Before and After New York

Isha
Cebu, Philippines
risk taker
The cool Hudson River breeze blew softly, flicking a few strands of her hair in the wind.  Isha lifted her hand, tucking the strands of long, black hair behind her ear, her gaze shifting to the silver waves lapping upon the hull of the yacht we were riding on in this beautiful summer day in New York.

Suddenly, the yacht made an unannounced stop right in front of the omnipotent monument that is the Statue of Liberty.  Isha excitedly perked up, her body swiveling to the side as she retrieved her point and shoot digital camera and snapped a couple of pictures of the colossal statue, the pinkish-orange sky hovered around it.  She took a quick glance at the screen of her camera and with a huge grin, she showed me the pictures she had just taken.  I smiled back, impressed at the composition of the photographs.

Isha reiterated once again that I should have given her a better heads up about this yacht cruise so that she could have at least taken her digital SLR camera gear with her, instead of this pocket-sized camera she toted around with.  I apologized for the third time, explaining that I really wanted to surprise her with this treat.  I wanted to make it extra special because my dear friend of 10 years would be returning back to our hometown of Cebu, Philippines after a 5-year stint in New York so that she could finally pursue her lifelong dream – a career in photography.

Isha moved to New York in 2003 for her graduate studies in Business and Arts at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT).  Prior to that, she had a fledgling start as a photographer in Cebu, but once she was finished with college, her parents encouraged her to append her studies and it was decided upon that the best training ground for her would be at the FIT which happened to be located at the “capital of the globe” — meaning, New York.

There is that undeniable fact known to the world that New York is the land of milk and honey where exoduses of artists happen daily, these wandering souls making their giant leaps into this dazzling city of promise in pursuit of their respective dreams.  Isha was no different from the rest of these dreamers, striving to succeed in grad school and carving a name for herself with her photography as soon as she would set foot in this arts and culture hub.

Indeed, Isha accomplished much at FIT, and in the last few years, she managed to land a couple of lucrative job opportunities in the fashion industry.  Her photography slowly started picking up, too, especially with wedding photo gigs that came her way.  All in all, Isha was slowly living well into the way of her dream.

But as life happened, Isha begun to realize that New York was not the oasis she had thought it would be.  The city had presented her with so many golden opportunities, but somehow, there was still something amiss.  At first, when the answer started revealing itself to her, she was a bit reluctant to realize it, but soon enough, she understood that she could not deny it any longer.  No matter how great and significant her experiences were in New York, Isha discovered that the only place where she wanted to fully focus on her photography and art was nowhere else but home — in Cebu…

Five minutes after our yacht made that sudden halt in front of the Statue of Liberty, the motor of the vessel started guzzling again.  Heading west, the yacht drove further and further away from the Statue and into the dimming evening where not too far away, the skyline of New York’s skyscrapers lit up, an entire island twinkling with a million tiny lights from every window.  Isha gazed at the sight, a sigh escaping out of her lips.  She clasped my hand and thanked me for the very wonderful gift of this moment to experience and view New York from the best angle possible, one last time before she would make her astounding move back to the Far East.

I clasped her hands over mine, assuring her that she’ll always have New York.  Isha nodded with a grin as she glanced at me, the reflection of the glorious and shining New York skyline bouncing off on her sunglasses.  Before our yacht returned to dock at the pier by South Street Seaport, I asked my dearest friend what was the greatest thing New York had done for her.

She kept still for a moment.  Then, with the smile returning to her face, she replied,  “I guess you can say I found myself in New York, if that’s as cliche as it gets.  Because of your independence, you learn more about yourself.  You learn your priorities in life and you learn to be stronger and most of all, you learn that life is so short just like what they say, ‘It’s a New York minute.’  As crazy as this concrete jungle is and millions of people passing by you every single minute, somehow in that middle of all of that, you figure out who you are, what you want to be, where you want to go, who you want to be with…and then you just go for it.”

As soon as we descended the yacht as it made its docking into the pier, Isha snapped a photograph of me, but not before she remarked one more time that I should have really told her about this in advance because it would have made the perfect landscape photo shoot.  I laughed and promised her that upon her return to this beautiful city, another yacht cruise adventure would await her.

