Friday 22 October 2021

Friday Photo #14


For my 60th birthday in April 2020, I was scheduled to make a long overdue return visit to New York City, the flight a present from my cousin who lives in Lower Manhattan. The trip, the celebration and the family reunion didn't happen of course, instead I spent my big day filling shelves at work. It turned out to be a pretty good day in the end though. A bunch of work colleagues bought me a cake plus several bottles of beer, so I went home quite happy. With travel restrictions still in place, earlier this year my 61st birthday came and went and the credit note for the flight is still sitting in a folder on my laptop. I've tentatively started to make plans for April 2022, we'll see how things pan out. 

Of more urgent concern however, is the fact that my cousin has been unable to visit her mum in London for nearly two years. Although she has an American husband, three duel nationality kids and has lived and worked in New York for nearly 40 years, my cousin has never taken American citizenship, so international travel at any stage of the lockdown was out of the question. Travel rules finally ease on November 1st and the following weekend she's flying into London for a very brief visit with her mum. I'm hoping to get down there to be a part of the family catch-up as well, even it's for only 24 hours.

One morning, during one of our trips to visit my cousin in the mid-noughties, Mrs S & I set out on a roughly 5 mile walk from the apartment in Tribeca, across the Brooklyn Bridge, through Brooklyn Heights, Cobble Hill and Carroll Gardens until we eventually reached Red Hook - in those days fairly inaccessible by public transport. We picked up a couple of pieces of Key Lime Pie, from Steve's, a place that had been highly recommended, before wandering into the nearby Louis Valentino Jr Park, which offers impressive views across the bay to Liberty Island and Jersey beyond. I had a fairly basic point and press camera at the time and fired off a couple of shots, one of which is at the top of this post (click on it to enlarge). In spite of the distant grainy quality, it's a photo I've always been pleased with - the anonymous ferry on the way into Manhattan, the Staten Island Ferry on the way out and Liberty between them. 

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Today's tune comes from 1972. While most of the kids at school were grooving to the Chinnichap glam of 'Wig Wam Bam' by The Sweet, me and my mates (and, no doubt, a certain Master John Medd) flipped over the 45 to dig into the heavy, self-written b-side 'New York Connection', featuring a rare example of a solo Brian Connolly vocal, devoid of the usual harmonies from Mick Tucker, Steve Priest & Andy Scott.

The Sweet - New York Connection

6 comments:

Brian said...

So happy to hear your cuz is going to make it over for a brief reunion. Should be quite emotional. Completely agree that photo is something special. Something about the hustle and bustle of ferries and the port cranes to remind that NYC never sleeps. Used to go there all the time, but it has been 17 years. Oh my.

C said...

Blimey, I don't recall ever having heard that before - it's so good (and such a refreshing contrast to Wig Wam Bam!)
Love the atmospheric photo too, and hope all goes well with your cousin's visit and you have a great and well-deserved reunion at last.

Rol said...

Another great photo, and you continue my Sweet conversion.

Hope the reunion goes as planned.

Alyson said...

Great picture - Hope your plans fall into place for April '22.

Strangely enough I shared Wig Wam Bam last week (there was a theme going on) but didn't think to investigate the B side. Very different and probably what they themselves would rather have had on the A side. Then again, had that happened we might never have heard of them at all, and this post wouldn't have come about. Who knows?

The Swede said...

Thanks all for your kind words.

John, we're slowly converting them!

John Medd said...

It was only a matter of time...

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