I headed toward Rockaway/Canarsie on the L on purpose this time...

So Friday night I went to an all-night party in this massive loft apartment in the Bushwick part of Brooklyn, which is a little ways out in the east via my old friend the L Train - toward Canarsie and Rockaway.

It was a lot of fun and when I left the sun was out and they were still going strong, but it was also one of the weirdest parties I've ever been to. I was definitely sort of an oddball out for a couple of reasons at least. First of all, I'm a gentile, hehe. As I would meet more people, a lot of them were actually from Israel, which was interesting. Also, I wasn't smoking anything there.

There was actually a decent sized open floor area where folks were dancing and doing whatever. At first the music was sort of slowed down, euro techno club music... until some of the guys busted out their instruments and starting playing - one had a fiddle, one had a banjo and the other had one of those large double basses you stand up on the ground. They basically turned the thing into a big drunken hoe down, which was hilarious and fun.

They played plenty of simple songs that everyone could sing along with and dance to and it was great.

It was definitely a little different than the Ham Festival in Cadiz, Ky., especially since I remember when I lived in the larger-than-Cadiz Hopkinsville, Ky., one of my coworkers casually mentioned in passing that while Hoptown didn't have a mosque, they at least at some point used to have a synagogue.

I also don't think they often lift folks up on chairs in Cadiz parties, like at Jewish weddings. Last night people were regularly lifted up on a chair and hoisted up and down and spun around... during both the "O Brother Where Art Thou"esque songs and the slowed down euro techno.

You might ask, wouldn't this be dangerous at an all night drunken party where some of the guests are also clearly enjoying more than just alcohol? You'd be right. After one solid face plant the chair pretty much stayed on the ground for the rest of the night.

Also interesting was around 5 in the morning someone brought out some incense and then some chanting and other odd stuff commenced, but it was all in good fun.

All in all it was definitely one of the weirder nights I've had in the city, but it was definitely a lot of fun and all the people were great and friendly as could be.

Oh yeah, I'm also going back to Texas again for a real quick Ike-related trip for the beginning of this week. It should be interesting. I'll be back to the city by Tuesday night.

It's been a real long while so here are some post-Christmas bullets

Well, as per usual, I've been a lazy bum when it comes to posting.

I spent two awesome weeks in Florida and have been back in the city for a week now... which means it's time for bullets! Hooray...

* Florida was a blast. I got to see a lot of family and friends and do a lot of catching up... and I got some good D-Rays stuff to bring back to the city.

* Myself, my brother/sister, Lisa and Emacy played the third annual Hangover Cup (our traditional New Year's Day golf tournament.) Sadly, my brother won... because she's been taking lessons! That's so not fair and we're considering officially disqualifying him/her in the future so we'll see what happens with that.

I would have come in second, except I had a Phil Mickelsonesque collapse on the last hole that turned a four into a 9 giving Emacy a one stroke lead over me at the end of the day. I was like 20 feet from the green (it was on a little hill) and for whatever reason it took me like four tries with my wedge to get onto the green. It was fugly and I think Emacy may have peed himself he was laughing so hard.

Lisa came in fourth, despite being tied for the lead after the front nine with like a 63... he shot like a 78 on the back nine, we're all still a little confused...

* I'm officially addicted to "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia." I watched copious amounts with Emacy down in Florida and I've been watching it kind of non-stop since.

Here's a few fun clips...

When the gang makes a band and is a little weirded out by Charlie's lyrics:



Sweet Dee's trip to the shoe store:



Some of the fun from when the gang has to coach basketball as community service:



Anywho...

* It was in the 70's and 80's for most of the time while I was there... It was actually like 85 degrees when I flew out of Tampa. New York, however, was in the 40's. My coworker told me that on Thursday it may go below zero here (for the first time here since 1994...)

* I'm also addicted to a weird little MC Frontalot song I heard when I was hanging out with a friend at NYU after I got back...



