hot august nights

so here's the deal. i've been putting off writing this entry for freaking ever for one reason: i took too many pics. not "too many" as in, "i wish i took fewer," but "too many" as in, "who in the hell is going to want to see this many pics?" trust me when i say i seriously narrowed it down and that this is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg.

i took the red-eye monday night, and after a several hour weather delay i landed at jfk about 8am. i hit the ground running and after a brief nap at my hotel i went to my nail appointment at bliss.

vanessa and tanya met me there, and for the next few days we were inseparable -- they are truly the hostesses with the mostess(es?).

from bliss we grabbed some lunch then walked around killing time before heading to ucb theater's harold night.




unintentionally hysterically funny old guy passing out anti-bush propaganda while we waited in line at ucb. each button was a mere .35!


from there we headed to a bar on the lower east side that was having a guitar hero head-to-head competition. it seemed so incredibly geeky, we couldn't pass it up! we didn't participate, it was too much fun laughing at the people that donned the provided wigs and rocked out.




wednesday morning i bummed around the area and did the top of the rock tour.




lomo


lomo




after meeting up with vanessa-n-tanya, we headed for the nbc studios tour, something we'd all been wanting to do. the tour was pretty cheesy, but we got to see the "saturday night live" studio and the "today show" studio. they're especially careful about the latter, as it's filmed in HD and any and everything shows up on screen. we basically shuffled in, got a glimpse of the studio with a major warning not to touch anything, and shuffled back out. i volunteered to have a fool made of myself on the tour and did the weather report from the teleprompter in front of the green screen in the mock-up studio.

we then headed to shea stadium for the mets vs. braves game.




lots of sailors in attendance




seeing the famous "home run" apple was pretty exciting



the mets won, so all was right with the world.

thursday morning i took the bus to the lower east side to meet up with vanessa so we could head to coney island. of all the things i had planned on the trip, coney island was at the top, followed closely by seeing a mets game.

it's a super cheesy beach side destination, and i loved every minute of it! just thinking about how it won't be there for future generations makes me sad. there were a couple of photobooths, of which we partook in one. we checked out the amusement park rides -- i went on the wonder wheel, but vanessa was too scared to join me. the first go-round was scary being up so high, so much so that i didn't want to reach for my camera so as not to rock the cage. we ate italian ice before wading in the atlantic ocean, then going balls to the walls in the cold water. 'twas my first time in the atlantic! we swam for a couple of hours and generally had a blast. we headed to nathan's for hot dogs and then down the boardwalk for funnel cake and ice cream.











my favorite pic of the whole trip. (lomo)


more lomo-ness of the cyclone


view from the wonder wheel


view from the wonder wheel


me on the wonder wheel


lunch at nathan's




the subway ride back was a long one, and i headed back to my hotel to shower and rest up a bit before our evening's activity: karaoke. i cannot say enough about how much fun this experience was! there weren't a ton of people there, which made the experience even better. we had a list of songs to sing, from SWV's "weak" to tupac's "changes." the latter was a sore performance on our part, but it didn't stop the table next to us from joining in on our songs! at one point we literally had the whole place up and dancing and singing along to "regulators." it was really freaking awesome. (oh, and we did non-rap songs, too, but they weren't as fun to involve everyone in!)



bizarre couple that was freaking each other to something by james taylor


the guy i fell in love with. either this pic doesn't do him justice, or i had had one too many vodka tonics


people i don't know


more people i don't know -- things got crazy up in there!


everyone jamming along to bel biv devoe's "poison"


had to get one of "my" guy singing -- he was good, too!






we closed the place down at about 2:30 then headed to the only place we could find -- a taco bell. after a lively debate about Harry Potter, blogs and hipsters, it was time to call it a night. er, morning. whatever.

friday morning it poured buckets so i ran to the corner store and grabbed some fruit for breakfast and stayed in for a couple of hours until it cleared up. the plan was to spend a day photographing the city by hopping on the subway in any direction and getting off at any stop. this is something i'd been wanting to do for ages, but it'll have to wait until my next trip. instead, i headed down to soho and did some window shopping and managed to get away with only a gift for a friend at jack spade.



people watching in front of jack spade (doesn't it look like she's blowing him?!)


lower east side graffiti


yes, yes i am!


people watching on the lower east side


found! in soho






i headed over near vanessa's place and we went to see "broken english" at the sunshine . we wanted to stay for "rocket science" (both films were at sundance this year but i didn't get a chance to see them there) as there was a q&a with the director post-screening, but we needed to head to the upper west side for a comedy show at stand up new york. we saw four comedians, three of which i loved. the show on the whole was great, and it reminded me of just how much i love going to them. after some hemming and hawing, we decided to hop on the subway and head near her place and see what was going on there. we walked around and decided on a bar where the live music was good, but i haven't felt that old in, well, never. all those damned college kids! we stayed for a drink or two and wandered around the neighborhood for a while afterwards, stopping for the most delicious slice of pizza. but perhaps it was only so good because it was 3am.


sunshine






saturday morning i bummed around the u.n. before meeting vanessa for lunch and taking the airtrain to the airport.



remnants of a homeless guy's dinner on the subway


best sign ever, in my hotel room: bottom right hand corner says: "start up the fun" with a caricature of a couple under the sheets


at the united nations





all in all, it was certainly the best trip to new york i've ever had, and i can't wait to do it again.