Taking a Boat Out ... And Back In Again

I got a pretty early text message from Bernie on the second day of November, another gig day, so I did not want to stress myself out too much, but the offer to join him on the free of charge trip to Staten Island on the ferry was very welcome, so I texted back when I could be there and we met there a little later.

Another wonderful day it was all blue skies and sunny, which made taking pictures a little difficult on the ferry but I got some snaps together:

Bernie took one of me:

A strange thing happened on that trip too, something almost normal on all Crowes trips these days, but in a big city like NYC? Well, anyway, I was recognized by a fellow fan from Scotland and we got into a little chat, you could tell I was overwhelmed by this coincidence!

As Staten Island does not have much to offer, most people exited the boat just to enter the next boat back - funny to watch! But a must do thing in NYC, seriously, not only because of the fact that it is free of charge!

Back in Manhattan we decided to head back to that good food place we had the cake at and so we did, had some food there, were recognized by the nice waiter and did the shopping after that, which I incorrectly posted in the earlier post...

I wanted some rest before the show, so I took the subway back to the hostel, read a little lying on my bed and the feet thanked me that, only to scream "What? AGAIN?" when I headed back to the Best Buy Theater towards 5 pm, nicest chats again with the fans and Tony the security man and time flew by. The show we got was out of this world, but we will get back to the shows on another day, when I got some audio help for that - there was only one question after the show and I asked that Adam too: "How can they top that?" But I was confident they have it in them to do just that. And let me use the narrator's trick, looking ahead at something that is also already in the past and I can tell you that on Thursday they did!

Stay tuned...

A Long Day's Journey Into Night - part 2

So let's try it a little differently this time, I need to write or lose the chance to do so all weekend and the memories may fade. But I also have to listen to the download of the One More for Woody show held in NYC recently - a great bunch of musicians paying heir tribute to the late Allen Woody - another bass monster - RIP Woody!

Ok, how does this make this entry any different to the ones preceding this? Actually, I don't know, I just wanted to warn you if something peculiar happens inbetween - I got an excuse, hehe...

That search for an alternative to the standard coffee at Starbucks, we ended up in a strange, modern place that we did not really like too much so we kept searching, but kept the CD/DVD shop in mind (J&R something) and finally found a great place, I cannot determine the name, would you believe there is a bus blocking the view on Google Street View? There is - mad! Anyway it was like a food mall, lots of different food stuf like Mexican, Sushi and so on on the left and coffee and cake on the right - wonderful and I got my NY Cheese Cake that my stomach was demanding after the day's walking. 

The seating area in the back really was very good, a little like a storage of old kitchen stuff - whatever, we all liked it. The coffee was ok, the cake was great (not so the two strawberries to go with it) but rich - very rich! The cake the others had was also great, a place to remember (it may be the Oliva Gourmet on Broadway, but I cannot be 100% sure thanks to the bus, yeah, I checked again...).

We stayed there a bit, chatted about the day, the gig the night before and time passed quickly. Tomer decided to depart from the group and return to his New Jersey holiday home and we remaining walked around a bit and accidentally stepped upon Ground Zero, maybe the best way to find it, as it really left us speechless for a moment, otherwise it may just be seen as very big building site, not for me at least...

Some shopping followed and I picked up 4 John Lennon newly remastered albums on CD at a very good price, even better when I saw the Euro price!

Despite the hurting feet and the full stomach, the general agreement was to hit China Town next, we took the subway a few blocks and then walked through the well lit and growing Chinese part of NYC. Somehow, we ended up at a little restaurant and had trouble to find a seat where he cold AC was not blowing at us, we did not fully succeed and I seem to have been the only one happy with the food too - oh well...

Last thing was to get home, so we checked the subway maps, where each of us had to go and parted ways, nothing else matters, I think I slept like a stone, well, one with burning feet.

Stay tuned...

A Long Day's Journey Into Night - part 1

Why this title quote? Wait and see, this was a long day and a ot of tourist stuff could be checked off the list afterwards. I already marked this as part 1 as I am pretty tight in time and do not expect to finish it in one go, but let's see where we get...

We had already set a meeting at the Imagine plate in Strawberry Fields after the Crowes gig, such a pleasant spot in NYC, so there was no argument about that. We? OK, we were Tomer (the only not German that day), Armin, Kerstin, Bernie, Sigrid and Markus, a few pics were taken:

Bernie took the shot of (l-r) Kerstin, myself, Tomer and Armin.

Another Bernie shot (hint: If they are b/w, they are Bernie's ;-)) me at maybe the most positive spot in NYC - for me at least!

You wonder who Bernie is? Here you go, I took one of him with his camera:

OK, so we recharged our batteries there a bit and then walked on through the beautiful Central Park, passing by a nice fountain that was ready for picture takings and here were also a few weddings taking place,I only filmed, so these pictures are not ready right now...

