New York...where to begin?
New York was absolutely amazing.
It was so amazing. Overwhelmeing.
I can totally understand those T shirts and stickers now that you see everywhere (I love NY). Those people really mean it and I totally get it.
So how I got to NY was interesting.
I rocked up to the airport in Vegas on a Sunday night of course to be told i couldn't make my flight cause my cc had bounoced yet no one had told me that! The problem being was i only had so much cash on me - and no way to get more (easily) due to losing all the cards in my wallet when I lost my wallet. I did have a credit card no. (written down - the real card being at home in Australia) that I could book flights with - over the phone or internet...but there was NO internet at the Las Vegas airport!
So a phone call back to Australia - this is me actually on the phone to Australia talking to Dan - ensued where Dan O'Connell sat at a computer and attempted to find and book a flight for me out of Vegas that night...! Thanks Dan. However that didn't happen... and i went back to the twins place - luckily I still had the keys and spent the night there.
The odd thing was I was really not comfortable with going to NY at this point. I think maybe i was tired and also everywhere i'd been I knew people - but NY would be a place I knew no body! Anyway it was a pretty strong feeling and usually I can get around most problems but this one I just felt myself yielding to as I faced the reality that I would spend another day in Vegas! Damn! Although...the next day in VEgas was great! I hung out with a very lively Spanish friend I'd made - Jan Carlo.
So back at the aiport Monday night now - take 2 - this time I had booked the flight and it had not been rejected and I left Las Vegas to fly to the East coast at 11pm. THere was one stop over... which was ok. But there is a 3 hour difference in time so by the time I arrived in NY I'd sllept only maybe 30mins and it was now 8.30 in the morning. The thing with the states is it's so big when you are flying places , cheaper flights are usually to be had if you connect! So it might be 500 to fly direct from one side of the country to the other - but only 200 something if you make stops! That turned out to be something i did on the way back - 2 stops and 3 planes to get a cheap fare. If you want to save money and don't mind wasting a few hours in an aiport - hell why not??!
So indulge me with a bit of a side story now... the story goes - I had found this amazing coat in San Fran that I loved but it was 350 US dollars. So it was damn hot but that ammount of money equates to more than $400 Australian dollars! A lot. Now my thoughts on buying winter coats is that you should always have a great one... and if you buy a good one it will last you years and years... [Yes Ed that Diesel coat that cost almost a weeks pay is still going strong and looking great! hehe] :) All good but this coat is a LOT Of cash for me so i'm contemplating it... It will be perfect for the cold of NY (i predicted and also damn good for London next) I deliberated though - and well he who hesitates is lost as they say and well when i lost my wallet and all my cash systems - I was pretty much lost! So of course with no bank cards I could not very well spend the small ammount of cash I had on this coat! I had to hold off...
I ended up fixing the cash situation with my sister Fiora rocked up to San Fran and we all travelled to L.A. I got mum to get money out of my Australian bank account and put it into Fioras and we withdrew it through her card in L.A. I'm thinking i'll get a coat in L.A or Vegas ...but no where has the kind of warm coats that i've seen in San Fran. And I LOVE that San Fran one now - I want it! Probably because losing my wallet i can't have it... hmm.
There are no good warm coats to be had anywhere (also partly because LA and Vegas are not as cold as San fran) so I think i'll just get one on the first day of NY. Why not? And I want the one I've seen at Bloomingdales in San Fran now!!!
here actually is a pic of that coat from San Fran - i got the guy at the shop to take a picture on my phone of it - so i could send the pic back to Australia for a yes or a no - this was while i was contemplating spending so much money on it should i/shouldn't i??
So finally I am landing at the New York aiport - on some 30 seater little plane landing at JFK - looking out the window thinking gee it looks pretty warm and sunny... and seeing as I now I really want that coat I saw at bloomingdales in San fran (for London) maybe I'll just wait until i get back to San Fran... I'm sure it won't sell! Yeah I'll see if I can get by this week in NY without a new jacket/coat.. It doesn't look so cold out! Famous last words.
