Becoming a New YorkerBecoming a New YorkerFrom NC to NYC, the Good, the Bad, the Ugly - and even the Boring - of becoming a New Yorker, in my own words and others Articles
Phone Photo Ops - City Walk #16
2008-04-13 23:30:00 Today's route: The Great White Way and Times SquareForgettable emporiumsLooking south from 48th StreetBroadwayLooking north from 46th StreetWhere the New Year's Eve ball dropsLooking west on 42nd StreetNew Victory TheaterMadame Tussaud'sRipley's Believe it or Not!Port Authority Bus TerminalTheater RowWest Bank Cafe More About: Photo , Phone , City , Walk
Phone Photo Ops - Harlem Blooms
2008-04-13 02:45:00 My God. New York City is beautiful in the Spring.The day did start out like this ...... But turned into this ...Hands On New York volunteers painting, raking and plantingin St. Nicholas Park in Harlem ... And ended like this. More About: Photo , Phone
Search-Term Saturday: I Don't Know
2008-04-12 22:13:00 According to Site Meter, someone in British Columbia found my blog last Monday by typing the following into the Google search engine:"how the fuck do new yorkers afford manhattan?"The referring URL brought them to my blog, which was unlikely to provide them with any answers because ... I DON'T KNOW. More About: Search , Saturday , Term
Phone Photo Ops - From This Week
2008-04-12 02:56:00 Walking through the East Village with coworkersto Tuesday's Happy HourFlowers in Harlem on ThursdayBroadway Blossoms in Hamilton Heights today More About: Photo , Phone , Week
"Things I Love" Thursdays - WeeWorld
2008-04-11 00:58:00 My boss is obsessed with the AIM WeeMee. Yes, the 40-year old Senior Vice President. Her WeeMee dances in a disco. So is our Director of Advertising Operations. His WeeMee is underwater and when he types "shark," a shark swims up and bites off his head. Our Digital Brand Manager's WeeMee has on a sunhat and is holding a chocolate bar, a red bag and a "Hillary" sign. The WeeMee of our Digital Advertising Director in Chicago is naked with three little leaves in all the right places, wearing a gold dollar-sign chain and carrying a pina colada and a sword. Mine is in outer space, wearing a basketball jersey (#23 for Terrence) and holding a "Vote for Colbert 2008" sign and carrying an "I am not a Plastic Bag" grocery bag. All the things I love in the WeeWorld. If I type "alien," an alien tears out of her little tummy, she shrieks and then dies for a second.I [re-]designed it yesterday after weeks of my boss telling me that I needed to update my WeeMee, who was decked out in (RED) gear a... More About: Love , Things
73° F Feels like 73° F
2008-04-10 20:26:00 To quote weather.com for the 10036.It?s amazing how quiet the office is when it?s nice outside. But today is just a teaser. The weekend forecast is in the low 50s with thunderstorms.Phone photo ops from lunch in Bryant ParkThere was a photographer standing along the railing just behind the man in the baseball cap. He was taking a photo of this gentlemen reading in the park. I tried to capture both of them, but couldn't find my phone before the photographer moved onto his next subject.Spring arrives in MidtownEvery text I have received from nightclub/lounge promoters has mentioned the weather to lure the girls out (e.g. "DJ [so-and-so] at [insert "Tenjune", "Home", "Prime", "Kush", "Pink Elephant" etc.] tonight. Say [promoter's name or random password] at the door. [Come have fun and praise the springtime] or [Spring is in the air, come raise a glass] or [It's beautiful outside so join me at ...] or [Did u enjoy the beautiful weather 2day? don't forget 2nite I'll be at ...] or [...
