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...

Boston Living

I love hostels !!!!  I love Boston!

I love this charlies kitchen bar and grill.  Tom petty, bruce springsteens I'm on fire (2x)....  They use a dishwasher for the glassware

I haven't eaten more than an Apple and coffee all day, twelve hours, I have United to thank for that.

I went from this in Chicago: 

To this Boston Hostel: 

don't ask me why there is a tree trunk/telephone pole in the middle of this bathroom.  there just is. 

the lockers in this room are amazing, never seen bigger, with clothes hangers!  each bed has a little cubby hole with a lamp and dedicated electrical outlet!  I am impressed. 

Seriously love hostels.  free pool table, board games, hair dryers in the private enclosed bathrooms, coffee bar in lobby, giant ass lobby, full kitchen, right on the border of the Theatre and Chinatown District in Boston.  Amazing.  Also, full of my people, so many asians, just like that hostel in Chicago, full of asian people, i don't know what that is all about. 

Went to Harvard University.  It was cool.  I guess.  I was a little disappointed by the lack of ivy league architecture.  It was all brick buildings or post-modern stuff when I was hoping for super old gothic victorian stuff.  but I only saw a small part of it in the dark, maybe i just missed it.  I rubbed John Harvard's shoe. 

Status Update

United airlines still the worst.

Sitting on the tarmac now for twenty minutes. Forty minutes behind schedule and counting.

Update: one hour, fives minutes behind schedule and counting....

Protip: if you got somewhere important to be, and you have to fly United, pad you itinerary with a few extra hours, you will probably need it.

Update 3: off the plane now , two hours and counting.  It's hard to communicate the depth of my distaste for this airline. This is all because of a missing part required to lock a food cart. They call this item a "no go", meaning you no go if you no have. It takes two hours to get to Boston. I say leave the cart behind, we will survive two hours without diet soda and $11 crackers with cheese.

Update 4: I am filled with so much hate for this company that has stolen four hours of my vacation away from me.  four hours of my precious life I will never get back.

This is your life and its ending one minute at a time.

Hotel gym

Better than some you'd have to pay for.

Palmer house hotel by Hilton

The Palmer house is the classiest hotel I've stayed in. Not the most expensive or nicest but the most classic.  rebuilt in 1875 after the great Chicago fire, this hotel has over 1600 rooms and is famed for its illustrious celebrity history including Johnny blue eyes and the rat pack. It was cool. Almost as impressive as the grand lobb, was the hotel gym.   I had me a glass of scotch in the lobby to be sophisticated and rich ($17 for a  double scotch, mccallan 12 years, not including 10% tax and tip)

The last minute and low season room rate is only 120 - 150, but prime time starts around 400-500 plus 16% TAT. Protip: book it last minute to get a cool deal on a nice hotel. Or just go in for the lobby bar and enjoy. our group rate was 100/night, ridiculous cheap.

Beans rice, tomato shroom herb egg thing, chicken.

the weather has been great.  thanksgiving weekend was great.  everyday should be a four day weekend where i get to eat and sleep and get drunk.   i finally started the process of installing curtains for my windows.  all i need now are the hooks, rods and curtain.  it only took me a year and two months of living here to get to this point.

assembled in America