My apartment

With the arrival of the couch my apartment is finally finished. Here are some pictures so you can have an idea. My warmest thanks to Sean who helped me with the couch two days in a row.

Red Sox-Yankees

I went to the ballgame today. Red Sox-Yankees, the two richest teams in the league and with a rivalry only comparable to Barça-Madrid. Even though the Yankees won 5-0, they are five games behind the Sox in the stands, with the playoffs waiting ahead in October. Most likely the Sox are in, while the Yankees are fighting for dear life in the wild card. We have a very interesting last month of the season ahead of us.

Jamón and chorizo in the Lower East Side

There is a gourmet food store in Boston, Formaggio Kitchen (244 Huron Ave, Cambridge), where I used to get my jamón, chorizo and cheese when I lived there. In my trip two weeks ago, I bought enough to fill my pantry, but I found out that they have a branch in New York, Formaggio Essex. I went there today to check it out, and it's really worth it. If you are interested in buying quality Spanish sausages and cold cuts, go to the Essex Street Market (120 Essex St) and you'll find them.

By the look of the picture, you would think you are in any Castilian butchery, and not in the Lower East Side in Manhattan.

First day of class

Today was the first day of class in my College. It's always charming to see the students on their first day, with their new backpacks, looking for their classes :) A lost girl this morning had missed her way and asked me: "Excuse me, which way it is to campus? It's my first day." This picture is the view from my office window, where you can see the building across (Shepard Hall) and all students walking on campus. What a change from last week, where campus was totally deserted.

Charlie Parker Jazz Festival

As I promised a few days ago, we went to the Marcus Garvey Park to check out the Charlie Parker Jazz Festival. I know you can't see much in the picture, but hey, that's the best I can do with my phone camera.

We've seen a band play for a while (the first song they played was Autumn Leaves), but the most interesting thing was the crowd. There was a middle-aged couple with a green parrot. But I found this family very charming, with the kid sleeping on top of his father.

In New York there's also top manta

[top manta is the name that in Spain is used for the vendors of pirated movies and CDs on the street, on top of blankets (mantas)]

I... must... resist...

This morning I was wandering around and I entered one of those joints which will spell my doom: the Apple store on Fifth Avenue :) This is the ultimate Apple store, open 24 hours a day, it contains everything Apple and related stuff.

The store is underground actually, the only thing which is above street level is the transparent cube you see in the picture, but when you enter there is this huge basement bustling with people. Although most of them are tourists checking their e-mail.

Ant the star device is, of course, the iPhone. It's amazing. It's a combination of cell phone, Ipod and WiFi terminal. I have been debating with myself whether I should buy one as soon as it came out. There's two versions: 4GB and 8GB, which cost $499 and $599 respectively. If that were all I would have bought it already, but on top of it you have to sign for two years with AT&T, at the price of 59.99 a month (the cheapest plan), and all of this plus taxes, which are several of them in the AT&T bill. But that's not all, because since I am here only for six months, when I leave I would have to pay a penalty for early termination (like 175 dollars). So all together it would be well over a grand, and I think that's not worth it, no matter how cool. But oh, it's soooo cool... It's a technology marvel, phone, WiFi and ipod, great aesthetics, incredible. I am still resisting, but... it's... hard... very... hard... I... must... be... strong... and... resist...

The Delfonics at Jackie Robinson Park

Taking a walk in Harlem this evening with a friend, when we were walking next to Jackie Robinson Park on 145th Street, we heard live music, and it turned out there was a free concert sponsored by the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation. It was The Delfonics, a Philadelphia soul band, most famous in the 60s and 70s. Needless to say it was full of people dancing, and we stayed until the end. In the picture you can't see much, but you can imagine the singers, clad in their sequined jackets :)

The baseball player painted at the back of the stage is Jackie Robinson, the Dodgers number 42, and who was the first black player in the Big Leagues in 1948.

Exiting the concert, someone gave us a flyer of the Charlie Parker Jazz Festival, which will be held this weekend, here in Harlem on Saturday and in Lower Manhattan on Sunday. We'll go and see some free jazz.

Against fascism

In the hall of the building where my office is, the North Academic Center, there's a memorial wall for alumni of the City College who fought in different wars. Among the plaques, this one with the Guernica stood out to me, until I saw that it was dedicated to the alumni, students and teachers who died fighting against fascism in Spain.