I get off the plane and for all the sunshine etc it's pretty cool then get a cab to Meryls house.
Now Meryl is this amazing and totally kind and lovely Australian woman I met on the internet. I put an add on craigslist.com which is this great site for all sorts of stuff (good everywhere but best in the states) and said I was an Australian guy looking for someone to rent me their spare room! And Meryl answered....I did this as cause I didn't know anyone in NY i thought it might be nice just to be in someones home. Especially NY as I was having some thoughts about how safe etc I would be on my own. So the deal was I was going to pay Meryl 200 bucks for her spare room for the week - perfect!
In retrospect, thank god I got a cab to Meryls...
I knew Meryls Street but not the street no.
I'd emailed her the night before and asked her to send the address and her phone number to me. Unfortunately I couldn't check my emails at any of the aiports. That was fine i was thinking I'll get a cab to the end of her street and there will be an internet place right there... well as I have found in North American cities there are NOT very many internet places. It seems EVERYONE has a blackberry - or every third person you see has one or they have internet at home! So of course there is NO internet at the end of Meryls street. Nothing. I get out of the cab at 10am, have to check in with Meryl within the hour as she is going to rehearsals - she's a jazz singer - and there is no F internet anywhere. That's ok except... it's the coldest day i've ever lived in my life. Bar none I reckon (even going to the snow was warmer than this) AND I am dressed completely inappropriately. Completely!
So I am standing at the corner ot her street West 152nd Street with no internet. That's cool I reckon I'll just walk a block or two in the FREEZING cold and find a place to check my emails...
It is so cold. Damn cold. People have coats, gloves, scarves, earmuffs, beanies, hoods, scarves wrapped around their heads! Even balaclavas! I have a denim jacket and jeans!
A denim jacket and jeans. No gloves/no scarf/no beanie or hat NO beautiful warm San Fran coat - nothing! Nothing! hahaha...!
I start walking and ask at a few shops along the way that look like they should know where the internet is. None of them know. They all say there is no internet around here. None!
So it's probably best to explain that I am in a poorer part of New York right now. It's Harlem. Where all the black people used to live. there are heaps of black people here still. Yeah we got hip hop - homie clothes stores on the corners, all sorts... but also nowadays a lot of people from the dominican republic and other places. Lots of immigrants.
Harlem neighbourhood action:
So everyone i'm asking is saying no internet until like far away...
So I'm FREEZING, walk 15 blocks through harlem with both my f* bags I am walking into shops on the look our for an internet place not being able to talk practically it is SO COLD! My hands arn't functioning properly! The cold is prohibitive. I am looking at the clock thinking - you are exhausted from flying all night without much sleep - it's freezing and if you don't get in touch with Meryl who is expecting you before 11am she will leave and you'll be stuck outside all day in the cold! Starbucks or Borders was looking good I was telling myself...
Finally - freezing - grateful and happy - I get email. Get the address. Call Meryl and go to meet her.
I walk. 15 street blocks back up "Broadway". She comes down from her apartment and says hello. Susses me out invites me up! Her place is a small two bedroom with floor boards refurbished - no view - in Harlem. It's fantastic! And WARM! So WARM!
Meryl is fabulous! A Queenslander! Who was awarded the 3 year performing Visa to the states based on one of her music CDs. Pretty prized thing to get if you are a performer wishing to get a US working VISA! We immediatly hit if off and she begins berating me (in a good way) on how inapproriately I am dressed! But she's right and she's serious and very concerned! She goes to rehearsals - I go to bed exhausted. Later that day Meryl returns from rehearsals with a scarf from the lost property of the builing in which she rehearses ( a D&G one too! noice! ) lends me a spare pair of gloves, calls her gay friend to meet me the follwing day and loan me hats/jumpers the works. Totally takes care of me. I am so blessed and so looked after!
Thank you Meryl!
