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New York, New York. Hope I don't get lost.


RABid

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Posted

I'll be at the Marriot on West Street (one block from ground zero) for a meeting from the 17th to the 22nd. Anything close by I should see? Are there any decent places to eat for a reasonable price that I can get into without a long wait or reservation? Some good pizza would be nice. Most importantly, any good music stores close by? Two people in the group are leaving after the meetings but my boss and I are staying up until Sunday so we can see a few things. What good Broadway show should we catch? Hopefully we will score some tickets from that booth that sales returned tickets.

 

Robert

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Posted
The instrumental music district is on West 48th Street. Off Broadway. There's a whole block of music stores, including Sam Ash and Manny's. Also check out Colony Music store on 49th and Broadway. It has loads of sheet music and books. Have fun in our great City! Tony.
Posted

Hi Robert:

Having lived in NY for 23 years I can safely say -all NY pizza is good! Gastronimonically speaking, I miss pizza, chinese food and bagels most about ny. If you don't want to venture on the subway system, hop on a cab down to canal street and see little italy and china town. Then walk over to soho and the west villiage - lots of fun for a whole day. My parents just saw the "Producers" on Bway and loved it...I think it's still a hard tix to get. There's always "Phantom" which is quite a spectacle too. The rumors about new yorkers being unfriendly and rude are just that...You'll have a great time!

*

 

Posted

Thanks Tony. This is the first time I have used the airports in over a year.

 

Strange but true. We had to options for our flight

 

Option 1 - Drive to Cincinnati (2 hours away) and catch a flight to New York.

 

Option 2 - Drive to Lexington, catch a connecting flight to Cincinnati, then get on the exact same flight from Cincinnati to New York.

 

Going to Lexington and catching a connecting flight is cheaper. Delta is paying us about $100 a person to park in Lexington and fly to Cincinnati. No wonder airlines are going broke.

 

Robert

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Posted

Actually that whole block is now owned by Sam Ash (they also own Manny's now). It's a good place to check out new gear.

 

But there are other areas to check out if you're into used stuff. Rogue Music, at 251 W 30th St # 10fl, is a great place for used keyboards. I was there 2 weeks ago and they had 7 or 8 Rhodes pianos - mostly Stage 73s but a Suitcase and a Stage 88 also. Lots of old synths (they had a Prophet5). There are a couple of other places there, including a used guitar emporium right across the street.

 

Originally posted by Keyboardman40:

The instrumental music district is on West 48th Street. Off Broadway. There's a whole block of music stores, including Sam Ash and Manny's. Also check out Colony Music store on 49th and Broadway. It has loads of sheet music and books. Have fun in our great City! Tony.

I used to think I was Libertarian. Until I saw their platform; now I know I'm no more Libertarian than I am RepubliCrat or neoCON or Liberal or Socialist.

 

This ain't no track meet; this is football.

Posted

If you're going to 48th St. (bet. 6th & 7th Ave.) and Colony Music (which is great), you could eat at the Carnegie Deli on 7th Ave. bet. 54th & 55th. It's a NY institution. A sandwich is probably $10-15, but you need a forklift to get it off the plate. It's large enough for 2 meals. Also on 7th Ave. between 55th & 56th, there is a fantastic Greek restaurant, Molyvos.

 

There are great music oriented stops closer to your hotel. Rogue Music on 30th St. has vintage keyboard gear, and 30th St. Guitars is across the street. B&H Photo/Video/Pro Audio (on 9th Ave. & 33 St.) is better for photo equipment than audio/keyboard gear (it's closed on Sat.). There are guitar shops in the Village, such as Carmine St. Guitars and Matt Umanov (on Bleecker St.). You can also check out Bleecker Bob's, a legendary record store which is great for vintage vinyl.

 

There are jazz clubs like the Blue Note (expensive, but they get the top names), the Village Vanguard, and the Knitting Factory (for experimental jazz).

 

Century 21 (not the real estate company) is a discount department store in lower Manhattan where you can find famous designer clothes for cheap. You can do your holiday shopping early. It's on Cortlandt St. adjacent to the WTC site.

