New York City, Half Way Through The Week I Check In

I'm currently sitting in the Battery Park apartment of a friend of Jakes importing a lot of his Africa footage for editing. He needs to have a bunch of little segments that he can have to show to people like executives and producers (like at Sundance Channel) to help get finishing funds. Sorry if that was a run-on sentance, but I'm simultaneously capturing footage and watching Scrubs.

So far my trip to New York City has been so-so. I have pretty much figured out the Manhatten bus and subway system, but I still have no idea where the stops are. So I often have found myself hitching a ride on the nearest bus until it passes a subway stop.

When I arrived on Saturday, it was practically balmy. I didn't even need a jacket it was so warm. Jake met with me and we headed to Marymount Manhatten College for his Edge writers meeting where I met many of his writers, shooters, editors and his director, David Sonkin. I had actually came to NYC running on only 3 hours of sleep, so I actually laid down in a cubby like bench in the hallway during a break in the writers meeting, and I fell asleep! It was kinda funny because I was awoken by Jake about 1.5 hours after I laid down--I had slept through the rest of the writers meeting.

After that we headed to Jake's home in Astoria, Queens, NY. It's a beautiful large (for New York) and inexpensive. This is largely due to the fact that it is over a half a mile from the nearest subway. It's remarkably quiet--when I woke up on sunday morning I could hear the birds chirping and singing... I thought I was back in the suburbs.

Sunday, Jake took me on a little tour of NYC. We sort of walked around, visited the apple store, walked up the south side of central park over to Columbus Circle where we visited a Trump tower (they are like everywhere). Visited a Samsung store and almost got kicked out for sitting and watching HDTV for too long. We had lunch off the hot bar at Whole Foods, and after that we proceeded to Times Square. Took some photos for ourselves and others and tired to find a public restroom--it's harder than you think.

After that we split because Jake had a meeting, and I continued to explore, entering Macys and doing some more wandering around, visiting Grand Central Station. Then I tried to meet up with Tarabeth who goes to NYU, but she was busy, so I decided to check in later in the week.... still need to do that... ;)

On Monday I wandered through Central Park, checked out the Bethesda Fountain (featured in Godspell and Angels In America among many other films) Passed the Dakota apartments where John Lennon was shot down, and then headed south to check out the Latter-Day Saint Temple in NYC--it was closed, being monday, but was interesting to see nonetheless. Then I proceeded to Ground Zero where I walked around the perimeter.

I feel bad, but I didn't really get much of an emotional response out of it... it has become a construction site, and a tourist attraction now... I just didn't feel like it was real. That was what made me feel bad... but you'd never believe the enormity of the site until you visit. I, for one, had no idea that they have already rebuilt WTC7. Unbelievable... but then again, it was 6 years ago... A lot can change.

After that I headed home because I was cold and kinda tired, but I decided to head out the next day with one very specific mission--get standby tickets to see The Colbert Report. I showed up outside the building in 10 degree whether (less with wind chill) and waited with some other kids until we were finally able to sign up for a standby ticket... I was 6th in line. They told us to come back at 6;10pm to see if they'd have room for us. To make a long story short, they let in everyone in front of me. I was turned away. It was really sad. I was positively freezing at this point, and I even went back and practically begged to be let in. Of course I was turned away.

After that I found the nearest bookstore to crawl into and warm up, reading for about half an hour before they closed and kicked me out. Then I took a bus anyway, (turned out to be downtown) just to get warm. I passed B+H photo, and I got off hoping to go in, but they had also just closed. So I walked east and passed a Loews/AMC and decided that I might as well see a movie. I saw Reno 911 Miami. It was very funny, but no funnier than the TV show.

I also visited an urban K-mart which was an odd experience. Its probably the most confusing place ever, with three floors, none of which are of the same shape or size.

Then, after that, I headed to meet up with Jake, but due to confusion, we missed eachother and I was freezing and had to walk home alone.

But the next day we rose at the crack of dawn (6:45) and headed into Manhatten to Battery Park City (Just southwest of the WTC Site) to do editing for Jake's Africa stuff. And so here I am now, editing in his friend Joe's apartment, Wild.

That's all but I'll give you more updates soon. Later!