along Fifth Avenue.

It was Alan Alda, one of my country's most beloved and respected actors, whom many of us remember as Hawkeye Pierce in the long-running American TV series "M*A*S*H," who once gave a bit of wise advice that's resonated with me. As we awake to the final week of 2017, no matter where we may be or reside in the world, it's worth a moment of our time to think about what he said.

"You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. What you'll discover will be wonderful. What you'll discover is yourself," said Alda.

Now that my wife and I live on the East coast, we enjoy escaping to New York City. It's only 3 1/2 hours by train – and Amtrak has several Northeast Regional trains that travel between Washington D.C.'s Union Station and New York City's Penn Station daily.

Since moving to the Beltway, we've traveled to New York City by train twice, most recently last weekend. Each time, there are new discoveries that await us and it provides us with a chance to rediscover old things from a different perspective.

The Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular.

Whereas, our previous trip over Labor Day weekend was very much an Upper West Side experience, last weekend we found ourselves in the thick of the Christmas holiday revelry as we lodged a block off Times Square at the Hotel Muse on West 46th Street, between Sixth and Seventh Avenues. We were a short walk from Rockefeller Center and Radio City Music Hall, where we caught a glimpse – along with thousands of other tourists – of the tall and majestic Rockefeller Center Christmas tree and ice skating rink. Also, we saw the nearby festive holiday windows of Saks Fifth Avenue, the Neo-Gothic magnificence St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Cathedral, and took in a late Friday evening performance of the Radio City Christmas Spectacular at Radio City Music Hall. The headlining Rockettes are truly a one-of-a-kind New York experience and Radio City Music Hall is an art deco masterpiece that has been truly well-preserved and taken care of over the years.

Grand Central Terminal in New York City.

On Saturday, we rode the subway to Herald Square – to the land of "Believe" – and shopped at Macy's flagship New York City store.

Then, we ventured to Grand Central Terminal to shop at a lovely boutique holiday fair and to also enjoy warm soup on what turned out to be a wet and cold wintry day.

Later, our evening included dining and listening to seasonal holiday music at Jazz at Lincoln Center – and it was most welcome and enjoyable.

We'll be back in 2018 to see Hamilton.

New York City is a place that never sleeps and I could never see myself getting bored. There's always plenty to see and do and admire and be curious about. I know we'll be back next year as we have tickets to see Hamilton.

I look forward to 2018 and the New Year that awaits. Hopefully, it will be a year full of new discoveries and travel adventures. I hope yours will be filled with new discoveries, too.

Safe travels and Happy New Year!

Joni Mitchell at 71: Always attending to her imagination

Joni Mitchell / Self portrait of a true original 

Last weekend, I read with great interest an online interview with the singer-songwriter-artist Joni Mitchell in Maclean's, the Canadian national weekly current affairs magazine. In it, she confessed: "I don't watch news. I'm not a fish so I don't want to get caught in the net so I'm not on the web. I only use my iPhone as a camera, I don't even know my number."

Interviews with Mitchell are rare. However, the Canadian-born Mitchell has surfaced from her Los Angeles residence to drum interest in her latest project, a box set called Love Has Many Faces: A Quartet, a Ballet, Waiting To Be Danced. Released this week, it combines her career as a Grammy-winning musician with being a painter and a dance enthusiast in collecting 53 songs from her 40 years of recording. Mitchell curated the collection, designed the package which includes six new paintings, and wrote an autobiographical text illuminating her recording process.

I've been fond of Mitchell's music going way back to my university days as a student at Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minnesota and as a disc jockey for the college's WMCN-FM radio station. While I have an appreciation for Mitchell's folk music roots -- her 1970 album Blue is a must-listen -- I've always been attracted to her jazzy side, which surfaced in 1974 with Court and Spark and a year later with The Hissing of Summer Lawns, my two favorite Joni Mitchell albums.

During her Maclean's interview with the writer Elio Iannacci, the 71-year-old Mitchell referred to the younger generation as the "push-button generation of today." She was asked: "What is impairing us the most?" She answered matter-of-factly: "Everything is about channel changing. It has ruined attention spans. I spaced out in school but I didn't develop attention-deficit issues because I placed attention on my imagination and ignored the curriculum," said Mitchell.

"I didn't have a million news feeds to contend with. It is just like when I have people to my house to watch a film -- it's like living in a Robert Altman movie! They are always talking over each other. We are all losing the plot. It's an addiction to phones and too much information."

