N Y FOCKING C (I'm going next week)

[actwithoutwords]

Fuck off everybody else and do as I say. Go to the Bohemian Hall in Astoria in Queens. Its an old skool (school? Auld?) Czech-German?-style beer garden with lush Steiner-beers and a Wurst BBQ. Its not cultural or owt but if you want an afternoon getting pissed, talking to locals and eating meat then its fucking ace. Do it. It looks like a little pub on the way in but it seat hundreds outside. Best little half secret in New York.

Whoops. I forgot to mention that. Tis great. I used to live just down the road.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11379319

Typical- a week to go and New York suffers a BUG ATTACK

Fuck's sake.

It's going to be like Cloverfield isn't it? Exactly like Cloverfield. This isn't what I had in mind for my holiday at all.

[surreal]

Another one heading to NYC - going the week after the week after next... Got tickets for ComicCon which should be insane, and for Lord of the Rings at Radio City, with the full live orchestra doing the score along to the film.  That's on the evening of my birthday so cannot wait, should be spectacular.

I've been following @nerdyorkcity on Twitter, constant posts about free films, free food, stuff going on, etc. 

I'm also definitely going to be checking out this place for gifts: http://theevolutionstore.com/

Any advice on how much cash to take?  You know, actual currency rather than plastic.

[Puffin Chunks]

To be honest I'm not a massive fan of NYC. That said I did quite like this little bar in Tribeca:
http://nymag.com/listings/bar/anotheroom/

Nothing exciting, or special... it's just a bar. But I liked it. No tourists, just locals which is how I roll. Has the added bonus of being just round the corner from the Fire Station used for Ghostbusters, which is always worth a photo op.

The guy behind the bar was very helpful, so got a few tips for some nice off the beaten tracks pubs and restaurants, so if you're in the area grab a beer.

But it is just a bar.... just a bar.

[Doomy Dwyer]

Banjo Jim's in the East Village is not only a fine bar but has free music every night of the week. I saw a beautiful klezmer band there, one minute laughter, the next brought tears. But there's bands of every description there. Good looking gaff too as I recall. Also in the East Village is McSorleys bar which has two types of ale - light and dark. What more do you want? Good chicken and mustard sandwiches too, sawdust on the floor, gets busy though, so come early to avoid disappointment and get drunk sooner. There's a restaurant down the same road called Jimmy's (hey whaddayagunnado?) which has fairly cheap but good specials and some quality Belgian beers. What's the one with the gnome on the label? They do that.

[Mitch J Jr SD]

Don't forget to visit Harlem.

[El Unicornio, mang]

I would visit Harlem. It's actually a very safe place now, as are most of the boroughs which were once crime ridden such as Queens and the Bronx.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Posting live from NYC, 'cos it's NY FOCKING C.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

4.21 am? What in the FUCKING HELL is that all about?

Try 11.25pm muckers. That's a real MAN'S time for you.

[sirhenry]

Damnit, I was going to say go to Top of the Rock rather than the Empire State. Superb view.

Even better view is from the top of the World Trade Centre - from the roof you can look down on absolutely everything. Seeing a tiny Empire State Building looking like just any other building is strangely disconcerting.

[Uncle TechTip]

Bit of a problem with that.

Enjoy yourself in NYC, SS, I hear it's a concrete jungle where dreams are made of. In fact there's nothing you can't do, now you're in New York New York. man I loathe that song.

[Winjer]

Pictures, or it didn't happen.

[sirhenry]

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

I hear it's a concrete jungle where dreams are made of. In fact there's nothing you can't do, now you're in New York

This is an electric and powerful thing people must realise.

I'm back home now from the city of dreams; the metropolis of chaos. But now when I look out of my window it's raining outside because I have returned to shitty, shitty Britain.

What a week it has been. Only a week ago I was 35,000feet up in the air drinking Heineken watching South Of The Border while the Atlantic Ocean twinkled in the sunlight.

I had quite a full New York experience- started the holiday with a 2 hour queue at customs at JFK before this uber-dodgy cabbie decided he would use our taxi to escort his friend into Queens. 30 minutes followed with my sister and her friend going apoplectic because they feared they were going to be mugged or involved in a drive-by. It was quite a shitty area, and the cabbie should never have done that to first-time tourists to New York. I was reasonably relaxed about it, mainly because I've been looking for an adrenalin rush like a nice old mug or rape- they say if you haven't been raped by a fat black dude's alsatian dog in Queens, you haven't truly been to New York. My brother was trying to be the cool one about it, though that mainly consisted of saying 'man' after every single utterance.

Once that excitement died down we spent the first few days doing the obvious stuff. However I really appreciated having the time and freedom to do that, having spent my previous visit on a school trip being dragged around shopping malls and being told constantly that we 'can't go over there'.

The Met and the Natural History Museum were brilliant- definitely go to those (and don't pay for the former). Top of The Rock- brilliant. And I nearly didn't go. The Mets suck (not wanting to be too transadlandick there, but they really do suck hairy flabby balls, unfortunately never towards their baseball bats), but their new stadium is quite nice. Jogging around the reservoir at 7 in the morning, going for a run along Brooklyn bridge- brilliant. Gig at Webster Hall, brilliant. The Highline (a converted railway line they've turned into a walkway with gardens) is a brilliant idea.

The Crocodile Lounge....$3 for a beer and a full pizza? Everyone must immediately go there. It wasn't even busy!

$27 for a full metrocard for a week is terrific value.

Let's see....what bits were shit...erm. Oh, just Americanisms, particularly on the weather forecasts for some reason I found intensely annoying (a thunderstorm never has been and never will be a 'T-Storm' you fucking cunts). And that most of their TV is so so so so BAD. MSNBC with Olbermann and Maddow was like someone attaching a respirator to me, after the shouty, gimmicky clogged up irrational bile that was spewing out of every other televisual orifice. But even those two are just ridiculously partisan towards the Democrats.

And hey- what about that Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares restaurant dude who was found dead in the Hudson last week?

[Winjer]

Nice report man. Glad you had a good one. Laughed heartily at the 't-storm'. :-)

[VegaLA]

And hey- what about that Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares restaurant dude who was found dead in the Hudson last week?

And where, exactly, were you at the ETD?

[Neville Chamberlain]

Glad you had a good time, shoulders. Hope you don't mind, but here's a few of nearly 400 photos I took from my recent excursion...

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Great stuff. My sister has most of our photos so I have nothing to show as of yet.

The photo of those cranes at Ground Zero halfway down has a time-lapse feel to it despite it being shot normally. Maybe it's just the sheer amount of moving objects in the frame.