New York City

NYC had been on the horizon for ages and was now finally here!! We were seriously excited, not just to see the city, but also to see Bez, Bones and Harry who I hadn't seen for ages now.

Flight was easy and Bez ordered a car to pick us up from the airport, classic Bez, and a much classier entrance than we were used to. The others didn't arrive for a couple of weeks, so we saw a lot of stuff by ourselves in the day while Bez was at work, then he would organise stuff for dinner and going out at night. Brilliant!!

No respite as Bird had us straight into everything, couldn't ask for a better guide. Every day, we would get up late, Bez would already be at work, then he would ring in the arvo with a whole itinerary of cocktails, dinner and parties lined up, LEGEND. I wish I had all my photos, so annoying, but some of the highlights were... Bond bar sushi restaurant where we racked up a $500 bill as Bez and I got stuck into the saki. Some little cocktail bar in a basement on 7th avenue where we drank dark and stormies with real ginger and Angie briefly lost her marbles after thinking her drink was spiked, only to realise that she was just pissed. The stand up comedy place Ange and I went to where these dudes from Brooklyn got over excited, wouldn't shut up and the comedian ripped them to pieces and my first of 3 NBA games - NYK vs Milwaukee.

Luckily Ocy took lots of photos, and I went back with Angie's little camera to take some more of the stuff we had already seen. So everything is a little bit disjointed, but here it is... NYC.

This first lot is from Ocy's camera, so all after the other guys had arrived, roughly in order.




This was the first night Bones and the others got here, Ange and I had already been in NY for about 2 weeks.

Dinner in the West Village on the first night. Drinking Manhattans.

NYE in NYC!!!!!!!!! We made an executive decision to skip Times Square, we had heard bad reports about the whole experience from lots of people regarding the overcrowding, and thought it would just be a hassle, also it was minus 10'. So.... party at Birds place.

Nadia and Ocy
Pwee and a home made Mojito

pre drinks, watching the NBA.

Party girl
Bonesy, killing it. Party got a bit more loosened up, we watched the count down on TV and then had a dance and a sing before we eventually went out.

The boys getting loose.

Nadia

Angie showing off her sparkly eyes.

NYE went down hill after that when we tried to go out, way too late, with no plan in -10' temperatures.

After NYE, the next big event was Luke's 30th. Bez had the whole thing wired, from the limo to drive us around, to dinner, to the clubs afterwards.... Awesome night, here is a selection of the evening.

Started with pre drinks at Bez's place. He only arrived straight from Oz at about dinner time, had a shower, got changed and got straight into it, again, Beren = legend.

Bones opening his pressie from the boys. Chess set from Prague.

Group photo



Limo pulled up around 8pm as ordered by Bez, unbeknown to Lukey.


Limosine, B.I.G. style, with Angie looking smoulderingly glamourous in the back.

The Limo was sweet!! Bez had a route mapped out to go past a few of the sights by night. We picked up some champagne and started the night in cracking New York style.

Lambis on fire
Ditched the limo and hit up Stanton Social, where Bez had booked us for dinner. Amazing menu, great place.

Birthday boy

Dinner crew
So good to see the boys after 6 months away. Had a ball.

Next we moved to the clubs, possibly Kiss n Fly?? I think thats what it was called, dunno, went to so many bars and clubs that they all blurred into one after a bit.


Bez pulled out all stops in the celebrations.

The boys up in the club.....


...and the girls, up and about

The whirlwind continues!!! From New Years to Bones 30th and whatever big nights happened inbetween, (???) we were back at it the next night at Madison Square Garden to watch the Knicks take on the reigning champion Boston Celtics........ MADISON SQUARE GARDEN!!!!! THE KNICKS!!!! I was super excited. I remember thinking as I walked around that if it had have been 10 years earlier and I was 19, I probably would've passed out from excitement.




Bones, the No1 fan.

The Garden in all its glory. I did have some nice photos of me here, but some theiving bastard in Little Italy is enjoying those now.

The OC enjoying the circus. The Knicks got up in what was a big upset, was cool to see the home team win and I've always loved the Knicks. 1 childhood dream ticked off the list!

The city of New York is just so cool. There is a soul there like nowhere else Ive even been. New Yorkers are like a people all of their own. Love 'em.

NYC from the Brooklyn Bridge. I couldnt help but picture Spiderman perched somewhere evertime I looked at the skyline.

Bones on the Brooklyn Bridge.

Nice one of the 3 of us. Angie was sick as a dog at this point and had to stay home, but we had done the walk over the bridge ourselves anyway before the others arrived, so the only loss was that there are no photos of her on the bridge as they were in the stolen camera. What is even more annoying is that when Ange and I did the walk, we spend a whole day walking around Brooklyn on the other side. We liked it so much over there that we went back a few times. Sadly, I have no photos of Brooklyn. Some things to remember though with pics I lifted off the net...

- The Brooklyn pizza institution, Grimaldi's right under the Brooklyn Bridge

Grimaldi's



Williamsburg, cool boutiques, free pizza with beers at this bar - The Charleston.

Williamsburgh, full of record shops, boutiques, bars and other random stuff.


The cafe in Fort Greene where I had Peanut Butter Cheesecake. We found this place after just wandering through Brooklyn trying to find the Brooklyn Flea Market.


Looking for the fleamarket only to discover it had been moved.

We loved Brooklyn!!! If I ever lived in New York, I think I'd live in Brooklyn.

Beautiful old Brownstones in Brooklyn Heights.

