Woke up late! Eastern time is a bitch. Did the touristy thing. Ate Gray’s Papaya hot dogs for breakfast. It was a very very long walk, but at the end those damn hot dogs were worth it. They had a recession deal 2 hotdogs and 1 drink for 3.50. Sold! We ate 4 damn good NY hot dogs and the drinks were great themselves. First drink I got was a papaya drink and the second one i got was pina colada drink. Went to Bryant Park and of course the famous date park..Central Park! Place was huge. Went in the NY public library which was also huge. We ate lunch at the now famous Serendipity restaurant and had their famous frozen hot cocoa and a all american apple pie. yumm.. good shit. if you guy don’t know this is where the movie was filmed at. Not the whole movie, but the serendipity restaurant part. We also sat right next to the table were they sat in the MOVIE.
We took pics and went inside the huuge APPLE STORE. Cult status. Hit up the LOVE sign where a azn lady decided to sit her ass there while people were taking pictures. I was pissed for some reason..lols We treked our way to Radio City and the famous Rockafeller Building owned by Jay-Z, not really, but I think his kids or grandchildren goes to our clinic. We went to the NBC area and the store where we got to be in one of Conan O’Brien’s skit. 15 minutes of fame..I need an agent now. You can see it the video at boringperson.com. We wanted to tour NBC, but the tickets were all sold out for the day so we bought tickets for the next day.
After 30 Rock we decided to look for Niketown New York since it was around the area and decided to NIKE ID some shoes. All 3 of us ID a pair of Air Max 90 and I named my design “EMERALD CITY”. Guess what color. Walked some more and decided to head back to the hotel to shower and change for dinner. Hit up one of the best NYC pizza Lombardi’s. Pizza did not disappoint 5/5 and made up for our first slice awful experience of NY pizza. We decided to hit up a club that some of our new friends at NIKE ID recommended to us. Club was smaller than War Room. Seriously..lols Drinks were expensive and we got drunkard and took a taxi back to Time Square for more pizza. 3/5
CLICK HERE FOR NYC PART 2 PICS
Here is Chris’ running blog for Day 2. Much more interesting.
Saturday, May 24, 2008
NYC Trip: Day 2
Friday May 23, 2008
8:00/11:00
Just woke up
8:22/11:22
So we’re at an intersection with a giant group of other tourists, some guy in a suit
just gave us this look of disgust and said, “tourists” under his breath. Something
tells me he doesn’t like us
8:45/11:45
Ok, maybe we look like tourists. Paul and I are carrying back packs around (no
tubo), paul’s taking pictures of everything in sight and dan’s walking around
documenting the whole thing on his camcorder. Tourists. SMH
9:00/12:00
We’re at some library near bryant park. I forget the name right now but some guy
is just completely passed out on the steps with a book in his hand. Looks
uncomfortable. I’m about to walk by him and I keep imagining him getting up and
trying to scare me.
9:38/12:38
Baaaaad Booooooy. Come out and plaaaaaayyyyyy. Just walked by the Bad Boy
Worldwide Building. Nothing flashy. Kind of surprising.
9:47/12:47
Paul’s trying to get out of buying a guys cd right now. He’s freestyling. Sounds good.
Dan just asked if it was free. I’m glad it wasn’t me who got approached this time.
Oh he complimented paul’s goods shirt. paul just got stuck for it.
I made that last part up. He’s still got it
9:53/12:53
Grays papaya. Some lady just picked her teeth and flicked the treasure. It is now
on paul’s shoulder
10:15/1:15
Central park. Followed some tour group for a little while
10:30/1:30
Dan’s got 4 minutes of battery left on his camcorder. He sounded surprised when
he saw that. Turns out he only charged it for a few minutes before we left the hotel.
10:35/1:35
Just asked a lady to take a picture of the 3 of us while 2 thugs looked on. Oh
yeah, we’re tourists
10:45/1:45
Dan’s said he’s gonna buy paul a rose after paul asked to ride a horse and carriage.
I think they’re kidding
10:47/1:47
Jeff van gundy just walked by. Or at least his doppelganger
11:06/2:06
Saw some chick in a udub sweater. Being the only alumnist of us 3, dan was
supposed to do the husky battle cry when we passed her. He let us down
11:22/2:22
Serendipity. Packed. 15 minute wait. Come on kate beckinsale
12:39/3:39
The apple store is a glass building with a giant floating apple. Even this place looks
like a tourist spot
1:14/4:14
Rocafeller center and nbc studios
If you’re looking for that dwight schrute bobblehead, you’ll find it here
1:50/4:50
Conan O’Brien is doing a skit in the nbc store right now. He’s running through
grabbing stuff to give to some guys in navy uniform. Looks like we found a good
time to be here. We tried to get on camera. I’m sure we failed
1:55/4:55
Now some guy from the godfather is here taking pictures. He has a sign that says
vigoda 4 sale if that means anything
Photobucket
3:30/6:30
Nike iD studios. Made some air max 90’s. 5 story niketown. One of the design
guys and his friends are throwing a party at some club called aura. Mau says we
can get in free so we’ll see. Hopefully the music doesn’t stop when we walk in
(jon, junior, garsh, jerry and joey)
6:40/9:40
Lombardi’s pizza. Billed as “America’s First Pizzeria”.
