Beyoglu

Best meal yet. Unbelievable.

"I can't breathe!"

I always seek the most authentic experiences of wherever i travel.

$50 ticket for urinating in public at 2:30 in the morning in NYC.

Jazz...love is like

At Dizzy Coca Cola jazz club at Time Warner Center with Andre and Issella.  

Taking picture of giant guy with shiny penis; 

Jazz is alright.   Not as bad as I always thought. 

I was on my way to Cafe Habana for the fish tacos today when I got sidetracked by this vegan Dosa and Uppatam.  I had a chai and cilantro chutney with it.  so good. so big.  it looked like a giant elephant penis. This place was called Hampton Chutney, on Elizabeth Street.  would recommend. 

I eventually found the cafe habana and ate there.  kind of disappointed.  probably shoud have tried their famous cuban sandwhices and grilled corn, but neither appealed to me like a good fish taco.  Nowhere near as good as Ofrenda's fish tacos, would not recommend:

Bar scene

I hate it.

Bansky found

Nope. Never mind. Found his work. He was here in the hostel lobby all this time...

banksy and the death of artistic merit

in hindsight and after seconds of research, i am very silly and naive to think any of the banksy pieces still exist in nyc. 

day one in NYC

what the hell did i do in nyc?

day one, i think was: arrive in town, put on game face, get slightly lost in Penn station, find the one train, find the hostel, check in and get bearings,

wish they had more of these helpful signs when i was traveling in central america. 

then somehow ended up in Times Square like a cliche tourist, scoped out Times Square, had a roast chicken meal in some hole in the wall cuban place right off of times square on 44th, called Margo or something like that.  it was good.

then I joined the hostel pub night thing for one dollar beers and three dollar shots where there was close to 20 of us, our designated hostel guide cancelled on us, so one of volunteered to lead the pack, we all take the subway there, find out the designated place was closed !, then bar hopped a few different places, this is where I fell in love with an english girl named Emma.  ended up drinking till 4am.  slept in late the next day.

Day two:
woke up late, walked to somewhere, the highline. meh.

got a little lost along the way.

how the hell did people like me survive without smart phones and GPS?  how does anyone get lost nowadays with smart phones and GPS?  by not being smart, that's how.

ate at fantastic mexican place on 7th ave.

then...went to times square again to try to score Hedwig tickets, got them.  enjoyed the show (except for the annoying Jewish women: loud italian jewish woman with another loud italian jewish woman at the play, with a head cold and....lol. it would have been annoying if they weren't so awesomely cliche).  Props to the old couple who went to the show and was hesitant about what they were getting into and worriedly asked the usher if it was appropriate for them.

then....home and sleep.

Day three:  ate at delicious indian place for breakfast, Doaba (?) Deli on W 106th, open 23.5 hours a day (6am to 5:30am):

  this was seven dollars, including a chai!  seven dollars! with a chai!  Indian quality food at indian quality prices in Upper West Side manhattan. then....up to the cloisters, then down to brooklyn to walk across the  bridge but ran out of time.

now here, at home at hostel.  tired.  debating if i do the jazz club thing or strike out on my own.  jazz night club thing is 10 bucks cover plus 10 dollars food and drink minium, and i dont' even really like jazz that much....but live music is cool...i guess.  it's either that or....find some bansky art....or....go after those fish taco's at Cafe Hababa in Nolita or go shopping....or...IDK.

New York

damn this city is hip.  the shops, the art, the buildings, the restaurants, the people.... the poetry.


"My heart is proud of its pain".  Reminiscent of that Stephen Crane poem "...because it is bitter..."

New york.

haven't seen much art yet, need to start looking for it.

manhattan is boring.  I should be in Brooklyn or the Bronx... 

Hedwig

On a cold and rainy evening in Times Square i bought myself a "discounted"  (in quotes cuz still kind of expensive) Hedwig and the Angry Inch at the Belasco ticket at the red TKTS booth thing in time square.  What a show!  There's just something about that play and songs and themes!  I thought about going to anyone of the many other broadway hits that were available that night, but i decided to stick with what i love and know so well.  The sad thing (other than the play itself) is the fact that I missed the John Cameron Mitchell run by a month!  He does a run starting in January, I would have paid full price to see the original hedwig!  full price i tell you!   But this Michael C. Hall led show was great too, he makes an amazing Hedwig.

Times square is fun.  I found myself walking up and down the block just for the people watching and the fun of walking in big crowds like that, it's almost like a game, like frogger or something.