Unfortunately, many of the Spanish people who fought alongside them are still buried in anonymous mass graves in forgotten Spanish roadsides. It's the worst shame in current Spain that there still are spiteful, stone-hearted Spanish people who deny these victims of fascism the memory and homage of their friends and family.

Rain

I'm back in New York, came back Sunday, and I have actually started to work, I took over my new office yesterday. It's been raining nonstop for two days though, don't feel like going out of the house at all...

Harvard and MIT

Harvard. What can we say about Harvard. Harvard is considered one of the best universities in the world, if not the absolute best. Founded in 1634, it has always sought the maximum level of excellence, both scientific and artistic. The strong points of Harvard are basic sciences and humanities.

When I was looking for jobs in American universities, it surprised me that there were never job offers from Harvard. I found out later that Harvard never advertises jobs, because Harvard goes after the professors it is interested in. You don't apply for a job at Harvard, it's Harvard who comes calling if you are worthy.

Harvard gives its name to the neighborhood surrounding it, which during the 1960s and 70s was the epicenter of protests and revolutions in the East of the US. You can still see some remains of that era, like the Communist bookstore, but part of its charisma has been lost with the appearance of banks and fast food joints. The bohemian life has moved a little bit up the road, to Davis Square.

Taking Massachusetts Avenue towards Boston, just before arriving to the river, one finds MIT. If Harvard is the mecca for scientists and humanists, MIT is for engineers. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology occupies several buildings on the river Charles, among them the characteristic dome. MIT is well known worldwide for its engineering programs, and its research in robotics, artificial intelligence, and many other subjects. Its math department is also one of the best in the world. It is in great part because of these two behemoths that the Boston area is considered one of the best in the world in academic life.

Related to these two universities, I have a small regret. In my career as a mathematician, I haven't been able to give a talk neither at Harvard or at MIT. I have given talks at Columbia, at Yale and at Cornell, but not at the two Bostonian meccas. I am gonna have to work harder...

Ziggy, Alicia and little Sergei

My friends Ziggy and Alicia have been nice enough to let me stay with them during my visit to Boston. They are a wonderful couple. Ziggy is a math professor at Tufts University, where we used to work together, and his wife Alicia is an English professor at Bentley College.

Alicia told me a great story yesterday. Ziggy and Alicia have a friend, with the name of Misha Brin, also a mathematician at the University of Maryland. There was this time, several years ago, that Ziggy and Alicia were visiting Misha, and Sergei, his 11-year-old son, was there. Alicia was surprised because little Sergei would spend all day talking about computers. Alicia, who doesn't know much about computers, asked him why he liked computers so much, and little Sergei, very seriously, answered: "because you can store all the world's information in them". This could be just an outrageously nerdy answer in an 11-year-old boy, but in this case it wasn't. The boy, at 11, wanted to store all the world's information in computers, and he appears to be doing exactly that. Because years later, together with a friend, little Sergei founded a small computer company you might have heard of. Its name is Google.

Micro Center

In Boston (actually it's in Cambridge, just at the other side of the river) you can find Micro Center, which is my favorite computer store in this part of the country. It's a combination of Alcampo [a Spanish large supermarket] with PCCity [a Spanish large computer store], that is, a really large supermarket, but only with computer products, not even consumer electronics (no TVs or stereos). Row after row of cables, adapters, discs, peripherals, software, and whatever you can imagine remotely connected to computers. Micro Center is close to my idea of paradise, but it is not complete paradise because of Fry's, a computer store chain in the San Francisco area which is the ultimate, really, it's unbelievable. I plan to go to California in December, I will go to Fry's then and I will let you know.

There's also a Micro Center in New York, but it's out in the suburbs, and you need a car or to take a train and then walk 20 minutes from the station. The Boston one is easily accessible by subway. This picture doesn't make it justice, but you can start to appreciate how big it is.

Boston

These days I am in Boston. I arrived Wednesday and I will be here until Sunday. Boston is my favorite city in the US, I lived here three years and I loved it, I would have stayed in a flash if my contract hadn't run out. I come back every chance I have, to walk on its Victorian-style streets or next to the Charles river.

Boston is the capital of Massachusetts, one of the most liberal states of the US. It's the only state where gay marriage is legal, and of course there's no death penalty (unlike New York). So to have an idea, in the Massachusetts House of Representatives there are 140 Democrats and only 19 Republicans. That's a majority if I ever saw one :)

Bocadillos?

