My NYC experience - part 1
Aug. 5th, 2004 12:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
leighblackI'm going to have to do this in installments, since I have a lot of freaking photos to include.
Saturday, Day 1 for the Midwest girls in the Big City
The whole trip started very, very early on Sat morning. I got up around 4:30 am or so, so I could make it to Jess’ place in time for her boy toy to take us to the airport. The airport was strangely VERY busy for that early in the morning. I thought it would be just dead. What the heck do I know? Our flight was very smooth and easy. It was a nice start to our trip. But our plane drove around in a circle after we landed on the runway. It was very strange. Jessica & I have this thing about driving in circles though, so it seemed fitting.
We took a shuttle from JFK to our hotel. It was nuts! There was ultra-amounts of construction and traffic! I would have sworn that we were going to sideswipe at least three different vehicles. And that was before we even got to Manhattan! But the driver was very nice and it was not so bad to experience a little bit of “true” New Yawk right away. ;)
We drove right through Times Square as we dropped other passengers at their hotel. And we passed the Naked Cowboy! (Carly, somehow you caused this, that’s all I’m saying) I was upset that we never saw him again because I SO wanted a photo! I’m sure my tourist eyes were all agog as I looked around at all the neon and tall buildings. We certainly don’t gots stuff like that back home.
We managed arrived at our hotel, Hotel 41 at Times Square, in one piece. Thankfully, it was on a little bit quieter street than most of the ones around Times Square. It would have driven me nuts if we would have had to constantly dodge traffic just to get out of the hotel. We knew our room would be small, but it was still a little bit of a shock once we got in it. It seemed like the world’s smallest room! I don’t know how they crammed everything in there that they did. But the staff was all very, very nice, so it didn’t seem so bad after all. Plus, there was a nice bar downstairs! I was all about that. And, the Nederlander Theater, which hosts Rent, was right next door. We literally had to walk five feet from the hotel to get there. That was cool.
The world’s smallest hotel room
We stashed our stuff and Jess’ friend, Jude, met us in the lobby. She had graciously agreed to be our tour guide for the afternoon. She gave us a mini-explanation about how the streets work in Manhattan and we were off. Off to our very first subway ride! I am SO all about the subway!! I would LOVE to have something like that at home. I could so easily become accustomed to riding the subway to work, reading a book, not worrying about the traffic or weather. Yeah, sometimes the Twin Cities really sucks.
But anyhow…Jude took us down to the green market at Union Square to find some healthy munchies for lunch. I didn’t really take to that too well. I was starving and needed a little more substance. I found it when we got to Washington Square Park and there was a gyro vendor. Yum! Gyros rule!
Leigh & Jess in Washington Square Park
Jude took us all around Greenwich Village, the West Village and the East Village. And to tell you the truth – I couldn’t really tell you where the heck we went. We saw the Empire State Building from a long distance at one point. Jude & Jess were really into looking at the buildings and the history of the area, but I mostly zoned out and just followed along. I’m not into that kind of stuff. There were a lot of cool places that I would have loved to shop in, but I didn’t want to blow a lot of money on the first day. I did, however, buy a new purse because I really needed one. It’s got skulls on it, so it’s cool.
Apparently, it had been pouring rain for almost the whole week before we arrived. Thankfully, we missed that. Instead, we got blasting heat, relentless sun and intense mugginess. It was like I hadn’t left the Midwest! It got really brutal, so we went into Veniero’s Pastry shop to get out of the heat for a while. We had some yummy pastries and coffee. Well, lemonade for me. Finally, Jess & I couldn’t take it anymore. We were tired from getting up so early and then wandering in the heat all day, so we decided to go back to the hotel.
Jude left us at the subway entrance and then we were all alone in the big city. I bought a subway card for Jess & I to share and we immediately learned the difference between Uptown and Downtown as we got on the subway going the wrong direction. I figured it out fast though, and we got on the right train instead. I declared myself the Master of the Subway! We got back to the hotel and took a nice nap so we’d be ready for the evening. The nice part about our hotel room was that we had total control over the thermostat and made the room super cold. Perfect for sleeping! And our room was constantly dark as the window looked out upon the building about three feet away.