6:50/9:50
Got a pitcher of “Brooklyn.” Dan’s review, “it’s not bad.” Paul says, “it tastes good
actually.” That’s a ringing endorsement if I’ve ever heard it
7:48/10:48
Heading to the club and got distracted by rice riches. Dessert shops where rice
pudding is the thing. So far the food gets a passing grade
8:04/11:04
Been here around 24 hours now and we just hailed our first cab. The excitement is
almost unbearable 
8:15/11:15
In for free. This is probably the last you’ll hear from me tonight
May 22
Watched the midnight showing of Indiana Jones. I enjoyed it. Didn’t really remember the older Indiana Jones except for Temple of Doom because that shit was scary. I laughed at the jokes and I might be one of the few to like Shia Labeof. I rate it 3.75/5.
Got like 3 hours of sleep because we woke up at 6:00 AM to go to the airport. Cess dropped us off. Thanks Cess! I love the airport. I don’t know why, maybe it means I’m traveling somewhere away from work. Ate breakfast at a cafe and had a egg, sausage, cheese panini. good shit. Boarded the plane. Dan middle, Chris isle, Me window. Caught up on sleep until we landed at St. Louis. Home of Nelly and Larry Hughes..and oh yah the Arch thingy. Ate lunch at one of the finest Chinese restaurant….Manchu Wok. I recommend it if you want authentic Chinese cuisine. Boarded the plane again. Me isle, Dan middle, Chris window. Dan doesn’t mind the trend yet.
Landed in NYC. Were excited. Excited to ride the taxi to our hotel. Taxi cab confession was denied. Never brought up again after that. Hotel was cool. I don’t know if it was a 4 star hotel worthy though, but it was pretty cool. Changed clothes at the hotel and again was excited for the last time to walk around the streets of NYC. Hit up the Empire State Building and heard our first New YAAWWK accent from the guy that works there. Funny dude. Line was long even though it was midnight. Observation deck was cool. It was hella cold though. The skylines were amazing and you pretty much see all the boroughs of New York. Did you know the 5 Boroughs are islands. Thanks to the 7 dollar audio tour!
Finished and headed off to Time Square. It was pretty busy, but that night wasn’t too busy because it was Thursday. Did that make sense? It was awesome, but Las Vegas still got it beat at night. Billboards were cool and just seeing hella NYPDs and yellow cabs helped bring us the NYC experience. We got hungry so Dan, Chris and I decided to get our authentic NY Pizza. We got NY pizza but it tasted like cardboard. 1/5…We went to a wack pizza joint. Did you know that there are 2 types of NY Pizza. Brooklyn Pizza, and Manhattan Pizza. Google the difference!!! We then went off to look for a Bar/Lounge. Mission failed. Walked the wrong street and saw nuffin. Ended up walking back to the hotel because we were tired. 1st night was cool cuz we saw out of the Empire State Building observation deck at night and went to Time Square when it was less crowded.
Check out FLICKR for Day 1 Pics. Went over the limit for the month so I posted the rest on my MULTIPLY for Day 1 part 2. If somebody wants to host the other pics for me with unlimited on FLICKR..holla at me.
CLICK PIC FOR PART 1
CLICK HERE for Part 2
Below Is Chris running blog. He’s good at it. Enjoy!
NYC Trip: Day 1
Maybe it’s just me, but planes feel a lot smaller than they did before. I got an isle seat and everytime someone walks by I get bumped. Makes it hard to nap but it’s still what i’ve been doing for most of the flight. Anyway, I talked to a few people and said I’d try to do a running blog of some kind so let’s try this out.
Thursday May 22, 2008
12:00 AM
No we’re still in Seattle at this time but this is kind of where we started. Oak Tree’s having a midnight showing of the new Indiana Jones movie so Dan, Paul and I all decide to check it out. None of us have any problems with the way the movie turned out, some guys behind us have a different opinion. Oh well, can’t please everybody.
2:30 AM-3:00 AM
Movie ends, we go home, we’re looking at about 3 hours of sleep before we should wake up to head to the airport.
5:45
I set my alarm for this time beacuse there are some last minute things I have to do before we leave. Doesn’t matter, I hit the snooze button.
6:00
Ok now I actually have to get up since Paul and Tubo are heading over here at “6:30ish.” Get dressed, throw my stuff in the jeep and I’m off to the gas station to fill up.
6:15
$4.08 a gallon for gas. One word, Ouch.
6:30
No sign of Paul or Tubo.
6:45
Still no sign.
6:50
Ok there they are. Not exactly 6:30ish but ok.
7:20
We’re here, Tubo’s leaving. Thanks for dropping us off BTW. Nothing to report here, you probably know how this process goes.
