blake's blog

Morning of day 4, I went to breakfast with Nick where we talked mad shit about Kevin and how he is totally lame and smells. Brooklyn has some serious waffles, and it was cheaper than any breakfast I can get in SLO.

After breakfast I head back into the city via subway and I hit up the Museum of Modern Art (the MoMA). I blew 3+ hours in there, there was so much amazing stuff to see, and I stumbled across the originals or pieces I did not realize were housed there. I saw the Starry Night, some Pollock, Seraut, Dali, and some others. Its a little spooky to think I could just walk up to a super famous piece of art and lick it if I wanted to - they have guards, sure - but they would only tackle my ass to the floor after I had a generous taste of history.

The place was huge and there is some serious vertigo on the top floor, as the center is open so you can look down onto a large central exhibit. That particular exhibit was about garbage and how pretentious you have to be to actually spend time examining it.

When I finally got arted out, I hit the streets and walked over to the New York public library (the one with the lions out front). It felt like a cathedral inside, and they actually have an original gutenberg bible inside, which was cool to see. The interior reminded me a lot of Hearst Castle in Cambria. Afterwards, I head over to Grand Central station and the Chrysler building. They can't even do a train station small - Grand Central was one of the more impressive builings I'd seen in the city.

I took the subway down to City Hall and started walking to Chinatown. If I haven't mentioned it already, all of the huge classical buildings are monsters, and they have huge roman columns and statues and numerals and fortune cookie sayings all over them. The Court House I walked by, for instance, had the big steps out front, it was established in CCXVIIIVXLXL or something, and it has 'JVSTICE IS AWESOME AND WE SHOVLD USE IT ALL THE TIME' engraved in big letters on the front. I forget exactly what the message was, but it was pretty close to that.

Chinatown was fun. And I promptly got some Beef Noodle soup that was delicious. Apparently Chinatown is eating Little Italy, because it was much larger and Little Italy was only a few blocks long. I grabbed a canole and rested at a street corner where they were doing a Sears photoshoot with a model and cameras and lights and everything. So if you see a Sears model outside of an italian restaraunt at any point, remember I was totally making faces at her - good ones too, she was quite professional.

At this point, I was exhausted - I have been sweating like crazy the whole time - and my feet hurt so I decided to call it a day, but not before I hopped out of the subway at washington square park (the one with the big arch and fountain). That was a nice spot to chill for a bit and people watch for a few before I got lost in the subways on the way home again. It wasn't as bad this time, but I did miss a few stops or hopped the wrong train a few times, but as long as you don't leave a station - no harm no foul.

Where to begin? I have all my pictures on facebook, and most have captions.

So, I woke up in East Hamption, and caught the Hampton Jitney to the city. When I landed, I met up with my friend Kevin's friend Nick, who was gracious enough to let me crash on his floor in Brooklyn. Lots of thanks to Nick again for letting me take up some room for a few days.

I left my stuff, and head out. Conveniently, Nick's place is a block away from a subway station, so I was on my way to Manhattan in no time.

Now before I get too much farther, keep a few things in mind.

• The temperature is near 90 degrees and it is humid. It's not as humid as Hawaii, but its close. Everyone tells me this is rare, and the news said it was just shy of the record set in 1942.
• Since I walk everywhere in them, I decided to wear my surfah sandals - which are my last pair, wearing out, and not like the ones I usually use.

So now I get to figure out the subway system (it is Hawaii humid underground). I managed to find my way into the city pretty easily, but everytime I think I've figured the system out, I take the wrong train, or the train skips my stop. This leads to more fun later.

I started out in the financial district, which was under construction, so most of the streets were closed to traffic. I went to ground zero, and got a sausage dog on the corner that probably subtracted 15 minutes off the end of my life, but it was worth it.

I took the subway up towards columbus circle, and made a quick stop at the ghostbuster's firehouse - i couldn't help myself.

So I continued on to columbus circle on the lower west corner of central park, and my sandal finally disintegrated. A short limp later, I found a shoe store on the corner of the park, and I bought some sweet shoes that instantly made every step feel like marshmallow clouds on the moon.

So with my new kicks, I went to central park and walked around a bit. I finally had to find a bench and cooled down. I've been sweating profusely this whole time.

So finally, I decided to take the subway to Times Square. There were a ton of people in the street and huge neon signs. It felt a bit like Vegas, but no one was drunk.

My last stop was Rockefeller center, where I first head to 'The Top of the Rock'. This is actually an awesome place to take pictures, since you can see all the cool buildings like Chrysler and Empire State and the only one you're missing is the not nearly as hot Rockefeller building.

8/17/09

So I had a chance to catch up on my trip on a delayed train ride to Providence.

Hanna gave me a ride to the airport at early o' clock and I flew ot arizona. After a quick jump there I was on the place to new york. I've been on many long flights, and its like being entered into a shitty raffle to see what smelly old dude or crying baby you have to sit next to for a million hours.

Incredibly, I won this time, and got seated to a very interesting person named Jen, and she offered to help me plan out a route of things to do and see in the city which turned out to be super useful. She told me about her new business she'd started selling organic chocolate, and she gave me a bar. Its super good and soft and holy shit I'm starving on this train and I just remembered I still have some. Chocolate break.

SO anyways, I talked to her about my job and she had heard of us, which is cool and happens more often these days. Thanks Jen for the insight, it helped a lot on my trip.

Off the plane, I waited for my stupid bag to fall out of the carosel and I met up with my friends Chet and Cindy, and a driver Bob sent for us picked us up and drove us out to East Hampton, which is about 2ish hours from the city down long island. Everyone so far I've talked to complains about that long trip but I drive farther to get groceries on the central coast, so no biggie there.

So we arrived in East Hampton, Bob took us to his place and made us some super tasty Rattatouille and super good cron. I mistyped corn just now, but left it because its funny. After dinner, Bob tells us he wants to take us to The Surf Lodge, were people hang out on a sunday night at the end of long island in Montauk. Before I ask if I should change into something less california apathetic, he tells me I'm dressed perfectly (and that he doesn't get it and would never do it). I had my doubts, but sure enough when we got there - in my tshirt and shorts - i felt overdressed, and got back-patted and mistaken for some dude named Steve. Success.

A few expensive drinks later I crashed into a pillow.

I had been planning on writing about my trip as I've been going along, but I haven't had a chance (not complaining).

I will put up some pictures and details as soon as I get a chance which should hopefully be this afternoon. I am heading into the city today during a heatwave, so hopefully I won't melt.

This marks the first entry in my new thinger.

My life should hopefully become interesting enough to write about in the near future, as I am going to New York next week. I figured I would start a thinger, so I can put pictures up and write about notable hobos I come across in my trip.

I will write some more to make it look like I have interesting things to convey. Now that I have my thinger up and running, I can get some supplies for my trip:

• some clothes so I do not come off as a vagrant
• an urban bestiary to identify different kinds of hobos