New York revisited

Just back from a very brief business trip to New York - my first since 9/11. I wasn't there long enough to sample any music but I did get a chance to go to Bleeker Street in Greenwich Village and look through some of the vinyl on sale. The guy in House of Oldies says he has 700.000 records stashed away. That is some hoard. I bought a few reissues but prices for the really collectable stuff remain way too high.
My meeting was with the Wall Street Journal at the World Financial Centre which is right next to Ground Zero. This remains just a huge hole in the ground with a subway line running through - a scar in the middle of downtown. It's hard to imagine that somewhere on that site stood the world's two highest buildings. I went on the roof on my first visit to NYC in 1986 (before security concerns stopped all that) and the view was incredible - like looking down from a plane. A few months before 9/11 I enjoyed a free open air gig on the concourse next to the World Trade Centre by Alex Chilton and the original Boxtops. Impossible now to figure out exactly where I was standing.