8:00
Breakfast. Some sandwhich shop. Still nothing exciting. If you stop reading now I won’t blame you.
8:35-12:30
This is a long block becuase I slept through pretty much the entire flight. Highlights? There aren’t really any. I slept first, woke up to see Dan and Paul watching some TV shows. Dan with Battlestar Galactica on his iPod, Paul with The Wire on his Mac.
12:45
About to land. Paul’s looking across the aisle trying to see out another passenger’s window. I guess he doesn’t realize he’s sitting in a window seat.
12:46
There you go
12:51
Paul: What’s St. Louis known for?
Dan: The Arch
Chris: and Nelly (shut up Junior)
Paul: What about food?
Dan: Nothing
Paul: BBQ? Fried Chicken?
Dan: Nope
1:00 pm/3:00 pm
Welcome to St. Louis, the gateway to the west. At least that’s what the shirt in the gift shop says. Three words to describe the flight, tur bu lance. I’ll be writing the time like it shows above until I get back to seattle. 1st time will be seattle time, 2nd will be local time.
1:20/3:20
About 40 minutes till we board again, Just wandering around right now trying to find a place to eat. Weather outside is gloomy. Glad we’re not staying here.
1:22/3:22
Paul: I’m not feeling a burger right now. I don’t deserve it yet.
I don’t know. Manchu wok it is.
Paul just asked the counter lady something. Her response, “we’re not supposed to but they don’t pay me shit. Imma hook ya’ll up. It’s true, I’ll probably make more money going to social services.” All this as she continued to pile the food on.
1:54/3:54
Flight just got pushed back an hour. Kind of complicates tonights plans. We’ll see wattsup.
2:33/4:33
Paul’s talking tattoo’s right now. He’s thinking of a script type of tattoo that says, “bawal umihi dito.” Sounds like a plan
2:36/4:36
Another delay. Flight is now at 3:30 seattle/5:30 st. Louis. On the bright side though, the sun looks like it’s coming out
3:14/5:14
Paul smacked a guy in the face with his bag a few times. Then he laughed. What a jerk. I should probably say it was an accident. Don’t want everybody thinking he just walked up to a guy and swung his bag at him.
3:52
Some lady just smacked her head on the over head compartments trying to sit down. You know how you know if you’re immature? When you’re the only one who finds it even a little funny.
4:02
Koka Kona. We get Russian soda on this flight
Photobucket
5:12/8:12
I guess we’re above new york. In my head I kept seeing some crazy picture from the plane looking down. Not sure what I was expecting but it looks pretty normal. Still though, we’re in NYC so I can’t complain
5:39/8:39
Spoke too soon. Once we got closer to landing the view got sick. Flying over/close to the bridges and all the lights. We landed now. Still on the plane though
6:19/9:19
In the taxi. Paul was recording the drive on dan’s hd camera. Then he tried to get dan to do a taxi cab confession. He won’t be using the camera anytime soon
8:09/11:09
Dan: people are mean.
Deal with this many people a day you probably would be too. We thought coming to the empire state this late we’d avoid long lines. Not so much
8:13/11:13
So I’m kind of scared of heights. Not deathly scared or nothing but being this high up is crazy. Keep thinking I might drop something
8:25/11:25
Damn the wind just kicked up. Feeling in my head and ears is gone
8:34/11:34
Dan just let out a woop and now some british chick is glaring at him. Or so he says. We’re not sure if she found it flattering or if she wants to smack him now.
8:47/11:47
Walking in they took the souvenir picture of us. I was joking my eyes were probably closed. Turns out they were. I’ll need to get rid of those
9:00/12:00
Just passed by a winners circle.
Dan: guess we’ll call that oak harbor ave.
Chris: why?
5an: cuz we’re always in the winner’s circle.
SMH
Oh yeah we’re in times square now
I am fortunate enough to see my favorite rapper perform live here in Seattle. 1st being the Bumbershoot which I thought was awesome, but nothing beats a smaller venue where you know only his true fans come to watch. Nas’ set was only an hour and opened up with Hip Hop is Dead, but damn he went through most of his classics songs from Illmatic Album to Hip Hop is Dead Album and a joint of his new album The N. Of course my favorite tracks he performed were off Illmatic, but his most memorable songs were probably If I Ruled The World because everyone went nuts when he performed that joint and the emotional roller coaster song and also a personal favorite One Mic. Another song which I was surprised he sang was Rewind…It’s nice seeing a creative song like that spit so ill live. He ended the night with Black Republicans and I knew that Ether was not going to be performed, but I was still hoping for it anyways. The crowd did want a encore performance, but rappers are too cool for that. So overall this concert was one of my favorites along with the Murs concert at Chop Suey. What probably made this concert more fun was the crowd participation. You can’t go to a Hip Hop concert and not try to participate. I was lucky enough that my everyone that was with me were participating and loving the show.
I rate it 5/5..
Pros- It’s Nas in Seattle. Small Venues FTMTW. Friends enjoying the show.
Cons- 1 hr. set only for Nas.
P.S Camera Pics coming soon.