A Dime a Dozen or Once in a Lifetime
2008-04-10 02:29:00 An ex-boyfriend in North Carolina sent me a text message recently, which read: "I'm watching Forrest Gump right now. It makes me think of us." I chuckled at this at first until his response to why was: "A man who spends his whole life lovin a girl who is out chasin her dreams."It was almost Hitch quotable. Very Sweet Home Alabama-ish. The lives and the "Loves We Leave Behind." I didn't know how to reply to him, but it did spark self-reflection. Not that I ever had half the problems of Forrest's Jenny. It's just that I've always been kind of coming-and-going with men. I remember my mom once commenting about me in between boyfriends on different military bases, "It's 'out of sight, out of mind' with this one."Very few men - like places - have been able to keep my intimate attention. I have wondered if it's because my youth was saturated with relocation of both people and homes. Yet this common denominator does not carry over to my friendships with my dearest girlfriends, to w... More About: Lifetime , Dime
Cerebral Albums
2008-04-10 01:33:00 I wish other people could feel moments the way I feel them. The way I capture a moment ? an expression mid-sentence, eyes squinted in a laugh, a sideways look, a small achievement or a defining instant, an overall setting ? whether it?s intense and intimate or casual and breezy. Maybe others do and just don?t share them out loud.I don?t know what triggers me to take mental snapshots of my surroundings at any given time. I know that I do this most often when my friends are laughing. But other times, my albums of the cerebrum are unexpected. Like last night, at an informal cocktail hour event with coworkers at a restaurant on East 4th Street between Bowery and Lafayette, when everyone was chatting, laughing and reaching for more antipasti with wine glasses in hand. Suddenly I was unnoticeably quiet. Lightly smiling. Careful not to project my sentimental demeanor to my colleagues. Just watching and listening. And storing to memory.Maybe my constantly changing landscapes as a military b... More About: Albums
And I Thought the Seventh Avenue Line Was Bad
2008-04-08 20:27:00 What we have to look forward to if New York City doesn't choose to see the bigger picture for Mayor Bloomberg's New York congestion pricing plan (at least, I think there is a bigger picture to be seen beyond the daily inconvenience of higher bridge and tunnel tolls):http://www.chilloutzone.de/files/0 8040701.htmlI guess they don't really believe that "there is another train directly behind this one."More about the opposing viewsIn this corner, fighting for congestion pricing:Campaign for New York's FutureAnd in the opposite corner, campaigning against congestion pricing:Keep NYC Congestion Tax Free?When two elephants fight, the grass suffers; and, when the same two elephants make love, the grass also suffers.?- Swahili ProverbMy fellow commuters, we are the grass, as the death of Bloomberg's proposal at the state level meant that New York City would miss the deadline to qualify for $354 million in federal funds for traffic aid. More About: Thought , Line , Avenue
Manhattan + Sunday + Brunch + Friends =
2008-04-07 02:00:00 No City Walk today because of too much of this. More About: Friends , Brunch , Sunday , Manhattan
Quote of Whenever - Classic Sunday Afternoons in New York City
2008-04-07 01:51:00 ?A toothless old man just bought me a beer. It?s a good afternoon in Brooklyn.?- Text message received from BNR at 3:35pm while I was two hours in to my unlimited Sunday brunch mimosas at a restaurant in ManhattanNot a quote of the day, week or month. Just of whenever. Until the next quote that moves me. More About: New York , Classic , York , New York City
Pimp Time is Over
2008-04-05 17:31:00 Ironic that DrunkBrunch recently and randomly quoted Jay-Z's 2000 hit single "Big Pimp in" here:"You know I thug 'em, fuck 'em, love 'em, leave 'em,Cause I don't fuckin' need 'em."- Jay-Z, Big Pimpin'East Village Idiot's new weekly trivia game, Triviotic, is a ton of fun. I'm definitely going back next week, if only to hear a white boy rap.Jigga must eat his infamous words because [cough].New York Magazine, Perez Hilton, et al. were already on the trail yesterday. However, I chose not to go hang out on Hudson Street. I had to wait for my own shipment of 60,000 orchids to arrive at my apartment uptown. More About: Time
Working It
2008-04-05 16:58:00 A corporate colleague of mine is also a professional fitness model. Whenever I talk to her, it's hard to keep eye contact because I'm always looked at her arms. Motivated by the progress I've made at the gym over the last year, I've begun asking her for advice on lifting and nutrition.Yesterday morning, I ditched the gym because she and I planned to go by GNC after work, where she would recommend a few dietary supplements (nothing hardcore like what she takes - just enough for someone who enjoys lifting but isn't pursing a professional career), and then she worked me out at the gym. I was surprised that she, a professional fitness model who benches her body weight, was impressed with my bench press, my leg press and the fact that I can do push-ups with good form. A lot of women at my gym can. But, boy, is my body sorry today.Last night, since the gym was closing before I got in some cardio, I decided to walk part of the way home to Harlem. I should have walked up Sixth Avenue s... More About: Working
