GreenFlea, October 25, 2009

Lots of Australians at GreenFlea last Sunday and film people too: a cable network crew shooting flea market scenes for an upcoming show; Ralph Nader’s 2004 campaign filmmaker (who also wrote, What Was Ralph Nader Thinking?); and another filmmaker specializing in music videos and documentaries. No Australian filmmakers visited as far as we could tell, though the Nader Raider, a recent transplant from Berkeley where “nothing’s happening” according to her, almost had us fooled with her Aussie slouch hat.

Too bad no one from reality TV was there because we had our own mini-drama brewing soon after the gates opened at 10:00. R., who was showcasing his wares in the space beside us, showed up in great pain with a twisted ankle that he suffered tripping in the stairwell of his apartment building. The elevator’s been broken for weeks so he’s had to navigate 10 flights of stairs whenever he goes out. Contributing to his discomfort was the sound from a small radio that belonged to the vendor behind him. R’s entreaties to turn it down or off proved unsuccessful, as did a polite request by one of GreenFlea’s security dudes who was enlisted in the cause by Irene — ever the professional social worker. Fortunately, the awful-sounding music ended not long after — grace appearing in the form of dead batteries perhaps.

GreenFlea Fritters #2

One of my favorite Noodle Talk questions is, “If the fashion statement that you normally make was translated into words, what would it be saying?” I’ve begun to ask it of anyone who passes by the booth exhibiting a distinctive flair for fashion. On West 104th Street, a handsome older black woman made a very striking appearance with her fire-engine red, ankle-length coat and wide-brimmed, matching-color hat with baby blue, fur-like trim. Her answer was one I’ll never forget or doubt its sincerity: “Love of self, love of the world.”

GreenFlea Fritters #1

As mentioned in previous posts, we love to give free samples away at the Noodle Talk booth. The initial reactions range across the entire spectrum: some people get it immediately; others have no clue at all; some assume these are perfume samples and immediately sniff them; others wouldn’t touch them with a ten-foot pole; one young Japanese woman asked if the thin strip of paper I was offering her would bring her bad luck. For my enemies, maybe, but for a potential buyer? Never!

Once past the confusion, I’m impressed with how many people are good sports about sharing their answers to the questions. What follows are some of the more memorable exchanges that occurred this summer and fall at GreenFlea market and the West 104th Street annual yard sale. In an effort to keep pace with the explosion of online social networking, I’m thinking of calling them “Fritters,” i.e., tasty morsels of conversation that nourish and delight.

Question: Please describe a memorable arrival or departure you experienced.
Young Australian couple: When we arrived in New York last Saturday on our honeymoon.
Noodle Talk: That’s fantastic. Please accept this as a wedding gift. (Gives couple a complimentary Noodle Talk set.)

Question: What subject(s) would you advise others to study closely in order to really understand you?
Young father: Deviant psychology.

Question: How large does a dust ball have to be before you attack it?
Middle-aged man: When it becomes larger than the object in front of it.
Irene (my canopy mate): Only in self-defense.

GreenFlea 101

For the last 10 weeks or so, Noodle Talk has been hanging out at street fairs and flea markets on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Lest anyone think this isn’t a particularly edifying way to spend one’s time, we even spent a full day on the Barnard College campus. There, we were introduced to the latest scholarly research and wisdom via the tenth Way of Knowing, i.e., osmosis.

Most of our time though has been spent at GreenFlea, one of the oldest and largest indoor/outdoor markets in the city. Here you can buy anything from sour pickles and pierogies to crystal chandeliers, vintage and handmade clothing, bric-a-brac, baby clothes, incense, records, furniture, old tools, toys, books, prints and posters, carpets, sunglasses, see-through umbrellas, scarves, candies, domestic and international crafts, business cards printed on wood veneer and the back of cereal boxes, and jewelry (all kinds and lots of it) — even Noodle Talk.

One thing that makes GreenFlea special is its status as a for-profit company whose principal owners are the parent associations of Public School 87 and Middle School 44 (in whose yard and cafeteria the market takes place). Profits (totaling more than $4,000,000 since 1985) are used for enrichment programs in both schools. Manager Judy Gehrke presides over everything as part CEO/mayor/and patron saint: to observe her moving throughout the yard as vendors pack to go home and darkness descends — bending over every few seconds to collect litter at the end of her 13-hour or longer day — is to see service performed at the highest and most humble levels.

The Proust Connection

Two years ago, I bought a subscription to Vanity Fair magazine. As Noodle Talk‘s creator, I was naturally drawn to its monthly back-page feature, ”The Proust Questionnaire,” in which a celebrity shares his/her brief answers to a small collection of personal questions. Although I always wondered why the questions remained mostly the same from issue to issue — and weren’t half as interesting as those in Noodle Talk — I never pursued the matter until last month.

Perhaps it was the publishing zeitgeist I was tuning into for I suddenly found myself wondering what Proust’s connection was to this questionnaire.  A little Googling quickly turned up this nugget of information:

At the end of the 19th century, French novelist Marcel Proust was still in his teens when he answered a questionnaire at two social events — one when he was 13, another when he was 20. At that time, it was quite the fad to answer such a list of questions that revealed the tastes and aspirations of the taker. Proust did not invent the questionnaire; he is simply the most extraordinary person to respond to them . . . . He answered the questionnaire several times in his life, always with enthusiasm.

[http://blumail.org/whatdoyouthink/index.php]