Netherland : Joseph O'Neill

Netherland : Joseph O'Neill

The ultimate post 9/11 cricketing novel ... or at least something like that.

Linda wasn't able to make her book club last night, so I bashed through this book in about three hours in the afternoon while barbequing lemony chicken for the bring-a-dish, end-of-term dinner.

It was no burden. I'd intended to read this book anyway. I'm no book reviewer, but it was eminently readable and absorbing, combining the unlikely topics of cricket, New York and alienation.

And for me - although I'm probably wrong - it really is about isolation/alienation, characterised through its contemplation on cricket, a game which only exists as a virtual myth here, yet ranks amongst another of the great sports of the world ignored in the US. The title reinforces my impression and it seems to me that that is where the largely immigrant characters exist in a kind of cultural diaspora centred on this strange and arcane game.

But there is a sort of paradox here ... before the development of baseball, cricket was big here. Every sizable town in the east had a cricket club. In fact, the world's first international fixture in any sport was between the USA and Canada over 150 years ago. Yes ... really.

I guess I've taken refuge in a similar way too. Badminton and cycling are sports with a huge culture outside the US of which the participants are acutely and sympathetically aware.

Anyway, there is plenty of food for thought in this very good book. The author, Joe O'Neill, is a very nice man and apart from me, was the only person in the room who had ever played cricket or heard of the Duckworth-Lewis Method , Pieterson's switch hitting controversy, and Rachael Heyhoe-Flint.

Bike 02 : 5 Boro Bike Tour : 04.05.2008

I did it.

Of course, so did thousands of others, from kiddies on fairy-cycles to guys on unicycles.

The morning started grey and threatening. I emerged from MiL's brownstone on Upper West Side and wondered if I really had to do it. It was cold, it was mizzling, had I put enough miles in? Was that puncture stuff really any good?

Well, I was committed now, so I pumped up the tyres hard and headed for the 1 & 9 subway station at 86th. New York really is the city that never sleeps - or was that Chicago? Anyway, the trains were packed. No chance of getting a bike on one.

I emerged onto Broadway and spotted a few cyclists in event bibs and started to follow them down towards Battery Park. It was actually very easy that time in the morning. New York's finest waved cyclists through red lights and there was very little traffic so I ended up nice and warm, yet still behind thousands of other cyclists at the start line on Church Street ... or rather about half a mile from the start line ... with thousands more lined up behind me.

The event pushed off at about 8.20, so it meant we had spent at least an hour standing around in the cold and damp. It wasn't even possible to see the top of the taller buildings in the fog, so as I clicked my feet into the pedals my hands and feet were freezing.

It takes a mass of 30,000 cyclists a few false starts to get going, but after a few minutes we were heading up The Avenue of the Americas at walking pace, which meant there were a lot of wobbles and a few crashes, but nothing too serious.

Unfortunately, by the time I was starting to get some warmth back into my feet and hands, we were pulled up just short of Central Park, so that cross-town traffic could pass. It took about forty minutes to go the last two blocks into the park, so once again, cold feet, cold hands ...

Many of the joggers in Central Park were clearly not aware there was a bike event going on. Some seemed intent on jogging against the flow no matter how hazardous ... oh well.

There was a brief excursion into The Bronx via Harlem, then a twenty minute wait to get on the Queensborough Bridge into Queens because of riders having to push up the ramp onto the bridge. Naturally pushers spread themselves all over the road, so everyone had to get off and join in.

We then did a circuit up to the first rest station at Astoria Park, just under half way around the course. I had possibly the finest bananas in the world in that park, possibly because they were the best bananas in the world, or maybe 20 miles of bike riding had sharpened my appetite for bananas. However, they were really good.

Then it was south, back down through Queens and into Brooklyn, often through areas which were charming, although terribly run down, but full of potential if people used their imaginations.

From Brooklyn we went up the ramp onto the Brooklyn Expressway, a motorway type road which was closed for the day, for the leg down to the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. There were a couple of bad tumbles here, probably because riders were getting tired. This caused a wait of about 20 minutes before we could get going again.

Everybody has probably driven or ridden in a car over a big bridge and not realised that from a bicycle point of view it's like a climb over an Alpine col. And the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge is a BIG bridge; the biggest in the world at the time it was built. So it was a 228ft climb from sea level to the centre of the span. Once again there was a lot of pushing, but I managed to thread my way through and then enjoy the drop into Wadsworth Fort National Park for the Expo and a well-deserved drink and a sandwich.

While I was waiting for Linda to pick me up, I pedaled down to the Staten Island Ferry. I had considered going across just to truly close the loop, but there was a 40 minute wait at that point so I rode back up to Fort Wadsworth and waited for my lift home.

All in all it was a great day, a real chance to enjoy New York and some of its not so well known corners on motor traffic free streets.

How some of the riders got around on their big old wrecks of clunkers I'll never know. And the number of children who managed on their toy bikes was amazing. There were a few sights; a really small guy with the most perfect, serious, miniature Italian racing bike I've ever seen; a family on a 2.5 triplet towing a kiddy half-bike, towing an infant's trailer; guys on big-wheel unicycles.

A great day - I really enjoyed it.

My number : 38495
Read the tour guide here.
5 Boro Bike Tour.

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* see my Bike Index here

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Spring iz sprung; the grass iz riz ...

... I wonder where the cyclists iz?

I've gone and done it now ... 42 miles around New York's Five Boroughs; Manhattan, The Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn and Staten Island.

The Five Boro Bike Tour is the USA's largest bike event. 30,000 riders converge on NYC for the chance to ride on closed roads and visit each of the boroughs which constitute the city.

The die is cast. I've paid my entry fee so I'm committed. I'd better start riding soon.

I've got a practice run to aim for; The 2008 Tour de Franklin. Hopefully I'll make it ... I'd better get a move on ...

Tour de Franklin : Sunday, April 27, 2008
Five Boro Bike Tour : Sunday, May 4, 2008

Adele : Joe's Pub NYC, part II

For those of us who missed out on tickets to see Adele at Joe's Pub, a reprieve ...

There was a hint and also a gap in the Joe's Pub schedule the day before Adele's March 18 show, and it so happened that when I checked out what was going on this morning Joe's had announced an additional show on the 17th.

Click here fast if you want tickets.

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*See my hifi / media index here.

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Adele : Joe's Pub NYC

Okay ... so maybe it's hype, but I don't know ...

I first heard of Adele only a few weeks ago. The Guardian deconstructed her "Chasing Pavements" video, which admittedly is rather strange. But what came through for me was this really rather extraordinary performance from a woman who is barely nineteen. Jeez!!! Her mum's young enough to be my daughter fer'g'ness sake!!!

Well, I daily, diligently trolled, via the web, the most likely place Adele might play in NYC, or at least near to here, but to no avail ... Checked Joe's Pub this evening ... Adele to play 18 March, 2008. Check box-office ... SOLD OUT!!!! Pah!!!!!!!

How annoying ... oh well ...

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Update : 23.02.2008 >>>

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*See my hifi / media index here.

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