A Good Week in New York

I saw a great concert with Jimmy Bosch at the intimate Milk Lounge in Spanish Harlem. Jimmy was celebrating his fiftieth birthday (the big five-oh). The crowd was quite small and Jimmy was talking about how in Europe he'll play in front of thousands of people and in his backyard he plays in front of just a handful. The bongo player - Ray Colon - was very cool. He had a sort of heavy and very distinct style of playing. When he hit the macho drum the sound really penetrated the room.

I've spent more time in the Village, some Pizza at Johnny's and at Joe's and delicous sorbet at L'Arte del Gelato. I really like the village and I discovered last night that seventh avenue around fourth street is very nice. Lots of nice restaurants there and the Village Vanguard Jazz club is close by.

The weather has been really awful on some days, in particular when I was on the village/SOHO food tasting tour. I thought I was going to die (!) in the rain and cold. A friendly american came to the rescue and lended me a poncho. As usual I didn't have an umbrella. I have now acquired an umbrella after having lost one that I never used...

I was also an a shopping tour in the Village. Much needed for me since I suck at shopping. There are truly some amazing stores down in the Village. A lot of them are mostly for the eyes, but I did find at least two stores to go back to for clothes. I particularly liked Uniqlo - japanese brand.

On saturday I was on a Brooklyn Brewery beer tasting and culture tour which was really nice. Afterwards I hooked up with Maja from Stockholm and had a good burger at a nice restaurant out in Brooklyn. Brooklyn seems like a nice place to live too at a nice commuting distance. Expensive? No doubt. In the evening I went up to Bronx for the first time and visited Lehman Center where I got to experience a big concert with Eddie Palmieri and Giovanni Hidalgo. Two super stars of afro-cuban music and salsa. I'm a big fan of Eddie Palmieri and this was a great experience. Issac Delgado impressed me a lot as the lead singer. He has such a beautiful versatile voice and he can do everything from a Bolero to a fast salsa-dura perfectly. I recognized a lot of the musicians such as Jimmy Bosch on trombone and Andy Gonzalez on base.

Sunday was a really good day for me. I spent the afternoon at the Guggenheim museum with Maja enjoying the building itself and the Kandinsky exhibition. Afterwards we took the train to the Village and had tapas (Empanadas, Calamares, Croquetas, and Chorizo) at Cuba and drank Mojitos. Very nice. We sipped some sparkling wine at Centro Vinoteca. Maja had to go home to Brooklyn but I went on to the Comedy Cellar for some outrageously funny stand-up comedy. Great night!

Yesterday I checked out the Brookly Bridge. Marvelous! Very nice experience to walk across that bridge in the sun. I had some pizza at the famous Grimaldis and ran into a nice canadian couple.

A lot of good stuff coming up this week, like an NBA game and a piano concert at the Carnegie Hall...