New York City's Definition of "Bar & Grill"
2008-04-05 03:44:00 In North Carolina, when you see the words Bar & Grill , you might correlate the words "neighborhood steak house" and assume that there will be buckets of boiled peanuts on the tables and shells on the floor.In New York , a bar and grill is more likely to look like this and dinner for two costs over half a grand. Ridiculous but oh, so delicious is this taste of the good life. And it's even more appreciated because it's not mine, but a sample of someone else's.Last night, I went to Gotham Bar & Grill with a friend for a dinner I could never afford because I'm not an investment banker like him - or that maybe I could afford once in a blue moon if I wasn't paying a quarter of my salary before taxes to my landlord (or almost half my monthly cash flow after federal, state and city taxes devour my paycheck).Below is the account of my evening in camera-phone-photo essay form.The night began with Poland Springs water in the car that my friend sent to pick me up from work (because ... More About: Definition , New-York
Quote of Whenever - The Most Annoying New Yorker
2008-04-04 15:30:00 Just when I was thinking about how I'm still a wannabe New Yorker, even though I have a Manhattan address, pay outrageous city taxes, and sport a New York State Driver License, British photographer Nigel Barker hit the nail right on the head in "Six Seconds with Nigel Barker" from a recent edition of Page Six Magazine (a New York Post gossip publication that I don't normally care to read, but was in the seat pocket of the car to Gotham Bar & Grill).The question: Who do you think is the most annoying New Yorker?His answer: The kind of New Yorker that irritates me the most is the wannabe - people who say they are from New York and it turns out they moved here four months ago from Ohio.As a military brat, I've never felt comfortable saying I'm from anywhere. My standard answer to the question that many military brats hesitate to answer is: Everywhere and no where.I'll never be from New York. But I live here now. And of everywhere I have ever lived, there is no where that makes... More About: Quote , Annoying
"Things I Love" Thursdays - The Empire State Building
2008-04-03 06:02:00 It's the icon of New York. If the city had an avatar or a WeeMee, it would be the Empire State Building with arms, legs and a smiley face.But what I love most is racing along a midtown sidewalk at your New Yorker-with-a-purpose pace, zigzagging in and out of the human slalom gates, and not thinking about all the touristy things around you. You happen to glance up. There is the Empire State Building towering over you. Suddenly you are a newbie again. And at a little under two years and counting, I guess I still am in the newbie, wannabe New Yorker stage. I guess that's why I can still look up and sometimes actually stop to take a picture with my phone."Things I Love " Thursdays are inspired by "I Love New York" (BNY, February 14, 2007).
Gym Pick-Up Lines
2008-04-03 01:02:00 Last week, a guy at the gym came up to me just after I finished lifting and as I was getting on the treadmill and asked me, "Are you training for the Olympics?"This morning as I was laying down on the leg press, he said, "Five months until Beijing." More About: Pick , Lines
April Googools
2008-04-02 00:56:00 In addition to their awesome salaries, employee stock options, free food and other onsite and offsite job amenities (which make Google the #1 place to work as ranked by Fortune), below is another reason why I wish I worked there (even though I love the job I have now).My cubicle neighbor in our own midtown high rise some 26 blocks northeast of Google?s New York corporate office was chatting online this afternoon with a ?Googler.? The highlights from their Internet convo relayed the April Fools? Day pranks happening at 76 Ninth Avenue: Emails on one of their internal lists are all coming out encrypted using Caesar's 13-letter rotation code, most of their printers are either flashing "Please Insert Coin" or "O HAI I ATED UR PRNT JOBZ,? and their facilities manager threw about 150 rubber snakes all over the office at around 6:30 this morning.From ?Life inside Google? at CNNMoney.com (January 2007):Of course, when it comes to America's new Best Company to Work For, the food is, well, ...
Gettin' Down With the Dogg
2008-03-31 19:07:00 In New York City, you?re more likely to be in a company meeting, where your White, middle-aged, female boss mentions an email she received that very morning from Snoop Dogg.