Speaking of an addiction to our phones -- and, by extension, to too much information -- in last Saturday's The New York Times, contributing writer Timothy Egan hit upon a theme of digital narcissism in his opinion article "Grand Tour of the Self." He wrote: "Technology, when it shrinks the globe, or makes life less burdensome, or provides easier access to knowledge, is a wonderful thing. The smartphone has dramatically changed the world, mostly for the better. The jet aircraft opened far reaches of the planet to average people. And the selfie stick, as a simple device to take a better portrait, is largely harmless.

"But when technology changes the travel experience itself -- from immersion and surprise to documentary one-upmanship -- it defeats the point of the journey. We travel to freshen senses dulled by routine. We travel for discovery and reinvention."

Thanks to the popularity of Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, we've allowed everyone to become the star of their own movie in their "twenty-teens." Additionally, foodies have become obsessive about photographing what they eat -- especially when dining out -- and posting it online for instant gratification.

Maybe, we have become victims of "nature deficit disorder," so called because in the words of Egan, it's "a symptom of being connected to everything, while being unable to connect to anything."

Which brings us back to Joni Mitchell and the repercussions that future generations face now that everyone spends so much time on their smartphones. She told Maclean's: "My grandson and I were sailing on a boat and he said, 'It's boring.' I asked, 'How can you say it's boring? The sun is shining, we're going across the water so fast...' And he said, 'Not fast enough.' Technology has given him this appetite."

Fortunately, spending half of each year in the province of British Columbia enables Mitchell an opportunity to escape American culture and step away from the "star-making machinery behind the popular song" while returning to her Canadian roots. "I just drop off in the bush. My life has been somewhat overstimulated so I'll never get bored.

"I don't belong to this modern world and I'm out of it, but I don't want in."

Joni Mitchell self-portrait courtesy of jonimitchell.com.

The Roosevelts: An Intimate History

The Roosevelts: An Intimate History /
Ken Burns in conversation at San Francisco's Castro Theatre.

Why do we cry when we see a Ken Burns documentary? Perhaps, it's because the documentary filmmaker has a remarkable talent for telling stories through real people.

"History is sharing the process of discovery," said Burns, whose 1990 film The Civil War brought him to the forefront of documentary filmmaking in the United States. He is known for his style of using archival footage and photographs. "Preserving the past is one of the greatest things you can do for the future."

Burns, 60, has also directed films about other subjects familiar to Americans, including: Baseball (1994), Jazz (2001), The War (2007), The National Parks: America's Best Idea (2009), Prohibition (2011) and The Central Park Five (2012).

This fall, the Emmy Award-winning Burns returns with a new film that depicts the monumental saga of an exceptional American family whose impact is still felt across the nation.

The Roosevelts: An Intimate History, a new seven-part, 14-hour documentary directed by Burns and written by Geoffrey C. Ward, will debut nationwide on PBS on September 14. The film weaves together the stories of Theodore, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, three members of one of the most prominent and influential American political families.

Recently, I had the chance to preview The Roosevelts: An Intimate History during an evening with Ken Burns at San Francisco's Castro Theatre, which was sponsored by KQED, in partnership with Kraw Law Group and Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy. Burns was in San Francisco not only to promote The Roosevelts in front of a captive and enthusiastic audience, but also to interview legendary San Francisco Giants baseball player Willie Mays for a future documentary he is currently working on about Jackie Robinson, who broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball in the 1947.

In The Roosevelts: An Intimate History, said Burns, for the first time we truly get to veer into the private lives of the most public of people. And, it's the first time their individuals stories have been interwoven into a single narrative.

Over 20,000 archived photos went into the making of The Roosevelts. We see Theodore, who was once a sickly boy, storm into Washington like an officer charging into battle. We learn of Franklin, struck down by illness, and how he pulls himself back up while at the same time lifting the U.S. out of the Great Depression and World War II. And, we see how Eleanor redefines the role of First Lady while inspiring millions of Americans. The documentary follows the Roosevelts for over a century, from the birth of Theodore in 1858 to Eleanor's death in 1962.

"You can't expect people like that to happen all the time," said historian David McCullough, who appears on camera throughout the documentary. Adds fellow historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, who also appears on screen in The Roosevelts: "It's an extraordinary story. The drama is unmatched in our history."

According to Burns, the story of the Roosevelts raises many questions, such as: "What is the role of government in society?" and "What is heroism?" While it may be impossible to sum up in a sentence or two what Burns learned from working on The Roosevelts, one thing he said he took away from his work is this: FDR had an extraordinary ability to communicate.

The only thing we have to fear ... is fear itself.

"History is a rising road," said Burns. "Human nature is always the same. There at times has been incivility, but what's interesting is what's the same."

To learn more: The Roosevelts: An Intimate History

Photograph: Michael Dickens ©2014.