We have some terrific travelers going with us and we hope to visit as many of the 'must see' sights as 4 days and 3 nights will allow. However, sometimes it's the 'unexpected' sight or event that really provides a treasured memory of one's travels.
A couple of 'blog posts' ago, I mentioned that we will walk to Strawberry Fields in Central Park and see the memorial tribute that celebrates the life of John Lennon. It is a very simple and peaceful memorial that you could almost walk by without noticing. But every day, hundreds of folks do stop by and spend some time in this small portion of the park, just across the street from the Dakota Hotel, where the former Beatle was gunned down more than 26 years ago.
On that blog post, I added a photograph I had taken of the 'Imagine' stonework, where so many have laid roses and other mementos in tribute to Lennon. In the background of the photograph was an elderly man sitting on a park bench, appearing to be deep in thought.
More on this man in a moment.
The last time Linda and I were in New York City, we were strolling through Central Park on a beautiful November afternoon, when we came upon an 'event' of which we had no prior knowledge.
There, before us, was a middle aged man with a guitar, performing for a diverse group of people, who had gathered on a small hillside overlooking a serene lake, which was dwarfed by a beautiful backdrop of the skyscrapers of Manhattan looming in the background.
We found the music of this troubadour in the park incredible....but it was his stories, between songs, that were quite captivating. One such story followed the request from a young girl to play a Beatles song. Before playing the song, he told the crowd that there was someone very special among us....then he pointed over toward me. He continued by saying that the gentleman seated on the park bench (I was seated on the bench) was an instrumental figure in the history of music in America. He then stated that this man, sitting right next to Linda and I, was the man who brought the Beatles to America....Sid Bernstein.
Mr. Bernstein, we found out, was a big time music industry concert promoter and had, indeed, been the man who contacted Beatles manager Brian Epstein in 1963 in Liverpool, England and won him over by promising to put the Beatles in Carnegie Hall. Ed Sullivan, the host of the popular TV talent hour bearing his own name, found out about Mr. Bernstein's deal and signed the Beatles to perform on his show on that historic Sunday evening, February 9th, 1964. Three days later, the Beatles performed to a frenzied American crowd at Carnegie Hall, and Mr. Bernstein looked like a genius.
Anyway, after exchanging smiles and a polite hello, we watched as several people came over to talk to the elderly, gentle man, who brought the Beatles to America.
The next day we walked back and again listened to the guitar man in Central Park for awhile, before walking a few hundred yards up a wooded trail that led us to Strawberry Fields. The mood was somber, as people of all ages paused to reflect on the life, and death, of a musician, whose songs and lyrics had meant so much to so many.
I was photographing a couple of roses, that had been placed on the memorial, when I looked up and noticed, none other than, Sid Bernstein, sitting in quiet contemplation on a park bench just to the side of the memorial. Choosing not to disturb him, I quietly took the photograph shown below of 'the man who brought the Beatles to America', undoubtedly reflecting on the senseless loss of one of the worlds most revered musicians, as the 25th anniversary of Lennon's death drew near.
'The man who brought the Beatles to America'
A little bit about that guitarist, who became one of our 'unexpected' highlights of our trip to the 'Big Apple'. It turns our that he has become quite famous. His name is David Ippolito, but he is known locally as, 'That Guitar Man from Central Park". In fact, he has a very good web site called www.thatguitarman.com.
Ippolito has been performing impromptu concerts on a hill along side the scenic little lake in Central Park for the past 15 years, mostly on weekends. He is a charismatic vocalist and storyteller, and although he specializes in Beatles music, he sings songs from a wide variety of genres, including some he has written and recorded himself. I also recently read, although I didn't see him on TV, that he had won $64,000 on 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire'. Apparently, he's talented and smart.
Anyway, just a little story on how the 'unexpected' often turns out to be a travel highlight. I hope we get to see him this November with our travel-ography.com group. If not, we'll probably run into something else 'unexpected' that will add to the memories of our trip.
Steve
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