The same day I heard that song we went to Brooklyn to see this free variety/comedy show which was pretty fun. The funniest part was the last comedian, Baron Vaughn.

Here's a random clip from a different show of his...



* After the show, we wandered over the the Trash Bar, with the free tater tots... which is always awesome.

* The other night I headed over to Revival and learned that science can be fun. One of the regulars taught everyone how to shotgun beer straight from the bottle in seconds. The trick is to stick a straw in with a bend at the end, and to seal your lips around the mouth of the bottle and have the end of the straw sticking out. Then as you chug, the air that goes into the straw and pushes the beer out allowing you to drink the whole bottle in about two or three seconds once you get good. So that made for an interesting evening to say the least. He said he learned it from some homeless drug addict, which tells me it might not be something to make a habit of, hmm...

* So last night I went with my roommate to a fancy night club in midtown near Times Square called Opera. A friend of hers got us on the VIP list so we skipped the line and didn't pay the cover, which was cool. Though we didn't wait in line, we still had to empty the pockets and get full pat down once inside, seriously full. I was thinking the guy owed me at least breakfast or something after he was finished. As for the free cover, the money saved went straight to the drinks though... $11 cocktails plus an automatic $2.50 tip on top = ouch at the end of the night, seriously. The people we met there were cool and I even got to shake my groove thing for a while on the floor.

I didn't spend the whole night on the dance floor though because I didn't want to show up the other dudes in the club and make them jealous, especially when I was doing the Margaret Thatcher a la MC Frontalot.

Oddly enough I didn't bump into a group of girls there like these ones from Sunny...



* Also, it snowed about half a foot yesterday, so that's fun.

I'm sure I missed a lot of things because I'm a bad person, but that should essentially catch things up since I'm so awful about updating.

P.S. Happy New Year!

R-E-A-D-A-B-O-OK?

So I've been getting my read on a lot more since moving to the city, thanks to the whole subway commute thing. I even just finished reading a book on the history of cannibalism, Flesh and Blood: A History of the Cannibal Complex, that I got as a sort of oddball/gag gift in college... though I did go through that cannibalism phase for a bit there, hmm...

The first chapter conveniently reminds the reader that, according to the snooty and judgmental author, eating people is wrong. I think she's British.

I've read most all the books I had brought from home. I even bought a book (it was a really cool financial history of the world). Hell... I've even been reading from the library! The next book I'll read is call "Black and Tans." I bought it a long time ago for real cheap... I'm not sure why I bought it, it's not actually about booze.

Oh wait, it's about the British Special police in Ireland, so it's presumably about abusing Irish folk - Micks and Paddies and such. Now it all makes sense.

Now that I'm starting to get the reading thing down I think I'm going to try to incorporate all the life lessons in this video my buddy Emacy Gay, we just shorten it to Emacy, in Florida told me to check out. (NSFW... and apparently some people found this video made by BET to be shown on BET offensive :( some people are just no fun)




Oh man, some guy on the train last night obviously missed the part about deodorant. I think he was Eastern European or something. Holy crap, he smelled so bad my roommate and I actually got up and moved to the end of the train. We could only go one direction though because on the other side of the train was a ranting crazy hobo yelling gibberish and I think yelling that someone needed to be arrested, I'm not sure, but he pretty much cleared out his half of the train. As a fun bonus, he would yell out the doors to all people waiting on the platforms.

As for the whole reading thing... I even read a whole biography of Jack Daniel, which was pretty interesting - and leads nicely into my next point... apparently I can do shots again, which is probably not a good thing. The other night I went to Revival and learned that I could indeed down Jack Daniel's shots if the cute girls next me at the bar challenged me to do one with them. All down hill from there... then I took my roommate the wrong way on the subway and we ended up in Brooklyn.

Fast forward to Friday night where the shots were flowing all night (my roommate reminded me Saturday that it had been one of the bartenders' birthdays...)

