when I was back in NYC, it felt like I'd never left, & the time spent in the grubby little backwater that I call home was a strange dream that I (eventually) woke up from. now that I'm back, & have been back to work at the prison for a few days, the trip seems similiarly ethereal.
anyway:
spent a good chunk of quality time with my Partner. she remains obstinately lesbian despite my persuasive (or annoying, whatever) arguments for "giving it a go again, for old time's sake.
we drove to Buffalo to check out the University. I'll think of something interesting to say about Buffalo...if it take's me the rest of my life (& it just might)
saw Niagra Falls. the first little telescopy thing that I put my money in didn't work.
saw a couple of bands at Arlene Grocery (altho who I REALLY wanted to see was John Langford at Tonic 'round the corner, but it was sold out. dang.)
saw Cabaret at Studio 54 (Neil Patrick Harris as the MC) seated next to an excruciatingly beautiful bespectacled frenchwoman I was much to shy to speak to. got expensively drunk instead.
walked around a lot (which is pretty much what I did during non-film stretches when I was living there before.) one jaunt took me thru the Bowery--in my time there I spent a chunk of time staying in a few of the flophouses there--I passed by one of them & decided to pop my head in to see if anything had changed--they had.for one thing, there was a sign.
(when I stayed there a few years ago there wasn't. you just kinda ended up there. it was, & still is, according to the jaunty little sign out front, called the White House Hotel.
before: the lobby looked like it'd been scrubbed with squid guts & marinated in urine for most of the 20th century. junkies propped up in the corner! puddles of vomit! dried squirts of blood on the wall!
now: a "koffee kart", an internet terminal. vending machines. a gentleman behind the desk who looked as tho he'd just finished a crossword puzzle, rather than chopping off the fingers of a DEA agent in a supply closet.
I was informed it's now a "youth hostel", & is now 34 bucks a night, as opposed to the nine I paid.
these kids today. pussies!
saw a couple of plays at "the Space", went to the "va-Va-Voom Room" at Fez, which was kind of disappointing, a peep show off Times square, which was VERY disappointing, but which cost a lot, so I suppose it was okay--hit the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Natural History Museum & a few galleries. drank a lot of beer thru straws out of paper bags. ate sushi. ate some more sushi.
one thing I forgot about NYC is my trouble with the subway. I know the syatem well enough that getting lost isn't much of a problem--falling asleep is. as soon as the car starts moving I'm out like a, as the saying goes, light. my partner lives out in the Bronx a few blocks from Yankee Stadium & my first night trying to get out there took about 8 hours, due to falling asleep thru the stop multiple times. (did this have something to do with the beer & the straws & the paper bags? I prefer to think not, thank you.)
ah well, it was fun.
I gotta go to bed. 'night, possums.
anyway:
spent a good chunk of quality time with my Partner. she remains obstinately lesbian despite my persuasive (or annoying, whatever) arguments for "giving it a go again, for old time's sake.
we drove to Buffalo to check out the University. I'll think of something interesting to say about Buffalo...if it take's me the rest of my life (& it just might)
saw Niagra Falls. the first little telescopy thing that I put my money in didn't work.
saw a couple of bands at Arlene Grocery (altho who I REALLY wanted to see was John Langford at Tonic 'round the corner, but it was sold out. dang.)
saw Cabaret at Studio 54 (Neil Patrick Harris as the MC) seated next to an excruciatingly beautiful bespectacled frenchwoman I was much to shy to speak to. got expensively drunk instead.
walked around a lot (which is pretty much what I did during non-film stretches when I was living there before.) one jaunt took me thru the Bowery--in my time there I spent a chunk of time staying in a few of the flophouses there--I passed by one of them & decided to pop my head in to see if anything had changed--they had.for one thing, there was a sign.
(when I stayed there a few years ago there wasn't. you just kinda ended up there. it was, & still is, according to the jaunty little sign out front, called the White House Hotel.
before: the lobby looked like it'd been scrubbed with squid guts & marinated in urine for most of the 20th century. junkies propped up in the corner! puddles of vomit! dried squirts of blood on the wall!
now: a "koffee kart", an internet terminal. vending machines. a gentleman behind the desk who looked as tho he'd just finished a crossword puzzle, rather than chopping off the fingers of a DEA agent in a supply closet.
I was informed it's now a "youth hostel", & is now 34 bucks a night, as opposed to the nine I paid.
these kids today. pussies!
saw a couple of plays at "the Space", went to the "va-Va-Voom Room" at Fez, which was kind of disappointing, a peep show off Times square, which was VERY disappointing, but which cost a lot, so I suppose it was okay--hit the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Natural History Museum & a few galleries. drank a lot of beer thru straws out of paper bags. ate sushi. ate some more sushi.
one thing I forgot about NYC is my trouble with the subway. I know the syatem well enough that getting lost isn't much of a problem--falling asleep is. as soon as the car starts moving I'm out like a, as the saying goes, light. my partner lives out in the Bronx a few blocks from Yankee Stadium & my first night trying to get out there took about 8 hours, due to falling asleep thru the stop multiple times. (did this have something to do with the beer & the straws & the paper bags? I prefer to think not, thank you.)
ah well, it was fun.
I gotta go to bed. 'night, possums.