August 19, 2004 [Thursday]......Movies in the Park 2
Finished work late tonight so when I arrived at Washington Square Park, the outdoor screening of Ghostbusters was well underway. Another movie set in New York, and again on the Upper West Side. Plenty of people sitting on the lawn area, many with their dogs lying next to them quietly. One thing for sure, New Yorkers love to watch movies that are set in New York.
posted by Unknown @ 5:18 PM
August 18, 2004 [Wednesday]......Movies in the Park 1
Every week during summer there are free outdoor movies playing in different parks around the city. One of the main venues is Bryant Park (see previous photo) where they show old movies on Monday nights. Another that I went up to tonight is held in Riverside Park on the Upper West Side. They were playing the Tom Hanks movie "You've Got Mail" which itself was set and filmed on the Upper West Side. There were around 150 people gathered sitting on the grassy slope opposite a temporary screen that is set up.
posted by Unknown @ 5:10 PM
August 14, 2004 [Saturday]......Isamu Noguchi
Went over to Long Island City (which is in Queens) to the Isamu Noguchi Garden Museum this afternoon. Isamu Noguchi was primarily a sculpture artist who died in 1988. He also designed some well-known furniture in the 1940s and 1950s including paper lamps and the famous Noguchi coffee table.
The garden museum contains a large collection of his stone sculptures set in a converted old factory and a very nice garden area. It kind of seemed in the middle of nowhere but seemed to have no lack of visitors today.
Afterwards we walked back via the Socrates Sculpture Park where you can look back to Manhattan. On the way back to the subway, we stopped in at White Castle to get some of those burgers, especially after we just had watched the "Harold & Kumar go to White Castle" movie the other day.
posted by Unknown @ 3:16 PM
August 13, 2004 [Sunday]......Pool Party
After work I went over to the Chelsea Art Gallery district and the Yossi Milo Gallery. They had a show on called "Pool Party" which had a bunch of photos, many from back in the 60's and 70's which was kinda interesting.
posted by Unknown @ 3:10 PM
Student movie shooting in Washington Square Park, the guy in black pants is about to get hit in the back of the head with the soccer ball [nyc] 
posted by Unknown @ 3:03 PM
August 8, 2004 [Sunday]......How To Spin Someone On Your Head
Today we went out for a walk downtown around the West Village and surrounding neighborhoods. Started at Madison Square Park and the Flatiron Building and then went south on Broadway from there toward SoHo. Along the way we discovered this funky little store, Lucky Wang.
Down at Washington Square Park, the crowds were out and so were the performers. We watched a breakdancing troupe do their act which I have posted photos from above this. One of the highlights was when one guy spun another from his head with no hands.
Later we went along Prince Street browsing the street vendors before ending up on West Broadway. It was there that we spotted Rosanna Arquette, I was standing next to her at the traffic light and there even was a paparazzi taking her photo. This came literally a minute after Anh was telling me that SoHo is where many celebrities are spotted shopping and the photos end up in gossip mags like Star magazine.
On the walk home we stopped in at Mary's Dairy for some icecream.
posted by Unknown @ 1:42 PM
The Little Red Lighthouse is the last surviving lighthouse on Manhattan and was originally called Jeffrey's Hook Lighthouse, built in 1921 [nyc]
posted by Unknown @ 12:29 PM
August 7, 2004 [Saturday]......Little Red Lighthouse
There is famous kids book written over 60 years ago called "The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge". It is based on a red lighthouse up at 180th Street next to the Hudson River which was overshadowed when the George Washington Bridge was built next to it. My trek today was to find the lighthouse.
I started from Columbus Circle at 59th Street and walked along the Upper West Side. The first stop I made was at Lincoln Center where there was an outdoor sculpture by Franz West. This was comprised of 7 scupltures made of lacquered aluminum.
Further along Broadway, I passed H&H Bagels and grabbed a panini for lunch at Zabars. Around 80th Street I went west over to Riverside Park and then continued along the Hudson. Being a sunny day out, in the parks were an endless row of family barbeques, soccer games, volleyball, basketball, softball and I even saw some guys on jetskis on the Hudson.
By now I had been walking a couple of hours, although it was made easier as I had my new 4G iPod to accompany me. It was now that I could see the Little Red Lighthouse off in the distance. I kept walking, past a burnt out car by the roadside and followed a small trail through a wooded area leaving you as far away from the concrete jungle of Manhattan as you could imagine.
By the time I arrived at the lighthouse it was toward the end of the day and the sun was at the horizon, but there was enough time to sit and rest there, take some pictures and read the history of the lighthouse on a plaque nearby. All up I had walked 120 blocks to get there along with some diversions.
Instead of coming straight home, I then went east over through Spanish Harlem and passed by many of the groups of old-timers who sit playing dominoes on the sidewalk.
posted by Unknown @ 10:19 AM
August 3, 2004 [Tuesday]......Back to the Bronx
Back up to the Bronx on the D train to 161st Street for Yankees v Oakland A's game tonight. Despite getting off to a good start, the A's dominated from there and were unstoppable, winning 13-4.
posted by Unknown @ 10:14 AM
July 31, 2004 [Saturday]......Sweating it out in the Bronx
Went with Marty to the Yankees v Baltimore Orioles game today. The day was hot, damn hot. Just sitting there made you sweat. Yanks beat Baltimore 6-4 in a decent game with several home runs from some of the big hitters which made it well worth it.
posted by Unknown @ 10:00 AM
July 24, 2004 [Saturday]......Greenwich Village Celeb Spotting
Tonight we had dinner done at Greenwich Avenue at the Italian restaurant Sapore. Whilst sitting there we noticed the actress Julia Styles walk past on the sidewalk with a friend. Julia has been in the movies "10 Things I Hate About You", "Mona Lisa Smile" and "Save The Last Dance".
posted by Unknown @ 9:54 AM
July 17, 2004 [Saturday]......Atlantic City
Mid-morning we got on a bus from Port Authority bus terminal bound for Atlantic City. This is a 2-3 hour trip that is so competitive from the casinos to get you there that when you arrive, they hand you an envelope with cash in it of over half the cost of the bus trip.