 

Try www.citysearch.com for other ideas and have a good time.

  • 2 weeks later...
Posted

I just want to say thanks for the travel tips. These threads are very handy. I found everything but Carnegie Deli. I looked twice and once I got home I realized I wrote the wrong address. I saw a nice play, visited a few music stores, and rode the subway. There are nice people in New York. Many of them gave me directions while underground. And one thing I probably should not admit. I took my group to Century 21. I bought 25 pair of socks. Nope. Not a typo. 25 pair. Name brands were cheaper there than the off brands from Kmart. Plus, I know the socks will fit. I was not sure about the Armonie jacket I found at a great price.

 

Robert

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Posted
Sorry I didn't see this thread in time to comment, but I'm glad that you had a good time. Century 21 is popular with European tourists; definitely a good place for bargains. Sounds as though your feet will be well equipped for some time to come! :D

The Black Knight always triumphs!

 

Posted
P.S. I gave directions to someone in the subway last week. Was it YOU? It was two couples at the Fulton St. station looking for a train to Columbus Circle. Just wondering.

The Black Knight always triumphs!

 

Posted

No. It was not us though I do seem to remember being at the Fulton station at some point. We never did go to Columbus Circle.

 

I do have to say this trip was very different from my trip 5 years ago. At that time I expected the New York you see on TV. Gangs, crime, guns, drugs and danger at every corner. TV also depicts southeastern Kentucky natives as barefoot, backward and poor. This time I went to NYC with the attitude that if they are that determined to show Kentucky in a bad way the same is probably true about NYC. The people were great and the city was great. We really enjoyed ourselves and met a lot of nice people.

 

Robert

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Posted

Glad you had a good time, Robert. Go back again...and before you have another need to buy socks.

 

I'm in NY 10/3-6, Th-F for business, staying Sat for a wedding. Fri., my wife is taking me out for dinner to Ilo, picked one of the best new restaurants in the country for 2001. My only disappointment is that I'll miss seeing The Fab Faux on Wed. 10/1. The Fax Faux is the Beatles tribute band featuring Will Lee and Jimmy Vivino. They are supposed to be amazing.

Posted

Robert, glad you had a good time. I had a similar contrast between expectation and experience. In four years of regular business travel to New York, I grew to love that city. Of course, traveling there on Fortune 500 expenses is definitely the way to go, but still... ;)

 

The Marriott Financial is where I usually stayed! Great hotel, and an easy walk to 65 Broadway, where Standard and Poor's used to be, and a bit longer walk to 55 Water, where they moved in 98 or so.

 

I haven't been back since 9/11. Actually since quite a while before that -- when I left S&P in 99. I'm sure Battery Park is not the same. :cry:

 

--Dave

Make my funk the P-funk.

I wants to get funked up.

 

My Funk/Jam originals project: http://www.thefunkery.com/

 

Posted
Originally posted by Rabid:

I do have to say this trip was very different from my trip 5 years ago. At that time I expected the New York you see on TV. Gangs, crime, guns, drugs and danger at every corner. TV also depicts southeastern Kentucky natives as barefoot, backward and poor. This time I went to NYC with the attitude that if they are that determined to show Kentucky in a bad way the same is probably true about NYC. The people were great and the city was great. We really enjoyed ourselves and met a lot of nice people.

Robert, I hear ya man! At the risk of veering a little off-topic, you've brought up a pet peeve of mine. I spent most of my childhood and twenties in the college town of Tempe, AZ. While the university that Tempe revolves around, Arizona State University, is no Harvard, Tempe is a relatively sophisticated place to live.

 

You wouldn't recognize Tempe in the movie Raising Arizona however. The movie depicted Tempe as a small trailer town that revolved around a prison. Everyone in Raising Arizona behaved as uneducated hicks and spoke with twangs!