WE decided to have lunch at the Boathouse, a poshy and expensive place, but there is a common feeding section too, which is way overrun by the way, but worth the wait, I think. I had a Boathouse Beefsteak Burger, which was nice and a fantastic freshly made lemonade. So god, I returned there another day...

We then walked on through the narrow and steep paths behind the lake (Eastside, I think), watched he squirrels which seemed to own the place as there were so many and ended up somewhere close to a subway station, from where we drove to Brooklyn, the view as we crossed the bridge was great, but we knew that the walk back into Manhattan will be even better - and we were right!

We had to find the bridge first though, quite tricky and it meant more walking, which was not good for my feet, really...

On the Brooklyn Bridge we took many pictures and I filmed a lot too, so here is a mix of pictures taken there:

"Show me the way to the next Whiskey bar..."

Did I mention how great the weather was? I almost got a sunburn ;-)

Tomer heading towards Manhattan.

It may be hard to talk with a novocain tongue, but it sure is harder to see a camera display in the bright sun!

Once the walk was over, we were ready for a coffee anything but Starbucks, please, so while we search again in my mind, I have to take that announced break, stay tuned for part 2...

1 of 5 - my first Crowes show in NYC

OK, I knew this was gonna become a weekend job, but did I know how long weeks can feel? Oh well, I hope I did not lose any reader(s) ;-)

Anyway, what I plan to do in this flashback diary with the gigs, is to first give outside impressions and keep most of the music out for now and keep the gig reviews for a later time, when I can rely on the official live recordings that hopefully will all see a proper release soon, or any audience recordings that may pop up once the tapers have had enough time to sort them out, prepared them for spreading and upped them at one of the torrent sites. I cannot thank the tapers often enough for this great musical service. Thanks a ton!!!

Now let's get my lazy ass memory back on that subway to Times Square - on weekdays, a nice and quick ride whenever I jumped into an express line (B or C) it took me only about 5 minutes from 96th Street to 42nd Street Times Square (if I could make an mp3 of the train announcer, it would be attached here, I can still recall it in my gray matter (so there must be something up there after all - I knew it *gg*). This was a Sunday and it took about 20 minutes.

It needed a little walk to the Best Buy Theater, the size of that little depended on the exit I used of course, the first one I took was not the best, so that little was huge, but I got better with each time and I could not find that first exit any more afterwards...

I think it was about 5pm by then, I wanted a good spot at the concert and chat with fellow amoricans, so I had no problem with the extra wait, really. I was not looked at oddly (remember, Mr. John W. Lennon was my disguise - what the W. in my disguise stood for? Not Winston, but I won't spoil, read on, hehehe...).

One of the Streets was jammed, so a typical NYC police man in full uniform controlled the traffic, he actually held up his hand (which means stop) when I had just stepped onto the tarmac, so I walked on and held up my fingers to a peace sign (index and middle fingers for those who may not know) at him and said "Nice costume!" His reply was that he ripped out his whistle, blew into it, producing a pretty loud sound (some cars stopped to that!) and said something like "Yeah, it is!" with a huge smile - now THAT is what Halloween is about - it all makes perfect sense now ;-)

There was already a short queue at the Theater, I recognized a few faces, introduced myself and got into a chat pretty quickly. Met fellow Germans Markus and Bernie, Markus was a first time meeting and Bernie even recognized me in disguise, ok, my laugh must have given it away, so what. 

But I am pretty happy that I managed to fool Tomer for a bit, that nice Israelian I first met in London 2006 and then again either there and/or in Amsterdam in 2008 and 2009 looked at me a couple of times but no recognition could be spotted in his eyes - goodie! After a few of these looks, I stepped closer and spoke to him - that look of stunned recognition was worth about 37.93% of the travel cost alone *LOL*

The 2.5 hour queueing time went by quickly, so many great people I met again or for the first time, all the chats and the good time we had (also due to the very nice and friendly security work by Best Buy man Tony "There's no need to rush down the stairs - take your time!" - another memory mp3 should be put here).

Inside the theater, I could see easily that the online round-view could not fully capture how great this place looks, I only took a quick look only and went straight towards the front and stood about 3rd row in the center. It was good to see quite a few people in costumes, it is a pity that the no-camera rule results in no pictures published so far, only a few of Chris mostly... There is one that shows the Red Indian standing next to me so a notch to the left and I would have been on a picture, oh well...

Standing right at the front was Jen, dressed up in a nice Grateful Dead Skulls & Roses costume - only that I took all night to recognize what that was and I also had my daily faux pas right there, when I said to her "Horrible costume" and I hope that ice-cold smile I got for that was the make-up - yep, put that in the misfired compliment drawer...

It took another 90 minutes until the show started and we were still in hopes that they might do a costume support thing again after having skipped that the last years - not really bad that they did not, it was fantastic anyway and the roadies did a little KISS thing in the set break that was fun too.

As announced, I am gonna skip the gig itself almost completely here and wait for the audible memory help, I do not want to mix things up by just looking at the setlist. Let me only say that the start of the electric set with Evil Eye > Lucifer Sam > Evil Eye followed up with Tied Up and Swallowed was suiting Halloween so well and was plain out awesome!

