New York 2007 {for all interested parties} These are a selection of my photos taken while in New York with my friend Brian McGettrick. Many thanks to his wife Grainne for stamping his passport... We went to see Tommy Trantino & Tony O'Neill. There are quite a few of these pics so you need to be patient if your not on Broadband. Tony has quite a few pics of the Book Reading event - when I get them I'll put them up too - they are the main event, so more to come!
WHAT OCCURRED? Travelling from Belfast at 4am we fell into a Delta plane 5 hours later in Dublin. The intercom told us a meal would be served a half hour before we landed. My stomach told me it was coming up to have words with the intercom, 'cause nobody had fed it since the night before. Miss Delta 2007 managed to walk past our seats while giving out water and packets of peanuts. My travelling companion, Mr "3 Valium" McGettrick, was at the drooling stage of his anti-fear-of-flying treatment. We got the peanuts. Negotiated our way to the Pennsylvania (6500) Hotel. And started to suck in the initial mayhem that is New York. STOUT. The bar beside us and once the bags had been ejected into the hotel room - our first port of call. We were preparing ourselves for the following event so we made our way down to Greenwich Village. Now here's the thing. New York is BIG. The Village is BIG. We were 2 hours early. I had only seen Tommy's face on a YouTube video the night before. J.C. on a bicycle. Tommy said let's eat and motioned us into an eatery right out of 'The Godfather'. The red and white checker table tops in the back room pouring out character and age. That's Tommy. You feel like he IS your Godfather within seconds of meeting him. Warm with enthusiasm the size of the City. We felt right at home - as did the two beautiful waitresses who I think would have run away to Outer Mongolia to marry him had he asked. We're eating and talking and gesturing and listening and laughing and blinking wide eyed at this man. After 39 years in prison he has alot to say. We're drinking things of his past, present and future. He's going to miss his parole tonight. They have this man ringing his parole officer at 9pm from his place in New Jersey every night. New York, beyond and those that would listen, are missing the most captivating and hypnotic characters I think I've ever met. There's a longer and more intersesting story here - Tommy Trantino, the man - but that's for not for this web page... Now. We walk around Tommy's old district and onto the bookshop. Entering it, we talk more and he signs a library worth of books for us - including 'remark', whom he appears with Tony O'Neill among others. Tony arrives with his wife Vanessa. It's a double whammy. This couple are glowing and open and very cool. They fart ice-cubes cool - and we slip effortlessly into the evening. After the store introduces them both {and informs us that Tommy has asked that the proceeds from the books he brought in will go to my Press!}, Tony reads excerpts from "Digging the Vein" (his first novel). Then selected poems including ones from his latest books and "Songs from the Shooting Gallery". These are not for the faint hearted and we are rapted. Though his words have voice and volume in his books - hearing him use his own pause and stress brings an extra dimension to the work. His final pieces have everyone with a lump in their throats as the subject matter relates to the most important things in his life; Vanessa and his daughter Nico. There's another deep and captivating story here. Tony O'Neill. Maybe you should start with reading Tommy reads from "Lock The Lock". It is right in your face. There are moments of humour as we are transported with brutal and exacting imagery to a time when the young Tommy had an 'accident' in his trousers. {that's pants to the Americano's reading}. This guy is mesmorising again. Read him. After, we get a question & answer session and we discover that both these guys have so much to give that is as yet unwritten. I feel like I've walked into the twilight zone. I know this story will be handed down to my Grandchildren. {if I ever get round to reproducing}. There is a real tingling feel to everything happening around me. We have met people who are, and will in the future, make real marks on the world. Thank you Tommy and Tony.
After the event and we said our goodbyes to Tommy, the night burned-etched-stamped into my senses and memory, Tony, Vanessa, Brian and I went for drink. We had a blast. We drank. We had kebabs. Felt like we'd been boozing out together for years. Parting ways for the night I wondered what sort of day tomorrow needed to be to top Thursday 21st June 2007. FRIDAY. I'm going to go over this lightly 'cause no words are going to do this justice. Breakfast. New York Public Library. Go there - get the tour. Lunch (dogs and coke). Walk to the Rockerfella Center. Free Friday at the Museum of Modern Art. Emotional. My first one-to-one with a Jackson Pollock. I could have cried real tears. but that's just me. That night we ate big and drank big. I was busted. One tip for you though - get that powder stuff at the chemist that replaces all the salts and vitimans etc. Drink it before you go to bed and in the morning you won't be praying to Jesus, Allah, Buddah for the room to stop spinning. Anyway. Saturday and with leg muscles on fire we hit the Gugenheim and the MET. Dynamite. Especially lucking-out on their Jackson Pollock being all alone when we got there. Legs and body now totally shot to pieces we meet Vanessa, Nico and Tony in Union Square. I forgot to take photos of this square. It is unreal. Beautiful, busy. So starts the visits to all things related to the book. They have bookshops in New York. Tony and Brian were going for the literature and I was going for the Design Sections. Too much. Just too much to take in. I ended up getting two books in St. Marks bookshop. Goodbyes again. My body is now really feeling the last 3 days. I get back to the hotel and crash. Brian decides he needs a pastrami sandwich and decides to walk 4,000 blocks to get one. Over to STOUT and I realise I should have chased Sarah working behind the bar the length and breadth of New York from day one - as she really was a very hot article with a velvet Southern Irish accent. I ate my fair share of everything cooked and for sale on the way to the airport. We got home. Nobody got hurt. I will miss New York for a while until I get the chance to go back. And then only until I can workout how to emigrate there... I've left loads out I know. What a trip.
Thanks to Tony & Vanessa and Tommy...more to come... |