I ended up staying longer than the roomie and ended up going the wrong way on the L train again... basically all night. I woke up in Canarsie at least twice. I kept falling asleep on the train and ending up in kind of the far east side of Brooklyn. Then I would say to myself I need to stay awake this time, then I'd wake up again at Canarsie (the last stop). It's a bad sign on the subway to wake up and see open space and trees out the window instead of subway walls (which tends to be indicative of being far from Manhattan) and an even worse sign to wake up and see sunlight out the train window...



I eventually got home around 9:30 Saturday morning. I found out later, that it was my luck that the train was under construction that night and wasn't even going my direction from Revival at all, so the whole thing was a measure in futility. Luckily, by the morning when I did stay awake enough to get all the way home, the late night construction messing up the L train was done for the night and they were back on the day schedule. So it was just all part of my plan.

I told Emacy about it and he was kind of enough to wonder aloud the next day that he bets hobos and other folks teabagged my sleeping self. :( I hadn't thought of that...

Also, I've been watching a lot of Hulu lately. It's pretty much like my new favorite site. I can watch all the Simpsons, Galactica 1980 (the awesome but short-lived sequel to Battlestar Galactica after they've found Earth, word), Charlie's Angels, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and whatever else I want!

They also have random clips, and I came across this random old Simpsons clip which is one of my all-time favorites...



And of course (especially for Crazy Carl), some Overheard, L train style...

Homey #1: Yo, hold up...Jesus was a virgin?! He went from 12 to 33 with nothing?
Homey #2: Fuck that shit. He definitely got his dick sucked or buttfucked some bitches.

--L Train, 8th Avenue


Black guy opening engineer's door after 15 minutes of standstill: Yo, move this shit, or I'll drive it myself!

--Canarsie-bound L train

Who knows, maybe a few weeks from now they'll be one looking like this:

Drunk guy wakes up: Canarsie, again!? Shit!

-- L Train

"So much is going on this week that your head will spin"

So, according to the New York Daily News, my horoscope says "So much is going on this week that your head will spin."

That's a good sign. I was worried things might slow down and I'd be able to relax a bit. Thank goodness the stars say I was wrong on that one.

I know I'll need to finalize my apartment lease, barring anything getting messed up (which just wouldn't surprise me at this point). I'll also need to get "moved in" to that apartment by the end of Tuesday, including getting my car from New Jersey over to Washington Heights and unloading it in time to start heading down to Florida first thing Wednesday morning...

At least the end of the week will be the beginning of a family reunion cruise, so that should be relaxing and fun, right?

Anyway...

Saturday started out pretty slow, mostly because I've actually been kind of sick... which probably isn't helped by the constant drinking, but what do I know, I'm not a doctor or anything.

So I found another Hell's Kitchen bar that was pretty fun. They don't have a kitchen, but instead they offer takeout/delivery menus and let folks bring whatever they want in. It can end up being a lot cheaper than most of the other bars nearby. The guys next to me all ordered a whole pizza delivered.

The bar got bonus points because they had a USF pennant on the wall... though when I asked about it, the bartender told me they just have every school's banner... it wasn't a terribly large bar, and I doubt even the NCAA headquarters has every school's banner, you know?

So I get a call from Lisa, he and his girlfriend have come to the city to see a ballet and want to do dinner. I of course have been slumming it in a dive bar watching baseball and wearing some random free I gave blood T-shirt. (I'm pretty much out of laundry)

They're tons of fun, so I wander on over to meet them for some grub.

So we go to the Scotch place for dinner, the two of them were dressed up for the ballet and me looking dingy in my white T-shirt. I'm sure I looked like a crackhead or something, but that's the beauty of New York City. Plenty of people look absolutely ridiculous all the time, so I didn't feel too bad about it.