 

If this were an isolated incident, it wouldn't bug me much. Unfortunately, this is typical of the way Arizonans are portrayed by the media. Here's another example; a half dozen years ago, I saw Claire Danes interviewed by Jay Leno about a movie she did that was set in Arizona. She mentioned to him how hard it was for her to get the accent down. I was blown away! She filmed the movie in Arizona. Didn't she notice that her own natural accent that she spoke with normally was the same as an Arizona accent?!?

 

Before I end my rant, I'd like to finish with a quick list of celebrities from Arizona: Steve Allen, Alice Cooper, Ted Danson, John McCain, Linda Ronstadt, and Gary Shandling. Not a single one speaks with a twang.

 

I promise to keep an open mind whenever I travel. Thanks for posting your impressions Robert.

 

Best,

 

Geoff

 

P.S. If anyone who reads this speaks with a twang, please don't be offended. My problem is not with twangs but with inaccurate stereotypes.

Enthusiasm powers the world.

 

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Posted

Well Geoff, you bring back memories of days when people paid more attention to my "twang" than my words. I was in one band that did not allow me to speak on stage because my accent did not fit the image. Sadly the horrible typecasting of people from my area did not stop with Dukes of Hazard. One network plans to hold tryouts in the area for the new Beverly Hillbillies. They plan to choose a family from the mountains and relocate them to a Beverly Hills mansion. Can you imagine the damage that is going to do? Reality TV at its worst.

 

Robert

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Posted

LOL! The arguments about stereotyping crack me up.

 

First off, understand that you're talking about the *entertainment* industry. How entertaining would it be to transport some upper middle class Kentucky family to Beverly Hills? There'd be no culture shock there, and it'd get boring real quick. (Not that I'll be watching in any event.) Same thing goes for the stuff about Tempe, or any other place. For entertainment's sake, they will make a charicature of every place and every person.

 

Secondly, those stereotypes often fit! Part of my ancestry is Irish... have you ever been to the St. Pat's Parade? A million drunken Micks willfully embracing the worst that anyone's ever believed about them. I also know a few 'connected' Italians; they and their families & friends come damn close to the portrayals in mob movies. Yes it is inaccurate to think of an entire group fitting the stereotype - but it's also incredibly misleading to say "None of us are like that".

 

IMO people ought be taken for who they are as individuals. However, if they strongly identify themselves as part of a particular group, they willingly take on whatever characteristics that group has - both good and bad.

 

Originally posted by Rabid:

Well Geoff, you bring back memories of days when people paid more attention to my "twang" than my words. I was in one band that did not allow me to speak on stage because my accent did not fit the image. Sadly the horrible typecasting of people from my area did not stop with Dukes of Hazard. One network plans to hold tryouts in the area for the new Beverly Hillbillies. They plan to choose a family from the mountains and relocate them to a Beverly Hills mansion. Can you imagine the damage that is going to do? Reality TV at its worst.

 

Robert

I used to think I was Libertarian. Until I saw their platform; now I know I'm no more Libertarian than I am RepubliCrat or neoCON or Liberal or Socialist.

 

This ain't no track meet; this is football.

Posted

Robert, I would have thought that people in Kentucky would be more likely to speak with a drawl than a twang. That shows what I know about your region! It's a pity that people often associate twangs with backwardness. Personally, I have known a number of intelligent and educated people who speak with these accents.

 

coyote, you made a good point about the entertainment industry being more concerned with what is entertaining than what is true. Unfortunately, I rarely find this sort of thing entertaining; but obviously, some do.

 

As to whether or not stereotypes of the American West still fit, it's important to recognize that this region has been changing at a dramatically rapid pace for a long time now.

 

Consider this: 100 years ago, Los Angeles was little more than a tiny community centered around a mission and Arizona was still a territory and not a state. Now, Los Angeles is one of the largest cities in the world and Phoenix is the sixth largest city in the United States.

 

How did this happen? This population explosion didn't occur because people in those former villages mated like rabbits. It happened because people moved to these cities in droves from elsewhere. As a result, the cultures of these places changed, just the way America changed when people flooded in from all over the world.

