2008 Woodie Awards
City sights and gems
Dovilas Bukauskas
Issue date: 10/6/08 Section: Features
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Although its counter-cultural heyday is behind it, St. Mark's Place is still a one-of-a-kind experience. The adventurous tourist can browse Trash and Vaudeville's diverse stock, get an ill-advised tattoo or sample Japanese cuisine - all within one city block.
Jonas, a 19-year-old found loitering on St. Mark's, said he loves "the wackiness of the place. There's always something happening around here and something to see. There's a lot of history here."
St. Mark's is located only a few blocks from the infamous Tompkins Square Park, the site of the famous riot between the NYPD and squatters.
Although it has certainly earned its reputation, Broadway is not the only place to go for quality theatre. The Brooklyn Academy of Music and the various Bowery poetry clubs are just a few of the places a tourist can go for good off-Broadway theatre.
New York has an excellent reputation as a city of visual art as well. The Guggenheim, Brooklyn Museum of Art, P.S.1 and other galleries all over New York regularly host world-famous artists.
Socrates Sculpture Park and Noguchi Museum both feature beautiful outdoor displays. Recently, the Socrates Sculpture Park featured works being put up by young summer fellowship artists. The beautiful public park is home to the epic, the bizarre and the beautiful and it hosts various interesting events all year round.
Just a few of their events include concerts, theater presentations, festivals and a duet dance between a man and a five-ton construction machine. P.S.1, besides being a gallery to various international modern artists, features a striking and multi-sensory interactive outdoor display at its entrance. The display includes a replica of the night sky, a massive periscope, a chicken coop and videos displayed inside of small reflective tubes.
If music is what soothes one's soul, New York has one of the widest selections of musical communities and venues that any city can offer. From the Philharmonic to the Fillmore, New York music caters to every palate. There are countless venues across the city and each tends to cater to their own niche of music.
Those whose wallets cannot handle Madison Square Garden or Radio City Music Hall can go to any one of thousands of New York restaurants, which feature nightly live music to attract sidewalk customers.
Considering that it's the city that never sleeps, New York fosters some of the best nightlife. If you're into clubbing, New York has excellent famous and not-so-famous clubs like Pacha, Alphabet Lounge and Jay Z's 40/40 club. Pacha is currently running an advertisement campaign featuring their famous New Year's party, touting the fact that they are "just blocks from the Times Square ball drop." A great deal of New York's smaller venues double as restaurants and bars in order to accommodate a more diverse crowd.
No matter what you love to do or how you love to do it, New York has plenty of things to do for both tourists and regulars of the city. One just simply has to look beyond the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building.
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