I had pretty much forced Jess into accepting the fact that we’d be seeing Trashlight Vision and The Primadonnaz at The Knitting Factory for The Hairball that evening. It’s totally not her thing, but I knew she’d have fun. Jess was thinking about wearing a little pink shirt and white pants, which probably wouldn’t have been a very good idea. ;) Not that she didn’t already stick out, but that wouldn’t have helped much. We decided to fuck the taxi charge and took the subway down to the bar, since I’m the Subway Master and all.
We walked into the bar just a few minutes before The Primadonnaz started and there were approximately 20 people there. Maybe. It was really pathetic. I looked around in amazement at the emptiness.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
dead_dolly13 came over right away to say hello. Hugs and happiness were exchanged. She’s such a sweetie! I’m so glad that we got to meet and hang out. Jess & I wandered over to the bar, where I spotted Kristin & Nikki – glamgoddess and KweenNikki from the LAG board. More hugs and happiness. Those two were really great, too.
The Primadonnaz were fabulous! I loved them!! I was very entranced. They looked like they really needed a bigger stage to play around on, but they did just fine. They closed out the show with “Look What the Cat Dragged In” which made me very happy. Well, that and the vodka.
The Primadonnaz
There was some drinking and general carousing between the bands. Jess looked totally mystified, but was having a good time.
Leigh & Jess
Nikki, Leigh & Kristin
dead_dolly13 & Leigh
Trashlight Vision came on before too long. I have no idea what they played. I really don’t remember what the names of the songs were. In fact, I really don’t know much about them. But they were awesome! Acey looked like he was having a blast!! I completely enjoyed the show. There weren’t many more people in there than before so it had a real intimate feeling. Jess spent the show a little back from the stage, but I stayed at the front. She was very amused by the destruction done on stage after the set was done. I took lots and lots of photos, which I hope to have up this weekend. I’ll just post some of Acey here for you now, since I’m sure he’s the one most of you want to see. It’s hard to get good photos of him since he jumps around so damn much!
Acey Slade
Acey wearing the hat he bought in Minneapolis
After TLV was done, there was much mingling. The Knitting Factory played the GN’R show from The Ritz on the screen, which was a lot of fun to watch. Many (drunk) people were singing along. I haven’t seen that show in forever, so I really enjoyed it. And talking with people in the bar. Dan from The Primadonnaz is apparently the sociable one, as he was circulating through the small crowd. He was very impressed that a couple of Midwest girls had come to the show and was sweet enough to give us free CDs.
Dan & Leigh
I didn’t really talk to Steve, the TLV guitarist, but I did get a photo with him.
Steve & Leigh
I did, however, get to talk to Acey a bit. It was hard since he was running around and trying to talk to everybody. He commented that between his Hanoi Rocks shirt and my FP shirt we had about 40 years of rock history between us. I thanked him for the great show and told him that we’d come from Minnesota. (Hey, that’s always a good way to get in good!) I told him that I had seen him with Amen in Chicago & Mpls, and he told me that he bought his hat at the Army Surplus store across the street from The Fine Line. We took some pictures and chit chatted for a bit.
Acey & Leigh
dead_dolly13, Acey & Leigh
Jess & I stuck around for awhile, but finally decided to head back to the hotel. We wanted to get up early enough to enjoy the morning before going to The Boy From Oz in the afternoon. We said goodbye to everyone and more hugs were exchanged. I was so glad that we went to the show! I had a really great time!! Even Jess had fun.
We took the subway back up to Times Square, running intodead_dolly13 one last time as she was on her way home. We made it back without any problems and crashed hard for the night in our little, tiny room.
I'll do parts 2 & 3 tomorrow, which includes Hugh Jackman, Jai Rodriguez and Melanie Brown!