Yesterday I saw these vending machines in the New York Port Authority Bus Terminal. Since it says "Vending, bocadillos" [in Spain, bocadillo means sandwich], I looked to see what they were vending, expecting to find some ham sandwiches or something. But besides the usual sodas, chips and candy bars, there were no sandwiches. I wonder why it says "bocadillos".

Todai

Todai (32nd between 5th and 6th Ave) is an incredible Japanese restaurant, all-you-can-eat, with lots of food. You go in and see an 80-feet-long bar, with more than 30 types of sushi, plus meat, soups, saladas, seafood, and of course, desserts. Included are oysters (with a limit of 3 per person). An incredible place. If you are in a city where there's one, try it, although it will be necessary for you to be in the US, Hong Kong, or Korea. Or, if you are an entrepreneur who wants to make a lot of money, open a franchise in Barcelona. You'll become rich.

Hunns Lake

My friends Sean and Katherine (and Daniel, age 2 and a half) have a house next to a lake in upstate New York. Yesterday I spent the day there with them and we have all come back to the city this morning. It's a small lake, called Hunns Lake, in Stanfordville, NY, straight north of the city. Sean and I went yesterday for a walk around the lake and we did it in about 45 minutes. It was great being there, with silence, nature, peace, although I am a city person and I have enough with one day, or else I may OD on pure air :)

J&R

Every time I come to New York I go to see how the constructions go at Ground Zero. And also because located very close to them is one of the best computer stores in New York, J&R. Four stories of computers, accessories, cables, and so on. A great place for computer nerds like me.

World Trade Center

In this empty space you can see in the picture, a few years ago there were two impressive skyscrapers over 1000 feet high.

I will always remember because the first time I was in New York, I stayed at the "New York Vista Hotel", which was located exactly between the two towers, which dwarfed it with its mere 22 stories to the towers' 105. My friend Javier surely remembers. I arrived at the hotel at 11pm and went directly to sleep, so the first thing I remember from New York is the following morning, getting out of the hotel, look up, and see these two towers that climbed up to the clouds like two infinite columns.

That day, the clouds were really low, and the top of the towers was higher than them. If you look carefully at the picture, the dark part at the top of the tower is the shadow of the clouds. To make it worse, the two towers were spectacular because they were completely straight. If you go to the Empire State, it's not that impressive from the ground because the building is staggered, only the central part is really high, but the two towers were completely vertical. You could stand right next to the tower and this monster would climb and climb, and it would look like it was going to fall on top of you.

Well, as everybody else, I will never forget September 11th, 2001, how I spent all day glued to CNN seeing the Towers fall...

Ensaimada

Having breakfast this morning in a Starbucks I was surprised to see they have ensaimadas:

The funniest thing is the name, as you can see in the picture. They are called Mallorca sweet braids :) I ate one for patriotic reasons.

El Chory

Look at the name this guy has chosen for his store :) [El Chory sounds extremely funny in Spanish from Spain].

Also, look at how expensive cigarettes are in the US. In fact, they are very expensive in every country except Spain.

Boeing 757 Bonds

Bonds (see my previous post) has decided I am not to see his nome runs. A few hours after my post he hit 755, and on Tuesday, also a few hours before I landed in the US, number 756. And on Wednesday, while I was sleeping all jet lagged, number 757. Looks like a Boeing plane.

Yet again, I wouldn't have been able to see them because I still don't have a TV. I want to get one today, I am planning to get a TV tuner for my computer. My triangular apartment has cable TV, with my favorite channel (ESPN). Let's see how it works. Can't wait to see SportsCenter, [ta-da-da ta-da-da].

The view from my window

As promised, here's the view from my window.

Time zones

Just a little post about the time zone. The blog will post a time on a particular time zone, so I decided to leave the blog time in Spanish time. However, when I mention the time in the blog, it will be always my time, and I want to avoid at all cost that stupid "it's 8:00 New York time, which is 14:00 in Spain".

So you'll see that in this post, which I write about 7:45 am New York time [about 8:00am for the English version], the blog will show 13:45 [14:00 here]. It will be always like this, blog time is Spanish time, and the one I mention is New York time.

[Also, I have decided to put inside brackets and in smaller font all the text that is exclusive of the English version, so as to distinguish it from the rest.]

Sunrise

It had been a long time since I saw the sun rise. And my window has eastern exposure, so I could see the sun rise directly from my desk. As expected, I woke up at 5, when it was still dark but barely, and light soon started to show up in my window.