I eventually leave her place get a coat from Bloomingdales - but of course the NY store which resides in a MUCH colder enviornment than the west coast of the country has limited choice of very warm coats as it's the end of the season and they are all gone! Goddam! So i buy the first one the sales assistant puts on me. A black trench coat like affair. Very New YOrk I think and not very me. It's fine. It's freezing and I'm not leaving without a coat.
Thank god for being warm.
Prohibitive. REally. The cold is prohibitive!
I've never been so cold. I adjust over the next few days and no day is as cold as this one... I find that even days Meryl is freezing, in my new coat, scarf (which she suggested I keep - thanks again Meryl) her gloves etc I don't feel it. I feel it when i go inside a shop! The cold retreating from my hands, feet, legs, clothing, face like some invisible ghost, peeling off onto the floor in the heat. I can feel it leave me... like wallpaper peeling from a wall.
The next day in New York I get up and Meryl is gone but she calls to tell me it's snowing and that I'll need Long Johns! Long Johns I say! Those hideously old man things my Dad used to own in moth eaten bonds white and thermolactyl navy blue and probably still does - my parents would consistently offer that I should have as a child! Ew no way! ARe you serious! For those not in the know - Long Johns are like warm woven stockings for men. You wear them under your pants. Keeps you very warm!
I tell Meryl - thanks - but not to worry I will go buy some today! She tells me - "no it is snowing today and it is freezing - you cannot leave the house without them... go to my room there is a basket full of my underwear - in it you'll find a pair of white silk long johns..." I'm thinking... O K do i really want to go through a womans underwear pile and choose something to wear at her instruction.... But Meryl has been SO kind to me that i decided to follow her instructions - even though this will consistute the first time i've ever 'seriously' worn womens underwear ;)
I enter her room and see a basket by the dresser full of bras and other assorted things. Oh dear! I fossick through the basket twice and turn up a pair of long white silk stocking like Long Johns, exactly as Meryl has described. This must be it - I tell myself - the only thing that fits the description... complete with lace around the ankles - hmm nice unusal! I have a big sigh and think - That's ok - no one will EVER see me wearing these!!!
I was pretty right - later in the day meeting Meryls friend Richard who loaned me some of his boyfriends clothes - I had to show him my lacey ankles for both our amusement - it was just too funny! hahahaha
I bought my own long johns that day too.
Wow - don't underestimate the power of longjohns!
So far my adventures in the states had been pretty unplanned and fun - hanging out doing whatever felt right with friends or at least people I knew really well. I was kinda a bit anxious about visiting the states... had ideas of being jumped, mugged, drink spiked! Too many COPS and CSIs I think... I heard that everyone gets mugged at some time in their life in NY! Shootings! Scary! Big city! Don't know anyone - AHHH!!!
But it was nothing like that at all. I mean I am not thick or careless so i kinda didn't put my self in situations which i thought might be bad... like staying out till mega late and walking home through Harlem etc. But overall I loved it
got up the empire state building - thinking oh yeah this will be ok - it was amazing.
Notice new york style trench coat.
Manhattan is flat and from the top of the empire state you can see so much. If you look you can see the shadow of hte building in one of these photos, against some other buildings in manhattan. And you can see the Hudson River. The other shot is me on top of the building. Across the Hudson river... to Long Island.. amazing... Manhattan is an island and comprises the main part of new york. New York is made up of 5 boroughs (Queens/Brookly/Bronx/Staten Island) but as Richard Meryls gay friend said to me: All the good stuff is in Manhattan - you won't need to go anywhere else! And he is right.
Saw the Statue of liberty... Ground Zero (site of the twin towers) which was a bit emotional actually... It's a building site. There are pictures and a plaque with the names of all the people that died on that day.