I don't get the jesus-freaks.  what compels them?  Are they crazy?  do they have families?  do they go home at night and think to themselves, "I did well today"?  what would possess a person to wave a sign telling me i am sinning and must repent?  Could i possibly interpret their enthusiasm as  misguided love and compassion and care for the state of my soul?  I don't know. weirdos. 

Humo

Brooklyn streets and bitter sweet symphony.

Bbq place in Brooklyn. Corner of myrtyle and carlton. Good. $10.50.   I can tell I'm not in the ghetto cuz of all the grocery stores and shops around here. On my way to find a bansky piece and maybe walk across Brooklyn bridge, then fish tacos at cafe habana in nolita.  Then.... Harlem tour at hostel?

well.  None of that happened.  realized it was late, I had to get from brooklyn to 103rd by 5:30pm to make the hostel harlem tour.  make it back with time to spare only to learn the tour was cancelled. wtf.  that's okay.  my feet are killing. might just chill at the hostel until it is time for the 9:45pm jazz club event.   my only regret for the wasted trip back to the hostel is the missed fish tacos.  

Cloisters

Castles and classical music

went to the cloister up north. Meh.  if you're into museums about medieval stuff it's cool.  It's a little on the small side.  Otherwise, not worth the train ride up and not worth the $25 recommended admission price.    

Grand central park

Grand central park and chai and Leonard Cohen and Lou reed. Such a perfect day.

Ofrenda

An intimate  Mexican restaurant in the west village area, on seventh avenue. Would recommend. Amazing fish tacos. Good happy hour specials. Not cheap.

Bonus points for playing Pepper. Did not see that coming.  also Otis Redding and shaggy.

And now playing IZ's over the rainbow. I think the owner has Hawaii roots.

Last night was fun.

I decided I should do at least one pub crawl with the hostel folk.  So I did, even though I didn't want to.  Fell in love with  beautiful English girl named Emma. We talked all night.  She was leaving for home the next day. This is why I dont like meeting new people. 

This woman in the picture pouring shots was very happy the Saints won.  The bartenders in New York are the worst.  I had to ask her for my three dollars in change.  WTF.   and the irish bartender was so drunk he "lost" my credit card and I had to deal with the sober mexican bus boy who actually took care of everything.  This drunk barkeep, when asked by a customer how much a drink costs, his response was "five or six".  LOL. 

I've been waiting for this number one train for the past thirty minutes, wtf. It's almost four am now. I need to be asleep in my hostel. Wtf.

Her name was Emma.

Emma. God damn. An oxfam street hustler with a weak rap...she leaves tomorrow. All the other guys were like "what the hell?", but I was like, "emma".

Why me?

Find Waldo

I'm somewhere in this picture.  

Need a hint?  here's a closer look. 

More hints? 

Final hint. 

I'm that grey spot between the open mouth cheering guy and guy with dark blue beanie. 

Putnam investments  has a hi def camera that takes pictures of everyone in the stadium andd you can look for yourself on their website after the game.  neat.  

There is a magnetic fields song for every stage and situation in life.

The nantucket(?) Coast

I'm not sure if this is what they call the nantucket area, but the Amtrak train from Boston to nyc is idyllic and looks  like this:

Jacob wirth

Worst meal ever. So disappointed.

The quality of the picture matches the quality of the food

This was Jacob Wirth, a "german" restaurant.  The only reason i went was i saw decent reviews on Yelp and it was literally next door to the hostel.  It was so bad.  so, so bad.  This was to german cuisine what PF Changs is to chinese cuisine. 

Leopolds in SF sets the standard for me, and that one place in Hong Kong i went to a while ago.   I should have known this was no Leopold when I walked in and instead of being greeted by tall bosomy blond aryans in leiderhosen like at Leopolds, i was greeted by bored short dumpy latino girls.  Instead of tasteful german shctick on the walls and das boot mugs for beer, Jacob Wirth has kitsch on the walls and football on the multiple tv screens and a guy playing cover songs on piano.  Instead of a precise german menu, they had burgers and stuff and it seemed like german food was an afterthought on the menu.  I should have known better; I kind of did have a sense that I should have left, but I was so hungry and so tired from walking and standing all day at the game I didn't want to go somewhere else.  So disappointed. 

some random hits

The bathroom.  