Divinity in Edible Form
2008-03-31 02:49:00 I have found the omelette of my life. The holy trinity of Sunday breakfast is a combination of eggs, cream cheese and smoked salmon. It's divine existance thrives within the quaint exterior and exposed brick walls of a Tuscan steak and wine bar on Seventh Avenue. Svette VII's Il Bastardo on the corner of 21st Street features a weekend brunch menu that stole our hearts and has been infinitely dubbed our Sunday brunch spot.I will now spend six days a week in agonizing anticipation of Sunday brunches with my girlfriends - not yearning for the fellowship and conversation of my closest friends - but craving Il Bastardo's omelette with cream cheese and smoked salmon. Not to mention that the $15 all-you-can-drink Champagne, Mimosas, Bellinis, Screwdrivers and Bloody Marys have solidified its high echelon within our Sunday brunch clique.Phone Photo Op - My Omelette with cream cheese and smoked salmon ($9.00) and Debasha's Eggs Benedict with Maryland Crabcakes ($12.00) and monster Mimosa... More About: Form , Edible , Divinity
City Walk #15 - Union Square to Madison Square
2008-03-31 02:48:00 Card no. 19 - photosSpend a Saturday the way New Yorkers do.Begin at 14th Street and Broadway (L, N, A, R, 4, 5, or 6 train to 14th Street).Union Square, with a statue of Lincoln at the north end and one of Washington on horseback at the south, might be assumed to have been laid out along patriotic lines. In fact, Union refers to the 1831 "union" of the old Bowery road with Broadway. The happy result is the center of a lively neighborhood known for its home-furnishings stores, publishing houses, modeling agencies, and stylish restaurants - the Union Square Cafe (21 E. 16th St.) and Mesa Grill (102 Fifth Ave.) being two of the best. Home to Manhattan's first and largest farmer's market, Union Square is transformed into one of the city's most delightful communal spaces every Saturday, when farmers from within a 100-mile radius of Manhattan arrive with truckloads of fresh produce, flowers, maple syrup, eggs, cheeses, and baked goods. (It's also open Monday, Wednesday and Friday whe... More About: City , Walk , Madison
Phone Photo Ops - City Walk #15
2008-03-31 02:21:00 Today's route: Union Square to Madison SquareWashington at the south end of Union SquareDog park in Union SquareCoffee ShopLawn perimeterLincoln at the north end of Union SquareLooking south on East 17th StreetParagon SportsABC Carpet & HomeFlatiron Building Madison Square ParkDogs in Madison Square ParkNorth end of the parkThe lawn is closed October-AprilMetropolitan Life Building More About: Photo , Phone , City , Walk
All Stops Through Brooklyn
2008-03-31 02:12:00 My secret service buddy and I met at Coffee Shop at 8:30pm for a drink before stopping by Trader Joe's Wine Shop on East 14th Street and Union Square Wines & Spirits on Fourth Avenue and beginning our trek to Brooklyn for Amanda, Gina and Ra's Party at the Penthouse (a.k.a. their fourth floor walk-up in Crown Heights).We decided it would be hilarious to take a picture of me swigging a bottle of Drambuie at all the subway stops where we had to wait/transfer due to weekend construction on the A/C line. There is now an impressive slide show of photos in my digital camera featuring me in profile guzzling the golden elixir next to signs for Union Square, Fulton Street, Broadway Nassau Street, Nostrand Avenue, Utica Avenue, and Kingston-Throop Avenue."Given your role with the United States government," I said, "Let's get the legal issues out of the way ...""Let's not say illegal. Let's go with ill-advised," he replied.We both had a pretty good buzz going by the time we arrived at... More About: Stops
Pajamas & Couch Night
2008-03-29 20:40:00 Ra and I went to a lounge in Chelsea for Happy Hour on Thursday night, where our good friend was DJing. After turning down a promoter's complimentary dinner starting at 10pm on Little West 12th Street followed by drinks and dancing at a nearby club, we were both back in Brooklyn and Harlem respectively before nine o'clock and asleep by ten.We had ambitious hopes for a Friday night out, but you know it's been a long, hard week when two 20-something New Yorkers pass up another promoter's complimentary dinner in the Meatpacking District and a table at Tenjune. Or maybe we're getting over the clubs, restaurant openings and velvet rope parties that are so exciting when you're new to the city. Or maybe we are unwilling to admit that we can't party in our late-20s like we did in college. Friday afternoon we were comparing text messages we had received from promoters inviting us to various clubs in attempt to lock down a plan that we both knew we would likely bail on later. By the ti... More About: Night , Couch , Pajamas
"Things I Love" Thursdays - Ken Rosato & Lori Stokes
2008-03-27 22:45:00 Ken Rosato and Lori Stokes are co-anchors for Eyewitness News This Morning and Eyewitness News at Noon in New York City (Channel 7 - ABC). I am only able to tune in between 5:30 and 6am while I blend my protein shake and get ready for the gym, but they often amuse me within that 30-minute window.I particularly love the snickers and snorts of muffled laughter that you hear in the background during humorous news clips. Like yesterday during a clip of a carjacking that took place while a news crew was actually interviewing police officers nearby. I had to snort at that one, too.Metro Traffic Agent Joe Nolan and meteorologist Bill Evans have cool TV personalities, too, even though the latter's Accuview Forecast has inaccurately sent me to work with my wellies and it barely rained or rained at all. On more than one occasion."Things I Love " Thursdays are inspired by "I Love New York" (BNY, February 14, 2007).