St Pauls - a tiny church opposite the site that is hundreds of years old. Meryl told me the church is set in a small garden/cemetery. Meryl told me that a huge tree in front of St Pauls saved the church from ANY damage during that crisis. That buildings all around the site sustained heavy damage to windows, facades etc but the tree saved the church from any damage. Not even a scratch. The tree was split in half by the shrapnel that came down and subsequently died. There has been some dialogue about people getting terminally sick since that time... people that work in the area. They call it 911 syndrome. I guess they are meaning toxins were released on that day through that destruction poisioning the air. There is talk about it in the press here and the public generally know. I was lead to believe there will be some kind of public announcement soon regarding it.
I found being in NY that it was somewhat of a cultural overload. Like I said at the begining of this - overwhelming.
It was very different in many ways from the other places i'd been in the states. It was bigger, more crazy, there were so many more different races and nationalities everywhere - more than i think i've ever seen anywhere at once. The climate was really challenging at first and I didn't know anyone so well that I could just 'hang out' in their 'zone'. That was all good though and I didn't feel at all like some happy snapping tourist - althoguh I was. But I felt i fit in and was comfortable but kept thinking how huge and exciting this city is. I think something has to be said for the concentration of people in New York too. I mean it's an island (manhattan island) maybe that has something to do with it. All these people concentrated on this small yet not that small space.
Got out to some clubs a few times..
Met an Australian guy living in NY via craigslist - i put an add on there asking someone to take me out which proved to be a good idea too. Tom is an Australian who has lived 5 years in London and 6 months in New York now so he is just getting to know the place too. Meryl Tom and I went to the dinner that seinfeld is based on for lunch one day. sorry no pic! But it was a funny place. Bad food. Outside looked right - inside looked nothing like it at all! The place is called Toms Diner on the corner of Broadway and W 142nd street.
The streets in New York are numbered. There is an invisible dividing line down the middle of Manhattan island, streets that fall on the east of this line (through central park) are called East and streets on the west side are called West. The number of streets starts at 1st street from the south end of manhattan island and increases as you move towards the north.
Avenues are numbered from east to west but run from north to south. So 1st avenue is the first in a sequence of avenues coming from the east side of the island - but it runs north to south - opposite to what the streets run. Then they have named streets. Such as Broadway/Amsterdam etc.
But most streets are numbered.
It made me think about that fabulous U2 song, "Where the streets have no name".
Was this song written about NY?
Thursday night was the new broadway musical wicked which i was so exicted to see - and though i thought it was good, it wasn't as exciting as I thought it was going to be. I found myself in the city after this and pretty up for going out so I hit up Esquilita, a spanish club and then another one called Splash!
Richard - Meryls gay friend had circled on a few pages in the local gay press which clubs to check out when he had loaned me some clothes. So i hit up Esquilita first... the write up was something like "mamma and papi show their gold proudly... " something something. Richard said it was a hispanic club, meaning - spanish/mexican/latino etc. I thought ok - it's close to Wicked - why not? hahahaha...Ok so this was Esquilita. I'm the only white or asian guy. Everyone is black or mexican or something - wearing Black gangsta puffa jackets etc and i'm in a yellow skivvy... WITH a tight black hooded top over the top - although you can still see my yellow skvvy! yeah... so i didn't stay that long there...
Splash was pretty funny.
I ended up having this hilarious conversation with a guy who I thought was pretty cool dancing on the dance floor. He eventually told me he wasn't going to talk to me cause his friend had picked i wasn't from NY based on my clothes - and why talk to someone not from here - they'll just leave the next week?! Ok... Also they thought I wasn't from NY cause none of my clothes matched!! They said my shoes looked too grungy - my top made me look like i was a clean cut muscle boy from Chelsea (a mini suburb on manhattan island) and something else - oh yeah I wasn't wearing all brands!
I was having the best time observing these guys - we had a chat and that was good. I was laughing so hard at all they were on about in a polite way of course.
BTW not all the guys i managed to chat to out were this full on!!!!!! Thank god.
San Fran the guys were cool - L.A was a bit snobby - NY as i've written seriously snobby but i guess you get that anywhere! I had some great laughs out with locals here too so it wasn't all bad.
