urbanblitz

At some point this weekend, I played tour guide to my friend G from Seattle. She asked me to show her New York. I was just completely baffled. I don’t think I really do anything out of the ordinary. So we mosey on over to Papabubble in Nolita. It’s this really caramel candy shop. You can watch them roll, mold, and stretch caramel. It’s pretty wicked cool. And absolutely delicious. I have no idea how many samples I devoured. I literally was a kid in a candy shop.



While in the Lower East Side, I spotted this guy who was very conspicuous. I mean seriously, a sun hat, sunglasses and a mustache to boot. He was busy defacing a movie poster. I really wanted to walk up to him and snap his picture. But then I thought, I don’t think I would be able to out run him. So I went across the street to a safe distance before I zoomed in. Snapped my picture and left. I did have a stranded tourist in the middle of the road gawking.

Eventually, I return to LES the next day to see what he doodled. But there was already another poster put over his masterpiece. Oh wells. Turns out the dude was trying to promote a show at the Bowery Ballroom. That was pretty much my serendipitous weekend.

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As of last night, Idiotarod was suppose to start at Ft. Greene Park. Then I got a text from my friend that the starting line was moved to Cherry and Market Street in Chinatown this morning. I never knew a Cherry or Market Street existed in Manhattan. Nonetheless where it was located. I’ve known about Idiotarod for a while, but have never attended. For god sakes, they did a whole epsiode about it on CSI:NY. So I had no idea what to expect. I got there around 11:15 am. And it was pretty quiet. But then more carts started to show up. We know hipsters love being photographed. Everything was pretty civilized until the Golden Girls and the Pesky Cafeteria Ladies broke out in a food fight.

Pesky Cafeteria Lady ducks behind her cart.

While another Pesky Cafeteria Lady slips.

Man, who would have thought the little old lady would get vicious.

Why me? I guess the Golden Girls won.

It was just an insane event. People were tossing food left and right. And this all happened before the race began. As they ran through Chinatown the pedestrians were just in awed of what was going on. When we got to the Manhattan Bridge one team rigged a rope to trip the next running cart. Fortunately, they had a scissor to cut the rope. It felt like there were no rules. The only rule was to make it to the finish line and it was okay to play dirty. It was just plain CRAZY! The funniest thing, was that the whole event started pretty much on time. What has this world come to.

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It’s been quite an eventful weekend. There was a whole lot of walking around New York City. Everything kicked off with a holiday brunch with my closest friends on Saturday. Then I went off to run errands with my friend Kat who was in town from London. We started off in the Lower East Side and then to Rockefeller Center. I will never go down to midtown during the holidays ever again. It was a complete tourist pedestrian traffic. The worse part was they don’t move, and just stand there gawking at the windows and the tree. Luckily, the stop was short. And we quickly made our way to Williamsburg to drop off her stuff with her friend Georgie. He gave us the loopiest directions. We made at least 4 or 5 turns before, we reached his flat which was only located about less than 10 blocks from the subway stations. The festivities ended up in East Village, where I sadly departed.

So for New Year’s Eve, I mosey on over to the dinner held by Federico and friends. There was a whole lot of food, company, and generally good cheer. But I made it back to Brooklyn fairly unscathed.

It was off to Coney Island on New Year’s Day. A cup of coffee and Nathan’s hot dog in hand, I headed over to the beach to watch the Coney Island Polar Bear Club take their first swim in the Atlantic Ocean. Most people just ran in and then back to the beach. Everything was over in a matter of 30 minutes.

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Holidays have always been strange for me. It’s more like most of my friends leave the city like the plague. And normally, don’t have anything to do but to watch bad TV. So what to do on this rainy Sunday? While waiting in front of the Apple store on Fifth Avenue, I climbed up onto the platform to snap a picture of the holiday decorations only to be immediately escorted off because the security guy though I was going to slip and fall.

So it didn’t take much to be lured to the Central Park Zoo to see lions, tigers and bears. Oh my! Well it was more like polar bears, penugins, monkey, and sea lions. The zoo wasn’t the Galapagos, but it was kind of neat to see animals in the middle of the city. A bird even pooped in front of me. Did I mention that was very rude.

One of the birds was so cute. He puffed up his chest so I snapped a photo of him. Reminded me of the frigate birds in the Galapagos. He was cute little bugger.

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Ho.. ho.. HO! It’s that time of year again. The annual Santa stopover in NYC on for a day of spreading holiday cheer and debauchery galore. We started off around 10 am at Pier 45 and that is where the mischief began. After last year, my friends stated specifically if I wander off I would be on my own. So of course, I wander off.