View from Brooklyn bridge.

This lot are from another night out...


Lychee Martinis!!!! Poor Ange was so sick, but she braved it anyway and came out for a bit.

The next bunch of photos are just random sights of Manhattan that I took after the camera was stolen.


Chrysler building looking mysterious in the steam.

The Christmas tree at the Rockerfeller center just after Christmas.

Radio City Studios

The lobby where 2pac was shot, taken for Benny to see.

Times Square.

The New York subway is the best thing ever, it feels so cool down there, its dirty and rundown and old, but again, it has so much heart and soul. It feels so familiar too becasue you've seen it on so many movies i guess.


I took some really cool subway pics, but these are all Ive got left. 14th Street, near Bez's place.


The Subway station at 149th st Grand Concouse in The Bronx. Former home of the original, infamous writers bench. I went there to see it, but I think its been removed, nonetheless the vibe and the history was still there.

149th st in The Boogie Down.

Me on the subway.

Empire State Building on a foggy day.

Looking down the Manhattan streets is like looking down a huge gorge or something. The buildings just loom over on either side and engulf the street. It's in shadow most of the time.

A classic Spiderman kinda scene.

Central Park was amazing. It is so weird to move over the border from one of the most dense cities in the world into a huge park that actually feels quite remote at times.

The New York squirrels are the cockiest in the world. This guy wasn't frightened of me in the slightest, he would've eaten from my hand if I had anything for him.


Angie

The view of the buildings makes for great photos.


Here is a cool photo that really shows how defined the border between park and city is.

Angie and I had gone up to Harlem for an afternoon. I wanted to have a look around, and also wanted to find Rucker Park, a famous street basketball court. I never found the place, and all the locals I asked didnt know where it was, even in a basketball shop. Useless. Anyway, was cool to walk around that neighborhood that has seen so much, riots, civil rights movement, crack epedemic, epic streetball tournaments and much much more.

125th street still pulses with activity, weird and wonderful. We saw a tiny guy trying to pick a fight with a massive guy twice his size that was super funny, a guy tried to sell me some bootleg Wu Tang with a home made cover. And there were sneaker shops selling Air Force1's, known as Uptowns in this part of the world, every couple of doors.

125th Street.

Probably the best known landmark in Harlem is The Apollo Theatre. The Apollo has been synonymous with black music in New York for about 75 years.


The Apollo grew to prominence during the the pre-WWII years. In 1934, it introduced its regular Amateur Night shows hosted by Ralph Cooper. Billing itself as a place "where stars are born and legends are made," the slogan the theatre still uses today. The Apollo became famous for launching the careers of artists such as Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, James Brown, Diana Ross and The Supremes, Gladys Knight and The Pips, The Jackson 5, Patti LaBelle, Marvin Gaye, Luther Vandross, Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Ben E. King, Mariah Carey, The Isley Brothers. Lauryn Hill and Sarah Vaughan. Not a bad line up!!!

One hilarious feature of the Apollo is "the executioner" a man with a broom who would sweep performers off the stage if the highly vocal and opinionated audiences began to call for their removal. Amatuer night at the Apollo is an institution in Harlem and as it is still running to this day, I was dead keen to go. I tried to get everyone excited about it and the whole group of us headed uptown on the subway to 125th st.

The Apollo Theatre. They had a huge warm up production with singers and all sorts of stuff going on, they got people out of the audience to dance on stage to win a prize, most of them were really keen to get on, I was happy we were in the balcony and slunk right down in my chair.

The crowd were brutal!!! Each performer had one song to do, but in reality, they had about 20 seconds to impress before the audience would start booing and ripping them to pieces. So you better pick something that starts with a bang, or you gonna get crushed. The executioner is still there and he invents hilarious ways of booting the failed acts of the stage. Eventually a solo saxophonist in a white suit won the night, he was stoked. Great night out.

More NY sights...


Ghery's Guggenheim, another building I had studied at uni. Most of it was closed when we went which was disappointing.

Interior.


Guggenheim

The inside of the Met, where we had some nibbles and a glass of wine and listened to a string quartet play with Bez one afternoon, very civilised. The Met is massive and has some amazing exhibits, Bez summarized the place for us and took us to the most spectacular, nice one.

We went up to the Bronx also for an afternoon, mostly because I wanted to see the writers bench, the birthplace of modern grafitti and just have a stroll around the the borough where hiphop and rap music was pioneered. There wasnt a lot to do up there so our stay was brief.

The new Yankee Stadium in the Bronx to be opened in 09 I think.

The old Yankee Stadium, oozing with history and grit of a bygone era, right next door.

The Bronx.

A parting shot of the Brooklyn Bridge as seen from Downtown New York.

We are still so pissed off that all the photos are gone, becasue there were so many awesome ones of all the stuff that Angie and I did by ourselves before everyone else got there, uptown in Harlem, Downtown, Wall Street, SoHo, West Village, Lower East Side, Chinatown, Little Italy, Midtown and Times Square, all the shopping we did, 5th Avenue, the NBA store, Madison Square Garden, The Christmas windows at Saks, Brooklyn, Washington Square, Meatpacking District, The Flatiron District, The affluent Upper West Side, The Nets game I went to see in New Jersey, The Bronx etc etc we really covered a lot of territory but oh well, it's all stored in our heads anyway I guess.

I love New York so much!!!! If there was work there I would love to live there for a year or so, such a feel about the city, like nowhere else on earth. I will be heading back someday FOR SURE.

IheartNY