So you think you know your city?

Today was an odd day for me; although nothing went as planned everything went accordingly.

First let me say that I have become oblivious to time in the morning. I have adapted the idea that if I have to be up early then everyone I need to be in contact with should rise and shine as well. I called one of my old friends this morning. Can you imagine he was sleeping at 10 am on a Friday, I mean who does that?

Ok, let me stop with the sarcasm. It was his day off and he had a long night. I decided to treat him for brunch because his birthday had passed and we hadn't seen each other in a while. So we decided to have diner food, god’s gift to fat asses. I don’t know what it is about going to diners all I know is that although you see the healthy shit on the menu, it always feels like you HAVE to order the greasiest thing they have. Well I googled diners in Harlem and you guessed it like 2 came up. He said "Let’s go a little further downtown, I need to get out of the hood."

The diner we were supposed to go to was on 83rd and 2nd, but if you live in NY you know that the subway construction is still causing traffic jams. So we ended up near 89th St, very close to our Alma Mata. Any way, we ate mediocre food and talked about the usual; who got shot, who was in jail and the latest baby mama / daddy dramas. I mostly listened because well, sometimes people need an ear. We ended the meal and proceeded back uptown. He told me he wasn't ready to go back home and I still had a few minutes to burn. As I was driving up 126th street I saw what I would like to call a diamond in the rough, The National Jazz museum in Harlem.

The irony of it all was that my friend had just claimed to walk that path every day on his way to work and he has never seen the banner flapping in the wind on the flag pole. Which brings me to my title question, how well do you know your city?

Well I googled them and called the phone number and I found out that the museum is free. We decided to go and check it out. When we got into the museum, I was at first disappointed because I was expecting to see something grandiose. I didn’t stop to think that maybe just being there was pretty awesome. My friend got the attention of a young man who seemed to work there and later we found out he was an intern. Most non for profit companies thrive on the help of interns, for those who didn’t know. Well, the young man in the bright blue button down and shaggy brownish hair was excited and enthused to let us know about the exhibit that was currently on display, the events they were hosting and the Savory Collection.  The current exhibit was something about Ghost’s of Jazz or something to that nature. It was basically a collection of photographs taken by the founder of the museum who had work with these great Jazz Legends.

There right before us mounted on the wall stood a black and white photo of Dizzy Gillespie. In the photo he was leaning over a pool table smiling. Now I don’t know if it was because he is one of the greatest trumpet players of all times or if it was the way the photographer had captured that single moment in time but, let me tell you this I was left in complete awe. My friend’s eyes lit up like the empire state building at night. When we left he was very quiet and I knew that I may have exposed him to a life changing event.

If you are ever near 126th between Lexington and Park Ave I really encourage you to check it out.
http://www.jazzmuseuminharlem.org/

Today my friend learned that he really doesn't know the hood that he considers his own.