47th Street and Broadway

Rum drinks, Theater District. (That’s a Tortuga—rum, ginger, cinnamon, lemon—in the foreground, at the Rum House, in the somewhat depressing but Deco-bedecked Hotel Edison.)

City Hall Park

Cut off as I am, it is inevitable that I should sometimes feel like a shadow walking in a shadowy world. When this happens I ask to be taken to New York City. Always I return home weary but I have the comforting certainty that mankind is real and I myself am not a dream.

            —Helen Keller

Madison Avenue and 36th Street

“I think again that one of the reasons you have lodged yourself so firmly in the diary is because you fear to test your tangible self with the world.” That’s a passage that never made it into print, from the typescript of Anais Nin’s first published diary, part of the current exhibit at the Morgan Library.

Spring Street and Crosby Street

Winter woodland scene, obscuring the skylight, at the back of Kate’s Paperie, where down below, there’s a winter wonderland of metallic iPad cases and phone covers and portfolios.

64th Street and Columbus Avenue

The allure of a good chandelier. (This one is in the lobby of the Metropolitan Opera House.)

Mercer Street and Houston Street

French clothing chain Zadig & Voltaire is now in New York. (Well, they’ve been here for a while, it seems, but I just noticed them.) They have an interesting philosophy. And a lovely sheer cashmere sweater with shell buttons in the shape of skulls.

16th Street and Ninth Avenue

Traveling in certain circles, back and forth along the side streets, sometimes oblivious, not expecting to see this new construction and a façade covered in hugs and kisses.

Crosby Street and Prince Street

A glimpse of big lips, then spring blouses in honeysuckle pink in storefronts: romance around the corner.

16th Street and Seventh Avenue

Want to see how Jorge Colombo sketches fire escapes on his iPhone?

Broadway and 12th Street

Happy Valentine’s Day! Here are a few things to do if you’re still contemplating.

Broome Street and West Broadway

Like sneaking a chocolate before dinner: taking a picture in a boutique that probably didn’t want me to do it. (But the chocolates at MarieBelle are lovely: something to consider.)

Murray Street and West Broadway

Spiderman (something) in the trash. Spiderman bashing all around.

Crosby Street and Broome Street

The sky is a blank. Write whatever you want on it.

Broome Street and West Broadway

Soy sauce for the morning “is good also for other uses,” says the sign at Sunrise Mart. (I was looking for this fancy one, hoping I could get it cheaper than at Dean and DeLuca around the corner, but that didn’t happen.)

Eighth Avenue and 14th Street

A glimpse of Tower Bridge inside the subway station. The thought of a holiday on a winter morning. (Maybe not London.)

Union Square

A flash of orange among the turnip and onion colors at the winter greenmarket. I look inside a woman’s shopping bag when she walks past me and see brown bread and M&Ms.

Prince Street and Mercer Street

Artwork (incorporating coffee pods) in the window of the new Nespresso boutique and café, which seems to be a swank little place—packed, of course, when I was there, so I didn't stay. (Nice shots of it here, if you want to take a look.) And there's more about the window display and artist here, at the blog of the Textile Arts Center.

Murray Street and North End Avenue

Overheard on the street: Does anyone have a razor blade?

Mulberry Street and Spring Street

Imagine Central Park reduced to the space of an art gallery: people sprawling on the (fake) grass, dogs walking, children screaming. I was lured into the pop-up park in Nolita by the idea of food trucks and indoor warmth and murals of greenery, but I was disappointed (there was only one food truck, and the space was too claustrophobic for me). But I did get to sample an Irish coffee cupcake (very nice) from Robicelli’s, so that was something.