How to Get to Carnegie Hall

encounters

How to Get to Carnegie Hall

Carnegie Hall, which most of you may know is a well-known performance hall in New York City, was built by philanthropist Andrew Carnegie in 1891. It is considered to be one of the most prestigious venues in the world for both classical and popular music. Jack Benny (a leading American entertainer in the 20th century) first coined the joke “How do you get to Carnegie Hall?”, whose punch line was, “Practice, practice, practice.” We actually got there by taxi. At the end of last year, we traveled to New York and stayed in a hotel on 7th Avenue, just across the street from the famous hall. It also happened to be situated next to another famous place with the familiar name – Carnegie Deli. Every day (even during heavy rain) there were long lines of tourists, standing outside to experience an authentic New York breakfast. It is one of the most famous delis in the U.S., if not in the world. But unfortunately after feeding people with delicatessen which had been called “nearly orgasmic” for 80 years, it closed its doors on December 31, 2016.

We had three reasons for our visit to New York. The first was an invitation from our friends in San Francisco, who decided to celebrate their double birthday in the Big Apple (a nickname for New York City, which was first popularized in 1920 by the sports writer, John J. Fitz Gerald). The second reason was another birthday. Our good friend who lives in a retirement home in New Jersey turned 100 in August (we couldn’t come then because of our daughter’s wedding). The third reason was a photographic event, where I had the opportunity to show my book “42 Encounters in San Francisco” to a group of ten photography experts, who liked it very much.

For many years, New York was our travel destination, as both of our daughters went to university there (Alona received her Master’s degree from Columbia and Tamar received her Bachelor’s degree from NYU). Through the years my feelings toward New York changed, and I am glad that our family is not one of over 8.5 million people who live here. There is no precise count, but some experts believe that New York is home for people who speak as many as 800 languages.

While I was wandering through the streets with my camera and encountering New Yorkers, I decided to put together yet another book — “42 Encounters in New York”, sometime in the future. After photographing our 100 years old young friend, I also started working on a collection of images of those who are at least 100 years old, including their life stories. Please let me know if you know any centenarians. Enjoy and Share on Facebook.

P.S. One of the readers of my first book made a comment that my images should be at the SF MOMA. If her wish comes true, it might take 10 years. At my 80th birthday, after my first twenty-one “42 Encounters” books will be published, they might honor me with a retrospective. Meanwhile, as you can see from my four images of New York, it can be very bright there at night. You can start your own collection by buying “42 Encounters in San Francisco” at Amazon.com.

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Manny<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> Signature