My window overlooks a park (St. Nicholas Park) so I have a green view, except for a building at the other side of the park and which eats half of the view, a building not too tall for New York, it only has 20 stories :). I will post a picture when I can, but right now it's very sunny and we wouldn't see anything with a picture against the sun. Let's see if I remember to take it in the evening.

My apartment is small and so far not too cozy, because furniture is not great, and besides the furniture, there's nothing else. Nothing, no lamps, no pictures in the walls, not even plates in the kitchen. So my first task today is going shopping to Target, one of my favorite stores, and buy some basic things. Besides all that, the apartment has a feature that makes it curious but strange. It is triangular. It has two perpendicular walls and a third one diagonally, which limits a lot the distribution possibilities, for instance, the only possibility for the bed is the perpendicular corner. But it will do, it's got charisma, and when it's a little set up it will look good. I will post pictures when it looks a little better than now.

Yesterday, as I was telling you, I went to get something to eat, and I stopped at the corner of the 125th and the Frederick Douglass Blvd. (8th Ave). So to give you an idea, from here to there (just three blocks) I saw three hairdressing stores advertising African braiding. At 6pm there was a lot of people in the street, just hanging out, having take-out dinner, or drinking beer. I love that the neighborhood has street life.

Harlem!

I'm in Harlem! Plane arrived with no problems, the line at Immigration was incredibly long, but after that everything went smoothly, and at 4:30 I was already in my new apartment. I went emergency grocery shopping and I could start catching the neighborhood atmosphere. It's unbelievable. I'll tell you later, 'cause now it's 8pm, I'm totally beat, and I'm gonna go to bed pretty soon. I imagine, as it happens every time I arrive in America, that I will be getting up around 5am for a few days, so I will start blogging seriously tomorrow morning.

Ready to go

There you go. Tomorrow morning, early, if all goes well, I leave. My plane to Geneva is at 9am, and the arrival to New York is scheduled for 2:30pm NY time, that is 8:30pm Barcelona time. Today was the day of the last preparations, finishing the bags (none of them over 40 pounds, good), and straighten up the house, cleaning the kitchen and the bathroom, emptying the fridge, and so on. Well! After the long wait, the big moment arrives. If all goes well, the next post will be from Harlem!

The heading picture

The picture in the heading of the blog, just under the name "noches de Harlem" [in the Spanish version] is part of a picture I took the first time I visited New York, in February 1992. It's taken from South to North, from one of the vanished World Trade Center Towers, where you can see the other tower and the Manhattan skyline. Harlem is farther North. I love this picture, especially with the grey sky. Right in the middle you can see the Empire State Building, and right next to it you see Fifth Avenue. Tomorrow I will be able to take a walk on it...

It's a scan of a paper picture (yes, that old fashioned thing we used to do). I don't have the paper original, it probably got thrown away in one of my monster cleanings, probably during a move.

Car

Today, two days before the big day, it was time to say goodbye to my car. I took it to my sister's house because my brother-in-law has room at work to keep it. It would be sooo nice to be able to drive my little car in New York...

Don't worry, little baby, you'll be all right here, and it will only be six months. Will miss you so much...

Bags

Today, after several laundry rounds, I am starting to pack my bags. I have all my clothes and other stuff on top of my guest bed and the two bags ready to be filled...

Turns out that a few months ago, with the excuse of protecting the backs of their delicate baggage handlers, the airlines decided to lower the maximum weight for a checked-in bag from 70 pounds (32kg) to 50 pounds (23kg). At least you can take two bags, but when one travels alone, it's much more comfortable to travel with a single bag, even if it's big, than with two. But there we are, ready to pack the two bags, with the bathroom scale on hand to check they don't go over 50 pounds. And I am sending some of my winter clothes in a box by mail...

What drives me nuts is that, if you pay a fee (25 dollars last time),then you can have heavier bags (until 70 pounds) and the handlers' backs don't matter anymore. Which shows which was the real purpose of the reduction in allowable weight: to charge you if you go over. Duh! What was I thinking? :)

Only three days to go!! :)

Fifth place in Google

Hey! I put "noches de Harlem" in Google and the blog appears in fifth place! I guess it helps that it's hosted in Blogger (Google's property).

But you know what's the ultimate goal: overtaking Eddie Murphy! :)

Barry Bonds and the home run record

(Sorry to all Americans who already know all this, but in Spain nobody knows squat about baseball and its history).

