2011 Fashion

if you've been to one new york street fair, you've basically been to them all. the vendors and the vibe don't vary much from neighborhood to neighborhood, or even year to year-- you can count on finding cheap sunglasses and costume jewelry, socks and refrigerator magnets, grills with corn on the cob and sausage coils and piles of peppers and onions hissing and spitting stinky smoke. and needing a good long shower and shampoo immediately afterwards. i'm sort of fascinated that these fairs seem to be just as solidly attended now as twenty years ago. who keeps going to these things?

well...earlier in the week, i saw signs promoting today's "murray hill fair." i was interested--murray hill is such a funny little neighborhood, with embassies, hotels, small museums and galleries scattered along park and madison avenues; lots of irish bars and cheap grub closer to second and third avenues. but for some reason, i thought a murray hill fair would tend toward the refined, that it would be like a garden party with vendors in straw hats, lining the up and downtown sides of park avenue, selling fragrant pink peonies and fresh pink lemonade...and art.

i was mostly wrong.

i left the apartment at around noon today, with a dull ache in my head and a mood to match, and had really forgotten about the festivities until the moment i made it to my lobby. that heavy, stinky street fair smoke had invaded the space. i was forced to wade through it and the scene--kebob and fruit stands right on my corner-- to get to the store (needed milk for the coffee).but already it was much too much for me to bear. that was gonna be it for me.

an hour or so later, i started to feel, i don't know, guilty that i wasn't giving my neighborhood's fair a fair shot. so i decided to walk--all the way through. those of you who know the neighborhood won't be surprised that this was overall a pretty staid affair. not too crowded or mirthful, skewing a bit senior, but there were a few highlights and things i was glad to have seen for myself.

there were no sausages, but there were other street fair standbys like funnel cake and crepes and kettle corn. a few local restaurants, like librettos pizza, smorgaschef and the new italian culinary center (alta cucina) had small footprints, though i was underwhelmed by their efforts (light on food, heavy on promotional junk). there were indeed pink flowers--but oddly, they were made of wood. there was pink lemonade, and there was agua fresca. there was a bit of art, too--pencil drawings, original photography, and "actual" new yorker covers (framed). the best surprise of all, though, was the used books table--a fund-raising effort. they saw the most action. i enjoyed poking through a few of the piles but it was a real battle for elbow room and that was more than i wanted to bear today.

i left the fair empty-handed save for these:

aww. i could almost pretend i was in paris, watching the french open.

i don't recall crepes being this huge and heavy in france?

even after he folded into quarters, it was as big as my face. and i don't exactly have a small face.

this was my favorite food vendor, for obvious reasons.

he was really hard-selling the gigantic turkey leg. he scared me off.

another vendor had something different--beautiful spices and teas...i was impressed.

i really wanted to get this for my sister...

this interested me, too.

this is plain gorgeous.

and this is "special."

but i was so frustrated with the vendor (i won't name him because i don't want to promote him)--who just kept blathering on and on with everyone about how he's from cannes; "try the smoky paprika, you've never had anything like this"; "i just made this new lemon pepper, smell it, it is THE best, rub it on chicken, it is ah-maay-zing"; follow me on twitter, blah blah blah. i couldn't get him to clam up long enough to take my order. i got tired of waiting. probably saved me about $30 for 3 small square tins--each about half the size of an altoid box--so in the end, it was probably for the best.