(no subject)
Trip to New York City
I went up for a three-night visit to the City that never sleeps. I stayed with Christine, who just moved up there and lives in a 6x15 (I swear) closet, although everything else about her building I think is incredible. It's in a very convenient area of Midtown, serves meals and has a very nice courtyard and roof garden. I went up both to visit and introduce several of my friends who now live in the same city: Christine, Natalie from high school, and John, an internet friend of mine from Germany who just moved there as well.
I arrived Thursday early afternoon, and John walked over from his school to meet us and wander aimlessly around the city between Christine's place and the southwestern corner of Central Park. We bought some sandwiches, rolled some cigarettes, and sat on a big rock in the park for a long time. Some people riding by in the horse carriage things took our picture. I guess we blended in pretty well, when we're really all a bunch of nyc neophytes, whoo! Christine and I went back to take advantage of her residence's meal, a barbecue. We met a cool Finnish girl who just arrived for an internship at the UN. She was really cool and we ran into her again Sunday. I wish her the best...she has a really difficult job, it sounds like! She has to report back to Finland on what people say at the UN, or something. That night we fell asleep really early, and then alternated on who was passed out and who was wide awake. I spent half the night on her roof and in the lobby reading The Devil Wears Prada, which is a great book.
Friday we hopped on the train to Soho and Greenwich Village, and went to a pretty cool metal/punk record store, and found the NYU campus. We ended up meeting John in Tribeca (I really can't keep the difference between these areas straight) and loitered for a long time on some steps. People kept asking us for directions. I'm serious, about every five minutes someone would come along and ask, which way to Broadway? I guess we blended in pretty well again.
After dinner, Natalie took us to some kind of magazine release party. It had a $5 cover and an open bar, and that's all we knew going into it. When we finally got in the door 45 minutes after we got in line, it turned out all they had for free was Sparks, some nasty energy drink / malt beverage. The club was completely boring, so we went in some theater room and watched a weird mix of local hip hop music videos and more famous acts like Aphex Twin. I was getting a pretty good buzz off the Sparks and went back for another, and of course they've run out. We left and found some ratty little hole in the wall bar called Nancy's, and the evening was thus saved. It was a great place, reminded me of home--I mean, Union Jack's.
Saturday, Christine and I went up to the Bronx just because we'd never been there. In an attempt to find something on the map called Co-op City, we spent an hour and a half getting lost on the subways and going far northeast, where it turned out there wasn't a whole lot to see. But it was pleasant, and we took a big walk through the residential area up there. Cute houses. It actually looks like a suburb--has the same vibe as Ft. Sanders, only with fewer couches on the roof and more normal people with families.
From there, we rode all the way to Brooklyn, another hour and fifteen minutes on the train, where I was nearly attacked by a young woman coming down off something, to visit John, who had offered to cook us dinner. It was delicious! He had gone to the fresh fish market near his subway stop and picked up some tilapia, as well as eggplant and zucchini, etc., from a farmer's market, and baked it all. Yum. Then John and I Skyped with some of our SDF friends, and completely nerded out for a few hours while Christine got really bored in his living room. We talked to Vosi and Stephen and some dude in Canada, all while climbing on and off the fire escape to smoke, sharing a pair of earbuds, balancing a laptop and shooing the cat away, who kept trying to eat the cords. Proof indeed that nerds do have hand-eye coordination.
After that we called up Natalie, who also lives in Brooklyn and was hanging out on her friend's roof. We showed up an hour later after discovering that it's not as easy to hail a cab in Brooklyn as it is in Mahattan... Anyway, we get to the top of this enormous roof and gasp because it is right near the water and features an unobstructed, panoramic view of Manhattan. About eight people, friends of Natalie's from Pratt, are sitting around smoking melon-flavored shisha tobacco out of a big hookah. A great end to a great trip.
Sunday was pretty lazy, as I was leaving in the early afternoon. I walked around alone for a while, which I really like to do when traveling, at least part of the time. Gives me a chance to take in a city and clear my mind. And the rest, as they say, is history...thanks to all you folks for a great time!
As a sidenote, when I got back to Knoxville last night, I went to a Senryu show, and met this really awesome dude named Was who gave us a sitar performance over at Will and Laurie's house afterward. He played this piece that would traditionally be played at the end of an all-night concert, just as the sun comes up over the horizon.
