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Is there anything more precious in New York than space? Say you are standing on an avenue–Amsterdam or Columbus. A clutch of vehicles pass by and then there is nothing. You look down the avenue and there is space. For a New Yorker, this is a small luxury because the space is perishable. In another moment, the next procession of cars and trucks come along. But for a moment, the sense of space is beautiful.

Which is why Labor Day Weekend is my favorite holiday of the year in New York. You’ve got space. It is quiet. And soon, that will gone, replaced by returning vacationers, kids ready to go to school, people back to work.

Today is the most acute because now we’re down to a matter of hours before the city music begins again. But this morning, even into the late afternoon, it’s still and calm here in New York. Summer. Corn and tomatoes and long days. Drink it in. Watch some baseball. Listen to some tunes. Or just walk around, feel the space, and enjoy the silence.

Yanks are off today but there are other games on TV all afternoon.

Happy living, y’all.

[Photo Credit: Danielle Hughson]

A plump 3-0 lead, Bradon McCarthy pitching well, 2 outs in the 6th inning. Sunday looking like a good day for the Yanks. Then Melky Cabrera hits a bomb, and Jose Bautista hits a shot (he’s homered in his last five games). Edwin Encarnacion joined the party with a solo blast of his own in the 7th, and a base hit off the otherwise stellar Dellin Betances resulted into a close play at the plate and when the smoke cleared the Jays went ahead, where they’d stay to beat the Yanks, 4-3.

Yanks got the tying run on second with one out in the 9th, and then had him 90 feet away with two out for Derek Jeter. But the captain didn’t have a headline in him, just another weak, harmless line out to second.

Couple of painful losses this weekend, Juice. Brutal.

[Picture by Hugo Pratt]

…In these Yankees? Do they have a ’95 September run in them? Remember when it was Mattingly’s last month of baseball. Mebbe they’s kin do something likewise for DJ.

The most effective Mr. McCarthy’s on the mound today:

Brett Gardner CF
Derek Jeter DH
Martin Prado 2B
Mark Teixeira 1B
Carlos Beltran RF
Chase Headley 3B
Francisco Cervelli C
Stephen Drew SS
Zelous Wheeler LF

Never mind the breaks:

[Picture by Bags]

Michael Pineda made one mistake, hung one breaking ball, and Jose Bautista hit it, good for a 2-run homer. The Yankees managed one hit. That’s how it’s been and that’s how it went yesterday as the Blue Jays won, 2-0.

Onward.

[Photo Via: The Minimalisto]

It’s the big fella, Pineda. Yo, we haven’t talked about it much but the one thing that stands out to me about Pineda is his swagger. He’s got great stuff, clearly, and some attitude to back it up. Yanks haven’t had a cocky dude like him as a starter for awhile.

The boys need him to be on today. Ellsbury’s out of the line-up.

Brett Gardner CF

Derek Jeter SS

Carlos Beltran DH

Mark Teixeira 1B

Brian McCann C

Martin Prado LF

Stephen Drew 2B

Chase Headley 3B

Ichiro Suzuki RF

Never mind nuthin’: Let’s Go Yank-ees!

[Picture by Bags]

Down 1-0 after 6, man, it looked like another one of those nights. But then the Yanks scored 5 runs, added another one late on a solo home run by Jacoby Ellsbury, as they beat the Jays 6-3.

Nice job by Chris Capuano who told reporters after the game, “I couldn’t be prouder to get a win as a Yankee. It feels really good.”

It ain’t over.

[Picture by Bags]

Yanks are on the edge of something exciting or something depressing.

They’ll play three this weekend in Toronto.

Jacoby Ellsbury CF
Derek Jeter SS
Martin Prado 3B
Mark Teixeira 1B
Brian McCann C
Carlos Beltran DH
Brett Gardner LF
Ichiro Suzuki RF
Stephen Drew 2B

Never mind the bollocks:

Let’s Go Yank-ees!

[Photo Credit: Morgan Maassen via This Isn’t Happiness]

For the next week at the Film Forum, a restored print of Bertolucci’s classic. 

Fun.

[Photo Credit: YES Tours]

Afternoon Delight.

Jacoby Ellsbury CF
Derek Jeter SS
Martin Prado 2B
Mark Teixeira 1B
Carlos Beltran DH
Brian McCann C
Chase Headley 3B
Brett Gardner LF
Zelous Wheeler RF

Never mind the sunshine:

Let’s Go Yank-ees!

