NYC 2015: Part I

Usually I like to be in a place for longer, but two plus weeks in New York was better than nothing right? Originally I was planning to AirBnB a spot but since I was only going to be there a few weeks, I relied on the kindness of friends to house me (as usual). I didn’t have many specific plans once I hit the city but in an effort to document what I ended up doing, here we go!

First off, I took a non-direct flight from San Diego to New York, which turned out to be a huge mistake. Due to a three hour delay on the front end, I missed my connection in Philadelphia and was almost stuck at the airport there for the night. Instead, I ran from gate to gate, in out-of-breath sprints, and eventually got a ride to Newark. From there, I took a cab into the city — minus luggage since that had gone on to LaGuardia — and got to my friend’s house in Alphabet City around one in the morning. Although it was late, we did our basic catch up and I found out that not only was my friend not in a relationship — when I left, he was! — but he was also recently unemployed and taking some time to figure out his next move. I believe the next morning V bought an extra Playstation controller for Rocket League, even though we never ended up playing it...

The next afternoon, in a move that threatened to tear apart the fabric of reality, I went to the gym. Yes, I put on my work out shoes — same as my regular shoes — and got in forty minutes of real deal exercise. V’s work out routine was this Japanese thing (“tabata”) where you do a set of something for twenty seconds, rest for ten, and then go again. Think lots of push-ups, jumping jacks/stars, and tricep dips. It was mostly fun of the first bit, but by the end I was ready to collapse.

For the next few days I bragged to everyone how much I’d worked out. And vowed to not do it again. Once a decade is plenty.

I generally don’t tell anyone I’m in town until I’m actually there, so the next day I started texting people that I’d arrived! Cue the excitement. Okay, not really. As it turned out, my friend was in town from Chicago and was doing drinks with a number of our friends already. Perfect! After stopping by a friend’s ex’s fashion week show, we went down to Flatiron Hall to say hello. I’d missed J’s wedding back in June, and totally regretted it, so this was a nice surprise, being able to catch her back in New York.

And then since I needed to dance right away, we (my friend from Taiwan who was here for the week, and M, who lives in Greenpoint) hopped in a cab to Williamsburg and hit up Kinfolk 94 and eventually The Tender Trap. Both places were pretty empty but the music at Kinfolk was stellar — at one point there was PM Dawn. We also met a close-up magician who was in the same Magic Castle training class as Neil Patrick Harris. I guess if I could make poker chips and foam balls disappear and reappear, I’d bring props to the club too. The only other people dancing were us three, the magician, and a bunch of lesbians who were making out in every corner and empty space of the dance floor. Kinfolk: always great music, always a different crowd.

Sometimes people take my “I sleep all day” statements as hyperbole. As V found out, I really did sleep late into the afternoon and evening. On Friday I rolled out of bed at like six, prepped up and headed toward K-Town to meet with M. She was already downstairs at her neighborhood bar and we chatted with her friend for a bit about his girlfriend problems and the challenges of going from six blocks to an uptown/downtown romance. Also, when does someone get key status? Their simple opinion: Never, until you live together. Harsh.

Afterwards, M took me around the corner to a steakhouse where we sat in a long line of two tops against the wall. Each interior seat was occupied by a woman, and on the outside seat was planted a man. Like maybe ten couples, all just sitting in a line. So weird. The couple next to us were on the worst date ever, as the guy lectured on and on while the woman sat quiet and displayed little to no interest. I was sure they weren’t on a first date, as the guy was being truly boring, but M assured me it was a first date. It’s a tough (dating) world out there ladies, cut bait on a mansplainer when you can!

Later on, I hopped over to meet up with K&S, and then we walked over to No Malice Palace for dancing. In line, K started talking to the people behind us and they turned out to be quite nice and fun. She simply had told them some friends of hers that had gotten out of line would be right back, which was a very polite thing to do. NMP is a freaking hotbox but the music is always good and it’s basically a no fail fun place, assuming you can get in. A couple more people joined us inside and I even ran into a friend’s brother, whom I had met last year right around this time. This was the party I’d been looking for, with the right people, the right music, and the right atmosphere. Thanks New York!

Since drinking leads to early mornings for me, I got up at 11AM-ish and scrolled through Facebook, trying to see who was in New York. As it turned out, my ex-roommate M was going to be moderating a panel at Photoville, New York’s largest photographic event out in DUMBO. I got myself revved up and out the door to make the early afternoon panel on migration and statelessness. (Read M’s bio, it sounds so damn impressive. Like who are you?!) What I learned was that photographers really shouldn’t talk about their work. I mean, no, they should, but it’s difficult to separate out the photographer from the photos. Like one the panelists just didn’t articulate himself well and I couldn’t take his work seriously. And another photographer, whose work was clearly amazing, seemed to lose some of the audience due to his thick accent. “Let the work speak for itself,” seems to apply in these cases.

After the panel, two of M’s friends cruised the rest of the exhibition with us and then we booked it to Chinatown for soup dumplings. As it turned out, my favorite couple/people from San Francisco were in town, after participating in the Labor Day 9-Man tournament the weekend before. They met up with us for dumplings too and it was one of those times when strangers come together but the discussion doesn’t skip a beat. Everyone got along, we were talking about interesting things, and there was just no lull in the conversation or boredom, etc. It was amazing! Afterwards, we didn’t want to end the day there so hopped to a bar for a quick drink and then rolled up to K-Town for some bonchon. And then after fried chicken, we went down to Revision, right next to V’s apartment, for some dancing and drinks. All in all, a perfect day slash night! (A handful of us chased the night to a few other bars, but that was likely a mistake. “Don’t chase the night,” as Worldwide Wes / Bill Simmons says.)

It made me think that the long percolating Before Sunrise-like movie I’d want to make should really be about a group of people. After all, those were the times I liked best about New York. How you can just travel from place to place, picking up new people, and having the night go wherever. It’s not something that happens in other cities, as far as I’ve experienced, and I associate that sort of time with only New York. It would be a challenge to get that kind of chemistry depicted on-screen but that’s an interesting twist on the genre right?

With Sunday here, I woke up early yet again and met up with JMZ and Jenn in Noho for brunch. We were tucked into a back corner booth at Cafe Select, and it was a lovely place to take down their Croque Monsieurs. Afterwards, we waited around for P to show up, as this was her day off. P’s new restaurant had been getting brilliant reviews for months and her schedule was even more slammed than usual but we got to spend most of the afternoon and early evening chilling out. A true rarity.

Meanwhile, my Taiwan friends were in Soho and after leaving JMZ, Jenn, and P, I met up with them and went to dinner at some Italian spot. J and C were in town from Taipei to help their aunt move from Queens to the Upper East Side, and although it was exhausting, J was still down to do stuff at night. After dropping off C in the UES, we went downtown to grab Citibikes and I took her on her first New York ride, across the Williamsburg Bridge, cruising by the construction that has overtaken WB’s west side. On the way back, we trolled through East Village for pizza, falafels, and hot dogs.

That was the first four days and I'd basically covered all the things I wanted to do in New York already. What's next?!