Primadonnaz photos are here
Trashlight Vision photos are here
Saturday, Day 1 for the Midwest girls in the Big City
The whole trip started very, very early on Sat morning. I got up around 4:30 am or so, so I could make it to Jess’ place in time for her boy toy to take us to the airport. The airport was strangely VERY busy for that early in the morning. I thought it would be just dead. What the heck do I know? Our flight was very smooth and easy. It was a nice start to our trip. But our plane drove around in a circle after we landed on the runway. It was very strange. Jessica & I have this thing about driving in circles though, so it seemed fitting.
We took a shuttle from JFK to our hotel. It was nuts! There was ultra-amounts of construction and traffic! I would have sworn that we were going to sideswipe at least three different vehicles. And that was before we even got to Manhattan! But the driver was very nice and it was not so bad to experience a little bit of “true” New Yawk right away. ;)
We drove right through Times Square as we dropped other passengers at their hotel. And we passed the Naked Cowboy! (Carly, somehow you caused this, that’s all I’m saying) I was upset that we never saw him again because I SO wanted a photo! I’m sure my tourist eyes were all agog as I looked around at all the neon and tall buildings. We certainly don’t gots stuff like that back home.
We managed arrived at our hotel, Hotel 41 at Times Square, in one piece. Thankfully, it was on a little bit quieter street than most of the ones around Times Square. It would have driven me nuts if we would have had to constantly dodge traffic just to get out of the hotel. We knew our room would be small, but it was still a little bit of a shock once we got in it. It seemed like the world’s smallest room! I don’t know how they crammed everything in there that they did. But the staff was all very, very nice, so it didn’t seem so bad after all. Plus, there was a nice bar downstairs! I was all about that. And, the Nederlander Theater, which hosts Rent, was right next door. We literally had to walk five feet from the hotel to get there. That was cool.
The world’s smallest hotel room
We stashed our stuff and Jess’ friend, Jude, met us in the lobby. She had graciously agreed to be our tour guide for the afternoon. She gave us a mini-explanation about how the streets work in Manhattan and we were off. Off to our very first subway ride! I am SO all about the subway!! I would LOVE to have something like that at home. I could so easily become accustomed to riding the subway to work, reading a book, not worrying about the traffic or weather. Yeah, sometimes the Twin Cities really sucks.
But anyhow…Jude took us down to the green market at Union Square to find some healthy munchies for lunch. I didn’t really take to that too well. I was starving and needed a little more substance. I found it when we got to Washington Square Park and there was a gyro vendor. Yum! Gyros rule!
Leigh & Jess in Washington Square Park
Jude took us all around Greenwich Village, the West Village and the East Village. And to tell you the truth – I couldn’t really tell you where the heck we went. We saw the Empire State Building from a long distance at one point. Jude & Jess were really into looking at the buildings and the history of the area, but I mostly zoned out and just followed along. I’m not into that kind of stuff. There were a lot of cool places that I would have loved to shop in, but I didn’t want to blow a lot of money on the first day. I did, however, buy a new purse because I really needed one. It’s got skulls on it, so it’s cool.
Apparently, it had been pouring rain for almost the whole week before we arrived. Thankfully, we missed that. Instead, we got blasting heat, relentless sun and intense mugginess. It was like I hadn’t left the Midwest! It got really brutal, so we went into Veniero’s Pastry shop to get out of the heat for a while. We had some yummy pastries and coffee. Well, lemonade for me. Finally, Jess & I couldn’t take it anymore. We were tired from getting up so early and then wandering in the heat all day, so we decided to go back to the hotel.
Jude left us at the subway entrance and then we were all alone in the big city. I bought a subway card for Jess & I to share and we immediately learned the difference between Uptown and Downtown as we got on the subway going the wrong direction. I figured it out fast though, and we got on the right train instead. I declared myself the Master of the Subway! We got back to the hotel and took a nice nap so we’d be ready for the evening. The nice part about our hotel room was that we had total control over the thermostat and made the room super cold. Perfect for sleeping! And our room was constantly dark as the window looked out upon the building about three feet away.