I went up for a three-night visit to the City that never sleeps. I stayed with Christine, who just moved up there and lives in a 6x15 (I swear) closet, although everything else about her building I think is incredible. It's in a very convenient area of Midtown, serves meals and has a very nice courtyard and roof garden. I went up both to visit and introduce several of my friends who now live in the same city: Christine, Natalie from high school, and John, an internet friend of mine from Germany who just moved there as well.
I arrived Thursday early afternoon, and John walked over from his school to meet us and wander aimlessly around the city between Christine's place and the southwestern corner of Central Park. We bought some sandwiches, rolled some cigarettes, and sat on a big rock in the park for a long time. Some people riding by in the horse carriage things took our picture. I guess we blended in pretty well, when we're really all a bunch of nyc neophytes, whoo! Christine and I went back to take advantage of her residence's meal, a barbecue. We met a cool Finnish girl who just arrived for an internship at the UN. She was really cool and we ran into her again Sunday. I wish her the best...she has a really difficult job, it sounds like! She has to report back to Finland on what people say at the UN, or something. That night we fell asleep really early, and then alternated on who was passed out and who was wide awake. I spent half the night on her roof and in the lobby reading The Devil Wears Prada, which is a great book.
Friday we hopped on the train to Soho and Greenwich Village, and went to a pretty cool metal/punk record store, and found the NYU campus. We ended up meeting John in Tribeca (I really can't keep the difference between these areas straight) and loitered for a long time on some steps. People kept asking us for directions. I'm serious, about every five minutes someone would come along and ask, which way to Broadway? I guess we blended in pretty well again.
After dinner, Natalie took us to some kind of magazine release party. It had a $5 cover and an open bar, and that's all we knew going into it. When we finally got in the door 45 minutes after we got in line, it turned out all they had for free was Sparks, some nasty energy drink / malt beverage. The club was completely boring, so we went in some theater room and watched a weird mix of local hip hop music videos and more famous acts like Aphex Twin. I was getting a pretty good buzz off the Sparks and went back for another, and of course they've run out. We left and found some ratty little hole in the wall bar called Nancy's, and the evening was thus saved. It was a great place, reminded me of home--I mean, Union Jack's.
Saturday, Christine and I went up to the Bronx just because we'd never been there. In an attempt to find something on the map called Co-op City, we spent an hour and a half getting lost on the subways and going far northeast, where it turned out there wasn't a whole lot to see. But it was pleasant, and we took a big walk through the residential area up there. Cute houses. It actually looks like a suburb--has the same vibe as Ft. Sanders, only with fewer couches on the roof and more normal people with families.
From there, we rode all the way to Brooklyn, another hour and fifteen minutes on the train, where I was nearly attacked by a young woman coming down off something, to visit John, who had offered to cook us dinner. It was delicious! He had gone to the fresh fish market near his subway stop and picked up some tilapia, as well as eggplant and zucchini, etc., from a farmer's market, and baked it all. Yum. Then John and I Skyped with some of our SDF friends, and completely nerded out for a few hours while Christine got really bored in his living room. We talked to Vosi and Stephen and some dude in Canada, all while climbing on and off the fire escape to smoke, sharing a pair of earbuds, balancing a laptop and shooing the cat away, who kept trying to eat the cords. Proof indeed that nerds do have hand-eye coordination.
After that we called up Natalie, who also lives in Brooklyn and was hanging out on her friend's roof. We showed up an hour later after discovering that it's not as easy to hail a cab in Brooklyn as it is in Mahattan... Anyway, we get to the top of this enormous roof and gasp because it is right near the water and features an unobstructed, panoramic view of Manhattan. About eight people, friends of Natalie's from Pratt, are sitting around smoking melon-flavored shisha tobacco out of a big hookah. A great end to a great trip.
Sunday was pretty lazy, as I was leaving in the early afternoon. I walked around alone for a while, which I really like to do when traveling, at least part of the time. Gives me a chance to take in a city and clear my mind. And the rest, as they say, is history...thanks to all you folks for a great time!
As a sidenote, when I got back to Knoxville last night, I went to a Senryu show, and met this really awesome dude named Was who gave us a sitar performance over at Will and Laurie's house afterward. He played this piece that would traditionally be played at the end of an all-night concert, just as the sun comes up over the horizon.