Home

Boston, San Francisco, chicago, New York....

But this is where I really belong.

Pats at jets

The only time I wished my flight was delayed. Need to  board with score tied in the second and looking like an ugly game so far.

LAX Update: I almost had a heart attack. fuck the writer who wrote the headline "jets fluster Tom Brady...patriots rally to win" and fuck the guy at Google who put that headline at the top of the news search results.

JFK

I know it's time to leave when I run out of things to think about, or when the brain gets stuck on repeat.

I remember distinctly in Costa Rica, near the very end of my trip, I was sitting in a hammock in the mountains. I was swaying there lazily staring out at nothing.  I realized I had nothing left to think about and therefore it was time to go home.  and so i did.  go home. 

New York City: Conclusion

New York is New York.

Looking for love

I looked all over town for love.

Everywhere i turned i found signs of love.  what does it mean? That the cold big city has so much heart?  what does it mean that its all written in chalk?

banksy!

what I want, i get!

Me with original Banksy art in NYC.  Down with the idealists!

Belly dancing and more food

I love the walls and ceilings draped  with cloth so that you feel like you're in a tent.

It's border line obscene how much I've been eating here.

This belly dancer makes me feel fat.

I feel like I'm in game of thrones, in Daenerys story line. The belly dancer is higher in hierarchy, but I'm intrigued by the older servant girl with the refined features and intense eyes wearing a peasant dress....

I wonder how much this belly dancer gets paid. and how much she enjoys what she does.  Is it a job?  or is it her passion to dance for strangers in a kitschy (but delicious) new york ethnic restaurant?  

Also, I can now cross "watch awkward white guy try to learn to belly dance" off my bucket list.  This was an interactive belly dancer and liked to make people dance with her.  

They...

Wear so much foundation here.  walking photoshops.

Intelligentsia

Considering the process intensive and quality of the coffee they serve here, and this little set only cost me $4.50, I don't know where starbucks thinks it gets off charging what they do for what they serve.

Hostel life

Dude passed out on an upper bunk with his shoes still on. Weak sauce. It's not even four am yet.

Turkuaz

Turk your ass with some delicious Turkish ass food:

Waiting for the late night A.

Slake

Night club in midtown on 30th. It was fun.

Oh my god...My anaconda

Holy... Where am I. This like Kelly O'Neills but worse and with weird new york tourists instead of military guys.

So far today, Friday

I walked myrtle, Broadway and some other streets. Found my banksy despite the best attempts of the capitalists and anarchists.   Didn't do much of what I planned. I managed lunch and a couple of banksy spots in bk and now drinks. The cold man, the cold.  Plus I really like this bar, might make camp here for now. May have to try to make it back to the hostel for pub crawl, not because I want to get drunk or anything, but because I don't know what else to do with myself, and its about people, it's always been about the people.

Bizarre bar in Bushwick

bizarre is the name of the establishment.   Really cool, quirky, designed and restored hip place at myrtle and Broadway in Brooklyn.  How hip and quirky? Playing Gummo on the brick wall. Great music, did I mention the great music.  Bartenderess is very beautiful.  she smiled a lot. Who says new yorkers are mean?

But let's be honest, any place in this city of hip is about as cool and hip and quirky as any other. par for course if I want be cynical and jaded.

Disco ball in bathroom, giant urinal as tall as me, burlesque shows on Wednesdays...

Lol. Just read the yelp reviews about this place and they all trash the slow, pretentious, rude hipster bartenders.   now I'm afraid to ask the cute blonde bartender for another drink because she is talking to a friend in the corner....lol.  note, the picture below is of the bartender with another friend from earlier, she is now talking to another friend on the other end of the bar.  Update: no, they were both great, the beautiful blond one and the cute brunette who took over. But, then again, there's like two customers in the bar. You would have to try to provide bad service when this well empty.

Anyway, would recommend.

Mcdonalds people watching

Hot chocolate in Brooklyn. 280 calories. Small fries, btw, is 230 calories.  

Maybe I shouldn't disparage McDonald's so much. Everyone here right now seems quite happy and content. Is it the high calorie processed comfort food? The cheapness? The literal warmth of the facility?

She snatched the nickel.  behind the cup is a nickel the previous person left behind.  invisible cleaning lady.

Asian lady selling bootleg dvds and head scratchers table to table.

Soco

The humanity! How many of my Hedwigs rode by me on the opposite track? How many yidzaks have I passed on the street here?

My platonian other half may be in this city of eight million and I....would never know.

It's 41 degrees right now at 1 pm in the afternoon. It's going to hit the twenties tonight. Not looking forward to my street walk.

This is soco in Brooklyn, soul food with edge. It was pretty good. 

Yesterday

Rancid and the bowery and lower east side. Little bit of shopping. Graffiti hunting.

Today, soul food in Brooklyn, more banksy, the bridge, maybe grand central terminal and the public library and H&M..... I have about six hours to do all this before it gets uncomfortably cold and dark.

L.E.S.

This city is just too cool for me, particularly the Lower East Side.  The beautiful rich well dressed people.  It is all too hip for me.

.......... I don't even know what to say about NYC.  I'm at a loss for words.  Not becuase I'm overwhelmed or so impressed,  but becuase it's impossible to generalize or summarize.  So, I won't even try.

today was day four:  I slept in late after the jazz night, then went to the lower east side to eat and walk around.

I am stubborn and like to do the things I will say I do, and since all the Banksy graffiti art that he did for a month when he was doing his NYC residency in October 2013 was immediately defaced, painted over or even removed intact to be sold within days or weeks of its appearance, I walked all over town to track down the traces of history.  Here is what I found:

Graffiti is a Crime: Allen Street, between Hester and Canal Street: 

Car Mural: 159 Ludlow Street"

Before

Now

Some of his other stuff: 

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...