September 11, 2012

My commute takes me through the 14th street station where, if I'm lucky, I can switch to the express track and make it to Times Square (my transfer point) much quicker. Today, the 1 train pulled in and an express train was sitting across the track, but the doors weren't open. I sat back down, content to take the 1 train the rest o the way to Times Square. A significant number of people got on and a gentleman sat down next to me. When I kept looking to see if the express train had opened it's doors, he informed me that moments before someone had jumped in front of the train. He had been in the first car and witnessed the entire thing. The 1 train pulled out to continue our commute and he said "don't look". I didn't.

Verdict: Hate New York Today

Friday, June 29th, 2012 - Barf

Yesterday, when making my way down to the subway to head home from work, I passed a group of women sitting on a bench. As I was walking right next to them, one of them bends over the other and starts barfing. I had to dodge out of the way. So.gross.

Verdict: Hate New York Today

Wednesday, June 13th, 2012 - Movie Time

There is a big movie production filming right now at the intersection of Commerce and Barrow. Ben Stiller and Kristen Wiig are starring and it will be filming all night. The street and trees are covered in fake snow - it's really pretty magical to see.

Verdict: Love New York Today

Monday, June 11th, 2012 - Mouse in the House

There is one thing that pisses me off above all others about living in New York: mice. Our apartment is clean, exceptionally so. And yet due to construction last year, we had a mouse problem that lasted months. After forcing our landlord to have a construction guy come into the apartment - and he literally pulled the cabinets off of the walls and found a giant hole that he referred to as a "mouse superhighway" caused by construction in the apartment next door, we thought that we were through. Finally, after months of being on edge, waiting for a mouse to pop out at any second, we were at peace. The hole was plugged, hooray. And for several months we reveled in our mouse-free house. And then what happened this week? Another damn mouse. And then another. I'm so freaking sick of this place...

Verdict: Hate New York Today

Tuesday, May 24th, 2011 - Glee in the Neighborhood

So I just watched the season finale of Glee which was filmed all over New York. They were here for a few days while filming and of course people went crazy. My encounter with Glee was in the West Village (naturally), while they were filming on Commerce Street for the scene where Finn and Rachel were taking a romantic stroll after their dinner date. Anyway it was an interesting shoot for several reasons.

First of all, the poster that was up on the streets basically just said 20th Century Fox where the project name is supposed to be listed. That was atypical - most movies and TV shows just put the name on there. Second, there were WAY more streets blocked off for this filming than for any other movie or TV show I've seen (and that includes Jennifer Aniston flicks - not that those are the end all be all, but she is A-list). The crew was really strict about people having to stay back from the set (and the intersection they chose to film on is a relatively high-foot-traffic intersection so it was quite an inconvenience for those who didn't want to walk several blocks out of the way to get back to the same street). Oh and those romantic street lamps - totally fake.

All that said, it was fun to see it come together in the episode. And crazy that they only filmed it like 2 or 3 weeks ago!

Verdict: Love New York Today

Friday, April 22nd, 2011 - Cheese Tasting at Murray's

Went to a cheese tasting at Murray's this week and it was amazing! I cannot recommend this highly enough. They aren't cheap (about $50-65 per person depending on the session) but it was worth every penny. The staff was friendly and knowledgeable and the tasting came with all kinds of goodies - dried fruit, nuts, bread, wine and more (in addition to all of the fantastic cheese). A great New York experience and one that I wish I had tried out earlier.

Verdict: Love New York Today

Sunday, April 17th, 2011 - Mitzvah Tank

Well this is something you don't see every day: a fleet of "Mitzvah Tanks" ahead of Passover.

To be honest I'm not sure what the purpose of this was (other than to make a ton of noise and really anger drivers trying to get up Madison Avenue last week - they caused a huge traffic jam). I did see some guys handing out brochures but that was about it.

Verdict: Love New York Today

Saturday, April 9th, 2011 - Marc by Marc Jacobs Bleeker Street Switcheroo

So as I walked down Bleeker Street today I noticed something was different. There were still just as many Marc by Marc Jacobs stores, but they were moved around - or at least a few of them were.

Old Marc by Marc Jacobs Store --> New Marc by Marc Jacobs Store
Little Marc (for the kiddos on Bleeker Street) --> This location is now the Men's Store
Men's Store (there were two that were across the street from each other on West 4th) --> One is now the Little Marc store and the other is now a Women's store (?).

Note: The Women's store on Bleeker Street is still in it's location, as is the Bookmarc store and the fancy new Marc Jacobs Collection Accessory store.

So I guess with the influx of men's stores on Bleeker (Gant and Burberry being some of the newer kids on the block) Marc by Marc decided to put their men's store front and center.

Verdict: Love New York Today (not really because of this post, but it was gorgeous out!)

Monday, March 28th, 2011 - Alligators in the Subway

Sometimes you're walking around New York thinking "you know I'm not sure what I'm going to blog about today." Then you come across Christopher Street (which on a typical night is a good source of material) and you see something out of the ordinary. A giant alligator tail protruding from a manhole. I literally thought to myself "what the hell?" until I saw the sign.

Apparently the history channel has a show called Swamp People. I just can't believe they were advertising like this. And also, what kind of clearance do you have to get to do this on the street?

Verdict: Love New York Today.

Wednesday, March 23rd, 2011 - WTF w/the Weather?

Woke up to snow today. Then it rained. And now we're closing the day with a hail-storm punctuated with lightning lighting up the entire sky. What a day.

Verdict: Hate New York Today