Activities For All

Central Park offers many activities during the warmer season that we are now entering. Main areas of foot traffic bursts with life as the sun gets warmer. The Mall is one example of an area that is heavily visited. The Mall is a very straight path that is framed by trees and leads up the the Bethesda Fountain. Many species stay there throughout the whole day and perform all sorts of tricks for rewards.

Below is an example of this. His means of entertaining people is to get a big  bucket filled with soap water and create giant bubbles. He invites many children to also create these large bubbles.

Naumburg Bandshell is a part of  The Mall and it is basically a small theater that is used informally. What I mean by informally, is that people are allowed to just randomly jump in there and perform whatever they want to do. Many times, nothing is going on there but once in a while a group will muster the courage to go up there and create some kind of spectacle. Below is an example of the Bandshell on a good day

There are also many other things that you can do off of the main, heavily trodden path.

For the Love Bird species you can get married in Central Park, like these two:

If you are part of the love bird species and do not yet wish to make that final commitment then Central Park can still be a perfect place for you to take your lover on a date. The Jacqueline Onassis Reservoir allows for a perfect boat ride.

In a perfect date you would go the rowboat and then afterward you would listen to this guy play his stringy, love-making-inducing music.

Get Your Feet Dirty

Even though Central Park is home to some of the most vicious species’ in the world, it could still be an enjoyable visit for all you tenderfoot naturalists out there. There are few places in the City where you can actually walk across a great lawn of grass. So something as simple as walking barefoot through grass can be very enjoyable. Try going either early in the morning or late at night, that way you can catch the drops of water that cling to the grass before the sun burns it away.

If you are particularly fat or just out of shape, I suggest not entering the park on foot, because if you are fat there are many species that are obsessed with your meat and will stop at nothing to devour you. But do not be dissuaded. There is hope for you. Try riding a bicycle, which should increase your chances of escaping a wild pack of the Hobo species. By mounting a bike a sophomoric naturalist like yourself might think you can also blend in with the marathon biker species. But they will be able to tell by your smell that you are not their kin.  Here is what a bike looks like:

Take A Hike! Pt. 2

Take A Hike!

In certain areas of Central Park various species are tightly packed next to one another. For example, near the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir, a major watering hole of the park, as many as five different species live in prefect co-habitation. More so than co-habitation, the different species survive in a complex state of symbiosis. For example, the tourist is a frequent visitor to the area and various scavenger species also reside there. The scavenger’s populate is sustained by a constant flow of tourists coming through there.

But north of the reservoir is another kind of Central Park. The Ramble is located directly above the reservoir and is much more sparsely populated. The main reason for this is that the indigenous species found in The Ramble are very territorial and have almost no tolerance for other species (the tourists are quickly torn if their naive enough to enter this area). Because of this reason, very little is known about The Ramble. The area is very heavily vegetated and this lends itself to the reclusive nature of the species that hide in there. It has been reported that there is a large tribe of cherubs that are being herded by another species. What the other species is, nobody knows and for what purpose is also an unknown. However, tourists visit The Ramble, but only in large groups and they are all very cautious. They often go there to visit the Belvedere Castle.

My team and I will brave the dark forests and see what we can uncover. I will make an audio slide-show so that you too can see what is there.

Central Park In Bloom

Central Park has just begun to blossom, so I decided to take a break from studying the creatures of Central Park to look at the flora. Studying this season of blossoming plants is not a completely isolated activity, because, like any ecosystem, the behaviors of the inhabitants are closely affected by flora that surrounds them. For example, with each leaf bud that pops out of the trees, there is an equal raise in the amount of creatures that are inextricably drawn to the part, most of the time these new inhabitants do not become permanent residents but instead stay just for a season or two.  The Tourist Species is a good example of how the population of Central Park grows during the warmer seasons of spring and summer.

Some of the best places to see spring at its finest are around Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir.  There is an amazing array of colorful flowers around Bethesda Fountain. Continuing North and going over the white bridge the flowers become sparser but take on a more acute beauty, with few little dollops of natural paint thrown across a green canvas. Cherry blossoms are also quite abundant but this will most likely be there last week of existence for this year as they begin to fall to the floor. With almost no exception, the various species of Central Park are physically inclined to stay near flowers. This may be a natural instinct and in some cases it serves as an aphrodisiac between a courting make and his female prey.

The Man From Finland

A Tourist’s Story Pt. 2

 

 

“There is a certain freedom here. The air is cleaner,”Ralph Williams said in Central Park. In his hands he quietly caressed his sax, also keeping his fingers warm through movement in the cold, brittle air.

For the past 15 years Williams has been coming to Central Park to do what he calls, “practicin’ and performin’.” Not only has it been the same park, but it has also been the exact same spot. He came from San Francisco 30 years ago and never once thought about going back. This has become his home.

Wiliams is a perfect subject to continue the thread from the first story on Tourists. Like Stephano Sanita, the saxophone player from Parma, Williams was not born in New York. He too is that tourist who forgot to get on his flight back home because he was too mesmerized by the city and all of its happenings. As his airplane heading back to San Francisco turned its nose West, Williams turned his eyes upward towards the sky populated by those big buildings. Maybe. Just maybe that’s how it happens. Maybe one day Sanita will be like Williams where he feels comfortable in this city and even has a favorite spot.

Williams carries himself like a native; when he plays the saxophone his body comfortably swings along to his music and his eyes are closed. If you have ever seen “The Simpsons” he is like Bleeding Gums. His glasses exude that cool jazzy player type of aura, mixing the layed back attitude of California with the grittiness of New York City.

 

 

“I just love it our here,” he said briefly after playing for a whole 10 minutes. If you listened closely you could hear he was slightly out of breath. Williams owns a studio in the Bronx but finds it uncomfortable to play in his apartment.

“I don’t want to bother my neighbors,” he explains. “So when I come here I just feel like I could fully do as I please. Lax strollers passing by eye him, his sax and the case by the his feet strewn with a few dollars here and there. “I figure I might as well make some money while I’m at it. Where else will you get paid for practicing and doing what you love?”