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A note from *the storyteller:

Isha has now returned to the Philippines where she will soon wed the love of her life while fulfilling her dream of becoming a renowned photographer.  You can check out her amazing and picture perfect collection here: Patricia Mancao wedding photography

Build-a-boat

Dan
New Jersey
master craftsman

Not too long ago, I had completed writing this screenplay about one of the greatest conquistadors in the annals of history, a story that had always captivated my imagination and sheer interest for the last 13 years.  When I was doing my full research on the subject, one facet of the topic that thoroughly enthused me was the amount of information and detail that encompassed about the galleons used by the expedition, those gargantuan, three-masted sailing ships used in the 16th century by the Spanish armada.

For Dan, creating the miniature versions of these galleons and massive vessels is just equally daunting and detail oriented.  I came across Dan at the South Street Seaport where a perfectly-crafted model of the Sovereign of the Seas, the British Navy flagship during the mid 1600s was displayed at his table.  Catching sight of the precious ship model instantly roused my attention, as I had longed to see a physical representation of these colossal warships after reading so much about them.  Thankfully, Dan was the kind of captain who had all the information for his fleet of model ships.

Like most renowned navigators who undertook their monumental voyages in the centuries past, Dan discovered the wonders of model ship building, literally, by accident.  He had torn off a joint in one of his knees, which prohibited him to enjoy his favorite hobbies of racquetball and high-end furniture building for a long time.  A friend bestowed the then trial attorney a wooden ship model kit to while away the time and to keep Dan doing what he enjoyed — and that was creating things with his hands.

After finishing the wooden ship that his friend gave him, Dan realized that he loved the process of model shipbuilding, most especially with the historical research that entailed with it.  Soon enough, he ventured into hobby shops to collect more model kits, as well as acquired magazines and books on the subject, and then joined a club of model shipbuilders.  Twenty years and a flotilla of impressive naval models after, the passionate hobby turned into a beloved livelihood for this skilled artisan.

In 2004, Dan retired from the active practice of law to devote his attention and energy to model shipbuilding, which allows him to not just build wooden ship models, but more importantly, to conserve history and restore the interest for these ships and stories, especially among the young ones.  Aside from being a full-fledged builder, Dan also shares a lot of his time and knowledge with the South Street Seaport Museum, Christie’s Auction House, and his most exciting project at present is spearheading a restoration of some portions of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s model ship collection.

He also gets commissions from private collectors who rely on Dan’s technical and theoretical expertise to restore their antique bone and ivory models that date to as old as 200 years, some of them handcrafted by prisoners back in the day.  Over the years, Dan also built something of an equally colossal nature that didn’t really involve any masts or rigs but is something just as dear to him — his private research library with an extensive collection of over 400 books and periodicals on anything and everything that talks about ship building and historical voyages.

Pointing to the tight-knots on the lateen rigs of the Sovereign of the Seas encased in glass on his table, Dan explains with a smile glinting on his eyes, “Shipmodeling itself is the highest and most difficult aspect of the craft of modeling because the ships themselves are so complex.  If you think about it, the large war ship was at the cutting edge of technology of every culture that it’s ever been in until the jet airplane came along.  They’re so complicated, they’re so interesting, that building miniatures of it, for me, is as interesting and enjoyable.”

I nodded at this, amused, and for a moment, an image flashed in my mind of the great Ferdinand Magellan walking towards the forecastle deck of the Trinidad and looking out into the calmness of the uncharted horizon, still waiting to be discovered, an ocean’s reach away.

Just Whistle While You Work

Flor
Caracas, Venezuela
reveler

It’s a given that New York City moves at breakneck speeds, hence the term, “New York minute.” People are always rushing: commuters dash madly to slip past through the closing doors of the subway, pedestrians sprint wildly to make it to the next side of the street even when the walk sign is flashing red, and bike messengers zap through the narrowest gaps between taxi cabs and delivery trucks. For a city that’s known to never really sleep, New York functions at its own maddening pace unparalleled in any other city in the world.