I had pretty much forced Jess into accepting the fact that we’d be seeing Trashlight Vision and The Primadonnaz at The Knitting Factory for The Hairball that evening. It’s totally not her thing, but I knew she’d have fun. Jess was thinking about wearing a little pink shirt and white pants, which probably wouldn’t have been a very good idea. ;) Not that she didn’t already stick out, but that wouldn’t have helped much. We decided to fuck the taxi charge and took the subway down to the bar, since I’m the Subway Master and all.
We walked into the bar just a few minutes before The Primadonnaz started and there were approximately 20 people there. Maybe. It was really pathetic. I looked around in amazement at the emptiness.
dead_dolly13 came over right away to say hello. Hugs and happiness were exchanged. She’s such a sweetie! I’m so glad that we got to meet and hang out. Jess & I wandered over to the bar, where I spotted Kristin & Nikki – glamgoddess and KweenNikki from the LAG board. More hugs and happiness. Those two were really great, too.The Primadonnaz were fabulous! I loved them!! I was very entranced. They looked like they really needed a bigger stage to play around on, but they did just fine. They closed out the show with “Look What the Cat Dragged In” which made me very happy. Well, that and the vodka.
The Primadonnaz
There was some drinking and general carousing between the bands. Jess looked totally mystified, but was having a good time.
Leigh & Jess
Nikki, Leigh & Kristin
dead_dolly13 & LeighTrashlight Vision came on before too long. I have no idea what they played. I really don’t remember what the names of the songs were. In fact, I really don’t know much about them. But they were awesome! Acey looked like he was having a blast!! I completely enjoyed the show. There weren’t many more people in there than before so it had a real intimate feeling. Jess spent the show a little back from the stage, but I stayed at the front. She was very amused by the destruction done on stage after the set was done. I took lots and lots of photos, which I hope to have up this weekend. I’ll just post some of Acey here for you now, since I’m sure he’s the one most of you want to see. It’s hard to get good photos of him since he jumps around so damn much!
Acey Slade
Acey wearing the hat he bought in Minneapolis
After TLV was done, there was much mingling. The Knitting Factory played the GN’R show from The Ritz on the screen, which was a lot of fun to watch. Many (drunk) people were singing along. I haven’t seen that show in forever, so I really enjoyed it. And talking with people in the bar. Dan from The Primadonnaz is apparently the sociable one, as he was circulating through the small crowd. He was very impressed that a couple of Midwest girls had come to the show and was sweet enough to give us free CDs.
Dan & Leigh
I didn’t really talk to Steve, the TLV guitarist, but I did get a photo with him.
Steve & Leigh
I did, however, get to talk to Acey a bit. It was hard since he was running around and trying to talk to everybody. He commented that between his Hanoi Rocks shirt and my FP shirt we had about 40 years of rock history between us. I thanked him for the great show and told him that we’d come from Minnesota. (Hey, that’s always a good way to get in good!) I told him that I had seen him with Amen in Chicago & Mpls, and he told me that he bought his hat at the Army Surplus store across the street from The Fine Line. We took some pictures and chit chatted for a bit.
Acey & Leigh
dead_dolly13, Acey & LeighJess & I stuck around for awhile, but finally decided to head back to the hotel. We wanted to get up early enough to enjoy the morning before going to The Boy From Oz in the afternoon. We said goodbye to everyone and more hugs were exchanged. I was so glad that we went to the show! I had a really great time!! Even Jess had fun.
We took the subway back up to Times Square, running into
dead_dolly13 one last time as she was on her way home. We made it back without any problems and crashed hard for the night in our little, tiny room.I'll do parts 2 & 3 tomorrow, which includes Hugh Jackman, Jai Rodriguez and Melanie Brown!
Primadonnaz photos are here
Trashlight Vision photos are here