Forces of Gravity
2008-03-27 03:33:00 I'm watching Tokii on TBS right now. Her second Wednesday on prime time. Mutual friends call me during commercial breaks. Excited text messages beep in periodically.I'm still trying to wrap my mind around the fact that she is in a small recurring role on national television. I stare at the TV. I hear her. But I don't comprehend her lines. I gawk at the screen. Agape. I see her. But it's not registering. It's not her voice. It's not her accent. It's not her humor. She's hilarious in real life, but the woman on the screen is different. It's not the person I've known for a decade and lived with in college.Oscar Wilde once said, "Anybody can sympathize with the sufferings of a friend, but it requires a very fine nature, in fact, the nature of a true Individualist, to sympathize with a friend's success."I believe that with every fiber of my being and consider it a true measure of your love for someone else. There is no way to describe the simultaneous disbelief, pride, joy tha... More About: Forces
Chicken Little
2008-03-26 02:21:00 You never know what random array of miscellaneous-ness might be strewn throughout the hallways of my apartment building. A used diaper. A broken 40-ounce inside a soaked paper bag. A condom wrapper.Phone Photo Op - This morning, there was a chicken leg.Yes, $1200 a month for a 350-square foot apartment. Drumsticks gnawed to the bone included at no extra charge."In Washington, the first thing people tell you is what their job is. In Los Angeles you learn their star sign. In Houston you're told how rich they are. And in New York they tell you what their rent is."- Simon Hoggart More About: Chicken
Furniture and the City
2008-03-25 03:02:00 City Wendy sent out an email today that may interest New York City residents who are in the market for furniture:Hey New York friends,I need your help. I finally had my stuff delivered from storage in Chicago last week and now I need to unload things that don't quite fit in our apartment here. I've been able to find homes for quite a bit on Craigslist but still have a couple of items hanging on. Perhaps some of you are searching for the perfect little dinette set for a small space, or a great, super sturdy mission style coffee table? If not, please feel free to forward this to anyone you think might be interested (also, if we have mutual friends, please forward this along. I seem to be missing quite a few email addresses). I've included pictures and the details are below. Please note, I'm flexible on the prices, but I can't provide delivery. Mahogany coffee table measures 54" x 30" and is 18" tall and I'm asking $150 for it.The dinette set is 24" x 24" and is 30" tall and I'm... More About: Furniture , City
Easter Brunch at L'Orange Bleue
2008-03-24 00:56:00 My blog likes to masquerade as a food blog. I snap blog photos of my food so often, the posts should probably have their own label. But food is such an essential part of New York City culture, you cannot become a New Yorker without simultaneously becoming a foodie ... and a wine aficionado ... and a cocktail connoisseur. And you add a "brunch budget" to your monthly expenses.Food and drink are a defining - if not symbolic - part of most societies, but it's the diversity of authentic cuisine within the five boroughs that makes New York distinct.Today I joined my girlfriends for Easter brunch at L'Orange Bleue in Soho, where I ordered the Omelette Maxime and a mimosa from their brunch menu. A lazy Sunday afternoon passed us by as we enjoyed our usual brunch conversation: politics (a few jokes about Spitzer), finance (the latest news surrounding Bear Stearns), fashion, jobs, men, rent. Once all that could be eaten, drank and said ... had been eaten, drank and said, we went our separa... More About: Brunch
City Walk #14 - Little Italy
More articles from this author:2008-03-24 00:36:00 Card no. 8 - photosThe teeming immigrant neighborhood of The Godfather or Scorsese's Mean Streets is long since gone, but a "Little Italy " of sorts survives: an enclave of old-style restaurants, bakeries, red, white, and green flags, and memories.Begin at Mulberry and Canal (R, N, or W train to Canal Street).In the 1930s, one-sixth of New York's population was from southern Italy, a huge number of whom crowded into the famously mean streets bounded by Houston, Canal, and Lafayette Streets, and the Bowery. A mass exodus to the suburbs followed World War II, and Chinatown has pushed farther north ever since. With the northern edge of the neighborhood recently reinvented as "Nolita" (City Walk #11/Card No. 13), the old Little Italy survives as a vestigial enclave frequented mainly by tourists and, during the 11 days of the San Gennaro festival (celebrated every September since 1926), by New Yorkers of every ethnic description. Booths selling zeppoli, cannoli, and pizza line Mulberry ... 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 |
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