We spent the afternoon walking along the Boardwalk area next to the beach and the pier where all the sideshows are.
For the evening, and the purpose of our trip, we went over to the Taj Mahal to see a concert by Poison & Kiss. Poison haven't been together touring in years and I saw them originally 15 years ago and they hadn't lost a beat. Kiss were headlining and performing in the full stage makeup they are famous for. I also saw them last year in New York and they again put on a great show, plenty of fireworks and surprises.
After the show was over, we made our way back to catch the bus to Manhattan, arriving home around 3am.
posted by Unknown @ 7:28 AM
July 16, 2004 [Friday]......Elton John
Tonight we went to see Elton John and his Orchestra at Radio City Music Hall. This was a much more polite and older crowd than I'm used to at the shows I normally see at Irving Plaza. He played a selection of older lesser known songs of his with the orchestra and then some favourites as well.
posted by Unknown @ 12:28 AM
July 14, 2004 [Wednesday]......Think Noodle
Today is the last day we catch up with Amanda and Helena before they leave tomorrow bound for Hawaii. We all went to Union Square tonight to eat at Republic Noodles, it's loud & busy but they serve some mean noodles.
By 10pm we all went our separate ways, the girls back to the hotel to pack while we had tickets to the Hanson concert around the corner at Irving Plaza. Hanson have been out of the public eye for a few years but the show was sold out and the screams from the girls there was louder than I have ever heard before.
posted by Unknown @ 11:52 PM
July 13, 2004 [Tuesday]......Upper West Side
Grabbed some quick dinner on Broadway in the Upper West Side tonight before seeing the new Will Ferrell movie, Anchorman, which is just hilarious.
Took in some late night dessert at Cafe Lalo just around the block where they have a tremendous selection of cheesecakes.
posted by Unknown @ 11:35 PM
July 12, 2004 [Monday]......Prince
We went to see the Prince concert at Madison Square Garden tonight. Prince played a huge selection of his old hits and used an "in-the-round" stage design. The interesting thing around the concert was that everyone was given a copy of his new CD when entering the show, which he can do since he separated from the major record labels and now just distributes his new music from his website.
posted by Unknown @ 11:18 PM
July 11, 2004 [Sunday]......New York Sightseeing 3
This evening we toured around Times Square. Whilst going up Broadway, we passed a suspiscious looking red New York Sightseeing Bus that you see all over the city. It was stationary and seemed to have an extraordinary number of good looking passengers. Further ahead we could see some cameras and production staff, Turns out that they were shooting scenes for the CSI: New York show which starts this Fall.
After that, we went up to Ellen's Stardust Diner for some American diner style food, complete with singing waitresses.
posted by Unknown @ 10:59 PM
July 10, 2004 [Saturday]......New York Sightseeing 2
Went our for dinner tonight at one of our favourite spots, Peep restaurant down on Prince Street in SoHo. After some great Thai food, we walked along Greenwich Avenue until we arrived at the popular cupcake store, Magnolia. As Helena commented, this is probably the only cupcake store you will find anywhere that has a bouncer out the front at 11pm at night. The line snaked around the corner and the supplies inside were running low but there was enough to take home one of those white cupcake boxes.
Still ready for more, we took the subway to the Upper East Side and our favourite late-night dessert house, Serendipity 3. The house special is the Frozen Hot Chocolate, it is unbeatable.
posted by Unknown @ 10:03 PM
July 9, 2004 [Friday]......New York Sightseeing 1
Started the day meeting up with Amanda and Helena and heading downtown. We started at Ground Zero before walking around to the financial district and Wall Street. Then we continued down Broadway to the Bull statue, Bowling Green and the southern tip of Manhattan.
We caught the Staten Island Ferry next which is a 20 or so minute ride and has a nice view of the Statue of Liberty.
In the evening it was out to the Bronx to a Yankees game, this one was against the Tampa Bay Devilrays. The Yankees came out on top in a very close game, winning 5 - 4.
posted by Unknown @ 8:52 PM
July 6, 2004 [Tuesday]......Will Ferrell
Amanda and Helena arrived from Australia today and are due for a week in New York as one of their stops on their trip to the USA. After they had arrived we all headed over to a taping of the "Last Call with Carson Daly" show at Rockefeller Center. Tonights guest was Will Ferrell who was promoting his new movie Anchorman.
posted by Unknown @ 6:35 AM
July 5, 2004 [Monday]......Holiday in the Bronx
Took the holiday off today before going out to see the Yankees defeat the Detroit Tigers 10 - 3 tonight.
posted by Unknown @ 12:52 AM
One of the Hot Dog Contest competitors - but he got beat by a girl [nyc]
posted by Unknown @ 11:50 PM