Sidenote: that reminds me, I bumped in the Naked Cowgirl (Grandma version) in Times Square today. It was kind of horrifying. I heard multiple people waiting for the crosswalk signal mutter the words "scarred for life." They took the words right out of my mouth.

Then we went to my favorite Hell's Kitchen bar and had a couple of drinks and met and old friend of Lisa's girlfriend who lives in Queens. She was really cool (not single, as I'm sure I'll get asked) and we went to a bar in Brooklyn.

We went to Park Slope, which is supposed to be one of the most happening parts of the city. I didn't get that sense, but what do I know... it seems Brooklyn is apparently cool because it's Brooklyn... we'll see how my next foray into that borough turns out.

Long story short, getting to and from this bar was a pretty big pain... so maybe it's best I didn't end up getting a place in Brooklyn. Also, the waitress was pretty angry. We did have a long chat about the all too common and oft ignored STD, gonnhasyphyherpeles.

It's out there, and it's dangerous.

I wonder if the people I saw on the subway this morning spreading the word of safe sex are familiar with gonnhasyphyherpeles. They were wearing T-shirts with condoms stapled all over them.

There really is always something interesting to see here in this city.

Studies like this are probably why there are folks wandering the streets covered in condoms. It gives me a special warm fuzzy feeling to know that one in four people in my new hometown have herpes. Awesome.

So today, I just had some more NyQuil (I've almost finished half the bottle
I bought Friday) and took it easy. I figured some fresh air might do me some good, so I went to Central Park and read the Sunday paper. The park is pretty massive, and the corner I was in was beautiful and relaxing.

I'll definitely have to go jogging there in the future.

Against my better judgment, I've been watching Law and Order all day on USA. That combined with the ultra-sensationalized coverage of crime in the New York Post and New York Daily News and it's a wonder I'm not too scared to walk the streets.

Now I guess I'll have some more NyQuil and hit the hay.

A boring apartment hunt update... essentially.

So I've finished my first full day in the city, and a good chunk of it was spent walking. According to Google Maps, I probably walked about seven miles or so today.

I also got my first taste of a screaming baby on the subway, which was fun. It was kind of like on an airplane except the sound was a lot crisper.

I also visited both Brooklyn and Staten Island for the first time.

The ferry ride to Staten Island was actually pretty painless...

It is at it's own station, so you can't get on the wrong ferry. People can see when the ferry pulls up, then they just mass like cattle and when the gate opens people just file onto the boat. It's free so there's no waiting for tickets to be checked or anything.

Staten Island itself was actually pretty nice and the apartments I looked at were nice, but I just don't think I could live that disconnected from the city.

There are too many working parts involved in getting to and from anywhere in Manhattan, and if anything went wrong I would end up being at least 30 minutes late for work.

Side note: somehow I walked uphill both ways between the apartment building and the ferry station. Somebody explain that one to me.

One of their apartments did have a killer view out the window of the Manhattan skyline and the Statue of Liberty. There is also this really ugly looking peninsula in with the spectacular view that looks like some sort of industrial dump and I asked the leasing agent what it was and the landlord just matter-of-factly said "Oh... that's New Jersey."

We both knew nothing more needed to be said.

I also went to Brooklyn for the first time today. It was a little east of Brooklyn Heights. It reminded me of wandering around less fancy parts of Manhattan except it was less crowded, the buildings were a little shorter and I was definitely in the minority in that part of Brooklyn.

It was surprisingly painless to ride the subway to and from Brooklyn though, so that's cool.

That being said, there are a couple of apartment buildings near Prospect Park in Brooklyn I plan on looking at soon. There is also one in the Bronx I'll probably check out Tuesday after work.

I still haven't gotten a chance to see the Washington Heights apartment I mentioned earlier yet, and there are still a few random apartments in Manhattan on my radar.

All in all, I'm still optimistic, but I've got a lot of looking around to do...

Well, tomorrow is my first day of work, so I should probably hit the hay. Exciting stuff.