Yet, amidst this crazy hustle and bustle, there is a certain New Yorker who stays calm and collected in the face of New York minutes. Her placidity with the way she works, even in the most extreme of weather conditions, has made Flor the local newspaper vendor favorite of hasty New Yorkers speeding through Madison Square Garden. They adore her so much, they actually take a few seconds’ pause out of their automatic routine to pick up their daily paper, smile and say a word of ‘hello’ or two.

So what’s Flor’s secret to garnering the admiration and love of these snappy denizens? There’s a lot, actually, but her biggest advantage would have to be the catchy theme song she composed, her trademark jingle that’s known to have made an entire block of passersby surrounding her newspaper stand sing along to the jolly tune with her several times already.

Flor has been a mainstay on the corner of Seventh Avenue and 32nd Street for the last 7 years, a familiar sight and sound to commuters rushing to Penn Station inside the massive Madison Square Garden. She arrives at her newspaper stand approximately a few minutes before 1 pm each day and stands there until she closes shop eight hours later. Her equally energetic daughter, Carolina arrives a couple of hours after, to help her mom hand out the papers especially during the late afternoon rush hour.

As soon as Flor croons to her trademark jingle of New York Post and the New York Times…Daily News! her loyal customers flock to her stand and pick up a copy of the day’s periodicals, with Flor calling each one of them by the moniker she has devised for them. Her personal favorites are “Sexy Legs” (for a very svelte lady business executive who is among Flor’s biggest fans), “Beautiful Eyes”, “Sexy #1,” “Sexy #2,” and the best one of all, “Mr. Papi Chulo.” For non-regular customers and the general clients, Flor addresses them “Mister” and “Miss,” but not without a smile on her lips and a twinkle in her eyes, of course.

To reciprocate her pleasing disposition in handing them their daily serving of news, Flor’s customers have taken to calling her all sorts of terms of endearment – “Sweetie,” “Mami,” “Miss Lady,” and the most appropriate one of all – “The Singing Newspaper Lady.” Carolina explains that at their house, there is a large shelf that holds all of the gifts, cards, and souvenirs Flor has received from her beloved customers all over the years which she treasures dearly.

On this sweltering Friday afternoon, Flor is radiant with a huge grin on her face as she turns to her daughter and remarks something fervently. Carolina nods her head, a smile also spreading on her lips. She then translates her mother’s words, “I love this place and this location so much that I feel only GOD would take me away from this spot. I love my customers so much and I enjoy my job a lot that I do my best to do it with much originality and kindness and love that come from my heart. I want if ever I am to die my ashes should be spread around this area. You see, if you just learn to appreciate and enjoy what you do, and it could be something really simple or something really big, you will never call it ‘work.’ “

A short while after, a family of four arrives with a little boy and a little girl rushing up to Flor and wrapping her up with their tiny arms in a tight embrace. The late afternoon rush hour is coming to an end, yet hundreds of straphangers still zip by, with a few of them stopping by Flor’s stand to pick up their paper. One of them flashes her a wide smile as she hands the gentleman his change in less than two seconds. Inside Flor’s apron are rolled up singles by the bundle, already segregated into certain amounts for easy exchange.

Carolina points out that that is also one thing why customers appreciate her mom a lot, with the way Flor has maintained an efficient system of newspaper handing and change giving that affords them the least amount of downtime in their hurried pace.

Adds the mother of the two children, both of whom Flor has seen grow up from their tender days as babies to their hyper ages of 5 and 3 respectively now, that the reason Flor is such a big part of these commuters’ daily lives, not just as their newspaper vendor but as their dear friend is that she never changed ever since she started doing this. She always wears the same smile every single day, and no matter the weather, no matter how awful her day has been, she always her cheery song to make even the most impatient New Yorker’s minute, a pleasing, albeit short one.

———-
a note from *the storyteller:

To hear Flor’s jingle, check this video out. Or better yet, go stop by and tell her “Hi” over at her stand right outside MSG on Seventh Avenue, closer to the corner of 32nd Street.