The 3 hours of music were over pretty quickly, but my feet and legs were pretty sore from standing and walking, so I sat down on the stairs afterwards for a little rest. I had taken off the wig and the glasses during the gig, the wig had become too hot an the glasses started to become foggy. So there I sat with 2/3 of the costume gone and one of the Theater people, asking people to leave the venue said to me "Come on Wolverine - time to go!" (there you go: John Wolverine Lennon - haha!)

Outside we bought some T-shirts, I had my first chat with Adam, who always came out after the shows -the first one was a bit silly on my side, but I got better with time, he seems to be a real good guy and I bet he understood well, what I was trying to say...

The only remaining memory after that is when I got into the subway and saw a reflection of myself in one of the windows and understood the Wolverine comment now, I thought "Hugh Jackman - watch out!" and giggled quite hard, as it was Halloween, I did not get too any strange looks for that...

Stay tuned...

Spooky City

Now we enter day 2 of my trip and it is Halloween, a very boring day in Germany, as it was commercially put on us a couple of years ago, with no background and no real soul to it among most people - the kids seem to enjoy it though! But here in NYC it was just perfect. Most shops were decorated with spider-webs, skeletons, pumpkin heads - the lot you probably know. Much better right from the start.

But I started my day differently, I finally went by Strawberry Fields and it had the positive vibe I had hoped for, it really did and I already long to get back there... I took a little film, here is a capture of that:

The actual place of positive vibes, of course, was this:

On the way back, I passed by the Dakota Building and at one point had a very creepy feeling, I avoided that spot for the rest of my trip!

Then on the way to the hostel, I ended up at a cinema and suitably for Halloween watched Saw 3D, crap movie, maybe less crappy than parts 2-6 but I had to watch it on Halloween somehow there was an urge..

Now here is what I knew would happen, a conflicting memory, because I recall going back to 14th Street (by subway this time!) to find a costume and bought it on Halloween, the receipt I found proves that, so here is how I looked at the gig that night:

Do you think, being at Strawberry Fields before getting the costume triggered me to find this? I liked it very much!

Next, I was off to see my first Crowes show in NYC!

Stay tuned...

Arrival Day

Now that was a tough one, despite the very smooth flight, where time just flew by,  did not even make use of my Nintendo DS, for which I had bought a special voltage converter to be able to recharge. There was entertainment a-plenty, 40 films, of which I watched Grown Ups, which I had missed, a silly Sandler comedy, which shows the best scenes in the trailer, so that was mostly good for the time gone by while watching it ;-)

Music selection was ok, I picked Tom Petty's Mojo which was not bad - has he exchanged vocal chords with Bob Dylan recently - I wonder...

And there were games you could play with the touchscreen and they wasted most of the time - a pity that they did not pay out the 200K I made in poker *LOL*

Nice view of Island was a welcome bonus after 3 or 4 hours, the view of Canada and the US was mostly obscured by clouds (yep, intended quote of one of my favourite PF albums!) when  looked.

So, what the subject promised happened early, we landed more than 30 minutes before the scheduled time, making us the first of 4 European planes for which 20 booths were opened at immigration and I was through in less than 10 minutes - yippee!

Finding the connection trains from Newark to NYC Penn Station was easy.It was funny to see these bridges on the way, seen in many films, but no matter how I strained my eyes, I could not make out a rolled carpet *gg*

The subway ride up to 96th Street was pesty, lots of weekend railwork made this almost an hour affair, oh well, I had a seat ;-)

The walk to the Candy Hostel on 94th was tough, I passed by it as they do not have the name shown outside, but when I checked the house number on my reservation confirmation, I found that I had just walked by.

I could not check in before 3pm, so I had over an hour wait, but the lockers were to expensive for me, so I waited, had a nice chat with two German girls staying there too and checked in a lil later.

For the cheap price of 40€ a night (single room), I had not expected much and was not disappointed with the tiny room, the bed was pretty slim, but enough for sleeping, mostly...

I had sat to much on the plane and needed a costume for the Halloween show the next evening so I decided to walk down Broadway a bit, with a planned stop at Strawberry Fields, which had to be postponed as I passed by the right Street (72nd) to go there, so I walked on and on and on... Down to 14th Street! My feet were killing me, seriously, but one of the costume shops got me a nice costume, of which only a low quality video from the hotel room exists, as there were no cameras allowed at the show, but that will come next, we are still on the day before Halloween.

I took the subway back and collapsed in my hostel room, I think it was a weird sleep, I cannot say how deep or how long, it was just too much that happened before...

Stay tuned for more!

A start...

This Blog is intended to be like a flashback diary of my NYC Trip recently, the reason was obvious, but there was more, here a hint for my reason to make the trip:

I do not know, how frequently I can update this and how reliable my memories really are, but I promise to do my best!