One drunk guy made a funny joke to the guy in front of him using the urinal, "hurry up and put that little thing away, there's people waiting".  The guy with the little thing took great offense even though it was a pretty fun joke and well delivered.  Drunk guy kept calling out "any time man, any time, any time", I was really looking forward to two drunk dudes at a football game fighting about penis size in a dirty, wet stadium bathroom.  no go, alas. 

This is about as close as i got to Tom Brady

hostel life. so it goes.

Journey to Mecca

Here is my journey to Mecca:

First, a train journey.  a $15 dollar round trip special train from Boston to Gillette Stadium an hour away.  pretty sweet and easy way to do the Pats. Jump off the train and walk along the tracks.  protip: This is not ADA accessible

The Mecca. 

the Faithful.

The  Bathroom

The Mission Accomplished

Post Game Analysis

Patriots Clinch AFC East After Beatdown of Dolphins

The Patriots have won their 11th AFC East division title in the past twelve years, their sixth in a row.  The Patriots are taking care of business and have clinched a playoff spot as they continue to try to clinch the AFC #1 spot and hold home field advantage through the Superbowl.

Some highlights of the game include a Tom Brady tipped interception in the first half.  The Pats led 14-6 with forty seconds left to go in the half but lost possession with a three and out after Miami used its timeouts to force the issue. a long punt return and a couple of plays and blown coverage led to a last second Miami score making the score 14-13 going into the half.  things looked a little shaky at that point, but then the pats came out of the halftime firing all cylinders and socred 24 unanswered points.  One nice little sequence included a deflected catch that was intercepted and one play later Brady found Gronk for the TD. The defense was stalwart, they got two interceptions and even got a blocked field goal for a TD return.  in the second half they got big chunks of yardage from Gronk (3 receptions for 96 yards), some solid, almost easy looking, defensive stands.  The catalyst play that sparked the 24 points was in the opening drive of the third quarter: a 17 yard run on third and eleven by Tom Brady who instead of sliding for the first, went for the goal line and invited the defender to knock him out of bounds three yards short.  Typical Tom Brady walks off with a few encouraging words to the defensive back, we'll never know what he said. After that Tom Brady run, it was all over.  the pats kept rolling, the dolphins kept stalling and the patriots are now AFC East champs once again; and the home field advantage all the way to the superbowl is within their hands, all they have to do is not lose to the hapless Jets and the lowly Bills.

update: apparently Tom's words to the defender on his 17 yard run was, and i quote, "Wooooo!"

Halftime show highlight:  There was a lottery type game being played on the field during halftime.  there was 24 numbers laid out to choose from on the field, two of them were million dollar winners, the other 22 ranged from 100K to 500K.  One lucky man got to choose one card one time to win.  Einstein goes straight to card #12 and wins a million bucks.  I thought #12 was a little obvious.

Watching a live NFL football game was cool.  It's really fun and totally different from watching on TV.  It feels MUCH faster paced live than on TV.  It was pretty cold too.  upper thirties at kickoff and steadily dropping throughout the game, my feet were pretty frozen by the end of it.  should have worn more socks or had thicker shoes.  Paid 12.74 for a pulled pork sandwhich and a bottle of water.

There was a lot parallels in my emotional response to watching Tom Brady live and seeing Tegan and Sara live.  For example, neither were cheap.  Both required many hours of standing.  In an inverse plot twist, Tegan and Sara felt like I was watching a youtube video in HD, while the patriots game just seemed like I was watching a low-def TV from across the room.  LOL.

the fields looks much smaller in real life than on TV.  

Game day: dolphins at patriots

I'm on the train
to the game
gonna watch Brady win again.

I love Tom Brady, I love Tom Brady

Checking off my list again

Airport people watching

People Watching in Airports: I've come to realize that the people in airports are generally attractive, rich, educated and polite.  Air travel is the privilege of the privileged.   In that vein, a small minority of travelers were black; I got a kick out of eavesdropping on three black guys on the airplane speaking intelligently about modern social issues, racism, poverty, inequality, Chicago electoral politics etc..., in, not ebonics but strong urban accents...this, while i was reading my the Wall Street Journal next to them.  It was the kind of thing I might expect to see in a Dave Chappelle skit, but it actually happened in real life.

there are some nice people in Chicago and Boston, I must say.  Maybe there was some sampling bias based on where I was, but people are pretty nice and helpful here.  Aloha spirit.... what does that even mean?

some cool things i'm missing out on in New York: the new cat cafe in New york (reservations all full into January) and the Million Man march that just took place earlier today for Eric Garner/Mike Brown/etc...