And low and behold, I saw Rudolph in his little photo op. And I had to walk right, up to him, and pull his blinking nose. Unfortunately, it snapped back onto his nose and yelped. I think that was my cue to run. And I did. With two reindeers hot on my tail. Who would expected Rudolph would have friend with him this year. My friends heard a commotion amongst the crowd of santas and was wondering what was going on. Then I suddenly appeared. And they just knew that I was the cause of all this mischief. Both Toolbelt and Dom Santa immediately told me, I was on my own. Poor little santa was being cornered by two reindeers and santas didn’t have her back. Bah Hum Bug, I say! Eventually I made peace with the reindeer. They were surrounded by santas.

Santacon was a reunion of sorts, in that Toolbelt , Dom Santa and I had bumped into the first santa we met on the train last year. It was really sweet, that we were able to run into some old friends. Even though it was pretty brief.

Soon we migrated to Time Square where we ran into some unsuspecting tourist. The pit stop was short. And then we had a long break at Tompkin Square Park.
Everything all ended in DUMBO at a fire spinning show.

And then it was time for me to head over to my cousin’s housewarming party, in which I made my entrance in a santa suit with a bag full of cheese. Can I say, Ho.. Ho.. HO!

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This Saturday afternoon, I had made my way over South Street Seaport to see the 1st Annual New York State Yo-Yo tournament and International Yo-Yo Open.   I know it sounds totally geeky, but it was so fantastically cool at the same time.  I could imagine some of the contestants being mocked at their hobby. But on Saturday, they were rock stars.  It was amazing the kind of tricks they performed.  Too bad the batteries for my digital camera died right before the Japanese team.   Sometimes it looked like they were just playing cat in the cradle.  They were absolutely phenomenal. One guy did tricks with his ear.

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My Friday night debauchery started off in the East Village in search of one of these new secret bars. Of course, we found the joint. It was extremely low key, which is always quite nice in the city. Then we bounce from one non descrip bar to the next. It was weird seeing a bouncer in front the secret entrance. It’s like what’s the point. After leaving Happy Ending on Broome street. We spotted this really cool orange chair. It looked very comfortable. As my little Vegan friend was debating if he should take the chair or not. A guy with a sandwich plopped himself on the chair. And I burst out laughing. The Little Vegan was pissed and was going to wait it out. But then decided to walk around the block.

But of course, mischief always follows me. I don’t ask for it. I just always stumble into it. As we’re walking down Broome street, we spotted a group of gals trying to fit into the a toy car. There were 3 successful attempts, but I only got a picture of two. I think they were all sober. Only in New York, baby!

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Today, I cross the street over to Victorian Flatbush. It still amazing how a neighborhood can change by just crossing the street. People were out mowing their lawns and there nothing like fresh cut grass. The cherry blossoms were in full bloom, and the birds were singing their songs. I wonder if the fireflies still come out at night. It was very peaceful and serene. And I forgot how calming it was just to walk across the street.

My plan was to head over to the Brooklyn Botanical Garden to check out the cherry blossoms. A few of my friends went last week during the festival and told me that the cherry blossoms were not in full bloom. Luckily, this week would be the most ideal optimal viewing . The cherry blossoms were amazing. It’s almost like each tree had their own personality. The way the different branches grew. I spotted a little girl tiptoeing to pull one of the branches so that she would be sprinkled with cherry blossoms.

When I first entered the garden, I spotted this Japanese Crabapple tree. It was the perfect tree to climb up and read a book. I first started on the lower branch, and went unnoticed for a good 20 minutes or so. Then I got a little bit more ambitious, and climbed up another branch. Can I say, that is the most comfortable tree to sit in. Until these two old ladies spotted me and stood there gawking at me. Rats! I’ve been spotted by the security guard on his bike who had promptly kicked me off the tree. Drats!

So off I went around Park Slope on my way to the subway. But first I must get coconut bread. Yummy!

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On guard. Have your pillows ready. PILLOWFIGHT!

I was mainly there to take some pictures, until this girl whacked me with a pillow.

Sorry, but she’s going down. I quickly handed my camera to my friend, took her pillow and began whacking the pillow at her feverishly. Feathers were flying everywhere. And all I could hear was the clicking of the SLR cameras.  So into the trenches I go. There was a lot ducking, swinging and of course feathers. At some point I felt like I inhaled a few. Surely, I did. I was talking to my friends then I coughed. And a single feather floated out. I felt like Sylvester the cat caught in the act. Poor little Tweety. Tweet.. tweet… Then I saw my friend Gideon coming towards me with a blue light saber. He looked like he was going to give me a hug, until he toss a blanket over me. Picked me up kicking and screaming. My first thought was he was going take me into the pit. And I was going to be the pillow. No!!!!!! But he finally put me down. And the pillowfight was over for me. It was so much fun.

FEATHERS, ANYONE?

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