 

How much Native American heritage has New York retained? How many New Yorkers enjoy a good evening sitting around the campfire before retiring to their teepees at night? The ridiculousness of this image says it all. One culture has been totally supplanted by another. For better or worse, Arizona has similarly retained little more of its former Wild West heritage.

 

If you want to apply stereotypes to Arizona now, you'd do better to look to the rest of America as a source of what Arizona's culture is like. In fact, Arizona is a prime location for test marketing due to the very fact that it is considered to be such an accurate cross section of American culture.

 

Imposing a Wild West stereotype on American culture is a little like imposing an English stereotype on Irish culture. In some ways, it fits; but it's not really an accurate characterization.

 

Best,

 

Geoff

Enthusiasm powers the world.

 

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Posted
Originally posted by soapbox:

...I rarely find this sort of thing entertaining; but obviously, some do...[/QB]

Even worse, too many people consider it the norm. I remember years ago when my high school's boys basketball team was rated third in the nation. Everyone was so excited to hear that Dick Shapp was coming to town to do a story for ABC news. Our town and team was to be on TV. We were sure the focus of the story would be about how a team with no player over 6'2" had worked hard and defeated nationally ranked teams with multiple 6'9" players while competing in national tournaments. Instead the focus of the story centered on a player who was raising hogs and commentary was done in front of some abandoned buildings which was passed off as our town. At that point I lost all respect for him and his network, and I started to notice how often "the news" is adjusted to increase ratings.

 

Robert

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Posted
Originally posted by soapbox:

Before I end my rant, I'd like to finish with a quick list of celebrities from Arizona: Steve Allen, Alice Cooper, Ted Danson, John McCain, Linda Ronstadt, and Gary Shandling. Not a single one speaks with a twang.

...and Don Imus.

 

Your rant is well-conceived. TV and movies play up stereotypes of every imaginable kind. Psychologist are always eccentric nutballs. Politicians and business people never have a conscience. Lawyers are more concerned about fighting for the little guy than scoring a big payout. Good cops are alcoholic loners, but anyone who follows orders is a suck up to the obviously corrupt department. If you're young and Hispanic, you travel with a threatening looking gang of amigos in a beat up old car. If you're young and black, you spend your waking hours hanging out on the street. If you're young and female, your life is the mall. If you're a woman who works in an office, you're either a slut, a bitch, or a frumpy outcast who's routinely mocked by the sluts and ridiculed by the bitches. If you're gay, you're an effeminate sex maniac who loves to dance. If you're a lesbian, you're a glamorous vamp who's sexual identity serves the purpose of entertaining heterosexual men. If you're a hooker, you're one good John away from a dream life. And on and on and on.

 

Since every working screenwriter loves stereotypes, I suppose that it would not be unfair to judge the lot of them as frustrated, marginally successful losers who never venture far from their New York or LA neighborhoods, hence having no clue that their perception of the rest of the world is strikingly inaccurate.

The Black Knight always triumphs!

 

Posted
Originally posted by Dan South:

...Since every working screenwriter loves stereotypes, I suppose that it would not be unfair to judge the lot of them as frustrated, marginally successful losers who never venture far from their New York or LA neighborhoods, hence having no clue that their perception of the rest of the world is strikingly inaccurate.

:D ROFL :D

 

Thanks Dan, you don't know how much I needed a laugh this evening. :)

 

Robert

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Posted

Dan, I really enjoyed your rant as well. That was inspired! :D

 

Robert, don't get me started on so-called "journalists!" Once again, I am unfortunately acquainted with the type of biased coverage you mentioned in your basketball post. You have my sympathies!

Enthusiasm powers the world.

 

Craig Anderton's Archiving Article

Posted

hmmm..if I found this thread earlier I could have told you to go this rather cool vintage music store, specializing in synths, on Broadway, between White St. and some other street. I think the place is called Two Lines Music, formerly Doctor Sound that was on Mercer St., ot at least I was told.

 

Great place to see lots of vintage synths, but their prices were a little on the expensive side when I dropped by back in August.

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