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NYC - The City that Never Beats (a Buki)

PostPosted: June 16th, 2009, 12:32 am
by TheStuboy
Okay, so some of you know I went to NYC over the weekend.

For being my first time there, here is my review of places we went to:

FYI this is a long read!

Laguardia Intl Airport:
Its a small yet confusing airport where stu old ladies don't know how to operate machines, and TSA agents beat manthas in "the machine". Welcome my mantha, welcome... to the Machine. Otherwise, pretty traditional airport, just really crowded.

Marriot Laguardia:
Thx to Kenzie's discount, we got to stay here mucho cheaper than it was. Marriots are notoriously expensive, and lack a lot of things cheaper hotels have, like better pillows. There was a Muslim festival going on while we were there, so the whole place was full of Art Maliks.

NYC Subway System:
Really fast and surprisingly not that scary. We took it all over the city, and were able to walk everywhere else. For 7 dollars a day, you can't beat taking the Subway. Just don't throw a Buke off the platform as the third rail would fry her. There were some hobos on the train, but only a few. We had some trouble with the Metrocards, but it was all solved. It may seem confusing, but you just get on the train that is going the direction you want to go, bring a map, and you'll be okay.

Times Square:
Times Square is a lot smaller than you think it is. But it does look like it does on TV and in movies. Just more crowded. We saw where the ABC studios are, as well as MTV, and where the ball drops every year. It is right at 42nd street and about 7th avenue. There are so many theaters in the area, you could go see Gay Side Story any time you want.

"Top of the Rock Observatory" Rockefeller Center:
Instead of waiting for hours on end to get to the top of the Empire State Building, I decided we should go here instead. For 20 dollars you can ride an elevator 70 stories up and you get a cool view. See some of the pictures on my facebook for what I'm talking about. It was cool! We ate lunch at a place called Lenny's in the basement of Rock.

Central Park:
No thanks to a stu Puerto Rican Parade, the whole city was practically blocked off, and we had trouble getting around. We walked from Rockefeller Center to Central Park (not that far actually) and walked around the park where we ate lunch. Central Park would take days to walk through, but we managed to find a few famous spots. Most notable was the Plaza hotel used in Home Alone 2.

Wall Street:
Pretty boring actually. There really isn't much to do down this far, except see the NYSE and where George Washington got inaugurated. We almost missed the Subway train that leads to here.

WTC Site:
I have to admit, seeing where the WTC was made me cry for a few moments. I'm not kidding. There is nothing noteworthy of the site yet, but in 2 years or so it should look completely different. The Freedom Tower has broken street level, and where WTC 7 was imploded, a new tower stands already. It was so hard to believe that had I been there 9 years earlier, I would have been looking up at the WTC towers. It was very sad.

City Hall:
Nothing special, just typical city. It reminds me a lot of Chicago.

Chinatown:
Kenzie's sister wanted her to bring back a purse, and we decided to check out Chinatown. Needless to say, after walking forever to a Subway, when we arrived, I was scared. Chinatown is incredibly dirty, with trash in the gutters and all over the place. There are a lot of street dealers that want you to buy cheap stuff.

Buying the purse:
We were greeted by a Chinese lady who was selling purses. She told us to follow her, and we did. She took us a block over, cautiously watching for police, and we were brought to a minivan. Inside the minivan, she had us sit, and look at a large collection of purses. We picked one, but couldn't get out yet until the lady made sure the coast was clear. We purchased a purse for 40 dollars that normally would have cost in the 1000s. Not a bad deal.

Soho/Little Italy:
We walked from Chinatown north to Little Italy but found we were in Soho. Soho is a shopping district and there are some famous stores there. Kenzie knows more of them than I do, I don't watch Gaytime TV. The neighborhood is a little better and not as dirty as Chinatown.

After walking for a little while longer, we headed back on the subway to Times Square to get ready for the networking party we came there for.

Walking from Times Square to 12th avenue took about half an hour, as it was 5 blocks to the west. We were walking behind a local couple, and the stories we heard were hilarious. Every other word was f**k this, and f**k that.

Lucky Strike Lanes/The Networking Party:
The location of the ACEFEST networking party was the Lucky Strike Lanes, at the corner of 12th Ave, and 42nd Street. This is right across the road from the Hudson River, which is the dirtiest stinkiest most polluted river ever.
It was an average bowling alley, only the party had a dress code. We were the first ones there, and from the get go, it looked like it was going to be a bust.

Unfortunately the advertising of the party was a bit misleading. There were no famous actors/producers/filmmakers there. What there were were people like me, looking to get into the business.

I got a bunch of business cards, and handed out my resume to a lot of people, but again, there were really only two "big" people at the party.
One was a talent agent, who might give me a call, and another was a distributer who wanted to buy my film.

He told me to send him the film, he'd like to buy it. I'm not going to give it away for free.

There was a DJ at the party, and he had the music up waaay too loud. The general synopsis was just that, whats the point of a networking party if you have music and you can't hear anybody talking?

We bowled two games before leaving at about 11:30.

I tried hailing a cab, but none of them were stopping so we were forced to walk 5 blocks back to Times Square to get on the subway.

NYC Subway @ Night:
I'm sure you've all heard that riding the Subway at night isn't a good idea, but it wasn't actually that bad. Granted, it was a Sunday night, and it wasn't that busy. We made it back to the stop that the bus took us to earlier that day to get on the train.

The train took us to Queens, where Laguardia is.
Queens is pretty run down, and all of the stores are locked solid at night. We took a cab, I wasn't going to deal with waiting in that neighborhood.

The cab driver took the long route as usual, but it was only 7 bucks for a about 5 miles.

This morning we flew back to SLC. The flights were pretty uneventful, except that the plane to Minneapolis from LGA took forever, and we were almost late to the next plane to SLC. For the last hour, I was forced to hear some stupid kid cry every five minutes.

So that's the trip in a nutshell.

I would like to go back to NYC one day, with more time to really see the city. We did see the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island from afar, but there are too many other things to do that would take days to do.
Its a cool city, even though its crowded, dirty, and stinky. Chicago still beats it as a cooler city, but I can now say I've been to NYC and have seen the Atlantic Ocean.

Hea!

NYC gets 4 stars out of 5. Check out my facebook page for this note and pictures.

Chinatown

PostPosted: June 17th, 2009, 10:52 pm
by moviechick
We were hardly in Chinatown. Once we got that purse, you dragged me around the block to the subway remember?

this is totally random (my stu day)

PostPosted: June 17th, 2009, 11:27 pm
by moviechick
just so all of you know 7 30 am is 7.... 3.......0...... and if you can't get a 6 ft long ethernet cable 2 standard ones should be enough. Also regular nachos means that the cheese is melted ON TOP of the chips, yes you still get chicken or beef and you still get olives and jalapenos. And when I say it's against Utah state law to bring a glass of wine with your room service what the hell makes you think that it's ok to go to the restaurant and bring it up to your room (P.S. if anyone is wondering the cheapest 1/2 bottle of wine is 24 bucks plus a service charge and tax is added on and that's for 2-3 glasses)