[Photo Credit: Chris Heads]

Never even thought about it…

[Photo Credit: Matilde Viegas]

Picture by Logan Hagege.

But beautiful.

Picture by Hiroshi Sugitomo.

Last night I sat at one of the community tables at Red Farm on the Upper West Side. I had a view of Broadway between 76th and 77th Street, and looked at the west side of the block where Big Nick’s used to be. Thirty years ago my father started dating the woman who’d become my step mother; she lived a block away, so I’m familiar with the vicinity. Or was.

Around me, the restaurant was clean, bright and full. The service was efficient and helpful, the food expensive, the portions small, and the taste, delicious. The crowd was well-scrubbed–the Hamptons, Abercrombie and Fitch, nouveau riche set.  I was reminded of something a friend of mine told me last week. This friend is about 15 years older than me and he grew up on the Upper West Side in the 1960s and ’70s. He hasn’t lived there for years but recently went on a first date at a spot on Amsterdam Avenue. He sat with the woman at an outdoor cafe and she remarked how lovely it was. Knowing what it had once been, disgusted at what it’s become, he told her it was like sitting in the front row of a farting contest.

They didn’t have a second date. At Red Farm, the crowd, prices, and portions might be enough to keep a sensible person away. But the food was damn tasty so I think I’ll go again.

[Photo Credit: The Daily Muse]

The Yanks made like the Gashouse Gorillas and put a beatin’ on David Price and the Tigers.

That’s baseball, Suzyn…

[Photo Credit: Credit Paul Sancya/Associated Press]

David Price is all that stands in the way of the start of a new winning streak. Oh, and a bunch of OK hitters too. And Verlander tomorrow.

Never mind the funny stuff:

Let’s Go Yank-ees!

[Picture by Bags]

“Portrait of Lunia Czechowska” By Amedeo Modigliani (1919)

Here’s a treat from Longform, an excerpt from Studs Turkel’s 1974 book, Working:

You get up at six, you fix breakfast for the kids, you get them ready to go on to school. Leave home about eight. Most of the time I make biscuits for my kids, cornbread you gotta make. I don’t mean the canned kind. This I don’t call cookin’, when you go in that refrigerator and get some beans and drop ‘em in a pot. And TV dinners, they go stick ‘em in the stove and she say she cooked. This is not cookin’.

When I work, only thing I be worryin’ about is my kids. I just don’t like to leave ‘em too long. Wlien they get out of school, you wonder if they out on the street. The only thing I worry is if they had a place to play in easy. I always call two, three times. When she don’t like you to call, I’m in a hurry to get out of there. (Laughs.) My mind is gettin’ home, what are you gonna find to cook before the stores close.

They want you to get in a uniform. You take me and my mother, she work in what she wear. She tells you, “If that place so dirty where I can’t wear my dress, I won’t do the job.” You can’t go to work dressed like they do, ‘cause they think you’re not working—like you should get dirty, at least. They don’t say what kind of uniform, just say uniform. This is in case anybody come in, the black be workin’. They don’t want you walkin’ around dressed up, lookin’ like them. They asks you sometimes, “Don’t you have somethin’ else to put on?” I say, “No, ‘cause I’m not gettin’ on my knees.”

I had them put money down and pretend they can’t find it and have me look for it. I worked for one, she had dropped ten dollars on the floor, and I was sweepin’ and I’m glad I seen it, because if I had put that sweeper on it, she coulda said I got it. I had to push the couch back and the ten dollars was there. Oh, I had ‘em, when you go to dust, they put something . . . to test you.

You know what I wanted to do all my life? I wanted to play piano. And I’d want to write songs and things, that’s what I really wanted to do. If I could just get myself enough to buy a piano … And I’d like to write about my life, if I could sit long enough.”

[Photo Credit: Brandon Stanton/Humans of New York]

Serious business in Detroit for the Yanks this week: Porcello, Price, and Verlander.

One moment at a time.

Jacoby Ellsbury CF
Derek Jeter DH
Brian McCann C
Mark Teixeira 1B
Carlos Beltran RF
Martin Prado 2B
Stephen Drew SS
Chase Headley 3B
Ichiro Suzuki LF

Never mind the growling:

Let’s Go Yank-ees!

[Photo Credit: Andrew Sacks/New York Times]

Food 52 offers 5 links to read before eating tomatoes.