Something interesting and maybe that is specific to me now - was that the Americans all seemed very rooted in America. I mentioned to a few I met and chatted with that I was on the way to London and I got from talking to them that that kind of movement is beyond what most of them would consider or do. Almost like the US is what they know and they need know nothing more...
Another random thing about America is that all the gay clubs have podium dancers! Serious lap dancer podium style dancers! I saw this in L.A, VEgas and NY. The club i was in on this night - Splash - had trashy boys - but on Saturday Tom - the Australian guy I met and I went to this very cool club called Mr Black. A downstairs bar/dance bar. This place had hot guys walking around in tracksuit bottoms and no tops to start with. Then they got up and danced together. Danced is maybe the wrong word. They kind of made a human sandwich and just moved around. then they came out later without Tracksuit pants - only underpants and did the same.
oh, so the idea is you put money down their shorts or jocks... which a lot of people did. In fact maybe even in LA with Ben I put a buck in this guys jeans just cause it was too funny not too! :)
Ben took this photo - but seriously it was too funny not too. I was laughing the whole time I did it. Anyway... so then the guys at Mr Black came out wearing nothing - but HOLDING their jocks overthemselves. haha at least these guys were hot.
That was great fun going out. I just couldn't get over how many gay men their are in NY - and of course i guess that means the world! and also how many handsome men! There are a lot of handsome gay guys in NY. Wow. A lot.
So here are some final observations about the states...
99% of doors open towards you. this is opposite to Australia and after learning to do it - now i have to unlearn it as it's also opposite in the UK. In the US most shops/banks etc the door only opens towards you if you are in the street. Odd. So if you push it it won't move and you look like an idiot to everyone on the other side of the glass - or a tourist.
Americans are loud! Very loud. Annoyingly loud together. I saw some great 'clueless' action in a mall in LA. Cashed up. Teen. Clothes, Jewellrey, accesories, style? her style was I got the money-style!, She had the works - just not little paris hilton style toy dog in a bag. But she was on a mobile talking in a super loud annoying voice. It was Alicia Silverstones character from clueless - completely - she had a best friend in tow and even a gay best friend with her. It was V funny.
Americans like to shop - a lot. A real lot. They seem to work too alot too. Shops don't close till 8pm every night except Sunday though. That's a good thing.
Tipping. I was amazed by the ammount of money that changes hands every day in tips. Americans tip for like anything. Even at starbucks - you might give the person a tip who punches in your coffee order...I know( what was i doing at starbucks right?) I'm thinking - what did they really do for you service wise except their job?? The arguments are that the wages are too low to not get tips. I get this this but reckon it is some economic conspiracy to keep things cheap in the country. The outrageous thing is the Tax office in the states - estimates how much tips you make and then TAXES you on the TIPS each year! That was the explanation i was given why some waiters etc get upset if you don't tip. Because they are taxed on tips (Or the tax offices' estimate of a percentage of what they would have made) even if they don't make the tips. Wrong!
Lots of people have ipods/apple computers and blackberrys. Americans love apple.
Plane travel seems more dodgy than Australia...!
There arn't many internet places anywhere!
There are a lot of poor people.
People are very apologetic and if you bump them will automatically apologise to you... more so than back home.
Americans in NY spit on the street. LIke in China - but not that bad. It's gross.
Gerkins and coleslaw?? Seriously now - we only ordered coffee!!
There are no public toilets (not many) so hit up starbucks/mcdonalds - everyone else does!
50% of Americans thought I was English. I guess if you speak with an accent and are not American you must be English!? Although the guy in Borders in NY knew I was Australian! He said a lot come in.
It was great to see such a strong intergration of Asians (in San Fran esp and NY) and black people into society. Australia ain't multicultural - we're trying!
Eveyone has to pay for cable. If you don't pay you don't get TV in the states.
There are a lot of carbs and LOTS of junk/processed foods!
Hot Dogs are yum! Just don't think about what's in them...
I loved New York I am definitely going back.
Maybe I'll even live there.