Baseball is my favorite sport. It's the sport of numbers, so it's not a surprise it's my favorite... :) But precisely at this moment we are witnessing a feat which only happens once or twice in a lifetime: the breaking of the career home run record. And even more, there's a huge controversy. Hi ha marro, as we say in Catalunya (it means "there's turmoil").

A home rune happens when a hitter manages to travel all four bases with a single hit, almost always because the great hit has sent the ball out of the playing field. Everybody considers Babe Ruth put the home run in fashion, and he was the first great slugger in baseball history. Before him, the most a player would hit in a year was about 20, and he hit 60 in 1927 (and 59 in 1921, 54 in 1928...) Between 1915 and 1935 Ruth sent the ball out of the field 714 times, a record considered unbreakable during years.

But between 1954 and 1976, Hank Aaron, without the benefit of a single-season record, but being quite good for a looong time, managed to break the record, hitting 755 home runs in his career. Aaron, being black, had to endure all sorts of threats, including death threats, from all sorts of racists (including the Ku Klux Klan) for daring break a white man's record.

Well then, as of today, August 4th, 2007, Barry Bonds has hit 754 home runs. So we expect him to break the record any day now. I pray for him to wait until Thursday, so I can see if live :) But the point is that Bonds's record is tarnished by controversy...

Bonds is suspect of doping. Evidence of him being on steroids is overwhelming. When he started his career in 1986 he was skinny and fast, whereas now he is all muscle and power. But with a humongous difference. On top of it, when his career should have started to decline (at 37) he broke all barriers and started playing better than at 25, staying this way until now, at 43. And even more, Bonds is related to the BALCO case, the doping laboratory infamous for having Marion Jones and other athletes as clients. To the point that Bonds's personal trainer, Greg Anderson, is in jail for refusing to testify in a grand jury hearing against Bonds, and Bonds himself is suspect of perjury (he said he didn't know if what he took were steroids). Bonds has never tested positive, but then again, baseball is not known for performing many anti-doping tests.

If on top of all this we add that Bonds, as a person, is despicable, arrogant, selfish, rude and a liar, we'll understand why 90% of baseball fans all over the world would love it if he breaks a leg today and gets stuck at 754. A fascinating case.

Sir Elton is senile

Elton John has demanded Internet be shut down for five years (link in Spanish). Let's send down the drain big businesses like ebay or amazon and their workers to unemployment. Medical operations that take place by IP videoconferencing? Bah, who cares, I can afford the best private care. Access to the whole world newspapers, plurality of ideas, freedom of speech? That's just bullshit. The only thing that matters to Sir Elton is that his last album hasn't sold as he would like. Elton, buddy, maybe it is because the CD is not that good? Maybe you should accept your music is kind of worse than the one you made thirty years ago? Come on, Elton, fucking retire already. The only thing that should be shut down is your big selfish mouth.

Harry Potter 7

Helping to endure the long wait, I just finished the seventh book in the Harry Potter saga. I must say that this series has something magic (pun totally intended), because it grabs you and doesn't let you go till the end. This book starts slow, the first adventures seemed boring to me, but at some point the action takes a fast pace, sustained until the end. Harry's fans will enjoy it as usual, and those of you who aren't fans, what are you waiting for?

SPOILERS

(highlight with your mouse to read them)

As I was saying, I got bored at the beginning, with Harry and co. traveling from one place to another in their tent, without seeing anyone. But starting at their capture at Malfoy Manor, and then the break-in at Gringotts, Dumbledore's brother's house and the final battle, the thundering action doesn't let you go for a minute. As usual, great fireworks and endings worth of Ms. Rowling. Who wants to bet with me for new books with the adventures of Harry's kids at Hogwarts? She said she wouldn't write any more Harry's stories, but she didn't say anything about his kids, and Ron and Hermione's kids, and Draco's kids. After all, a millionaire has to keep earning her millions, she is not likely to stay put without writing anything else...

By the way. What was all the hubbub with the death of characters? I know some people die, but Dobby? Fred? Tonks? Give me a break! I resent the happy ending, one of the three main kids should have died. J.K., you're now officially a wimp. You need to go to the George R.R. Martin school of killing characters. Then we'd see real deaths, and not this.

7 days for D-day

A week. I have a week left. Still a week. When I bought the ticket for August 8th I knew this was going to happen. With all work done by July 20th (classes ended in June, and then all the department planning that comes for being vice-chairman), I knew these last days were going to be veeery looong. I can't wait to leave, if it were for me I would have left a week ago already... Oh well. Patience.